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There was a girl leisurely sipping tea in the Reception Room, waiting for her friend.

Her long, platinum hair was tied back, and her deep blue eyes sparkled.

Even though she was alone, the faint smile on her lips revealed a playful side of her personality.

Her name was Silvia Lorentz.

As the second daughter of Count Lorentz, she was one of Ariel’s few friends and was visiting the Robeheim Family after a while.

“Ugh.”

Normally, her friend would arrive exactly on time, so why was she so late today?

Silvia took a sip of her fragrant black tea while pondering this, but she wasn’t particularly bothered.

After all, there was only one thing she could guess.

Thud!

“Haah, haah… Sorry, I’m late!”

“Welcome, Ariel. Quite an entrance.”

How could she arrive at such a precise moment?

Seeing her friend flustered and hurriedly fixing her hair, Silvia welcomed her with a gentle smile.

‘Huh?’

Then, suddenly feeling a sense of unease, she tilted her head slightly and glanced towards the door Ariel had come through.

There should usually be one more person, but for some reason, Ariel had come alone.

“Didn’t Edgar come with you?”

Like a needle following a thread, Edgar was always by Ariel’s side.

Plus, since their first meeting, he had become friendly with Silvia, so there was no reason for it to be uncomfortable.

Still, it was puzzling that he hadn’t followed her.

“Uh? Um… He said he had some errands to run.”

“Oh?”

Silvia blinked and tilted her head.

That’s strange. Considering Edgar’s personality, he wouldn’t just leave for errands like that.

Though Silvia hadn’t spent much time with him, she knew he had a soft spot for Ariel.

So he wouldn’t leave her alone for something trivial, or was it something pressing?

“Well, I guess it’s just the two of us today.”

“Yeah. He’s always been around lately.”

“Well, I’m okay with that!”

While it was nice to see Ariel’s cute side when Edgar was around, Silvia was just happy to have a warm conversation with her friend.

Plus, she had a gift she wanted to give, and it was a bit overwhelming to present it in front of Edgar.

“So, how have you been? How’s your relationship with him?”

“D-Don’t call him that! Someone might think he’s my fiancé!”

“Wow, still in that state, huh?”

When Ariel let out a shriek, having realized that “that” referred to Edgar, Silvia stirred her tea with a spoon, casting a sly glance.

It hadn’t been long since she last visited the Robeheim Family, but she expected some progress would have been made in that time.

Apparently, she had been quite off the mark.

“What’s with that guy’s pride causing you such trouble? If it were me, I would have kissed him by now.”

Silvia smiled at Ariel, who was deep in thought, and shook her head in disbelief.

She was fundamentally an active woman when it came to romance or love.

If the other person didn’t come to her, she’d go to them. That’s how she ended up with her current boyfriend.

Perhaps that’s why it was so frustrating to see her friend acting all nervous and indecisive.

If she didn’t feel like the other party was uninterested, she could just go for a cheek peck, and he’d surely fall for her.

“K-kiss…!?”

“Huh?”

Just as Silvia sighed with pity, Ariel’s sharp voice rang out.

Feeling the tension, Silvia raised her chin slightly.

‘What’s going on?’

The usual Ariel would have shouted, “How could you even suggest that!”

Instead, she seemed flustered and unable to respond, which felt off.

‘Could it be?’

Seeing the moment of opportunity, Silvia narrowed her eyes.

It might not be true, but then again, there are no absolute certainties in the world.

Thinking that there was no risk involved in pushing just a little, Silvia wore a playful smile and opened her mouth.

“Ariel, did you… kiss Edgar?”

“…!?”

“Is it true?”

Silvia stared at Ariel with disbelief, her eyes nearly doubling in size.

The silence that followed felt like ages.

As she looked at Ariel, who was staring at the floor, Silvia decided she needed to act.

She moved to sit beside Ariel and poked her shoulder.

“Alright, I’m going to interrogate you. Lady Ariel Robeheim, could you elaborate on what happened?”

“T-that was an accident…! Why on earth would I kiss that idiot…!”

“Oh, an accident?”

A light whistle escaped Silvia’s lips at Ariel’s quite relatable excuse.

Whether it was a true accident or a deliberate act disguised as one was unknown, but her reaction was definitely a passing score.

“So what was the situation regarding this accident?”

“Well, it’s… nothing major? It just happened a little while ago…”

“A little while ago… right before I arrived?”

Nod, nod.

Ariel’s silent nodding was her answer.

In response, Silvia’s excitement bubbled up, and her hands trembled as she struggled to contain it.

‘What juicy news!’

Silvia shuddered with delight and internally cheered.

It seemed she made the right choice in coming to visit today.

To hear such fresh news, like just-baked bread!

Besides, the timing was quite perfect to give her gifts, even if she had to postpone that for later.

“So, um, how was it?”

So caught up in excitement, Silvia stuttered, which wasn’t like her at all.

Nothing was more interesting than others’ romantic escapades.

