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Vivian couldn’t understand herself.

Even though the food was prepared with more care than usual, she couldn’t bring herself to eat. Her hand froze mid-air, hesitating.

As always, she was far from the notion of appetite. This part about her remained unchanged, just like back in the day.

However, Vivian always understood that eating was essential.

That’s why in the past, even when she didn’t have an appetite, she forced herself to shove food into her mouth.

But today, despite knowing that, she found herself unable to move.

Once again, a nagging anxiety crept in—what if there was poison mixed in? Her palms felt damp with trepidation.

She had been lucky last time.

But what about next time? Was there any guarantee she’d survive again?

She didn’t hold a fierce attachment to life, yet she wasn’t completely devoid of it either.

The dizziness and pain from when she was poisoned were experiences she never wanted to go through again.

“Hah.”

Finally, Vivian set down her utensils.

It really seemed like she couldn’t continue the meal today.

Even now, the food felt repulsive as if there were bugs in it, and a wave of nausea washed over her.

Her body flatly rejected the food. It wasn’t something she could overcome with willpower.

“…Clear it away-“

-Clatter!

At that moment, someone sat beside her.

At first, she was flustered, wondering if it was a maid, but before she could lift her head, she realized who it was.

The stale smell of dust mixed with a hint of blood.

It was Kyle Allen’s scent.

As expected, he had plopped down right next to her.

Having grown slowly, he was now taller than her by about three finger lengths.

“You’re not going to eat?”

Kyle Allen asked without meeting her gaze.

Vivian looked at him with a mix of shock and annoyance.

“…What?”

“Aren’t you? You just told the maids to clear it away.”

“…”

When Vivian didn’t respond, Kyle finally met her eyes, wearing a look that seemed to question why she wasn’t answering.

She was too flustered to speak.

Who would have imagined someone would sit next to her?

For the past six months, or even longer… Vivian hadn’t shared a table with anyone.

Yet Kyle Allen broke that routine with alarming speed, and in a way that was incredibly irritating.

Kyle Allen rolled up his sleeves and said,

“If you’re just going to toss it, I might as well eat it?”

He grabbed a roasted duck leg and tore into it with gusto.

As he did, he muttered to himself,

“…It’s been ages since I had duck.”

“…”

Vivian didn’t think Kyle was stupid. He probably understood exactly why she wasn’t eating.

After all, an attempt to poison her had happened just days ago, and the castle was still in turmoil over the incident.

Every vassal was overly protective, watching her closely.

Yet Kyle, who had helped her, acted as if nothing had happened at all.

As if he had totally forgotten that day’s events.

It was so absurd that Vivian couldn’t help but ask,

“Don’t you… know why I’m like this?”

“Why does it matter?”

“What if… there’s poison in that duck?”

Before she could finish, Kyle Allen bit into the duck leg.

The meat was so juicy that the juices dribbled down his chin.

With an “Ugh,” he quickly wiped his lips, seemingly oblivious to Vivian’s warnings.

He hastily stripped the meat off the bone, continuing his mealtime.

Since the meat was the first he’d had in a long while, his face was full of joy.

After a few bites, the once-large duck leg was reduced to just the bone.

Yet Kyle Allen didn’t stop there.

Without even swallowing the meat he had just chewed, he greedily reached for more.

Next was the breast meat.

Bone after bone began to pile up in front of him.

There seemed to be no poison in the meat. If there had been, he surely wouldn’t be able to eat like that without any reaction.

As she stared blankly at him, Kyle turned irritable.

“Move along.”

“Huh?”

“Why are you still here?”

“…”

Vivian let out a hollow chuckle.

Did he really think she was avoiding eating on purpose?

How could he be so brazen while eating her food?

“I don’t get it.”

However, it was Kyle who first treated her like an idiot.

“Whether you ingest poison or just starve to death, aren’t they the same? To me, starving to death seems way harder.”

“You’ve never swallowed poison…”

“If eating poison is scary, just tell the maids to taste it first.”

