***
Ikshid, meanwhile, asked with a smirk, not even expecting that Eleanor was going to turn him around to keep Selena and him apart.
"Alright. What so you want to say to your brother?"
Now he felt very good. Currently, Ikshid was confident of giving even the country's five branches to Miller's sister, who gave him the opportunity to see the Duke standing in the middle of the old people in the form of a dog while raining as if abandoned by his owner.
Eun-woo, who knew what Ikshid was up to, and gently glanced.
"You're like an old man. Don't talk like that."
"Oho, there's nothing you can keep from this brother of yours. It's very alright to say."
Eun-woo worked hard to squeeze out what to say. At that moment, her red hair was caught in her sight again. Eun-woo grabbed Ikshid's arm and turned around.
'Selena… When did she come here again?'
She turned so suddenly that the Ikshid and feet were tangled that they struggled for a long time and barely managed to set them in place.
He mumbled disgruntled.
"What the hell were you going to say? Why are you changing direction?"
"Oh, hmm… Crown Prince Older Brother, that's... Well, when will my brother come?"
Eun-woo turned around again and headed to the other side. Ikshid replied in a puzzled voice, stamping his feet to suit her steps.
"Didn't you already say this last time? Didn't I promise to you that I'd bring him before the knight competition early next month?"
"Y, yes. That's what you said… .! I am really a forgetful person!"
Once again, she swerved. She found Selena again. Ikshid managed to balance his body by holding her arm close to falling.
He couldn't stand it and protested.
"Are you asking me that question as training?"
Ah, please stay still!
The sound came out automatically, but Eun-woo closed her mouth.
Selena, what happened to that woman that wherever she goes, they were there?
'And why is that woman walking so fast…!'
Eun-woo made a crying face inside. Isn't she struggling to save only one life now? She wants Selena to please think of her hard work to save the lives of more than half of the people here.
'I'm not doing this because I'm going to live alone! Don't come here, please!'
In that way, Eun-woo unintentionally crossed the arms of the crown prince of a country, with the body of Marquis Miss and wandered around as if she was commanding him to open the banquet hall.
It goes without saying that her act captured the eyes of all the nobles and ministers.
Both men and women, who grew up dazzlingly, watched the march with interesting eyes. Among them, of course, the gaze of the Duke, who made a cold face, was included.
He stood in a relatively unnoticed corner and watched the scene silently. Next to him, he heard a group of ladies chattering.
"Oh my, I guess the rumor that Marquis Miss is aiming for the position of the queen is true."
"As expected. I've told you so many times…! Miller Miss is a regular customer of a perfume house that I know well, and the maid of Miss, who always stops by there, boasted about the friendship between the Miss and the Crown Prince. Wouldn't you believe it?"
"Since childhood, honey, I used to play fondly with you, right?"
"As expected, I guess we get along well even when we are young. So this is what happens."
They swung their fan in their hands in an interesting way.
"It's a marquis family, isn't the Duke of Verk the next greatest power? They'd be a good match."
"I see. It's a fantastic combination that I can't afford to be jealous of."
The wine glass in Tashian's hand was grabbed as if he was intending on breaking it. His eyes, which were chasing the beautiful man and woman in harmony with brown hair and gold hair, subsided more and more grimly.
Meanwhile, Eun-woo stuck to the prince throughout the afternoon and tried to interfere with the meeting between him and Selena. The prince, who had been vain and fulfilling her request for most of the time, also wanted to drop her with a tired look at the end.
"Elli, sister. I know how much you love me as an elder brother, but there's no purpose of using that tax to hold this banquet, right? Please stop letting me do my job."
"Oh! Brother! Let's go over there this time!"
"…. Hooh."
Ikshid sighed and swirls toward the direction where Eleanor pointed.
He took a step toward the enemy. He grumbled as if she couldn't hear it.
"Sister. This is really difficult. Even if this brother of yours seems to always hold banquets, chat, and check around, don't you really know that it's all a hard work for this country, just like a swan playing under the water?"
"Just before the masquerade begins. I'll let you go by then."
Eun-woo made an abbreviation while reading his countenance.
She didn't mean to hold on to Ikshid for this long either. But what happened was that wherever they went, red-haired Selena sipping with a glass of wine, or seeing them from afar without being able to fit in between people.
Whenever Eun-woo found her, she was busy running away to the other side, turning away from Ikshid was.
'Besides, the strange gaze seems to be getting stronger…'
Of course, as long as she held onto the crown prince of the Empire, it was natural to get attention, but Eun-woo was feeling someone's intense gaze from before, seemingly hitting her on her cheeks. This was also the case with the Ikshid.
"Sister. The duke is staring at me from afar as if to kill me. He was always like that, but today, the Duke is serious. If I don't leave, I will really cause a bloody affair in this banquet hall. So, won't you let me go now? I'm not saying this because I'm afraid of the Duke, I'm saying it because I'm really trembling and terrified of what might happen."
"I'll explain to the Duke well later."
