Chapter 6: CH 5

Reina’s grandmother tapped the desk slowly and the sound of it was heavy, as if it was a metronome—once, twice, three times.

Following that sound, Reina’s thoughts ran frantically in her mind.

‘Apart from Lehman… A family who has a son who hasn’t been betrothed yet… Luke?’

Tak—

‘No no, Luke has a fiancée. Rettis? No, Rettis has one, too! Paul then? Ah… The Bohr family’s no good.’

Tak—

‘Come on! Think faster, Han Jaehee!’

Oh how she wished a status window would pop up with a guide for a situation like this. It’s like it disappeared without a trace after being so frightened by her tiger-like grandmother.

Thunk—

At last, the marquis stopped tapping. At the same time, a voice with a tinge of triumph reached Reina’s ears.

“As expected, there’s no o—”

“Ethan Liam!”

Fortunately, before the old woman could finish speaking, a name that everyone knew popped out of Reina’s lips.

“Ethan Liam, him!”

“…What?”

“I’ll get engaged to Ethan Liam! He doesn’t have a fiancée right now, and his family is one of the Empire’s major families—not to mention he’s loaded.”

But as soon as she finished saying this, the office’s door slammed open.

“Reina, are you crazy?! Ethan Liam?!”

Forgetting that this was the marquis’ office, the enraged Noah stomped inside without asking for permission to enter.

“Get engaged to Ethan Liam you say! How did you come up with that conclusion?!”

‘…W-What? Why’re you so angry?’

Why did it feel like this coldness in the air was akin to the prohibited mention of ‘he who must not be named’…The chill climbing up Reina’s spine made her turn her head slowly. Instead of stopping Noah, her grandmother was just holding her forehead in shock.

Only then did she realize that this was serious.

‘Why are… they both reacting like this? Did I… say something wrong?’

The question she asked to herself was soon answered by Noah, who was now standing next to her.

“Are you saying you’re going to get engaged to that Cerulean Freak now?”

“Cerulean Freak?”

Who?

“Ethan Liam—him!”

Ethan Liam?

“What on earth do we do with this girl…! You seriously can’t do this!”

“W-Wait. What do you mean by frea—”

Before she could even finish the question, a status window flashed in front of her as if answering her incomplete question.

[ Ethan Liam : The head of House Liam, one of the empire’s nine major families and a powerful family of mages.

His nickname is ‘Cerulean Freak of House Liam’. ]

“This…”

She remembered too late. That ‘Ethan Liam’ was someone who’s regarded as some kind of dreadful poison by the blue blooded aristocrats.

“Why should it be that creepy punk!”

‘I know right… Why did I think of that goosebump-inducing fellow.’

“No matter how much you don’t want to get engaged, never Ethan Liam!”

Following the dark expression on her older brother’s face, Reina’s pale face now also had a dark expression.

“Out of so many people, that Cerulean Freak?! You’re seriously crazy, Reina Chantra!”

He’s right, she really must have gone crazy…

It seemed like this life was not so favorable to Han Jaehee either.

* * *

It was like sidestepping poop on the road and hopping straight onto a landmine. Even so, she somehow managed to overcome the crisis of engagement. Still, in the end, Reina was given a deadline of one week.

Knock, knock—

“Sweetie.”

At the gentle voice, Reina sprang out of bed.

“Papa?”

Thud, thud, thud. She dashed straight towards the door and opened it fully, and there she saw her father, who had his thick platinum blond hair neatly combed to the side.

“Hahaha, what kind of trouble did our puppy get into this time? Your grandmother’s very angry.”

Though Reina’s memories were gradually fading, the warm feeling from remembering her parents was still strangely clear.

“Papaaaaa I missed you.”

She hugged her father for the longest time, nuzzling her cheeks against his embrace and whining energetically. Viscount Ruzest was taken aback for a moment, but soon, shhk, shhk, he stroked the girl’s head.

“Hmm. You really did change.”

‘…Change?’

Only then did the young woman, who had yet to escape the hot water she was in, pause right where she was.

“Noah said so. It’s like you’ve become a different person.”

“……”

Heck. She forgot to dial it back and be conscious of her behavior, since she really had changed ever since she gained the memories of her previous life.

But was it because she was still a growing adolescent? Fortunately, her father—like everyone else, just rolled with this sudden personality change.

“Seeing you being so bright like this, I’m truly relieved.”

“……”

She wondered just how gloomy Reina used to be that this father of hers considered his weeping daughter to be ‘bright’.

“You also seemed to have grown taller while I was away.”

As she wiped her tears awkwardly, the viscount ruffled his daughter’s hair.

“You’re quite the lady now, my daughter.”

“Sniffle… When you say it that way, I just know you’re going to bring up the engagement…”

“Goodness. You’re also quick to catch on now, hm?”

He burst into laughter and naturally held his hand out to her.

“After such a long time, shall we take a walk?”

* * *

The Chantra residence was a fortress that gave off a magnificent yet dreary atmosphere, and it lay alone on a vast grassy plain.

Of course, there were white daffodils blooming in front of the gates, but other than that, there were no other flowers that could be admired.

The place where Viscount Ruzest and Reina went to for their walk was the coastline behind the fortress.

Shwaaaa— Crash—

The waves crashed into a low cliff, the waters bubbling white against the rocky surface, then they soon went back down. After that, the waves came up once more and rushed towards and away from the cliff again and again.

Following the sound of the waves, the two walked in harmony along with the background noise. The viscount finally opened his lips to speak.

“Are you really sure about Ethan?”

“……”

She forgot for a moment there. It hit her again, out of the blue, that the blood of Chantra was running in her veins…

“Umm, yes.”

“Hm. Even though you’ve met Ethan only a handful of times?”

“We didn’t have a lot of chances to meet in the past, but I definitely felt that he’s my destiny.”

“It certainly didn’t seem like that before.”

“I was very shy back then.”