#14. To Her Hometown (3)

“I had some feelings too... No, and besides, you did too, Oppa. Weren’t Mother and Father trying to set Dmitri and me up?”

Eleonore protested, her face flushed. Her voice was every bit as sulky as her expression.

She had gone from addressing him as Orabeoni to the more familiar Oppa, and her words to Albris had grown just as informal.

Normally, Albris would have welcomed this change in his beloved little sister with open arms. But even that adorable, sulky voice of Eleonore’s wasn’t enough to make him smile and brush it off this time.

Of course, just as Eleonore said, Albris himself—and their father and the rest of the family—had indeed marked Dmitri Verbritz as a potential groom for her.

Last spring, their parents had openly invited the Grand Duke to the estate in hopes of bringing Eli and Dmitri together. Albris, too, had urged Dmitri on when he wavered, saying there wasn’t much time left.

Truthfully, it would be difficult to find a groom like Dmitri anywhere in the vast Galatea Empire.

Though House Béarn held only the title of margrave, its standing surpassed even that of the capital’s renowned ducal houses.

Naturally, Eli’s partner would have to be someone worthy of her. And even a rough list of the candidates who came to mind did nothing to satisfy him.

Just as Albris himself had never brought a woman into his life...