Chapter 17

Fixed straight in Miles’s piercing gaze, Diana felt like a small animal trapped under the eyes of a bird of prey.

It was terrifying. And utterly chilling.

Even with that thought running through her mind, she could not look away.

It was a fear so intense that she felt as though her throat would be torn out the very moment she broke eye contact.

The sofa creaked with a sharp groan as Miles shifted his weight and rose to his feet.

The instant she realized he was reaching out toward her, Diana stiffened.

Seeing that frightened expression, Miles clenched his hand mid-reach.

“Diana, why…”

Just as Miles forced the words out, the door swung open.

“Excuse me.”

The door clicked open, and a reassuring presence stepped into the reception room.

The moment she laid eyes on that figure, Alan, relief washed across Diana’s face.

“What…?”

Miles’s voice trembled at that expression and at Alan’s sudden appearance.

Allowing a visitor in unannounced while guests were already present was unheard of in any proper household.

“My apologies, but since Lord Alan is soon to be the young lady’s family, I let him through.”

“Thank you, Sherry.”

Diana offered a warm smile to the maid, who must have sensed the tense atmosphere and stepped in to help.

She had understood completely.

There was an ally here who had perceived her crisis and acted.

That realization alone made her chest swell with a sudden, aching warmth.

“You both seemed deeply engrossed in conversation. What on earth was the Marquis of Odonoghue discussing with my fiancée?”

Alan spoke in a cheerful, easygoing tone.

However, the blue-gray eyes fixed on Miles were not smiling at all.

They stared straight into the other person, searching for hidden motives.

“Ah… Your Highness, the Royal Uncle…”

Even Miles, despite his usual boldness, apparently knew better than to call him “that man” to his face now that he was standing right before him.

Straightening his posture, Miles gave Alan a stiff bow.

“I was simply offering a bit of advice to Diana, a dear friend of many years.”

“Oh? Advice, you say?”

Alan narrowed his eyes, letting out a rare, sarcastic tone.

To Diana, Alan had always been a gentle person.

Mature, composed, and endlessly indulgent toward her. That was who Alan was.

And yet, that same Alan was now looking down at Miles with a freezing gaze.

“You will offer no further advice of any kind. I am the one by her side.”

A rush of heat flooded her body.

The moment she heard Alan’s words, Diana felt her cheeks flush a brilliant red.

Miles, whose words had been flatly rejected, likely hesitated to openly protest a royal prince, so he directed a sharp, bitter glare at Diana instead.

“You’ll regret this someday, Diana.”

“I hardly think so.”

Diana answered with a crisp, resolute tone to Miles’s stinging parting shot.

(If we’re talking about regret, I’ve had more than enough to last a lifetime… Ah, well, technically I actually died, didn’t I?)

When she recalled her past life, she couldn’t even manage a bitter smile.

Miles had walked out on her with cruel, heartless words, and Cordelia had stabbed her to death.

Who in their right mind would ever want to walk that pathetic, miserable path a second time?

(Even so, things are different now—)

Alan was alive, and the fatal illness had never evolved into a massive epidemic.

Her father, Wesley, still held the seat of the Duke without falling victim to sickness.

(I am undoubtedly walking a life different from before.)

That conviction was real and certain.

“My apologies. Did I interrupt…?”

Shifting his demeanor entirely from the one he had just shown Miles, Alan turned back to face Diana.

His somewhat hesitant posture radiated a deep gentleness and inherent goodness.

“No, you saved me.”

“Ah, well, I’m glad if that’s the case…”

Letting out a sigh, Alan somehow looked as though a sudden wave of tension had lifted from him.

“I must admit, I’m behaving rather childishly…”

“What do you mean by that?”

Looking up at Alan as he muttered with a hint of self-mockery, Diana asked.

After casting a glance at Diana for a split second, Alan quickly averted his gaze.

The skin at the nape of his neck was faintly stained with red.

“Lord Alan?”

Not understanding why, Diana tilted her head in an innocent, bewildered expression.

Faced with that gesture right before his eyes, Alan covered his face with his large palm.

Having married Miles in her past life out of a political connection without ever holding romantic feelings, Diana had no way of knowing the subtle nuances of romance.

