"Dump you? Cheat? Me? Is that even possible?"
He was genuinely shocked. Swanhaden could count the amount of times he had been as surprised as this. His eyes grew wide.
"Why are you asking me?"
Meanwhile, Shuraina was surprised at Swanhaden's reaction. She raised an eyebrow and frowned.
Shuraina worried that he was going to cheat on her or dump her, so Swanhaden imagined the opposite situation.
Honestly, Swanhaden was the one that should've been more nervous. Unlike Shuraina, whose likes changed throughout the years, Swanhaden was only looking at Shuraina from the beginning until now. She didn't even sort people by Swanhaden and blobs.
Moreover, the 1st Order of Knights that she was joining was all men. It would be equally problematic if there were a lot of women, too. What if everything becomes all tangled up because of Shuraina's charms? There could even a bunch of people like Hestia. Swanhaden was deep in despair.
"For me, I was worried that you would… you would."
That you would fall in love with someone else…..
A scene seemed to play in his mind. Swanhaden's eyes grew hazy as murderous rage began to seep from his body. When he began to get so angry that he was about to go on a rage, Shuraina tilted her head.
"When I join the order, tell everyone to take care of themselves."
"Huh?"
Swanhaden couldn't tell Shuraina not to cheat on him. He couldn't say anything at all. He felt like he was being stifled. To be honest, it didn't matter if she cheated or not. Now that he had her, he wasn't going to let her go.
If she abandoned him and got a new boyfriend in the order, then he'd send an assassin and take care of him, and…..
If Shuraina loved her new man so much that she got married in secret, he would become her second husband and then poison her husband and make him disappear, and…..
Even if Shuraina betrayed him, he didn't think that he would get angry in front of her, yell, or do anything else. He thought that he would probably cry crocodile tears and cling onto her, asking what she didn't like about him, patiently waiting for her to return his feelings.
He could go insane as he sobbed and clung onto her, too. He didn't know how things would proceed after that. If she was happy with another man, he would probably patiently wait until she became a happy grandma and died happily and ruin the entire empire again to start another time loop.
Shuraina stared at Swanhaden, who was looking increasingly anxious with an empty expression on his face.
She was suddenly reminded of how much Swanhaden liked her. He liked her a lot more than Shuraina had expected. He probably would've felt more anxious about her feelings than she ever would've felt.
"Swan, I have a present too. Stand up."
"...?"
Once Shuraina was able to catch her breath, she grabbed Swanhaden's arm to help him up.
Shuraina stood Swanhaden, who was barely recovering from his previous mental torture, and got on one knee in front of him. Swan stood straighter and narrowed his eyes at her. She put her hand in her pocket.
Shuraina took out a small box from her pocket and opened the lid. Swanhaden wanted to help her stand up straight as soon as she got on one knee, but his entire body stiffened at what she had taken out.
"Tada."
"....!"
In the open box were two rings. Both rings were of different colors. One had a orange gem and the other had a white gem. Shuraina wore the white ring on her finger and then grabbed Swanhaden's left hand.
Then, she placed the orange ring on his promise finger.
"It's an engagement ring. We don't have enough time to have a ceremony, but the meaning is what's truly important. You don't have to be anxious."
Shuraina brushed her hair back and, with half-lidded eyes, gave him a cheeky smile.
"Stay stuck with me forever."
Her voice cracked slightly, but her words were crystal clear.
"..."
A long time passed.
Swanhaden had almost lost control but barely suppressed himself.
Swanhaden, now calm, placed his hand over Shuraina's swollen lips and then moved it away. It was magic. As soon as he put his hand away, Shuraina's lips were back to normal.
"Do it here too."
Shuraina pointed at a bunch of other points on her arms, neck, and etc.
There were red spots on her neck and arms as well, so Swan tilted his head and placed his hand over those places. As soon as his hand passed by, her skin became clear again.
"Oh. It's sparkly clean."
But Swanhaden's hand soon moved in the opposite direction. The red spots appeared again.
"It looks good. Let's leave it."
"Take it away."
Swanhaden put his hand over Shuraina's lips once again and then uncovered it. Her lips were back to being swollen.
"I don't wanna."
When Swanhaden refused, Shuraina narrowed her eyes at him. He was always fine because of his stupid healing powers. She was the one that always had to suffer with koi fish lips. Why was I always the comedic relief? It's not fair. It's so not fair.
Shuraina continued to glare at Swanhaden with her swollen lips. Swan found the sight in front of him so hilarious that he got her lips back to normal. Then, he had Shuraina lean on a wall as he quietly ran a lap around the training hall. When he came back, he had something in his hand.
Once he flopped onto the ground next to Shuraina, he handed her something.
"What the. You too?"
"Mhm. But you did it first."
In Shuraina's hand was another ring. Swanhaden took the ring on her palm and placed it on her left ring finger. She now had two rings on her left ring finger.
That was a lot of rings. She had more than ten rings from the time Swanhaden had given her healing rings, too.
If those healing rings had been made on the spot with magic stones, this particular ring was quite elaborate and expensive-looking. There were intricate engravings on the sides, and the gem was embedded in the inside of the ring. It was an interesting design.
Shuraina stretched out her hands and looked at the two rings on her left ring finger. Swanhaden had his chin on his hand as he blankly stared at her. She grabbed Swanhaden's hand. Then, she placed her hand on the two rings on Swan's hand as well.