Eun-woo took a step forward, telling to Ikshid that sheds an empty smile at her determined words.
'But this gaze definitely doesn't belong to Tashian…!'
Eun-woo thought anxiously. She could feel it. The eyes that were ominous were not the eyes of Tashian mentioned by Ikshid.
Tashian was not a person to give her such an ominous look that she got goosebumps.
She looked around anxiously in the middle of the venue and tried to find the source of that gaze. However, it was very difficult for her to reveal the source of gaze, not a politician with developed sixth sense like the prince or a knight, developed five senses like the Duke.
Eun-woo realized that the strange anxiety of unknown sources was stimulating her whole nerves from before. The hunch that something would happen at this banquet constantly twisted her stomach.
Eun-woo had no choice but to focus on her main job to keep Ikshid away from Selena while being on alert.
Ikshid followed silently for a while, pushed by her momentum, and eventually changed his face with a strange look.
At one point, he opened his mouth with a sense of caution that he would never do again.
"… Sister… Do you love me?"
Eun-woo opened her mouth like a person who witnessed the collapse of the world at his question. She replied back to him with a look of disbelief.
"No, what unscrupulous are you saying…"
Ikahid quickly rolled up his sleeves and protested.
"Look at the goosebumps on my forearms, too. It was not an easy question for me either."
"Then why did you bring that up? Look! My hair is sticking out, too!"
"It didn't rise. By the way, I'm glad that you gave me such a neat answer. I've never thought of you more than my own sister."
"The same goes for me! You should be glad that I didn't hit your shin here."
When Eun-woo shouted in an excited voice, Ikshid replied in a shocked voice.
"How dare you try to hurt the body of a crown prince of a country? This… I didn't raise you here. That duke has ruined you like this."
"If the duke hears it, the sound of pulling out a knife right away would be heard."
Eun-woo responded coolly. Looking at her sister's cute movements with mischievous eyes, Ikshid said.
"He was a quiet kid who had never begged me when he was young, but as he began to stay in the duke's office, he seemed quite determined. Is there anything uncomfortable about being with the Duke?"
Ikshid's eyes, who asked questions, rarely flashed.
Eun-woo noticed that he was testing her. She answered after much consideration.
"No… No way. The Duke is very nice to me. In fact, I didn't know Lord Verk was such a sweet person."
Eun-woo's cheeks, thinking of Tashian, turned slightly red. For Ikshid, she just lied on her own, but this was true.
Tashian was a really sweet person to her. His words and attitudes toward her, always contained an inexplicable feeling.
Eun-woo, who fell in love with it, did not realize that Ikshid was staring down at her with the expression of a person who had heard what he shouldn't hear.
"The duke… Kindness...?"
Eun-woo looked around in a strange atmosphere that suddenly flowed. Not only Ikshid but also a few aristocrats who were circling around them stopped what they were doing and stood tall like a scene in the picture.
Ikshid once again asked if she was joking.
"Now… Did you say the duke was sweet…?"
"Yes, he's a sweet person. The Duke of Verk."
There was silence. Eun-woo blinked at him wondering what mistake she had made while speaking.
It was not long before Ikshid burst into laughter with a world-class gulp.
"The… Duke… is kind…" he laughed.
Eun-woo opened her eyes wide in embarrassment and quickly looked around. However, for some reason, all the nobles around them were covering their mouths with their bare faces. In the official sacrament, the notion that they could not show a shabby appearance like the Crown prince seemed to prevent them from creating a scene of holding a boat and rolling along with Ikshid.
"The flying bird is going to fall down! Duke… Kindness...!" (Laughs)
"Wh, why are you laughing like that?"
Eun-woo was embarrassed and tried to stop him from ripping off, but he did not stop laughing.
Why are you laughing like that….?
Everyone in the banquet hall, who was quietly listening to their conversations, knew that, but Eun-Woo did not notice it, and looked at him with an absurd look.
It was then. At some point, the duke approached them silently from the side with a terrifying look that would never happen again.
"*Sob*… !! Lord, you're here… *sobbing*. The friendly duke is here…!"
Exide was now almost sobbing. Eun-woo was confused, looking alternately at Ikshid, who was about to roll on his stomach without knowing what to do, and Tashian's expression, who seemed to want to hang it outside the gate by filial piety of his neck.
"…What kind of situation are you in? Everyone's looking at His Highness."
Tashian, who rebuked the prince with a clear voice of contempt, wrapped Eun-woo's arm on Ikshid's arm with a natural movement, and settled it on his arm. No one in the place noticed the strangeness of the action because of the flexible movement like water flowing.
"Ha ha! It doesn't matter. You should've listened to what Elli just said! Now, you… You…!"
Tashian responded with a consistent unpleasant look to Ikshid, who laughed as if he was out of breath.
"What did Miss say about me?"
His face, which had been upset all the time, quickly loosened and came down to Eun-woo, who was standing blankly holding his arm.
"…What the hell did you say about me?"