Chapter 25

For a whole week that he was following and observing Nine, Nine didn’t spend even a single second with Chacha.

Adel hadn’t even seen him go to meet Chacha before spending time together.

In fact, Adel spent more time with Chacha than Nine did, and Adel ate meals with her, while Chacha never did with Nine.

‘Why?’

For Adel, who was full of thoughts of sticking to Chacha all the time, the situation was incomprehensible.

Adel wasn’t married to Chacha, but he still liked her so much and wanted to see her every day.

When they were together, he was always filled with a feeling of joy and happiness.

‘Shouldn’t it be even more so if they’re married?’

It was strange that the two of them didn’t meet. But no matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t meet.

‘Is it because they’re busy?’

But Chacha never skipped a meal with Adel, no matter how busy she was, and she always greeted him warmly when he went to her office.

Couldn’t Nine do the same?

“Hmm…”

Adel ran his hands through his hair, unable to come to a proper conclusion after much deliberation.

If he were to ask someone, he didn’t even know how to ask to get the answer he wanted.

Lost in thought, Adel finally closed his eyes, which were blurry with sleep.

He was tired and sleepy from waking up early for the past few days.

***

‘Young Master. Books are a treasure trove of knowledge.’

‘Treasure trove?’

‘It means all the knowledge in the world is contained in books. So, if you don’t know something, look it up in a book.’

Adel recalled what his tutor had once told him and headed to the family library for the first time in his life.

He usually studied in his room, and his tutor would bring him the books he needed, so Adel had no reason to visit the library.

He didn’t really like books either.

“Wow…”

The library he visited for the first time was much wider and larger than Adel had imagined.

Countless bookshelves were packed with books, and their number seemed to be dozens, if not hundreds, of times more than the number of cherry tomatoes he hadn’t eaten over the years.

‘Will I even be able to find the book I want…?’

He couldn’t even look at the books on the top shelves without bringing a ladder.

It would definitely take longer than the week he had spent investigating Nine if he were to look through them one by one.

But Adel grabbed onto his fading focus, recalling Chacha’s smiling face.

‘Chacha told me to ask for help if something difficult happens that I can’t solve alone!’

It was advice he had received after he had thrown down his tutor’s homework, saying he didn’t know how to do it.

Adel turned around and looked up at his close attendant, Pedro, who had followed him.

“What book would you like me to find?”

When Pedro quickly asked, Adel rolled his eyes and whispered in a small voice.

He felt like he had to.

“Um… can you find me some books about ‘love’?”

“Pardon? Love?”

“Shhh!”

Adel hastily covered the surprised Pedro’s mouth.

Pedro, who seemed to realize his voice had been too loud, covered his own mouth with his hand and nodded.

“Yes, Young Master! I’ll find them right away!”

Then he rolled up his sleeves and quickly began to rummage through the bookshelves…

Was it his imagination, or were his eyes sparkling?

He also seemed a little excited.

As Adel was just casually scanning the books near the entrance, Pedro returned with a few books.

「The Maid That Duke Loves」

「How to Seduce a Profligate Young Marquis」

「A Love Guidebook for Those in Love」

“…”

“These are the most popular books these days.”

The titles were very strange, but since they were popular, there might be some useful information.

Adel immediately sat down and began to devour the books.

And as soon as he opened the first book and saw the male protagonist, Adel was surprised.

‘He’s a duke and he’s so stoic, he’s just like my brother!’

It seemed like it would be a good reference. Adel continued to read the story of the protagonist, who resembled Nine.

Honestly, he didn’t understand all the content of the book. But there was some helpful information.

‘I knew it. It’s right that people who are in love want to be together.’

Adel nodded his head, flipping through the pages.

Then he found a certain line from the female protagonist.

[I can’t live like this. Please divorce me.]

[I can’t let you go.]

After that, the male and female protagonists had a long argument, and when the male protagonist finally didn’t give his permission, the female protagonist ran away.

Adel tilted his head, unable to understand the situation, and asked Pedro, who was standing by his side.

“Pedro, what’s a divorce?”

“Divorce? Um, when people are in love, they get married and become a family, right?”

“That’s right.”

Adel nodded, recalling that Chacha had said she was his family.

“But then, if one of them no longer loves the other, they get a divorce.”

“What happens when you get a divorce?”

“Um… they stop being a family and become strangers again.”

“What?”

Adel was surprised.

‘Aren’t you a family forever once you get married?’

For Adel, who had only considered marriage to be the culmination of love and a lifelong promise, the word divorce was shocking.

Chacha became Adel’s family because she married Nine. But…

‘What if Chacha gets hurt and disappointed by my brother’s stoicism, like the female protagonist in this book?’

The two of them weren’t even meeting right now. Adel was even more anxious because he thought this must be Nine’s fault.

