Williant was frustated. It was because he had made no progress whatsoever with his documents. In a few moments, he would procure those documents, documents which would make her lose every last bit of her footing. Therefore, he had to endure, just a little more…

“nee, Will, if it’s Will, what would you do?”

“Schmia, I’ve mentioned this numerous times already, but this is the office.”

“Even though I came all the way here to play?”

“I have no time to play. You can understand that just through looking, right?”

Towards his brief answer, Schmia outwardly sighed.

“Do you realize how cold you’re being? Even Lady Tiarize could use some affection, you know?”

Towards her mellow remark, Williant’s hand stopped involuntarily.

Schmia took it as a sign for her to embrace Williant from behind.

“…Hey, are you truly in love with Tiarize?”

“…Schmia, you’re getting in the way of my work. Release me.”

“No can do~ hey, what’s the answer? Yes or no?”

Williant frowned unintentionally at the strong smell of Schmia’s perfume. It reeked to the point that it pried his concentration away from the documents. Sweet perfumes were popular among women, but Williant couldn’t say that he liked them.

Tiarize smelled better than any of them. Sometimes, when he escorted her and drew too close, he couldn’t help but smell that subtle, sweet, calm scent from her. He didn’t know whether it was her natural scent, or her perfume.

That scent alone made Williant want to hug her.

Of course, there was no way he could do that. Doing such risked him getting hated by her. If she hated him, he wouldn’t hear her the next day.

…No, she was also way more mature than that.

She wouldn’t try to imitate childish behavior and would speak in a dignified voice. The same applied to her attitude. However, at the same time, more and more, she concealed her true feelings.

Williant stared at Schmia. If word got out of the Royal Capital that he treated her coldly, it would spell endless troubles. Once word passed to another kingdom, people would perceive it as abuse of power.

To prevent that, he had to deal with Schmia in moderation, but this was getting really tedious.

Schmia was obviously doing this in favor of herself. It was very tiring to deal with such a woman, especially when he didn’t like her.

Once the documents arrived, everything would be settled.

With that in mind, Williant again looked down at the office documents.

“Certainly, I love Tiarize, but why should I tell Schmia that?”

“I see that Will loves Tiarize… I also like her, you know. She’s beautiful, graceful… hey Will, I heard your relationship with her isn’t going well lately?”

“…”

He would like to say that everything was going well, but his relationship with Tiarize was indeed on a rocky path, to say the least. Tiarize was behaving coldly and distant towards him.

Schmia smiled softly at Williant who became silent.

“Hey, hug me back?”

“…Why?”

“I did this for you, Will. I’m sure you didn’t even hug Tiarize, hey, did you?”

“Again, why should I tell you that?”

He heaved a sigh, and Schmia’s respond was “Eeeh~?”

“Let’s practice with me, Will. Hold me gently. If you did the same to Tiarize afterwards, I’m sure she’ll be very pleased.”

“I’m fine. The only one I want to hold is Tiarize.”

Why do I have to hug a woman I couldn’t even be bothered with just for that?

When Williant said so casually, Schmia puffed her cheeks. From a mere glance, she looked like a simple maiden in love. She looked lovely and pretty.

“That’s why I said you don’t understand a maiden’s heart…”

“Should I even try? After all, there will only ever be one person in my heart that I want to understand well.”

“Fufu~ then, should I give you a hint?”

“Albeit helpful sounding, your advice doesn’t actually seem useful. If you’re going to provide vague gestures, will you stop?”

Honestly, her advice wasn’t helpful, not even for one millimeter. But if he were to honestly say so, he also felt bad towards this girl. This too, must never leak to other kingdoms. Still, Williant was depressed because of Schmia.

“No can’t do~ if I stop, then Will won’t notice, what would be the point of that?”

He agreed. He should take notice more of Tiarize’s feelings. But he didn’t need anyone’s help for that. In the first place, her advice was unnecessary. This was a problem between Williant and Tiarize. Why was this Baroness poking her nose where it didn’t belong?

Williant felt a headache.

At that time, Lyon’s visit was announced.

---

***T/N: What… a weird place to suddenly butt in an intermission that traced back this far in the past, it distrupt the flow of the story, imho.

..and, the PRINCE IS GETTING MOLESTED IN HIS OWN OFFICE–THE CROWN PRINCE, WHERE ARE THE KNIGHTS?!

Its official. This prince is never enthralled. He did everything purely with intents. Now what does that make him?

And please for the love of god stop mentioning Tia’s smell like how Edward would Bella’s.Whats with male shoujo mc and their fixations with girls’ pheromone. You guys aint bees.

Tsk. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at this cliche of only shallow wimmenz wear perfumes and how ALL perfumes–except those worn by the heroines, which i also doubted, because its usually heroine’s pheromone that attracts those lead by the nose, you know, their natural scent, and not those shitty perfumes–are generalized as reek and pungent and how TRUE MALE LEAD prefers us girls to be all natural. Like… No. Perfume is invented for a reason. Stop making it sounds like wanting to keep your body fresh and fragrant smelling for an entire day as a bad and shallow thing to do. Don’t shame people for trying to take better care of themselves and stay presentable geez.

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