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Then, her heart began to pound as she remembered what Karim had said. Her palms became sweaty. Karim and Shuraina looked at each other and didn\'t say a single word until Emily left.

"…..I told you so. I said it, right? He wouldn\'t let you be like that. Although I don\'t know what took him so long."

"A, b, c, d, e, f, g. H, i, j, k, l m n o, p."*

"Nuna? What language is that?"

Shuraina looked quite unnerved. She hugged her short legs against her chest and buried her head between her legs before looking back up, determined. She stopped sharking her legs.

"Nuna, where are you going?"

"I\'m going to run some laps."

She rushed out of the door and headed to the training hall. As she ran, she thought back to when she had been younger. Whenever she had heard that someone from the dukedom was coming, Shuraina was always sword training in the hall. There were times when Shuraina arrived at the training hall first and times when Swanhaden arrived earlier and was training with the sword first, but the latter happened more often.

When she remembered that, Shuraina turned back. She had a feeling that Swanhaden would be training in the hall if she went there.

She wasn\'t prepared to see him again. It didn\'t help that this was the first time she\'d see him after graduation and that made her nervous. She didn\'t even know what to say to him. She thought she was just going to blurt out something awkward and make everything weird, too.

Oh, wait. Should she put some makeup on? It had been a long time since they\'d seen each other, so she wanted to look good. But Shuraina had spent all of her money on swords and magic books, so she had no makeup. She secretly went to her mother\'s dresser and sat there before standing back up.

\'It always becomes a horrible mess when I try on my own. Let\'s not do that.\'

Shuraina quickly gave up and just decided to walk around the halls.

She was taking a quick stroll around her estate as if she was running around the training hall when Emily found Shuraina and greeted her.

"Hello, miss."

She had just been walking around, ignoring everything, when she bumped into Emily again.

"Miss?"

Emily tilted her head in confusion when they met again. She kept bumping into the young miss today. How many times had they bumped into each other today? She had even greeted her to no reply. She would usually nod or say something in greeting on any other day, though.

Emily tilted her head at Shuraina\'s mechanical movements. When Shuraina tried to pass her by without noticing a bucket of water, Emily quickly moved and grabbed Shuraina by the waist and held her up high. Shuraina was small and skinny, so it wasn\'t too difficult for Emily to hold her up with both hands. Shuraina just kept moving her arms and legs, even as she was held up in the air. She didn\'t really get it, but it looked like she had lost her mind.

Emily took out a chocolate chip cookie that she had put away to eat later in Shuraina\'s mouth. She was hoping that some food would bring her back to normal. Shuraina held the cookie with both hands and slowly began to nibble on the movie. Seeing how she had stopped moving, it seemed like she was back to normal.

Emily grabbed Shuraina by her hand and moved to the reception room. She followed without complaint. Shuraina blankly held Emily\'s hand and nibbled on her cookie, deep in thought. She was thinking about Swanhadne.

"Miss, wait here until the Blanche family\'s people arrive. They\'ll be here in just a moment."

Shuraina just blankly sat on the reception room chair. Emily worried–her miss was unusually slow today. She couldn\'t figure out why she was like this today, either. She was seeing a friend after not seeing them for a while–wasn\'t this something to be excited about?

She had heard that the future duke\'s personality was bad–maybe she was getting picked on? But miss Shuraina wasn\'t someone to get picked on that easily.

Emily looked worried before handing Shuraina another cookie. Shuraina just seemed focused on eating and nothing else.

\'But she\'s not rejecting the meeting outright, so….. It looks like she\'s just feeling awkward after not seeing them for a while. They\'ll probably get close after they speak for a while. I mean, she plays the royal prince like no other person. Mhm, she\'s definitely not getting picked on.\'

She was friendly with the future DuBois marquis, the royal prince, and with the Minimiz count\'s child–she was a popular person, so she didn\'t have to worry about this.

When she closed the door of the reception room, she could see the newly hired maids. They looked…busy…as they chatted as they mopped the floor. Emily was quite immune to seeing Shuraina\'s incredible friends, but the other hires were excited, to say the least.

"Wow, wow. I\'ve never seen the young duke before. He\'s from the Blanche duke family, right? They\'re incredibly secretive."