Especially since this wasn’t just any stranger’s story but her closest friend’s! It couldn’t get any better.

“How was it? It hurt.”

“Hurt…?”

“Yeah.”

Yet the answer was entirely unexpected.

Silvia stared blankly, her eyes blinking in disbelief as Ariel calmly nodded.

‘No way, is that really it?’

Silvia nearly let her imagination spiral out of control, but she managed to hold back just in time.

After all, considering it was an accident that led to a kiss, it likely wouldn’t have gone that far.

She needed to calm down and dig deeper into the details.

“What led to that?”

“Nothing much. After training, he was sleeping, and I was just going to fix his hair, but he woke up suddenly, and we bumped into each other.”

“Oh.”

It was then that Silvia understood, nodding as if it all made sense.

‘So that was why she said it hurt.’

Well, if someone woke up suddenly and they collided, it was bound to hurt regardless of the feel of the kiss.

Whether or not their lips connected was just down to luck, but whether it was good luck or bad luck was hard for her to say.

“Anyway, it wasn’t a kiss! I don’t want to acknowledge it!”

“What does not wanting to acknowledge it mean?”

“T-that…”

Faced with this sudden interrogation, Ariel appeared distinctly flustered.

She must have guessed what Silvia was alluding to.

Was it that she didn’t want to acknowledge the act of accidentally kissing him?

Or was it her feelings for Edgar?

In truth, Ariel had already acknowledged her feelings for Edgar long ago.

She just didn’t want to reveal them to anyone due to her stubbornness, resulting in her keeping them hidden from Silvia and Shuri.

‘It feels like I’m losing in some way.’

Though she hadn’t formally confessed, the mere fact it hadn’t happened still stung her pride.

For Ariel, who had been living on pride alone, this was a monumental issue.

“Okay, okay, I won’t ask any more of those annoying questions. Cool?”

“Uh, yeah…”

Fortunately, with Silvia taking a step back, Ariel could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, her friend had an uncanny ability to poke into her vulnerabilities at the same level as Edgar.

The approach was quite different though.

“Since I teased you, I’ll give you a special amazing gift. Just let me off the hook.”

“Amazing gift?”

Silvia’s gifts were always filled with unexpected surprises, so Ariel’s expectations grew.

Even if they were a bit impractical, they always brought forth a “Wow!” feeling when first seen.

“Here, want to unwrap it yourself?”

“Sure.”

Ariel received the small box from Silvia and carefully unwrapped the paper.

With the box being small enough for just a music box, her expectations were slightly lowered compared to before.

‘Is it jewelry?’

That wouldn’t have been bad either, she thought, and once she completely removed the wrapping, she revealed a glass bottle filled with colorful candies.

“How is it? Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty.”

Honestly, it wasn’t what she had hoped for, but as Silvia said, the effort put into the candies was evident.

“Can I eat one?”

“Of course! It’s a gift for you to eat.”

Anyway, Ariel, who loved sweets, appreciated the gift, so she lightly expressed her thanks and opened the lid to grab a pink candy to taste.

The size was small enough that it could simply vanish when chewed down.

“Is it good?”

“Yeah, it’s tasty. Where did you get this from?”

“I received it as a gift too. I thought it’d be useful for you.”

Useful?

Ariel raised an eyebrow at the odd word in the middle of the conversation.

‘Does anyone usually say they need candy?’

Not “I thought Ariel would like this,” not “I want to give it to her,” but “I thought it’d be useful for her” sounded somewhat off.

But she decided to brush it off as a mere slip of the tongue.

“Have you finished it?”

“Yeah.”

Though it was pink, she wasn’t sure if it tasted like strawberry, but overall, Ariel thought it was decent.

There wasn’t anything particularly special beyond its unique appearance, so it didn’t feel like something that Silvia would bring.

“But why is this supposed to be amazing?”

As she popped another candy into her mouth and rolled it around, she couldn’t suppress her curiosity, making Silvia’s smile widen.

“Eek! Curious, aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m curious.”

Ariel looked at Silvia incredulously.

After boasting about a “wonderful gift,” she couldn’t just avoid explaining it now.

As Ariel tilted her chin slightly, urging her to spill the beans, Silvia finally whispered the secret about the candies.

“That candy is magical.”

“…What?”

Magical candy?

With a response that made no sense, Ariel inadvertently dropped the candy she was holding and instinctively questioned her.

In response, Silvia picked one of the candies from the jar and brought it before Ariel’s eyes, sporting a devilish smile and added.

“Once you eat that candy, even if you don’t want to, you’ll have to reveal your true feelings.”

Instead of getting honest, it would allow the deeply hidden sentiments inside to come out.

It made it so that even if she didn’t want to, the things she had kept bottled up would spill out.

That was the essence of the candy.

Upon hearing this, Ariel’s pupils widened and she let out a near-scream.

That day, Silvia had to work hard to keep her friend from using magic on herself.

In a sense, it felt like digging her own grave.