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Chapter 5
How could I have forgotten something so important? I’m such an idiot…!
“What’s wrong?”
As I sat there silently berating myself, the Grand Duke looked at me with wide, puzzled eyes. My sudden reaction must have startled him. He looked just like a rabbit frozen after hearing a suspicious noise in the bushes.
So adorable…!
“It’s nothing. Haha.”
I waved my hands again, emphasizing that everything was fine. It was a little too soon to tell him what I’d remembered. To prove that nothing was wrong, I sat back down and picked up my fork and knife.
Then I started cutting into the steak on my plate.
Scrape. Scrape.
Why is this thing putting up such a fight?
The steak refused to cut no matter how hard I tried. I kept grinding the knife against the plate when the Grand Duke walked over.
“Lady, allow me to—”
“No, it’s fi— Ah!”
Determined not to give up, I pressed down harder.
The knife suddenly slipped.
The plate cracked cleanly in half, and the blade shot forward, slicing across the hand the Grand Duke had reached out toward me.
A thin cut opened on the tip of one of his fingers.
The meat refuses to be cut no matter what, but it slices someone else’s skin? And why did the plate break in half?
Granted, it proved the knife wasn’t dull—the steak was simply ridiculously tough.
But that wasn’t the important part right now.
“Ahhh! What do I do?!”
I screamed as though I were the one who had been cut and immediately threw the knife away.
Then I grabbed the Grand Duke’s hand and held his finger close to my face to inspect the wound.
It wasn’t deep—just a tiny split, like the kind you get from a sheet of paper.
Still, a single drop of blood had formed at the tip.
The moment I saw it, it felt as though my own heart had been split in two.
Without thinking about proper first aid, I panicked and immediately put his injured finger into my mouth.
Before I could even hate myself for hurting my favorite character, one thought overwhelmed everything else.
The wound comes first.
“…!”
The Grand Duke’s entire body stiffened.
Did his fingertip hurt that badly?
He simply froze, unable to move or react.
“What should I do…?”
“I-I’m… fine. It’s only a little scratch.”
“No. You need treatment.”
I fidgeted anxiously.
I actually made my favorite character bleed… I’ve completely lost my mind.
Just as I was about to sink into another round of self-reproach, he gently pulled his hand away and hid it behind his back.
His face was burning red.
It looked like the wound stung, but he seemed to be enduring it, pretending to be tough.
“Please let me put some medicine on it.”
“I-If you insist… then all right.”
Perhaps he could see how distressed I was.
After hesitating for a moment, he called for a servant.
A maid waiting outside entered, placed a medicine box on the table, and quietly left.
I opened the box and searched until I found an ointment suitable for cuts.
Unscrewing the lid, I dabbed a little onto my fingertip before speaking.
“Please give me your hand.”
“Here.”
The Grand Duke extended his injured hand.
Long, elegant fingers.
Just looking at those beautiful hands made my heart flutter as though tiny buds were blooming inside it.
I’m finally getting to touch my favorite character…
Both my hands trembled as they slowly reached toward him.
Like someone handling an irreplaceable treasure.
Closer.
A little closer.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Then…
Tap.
Our skin touched.
A jolt.
So this was what people meant when they said touching someone felt like electricity.
A tingling sensation shot through my entire body, making even my hair stand on end.
I gently rubbed the ointment onto his fingertip.
Every time he flinched, my heart ached because I knew it must sting.
At the same time…
I hated myself for feeling excited by the contact.
I shouldn’t enjoy this… but honestly… I really do.
Caught between those two completely opposite emotions, I somehow managed to finish applying the medicine.
“There. All done.”
“Thank you.”
The instant I finished speaking, he quickly withdrew his hand.
Did it really sting that much?
Seeing how red his face was made another wave of guilt wash over me.
The Grand Duke instructed a maid to clean up the broken plate and the ruined meal before bringing us another steak.
This time, it had already been cut into bite-sized pieces.
“Please eat.”
“Yes.”
The rest of the meal passed in complete silence.
As usual, the Grand Duke kept his head lowered, focusing solely on eating.
Meanwhile, my thoughts remained occupied by what I had suddenly remembered.
Something important enough to pull my attention away from the man I adored sitting right in front of me.
It concerned the Grand Duke’s safety.
In the original novel, not long after returning Eileen—the woman he’d kidnapped—the Grand Duke faced a major crisis.
The Emperor launched his counterattack.
There had always been something that struck me as strange.
Although Eileen knew her kidnapper was Raymond Ruslow, she never told a single person.
No matter how persistently everyone questioned her, she only repeated,
“I don’t know. My kidnapper wore a mask for all three days.”
Since Eileen was only a minor supporting character, the novel never explained what she had really been thinking.
There wasn’t enough narration to know her true feelings.
