Chapter 78: The Invitation Letter
Armand had planned to give Evelia a day off today so she could relax a little. But to his surprise, Evelia didn’t know what to do with herself at all.
When Armand told her, “Do whatever you want today,” Evelia replied, “I don’t have anything I want to do.” She even asked Armand to give her other orders so she would know how to spend the day.
“You don’t have any life goals or something?”
When Armand asked her that, Evelia shook her head.
Because for her, life was only about following orders. Her only goal was to please Armand.
Now that Armand was telling her to do whatever she wanted, she had no idea what to do.
If Armand said, “Just sit here and don’t do anything,” she could seriously sit there without eating, drinking, sleeping, or even going to the bathroom until the next morning. And for her, that would count as a goal.
“You really...” Armand let out a helpless sigh. “Then just follow me today.”
He originally hoped Evelia would find something fun or interesting while following him around, and that she’d be able to enjoy her day a bit. But once he said that, Evelia stuck to him like glue.
Wherever Armand went, Evelia followed, whether it was the kitchen, the garden, the main hall, the office, or even the bedroom, Evelia was right there next to him.
Even when he went to the training area and stopped by the bathroom, Evelia pushed the door open and came right in. At that moment, Armand had already unzipped his pants halfway, and he had to zip them back up fast.
“You—Why are you following me in here?!”
Armand quickly pulled down his shirt and looked at Evelia, who stood quietly behind him. Luckily, the other knights were still training outside, so the bathroom was empty except for the two of them.
“You told me to follow you today, didn’t you?”
Evelia looked completely innocent.
“There are limits, you know... This is the bathroom.”
“Can’t I go to the bathroom too?”
Armand even hesitated when answering that. He was afraid if he said something too strongly, like “Of course not!”, Evelia might decide to never use the bathroom again.
“No... I mean, this bathroom isn’t okay.”
“Why not?”
“Why not—?!”
Evelia’s “why” left Armand totally speechless.
“This is the men’s bathroom!”
“I know.”
Evelia answered like it was perfectly normal.
“Mr. Armand, why haven’t you used the toilet yet? Is something wrong?”
“What could be wrong with using the bathroom?!”
“It’s fine, Mr. Armand. I’m your maid, just leave it to me. If you can’t do it yourself, then I can help you—”
Before she could even finish her sentence, Armand had already picked her up and threw her out of the bathroom. He even locked the door behind her.
Later, after taking Evelia around the estate for a bit, Armand returned to his office. There was an upcoming festival to honor war heroes, which was also a celebration for the knights. As the commander of the knight order, Armand had to personally write a lot of invitation letters for it.
Even Carle, the vice commander, couldn’t do this job for him, it had to be Armand himself. So he had to spend the rest of the day in the office.
As for Evelia, she stayed quietly by his side. To make sure she wasn’t too bored, Armand brought out a bunch of ketchup for her. Yes, the same ketchup he meant to give her last time but never did. He had kept it all this time, thinking maybe it would come in handy someday.
And today... well, it did.
While Armand was writing the invitation letters, Evelia stood quietly beside him, eating tomato ketchup. It seemed like she didn’t want to bother him. When the ketchup packet was almost empty, Evelia didn’t suck on it directly to avoid making slurping noises.
Instead, she rolled it up like toothpaste, squeezed it hard with her fingers, and used her small, flexible tongue to clean the tip. She even stuck her tongue inside to lick it completely. One packet was quickly emptied.
Then came the second packet, the third, the fourth, the fifth…
No matter how much she ate, Evelia’s stomach didn’t seem to get full. One packet after another was emptied by her amazing ketchup-eating skills, leaving nothing behind.
“Uh, Eve, why don’t you go sit on the couch for a while?”
Armand saw that Evelia had been standing next to him for a long time. Even though he trusted her strength as an assassin, watching her stand there made him feel tired. So, he carried the box of ketchup over to the couch and gently guided Evelia to sit, lightly pressing her shoulder.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
Evelia seemed to be having fun, playfully putting the tomato sauce packet on her chest as if testing how long she could keep it balanced without using her hands. It wasn’t about eating anymore, just playful curiosity.
“No, I have to do this part myself. You can just sit here. It’s not a strict order, if you suddenly think of something you want to do, feel free to do it.”
Since today was meant to be a day off for Evelia, Armand didn’t mind what she chose to do.
“Okay, Mr. Armand.”
After that short talk, they both went quiet again. Armand kept working on his letters, and Evelia focused on the ketchup resting on her chest. She looked like she had discovered something new and fun.
Because Armand hadn’t known Evelia’s favorite flavor, he had bought a whole box of different types. There were the small packet ones she usually carried, and also large bottled ones meant for cooking. Evelia got curious about the bottled kind, so she opened one. The lid was very tight, but with just a little force, Evelia popped it off easily.