Meanwhile, Alan had likewise spent his life restraining himself from cultivating anything resembling a tender affection.

“That man is around your age, isn’t he? When I thought that perhaps someone closer in age would be a better match for you—well, I simply found myself unable to hide my displeasure…”

At Alan’s muttered words, Diana blinked her eyes.

What Alan said sank into Diana’s heart, spreading warmly like a drop of ink soaking into fabric.

“C-Could that mean…?”

(Did Lord Alan… feel jealous of Miles?)

The answer that flashed through her mind felt almost unbelievable.

Yet, right in front of her, Alan was still covering his flushed face, trying to hide it from Diana’s gaze.

“Do you think I’m pathetic?”

Hearing Alan’s somewhat dejected voice, Diana immediately shook her head back and forth.

“No, never. I would never think such a thing!”

Diana herself had just dreamt of Alan and the female knight Monique.

After waking up, she had even fallen into despair, wondering if she truly couldn’t trust Alan.

Even though she knew Alan wasn’t that kind of person, she had grown disgusted with her own narrow-mindedness.

But she was wrong.

She wasn’t the only one.

Alan, too, had been deeply shaken on her account.

“For you to think of me to such an extent… I am so happy, Lord Alan.”

“Lady Diana…”

Diana’s slender fingers wrapped around the large hand covering his face.

Naturally, his palm pulled away from his face, and their gazes locked.

“Diana—”

The moment she heard her name called, Diana was pulled into Alan’s strong embrace, blinking in surprise.

The instant she realized she was being held in his arms, she narrowed her eyes happily and leaned against his chest.

“I seem to be showing you only my most pathetic sides lately…”

“That is not true at all.”

Diana smiled up at Alan, who looked somewhat crestfallen.

“Lord Alan is, and always will be, the one I look up to.”

Alan’s eyes looked down at Diana resting within his arms.

A large palm caressed her pale cheek.

“You are just about the only one who would say such a thing, Lady Diana.”

“That’s not true in the least.”

“Indeed it is.”

Perhaps Alan himself remained entirely unaware of his own charm.

As he fretted over having shown such an ungraceful side to his young fiancée, Diana felt her hardened heart grow warm.

“If that is so, let me phrase it differently.”

Stretching her slender fingers up toward Alan’s cheek, Diana rose slightly onto her tiptoes.

The distance between their faces closed just enough that they could feel each other’s breath.

“I love a Lord Alan like that more than anyone else in the world.”

“…!!”

Unable to resist any longer, Alan pulled Diana’s slender body firmly against him and brought his lips to hers.

The anxiety and impatience she had felt dissolved away, if only for now.

Even after their lips parted, she closed her eyes and buried her face against the chest of the person she cherished.

(With this person, it will be fine. This time, for sure, I will be happy. No, I will make myself happy.)

Renewing that resolution, Diana wrapped her arms tightly around Alan’s body, leaning into the strong chest that sheltered her.

As for Alan, who was meant to be the one comforting her, he was fighting a desperate battle against his own reason.

He wanted to cherish Diana.

Yet the more he felt that way, the more captivated he became by her innocent expressions and gestures as she blossomed into a beautiful young woman.

“I cannot stay too long…”

“Are you still busy?”

“A-Ah.”

He couldn’t even look straight into the face of Diana, who looked worried that the royal capital might still be in a state of chaos.

(Having a young and beautiful fiancée is certainly a handful…)

Chuckling inwardly at his own extravagant dilemma, Alan stroked the back of the Diana he held in his arms.

(At the very least, I must restrain myself until the wedding…)

He had never imagined such feelings could ever take root within him.

As a knight, he had always maintained composure and mastered the art of emotional control.

And yet, now that he had left the battlefield, he found himself continuously tossed about by a young girl he had known since childhood.

If he were unwanted as a royal, he had always assumed he would never have a household of his own, let alone children.

Yet someone like him had somehow been blessed with a fiancée so young and adorable.

What was more, she was none other than Diana, the girl he had adored beyond measure since she was a little girl.

Without even realizing that this was what happiness felt like, but simply unable to bring himself to let go of her, Alan gathered Diana’s body into both arms.

Praying, all the while, that his overwhelming feelings would not end up breaking her…