"Why are they visiting here when this is just a baron family? Is it because he\'s friends with the young lady? From what I\'ve heard, he\'s so handsome that he can literally blind people, I\'m excited….."

"Shouldn\'t you be working?"

"Oh. Yes ma\'am!"

Emily nagged at the maids who were just chatting. She was annoyed as she listened to the other maids talking about how pretty and good looking the little duke was.

\'Our lady is so much more reliable and handsome….\'

Emily had a strange competitive streak when it came to this.

Shuraina just kept staring at nothing as she sat on the chair. A mosquito soon found its way onto her arm and began sucking on her blood, so she turned her gaze onto the mosquito.

"Go for it."

When she generously allowed the mosquito to drink her blood, it looked like the mosquito thanked her as it kept drinking. When the mosquito soon finished its meal and tried to leave, Shuraina tried to catch it with a piece of paper lying on the table. But she missed and lost the mosquito. She slumped onto the table.

\'What if he\'s cleaning up his household and coming over with a ring as soon as he can?\'

\'…..why\'d he have to say that?\'

Shuraina tapped the table with her fingernails as she frowned.

"I\'m going to make the ring and give it to him myself."

Shuraina said out loud. She felt chills run down her arm at her own words. She brushed her arms down. She couldn\'t believe what had come out of her own mouth. What, since when had she been thinking about marriage? Didn\'t she say that she didn\'t like Swanhaden in the first place?

Swanhaden\'s sudden visit was making her blurt out things that she didn\'t mean to say out loud. She just kept muttering things out loud before getting shocked…. She just kept doing that, over and over again.

Shuraina fidgeted on the chair before she realized that something was poking out of her pocket. When she put her hand in her pocket to check what it was and took it out, she realized it was the magical device that she had made to read and say what others were thinking out loud. Oh, no. Shuraina had forgotten that she had slipped it in her pocket while she had chatted with Karim.

\'Maybe I shouldn\'t.\'

Shuraina gave up completely on using this device against Swanhaden. She had thought that she was stooping too low when she created this device, but she felt guilt stabbing at her conscience when it was time for her to use it. It wasn\'t right for her to dig through others\' thoughts when they didn\'t agree to it.

She stood up to return the device back to her room when she felt a presence outside the door. She could even hear footsteps.

"Swanhaden?"

Shuraina was sure that the footsteps that were coming closer were Swanhaden\'s. She had been told that the Blanche people would be coming here, after all. It could be her father\'s footsteps, but her father had slower, rougher footsteps. She didn\'t really know Swanhaden\'s footsteps, but she was weirdly confident that those footsteps were his.

She had a feeling that the owner of those footsteps would open the door and come in soon. Shuraina took a few steps back and shook her head.

If it was really Swanhaden, if he was really coming, then she was in big trouble. Her heart wasn\'t ready to see Swanhaden again. If she saw his face again, she had a 99% chance that she would blurt out something weird. She knew because she had been spouting out weird things when she talked to herself. She hadn\'t even organized her thoughts–how low was she going to go when Swan was in front of her?

She could even say something like how she\'d give him a ring. Shuraina moved back and forth before she noticed a drawer. The drawer was tall–it was floor to ceiling–and the upper part of the drawer was filled with books. The bottom drawers had plenty of space, and was completely empty. It was big enough that two adults could fit inside, easily.

\'There\'s no choice.\'

When the footsteps got even closer to the door, Shuraina scowled and went inside. The space was wide enough that there was plenty of space even with her inside. She was doing a lot just to avoid seeing Swan\'s face out of embarrassment.

\'Wait. But if I\'m in here, doesn\'t that mean that I can\'t leave until the Blanche family people leave?\'

She regretted it once she was inside, but it was too late.

Clack.

As soon as Shuraina hid inside the dresser, someone walked in. Just as she had thought. It was Swanhaden Blanche. Her heart beat frantically in her chest. She told herself that the reason why her heart was beating so fast was because she was nervous, not because of Swan. She was completely sure of it. Anyway, hiding all by herself made her feel like she was playing a game. It was exciting.

There were a few holes on the door of the dresser because of how old it was. She put her eye near one of the holes to see what was happening outside.

