"Good afternoon, Lady Cyllia. It's lovely to be able to meet you like this again," the Marquis smiled as he gave me a small bow.

"There's no need for formalities, Marquis Scott. Please, feel free to get straight to the point. As you can see, I am not in the best condition for long, drawn-out meetings," I said as I gestured to my immobile body underneath my blankets.

"Hahaha~ Lady Cyllia! You misunderstand us. We are here to visit our sick princess, not because we have some business with you," the Marquess, who stood by the Marquis with her arm looped with his, laughed.

"...Bullsh-t," Grey muttered from behind the two of them.

I almost started laughing at Grey's remark and the Marquis and Marquess awkwardly coughed in reply.

"It seems that you need to retrain some of your servants, Lady Cyllia. They do not know how to behave properly," the Marquess laughed to me as her eyes squinted a little at the rude remark.

"There's no need, Marquess. Grey is definitely the most capable servant in the kingdom and I can attest to it. And he knows exactly which people are deserving of his respect," I chuckled.

"Haha...Of course, Lady Cyllia. But, truly, we are only here to express our sincere feelings of concern to our country's princess..." the Marquis said as he took a seat in front of my bed.

"Please, Marquis, I am not the princess of this country yet. There is no need for you to call me by that title," I said.

"Oh, but we were informed a few days ago that all noble families were to consider you as our princess," the Marquis said.

...What?

Since when?

"And who was the one who gave you that order?" I asked, my voice turning colder.

"Why...it was none other than your fiancé, the crown prince, of course," the Marquis answered with a laugh.

I was speechless.

I mean, I know I'm Florence's fiancé and all, but I'm only engaged to him.

Only until the day after I am officially married to him would I ever be considered this country's princess.

Besides, who knows?

One day Florence might choose to annul his engagement with me like he did in the original otome game...

"I...see. Please disregard his order. If anyone is to call me by that title in the future, please inform them of my discomfort over this matter," I sighed.

Darn it.

What was going on...?

These days, I can't understand what is going through Florence's mind.

It's like he's hiding something from me.

"Of course, Lady Cyllia. We will listen to your request," the Marquis smiled.

"Oh, and before we forget, my husband and I would love to give our sincerest blessings to Duke Cyllia and his bride for their upcoming wedding. I hear it is a marriage out of love?" the Marquess asked with a pitched giggle.

"You should be telling this to my father and his fiance in person. But, yes, it is most definitely not a political marriage," I forced a smile back at them.

"Really~? Did you know the Marquis and I married out of love as well?" the Marquess laughed as she looked to her husband.

I internally cringed.

Love?

Yeah, sure.

These two were psychopaths and a match made in heaven from what I knew after reading the Marquis' disgusting diary.

(A/N: Refer to the end of 'Chapter 56' for a small refresher~)

"Wasn't the Marquis remarried as well?" I asked innocently as I fluttered my eyes a bit.

"...Yes, I was...actually...?" the Marquis nodded as his expression slightly stiffened with confusion.

He paused a bit and scratched the back of his head as if he were slightly struggling to recall his first wife.

What...

What type of reaction was that?!

Did he forget that he killed his first wife or something?

Was he so in 'love' with his second wife or something that he completely forgot that he used to be priorly engaged with someone else?

And that he murdered her?!

Trash.

This man was a piece of trash.

No.

He was worse than trash.

"It is such a pity that the first Marquess died. I heard she was a very sweet and responsible person, even though she was a little sickly," I sighed sarcastically.

Of course, the other Marquess, who was sitting in front of me and was very much alive, made a foul expression on her face as I continued to praise the Marquis' first wife.

And the Marquis, who murdered his first wife to marry his second one, flinched as I spoke.

"And she was also a wonderful mother before she died, from what I heard. Speaking of which, I heard your only son died in an accident. It looks like you two weren't careful enough. I hope you treated him well before he died though," I continued while my words became sharper and sharper.

Mattius.

Their son.

They killed him and left Deux behind to suffer.

I gritted my hands underneath my bedsheets and I could feel my expression becoming darker and darker over time.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about your dead son, Mattius, like you forgot your first wife, Marquis."

"Did you dare assume-!"

"Yeah, I did dare. What are you going to do about it?" I asked with a sneer as I interrupted the Marquis.

"...I can't believe how rude the young lady of the Duchy is," the Marquess stepped up to defend her husband.

"I believe you're mistaken about something, Marquess Scott. The one who rudely came to the palace uninvited was not me, but you two. Can't you see that I'm not well? Or are you too blind to tell?" I smiled.