She looked around, stood up, and quietly left the office. Armand thought she had finally found something useful to do. But soon, Evelia came back, calm as ever, with a thick straw in hand.
She poked the straw into the bottle with a soft “pop,” stirred the ketchup around, then tried to figure out how to drink from it while still balancing it on her chest. The bottle was too big to fit nicely between her mouth and chest, but as the saying goes, “There’s always a way.” A new idea came to her.
She clamped the bottle between her chest, adjusted it carefully, and lowered her head to drink through the straw. Watching all this made Armand, who somehow couldn’t stop looking, frown deeply.
As the ketchup in the bottle got lower, Evelia had to bend her neck more and more. Her neck began to feel sore, so she would lower her head to drink and then raise it to rest. If the bottle slipped downward, she had to lower her head even more and use her mouth to lift it back up. All without using her hands. It was like she was challenging herself.
Finally, after who-knows-how-long, Evelia finished the whole bottle. She cleaned the mouth of the bottle, then put it down with a satisfied look and grabbed her straw, ready to start the next one.
“Um, Eve.”
Armand had seen everything. When he saw her pop open the next bottle with a loud “crack,” he snapped out of it and remembered that he had looked up earlier for a reason.
“What is it, Mr. Armand?”
“Well…”
He couldn’t believe he had just watched Evelia eat ketchup for that long. What was so interesting about that...?
Still, that strange scene kept repeating in his head, even leading to... some very dangerous daydreams.
“Mr. Armand?”
“Ah, Eve.”
Evelia’s voice calling him again finally pulled Armand back to reality. He stood up and picked out a very different envelope from the stack of invitation letters on his desk. Compared to the other envelopes that were light gold, this one was black with gold trim and had elegant blue patterns. It looked much more refined. The wax seal on it was also different. If you looked closely, you could even see Armand’s last name engraved on it.
“Ahem… Hmm…”
Armand walked over to Evelia, cleared his throat, straightened his invisible air-tie, took a deep breath, and then bent down slightly. With one hand behind his back, he held out the invitation to Evelia.
“Miss Evelia Croyelle, I, Armand Systalia, Commander of the Royal Knights, officially invite you to the upcoming Prolos Festival banquet. Would you be willing to be my partner and attend the ballroom with me?”
His tone was so formal that Evelia froze for a second. She looked down at the beautiful invitation in her hands, then looked at Armand, who was waiting for her answer with hope in his eyes. She blinked, but didn’t respond right away.
Armand didn’t say anything either. This was the first time he had ever invited someone to a ballroom. He didn’t know any of the complicated noble etiquette, and he wasn’t sure if he was doing it right. But since he was inviting Evelia, he wanted to make it special. That’s why he had prepared a different envelope. He even asked the old butler to dig through the storage to find the wax seal, because he’d never written formal letters before.
“This… is for me?”
Evelia didn’t know why, but as she looked at the invitation in front of her, a strange feeling rose in her heart.
“Of course it’s for you. Who else would I be giving it to?”
“But all those others on your desk…”
“This one is different.”
“I see.”
Different?
The invitation Armand gave her… was different from the rest?
When she heard the word “different,” Evelia’s heart skipped a beat.
‘So… in his eyes, am I special?’
That feeling she had always wanted, recognition. She felt it again, coming from Armand.
“……”
Looking at the beautiful envelope, Evelia reached out and accepted it. Armand let out a quiet sigh of relief and smiled, realizing he hadn’t messed up after all.
“Um… Mr. Armand,” Evelia lowered her head slightly, and the invitation concealed half her face that showed a gentle smile hidden just beneath it. “Thank you.”
“Ah—it’s nothing really…”
“……”
Evelia didn’t say anything more. For some reason, holding the envelope in her hands made her feel warm inside.
But when her eyes fell on the words “Royal Knights” written on the envelope, that warmth quickly turned cold. A sharp sense of separation hit her like a wave, dragging her out of that warm moment and into the depths again.
Royal Knights…
Yes… the Royal Knights.
Right now, she was holding an invitation from someone who was supposed to be her enemy.
Because of the Second Prince’s mission, she was supposed to keep her distance from him.
But…
Why was it that the line in her heart, the one that should separate them, was becoming more and more blurry?
It shouldn’t be like this… and yet…
Evelia went quiet, gently touching the wax seal on the envelope.
The golden designs reflected the light beautifully, but somehow, they didn’t feel like they belonged to her.
A silent sigh echoed in her heart.
Maybe she had been careless. Though she had only touched it gently, her fingertip left a faint scratch across the wax seal, right on the name “Systalia.”
‘I’m sorry…’
She apologized silently, not even sure who she was saying sorry to.