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“Aub, shall we? Cornelius notified us that he was waiting by the staircase.”
It was the day after the Inauguration Ceremony that made me the official Aub Alexandria. Busy days were ahead of us until the conclusion of the Archduke Conference. While it was still true that Ferdinand was the one running the entire duchy behind the scenes, I also had a role to play as the nominal, underage Aub.
My female retainers, including some new ones from Old Ahrensbach, accompanied me to meet with the male retainers waiting for me on the second floor of the Alexandria dormitory. To my surprise, Ferdinand was also standing by the staircase, waiting with his own set of retainers.
“Good Morning, Ferdinand,” I greeted. I took care to speak to him less formally, given that he was now inferior to me in the social hierarchy of nobles.
“Aub, your hand. The meeting room is ready. Details will be discussed there,” he said. The deferential way of speech made me groan inwardly.
“Understood.”
With my hand hooked on the crook of his elbow, we continued the rest of the way down the staircase.
The meeting rooms in Alexandria Dormitory were much larger than the ones I was used to when I was still an Ehrenfest student. As a greater duchy, the old Ahrensbach had a larger population to account for during Royal Academy terms and Archduke Conferences. Inside the one reserved for us, a big, U-shaped desk occupied a large part of the room, with chairs that had long backrests to boot. It made the aisle feel a bit narrower.
“Aub,” Ferdinand called after we settled into our seats in the meeting room. He gave me a look, and I remembered the note that Gretia stealthily passed onto me while she was fixing my new hair pin into place.
Aub, a listening device has been planted on you. Lord Ferdinand instructs us to leave your new retainers outside of today's meeting until we lure the eavesdropper out, it had said, written in Clarissa’s hand.
“Oh, right. Those who are not from Ehrenfest, please wait outside.” I ordered, addressing the ones in the meeting room.
My Old Ahrensbach retainers were the most suspicious of all, given that they were the ones who had access to my chambers and my belongings. If they had complaints, they were careful enough to not let it show on their face and simply obeyed.
The meeting about the Archduke Conference commenced, touching the topics that even the Old Ahrensbach nobles would eventually be privy to.
The order with which to accept invitations was finalized. Tea parties for different sets of guests were scheduled. Much had to be discussed regarding the seating arrangements, made especially tricky by the lingering influence of the former royals and the close relationships we needed to maintain.
When the rest of the agenda was cleared, Ferdinand wrote a note on a piece of paper. He gestured for the rest of our retainers to come closer and read. It was a pretty lengthy note, and I watched our retainers' eyes fleet so quickly from each side to digest the contents.
I wanna read it, too.
Some of them seemed apprehensive, but one chilling look from Ferdinand rendered them unable to air out their grievances. They filed out of the room as quietly as they could, leaving me alone with Ferdinand.
I tilted my head in question, puzzled as to why not a single retainer remained with us. Ferdinand only raised a finger to his lips, silently telling me to not say a word. I shrugged in acceptance.
He held out a hand. When I took it, he urged me to get up from my seat and stand in that small space between our chairs and the wall. He scanned the entirety of my body from my head to my feet, then had me turn around so he could check my back.
Come to think of it, where exactly on my body is that listening device attached to? I wondered as I turned to face him again.
Ferdinand took a step closer.
“Rozemyne,” he whispered. Despite the gentle way he spoke, his doing so in close proximity made me jump a little. “You are my Geduldh.”
Geduldh as in…his family?
His hand reached for the back of my head, and the tiny beads of my hair pin made clinking sounds as it bumped against each other.
“...Y-yes, that’s true, isn’t it?” I forced a little laugh to ease the tense aura radiating off him, but his expression only grew fiercer.
“If I cover everything in snow and ice, no one will see.”
All of a sudden, Ferdinand slapped his hand against the wall behind me. His sleeve flared all the way down, limiting my vision on that side. With his other hand still cupping the back of my head, I had nothing else left to focus on but the bewildering look on his face.
W-what is going on?
“You understand, don’t you, that this can only happen now, with both our retainers and Schutzaria far away?”
