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Chapter 9
“R-Run away?”
What? Did he find out?
How did this man know about my perfect plan to go down to my estate and hide away there?
Flustered, I quickly darted my eyes around.
Then he, who had been calmly drinking his tea, smiled and said,
“I was joking. You look so startled. Surely you weren’t actually planning to run away?”
He was joking?
That was a relief, but my heart had already taken a beating as if it had been repeatedly stabbed.
Calm down. Calm down, Erna.
“…You can speak comfortably with me.”
“What?”
“We already agreed to be seniors and juniors. Besides, it feels even stranger when you speak so formally to me.”
“Should I, then?”
What? He’s so natural about it.
His casual speech came out as smoothly as if he had been waiting for permission. I was momentarily stunned, but since he stood at the very top of the social hierarchy, I decided not to think too much about it.
“So, why did you come?”
“Ah, right. The reason I came. I was thinking about it after I told you I would give you some time, and I realized I never actually set a deadline.”
“A deadline…?”
At my question, the Grand Duke smiled and nodded.
“We should set one properly. Otherwise, you might just keep dragging things out until the whole matter quietly fades away.”
“…”
“Of course, you wouldn’t do that.”
Gulp.
I bit my lip tightly, feeling strangely guilty.
The luggage bags that were still sitting in my room flashed through my mind, but I quickly pushed the thought away.
Now that things have come to this, there’s only one way.
“Alright. I’ll just be honest with you. I’m sorry, but I actually don’t remember anything about what happened that day. So I’m in a rather confusing situation.”
Whatever. Let’s just go straight at it. I’ll tell him the truth.
“Honestly, I said I would think about it a few days ago because I was too overwhelmed to do anything else. But even now, I still don’t understand what happened.”
“If you simply say you don’t remember, I’m the one who’s about to be dismissed from my position.”
“Exactly. If you had just kept your mouth shut and pretended nothing happened, we all could have had a happy ending. So why did you have to be so unnecessarily honest…?”
“Ah, so now it’s all my fault?”
“Being honest and sincere is a good thing. Of course. One of the greatest virtues, really.”
You’re quite impatient, aren’t you? When did I say everything was your fault? Hehe.
“Of course, saying I don’t remember doesn’t mean I’m refusing to take responsibility. I have enough common sense to understand that much. It’s just that I simply can’t make sense of it.”
“Alright. Then I suppose we should solve that first.”
“Yes. First of all… that woman I met that day. She really was me, right?”
There was what Sumin had written in the letter, and the timing matched, so I had simply assumed it was true and moved on. But I needed to confirm it properly.
He thought for a moment before answering my question.
“Last Wednesday. I was getting out of my carriage when you approached me and shouted, ‘Huh? Leon Obsidian. It’s Obsidian!’ like that. Ah, come to think of it, you seemed to have had quite a bit to drink.”
“That must have been… quite troublesome for you.”
She was drunkenly shouting the Grand Duke’s name out loud.
“And then you grabbed my face like this.”
“Gasp.”
“You said, ‘You’re incredibly handsome. Did you know that? You’re my favorite!’”
“…”
“But what does ‘favorite’ mean? I had never heard such a strange word before, so I remembered it.”
At those words, I let my head drop.
That reckless behavior with absolutely no sense of propriety, along with strange words like favorite that I had never heard before.
That alone was enough to prove the identity of the person inside my body.
“Wait a moment. But how did you end up spending the night together…?”
“You seemed drunk, so I couldn’t just leave you alone. I put you in the carriage. Then, when I was taking you to the marquis’s residence, you kept clinging to me and insisted that you didn’t want to go home.”
“Good grief…”
“You even said, ‘If there’s ever a chance to spend some quality time with my favorite, when else am I going to get one?’ You said I didn’t need to worry about anything because you would take full responsibility.”
There it is again. That favorite nonsense.
What on earth does “favorite” even mean?
Anyway, Park Sumin, who had possessed my body, happened to find her favorite on the street and immediately latched onto him.
“So I headed to the Grand Duke’s residence with you. And after that, as I told you before…”
“Ahem. I understand. You don’t have to say anything more.”