She hadn\'t seen Swanhaden\'s face since after graduation, so it had been a really long time. It seemed like he had matured more while they hadn\'t seen each other. The cuteness in his appearance had dissipated slightly, it looked like he grew a bit taller, and maybe a bit more handsome. He still looked bored at everything, just as usual.

Shuraina muttered to herself that, once again, she wasn\'t seeing him with rose-tinted glasses. Even when she was being completely objective, she had to admit that he was handsome. She gave excuse after excuse, but nobody was listening.

Swanhaden, who didn\'t seem much different except for the fact that he\'d matured slightly, took a haphazard seat on the chair.

[Don\'t be nervous. Don\'t be nervous. Don\'t be nervous.]

She could hear a familiar voice from the device she was holding in her hand. It was Swanhaden\'s voice. Shuraina was so surprised that she almost threw the device far away, but she caught herself and held the device tightly in her grasp.

Swanhaden looked around the reception room before taking a seat again. His lips were sealed tight so he just looked as he always did, but his mind was extremely loud.

[I\'m not going to lose it just because I haven\'t seen her again and do something embarrassing, right? No. Honestly, it\'s time for me to get over looking her in her eyes. I practiced a lot too, so it\'ll be okay.]

Swanhaden suddenly stood up.

[Should I go back? I feel like I\'m not ready.]

Then, he sat back down.

[But I want to see Shushu.]

If I couldn\'t hear what he was thinking, then I would\'ve thought he was completely calm. He stared down at his shirt before checking his watch.

[Why does it feel like I can hear my thoughts out loud? I\'m really nervous, am I hearing things now?]

Swanhaden tilted his head and frowned.

"Ah."

[Ah.]

Swanhaden internally thought, \'Ah\' and said it out loud. He looked surprised at the echo-like sound from behind him.

"Ah."

[Ah.]

Swanhaden\'s \'Ah\' rang out like an echo in the room.

"Shushu."

[Shushu.]

Swanhaden stood back up from his seat and moved to where he could hear the sound. He walked from left to right to check where the sound was coming from.

"Shuraina."

[West.]

The sound suddenly sounded quieter before it returned to its original volume.

[Where\'s the sound coming from?]

"Exactly."

Swanhaden looked around a bit longer before he stood in front of the dresser and, without hesitation, opened the door.

As soon as he opened the door, he was faced with the one he had wanted to see so much. He saw Shuraina, hiding her face behind her orange hair. Shuraina\'s face was red as she was crouched on the floor, trying to turn off the device. Shuraina, who had finally been caught, buried her face into her knees.

Creak.

Then, she quietly stretched out her arm to close the door.

"……."

Swanhaden stared at the closed door for a moment before opening it again.

[…….]

The device in Shuraina\'s hands were silent. Swanhaden was just as much in shock as Shuraina was.

Shuraina was so embarrassed and ashamed that she couldn\'t raise her head. She thought about how she wanted to crawl underground and befriend the earthworms down there, miserable.

Swanhaden just stared at Shuraina\'s blushing face.

Just at that moment, they could hear other people approaching. The footsteps weren\'t of just one person. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Swanhaden joined Shuraina in the dresser. The space was just big enough for two people to fit, but they had to squeeze slightly.

As soon as Swanhaden joined Shuraina inside the dresser, the door opened and the duke and the baron entered the room.

"Let\'s hear the duke\'s thoughts."

It seemed like he was enjoying the situation. His jewel-colored eyes seemed to shine in joy, even in the darkness. Of course, this was just on the outside.

[Aaaaaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!]

Swanhaden\'s thoughts began to sound out through the device.

[She looks so cute crouched down like that! She\'s so pretty when she looks surprised, this is so bad. But why\'d I come in here like this? Am I trying to die young? Get it together, you need to live a long and healthy life with Shuraina. Hold on, I can hear everything.]

The device, which had been silent until now, suddenly began expressing all of Swanhaden\'s thoughts out loud. The volume wasn\'t very loud, but the sound was so constant that others might be able to hear outside.

"Turn mine off."

Swanhaden whispered, expression calm.

T/N: this is so cute ;-;