Isidor gazed at the child for a moment, then bent his knees to say hello.
“I’m Isidor Visconti.”
“I’m Enrique Seymour.”
Enrique, who greeted him bluntly as if drawing a line, held the Princess’ hand tighter with a vigilant glance.
“Nice to meet you. Prince Enrique.”
Looking at the man who seemed like gold dust was sprinkled over him, Enrique stuck out his lips like a chick without replying.
“…”
Isidor, who had met the members of her family one after the other without even being prepared, felt embarrassed and moistened his dry lips.
“Enrique must have been very nervous.”
Deborah, who was in a tight spot, interpreted Enrique’s cold attitude by her own criteria and patted his hair. Enrique looked up at Deborah with an innocent puppy-like expression, as if he had never looked at Isidor with sharp eyes.
“I’m meeting Sister’s acquaintance for the first time. And I’m unfamiliar with people I’ve never seen before…”
“I see.”
Isidor, who had been demoted to an acquaintance without hesitation, couldn’t help but have mixed feelings as he watched the Princess greet him with a kind expression.
“You don’t have to be too hard on him because he’s a nice… I mean, because he’s a handsome man. Enrique.”
Deborah smiled softly and the child shook his hand lightly.
‘She’s also pretty amid this.’
Isidor was briefly distracted by her affectionate expression, then his fingertips trembled at the child’s stinging eyes.
‘He hates me, doesn’t he?!’
“I’m excited because I’m seeing the opera with Sister for the first time.”
Enrique said, opening his sharp eyes wide.
“Really? Me too.”
Deborah barely held back her big smile and looked at Isidor as if asking for consent.
“Sir Isidor. Isn’t my little brother really smart and praiseworthy?”
“Yes. He’s really cute.”
Enrique was cute enough to remind him of a grey kitten. In a way, his eyes resembled the Princess’, so he looked even cuter.
Suddenly, the child spoke with a furious face.
“I’m not cute. I will get taller.”
“That… that’s right. Enrique is very cool.”
Princess Deborah quickly added.
‘It seems he doesn’t want to hear at all that he’s cute.’
As if he had made a big mistake, the child’s expression became even more unfriendly than before. Isidor felt gloomy once again.
“…”
Shortly thereafter, in the theatre, Enrique naturally settled down in a seat between Deborah and Isidor.
‘I didn’t expect this situation.’
He thought he would at least be sitting next to Princess Deborah. There was only a cute child sitting in the middle, but he felt like there was a huge wall between him and her.
They weren’t even officially dating yet, but Seymour’s direct line of descent hated him. For example, the tea he sent to Duke Seymour that was more expensive than gold dust was returned in its totality. As if telling him to drink it himself.
‘Something’s going wrong.’
Isidor thought awkwardly, his gaze staring straight ahead.
***
“Sister. The opera was really fun. And I loved the organ performance.”
Enrique held Deborah’s hand tightly with sparkly eyes. Although there was a villain next to them who had to be defeated, he couldn’t help but be excited when he came out with his sister.
“Let’s come again next time, Sister!”
“Yeah. Let’s come often.”
Princess Deborah curved her eyes and smiled affectionately.
‘I can’t believe she set the next appointment so easily. And often…’
Isidor was now even envious of the Princess’ brother.
The excited Enrique was chatting with Deborah about the opera, and then told her to stop by the souvenir shop in front of the theatre. While Deborah was looking at the bookshelf where the opera’s original novel was placed, Isidor walked towards the toy stand.
‘He’s a child, so he must like toys, right?’
He complacently chose the most refined toy in the shape of a carriage and approached Enrique.
“Prince Enrique. Here, it’s a gift because I’m happy to meet you. Let’s meet again from now on.”
Isidor smiled as sweetly as he could and gave him the gift, but Enrique refused.
“Father told me not to accept gifts from people I don’t know because it’s dangerous.”
It was a resolute glance that said this shallow trick would never work.
‘It’s impossible.’
“And also, Father said Sister should study hard for the time being.”
Isidor had a vague feeling that Duke Seymour might be behind this.
