It was the day for me to enter the palace. I was busy in the morning getting ready and when I was about to leave, an unexpected guest arrived.

"Huh? Ian?"

Everyone in the Rainfield mansion was surprised. I also didn't know what to say, so I just stared blankly at his red eyes.

'Are you interested in your appearance these days?' I tilted my head to the side as I saw Ian, who couldn't look better.

Of course, what I was more curious about was why he was here.

"What brings you here?" Anyways, Aaron, who was closest to him, asked, and he answered casually.

"To escort Annabelle Rainfield."

"Me? Why? Are you crazy?" I was dumbfounded and blinked.

"You don't know the meaning of escort?" If I were a man, I wouldn't escort someone who used to put a sword behind my back every day. Not only me but also Aaron looked surprised, but Ian spoke calmly as if he had expected the reaction.

"You've never been to the imperial palace."

"But that's..."

"You were going to go alone without knowing the entrance procedures, geography, or etiquette?" (pr/n: Ian worked on that excuse all night)

I was speechless because he was right.

I had lived as I pleased so far, so I had never considered such details.

The black market was the same, and I was healthy, so I just went into it roughly, but this time I thought about it, the place was the imperial palace.

"Well, okay." So I nodded and added. "Since I can't be a nuisance to Prince Robert." Ian couldn't have made this decision in consideration of me.

"As expected, you're a model student in everything." Aaron clapped and laughed.

"This cool-headedness that excludes personal emotions from public affairs, so it wasn't fun this time either."

Ian ignored Aaron's words and told me. "We can go together in Duke Wade's carriage."

"Well, okay." If it was Duke Wade's carriage, it was used to ride quite often.

"Uh... This..." Ian crossed his arms and sighed. "Today, my father went out to the Duchy with his vassals, and this was the only carriage left."

"Well..."

"It's the carriage that father and mother used when they go on dates."

•••

The carriage was very spacious, but it was decorated with all kinds of flowers, and the seats were discretely narrow.

Besides, there was a blackout curtain outside the window, so I couldn't see outside.

As soon as we took our seats, the carriage left for the Imperial Palace.

I couldn't even ask to look out the window because I didn't want to bring up the subject of the carriage, so I sat awkwardly.

Since we were sitting next to each other, our knees gently bumped into each other, and each time we moved, our legs collided again.

'Too close.'

Even after counting the number of flowers on the carriage there was nowhere to turn.

I finally tried joking.

"Ahaha. If I came at you with a sword here, I guess you wouldn't be able to go anywhere in a carriage like this."

"You must be... Aren't you looking forward to it?" Ian flinched with a rarely stabbed expression. I narrowed my eyes and said.

"No matter how much fun the last match was, you shouldn't be that crazy about it. I will never fight you today."

I, who had been crazy about matches, gave serious advice. Ian looked at the sword I was carrying and spoke slowly. "You came with a sword for such a thing." I hugged the sword that Leslie had given me as a gift and answered with a happy smile. "The swordsman and the sword are one body."

"It didn't seem like that at all."

In fact, I had always carried a dagger with me, and in case of an emergency, I thought I could take someone else's sword and use it.

"Don't correct it. A swordsman and a good sword are one body."

Ian also always carried his own sword, so he couldn't really refute my words.

He just made eye contact and changed the subject. "Since we are alone, I have something to ask you." In fact, I wasn't surprised because I guessed that one day he would interrogate me.

'Is it finally time? Why is he so close?' I slightly avoided Ian's eyes. Still, I could even feel his breath. "That mirror... The Origin of Black Magic."

Ian was the only witness who saw me breaking it. Of course, I knew he would think it was strange.

"How did you recognize it?" I didn't avoid that question.

"...God asked me to do it when I was getting my paternity test." I spoke briefly.

"He said I could find out the origins of black magic from this world, and asked for me to please destroy it. And he said he'd bless me."

"Blessing? What kind of blessing?"

"I don't know... Wasn't the blessing to be able to copy you like a mirror after breaking the mirror?"

"...Yeah. It was definitely weird." Ian nodded in thought. I said awkwardly, scratching my cheek.

"Well, anyways, thank you, for telling others that you broke it by accident. If they had found out, all kinds of black magic-related people wouldn't have left me alone."

That was the truth. It didn't matter if I was alone, but now I had a precious family, I was scared of being targeted by someone.

"I know it was something to hide." I was slightly surprised to see Ian's face full of worries.

"Always be careful just in case. I always carry my sword with me as I do now." Suddenly, my chest tickled.

Perhaps because I grew up without receiving love and attention for a long time, I felt strange too easily to hear that someone was worried about me now.

Even if the person was Ian Wade.

'But villains who were not originally loved can be influenced by small kindnesses...'

Maybe it was because we were in a very narrow space for a long time.

Or was it because the closer I saw his face, the more handsome he was?

Was it because his low voice that seemed to be worried about me was surprisingly good to hear?

He said it was a carriage used by Duke Wade on dates, and I knew why.

The fresh and good scent of real flowers, the internal environment where we had no choice but to focus on each other, and the skin contact...

Wasn't it a sweet space where you had no choice but to think about something really strange?

"You were rash when you told me too. Don't tell anyone from now on."

"Right."

I deliberately spoke indifferently to hide my embarrassment.

Anyways, wasn't Ian Wade the original male lead who does his best to eliminate the black magic with a pure sense of justice?

Now, everything had been changed to the point where it was embarrassing to say that it was the original work.

'He's not connected to the heroine...' I didn't want to be treated like a fool, so I added it out. "Do you hate the fact that I believe in you?"

"You..."

Ian sighed slightly. It felt itchy because his breath reached the back of my neck.

At that moment, the wagon shook slightly and our arms touched slightly.

"Don't say things like that too recklessly."

"What are you talking about? You don't want me to trust you? Of course, that's understandable..."

"That's not it."

At that time, the wagon stopped as if it had arrived at the imperial palace.

"Even if you say something casually..."

At the same time as the door opened, Ian's words continued.

"I can't sleep."

"What?"

"If you were determined to win somehow by causing my condition to be bad, I would praise this strategy. It seems to have a great effect." (pr/n: Ian's tiny brain go brrr)

I sat blank for a moment in the carriage where he left first.

Perhaps because it was such a small space, his physique still seemed to be next to me.

'Annabelle, you're crazy.'

I thought to myself and quickly settled down by looking at Ian's back. 'He hates it so much that he can't sleep....'

Ian reached out his hand to me who was still sitting blankly. "What are you doing?" Behind him was the splendid imperial palace. "Let's go."

Of course, it was customary for an escort to hold their hand out. I held his hand, trying not to be particularly conscious. Our fingers were carefully and slowly entangled. Soon, I felt that Ian's breath stopped slightly.

"Hmmm." Ian then spoke.

"I understand even if you seem a little nervous since it's your first time at the imperial palace." "Can you tell that I'm nervous?"

"Your body's balance is completely disrupted." What was disrupted was not my body's balance, but my blood circulation, but I didn't answer that. He glanced at our hands, which were intertwined very awkwardly, coughed several times and asked.

"Is it because of the escort?"

"Are you crazy?" I couldn't say right here that he was right, so I smirked in a hurry.

"If I'm nervous because of that, won't I not even be normal?"

Ian raised his eyes.

"That's possible, huh?"