After I, a Penniless Noble, Entered a Fake Engagement with the Most Elegant Duke’s Daughter at the Academy, For Some Reason She Started Showering Me with Love

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Chapter 04.1: The Answer to a Confession

Silence filled the room.

Only the crackling of the fire in the hearth disturbed it, popping softly in the background.

“So… you don’t want an answer to your confession?”

“That’s right.”

Yuri released her cup and folded her hands neatly on her lap.

“Wait. Is that even a thing? Not wanting an answer?”

Then what was that confession the other day?

A joke? A lie?

If it were, that would be far too cruel. Even if Yuri could be arrogant, she wasn’t that heartless… I think.

Well, she definitely had a mischievous streak. But that was teasing, not cruelty.

My thoughts were tying themselves into knots.

“It’s not that I don’t want one.”

“Then why… why not?”

“Are the words not coming to you?”

She saw straight through me.

If that was the case, I really wished she hadn’t shaken me like this. A little warning would’ve been appreciated.

But I was the one who rushed to give an answer in the first place.

Maybe I had simply walked into my own trap.

“At least for this, I’m not trying to tease you.”

So for everything else, you are?

“…It’s just… how should I put it? That time, I acted on impulse. I didn’t really think about what would come after.”

Yuri tilted her head slightly.

Her cheeks were faintly pink, as if dusted with a soft brush of color.

“It was impulsive. When I thought about it calmly afterward, I realized I probably wouldn’t get the answer I wanted.”

“The answer you wanted…?”

“Well, you’d reject me, wouldn’t you?”

She said it so matter-of-factly that all I managed was, “Huh?”

I stared at her in disbelief.

There was no trace of a joke in her expression. It was serious—almost solemn.

Her face clearly said, I know.

And there was a quiet force behind it that left no room for denial.

“For me, it’s a small matter. But I am from a ducal house. And you are from a viscount’s house. If I forced my feelings through, the backlash wouldn’t stop with us. It would scatter sparks everywhere. You… more than anything, you care about your family. I know that.”

She added the last part with a faint, teasing smile.

She knew I would reject her for my family’s sake.

That was why she said she didn’t need an answer.

The reasoning was sound. I could trace the line of thought she had followed.

For my sake, she would swallow her own feelings and be content with simply telling me how she felt.

What a modest, noble, selfless woman—

That would have been the natural conclusion.

But it didn’t fit the Yuri I knew at all.

Humble? Reserved?

My mind might have stalled, but somewhere deeper, my heart was already shouting.

No way.

Yuri was the kind of girl who seized what she wanted. Who refused to bend when it didn’t suit her.

A selfish, stubborn girl who dragged me along at her own pace.

“For now, that is.”

There it was.

The moment she overturned her own words, I felt myself relax.

I was relieved by that stubborn streak of hers.

And then another thought crept in—why was I relieved?

Part of me thought she could stand to be a little more modest.

And yet at the same time, I felt that her pride and boldness were exactly what made her Yuri.

I’m completely poisoned by her. It’s almost embarrassing.

The fact that I could think, This is fine. This is her, meant that whatever “ideal woman” I once imagined had long since crumbled.

While my own expression was probably falling apart, the noble young lady before me smiled with unshakable confidence.

“I’ll make you fall for me so deeply that you won’t see anything else. And then you’ll be the one confessing to me. So prepare yourself.”

She flashed a perfect row of white teeth.

It was a smile filled with elegance and pride.

There was even something faintly wild in it—almost predatory—yet it remained refined. That was simply Yuri.

Her attitude practically declared, You’re already mine.

What was I supposed to say to that?

Had I made a single correct decision since meeting her?

If anything, it felt like one misstep after another had brought me here—into a situation so far removed from normal that it felt more like a comedy than a romance.

Life is complicated.

Seriously complicated.

“I see…”

That was about all I could manage.

“Then… someday… I’ll leave it pending.”

I scratched my cheek and pushed the rest onto the future.

