IBTHM Chapter 8

"Miss, did you get any sleep?"

Ann, who came to my room early in the morning with washing water and sleepy eyes, asked in alarm.

Of course I didn't.

I'd spent the entire night—a full day and night—watching over the flower crown placed carefully on the table as if it were a holy relic from a temple.

My stiff eyes must be bloodshot beyond belief.

"I couldn't sleep..."

"Oh dear! You should at least rest your eyes a bit. I understand how you're feeling right now, but..."

Ann spoke worriedly.

But I hadn't been able to calm down at all since receiving the reverse gift from Abel yesterday.

I'd been a fan for quite a while, but I'd never once experienced what people commonly call a reverse gift.

What even is a reverse gift, anyway?

I'd heard that idols sometimes post photos of fan gifts on social media, but such miracles had never visited me.

"Successful fan" was a term distant from my reality.

This humble fan could be satisfied just by watching from afar, but to bestow upon me even the blessing of successful fandom through a reverse gift...

"Ann, think about it—he made this with those small, chubby fingers. I, I just can't..."

My body trembled of its own accord.

Bang! Unable to contain myself, I slammed the table, startling Ann.

"I can't bear it unless I hug him and shower him with kisses! How long do I have to endure this?"

"Just endure a little longer. At least until you become more comfortably close with the young master. Oh, right. A kitchen maid I met on the way tipped me off..."

While wetting the washing water and combing through my disheveled hair with her hands, Ann said:

"Duke Ruvermonte apparently wants to dine with you today, Miss."

"What?"

My expression immediately crumpled.

The moment the topic of Hades—which I'd been barely managing to postpone thinking about—came up, I felt complicated.

His Grace the Duke, busy with public and private affairs, rarely visited the dining room due to being swamped with work.

Since people need to eat meals, I'd been puzzled by his never showing his face in the dining room, so I once asked a maid on that side, who told me he usually took simple meals in his room or office.

It reminded me of memories from my previous life when I was juggling fangirling and job hunting, unable to sleep and filling my stomach with a single piece of toast—so I felt just a tiny bit sorry for Hades.

Actually, since I had no interest in any members of the ducal household except Abel and found encountering them uncomfortable, mealtimes when I didn't need to mind Hades's presence had been quite pleasant...

"Why would he suddenly want to see my face over a meal?"

"Who knows. Well, you're going to marry soon anyway, so maybe he wants to spend time together? His Grace the Duke doesn't seem to be as blunt and cold as the rumors suggest."

Blunt? Cold? I wonder...

Having already half-revised my image of Hades since our first private meeting, I couldn't agree.

Contrary to my worries, the meal alone with Hades went smoothly.

The ducal castle's menu still didn't suit my palate, accustomed as it was to southern cuisine, but my eyes enjoyed looking at the handsome Hades across from me.

The more I looked at Hades's appearance, the more astonishing it was.

He looked exactly like the Abel I'd imagined while reading the novel.

The cold Northern duke.

Though the cold territory's weather and his personality radiating chilliness seemed perfectly matched, the discrepancy of being the head of the strongest family handling Fire attributes in this Crescenta Empire—"the nation of talent and mages"—was positively captivating.

If he'd appeared consistently, I guarantee I would have fangirled over him just as much as Abel...

"I understand the feeling of being unable to look away for even a moment, but how about eating your meal, My Lady?"

...No. I take back what I just thought.

There's no way I'd fangirl over a character with the fatal flaw of excessive self-consciousness.

"I'm sorry. I must have made you uncomfortable. I'll eat quietly."

"No, no apology necessary. Faces don't wear out from looking, so feel free to gaze as much as you like, but I am concerned that My Lady isn't focusing on her meal. There—do you eat your meals regularly without skipping? I've seen many noble ladies, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone as thin as My Lady."

"Is it that bad? I like eating so I don't skip meals. This body just doesn't gain weight easily, I suppose."

"That's unfortunate."

I agree. With my sickly pale skin and thin body, sometimes when I look in the mirror I feel sorry for myself.

Hades cut his food on his plate with great refinement for a while before speaking.

"Countess Gaspel should arrive this evening. We'll likely dine together... is that all right?"

Hades asked while gauging my reaction, uncharacteristically.

Momentarily dazed by his incongruous behavior, I recalled who Countess Gaspel was.

