KATHERINE

The carriage moved through the bustling streets.

I couldn’t stop looking through the sheer curtain at the people passing by, watching the lively sway of the night markets.

The air was thick with festivity. It was my first time visiting these lands, outside of Everhart’s Duchy and the territories of other nobles.

Suddenly, we came to a halt, perhaps because something was blocking the carriage’s path.

My attention fell on a pair of lovers standing in front of a trinket stall.

The man looked like a farm laborer, his skin tanned by the sun, but his face bore the foolish expression of a man hopelessly in love as he gazed at the petite woman beside him.

He picked up a few pendants, trying them on her.

The woman looked embarrassed, and then he whispered something in her ear, leaning in so close that it made her smile and blush like a tomato.

I sighed wistfully.

I had always been a hopeless romantic—so much so that a few sweet words and tender gestures were all it took for me to fal