Honestly, I was at my limit. Just sitting there facing her was already overwhelming.

It felt like a fuse had been lit inside me.

And the fuse wasn’t very long.

“Then I’ll excuse myself for a moment.”

“Ah—okay.”

Yuri rose gracefully from the sofa.

I followed her with my eyes as she walked to the door.

Click.

The door shut firmly behind her.

Even after she left, I continued staring at it.

And then—

I collapsed back onto the sofa.

“Ah… ah… aaahhh…”

My throat trembled.

My vision blurred.

My body felt as though I had thrown myself straight into the fireplace.

“Aga—aru—ba—agagagaga—”

I was broken.

Completely.

In every way.

My head felt like it was boiling. I almost wished I could burst into flames and turn to ash.

Unfortunately, wishing that hard doesn’t actually set you on fire.

No divine punishment came.

“……………………………………………………I almost accepted it.”

Her confession.

Chapter 04.2: The Feelings I Didn’t Realize I Had

I didn’t recognize it as jealousy.

I just felt short of breath.

A heavy weight pressed against my chest.

At first, I thought I was simply feeling unwell.

But that wasn’t it.

The gap between what I believed and what I was actually feeling almost pushed me to choose emotion over reason.

“…Being jealous of a prince is wildly disrespectful.”

The way he spoke, as if he knew Yuri’s past.

For Prince Lionel, it was probably nothing more than a childhood memory. Not a jab at me. Just something that slipped out naturally.

But the expression Yuri showed—her clear discomfort—was something I had never seen before.

And before I realized it, I was envying him for being able to draw out that side of her.

Even if it was a negative emotion.

“How can I be this clueless about my own feelings?”

I lay back on the sofa and rested the back of my hand against my forehead.

Because I hadn’t understood my own heart, I had nearly answered her confession purely on impulse.

I almost forgot about the trouble it could bring to my family.

I almost chose my heart over everything else.

How stupid.

If someone called me an idiot right now, I wouldn’t even argue.

More than anything, the fact that Yuri understood me better than I understood myself—

That was what made me happy.

And unbearably embarrassed.

If I could, I’d go back a few minutes and punch myself square in the face.

Hard enough to break my own nose.

“So what happens to my family if I actually start dating Yuri?”

I had enrolled in this academy to rebuild my fallen house.

That was for my family. For the people in our territory.

And yet I had nearly thrown all of that aside, ready to put myself first.

Not only would I have no face to show my family—I wouldn’t even be able to face the version of myself who came here with that determination.

Getting distracted by romance and losing sight of my purpose.

That would make me no different from the students I secretly looked down on—the ones who treated their studies as secondary and focused only on finding a favorable marriage partner.

“Ahhh… I want to disappear.”

I was genuinely disappointed in myself.

To think I was the kind of man who would lose sight of everything over love. That’s pathetic. Truly pathetic.

But still…

“I really do like her, don’t I?”

Yuri.

Saying her name aloud made something settle quietly in my chest.

It felt natural. Like a piece finally clicking into place.

So that’s what it was.

What stood in the way was the difference in rank… and my own foolishness.

Looking back, it was embarrassing.

Telling myself she was just a close friend.

Maybe I had been trying to convince myself of that from the very beginning.

“But even if we like each other… it’s not as simple as calling it a happy ending.”

If it were, there would have been no need to leave her confession unanswered earlier.

A duke’s daughter and a viscount’s son.

We had known from the very start—back when this was only a fake engagement—that we were mismatched in status.

As long as it remained something confined to the academy, we could always say, “It was a misunderstanding,” and end it neatly.

But once it became real, that was different.

If my feelings had been one-sided, I could have simply given up.

Like a noble girl admiring a prince from afar, accepting that it could never become more than a dream.

But Yuri liked me.

And I knew it.

Saying we “felt the same” made me want to crawl into a hole from sheer embarrassment, but when you know your feelings will be returned, it isn’t so easy to step back just because she’s a duke’s daughter.

Even if I somehow forced myself to give up, I doubted Yuri would ever accept that decision.