Count Gaspel, a vassal of Ruvermonte, was a character who appeared quite frequently in the story.

Of course, so did Countess Gaspel, Hades's older sister with a significant age gap.

There was no way Abel—who had driven Hades to his death and planted himself firmly in the Ruvermonte successor's position—could look good in their eyes. They harassed him at every turn.

Though they made my heart frustrated every time they appeared, whether I should consider them purely villains was somewhat ambiguous.

Even while being mistreated, Abel never resented the count and his wife, and eventually they opened their hearts to the grown Abel and became his allies.

The problem was just that the process of getting there was quite arduous...

"Ah, Countess Gaspel is your—"

"Older sister, yes."

When I answered offhandedly, Hades blinked quietly at me and chuckled.

"Right. Since you'd know everything about me, there's nothing I particularly need to explain further."

No, if you interpret it that way again...

"She seems to want to meet My Lady before the marriage, so I thought you should know."

"Of course."

I nodded stiffly in response.

I knew Countess Gaspel and her stubborn personality very well.

It was obvious that she, with her tremendous interest in Hades, Abel, and the Ruvermonte ducal house, would be curious about a sister-in-law who suddenly dropped from the sky.

Suddenly the atmosphere felt very in-law-ish. The vibe had turned unpleasant.

"After the meal, won't you tour the garden a bit? I heard from Abel that you're quite fond of flowers. In the North, it's hard to see flowers except in specially maintained greenhouses."

My confusion over the announcement of Countess Gaspel's visit was brief—Hades's sudden invitation to walk left me bewildered.

"...The garden?"

The greenhouse garden at the ducal castle didn't have much to see despite its massive scale.

In the North where it was winter weather year-round, greenhouses originally served the purpose of being self-sufficient in medicinal herbs, but incidentally they also planted flowers and trees that could only be seen in the South to maintain aesthetics.

For some reason, gardeners who looked busy were moving flowers and trimming ornamental trees here and there.

"Abel seemed to be in a good mood yesterday, perhaps because My Lady treated him kindly."

"Oh my, really?"

At the mention of Abel, I instinctively got excited.

"I'm grateful for that. Even if you pretend otherwise, it's obvious you'd be concerned about Abel's existence, but I was a bit surprised you didn't show it."

"Concerned? Don't worry about that. The young master is very cute and lovable. You don't know how much fun I had yesterday. And Your Grace, if it's not rude to ask, we need time to grow closer, so in the future I'd like to occasionally... take walks together..."

"All right. Even if I'm busy, I'll try to make time for you."

"No, with Young Master Abel."

"Ah."

Hades let out a dazed exclamation and nodded once.

"You don't need my permission for that. Abel will probably like it too. He seems to have taken quite a liking to My Lady..."

"Oh, then that's truly fortunate. But Your Grace, did you not sleep well?"

Seeing Hades's face up close, it looked haggard, so I asked.

He flinched in surprise, then tilted his head slightly and looked at me with a suspicious expression.

"...How did you know that too?"

It was as if he suspected I'd planted a spy in his bedroom and was receiving reports of his every movement, stalking him or something.

I sighed involuntarily.

If he knew that what I was following around devotedly wasn't him but his son, Hades's personality would surely make him die of embarrassment from shame.

Let's bury that explanation forever.

Better for me to be misunderstood than to cause Abel's father to die of shame.

"Your eyes look a bit dark. Your complexion looks tired overall too. Here, your hair is also sticking up."

When I pointed to a single strand of hair sticking up on the right side, Hades hurriedly raised his hand to smooth his hair.

Like an idiot, he only fixed the wrong spots, so the protruding strand remained. It was an unexpected gap that was a bit funny.

As I covered my mouth and giggled, Hades seemed a bit embarrassed. His flushed cheeks looked exactly like Abel's yesterday.

"...Is it fixed now?"

"No. Wait..."

I rose on my tiptoes and reached my hand toward the top of Hades's head.

Hades flinched reflexively, then lowered his head slightly to match my height, so I could easily fix his messy hair.

"There, now it's..."

As I moved to pull my hand away without much thought, Hades's face was quite a bit closer than expected.

'Wow, it really is exactly like the face of Abel from the novel that I imagined.'

That was my impression.

His widened eyes that seemed somewhat flustered, his awkward expression—they were exactly like the description of Abel's expression when he first met the heroine and felt his heart flutter.