“Princess Deborah balances work and leisure well, so you won’t have to worry about that. Prince Enrique.”
“I-In any case, it can’t be you!”
Maybe because his father hadn’t told him that, Enrique’s next lines were heated up.
As the two were in the middle of a conversation, Deborah, who had picked a book, approached them. The two simultaneously reached for the purple flower-shaped pin that the Primadonna of the opera had on her head. The two hands overlapped, then hurriedly separated.
‘This is what suits her the best.’
For a moment, it worked.
“Sister!”
“Deborah.”
“Oh, yes?”
“Here.”
The two were holding the same pin, so Deborah was taken aback.
Just then, Enrique whined with his short arms and jumped in place to hang the flower pin on Princess Deborah’s head.
“This!”
“As expected, there’s no one like our sweet Enrique.”
Impressed by the heart-breaking cuteness, she hugged Enrique tightly without thinking about it for a second.
‘I defeated him!’
Like a cat who caught a fish, Enrique’s eyes glowed triumphantly at the gold-sprinkled man with a stunned face.
***
“Sir Isidor. You’re not sulk… I mean, you’re not angry, are you?”
The day after watching the opera, I met Isidore at the academy frat house. I was worried that he was feeling a little offended because he had been sending a letter through Muffin every morning and had skipped exactly today.
“How could I? Since you said it was a date, I looked forward to it all day and even thought about what perfume to put on. There’s no way I would be angry just because you came with your little brother.”
‘As expected, he kept it bottled up.’
Feeling awkward, I opened my mouth.
“Actually, because I used to be inattentive, I have never been anywhere with my brother. That’s why I couldn’t refuse. And I also wanted to introduce you to my cute and smart little brother.”
“…”
“Although the two of you couldn’t get close because Enrique is very shy.”
I tilted my head as Isidor made a somehow vague expression.
“Is something wrong?”
He shook his head and laid a handkerchief on the bench of the trail we were walking. Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and the handkerchief tried to fly away, but he easily secured it with magic.
“Sit here.”
“Ah, yes.”
He took off his duffel coat and spread it over my knees.
“I’m really not upset at all. If I were your brother, I would have probably followed you out. Did he just follow along? He must have noticed right away that I had wicked intentions and tried to make me back down.”
He smiled like a fox as he narrowed his eyes.
“I thought you would come to me first, so I didn’t send you a letter in the morning on purpose. I just wanted to see you today.”
He tucked my hair, disheveled by the wind, lightly behind my ear.
“The Princess is quite warm-hearted.”
I blinked in dismay, then cleared my throat as my ear seemed to be on fire when the leather gloves touched it.
“I’m n-not really warm-hearted.”
“It’s fine because you’re so kind to me. I also like it more because you’re cold and hard on others.”
“…”
“Little Enrique is cute, so I’ll make an exception.”
“Right? He’s very cute, isn’t he?”
“Yes. So much that it’s dangerous. I need to try harder from now on.”
Isidor smirked and stared at me as if he had something to say.
“What is it?”
“Ah, do you have time this evening…”
Before he could finish speaking, there was a distant, urgent sound of footsteps.
‘Who is it? Is it a member of Epsilon?’
This promenade was a remote place where members rarely went, so I felt puzzled and embarrassed at the same time. They would surely think we were on a secret date.
‘The truth is, we were already together in public, so there must be some rumors. It’s also true that we are secretly going on dates.’
I was guessing it was still rumored that I had threatened Isidor, but the person who appeared in front of us was Isidor’s vassal, not a member of Epsilon. I had a vague impression of him, but I remembered him because I had seen him coming and going.
“Miguel. What’s wrong?”
Isidor asked in a blunt voice.
“Prince. Something happened.”
He glanced at me. I felt like I should leave, so I got up.
“I’ll contact you later.”
I nodded at his words and moved quickly. Perhaps because I read the serious atmosphere that was flowing from his expression, I became heavily worried.
‘I hope it’s nothing serious.’
Isidor is a ridiculous Munchkin, so he’ll be able to take care of it. Feeling nervous, I climbed into the carriage.
It didn’t take long to find out what had happened to the famous Isidor.
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