Ch.143Wedding Ceremony (3)

Lovelia was an exceptionally bright child for her age.

It was hard to believe she was only 2 months old, but Evan and Irene simply believed their children were smart.

It was amazing how she recognized her mother and father, though perhaps it was just the doting nature of new parents.

But her strange tendency to be picky about people seemed a bit unusual, even for a bright baby.

Why would she dislike older men? No man had bothered the child since she was born.

As Evan gently stroked Lovelia’s soft cheek while she whimpered at the sight of Chris, unlike how she was with Evan or Rofena.

“Lovelia is a smart child, but strangely, she dislikes older men. I don’t know why, but I think Lord Chris won’t be able to hold her.”

Evan, holding the now-awake Lovelia with her eyes sparkling, smiled smugly at Lord Chris who was looking at him enviously.

As if knowing she was in her father’s arms, Lovelia clung to Evan and rubbed her face against his cheek.

With her sweet baby scent making him smile, the child’s hand suddenly stuck to his nose.

“The child seems to like you very much.”

“Well, with the knight’s looks, who wouldn’t like him?”

At Rofena’s words, Chris slightly furrowed his brow. Despite everything, wasn’t he like a grandfather figure to her?

Of course, there was a real grandfather elsewhere, but Chris felt quite hurt by Lovelia.

Perhaps feeling sorry for Chris, Lovelia, who had been nestled in Evan’s arms for a while, reached out and patted Evan’s cheek.

“Um, ah!”

“It seems she wants to go to Lord Chris after all.”

When Evan spoke as Lovelia frantically reached toward Chris, Chris took her into his arms with reddened eyes.

Gone was the cold demeanor from earlier when she had pushed his hands away.

Like an angel nestling in his arms, Chris swallowed his lips and gazed at Lovelia with deep eyes.

“Oh, Lovelia.”

“Buu-“

“Yes, do you like me better than your father?”

As if to say that wasn’t the case, Rofena burst into laughter when she saw Lovelia firmly pulling on Chris’s mustache.

It was amazing how a mere 2-month-old child seemed to understand everything, and Rofena quietly muttered in wonder.

“Seeing this makes me want to have a child too.”

“No way!”

Rofena flinched at Chris’s shout and narrowed her eyes.

She wondered if she couldn’t even express a desire to have a child, and thought that if he kept saying no, maybe she should just get married.

But she wasn’t confident about having a child like her lady. It scared her, and she didn’t think she’d meet a man she liked.

Maybe she could just keep living at the duke’s mansion with her father? As Rofena was pondering this, she turned her head at the sound from behind her.

Pop-

Blue eyes staring blankly at her after removing the pacifier from his mouth.

Realizing that Arthur had woken up, Rofena carefully picked him up.

“What are you thinking, young master?”

“Ba.”

A smile escaped her at the hand placed on her forehead, and Rofena turned back to Evan while holding Arthur.

“The children seem so well-behaved. They don’t cry even once. Usually they’d cry loudly when they wake up.”

“Well, Arthur normally cries a lot… I wonder why he’s not crying?”

Unlike Lovelia, Arthur was more prone to crying like a typical baby.

He was equally bright, but when Lovelia was called a genius, Arthur was just a bright child.

Of course, Evan loved them both equally, but he tended to favor Arthur a bit more.

A child named after one of his fathers. Evan took Arthur from Rofena, thinking of his father whose body was never found, leaving only a lonely tombstone.

With white hair and blue eyes resembling Irene, it was reason enough for Evan to favor Arthur a little more.

He sometimes wondered what it would have been like to have a daughter… but that might make his son feel neglected.

Still, Evan was simply happy to have a daughter who seemed to be the spitting image of himself.

“Can’t sleep?”

Of course, there was no proper answer to that question, but instead of answering, Arthur poked Evan’s cheek with his foot.

Finding it adorable, Evan buried his face in Arthur’s belly and blew raspberries for a long time.

#

“…When exactly did you wake up to greet them?”

“Earlier, at dawn when the two arrived, I went out. You were sleeping, my lady.”

“That’s because Evan was too rough last night. And I was a bit tired yesterday… Anyway, good job. You haven’t slept all this time, have you?”