‘If they divorce because he no longer loves her, will Chacha leave Iclea?’

Adel was scared when he recalled the past of the Duke’s Castle without Chacha.

The ice castle that wasn’t warm.

“…”

Adel’s worries didn’t last long. He knew well that worrying wouldn’t solve anything.

Adel made a decision.

‘I have to make sure Chacha doesn’t leave!’

To prevent Chacha from being disappointed in Nine and leaving, he had to fix Nine’s stoic side.

‘How?’

Fortunately, the answer was in the last book.

「A Love Guidebook for Those in Love」

[Chapter 3 for Women. Do you want to confirm the love of a man who is stoic and lacks expression? Then try to make him jealous!]

[Chapter 8 for Men. How to express affection: How to write a heartfelt love letter and a list of gifts women like]

Adel thought that the saying “books are a treasure trove of knowledge” was exactly right.

It was the perfect customized information for Nine, who seemed stoic because he was shy and awkward at expressing himself.

Adel took out his notebook and began to copy the contents of the book.

***

Starting the very next day, Adel had lunch and tea time with Chacha again.

The only difference was that Nine was also there.

“…”

Sipping his tea in silence, Nine was the spoils of war Adel had won through sheer persistence.

‘Ah! Let’s have tea! Just for 1 hour! No, just 30 minutes!’

Of course, Adel was a little wary at first, as he wasn’t originally close to Nine.

But even when he barged into his office and pestered him, Nine didn’t stop Adel. Seeing that, Adel quickly caught on.

Nine had no intention of kicking Adel out!

So, after that, he openly threw a tantrum.

‘Tea time! I won’t leave if you don’t have tea time!’

That’s how he got the three-person tea time.

Adel sat right next to Chacha and began to chatter.

“Chacha, we’re close, right?”

“Hm? Of course.”

“We eat and walk together every day, so we’re super close, right!”

“Yep. We’re suuuper close!”

The first thing he did was to subtly emphasize how close he was to Chacha. It was natural for someone who likes someone to be jealous if that person is close to someone else!

It was an action aimed at Nine, but Adel was proud in a corner of his heart because he liked how Chacha answered without hesitation even in the midst of this.

However, Nine showed no sign of jealousy at all.

‘Hmph! You’re pretending it doesn’t bother you, but you must be super jealous inside!’

So Adel tried even harder to provoke jealousy.

“The book Chacha read to me before bed yesterday was so much fun!”

“Chacha, can you draw me a picture in my notebook again today?”

“I won the war against the cherry tomatoes and ate them all today, I did a good job, didn’t I?”

“Look at this! It’s a flower I got from Chacha?”

“Chacha is so good to me?”

Besides that, he also whined and hugged Chacha for no reason, or asked Chacha to feed him cake…

And when Chacha did everything for him, Adel would look at Nine with a triumphant expression.

‘How’s that? Aren’t you jealous? Isn’t it making you jealous?’

But contrary to Adel’s thoughts, Nine just calmly drank his tea and watched the two of them.

Despite Adel’s efforts for three days, Nine never sought out Chacha first.

He seemed to be under the illusion that Nine was even more gentle than when he saw him in the office or the training ground, let alone jealous.

‘How can a person be so stoic towards someone they like so much?’

He felt like he understood why the female protagonist in the book had yelled for a divorce.

‘No!’

Adel tried hard to shake off the ominous thought.

‘Chacha can’t get a divorce!’

In the end, Adel carried out his second plan.

First, he chose an item from the list of gifts women like and bought it with the money he received for his dignity maintenance.

Then, he meticulously stole stationery and a seal from Nine’s office, secretly wrote a letter, stamped it, and put them back.

For a child who had been running around the castle since he was little, there was no place he couldn’t secretly enter. Even if it was the Duke’s office!

“Now, give this to Chacha! She shouldn’t know that I sent it!”

Finally, Adel handed over the prepared gift and letter to his close attendant, Pedro, who had made a significant contribution to this plan.

Pedro took the items with a peculiar expression and delivered them to Chacha without a word of complaint.

‘Did she receive it well?’

To see if this plan was effective, he had to see it for himself! Adel quickly headed to Chacha’s office.

When he secretly opened the door and peeked in, Chacha was unwrapping the gift with a puzzled expression.

‘Will she like it?’

What came out of the wrapping was a necklace with a pink diamond.

He had chosen it right away because it resembled Chacha’s hair color.

Chacha tilted her head, still with a puzzled expression, and then took out the letter and read it.

“…Pfft.”

‘She laughed!’

As soon as she read the letter, Chacha burst out laughing. Adel instinctively knew he had succeeded.

‘Yahoo! Now Chacha won’t think about getting a divorce because she’s disappointed in Nine, right?’

With his heart feeling much lighter, Adel quietly closed the office door and happily ran down the hallway.

It was a rewarding day.