Chapter 43
Feeling a little stifled, Lynette frowned as her eyes fluttered open. The moment she realized where she had fallen asleep, she flinched in surprise. As she straightened her body, something that had been draped over her shoulders slipped to the floor with a soft thud.
“……”
It was Euphen’s coat.
How could she possibly not recognize it? She remembered every single one of his garments, every small ornament, with perfect clarity.
Lynette picked up the coat, still carrying a trace of warmth. Glancing around just in case he was nearby, she found the waiting room empty.
Standing there, coat in hand, she stared at it quietly. Then, as if trying to discern whether the warmth lingering on it was Euphen’s or her own, she slowly drew it against her chest.
When she buried her face deep into it and inhaled, a familiar scent tickled her nose. Closing her eyes, Lynette etched that fragrance deep into her lungs.
Once, she had lived surrounded by this very scent. Now she was reduced to secretly pressing her nose against his coat like this.
As she lifted her head with a bitter smile, she suddenly found herself meeting a pair of startled blue eyes.
“……”
Euphen was staring at her in silence.
Her face burned instantly. Shame and panic rushed over her all at once.
After pretending indifference, after speaking recklessly about his feelings as if she knew them, after denying everything and even urging him to love another… How could she possibly have been caught like this?
With her face flushed red, Lynette slowly lowered the coat.
“…Thank you for covering me with your coat.”
She tried to sound calm, but her voice trembled faintly. If there had been a mouse hole nearby, she would have hidden in it immediately.
“What were you doing just now?”
Her effort to pass it off as nothing was shattered instantly. Euphen’s expression made it clear he would not let this slip without an answer.
Lynette wanted to escape his gaze fixed squarely on her face. But even if she ran from the room, she knew she could never erase what he had already seen.
“I was just… curious about the scent.”
“What scent?”
“Something familiar… a fragrance I recognized…”
Her words trailed off. It wasn’t a lie. Before her regression, that scent had always lingered near her.
Euphen strode toward her. Lynette tried to hand him the coat, but he ignored it and sat down on the sofa, extending his hand.
Setting the coat carefully aside, Lynette hesitated before cautiously placing her hand in his. Familiar pain seeped into her palm, spreading slowly.
The agony of Guiding had grown easier to endure, but facing Euphen himself was becoming more unbearable by the day.
‘What expression am I supposed to wear?’
She already knew the answer.
She should smile brightly, as though she had no feelings for him at all, and ask how things were going with Eshar.
But no matter how many times she practiced that line and that smile in her head… Tens, hundreds of times, they refused to come out when she faced him. Lynette pressed her lips tightly together, and heavy silence fell over the waiting room.
“Where have you smelled it before?”
“…Pardon?”
The sudden question made her flinch. She forced herself to regain composure.
“That scent. What kind of fragrance could it be, for you to make such an expression?”
“…What kind of expression was I making?”
At her reply, Euphen suddenly scowled, exhaling a long sigh. Leaning back against the sofa, he tilted his head, covering his face with his hand.
“Do you really not know?”
His muffled voice slipped out from beneath his palm.
Not know what?
Lynette stared blankly at him. Through parted fingers, Euphen looked back at her with steady eyes.
“Do you really not know?”
“…I don’t.”
She couldn’t even guess what he meant. At the faintly angry edge in his voice, Lynette lowered her gaze.
The pain continued to seep in through their joined hands. She tried to sense something.. warmth, the texture of his palm… anything, as she had when touching Sillian. But everything was drowned out by the pain.
‘Come to think of it, I don’t even know what Euphen’s hands feel like.’
They surely weren’t soft, not entirely.
Though she had held them countless times, she didn’t even know whether his palms were rough or smooth. The thought left her bitter.
If she weren’t a fake Guide, she would have known everything about Euphen.
“You…”
His voice carried a trace of anger, the words bitten off. Then he fell silent again. When Lynette flinched and glanced at him, he let out a deep sigh.
“You will attend the upcoming party.”
“…What?”
Her voice cracked in disbelief. A party? The thought had never even crossed her mind.
“B-but, I’m just a maid, and-”
“It’s an order. You will attend.”
“……”
“I’ll have a dress prepared.”
He had even used the word “order,” leaving no room for refusal.
Lynette bit her lip. A party, all of a sudden? The thought was overwhelming.
‘If I show up at that party, nothing good will come of it.’
She might hold a peculiar and significant role as the Imperial Prince’s fake Guide, but only a select few knew of it. To everyone else, she was nothing more than a low-ranking maid.
If such a maid appeared at a gathering of nobles, she would surely become the object of mockery.
She could already imagine the whispers behind her back.
“Your Highness, I… I…”
“It is the occasion to introduce Eshar. You must be there.”
At those cutting words, Lynette’s eyes widened in shock.
A party was troubling enough on its own, but “an occasion to introduce Eshar”… Her lips parted, yet no sound came out.
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