Fostering the Male Lead

That afternoon, I parted ways with Sihael. To be exact, I avoided Sihael by myself, and kept widening the distance between us while he chased after me. He didn’t leave me alone for a moment.

“Rosetta, shall we go play tomorrow?”

“Don’t come. I’m busy. If you come, I will beat you with a pillow.”

“Not my butt?”

“…You’re not a wolf, you’re a human now.”

Until now, I treated him like Shasha without realizing it, but I knew for sure as of yesterday that Sihael was not a wolf, but a big, strong man. I couldn’t treat him like Shasha anymore.

Sihael strode up and whispered in my ear.

“Rosetta, are you avoiding me because you think of me as a person or because you think of me as a man?”

“…It’s both.”

Sihael’s smile deepened. Suddenly feeling a sense of danger, I hid behind Leonard’s back to avoid him.

“Brother, let’s hurry up and go.”

Nanabi, who found my attitude of avoiding Sihael unlike usual strange, glanced at me. It must be strange. My face was grim, while Sihael kept smiling. Surprised by the subtle changes between us, Leonard checked up on me to see if I was bothered by something.

“Did something happen between you and His Highness?”

Leonard asked me, while I was lying down like a piece of luggage in the carriage.

“There’s nothing like that.”

However, the face reflected in the carriage window was a face that anyone could see saying, “Something is wrong.”  Steam fogged up the window as I exhaled a deep sigh. I wrote ‘Idiot Sihael’ on it and rubbed the window with an annoyed hand.

‘It would be nice if it was just my misunderstanding.’

With such a troubled heart, time passed by. In the meantime, I was busy preparing for the coming-of-age ceremony. Fortunately, as I was busy, my thoughts on Sihael naturally waned. It would have been nice if it had been like that all the time.

“My Lady, I think you should come out for a while.”

“Why?”

“That…”

When I went outside at Marina’s call, the scene in front of me made me speechless. I opened my eyes wide to see the carriage in front of the mansion. While everyone was dumbfounded, an attendant got off the driver’s seat and ran towards me.

“Lady Katzel, it’s a gift from His Highness.”

What he meant was the things inside the carriage were my birthday presents.

‘This is crazy! Why did he send so many gifts in a carriage?’

I couldn’t hide my embarrassment because it was my first time receiving so many gifts.

What should I do at a time like this? There are too many gifts. Should I send them back?

I didn’t know what to do, so I asked for help, but others were flustered as well.

“He must be out of his mind.”

“He’s really out of his mind.”

I didn’t realize when Leonard and Lanoa came to my side and cursed quietly. The attendant did not change his countenance despite the curses of the young lords. He seemed oddly affirming to it, too.

“Hissen, where did His Highness disappear after throwing this bomb?”

“He is busy grooming himself to become the most beautiful flower for Lady Katzel’s coming-of-age ceremony tomorrow.”

I bit my tongue at the gaze of the servant looking at me.

‘What the hell are you talking about, man?’

Why is all the embarrassment my share? As I rubbed my heated cheeks with the back of my hand, Leonard was taken aback.

“Are you sure you have nothing going on with His Highness?”

“No, absolutely not. We’re just friends!”

However, Leonard’s doubts did not fade. He jibbed at the never ending number of gifts.

“Then what are all those?”

“What do you mean by what are all those? He’s basically declaring that he’s going to go on the offensive because he doesn’t have enough charm.” Lanoa, who answered Leonard’s question instead, clicked his tongue, saying, “There are even various kinds of gifts.”

He grabbed a passing servant and opened the box.

“He has a good eye.”

Behind Lanoa, who was whistling with satisfaction, the butler, whose shoulders were full of strength, raised his voice.

“Come on, move them all inside!”

Under the butler’s leadership, the gifts were quickly moved into the mansion. They might be annoyed by the sudden increase in work, but their faces were full of smiles. It seemed that they were somehow proud. The fact that I was favored by the crown prince seemed to make them quite happy.

‘It’s bothersome.’

I almost didn’t know what kind of rumors would go around this time.

‘Sihael, he seems hellbent.’

I was already tired. For a brief moment, I pressed down on my sunken eyes. I was thinking about going back to my bedroom pretending not to have seen them, but a boy came into my field of vision.

As if performing acrobatics, the haphazardly stacked boxes looked unstable.

‘It’s going to fall down like that.’

As soon as I thought about it, the unbalanced boxes fell down. Something spilled from the box and rolled to my feet.

“Pillow?”

Why did you put a pillow in there?

A memory suddenly came to my mind when I saw the unexpected gift.

‘I don’t like the pillow because it’s too light. It’s fun to hit with it when it’s heavy.’

It was just something that I meant as a joke in the villa. Don’t tell me he heard it and fulfilled it straight away.

I grabbed the corner of the pillow with disbelief. Then, I felt a heavy weight as if someone had put five books together.

Sihael, you crazy bastard.

No matter what, who makes a pillow so heavy? Is this a pillow? It’s almost a club.

“Leave it behind. I’ll take it with me.”

“Yes, yes!”

I hurriedly got up, left the running servant behind me, and pressed down on the pillow.

‘Does this mean he wants to get hit with this next time?’

I hit the pillow lightly with my fist and grabbed the corner and swung it round and round.