When I first thought of the possibility, I found it hard to believe. 'Love' seemed like such a heavy word, and with my pre-existing knowledge of the term, I couldn't accept that I was in love with someone like Asura.
Before I set out my plan to charm the young noble, I had stayed up late each night doing research… research about what love is, how to recognize the signs of love, and of course, how to make someone love you.
You see, though I wasn't exactly sure what is love, I've heard of how terrifying it is. During my time staying in King Ernest's palace, the servants had no respect for my status as an 'adopted child whose sole purpose was to replace a woman's deceased daughter'—in which the said woman had died 2 months after my adoption.
And since the woman, the one that the king cared about, passed away already, the servants who served were unafraid of the adopted child who had lost her purpose and was the one that the King didn't favor.
As a result, in the few times servants were called to serve me—for events that required the attendance of all members of the royal family — in my desolate part of the palace, they always blatantly disregarded my presence, perfunctorily dolling me up while chatting noisily with each other.
I can remember that one of the topics the servants frequently gossiped about was 'love.'
"Wait, wait!Did you hear about those rumors regarding Viscountess Maribelle and Baron Sparrow?"
"Oh! Those! Those aren't rumors; its completely true! But that Baron deserved it! He's been obsessed with Lady Maribelle ever since her divorce, always chasing after her even though everyone knows she hates his guts! Remember the time he stripped down and ran around his land naked while shouting out his love for Lady Maribelle? Or when he kneeled down and shamelessly hugged the Lady's legs for forgiveness after he was found out to be following her while she was swan gazing—resulting in him getting kicked into the lake and almost drowning?"
"Indeed… Sigh. The things the love can do to people…"
It was by recalling these stories that I thought of charming Asura to fall in love with me. So when I thought of the possibility of me having fell in love with her, the first thing I was reminded of was stripping down and running around naked, shouting out my love for her…
Well, it isn't exactly my fault, since the popular romance novels circulating around the Golden Rose Academy weren't correcting my line of thought—Instead, it fueled it.
So in the end, what is love and how did I understand I was in love?
I still can't answer the first question, and as for the answer to the second question, I suppose it was thanks to Danielle Dyewater.