The Marquis and Marquess dropped their smiling masks from their faces and glared at me threateningly.

"We came here with well wishes, Lady Cyllia," the Marquis said.

"I never said that you didn't. I'm just saying that you two are ignorant fools who cover up your poor decisions with 'well wishes,'" I replied.

At my bluntness, the Marquis rose from his seat and was about to yell at me about something, before he stopped himself.

He stood there, frozen for a bit as he looked to my side where Ace was.

Then he turned back to me with a slightly irritated, but much more subdued expression on his face compared to earlier.

"You...I hope you recover soon, Lady Cyllia. Your health is very important after all," he said through gritted teeth.

Then he turned his head to Ace again, who was sitting by my side with a small upset glare on his face at the Marquis' remarks.

Suddenly, the Marquis began to smile.

It sent shudders down my spine.

"I'm sorry for my rudeness, I didn't mean to upset you," the Marquis said to Ace.

Why...was he talking to Ace all of a sudden...?

I didn't understand, but it was kind of uncomfortable to watch.

"...The one you should apologize to is Cordelia, not me," Ace, who didn't look happy at being dragged into the conversation, said.

"Of course," he said as he turned to me and grabbed my hand.

The moment his hand made contact with my skin, a giant wave of goosebumps spread across my skin and I shuddered in disgust.

"My apologies, Lady Cyllia," he said, a little grudgingly, before he kissed my bare hand.

Disgusting...!

Gross...!

Ewwww...!

"Good day, Lady Cyllia," the Marquess said as she looped her arms around the Marquis before leaving the room with him randomly without another word.

Who did they think they were?!

They randomly waltz into the palace out of nowhere and now they suddenly leave out of nowhere too??

"Grey," I said solemnly.

"Yes, milady," Grey asked.

"...Get me some hand sanitizer right now before I puke," I muttered as I felt myself become a little nauseous at what the Marquis had just done to my hand.

"What is...hand sanitizer?" Grey asked, confused by my request.

Oh.

I forgot.

Hand sanitizer wasn't invented yet in this world.

"I'm going to throw up," I gagged.

"Wait, Cordelia-" Ace was about to say.

And then, as I expected, I threw up right then and there all over my bedsheets.

.

.

.

A few days later, I was given permission to get out of my bed and do some light exercises to get my strength back up.

And, eventually, after a while, I was given the freedom to do as I liked without anyone babying me.

The first thing I decided to do with my newfound freedom was to find out exactly where Wolfe was.

Wolfe...is an idiot.

I let him suck my blood dry and he never once came to visit me while I was stuck in bed with anemia for the past week or so.

How rude of him.

I wandered the halls of the palace until I found my way to Wolfe's room.

Without knocking, I opened the door to the room and peeked inside to see pure darkness, which was fine, because I could 'see' perfectly fine in the dark.

And, just as I thought, there was no one inside.

Florence...must have moved Wolfe to a different room.

I clicked my tongue before I sighed and walked into the room to take a small seat.

It was easier to focus in complete silence, so I relaxed and made myself comfortable.

Each day, thousands of people walk in and out of the palace—not to mention the palace itself was made up of hundreds of public rooms and dozens of hidden rooms.

Finding a single person in such a busy place was almost close to impossible.

But...heh...Not to brag or anything, but I'll be able to find Wolfe if I try.

.

.

.

546 meters to the North...

216 steps to the East...

Up four flights of stairs...

And...

I knocked on the smooth wooden door in front of me confidently with a smile.

"Wolfe. It's me. I know you're in there," I said as I continued knocking on his door as hard as I could.

There was utter silence though, and I frowned in annoyance.

"Wolfe...If you don't say anything, I'm going to break down this door you know..." I said seriously.

"..."

"Wolfe?" I asked.

"..."

"You asked for it," I sighed.

After backing up from the door a few steps, I lifted up my leg and kicked down the door with enough force to kill a man.

The door flew off from its hinges and was hurled across the room, breaking a window on its way.

I peeked inside the well-lit room.

At first glance, it didn't seem like there was anyone inside the room but, poking out from behind the single bed in the room, was a bit of fluffy strawberry-colored hair that sprung up a little in the air.

I chuckled.

Wolfe was a very big man.

Did he think he would be able to hide like that?

"Oh, Wolfe~ Where are you~?" I giggled childishly as I pretended to look through every little nook and cranny to search for him.