Right. So they took off their clothes, rolled around on the bed, and had a wonderful time together.
“Alright. I understand. I’ll admit that we slept together. Then, second.”
I tightened my loosened nerves again, reminding myself that this conversation was not over yet.
“You said I took your… first time from you, Your Highness. Honestly, I don’t think that makes sense either.”
“…Are you saying you can’t believe I had remained pure until now?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
There was something slightly heavy in his tone, so I quickly shook my head.
“I mean, just look at our builds. A thin woman like me, someone like me, could actually force you to… like that, and that, and… that?!”
It was so embarrassing to say it out loud that I could barely bring myself to utter the words, but when I asked whether something like that was even possible, the Grand Duke gave a small laugh.
“You don’t have to force someone through physical strength alone.”
“Then how?”
“Wouldn’t it be enough if I explained how attractive you were that night? Since you said you don’t remember, I can describe it in more detail…”
“No, no! That’s enough! I understand!”
“Good. Then what else is difficult for you to accept?”
What else is difficult to accept?
Obviously, pretty much everything about this whole situation.
But considering the two people involved, the letter the woman had left behind, and the Grand Duke’s consistent claims, I thought I finally had to accept reality.
“Surely you still don’t believe me?”
“I believe you. I do, but… it’s just hard to believe.”
“Which part, specifically?”
“Me and you? Your Highness, surely you could be with someone much more suitable and impressive than me. But the fact that I’m the person you chose… I think every citizen in the empire would find it strange.”
“I don’t think I can agree with that.”
Ah, there it was again.
He frowned slightly, as though he was somewhat displeased.
He leaned back against the backrest, pulling his body away from the table, and spoke with that characteristically stubborn expression.
“To me, the Marchioness looks like a very attractive woman.”
“What? You… Are you feeling alright?”
“Why did the conversation suddenly turn into that?”
“You wouldn’t say something like that if you were in your right mind.”
It wasn’t because he had called me beautiful.
It was because the person saying it was that man, Leon Obsidian.
A beauty that would stand out even among hundreds or thousands of people. His aura could be felt even from a distance, and he seemed to have a dazzling halo surrounding him.
He was praised as someone chosen by God to such an extent that even his questionable birth was almost forgotten.
Nearly every word used to describe him was something dazzling.
He was the kind of man where even placing the most beautiful woman of the century beside him would probably make people say she was not worthy of standing next to him.
And yet, that man was involved with an ordinary person like me?
The high society of Orden would be turned upside down.
And despite all that, the Grand Duke was telling me that I was beautiful.
‘As if he actually has feelings for me.’
That arrogant thought suddenly crossed my mind, and I quickly shook my head.
You’re crazy, Erna Zaherete. You’re being way too full of yourself.
‘It’s probably just courtesy toward someone he spent one night with. Or maybe he’s simply accepted his fate. It has to be one of those two.’
I didn’t know why, but the Grand Duke seemed to attach enormous importance to his first night, and since the damage had already been done, he was probably just trying to think positively about it.
“Alright. I understand. I won’t question what happened that night anymore. So, we definitely had a relationship that night, and Your Highness is asking me to take responsibility, correct?”
“Yes.”
“…And you have absolutely no intention of letting me off the hook? For example, keeping what happened that night a secret and dating another woman instead?”
The moment I finished speaking, the Grand Duke’s eyebrow shot upward.
“Again. You’re subtly trying to escape responsibility…”
“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant. I just thought there might be a possibility. You mentioned marriage, but perhaps you might want another woman as your partner instead? So I was just asking, in case.”
At my question about whether he might regret it later, his eyes became intense.
Yes. He’s confident he won’t regret it.
‘No, but still. Isn’t marriage going a little too far? To stake the rest of your life on one night? That’s not a fair trade at all!’
As if he had read my thoughts,
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of forcing you to marry me right away.”
“What? Then…”
“But we should do something else together instead.”
Something other than marriage?
So there was still room for negotiation after all!
Hope began to rise inside me.
I stared at him, silently asking what he meant.
The Grand Duke gave me a knowing smile, then pulled something out from inside his coat.