“It’s fine if I sleep a little later. The ceremony is tomorrow, isn’t it?”

Irene stroked Evan’s cheek with a slightly worried expression.

She kept sighing as she noticed dark circles forming under his eyes and his skin becoming a bit rough.

In reality, he was fine, but to Irene’s eyes, Evan looked like he was about to collapse from lack of sleep.

“Shouldn’t you get some sleep?”

“I’m fine. Lord Chris and Rofena are here, and I’m not that tired when I’m with the children.”

“Then let’s go to bed early tonight, I’ll let you use my arm as a pillow.”

“That sounds good.”

The word “arm pillow” brought back old memories.

The first time she offered her arm as a pillow was probably the first time they slept together.

Perhaps it was when Evan was recovering from a serious injury. Even now, thinking about it made her face flush.

Irene cleared her throat softly and examined Evan’s face carefully.

Why did he seem to look younger despite experiencing the same passage of time?

His skin had become a bit whiter, and his face was clean without even the smallest blemish.

His appearance had always been flawless, but Irene thought he had somehow become even more handsome after fighting Mabet.

“Evan, are you secretly applying something without telling me?”

“I don’t use anything on my face except soap.”

“But… never mind. Why are you so handsome?”

Hearing such sudden words, Evan felt heat rising and quickly turned his head away. If it were anyone else, he might not mind, but whenever Irene said such things, Evan could only feel embarrassed. He didn’t think he had called her pretty very often, yet Irene would unhesitatingly call him handsome.

“You… you’re beautiful too.”

“Am I? Is that so?”

Irene was in a better mood than usual. Their satisfying intimacy last night was part of it, as was Evan preparing breakfast for her when she woke up.

And with the addition of seeing Rofena and Chris after a long time, Evan found himself troubled by Irene’s unusually good mood.

She was clinging to him while everyone was watching, and though he liked it, he could only control his twitching lips.

He couldn’t kiss her in the corridor where servants were walking around, even if they were alone elsewhere.

“Wow, you two are still like that.”

At Rofena’s voice, Evan’s face immediately brightened. He worried that Irene might go toward Rofena after seeing her, but Rofena just glanced at them curiously, greeted Irene, and headed back toward Chris.

Watching her blankly, Evan finally sighed deeply and embraced Irene in the same way.

“Do you dislike me doing this?”

“No, it’s not that I dislike it. There are just too many people watching.”

“What does it matter? Everyone will see this tomorrow anyway.”

At those words, Evan quietly smiled. Tomorrow was the wedding day.

When he first thought about marriage, he never imagined this day would come. How had time passed so quickly?

He always realized time had passed only after it was gone, so he felt this wedding too would pass in the blink of an eye.

Already a year—the fact that they had been dating for almost a year now felt like a dream.

“Honestly, I never thought we’d make it to the wedding. I didn’t even know if you would accept my confession.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Well… when I first started liking you, I called you ‘my lady,’ not ‘Irene,’ and you were quite cold to me.”

“I was back then. But you know what?”

Recalling old memories, Irene shrugged. Indeed, a few years ago, she wasn’t very friendly to Evan.

There were times when she would object to being called “my lady,” and thinking about it now, her behavior was truly appalling.

“I’ve liked you much longer than you think, Evan.”

Though she wasn’t sure exactly when it began, Irene instinctively felt she had sensed something from the moment she first met Evan.

The moment the world’s colors changed vividly, when she first met those deep green eyes. The moment heat rose in her chest that had always been cold.

It had been that way every time their eyes met since meeting Evan.

“…Well, I liked you even before meeting you in person.”

“Then I’ve liked you since you were born.”

“I’ve liked you since before you were born.”

After laughing at this endless exchange of confessions, Evan didn’t add that his first statement was actually true.

From the moment he saw Irene in the book “Your Rose Thorns,” he had felt a strange attraction to the person named Irene Yuris.

After being pricked by thorns for a long time to obtain the rose, he could finally meet the one embraced within the rose.

Since that was the title of the novel in his fantasy, perhaps all those things actually meant this very moment.

He had finally met the rose, and now they were about to be united in marriage.

Evan quietly closed his eyes. With just one day left, he was eagerly looking forward to the wedding ceremony tomorrow.