Celine frowned as she pushed it further, "You're not even thinking about it. You're just refusing without considering the offer!"
Lucian hated when people bossed him around and expected him to obey. Also being a master of his own time was a must for a married man with a little wife to take care of. "No."
"Ugh!" She stomped her foot, "Fine! What about friends? You are not getting a better deal than this, ever!"
'Friends?' Lucian's eyes widened, the offer tempting him more than before. "No."
What if his little wife got jealous of his girl friend and forced him to choose between them? He couldn't betray his future wife, not when she would need him to protect and take care of her.
Celine hung her mouth in disbelief and Lucian found it a bit funny.
"Why not?!" she asked, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.
"I'm already married to my future wife," he said and picked himself up, dusting the dirt from his pants. "I can't be friends with a girl," he explained.
She looked at him like he was crazy, "You are not even married!"
"Married in my heart," he replied, clutching his chest for emphasis. His drive to live had increased by tenfold, just thinking about his wife. The tiny, beautiful, cute wife that would need his full attention and protection.
"Business partners?"
"No." Lucian refuses again. At this point, he was just curious about her reaction.
"Uuuughhhh!!!" Celine groaned, making Lucian take another step backward, just to be safe. "It was a mistake coming here, I shouldn't have bothered."
She turned around to leave, muttering, "All the effort I went through to get out of the house, wasted. Wasted on a dumb boy with his head in the clouds."
Lucian's gaze followed the girl as she walked away, her every step filled with anger. She was the duke's daughter, he had to remind himself. His head might be in the clouds but his body should be on the ground.
"Wait!" he called out to her, and she paused. He walked up to her, "Thank you," he said.
"For what?" she asked, not looking back.
"For trying to help me and offering to be my friend," he said, "It made me realize that I have to work harder to be able to support my little wife as well. I can't let her save me, can I? A man has his pride."
A sniff came from her as she turned around to glare at him. "Don't thank me, I was never here to help you! I wanted to use you! Ha! I bet your wife will be no different than me, and you won't even realize it!"
Right. Why would the duke's daughter approach him despite his condition? Lucian's eyes dimmed, turning back to his hideout to hide his face from her.
She was right, and he hated that she was right. But what else was he supposed to do? If he didn't dream about his future wife, what did he have to look forward to?
He grabbed a basket and began to gather the calendula heads he had planted. The moment he got his hands on the recipe for the medicine from the church, he would start to make it himself.
He already knew the main ingredients needed by observing the stock the priests had in the basement, and now all that was left was to learn the right dosage and preparation method.
A shadow fell over him, forcing him to look up.
Celine stood above him, her arms crossed, "The church won't allow you to make the medicine yourself. They will find a way to prevent you from making it."
"H-how..." Lucian trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"If you can think of it, then there are others that can too," she said and went to sit inside his hideout, occupying his cushion. She took out a book out of her bag, opened it, and started reading.
"..." Lucian pressed his lips together before asking, "Where have you been all this time?"
She didn't look up from the book, "House arrest. Caught too much attention during the art auction. I had to lay low, or my father would send me to a monastery."
"Oh," Lucian was surprised she answered, "What's a monastery?"
"A place where they lock away naughty girls to keep them away from bad boys like yourself," she explained, making Lucian's face turn red.
"Y-you! I'm not bad!" he protested, not liking the implication. He was the goodest of good guys.
She grinned mischievously and poked her tongue at him. She then returned to reading her book.
He poked his tongue back at her angrily, throwing cellandula head into his basket. "Why did you return?"
"To read a book," she replied without taking her eyes off the page, "This is a good place to read without any distractions."
"But it's my place," Lucian complained, clutching his fist before continuing to gather the flower heads, "Payment is due for entering my property. A penny per minute. You can't be my friend, but a customer can do."
She shook her head, blinking her eyes in disbelief and then looking at him. "I'm not a customer, I'm a guest. Guests are not required to pay."
"You can't be a guest either," Lucian said, "I didn't give you permission to enter."
"I'm an uninvited guest then," she shrugged her shoulders and continued to read her book, "No payment is required."
Lucian frowned, "Then I'll kick you out, uninvited guests are trespassers."
"..." She began to chew on the bookmark in her mouth, gritting it with her teeth as if it was his head she was chewing on, "I dare you to try, peasant," she taunted.
Lucian opened his mouth to argue but was unable to think of a comeback. He would usually choose a friendly approach to avoid conflicts, but Celine just kept getting on his nerves somehow, making his temper flare up.
"Fine! I will!" he said and placed down the basket, approaching her with menacing steps. Stomping his feet with each step to add to the effect.
She always looked so out of his reach, the duke's daughter, sitting in her fancy dress and reading her fancy book. It didn't help that she was taller than him.
In the two years they haven't met, she outgrew him in height. It made him feel even smaller than he already was. And that just made him want to kick her out of his home even more.
"Rich girl," he muttered, crouching to pick up his cushion she was sitting on, and started dragging it toward the exit.
"Woah, woah! What are you doing?" She clung to the cushion, trying to keep herself from sliding away.
"Drag...ging...you out...by force!" Lucian replied, pulling the cushion with all his might.