The maids gasped at Kyle’s suggestion.

Panic was painted clearly on their faces.

“…”

Vivian couldn’t believe she’d never even thought of Kyle’s method. But executing it felt selfish, and she couldn’t bring herself to do that. It wasn’t how a person should act.

A head of family demanding his vassals to sacrifice themselves for him couldn’t truly be a proper head.

Perhaps Kyle was merely making a joke. He wasn’t someone who pushed his work onto others.

So, she figured his suggestion was just a provocation aimed at her.

“I don’t know. You decide. I’d be happy to eat it all. I’m about to feast after a long time.”

Kyle continued with his taunts.

His greasy hand, slick with duck fat, grabbed a soft piece of bread.

He ripped off a chunk of the bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

“…”

What the hell?

Vivian thought.

Watching him continued to annoy her.

It was food she intended to throw away, and it shouldn’t bother her that Kyle was eating it… but it felt wasteful nonetheless.

“Stop eating that.”

Without realizing it, Vivian had said that.

-Pause.

“…”

Kyle froze for a moment at her words.

His dark eyes turned to her.

Vivian was surprised by what had slipped out of her mouth.

But it seemed her message was conveyed clearly enough.

“…”

“…”

Yet Kyle continued to chew his food as if nothing had happened.

The food disappeared bit by bit.

Fruits, bread, vegetables, meat, and drinks…

Did he have a bottomless pit in his stomach? Kyle kept inhaling everything.

“C-Could you stop devouring my food?”

Vivian yelled again, her tone harsher this time.

Honestly, it wasn’t that she hated the food disappearing; it was infuriating that the food was filling Kyle’s stomach.

His provocations made it all the more annoying.

“Why is it your food? You were going to toss it!”

Kyle’s jaw didn’t stop. He slurped loudly as he swallowed the food obnoxiously.

“I never said to clear it!”

“You should eat faster, then.”

Kyle replied, wearing a look that seemed to ask what was wrong with her.

“…”

Vivian looked down at the table once more.

There was no food left untouched by Kyle’s hands.

That also meant there was no food left that could be poisoned.

Suddenly, Vivian felt a mix of anger and… awe toward Kyle.

Did he really not have any fear?

How could he act like this knowing the food might be poisoned?

Was his thought that he’d rather die stuffed than starve?

“…”

As she pondered over the food, she realized the surroundings had grown quiet.

Kyle was now glancing sideways at her.

“Cough.”

When their eyes met, he resumed viciously chewing his food as though nothing were amiss.

Watching his etiquette-less dining made her understand why people said northerners were uncivilized.

However, at the same time, his uninhibited manner eased her mind.

His ramshackle yet delicious eating habits… somehow stirred the faintest hint of appetite within her.

What had made her feel nauseated earlier was now absent.

Compared to earlier, the now half-finished table didn’t seem as repulsive either.

As she continued lost in thought, the food continued to dwindle.

That meant Kyle Allen’s joy was also increasing.

Eventually, pushed by an unseen force, Vivian reached out her hand.

-Swipe.

She seized the last duck leg.

The gasps of the maids filled the air once more.

Vivian, much like Kyle did, yanked on the duck leg and bit into it.

The glistening food now seemed remarkably appetizing.

She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this way.

With the utensils now set aside, she brought the leg closer to her mouth just like Kyle.

Grabbing a fork and knife only reminded her of that day, which felt uncomfortable.

So, she decided to act like Kyle.

Vivian took a deep breath.

She tried her best not to think of the poison she’d swallowed.

Gathering her resolve, she took a small bite out of the end of the duck leg.

“What’s that? Eating, huh?”

Kyle scoffed, wrinkling his nose as if he saw something disgusting.

“In our land, if you eat like that, you’ll just get mocked.”

“…”

Along with her annoyance, she took a big mouthful of meat next.

The aromatic scent of roasted duck filled her mouth.

Kyle nodded just then.

“Yeah, that’s how you’re supposed to eat.”

