Natural

The atmosphere around them was like a cold war. Nobody was saying anything, but to the people around, it was as if they were fighting with their gazes.

Lucien was sure they must have thought this looked like a scene out of a cheap romantic play.

It was Siegfried who broke the silence by sighing out loud.

“Okay, I trust you,” he said. He took a glance at Lucien before shifting back to Giselle. “Is this why you’re so eager to help with the preparation of my engagement ceremony?”

Lucien turned his head toward Giselle at the speed of light. This was his first time hearing this. What was this about? He asked her with her eyes, but the only thing she did was look at him for a second before answering Siegfried.

“Yes. It’s precisely that,” she said.

Lucien was baffled. It was yet another thing he was left out of the loop about. He couldn’t fathom how and why Giselle kept doing this to him.

Instead of Giselle, Siegfried was the one who noticed Lucien’s visible surprise.

“Have you not told Lord Renand yet?” Siegfried asked Giselle.

She looked away. It took her a moment before she answered, “...I just started courting him.”

Lucien was confused about what that had to do with anything, but that seemed to be an adequate answer for Siegfried since he responded with a nod.

Yeah, just ignore my existence, why don’t you? Lucien grumbled in his mind. Not that he could ever say it out loud, obviously. This was a whole duke and princess he was facing.

His gaze shifted toward Siegfried. It was hard to believe they were the same age when Siegfried was already the duke and Lucien was still only the heir of the marquess. It was not really something to be envious of considering the circumstances that pushed Siegfried to inherit the dukedom at a young age, but perhaps that was precisely why Lucien felt a little distant from him.

He just didn’t think they would ever find a common ground.

Lucien was a bit startled when Siegfried suddenly turned to him and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Her Highness wants to help prepare for my engagement ceremony, but…” Siegfried trailed off.

“But he doesn’t want me to, even though I went all the way to the Benois residence for it,” Giselle said while pointing at Siegfried. Her lips were pursed and her cheeks were flushed as she sulked.

It was really obvious to Lucien that Giselle acted a lot differently whenever she was with Siegfried. Whatever she was doing, she was certainly not beating the allegations, Lucien thought as he looked at her with pity in his eyes. But then, he realized something.

That’s why she came to Clara’s house last time? Lucien blinked.

With Siegfried watching like a hawk, Giselle squeezed Lucien’s arm in her embrace tighter.

“Anyway, you’ll let me do it now, right?” she urged Siegfried.

“Why do you insist on handling it anyway? You know you don’t exactly have the best health,” Siegfried said with a frown on his face.

“Why not? I want to be involved,” Giselle said.

Lucien had been turning his head back and forth between Siegfried and Giselle as they conversed. He could feel his neck starting to strain as he sensed them getting heated up.

“Excuse me…” Lucien finally spoke up after a while. Siegfried and Giselle quickly turned to him at the same time with the same fierce look in their eyes, causing him to flinch. Lucien cleared his throat before flashing a refreshing smile. “Why don’t we calm down for now? The refreshments are here.”

Lucien gestured toward the waiter who was standing awkwardly by their table with some cakes in tow. A bunch of them, in fact. It seemed like Giselle had ordered them before Lucien arrived.

The two royal siblings actually leaned back and stayed silent while the waiter placed the cakes on their table. It seemed like forever before he finally finished lining up all of the plates of cakes on the table.

Lucien was amazed—this seemed like an all-you-can-eat cake buffet than a cafe at this point. The plates of cakes were crowding the table to the edges, to the point that there was almost no blank space. Did Giselle really plan to finish all of this by herself? He took a glance at her.

Before the waiter could leave, Siegfried stopped him.

“A cup of black coffee for me, please,” he said. The waiter bowed and went off to process his order. When Siegfried turned to face Lucien and Giselle again, both of them had their eyes completely focused on the cakes on the table.

