🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2
No, this couldn’t be true. It was absolutely ridiculous!
“Laura, Laura!”
“Yes! What is it? A headache? Dizziness?”
At my shout, Laura rushed into the room as if she had kicked the door open.
“You know… last week, when I didn’t come home…”
I glanced at Laura and spoke carefully.
I wanted to ask, ‘Did I happen to stay out all night last week?’ but I had no idea what kind of misunderstanding that would cause.
So instead, I tried to sound casual and test the waters.
“Ah, that day.”
Damn it. So something really had happened.
“I was actually wondering whether I should ask you about what happened that day.”
“Of course you should have asked! You mean you didn’t ask anything? Isn’t it strange that the head of the household didn’t come home without telling anyone?”
“We thought you had a secret lover, My Lady. You came back first thing the next morning, after all. And also… ahem.”
Also what?
Laura suddenly cleared her throat awkwardly. Her face turned red as she added,
“Also, the corset laces I had tied for you the day before were different the next morning… Ahem.”
Oh, God.
My vision went dizzy.
For some reason, that meant I had apparently had a reason to undress while I was out.
Damn it.
“But, My Lady, why have you been asking about these things all morning? Did you really lose your memory? I’m worried about you.”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing. I just couldn’t remember the exact date.”
“Oh, I see…”
Laura nodded, but she was still looking at me suspiciously.
I had a feeling she would find something strange if I let her stay any longer, so I quickly sent her out.
Now, back to the main issue.
“Leon Obsidian, huh… I… slept with the Grand Duke of Bernstein… Haha.”
The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t help laughing bitterly.
That was how absurd this whole thing was.
The man in question was the commander of the Holy Knights, someone who had sworn his chastity to God.
He was absolutely untouchable.
And yet, there were countless women who would take off their dresses and throw themselves at him at the slightest gesture from him.
But what connection could he possibly have with me?
The only connection we had was that we were both alumni of the academy.
And we had happened to cross paths a few times because we were both academic scholarship students.
In other words, we were practically strangers.
“Besides, the Grand Duke only joined the Holy Knights around the time I graduated from the academy. I haven’t even seen him since then.”
The Grand Duke was famous for being extremely devout.
So when he ultimately chose to become affiliated with the temple, high society was thrown into an uproar.
The countless young ladies who secretly admired him were saddened by the even greater distance between them, and even the proud noblewomen spent days pining over him.
But that didn’t last long.
Surprisingly, even after he became a priest, the young ladies and noblewomen didn’t stop flirting with him.
They seemed to have the attitude of, ‘If I can’t have him anyway, I might as well give it a try.’
And mixed into that was the thrill of desiring something sacred that they absolutely weren’t supposed to touch.
Still, seeing even married noblewomen following him around and fawning over him was just…
As was probably the case in any era, adultery was considered especially unforgivable in Orden’s high society.
But in a society where arranged marriages were common, there were still quite a few people who enjoyed dangerous affairs.
And to them, Leon Obsidian was the perfect target.
A handsome face and a body built through rigorous training.
The excellent status of a Grand Duke, along with his undeniable imperial bloodline despite being an illegitimate child.
And on top of all that, he was a priest trusted by the High Temple.
But what good were golden veins in his blood and a handsome face if he couldn’t actually use the most important thing he had?
In other words, when all of this was taken together, Leon Obsidian was officially a man who could never become an affair partner.
He was what you could call a “safe” man.
Because of that, most nobles turned a blind eye to their wives’ one-sided crushes on him.
And this only made the noblewomen even bolder in pursuing him.
Yet even so, the Grand Duke had never had a single woman by his side.
Even though he could have spent his life surrounded by women if he wanted to, he spent most of his time at a temple located in southern Orden.
He lived an excessively pure and spotless life there, praying and occasionally receiving orders from the High Temple to go out and exterminate monsters.
There were even rumors going around that there was something wrong with his reproductive functions.
But perhaps because of his handsome appearance, everyone seemed to quietly ignore the rumors.
They simply cursed his devotion for having given his heart to God.
And yet that man…
“I slept with him?”
I sat there blankly for a moment before cautiously checking various parts of my body.
Then I suddenly wondered what on earth I was doing.
“No, no. It’s already been several days. There’s no way there’d still be any marks.”
Even so, just in case, I performed all sorts of ridiculous checks in front of the mirror.
There wasn’t a single scratch or bruise anywhere on my body.
Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean nothing had happened that night.
The woman who had taken over my body had clearly claimed that she had slept with Leon Obsidian.
And according to Laura, I had actually spent the night away from home under circumstances suggesting that I had undressed.
So it seemed difficult to deny that the incident itself had happened.
“Still, it absolutely wasn’t Leon Obsidian.”
It wasn’t simply because it was hard to believe.
The timing, the circumstances, everything about it simply didn’t add up.
Then there was only one possibility left.
“Was that woman… tricked?”
She must have been deceived by someone pretending to be the Grand Duke.
Yes. There was no other way to make sense of it.
“There’s no way someone who came from another world would have recognized the Grand Duke in the first place. She must have simply believed some con artist who told her he was the Grand Duke. That stupid woman, how dare she use my body!”
I didn’t have any memories, so I couldn’t feel any particular discomfort or strange sensation.
But I was still furious at the thought that someone had shared my body with another person.
And I didn’t even know who that person was!
“I knew it didn’t make sense from the beginning. The Grand Duke couldn’t possibly have been in the capital. If he had come here, there would have been a huge commotion by now…”
Knock, knock, knock!
“My Lady!”
The door flew open almost at the same moment as the knocking, and Laura rushed inside with a pale face.
“What is it? What happened?”
“Th-There’s a huge problem! Downstairs!”
Downstairs what?
I told her to calm down and explain slowly, but Laura, still gasping for breath, shouted,
“The Grand Duke of Bernstein is here!”
“What? Who did you say came?”
The Grand Duke?
There was only one Grand Duke in the empire, but I wondered if I had heard her wrong and asked again.
Laura nodded.
“Lord Leon Obsidian! His Highness says he wants to see you! He’s waiting downstairs right now… Hurry and get ready. Quickly!”
The final confirmation hit me like a finishing blow, and my vision went white.
No. Why was the man who was supposed to be at a temple in the outskirts here?
And why was he at my house?
Why was he looking for me?
And why, of all times, was he here right now?
Could it be? No, surely not. There’s no way. It absolutely can’t be. No, no, it can’t!
Countless questions and anxious thoughts began swirling through my head.
All the things I had desperately dismissed as impossible now started to feel like they might actually be true.
I shot to my feet and anxiously asked,
“Laura. What was the Grand Duke like?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I mean, did he look angry? Or maybe upset? Something like that…”
“Ah!”
Laura thought for a moment when I asked if there had been anything particularly noticeable about him.
Then she suddenly seemed to remember something.
“Oh! He was holding a huge bouquet of flowers!”
Good heavens.
I silently screamed inside as I listened.
A bouquet of flowers.
Somehow, that makes me even more nervous.
Wow, my heart feels like it’s going to explode.
Standing in front of the drawing room, I clenched my fists.
The entire way down here, there had only been one thought in my mind.
Why is the Grand Duke here? Why on earth?
I was already overwhelmed by everything that had happened, and now the very man at the center of this whole mess had personally shown up.
At this point, there was no way around facing him.
“Phew.”
All right.
I forced myself to calm my trembling heart and took a deep breath before stepping inside.
And the very first thing that greeted me was—
“Ah, Erna.”
A breathtakingly beautiful face, wearing a warm smile as radiant as sunlight.
