I, Vivandir, must be one of the unluckiest men in the world. A few weeks ago, I got in touch with Darius Moonlight. Everyone thinks he's a charlatan who just drinks and goes from brothel to brothel, but at the time, I believed it would be different when he mentioned a girl he was very interested in.

I even thought it would work out to offer my help, I tried to self-dissuade myself just to have that love... and in the end, I discovered that all the complaints and fuss surrounding this Moonlight were correct! After I gave him a chance to enter the mansion, my life turned upside down!

My boss died, I lost my job, and was on the streets for a while, the Countess left, the titles and possessions were passed to her niece Ravenna, and I had to step down from my job as head chef to a mere cashier in a corner bakery!

"Here's your change..."

I hand the coins to a snot-nosed kid who then runs out the door and doesn't even greet me with a good morning. What crap. My life went down the drain, and now I have to deal with this kind of thing daily to pay the bills...

Hah. I hate my life. I haven't even been able to meet Miette again with so much struggle these last few days. Damn you, Darius Moonlight!

At least today is a quieter day. I was lucky they didn't call me for that ball as a cook, otherwise, I probably would have died by now. It was obvious that scoundrel would forget me, every noble is like that, they use a commoner until they get tired, and then they discard any promise. He even knew Miette's name and promised to unite me with her!

"Scoundrel, drunkard, liar! I bet right now he's sprawled out in some bed with expensive sheets, laughing at idiots like me who believed him. Darius Moonlight... if I find that son of a..."

The door bell jingles and cuts me off mid-curse.

My heart almost stops. It's Miette.

She enters with that distracted manner, her hair tied up haphazardly, holding an empty bag in her arm. Her dark, chocolate-colored skin always enchants me, and the curls falling over her shoulders are enough to captivate any man. Beautiful, extremely beautiful!

She has no idea of the hurricane that passes through my head every time she appears. My face heats up instantly, and I even adjust my apron as if that would fix anything.

"G-Good morning, Miette."

She smiles, noticing nothing.

"Good morning, Vivandir. I came to get fresh bread... my mother asked for it."

I fumble with the baskets, almost dropping the bread on the floor.

"Fresh bread, of course! The best fresh bread in the city, look here..." I speak too quickly, trying to sound confident, but I sound more like a desperate salesman. "Hahaha, it's hot today, isn't it?"

She laughs softly, without malice, but my stomach turns. If she only knew how much I... no, she doesn't need to know, it's better this way. If I didn't have so much debt around my neck and weren't struggling to scrape the bottom of the pot just to eat, it would be easier.

"H-How have things been?"

I hold the bread basket as if it were my last anchor of dignity. She rests her chin on her hand, thoughtful, and answers with that calm that always dismantles me:

"Ah, pretty good, actually. Your bakery is busy, right? I always see a line at the door."

"Y-yeah, yes! Hard work, you know how it is..." I laugh nervously, shaking my head like an idiot. "Life isn't easy, but we manage."

She looks me in the eyes, and for a second I think she can see every broken piece inside me. My God, I can't resist that look, that expression full of power and absolute respect. I wish I had just one chance with her, would this look be a green light?

She holds the basket forward. Ah, no, it wasn't...

"Give me four loaves of bread, please."

While using the tongs to grab what she asked for, I almost give her four loaves, four little sweets, and my heart along with it, but I swallow hard and only hand over the request. Our fingers touch quickly, unintentionally on her part, and the warmth travels up my entire arm with a shock that is too sweet to ignore. I'm not washing this hand today.

"Thank you, Vivandir." She tucks her curls behind her ear, with that simple smile that always ruins me. "Oh, and I also wanted to tell you..."

My heart speeds up. Maybe it's a sign. Maybe she noticed. Maybe...

"...I'm getting married next week."

What?

I feel my mouth open on its own, without any sound coming out. My eyes widen, sweat runs down my temple. The bread almost slips from my hand, but I still hold it because it's the only thing left of my sanity.

The words echo in my head, repeating, repeating, until they turn into cruel hammer blows.

Getting married, a simple phrase, two words, and it's like I've been shot straight through the heart with an arrow. I can't even breathe properly, every second is a weight crushing my chest. I imagined so many scenarios: her noticing my feelings, her agreeing to go out with me, even her laughing at my lame jokes... but this? This never crossed my mind.

I feel like the biggest idiot in the kingdom. I worked until my hands were sore, I endured hunger, cold, humiliation, and always carried a foolish hope that, in the end, I would at least have the consolation of a chance with Miette. But fate decided to spit in my face again.

Who is the bastard? Who is the lucky man who will lie down beside her, wake up to that smile in the morning? It's not me, and that's what hurts the most.

I feel my head bleeding out, the world around me seems so confusing that I feel everything spinning. Everything becomes blurry, my chest tightens, and before I know it, I'm already on the floor.

The coins in the drawer jingle when I hit it on the way down, the bread rolls across the floor, and all I can see is her face moving away, worried, calling my name. I don't hear clearly, just a buzzing. My body seems to shut down, and all that remains is the bitter feeling of defeat.

Hah, if this is my death, I only have one thing to say:

Damn you, Darius Moonlight!