After Charlotte spent her breakfast with her father like forever. She finally realized that her father really cared for him. Only - with such a lack of communication from the past, their misunderstanding arose.
But from Charlotte's perspective, it seemed like her issue with her father had been resolved — she wasn't happy with the way Louis had behaved, and that was because her heart couldn't even manage to stay in her body because of it.
But for the most part, she couldn't even bring herself to hate her new butler, even though he did things that were already beyond his call of duty. Right now she was already in her household library and she was already reading her usual history book from the Empire.
Louis, on the other hand, had already read the books before the duke finally granted him the right to teach the lady of the house
There, after reading all the books on Empire history and etiquette, Louis achieved an almost perfect score, which shocked the Duke for a while. Only until then did he immediately receive permission to tutor Charlotte temporarily without even having the lady's consent at first.
"Louis, I've been thinking lately - why are you doing something like that?"
A worried, almost shaken voice, searching for answers, had suddenly found its way out of the lady's mouth. This made Louis shift his attention from the book he was reading to the serious look of the lady in front of him.
The two sat across from each other at a large table in front of the large window.
When Charlotte had asked these words - Louis had seen such a lady being swallowed up by the golden rays of the sun, her cream hair already turning to golden blond, her silver eyes like the silver lights of the moon shining on it, and her eyebrows, already wrinkling, made her focus on a young, gorgeous man who was inside her in the library of her household
Before answering the lady, as gently as the wind would sway the leaves of the trees, Louis quickly closed the book. His sight she beholds of a young lady descending like a goddess right in front of him.
The gorgeous shine of the lady's hair, those silvery irises that made Louis quiet for a second because she knew they reflected the image of the moon.
Everything about her - seemed so superior to him that - for a second - he was unable to answer what the lady was asking him. It wasn't until the lady had spoken in such a sweet but cool voice that Louis realized where he was
"Louis, are you even listening?"
That was the time Louis had finally put his book on the table he had been holding on to for a long time and then returned his lingering gaze from the lady. There, as always - he smiled at her and made her eyebrows fold even more
"Milady - are you talking of doing such things as teaching you while I'm supposed to be your butler?"
With such a calm voice - Louis still managed to portray such a questioning tone that Charlotte immediately shook her head.
Then she immediately looked at Louis as if she were going to pierce his soul - she captivated his whole being for a moment until he finally gave in and those eyes were now drawn to her and her captivating appearance
"Louis - how many times do I have to stress these unnecessary things to you that you do. Don't you know that you are only mine, but------"
Charlotte - for a second - couldn't finish what she was saying when suddenly Louis acted in an unusual way Charlotte had never seen before.
The gesture Louis made for the moment made Charlotte's eyes widen like before
"My lady - it is true, I am only your butler."
The way Louis spoke made every inch of Charlotte's skin freeze as Louis' cold and shaky voice had come out of his mouth for the first time since he had been brought into the household.
Charlotte - for a moment - felt like she was his prisoner, and no matter what she does - she always ends up being portrayed as the bad lady everyone would eventually know.
Just as her father had informed her and cleared up all her misunderstandings, Louis would unexpectedly stir something up in her mind
At that moment her hands were shaking, but they still held onto her dress, her spine already feeling the chill from the voice she had heard before that had never, once, left her mind.
Those voices kept insulting her—repeating like a broken record, her teeth trembling in her mouth and making her lips tremble slightly, her eyes were wide and her eyebrows were already knitting.
But at that moment, for some unknown reason, she couldn't even take the time to look at or even stare at Louis. Still, it took her a long time - a second - to even ask a single word, which she can only pronounce with such a throat that controlled every word she could say
"W-what?"
"It seems Milady has already forgotten, then let me tell you."
Louis - who was as calm as ever - had the voice of rippling water, as constant as the wind sways the wind - it's also fierce, hitting someone in the back with its cold and icy impact no one could be safe from.
"I felt like teasing the lady, so I'll have to tease her for a while. Just looking at her expression makes me smile - but let's keep our current post, shall we, Louis?'
With those thoughts already forming in his head – he just sighed, though his lips were already curled up in imitation of those people the lady hated – those who were bad enough to the core.
Yet for most of his actions - the lady never disproved him or harmed him in one way or another. Instead, Charlotte left him alone, and that made his surprise even bigger than just showing it in his face
"My lady - as to the things you do - you do them for such reasons, and you know that the Duke and the others never knew of these things. You've always kept things to yourself because you knew you can do them on your own - that you don't need anyone even weak enough to help you. But I swear by that name - Louis Crest - will always be true to you. I will always be there for you and I will always do things that will make you want to improve your image within the Empire. I'm not asking you to trust me now. I am not asking you to accept my proposal. However, I ask this of you as your butler."
At these long words, which Charlotte had heard, she looked down again when Louis was already kneeling in front of her. Her other hand, already held by Louis, had previously been kissed on the back by Louis.
He remained standing like that - he knelt in front of the lady and held the lady's hand while his other hand was on his chest while his eyes were still closed
When Charlotte heard those words, she thought at first that he was joking with his icy voice. But after that – her cheeks flushed from the sudden confession Louis had said, and that was when he knelt in front of the lady and even kissed one of Charlotte's hands on the back.
It was then that she realized that Louis might have confessed to her again that she wasn't even aware of, and the way he said to trust him already felt like a surreal proposition to her
Because - she remembered the time when his former tutor named Oswald taught her about love, the meaning of which she could not yet grasp, she later found herself drawn to such sayings from her old teacher
"My lady, as the saying goes - when a man had sworn an oath for a lady - he was already confessing his feelings. That's the time when -- if anyone -- other than a knight -- has taken an oath to you, Lady Charlotte -- that means they like you."
With the sudden memory of the old teacher Charlotte had, her cheeks began to redden again while her body seemed paralyzed.
But what flooded her senses the most was the warmth that captivated her whole being from the moment Louis held her hand and kissed her. Such blushes never left their cheeks and ears while continuing to feel the heat depicted on them
"Milady - would you come to the market with me afterwards?"