Truth to be told, Lucien was very much a sweet tooth. He basically had the palate of a child and refused to consume anything bitter in his life. Whenever he had to drink coffee, he needed milk and sugar put into it. His favorite dessert was the icy cold ones, but he was fond of pastry and cakes as well. Unfortunately, only his mother shared his love for sweets in the family, and she was much too strict of a mother to ever let him binge this many cakes.

The moment Lucien realized that Siegfried had been looking at him with wonder, he collected his composure and sat up straight, pretending like he didn’t just drool over the cakes. Meanwhile, Giselle immediately let go of his arm and took the chance to snatch up a plate of cake.

Oh, I can finally feel my arm now, Lucien thought, but he had to hold himself back from stretching his arm out right in front of Giselle or she (and maybe Siegfried too) might take it as an offense.

What did he do so wrong that he had to walk on eggshells like this? Lucien lamented in his mind. As if she was unaware of his woes, Giselle began to dig into the lemon cake that she took for herself.

It was like she was possessed the way her hand kept on going for another bite, and another, and another… Lucien watched in awe—how can such a small mouth and body consume food that fast?

The moment Lucien noticed there was cream near Giselle’s lips, his hand moved faster than he could think.

“Pardon me,” he muttered as he wiped the cream off of Giselle’s lips with his finger. Before anyone could even react, he then put his finger into his mouth.

As expected of high quality cream. It was delicious.

Feeling the gaze on him, Lucien looked at Siegfried, whose eyebrow was raised in a questioning manner.

“You seem used to this, Lord Renand,” Siegfried said. Hearing that, Lucien felt relieved. He thought he just did something offensive without realizing. In his unguarded state, he ended up oversharing.

“Haha, yes, there was a time when Clara—no, hold on, please don’t look at me like that!” Lucien quickly grew pale and shook his head when both Siegfried and Giselle shot him a death glare the moment he brought up Clara’s name. It was like they were shooting lasers with their eyes. “I didn’t do that to Clara! My sister did!”

Fortunately, the tension around them noticeably died down as soon as Lucien said that. He didn’t dare look beside him, but he could tell Giselle went back to her cake already. Now it was only Siegfried staring at him. Not that it was any better—his red eyes truly looked like they could kill.

“...What did Lady Benois do?”

Unexpectedly, Siegfried showed interest in another aspect of this topic. He still looked as serious as ever, but Lucien could see in his eyes that he genuinely wanted to hear stories about Clara.

…And he’s supposed to be in a contract marriage with Clara? Lucien once again doubted it. Even so, he still decided to tell Siegfried the story anyway.

“Oh, so, what happened was…”

***

It took tons of stories before Siegfried was finally satisfied enough to let this topic go. Lucien sighed in relief once it was finally over—signaled by Siegfried nodding and taking a sip of his coffee. He was starting to feel burdened and pressured to dig up every little memory he had of Clara because of how intensely Siegfried was asking him.

Lucien then remembered Giselle’s presence and quickly looked to his side.

“My apologies, Your Highness. That must’ve been boring for you,” he said while looking her in the eyes. Giselle wordlessly stared at him before turning away.

“It’s fine,” she said while putting another cut of cake into her mouth. Lucien couldn’t tell what her expression and words meant. She would usually throw a fit whenever he brought up Clara, so he couldn’t believe that she was really fine when she said she was. She did actually look fine, though, with her face looking relaxed instead of donning the usual frown.

So maybe he was safe…?

While Lucien was overthinking about Giselle’s reaction, Siegfried was looking at the two of them with watchful eyes.

“Lord Renand,” he called out to Lucien.

“Yes?” Lucien turned to him. Maybe because he’d heard Siegfried’s voice so much today, Lucien was no longer jittery at being talked to with that strict and rigid tone of his. Is this what it felt like to get used to the presence of a wild beast…?

“You seem to genuinely care for Giselle, so I hope you can dissuade her from taking on more than she can chew,” Siegfried said. Giselle put down her fork with a loud sound and shot him a glare as soon as she heard that.