“Huh?”
I wasn’t an expert on divine allegories. Even so, the lines he was spewing were mentioned in the Royal Academy Love Stories frequently enough for me to be sure that he was acting a bit uncharacteristic. My confusion only got worse because he wore the fake, bright smile that he sported whenever he was suppressing his anger.
Am I missing some other interpretation here?
I opened my mouth to say that I was confused, but he suddenly closed in on me, eyes fixed on my lips as he leaned in. With my eyes scrunched tight, I braced myself for what would seemingly be my first ever kiss in two lifetimes.
Something soft pressed against my lips, followed by the extremely uncomfortable crackling sensation at the point of contact. My eyes flew open in shock, and the strong, visceral reaction to push him away took over my body.
What was that?
Rather than get butterflies in my stomach, the experience only made the hairs on my neck stand. Where was the heart-racing, breath-catching, cheek-flushing sensation that first kisses were supposed to make girls feel?
I feel robbed, somehow.
He moved his face away, but he didn’t completely let me go. I didn’t want to reject his touch, but my entire body was protesting the trace of mana that he left on my skin. He then trailed more kisses on other areas on my face—my forehead, the tip of my nose, both of my cheeks—and all of those spots felt as if firecrackers were popping underneath my skin. I was flinching with every contact.
“Rozemyne, accept my mana,” he urged in an exceptionally low voice.
But how?
He pulled my head closer then angled in for another kiss. This time, it was accompanied by an overwhelming gush of his mana. It instantly banished the rejection I initially felt. Dyed once again in his colors, the experience became a whole lot more pleasant.
I realized that he tasted sweet. Like a dessert with the perfect amount of sugar—something that was not at all cloying, and something that I hoped I could enjoy everyday, for the rest of my days. My tongue reached out for more of the sweet goodness, and was instantly rewarded when he did the same.
I felt lightheaded as his mana continued to flow in waves into me. From time to time, Ferdinand would hit a sweet spot, making my knees buckle. In those moments, my thoughts would center on the titillating warmth that was spreading throughout my body and nothing else.
I never thought I could feel greedy for a kiss—so much so that the need to breath felt annoying and unnecessary.
I didn’t mind having more. The wonders his tongue was creating inside my mouth genuinely made me feel that I could surrender every—
Knock, knock.
My eyes snapped open at the sound that echoed loudly inside the room. The sight of the big table and the neatly-arranged chairs made me remember where I was. I pushed Ferdinand away, scared that we were going to get caught.
That would be so embarrassing.
He stepped away to give me space. I was about to laugh at how flushed and breathless he was but then realized that I, too, was gasping for air. In fact, my heart was racing so much, like I’d just ran a marathon.
We fixed ourselves, but there was nothing we could do about the crinkles I made on his clothes. Once we were sure that nothing else would give us away, I gave my permission to whoever was waiting at the door. Strahl and Cornelius walked in, followed by more of our retainers.
“Aub, Lord Ferdinand, the suspect has already been apprehended and is ready for questioning.”
The eavesdropper? That was great, now we could all talk freel—WAIT.
The eavesdropper. Someone was listening in on us! My eyes darted to Ferdinand’s hands, which held my new hair pin. I gasped, realizing what had truly just happened.
“Aub, I shall see to this personally. Please eat lunch inside your chambers while the investigation is underway.”
“I understand. Now, get out.”
My response came out a lot colder than I wanted it to. Ferdinand frowned, but he obeyed nonetheless, taking a few of my knights with him, too.
I couldn’t understand why, but my irritation just spiked upon realizing why he had suddenly acted so uncharacteristically affectionate. Sure, I was embarrassed that someone else knew what we had done, but Ferdinand…did he do all that just to catch one lame traitor? Knowing him, he would say something like, “Indeed. It was the most effective strategy I could employ to make him reveal himself."
Suddenly, I felt so lonely at the notion that I was the only one who would want more.
Ahhh what am I even thinking now?! This is all Ferdinand's fault! Stupid, meanie Ferdinand!