“—I’ll make you confess to me instead… That’s what she declared.”

It was practically a declaration of war.

Why did a love confession sound like a duel challenge?

Still, when it was Yuri saying it—so confident, so certain—it somehow fit.

She wouldn’t give up.

Not until she got what she wanted.

Yuri was arrogant.

But she had the ability and charm to back it up.

I let out a long breath, heavy with frustration—and something far more complicated.

“…I really did go and fall for a troublesome woman.”

Of all people, why did I have to fall for a girl whose favorite pastime was teasing me?

If I was going to fall in love, I’d always imagined it would be with someone more ordinary.

Simple. Gentle. With a soft, sweet smile.

It turned out I understood myself least of all.

◇◇◇

Side: Yuliana

The moment I stepped outside the room, a long breath escaped my lungs.

The cabin was small—almost like a storage shed.

The narrow hallway ended almost immediately, forcing me to stop.

Standing in front of the restroom door, I slowly crouched down and hugged my knees.

“…I chickened out.”

Chapter 04.3: Side.Yuliana — Why I Lost My Nerve

I never imagined there would come a day when I would nearly cry over my own weakness.

Curled up with my knees drawn to my chest, everything around me was dark.

For once, that darkness felt comforting.

“…Hearing his answer…”

I hadn’t expected it to be this frightening.

There was no lie in my reason for putting his answer on hold.

From the very beginning, I knew he would reject me for the sake of his family.

He always placed them first. And I, a duke’s daughter, could easily become not just a spark—but a raging fire capable of burning everything around him. I never believed he would willingly accept that risk.

My confession had been impulsive, inspired by Luluris—his little sister—but that detail hardly mattered.

The moment I realized I liked him, telling him became inevitable.

If I didn’t, nothing would change.

Because he would never make the first move.

Half of me called him a coward for that.

The other half understood that, for his family’s sake, it couldn’t be helped.

So if anything was going to change, it had to be me who acted. That was both necessity and duty.

The conclusion I reached was exactly what I had anticipated.

Logically, I hadn’t made a mistake.

And yet, the way I handled it… was painfully cowardly.

What if he had said, “I don’t like you”?

The instant he began to speak about giving me an answer, a chill ran down my spine.

That must not happen.

He doesn’t dislike me.

As a duke’s daughter, I have observed countless people. I am sensitive to the faintest shifts in emotion.

He calls me troublesome and annoying—but there has never been genuine disgust in his feelings toward me.

At least… I don’t believe there has been.

Just thinking about it made my confidence falter.

Logically, my conclusion should have been correct.

And yet it felt like checking the same calculation over and over, even though the result hadn’t changed.

It should be right.

But that tiny “what if” clung stubbornly to my heart and refused to let go.

More than anything, even if he didn’t dislike me, the thought of being rejected still hurt.

I understood his reasons. I understood his feelings.

But simply hearing the word “no” from him would have been unbearable.

“…I can’t laugh at romance novel heroines anymore.”

They fall in love, yet hesitate endlessly.

Every time I read those stories, I would think, Just confess already. Just make him yours. Why hesitate?

If it were me, I would ignore the circumstances and take what I wanted.

Then I would ensure we were happy afterward.

Everything else could be handled later.

Even now, I haven’t changed my mind about that.

And yet here I am.

Pathetic enough to feel like coughing up blood.

“At this rate, how am I supposed to make him love me so deeply that he forgets everything else?”

Then what should I do?

The answer was obvious.

I lifted my head.

I swallowed my regret.

My embarrassment.

Even my anger at myself.

“All I have to do is make my dear husband fall for me.”

The weak version of myself? I’ll crush her.

I stood up and straightened my back.

Proud. Confident. Smiling boldly.

Yuliana Arrose is not the kind of woman who waits helplessly for a prince on a white horse to rescue her.

…Still.

“It’s cold.”

When I met him again a few days later, he acted as if nothing had happened.

Not even the slightest hint of awkwardness.