“…”

Though it was a tiny compliment, it surprisingly didn’t feel bad.

How long had it been since someone praised her?

She realized just how broken she had become when this kind of feeling surged within her.

To hide this embarrassing feeling, she chewed her food even more diligently.

Vivian munched on her food as if racing against him.

Now that Kyle had tasted her food first, her anxiety had diminished considerably, making it easier to swallow.

They continued their silent dinner for a time.

It was a strange feeling.

Dining with Kyle felt unpleasant, yet sharing food with someone awakened emotions she had long forgotten.

…

When Kyle finally downed a glass of water, he wrapped up his meal.

The empty plates wandered around the table.

Vivian also felt quite full by now.

In her frantic attempt to prevent Kyle from stealing her food, she had unknowingly filled her stomach.

Kyle casually wiped the grease off his hands with a cloth and said dismissively,

“Let’s keep doing this.”

“What?”

“I’ll come around for every meal, so get my food ready too.”

The suggestion made Vivian furrow her brow in disapproval.

“You want us to eat together from now on?”

But Kyle responded as if it were totally natural.

“It’s better for both of us, right? You’d rather have someone eat before you, and I just want to eat something tasty. We’d benefit from each other.”

Upon reflection, his suggestion wasn’t entirely absurd.

Vivian had been exposed to the risk of poison for too long. She had no one to share her table with, nor did she want anyone.

If Kyle could provide that, it would be like gaining an extra layer of security.

“…I don’t want to.”

But the words that came from Vivian’s mouth were driven by a habitual hostility.

Even acknowledging that Kyle’s proposal was logical, her emotions wouldn’t allow it.

“So you’d rather starve?”

“…”

However, she couldn’t strongly rebuke Kyle’s words either.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, she bit her lip.

But in the end, the final decision lay with Kyle Allen.

He stood up and ordered the maids waiting behind Vivian,

“Did you hear? From now on, prepare my food whenever you’re setting the table.”

“…”

Vivian couldn’t tell him to ignore that.

So the maids just nodded in acknowledgment to Kyle.

Having satisfied his hunger, Kyle left without a second thought. She swore she heard a burp as he exited the hall.

“Hah…”

Once he was gone, Vivian slowly lowered her head and let her forehead rest on the table.

Her red hair spilled out around her.

It was only after he left that she realized she had been a bit tense around him.

Vivian could hardly believe she had just silently accepted such an arrangement.

To be eating with Kyle Allen moving forward—

No matter how justifiable it seemed, it made no sense.

Yet, she found herself vaguely grasping the reason behind it.

While the paramount reason was a desire for safety, there was more to it.

Having been through so much already, his presence felt oddly natural.

They were no longer awkward enough to push each other away like before.

A form of bond had formed by battling against the adults around them.

Thus, even knowing that the Allen family was the source of all her woes, she maintained a peculiar distance from Kyle Allen.

He was the only one who genuinely understood her struggles.

Each time life became difficult, her hatred for the Allen family deepened.

The wounds and pain inflicted by them continued to weigh heavily on Vivian.

But paradoxically, Vivian kept getting entwined with Kyle Allen amid her suffering.

Pretending to be strong or looking tough… they continuously circled around each other, sharing pain.

“…This shouldn’t be happening.”

Vivian whispered, unable to suppress her emotions, eyes tightly shut in distress.

She was painfully aware that this shouldn’t be the case.

The Allen family was her enemy family. Everyone she loved had perished at their hands.

But despite this hatred, she found herself getting closer to Kyle.

It shouldn’t be like this; it was hard to deny how comforting his presence had become.

Perhaps that’s why.

Regarding future meals with Kyle, Vivian had this feeling:

She dreaded it. She was afraid they’d end up fighting.

She was scared he might provoke her by pushing her weak spots.

It disgusted her to be sharing meals with her enemy.

Yet, at the very end, she thought, it might not be as horrific as she expected. Now she wouldn’t have to eat alone anymore.

This mixed bag of emotions left her feeling confused.

 

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