Shuraina played with the two rings on Swan's finger as she began to tell him the things she wanted to say.
"Once everything calms down in my life, I'll come to propose. Bear with this for me. If people keep clinging onto you because you're an unmarried, handsome duke, then show them this."
Swan's blank eyes soon became clear as soon as he heard the word 'propose'. He frowned, as if displeased about something, but looked incredibly excited.
"Stop it. Give up on proposing for me."
Shuraina did everything first–from the confession to the engagement. What was I supposed to do? Swanhaden felt ashamed. He wanted to make her happy, but he was the only one happy.
Hold on. What'd Shuraina just say? Propose?
The effects of the word 'propose' came late.
"You've decided to marry me?"
"Mhm."
Swanhaden was calm on the outside, but his thoughts were a mess. A bunch of things that would've made his mind a mess kept happening in quick succession. His head was blank. Swanhaden, after facing surprise after surprise, was able to evolve enough to pretend to be completely fine without making a big deal of it on the outside.
Compared to the times that he had run laps, yelled, or fell into the lake whenever something happened with Shuraina–this was a huge improvement.
"Since when?"
"Since we began dating. Then when were you thinking about marriage?"
"...…."
It was so long ago that he couldn't remember it too clearly. It had just happened. Shuraina was too deeply embedded within him. He wanted to keep it that way.
Swanhaden counted down to how old he had been when he had first met Shuraina.
"What the. That was when we were babies. You liked me since then? For that long?"
Swan nodded as he tried to wrap the bandages that had become loose from the chaos. He tugged at the seams of the bandages with his fingers. The tiny scars around his body became exposed.
"So leave the proposing to me."
Swan said, tightly wrapping the bandages around him.
There really wasn't a lot of time before she had to enter the order, so Shuraina finished her work as fast as possible and decided to enjoy the rest of her time.
She checked to see if the magic-holding bowl worked well, then attempted….to spend the rest of the time reading forbidden texts in the Blanche library.
"..."
It wasn't completely obvious, but if it wasn't for Swanhaden balefully staring at her with his chin on his hands, that is.
Once she put down the book and gave him a few kisses, he immediately looked pleased.
Swanhaden's eyes curved gently in such a sweet look that it felt like honey was dripping from his eyes. It was such an affectionate look that even Shuraina, who was generally bad at figuring things out like this, couldn't help but cringe. Swanhaden gave her a heartfelt smile. Then, he stretched out his hand to touch her orange hair.
'Ugh...how sickly sweet.'
This was Yulinelle's comment as he witnessed the entire scene.
The entire estate smelled sickly sweet. Even the employees smelled it as they frowned. Swanhaden was smiling like this out of pure joy, but he always had that kind of smile after causing some kind of chaos. A lot of them were wary of this particular smile.
While Shuraina enjoyed her sweet, happy times with Swanhaden, she became even closer with those in the estate. Especially with the duke.
Shuraina had heard that Yulinelle's card skills were about the same as her, so she humbly requested a duel to the soon-retiring duke.
And then, when the duel continued for so long that they were about to skip dinner, Swanhaden barged in and joined Shuraina's side to win the battle at once. Both of them booed at him but Swan quietly tried to take Shuraina back to his room.
"Daughter-in-laaaaw..... Don't go...."
Yulinelle had the braid that Shuraina had braided over one shoulder. He stretched out his hand with the cards still in his grip as he called out for her. Shuraina briefly hesitated at her father-in-law's pitiful look.
They had become so close that they had become in-laws even before marriage.
Swanhaden was annoyed at how close they were, but them calling each other daughter and father-in-law meant that the marriage was going to end up happening, so he decided to grin and bear it.
Don't I get some kind of nickname too? Husband, sweetheart. Something like that? Swanhaden's jealousy continued to grow by the minute as he thought about the title that Yulinelle had earned from Shuraina. If I called her a nickname first, would she call me it back? Swanhaden's head was brimming with ideas.
When Swanhaden was immersed in her thoughts, Shuraina creeped back towards Yulinelle and started another game. Hehe. Shuraina laughed sneakily as she began shuffling the cards loudly. Shuraina spread out the cards and took a seat.
"Father, did I just get my first win? It's three rounds, so I only need one more win then. Haha."
"Eugh. That's so unfair. Swanhaden was the one that helped."
"All of my wins are Shushu's wins."
Swanhaden placed a hand on Shuraina's head. She looked excited to have met her match. He gave up trying to drag her out and joined in on the game. She wanted to play, so just let her have fun.
More time passed.
Shuraina's family contacted her. It was a letter explaining how Hestia had come to visit, demanded to know where Shuraina was, and had caused a fuss. She received a lot of invitations to meet and hang out before she went into the order.
Not only Hestia, but Cory, Yves, Hylli, Hazel, and other friends all congratulated her for getting into the order and wanted to meet, but each and every one of them received a response stating that she was busy dating Swan and to leave her alone.
Then, an outpour of calls and mail arrived at the duke's estate. Swanhaden stared at the sheer number of attempted contacts and just made sure to block each one.
A letter soon arrived, requesting her to start planning her entrance. Swanhaden carefully attempted to light the letter on fire before he was caught by Shuraina and had the letter confiscated by her.