🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 14
“The dress you made before… yes, it was pretty enough. But you made it without even seeing our baby’s face.”
Chris declared in the most dignified voice in the world.
Moved by the sight, Zenu covered his mouth.
“I want a perfect dress that suits the cutest, loveliest, most elegant face in the world.”
Chris proudly held out Pianie, who was making the most unimpressive expression ever. Pianie, influenced by the mood, also became proud.
As expected, this shamelessly handsome man—he’s got good eyes!
Wiping away tears of emotion, Zenu nodded vigorously.
“I understand completely. I’ll do my very best.”
“Good. But before you do your best, hurry up and bring the dress first.”
“Yes! I’ll run!”
Zenu left in a rush, leaving Chris and Pianie alone again.
Furrowing his brows, Chris turned Pianie around and held her facing him.
Seeing Chris’s handsome face up close made Pianie’s heart skip for a moment, but she quickly remembered how he’d stopped talking earlier and narrowed her eyes.
[Excuse me! Why did you stop mid-sentence earlier? Do you know how frustrated I am? I’m dying from curiosity!]
“Hm. How are you this cute?”
[Ugh. My cuteness is nothing new.]
Feeling instantly better, Pianie spoke primly.
If she could move, she would’ve folded her short arms and snorted.
“Baby.”
[Ah, and by the way, you keep calling me ‘baby,’ but I’m shockingly an adult.]
“You wouldn’t know.”
[Know what?]
“You have no idea how much I prayed every day. Prayed that I’d find you.”
[Goodness. You don’t look it, but I guess you’re quite devout.]
“I even tried to create a doll like you once. But no artisan could recreate your specialness. Your gentle, serene smile, your warm aura…”
[Hmm. As expected of me—special even as a doll.]
Yet despite this special face, Delis and Lea had dared to call it plain and ugly.
Once I return to normal, those two brats are the first I’ll deal with!
But how could she return?
Pianie had wandered into a silver wolf by chance, then met a doll-maker by chance, and ended up sold to a rich household—but thinking of what came next only filled her with dread.
I’m lucky this man treats me well because I resemble the doll he lost, but I can’t pretend to be his missing doll forever.
She missed her parents, the servants who were practically family, and her friends.
And this is so suffocating! So, so suffocating!
Pianie had lived her whole life doing whatever she wanted as a pampered noble lady. And now she was expected to live as a quiet doll who couldn’t even wiggle a finger?
No matter how handsome my owner is, I refuse to live like this!
She wanted to escape this suffocating doll-life as soon as possible.
Not knowing Pianie’s turmoil, Chris hugged her tightly against his chest.
“You’re just too cute.”
And Pianie learned something: a person could die crushed between a man’s pectoral muscles.
His chest—is it bigger than me?! I can’t breathe! Somebody help me!
While one of them was happy and one of them was about to die, a clear knock sounded.
“Sir Chris.”
The voice belonged to Johannes, who had fled earlier claiming to be busy.
“You came back on your own? Thinking about it, did you decide this was a good time to say goodbye to the world?”
Chris spoke pleasantly but with deadly words.
“N-no! That’s not it—Viscount Jackson is here to see you!”
Johannes answered shakily from outside the door.
Chris’s brows knit.
“Who’s Viscount Jackson?”
“He does this and that, but the simplest explanation is that he’s a retainer of the Emmen ducal house.”
Pianie’s foggy mind immediately sharpened—not because she realized she could survive without breathing.
What? The Emmen dukedom?!
The Emmen household was the one Delis belonged to—one of the empire’s Five Great Houses alongside the Loroa Imperial Family, the Grand Duchy of Hespia, the Yuria Marquisate, and the Caroline Marquisate.
The Duke of Emmen had not appeared publicly for years due to a mysterious illness.
Some gossipers once spread a rumor that he had already died and got severely punished by His Majesty the Emperor for it.
All duties were currently handled by the Young Duke of Emmen, so he must be the one who sent the letter to Chris.
Molton Emmen. Delis’s older brother.
Molton was well-known as a good-natured, informal type despite being the eldest son of a great house.
Even I’ve heard of him, and I lived only in the East.
And Molton had one unusual fact about him: he wasn’t the duchess’s child.
When the duchess gave birth to Delis, the duke’s lover appeared before her holding two children.
The duchess, foolishly kind, took both children in as her own. Thanks to that, Molton became the duke’s eldest son and rightful heir.
The duchess’s health declined after that, and society whispered that she had been shocked by the appearance of the lover’s children.
“She was always frail, but not to the point she couldn’t attend social events.”
“Imagine raising another woman’s children. Her inside must’ve been torn apart.”
“Poor Duchess.”
“Foolish woman.”
Perhaps aware of these rumors, the duchess insisted before her death that her illness was due to her own weak body, and that the children bore no blame. She protected them to the end.
Anyway, if the young Duke sent a message through his retainer, that means this handsome guy must be a noble too.
Pianie tried to deduce Chris’s identity.
He owned outrageously expensive magic tools and used them casually, and the Young Duke sought him out—so he was at least a powerful count or heir to one.
Whew. A central-region count is on a completely different level from an eastern count. Under normal circumstances, we’d never meet.
And yet here she was, pitifully held in his arms.
How unfair…
Just then, Johannes spoke.
“The Young Duke of Emmen said the letter must be delivered to you personally.”
“Tell him to get lost. I don’t need that.”
Pianie was shocked by Chris’s boldness.
Even if the Young Duke is nice, how can he be this rude?!
Johannes was just as taken aback.
“But it’s a letter bearing the Emmen family seal. Refusing it like this will only hurt your reputation.”
Pianie agreed—reputation was everything to nobles. Though she herself had never cared; her natural charm won everyone over.
I was just born likeable, that’s all.
Then Chris smirked and said:
“So the Grand Duke of Hespia should care about the feelings of the Emmen house?”
Pianie froze.
Huh? What did he just say?
As if hearing her silent voice, Chris continued:
“If that viscount insists on seeing my face, tell him this: if he wants the Grand Duke of Hespia to cut his head off, he should keep being stubborn.”
This time she heard it clearly. The man holding her so dearly had just referred to himself as the Grand Duke of Hespia.
Hiiiik—!
Pianie nearly fainted.
This handsome man is REALLY the Grand Duke of Hespia?!
The one rumored to have parents who went mad and drowned themselves in the sea, who bathed in the blood of dark wizards and monsters—
The terrifying man who supposedly hangs criminals’ heads at his front gate?!
Pianie wanted to escape his arms immediately. But Chris held her tightly, with no intention of letting go.
“I understand. I’ll deliver your words.”
“And don’t twist my wording. Say it exactly as I said, not a single syllable off.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
Once Johannes’s footsteps faded, Chris exhaled deeply and looked into Pianie’s face.
DUN—! His sudden closeness startled Pianie so much she nearly screamed, but no scream came out.
Hm. Still handsome.
Seeing his face up close again, Pianie couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.
Just looking at him makes me happy.
It was true Chris had a cold aura. When he’d purchased her, his gaze was something no ordinary person could imitate.
It was terrifying enough to make me tremble.
But now, the gaze he directed at Pianie was warm and gentle. Like flowers blooming in the bright spring sun—sweet and radiant.
A true handsome man among handsome men.
Could this handsome man really be as bad as the rumors said?
