TOOCM 91

Chapter 91

“We… we’ve arrived.”

Even as Reina touched her burning cheeks and spoke, Kaiden didn’t respond.

Having returned to his seat, he buried his face in his hands and didn’t move an inch.

They had arrived, so they should get out now.

Normally, he would step down first and escort her.

When the flustered Reina stared at him, he muttered in a voice as tiny as an ant crawling.

“Go ahead first…”

“Huh? What about you?”

“I… don’t think I can right now…”

Clutching the cushion like a lifeline, he let out successive sighs and mumbled to himself.

“I’m really going insane.”

Unable to properly hear him, Reina hesitated and tried to move closer.

At that moment, he lifted his flushed face and said,

“I’m saying this in case you misunderstand—it’s not that I hated kissing you. The opposite. I liked it too much. You were too cute and lovable, so my body, I mean… haa, I’m going crazy.”

He washed his face dry at the ridiculous sight of himself trying to explain his state.

To have such a pathetic reaction from just one kiss.

He wanted to crawl into a mouse hole. But there was no such hole in the cramped carriage to stuff his body into.

He curled up as if to hide his burning neck and ears.

“Please, I beg you, go first.”

“…”

Meanwhile, Reina’s head rang in a completely different sense.

‘He said I’m cute and lovable…’

Did he know? Did he know how huge a ripple those words had just caused in her heart?

It was the purest expression of affection she had heard since her brother—Reina was one step away from exploding.

Pop—!

As if something burst in her mind, Reina’s face turned bright red.

Clutching her already-exploded heart, she took deep breaths.

Now she perfectly understood why he was desperately trying to hide himself.

“Ah…”

Reina let out a shy groan.

She didn’t know what to say next. Her lips trembled, her gaze spun aimlessly.

Unable to think of anything, she awkwardly stood.

As he said, they both needed a moment alone to calm down.

“I-I’ll get out first, then.”

“…”

“C-Come in carefully.”

Reina hurriedly opened the carriage door and locked eyes with Ben, who was just about to knock.

“Ah, you’re out! You were inside so long I thought something happened…”

Ignoring Ben’s cheerful greeting, Reina rushed into the mansion.

“Madam?”

While Ben looked puzzled, Kaiden inside slammed the door shut.

He even locked it, so Ben knocked in panic.

“Your Excellency?”

“…”

“Your Excellency? Aren’t you coming out?”

Despite Ben’s repeated calls, the door didn’t budge.

Truthfully, Kaiden was in no state to step outside.

He was silently screaming alone.

Indescribable emotions were swirling.

Because he had read in her eyes the words Reina couldn’t finish.

If the coachman hadn’t announced their arrival at the perfect moment,

Kaiden really wouldn’t have stopped.

A while later, Kaiden leaned weakly against the door and muttered,

“Send everyone away.”

“Pardon?”

At the sudden order, Ben looked bewildered when the coachman cleared his throat and winked.

“What is it?”

“You really have no tact.”

The coachman grinned slyly, jerking his chin alternately toward the direction Madam had fled and the duke trapped in the carriage.

“They’re in their prime, aren’t they?”

“…”

“The mood was good, I tell you.”

When Ben still looked clueless, the coachman laughed heartily and disappeared with the servants.

Left alone, Ben said quietly,

“Everyone’s gone.”

“You get lost too.”

His voice had already regained its fighting strength—perhaps he’d overheard the coachman.

At the irritated tone, Ben flinched and stepped back.

He judged that touching him now would be troublesome in many ways.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

Even after Ben vanished, Kaiden didn’t come out easily.

“Ha.”

He tried to think of something else, but his mind was full of Reina.

He had wished so desperately for the moment their feelings were confirmed. Now he was floundering in overwhelming emotions he couldn’t control.

The carriage remained stopped for a long time. Only after all presence nearby disappeared did he finally rise.

“I’m going insane.”

Sighing deeply at his still-unsettled body, he couldn’t return to the bedroom like this.

Kaiden headed straight to the private training grounds.

If he faced Reina’s face again now, he knew what would happen.

He had to exhaust himself so he wouldn’t keep imagining what came after the kiss.

So he wouldn’t lose control and pounce on Reina.

He couldn’t pour all his feelings onto her the moment she had just realized her own.

With a resolute expression, Kaiden began running laps around the training ground.

And he ran all night.

* * *

Reina stared blankly out the window. The events in the carriage a few days ago felt like a dream.

Since that day, Kaiden trained at high intensity until late at night before returning to the bedroom.

Watching him collapse into sleep, Reina somehow felt regretful.

It wasn’t that she wanted to do anything in particular.

She just missed him. The moment she understood her feelings, she kept wanting to see him all the time.

Wanting to see him even while looking at him—she was seriously ill.

That day, they had definitely confirmed each other’s hearts.

Unless they were idiots, they couldn’t miss that it was mutual.

At the same time, she realized he had been waiting for her all this time.

When she put love into every action she thought was acting, it all made sense.

She now understood why he had sometimes looked anxious and frustrated.

Because for the past few days, Reina had felt exactly that—anxious and frustrated.

She wanted to tell him.

That she had liked it that day too.

That she loved him. That she needed him too.

Unfortunately, Reina never got the chance to confess.

Because she could barely see his face.

At first, she suspected he was avoiding her like last time.

So she went to Ben and interrogated him, only to…

“I’m the one dying here! Do you know how much His Excellency is driving me insane? He used to be like a ghost who died from overwork, but now he’s a cicada who doesn’t want to work at all. There’s a mountain of backlog, yet every day it’s ‘When does this end? Can’t we just not do this? Can’t you do it?’ I’m really going to die!”

…end up listening to his grievances instead.

That’s how busy Kaiden was.

The culprit was the emperor. He constantly summoned him to the palace on flimsy pretexts and nitpicked everything, forcing endless reports.

This kind of harassment had always existed, but after a lull, it started again.

Ben’s point was that Kaiden, who used to endure silently, was now complaining and saying he was dying.

‘Come to think of it, we haven’t even had lunch together these past few days.’

Kaiden was probably anxious for the same reason as her.

Still, confirming he wasn’t deliberately avoiding her eased her heart.

Of course, she didn’t fully understand why he ran the training grounds every night.

‘If he’s busy during the day, we could talk at night.’

Sharing a bed felt pointless—Kaiden only slipped in after Reina was asleep.

She sensed him in her sleep, so they definitely slept together.

But waking up to an empty bed left her unsettled in many ways.

She couldn’t understand why he refused to give her even a chance to talk at night.