Still, I remembered reading a comment from one of the readers speculating that perhaps she’d secretly fallen for Grand Duke Ruslow.
Who knew whether that was true?
Shrug.
Even so, the Emperor still suspected the Grand Duke.
Then again, perhaps that was only natural.
The Emperor himself had far too many guilty secrets.
Maybe he never needed evidence in the first place.
As an emperor without children, the Grand Duke—the second in line to the throne—was an enormous threat.
He had probably been waiting for the perfect excuse to eliminate him all along.
“Rest well.”
As we parted in front of the dining room, the Grand Duke gave a brief farewell before immediately walking away.
He disappeared so quickly that I didn’t even have time to answer.
He must have had urgent business.
What could he possibly be rushing off to this late at night?
The Grand Duke occupied one of the highest positions in the empire.
As a noble directly related to the imperial family, he could have spent his entire life doing absolutely nothing and still lived in luxury.
Yet Raymond was unbelievably hardworking.
That was one of the things I admired about him…
And one of the things that made me worry.
Following the maid’s guidance, I returned to my room.
Lying down in bed much earlier than the previous night, I carefully organized the thoughts swirling through my head.
Yesterday, I’d fallen asleep before I had the chance.
No matter how awful Emperor Kyle was, he was still the protagonist.
Whether good or evil, protagonists were blessed by the world itself.
Villains were the exact opposite.
Naturally, the story bent in favor of the protagonist.
Which meant…
The Grand Duke, who had once stood as the Emperor’s equal, would gradually begin losing over and over again.
And I had absolutely no intention of standing by and watching.
If I had to guess why I’d transmigrated into this world…
It was to save him.
I was Raymond Ruslow’s guardian angel.
“I’ll save you. I swear I will!”
I clenched my fist tightly and sat upright in bed.
Bathed in moonlight, I must have looked like an actor performing a dramatic monologue to an empty audience.
The Emperor’s first move had been this.
He bribed one of the Grand Duke’s subordinates—Cargo.
That traitor switched loyalties to the Emperor over a handful of coins.
Faithless bastard.
In the original story, Cargo secretly passed Raymond’s schedule to the Emperor.
After learning exactly where and when Raymond would travel, the Emperor’s forces waited for the perfect opportunity.
Then, while Raymond walked alone through a secluded alley to meet an information broker…
They attempted to assassinate him.
Though Raymond defeated many of the soldiers, he was injured in the process.
The wound wasn’t fatal.
But afterward, the Grand Duke’s faction began its irreversible decline.
Such was the destructive power of a spy.
Once a mole was exposed, distrust spread throughout the entire organization.
Still…
The political consequences weren’t what mattered most to me.
I hated seeing even the tiniest scratch on my favorite character’s fingertip.
And now he was supposed to suffer serious injuries?
Absolutely not.
I’ll stop it no matter what.
The very next morning, I went looking for the Grand Duke.
“Where is His Grace?”
“He’s currently in his study.”
The servant walking down the hallway answered exactly as I’d expected.
Although we spent plenty of time together during meals and dessert, there were always too many eyes and ears around us.
If I wanted to convince him, we needed to speak somewhere private.
That was why I’d deliberately come while he was working alone.
Even as a prisoner, I knew his daily schedule by heart from reading the novel.
Though…
It was admittedly strange that a prisoner could wander freely around the mansion.
Knock. Knock.
“Come in.”
Creak.
As soon as I heard his permission, I turned the handle and pushed open the heavy wooden door.
A large desk came into view.
The Grand Duke sat behind it, calmly working through a stack of documents.
H-He looks amazing…!
A handsome man in military uniform, completely focused on his work…
It was pure perfection.
That sharp nose.
That smooth jawline.
The slight furrow between his brows as he concentrated.
The veins shifting beneath his hands every time he moved his pen…
I could stare at a sight like that all day and never get tired of it.
I was barely managing to keep my composure when the Grand Duke finally looked up.
“Lady Cowet?”
“Y-Your Grace… I have something important to tell you.”
His eyes widened in surprise.
Apparently, he hadn’t expected the person knocking on his door to be me.
Perhaps he sensed the determination in my expression.
He immediately set down his pen and nodded.
“Very well.”
Walking over to the sofa, he gestured for me to sit as well.
“I’ll have someone bring us some tea.”
“No, that’s not necessary.”
I shook my head.
This wasn’t a casual conversation.
I needed his full attention.
Tea would only be a distraction.
After taking a deep breath, I cleared my throat.
Important speeches required proper preparation.
“Your Grace.”
When I called him, he looked directly into my eyes.
His serious, attentive gaze made my heart race.
But this wasn’t the time to lose myself admiring him.
I swallowed down my fangirl instincts.
What I had to say was simply too important.
If I couldn’t persuade him…
He would be the one to suffer.