Even I—normally calm and composed—felt irritation beginning to rise.

At least show a little awareness.

Are you completely insensitive?

Chapter 04.4: Trying to Cheer Up a Sulking Duke’s Daughter

Lunchtime.

Yuri had stormed into my classroom to invite me to eat together, and now we were walking side by side down the hallway.

But the air around her felt strangely sharp.

“Are you in a bad mood?”

“Not at all. That must be your imagination, dear husband.”

She covered her mouth politely and laughed, soft and refined.

…She’s definitely angry, isn’t she?

Her expression was gentle, yet something in her presence felt intimidating. In fact, the more perfectly she played the part of a proper noble lady, the more obvious it became that she was upset.

Usually, when she comes to fetch me for lunch, she looks cheerful.

…Or was that just wishful thinking on my part?

Today, the sky was clear and bright, finally free from the endless snow. Just looking at that wide blue sky should have lifted anyone’s spirits.

And yet, walking beside Yuri felt like standing in the middle of a snowstorm.

Why?

The answer surfaced almost immediately.

Yesterday.

The postponed confession.

Her bold declaration that she would make me fall for her.

The memory still lingered, like snow that refused to melt even under sunlight.

The cause had to be there.

But I still couldn’t understand why she was this irritated.

Why does this duke’s daughter look annoyed five seconds after seeing me?

I’ve been losing sleep trying to figure out how to face her since yesterday.

And yet, she kept glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

She’s clearly aware of me.

So what exactly am I supposed to do?

Honestly, it would be easier if she just said something outright, like before—“Come visit me.” At least that was straightforward.

Don’t expect me to read your heart without words. I’m not a mind reader.

Still… if this is going to continue, I probably need to get better at sensing these subtle shifts.

Strangely, instead of irritation, I felt something closer to responsibility rising within me.

That caught me off guard.

Maybe my feelings really have changed.

Maybe this is what it means to like someone.

“Today… how about we go to the cafeteria?”

It felt like my stomach was being wrung dry as I forced the words out.

Yuri’s sour mood vanished instantly, and she blinked at me in surprise.

“Are you sure? You’re usually on the verge of tears saying, ‘It’s too expensive.’”

“W-Well, once in a while…?”

“You look closer to death than usual.”

Of course I did.

The academy cafeteria catered to nobles. Which meant the prices were absurd. For a poor noble like me—barely better off than a commoner—one meal there could be financially fatal.

No wonder I looked like I was on death’s door.

I had only gone once before.

When Yuri paid, to help spread the rumor about our fake engagement.

“I’m usually the one being accommodated. So at least today… let me.”

Most of the time, we ate outside the academy, at places meant for commoners.

Yuri came along sometimes, though not often. And whenever we did eat together, she adjusted to my budget without complaint.

Reversing that wasn’t easy.

But today, I wanted to ease her mood. And to thank her for always adjusting for me. Just once should be manageable.

…Will my allowance survive this?

Maybe I should send an apology letter home in advance.

While I mentally prepared for financial ruin, Yuri suddenly laughed.

“Are you trying to be considerate?”

“…Maybe.”

“Then shall I let you treat me today?”

…What?

Treat her?

The blood drained from my face.

But I was the one who suggested it. And she had paid before. There was no way I could say, “Let’s split the bill.” Running away now would mean throwing away the last scraps of my pride.

I felt my smile twitch, but I puffed out my chest anyway.

“L-Leave it to me.”

“Fufu, I’m joking.”

She laughed brightly.

“Rest assured, dear husband. I never assumed you possessed that level of wealth to begin with.”

“…I see. Wait, should I feel relieved?”

“Well… who can say?”

Yuri’s bold smile returned, and I felt a wave of relief.

Her bad mood had completely disappeared. Her voice was light again.

My pride as a man might have been shredded like a sofa clawed by a cat, but if she was back to her usual teasing self, that was enough.

…Was it really enough, though? Being teased like this?

Her mood had improved, yet my unease remained.