After a while, Wolfe finally peeked his eyes out from behind the bed and looked at me.

He blinked a few times as if he were trying to grab my attention.

"So that's where you were, Wolfe! I couldn't find you!" I said as I tried to stifle a laugh.

"..."

Wolfe was looking at me with his round forest-green eyes as if he didn't expect me to come all the way here and find him like this.

"...Why are you here?" he asked quietly as he continued to hide his large body behind his bed.

He looked at me cautiously with his brows slightly furrowed.

"Well...For the past few weeks, I've been stuck in bed recovering from slight anemia, you see. And I was just a little bit upset that a certain somebody never came to visit me even though they were the ones who put me in that situation in the first place," I pouted dramatically.

"..."

"Do you have anything to say?"

"...I'm sorry."

He had a horribly sad expression on his face as if he were a guilty puppy currently being confronted by their owner.

...Was Wolfe always this type of character...?

...

...When and how did Wolfe become the puppy-type...?

"Sorry for what?" I asked him as I folded my arms.

"...For...lying to everyone. And...forcing myself on you like that. I'm sorry. I didn't know what was right and wrong and I just lost control of myself and, because of that, you..."

"That's not what I'm mad about though?"

"...Huh?"

"Weren't you listening to anything I was saying? I said that I was upset you didn't visit me even once while I was stuck on a hospital bed all week...!" I frowned at him.

Idiot.

He's an actual idiot.

"...But...I thought you wouldn't want to see me," Wolfe replied hesitantly as he looked up to me sadly.

"Why? What gave you that idea?" I asked him.

"..."

"Hmm?"

"I hurt you..."

"And?"

"...He told me you wouldn't want to see me again..."

"...Who?"

"...Florence did."

At that moment, something snapped inside of me.

What in the world was Florence doing these days...???

Seriously, what was he thinking??

"Well, Florence lied. Don't listen to that dude, okay?" I said through gritted teeth.

Are you kidding me?

"I'm going to need to have a talk with Florence soon...This is getting out of hand. What is he even thinking?" I groaned as a small ache formed in the back of my head.

This was...horribly frustrating.

"You...don't hate me...?" Wolfe asked slowly.

"No, I hate you."

"...Oh."

"But I also don't hate you. Do you get it?"

"No..."

"...What I'm trying to say is that you should have visited me. It would have made me happy," I said as I leaped onto the bed that Wolfe was hiding behind and peered over to see him.

Wolfe seemed to be in perfect condition.

Yep.

It looked like he was getting more than enough blood to get by.

"Wait...! Don't go near me," he suddenly yelled as he backed away from me as fast as he could.

"What? Does it look like I'm going to do something to you...?" I asked.

"..."

"Does it?"

"No..."

"Then why?"

"..."

"Why?"

"...I'm scared that I'm going to do something to you."

"Do you want me dead...?" I asked.

"What?! No!" he replied quickly as he shook his head.

"Then it's fine," I smiled before I approached him carefully as if he were a wounded dog.

I reached my hand out to him slowly with a small hopeful smile on my face.

Wolfe hesitated for a long time.

And I mean a very long time.

It took him a good five minutes or so before he took my hand slowly.

"I'm sorry..."

"...for not visiting me like you should have? Thank you. I forgive you," I replied a bit stubbornly as I dragged him outside of his room and brought him along with me.

"W-Where are we going...?" Wolfe asked me as I continued dragging him all the way outside, through the gardens, until we stopped in front of the palace training grounds.

"Hey, Wolfe. You want to spar with me?"

----------------------------------------------

A/N: Annnnnd that's it for this chapter! I tried making the ending of this chapter happy for once! I hope you enjoy the happiness while it lasts-

Anyway...Florence is doing a lot of things behind the scenes lately...! Hehehe~ Tell me your thoughts about him!

This week, I'll admit for once...school wasn't that bad. ONLY because I actually got a full eight hours of sleep for one night. I was super happy about that~ Other than that, school is torture and you can't change my mind.

Also, I live in the United States (Yes, I know the US is a trainwreck), and elections started recently~ It's totally not kind of scary at all...! I'm waiting for the election results and I hope the president I'm rooting for makes it...because...if he doesn't, I will cry. Human rights and lives are at stake, y'all! (ง︡'-'︠)ง

Thanks, again, to all of my readers/voters/commenters! You guys are literally all the best and probably some of the funniest people I've seen~ Dear goodness, you all never fail to make me laugh~

Stay safe, everyone!

Okie byeee!

Word Count: 2551