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Chapter~07
As soon as I arrived at Denzer Street, a vivid splash of crimson entered my view.
‘Kiara!’
I recognized her instantly, even from a distance.
It was Kiara.
The strength drained from my entire body.
‘Whoever said red hair isn’t beautiful?’
She looked especially adorable today.
I felt like I could float away just looking at her.
Without paying attention to anything else around me, I hurried straight toward Kiara.
Sanna followed behind me.
My brisk walk gradually turned into a run.
Nothing else entered my sight.
Only Kiara.
That was why I failed to notice she was staring at something.
I only realized, when I was just a few feet away, that she was grumbling at someone standing in front of her.
“Ugh, you’re seriously the worst!”
Her sharp shout snapped me back to my senses.
‘Why is she so angry?’
‘What’s she looking at…?’
I followed the direction of Kiara’s gaze.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Hernan was standing there.
His brilliant blond hair had become so familiar to me that I recognized it immediately.
Just like Kiara’s crimson hair, it was a color my eyes caught on instinct.
“…Hernan.”
Calling his name before Kiara’s had become a habit.
“Fidelia!”
The moment Kiara spotted us, her face lit up as she ran toward me.
Only then did I regain my composure and walk over to her.
“Kiara, why were you here?”
“I got lost…”
“Sorry.”
I crouched down and straightened her clothes.
She had been outside for quite a while.
It would be terrible if she caught a cold.
“It’s okay.”
“Let’s go home.”
I glanced sideways toward Hernan, who stood several feet away.
He was looking at us.
His expression was strangely unreadable.
‘Damn it.’
If this looked like some pathetic trick, there couldn’t be anything more embarrassing.
No…
What was even worse was that I’d loudly declared I was leaving for the territory, only to run into him here.
I should’ve gone sooner instead of dragging things out trying to make medicine that didn’t even work.
Strictly speaking, the delay had been because Kiara’s recovery was slower than expected.
Even so, I blamed everything on myself.
‘You idiot, Fidelia.’
‘So much for being a genius.’
I knew I should greet him properly.
But I simply didn’t feel like it.
Together with Sanna, I managed only the slightest bow.
I deliberately avoided looking at Hernan’s face, so I had no idea what expression he was wearing.
‘Let’s just go home.’
Even without looking, I was certain I looked as if I’d bitten into a bug.
At the very least, I tried to stop myself from frowning.
Sanna, standing beside me, wasn’t making any effort at all.
“Fidelia, how are we supposed to get home from here?”
“We’ll head back to Renton Street first…”
That was when—
“Fidelia Jonas.”
I froze.
His voice.
Just as there were things my eyes had grown accustomed to, there were sounds my ears knew just as well.
That voice had called me by many names.
First, you.
Then, Lady Fidelia.
Then, Fidelia Jonas.
Sometimes…
Simply, Fidelia.
When I turned around, Hernan was looking directly at me.
“Yes, Your Grace Duke Hernan Cleor.”
“You look perfectly fine.”
“…”
‘Is he making fun of me?’
I stared at him expressionlessly.
I didn’t even force a smile.
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?”
“You said you were leaving.”
“…”
“And yet here you are.”
“For two weeks now.”
‘Just as I thought.’
I had expected what he would say…
‘But I didn’t think he’d actually bring it up.’
More surprising than that was the fact he even knew I’d still been here for two weeks.
“When I leave is entirely up to me.”
“It’s not as though I said I wasn’t going.”
“I thought perhaps the daughter of House Jonas had started speaking with two tongues.”
“Oh?”
“I’d say my actions match my words far better than yours.”
“You shouldn’t have stopped me.”
“I did it for old times’ sake.”
“I remember we were fairly good friends.”
“That’s the funniest thing you’ve said today.”
“Would you care for a cup of tea?”
‘Can I just punch him once?’
My fist clenched tightly.
Then—
“Huh, Fidelia.”
“Something wet landed on my face.”
Kiara tugged insistently at my clothes.
She wasn’t the only one.
Sanna was touching her cheek as though something had fallen there too.
And me as well.
A drop of water landed on my face.
A chilling premonition swept through me.
The next instant, a loud rumble shook the air nearby.
Rumble—!
“…”
“…”
‘No wonder the sky looked so gloomy.’
There was no other way to describe it except fate playing a cruel joke.
The rain came crashing down in torrents.
“Damn it.”
I should have trusted the gray morning sky that had looked ready to pour from the beginning.
Maybe it had been God’s way of telling me not to go outside.
“Fidelia, why is this mansion so big?”
Freshly bathed, Kiara sat down in front of the vanity and asked.
Sanna had stepped away to send word to the Jonas residence in the capital.
That left me to answer.
“We’re in the mansion of the greatest businessman in the Corvalyu Empire.”
“So of course it’s enormous.”
“There are more than four buildings here.”
“The greatest businessman?”
“In simple terms…”
“He’s incredibly rich.”
“…That old man?”
I barely managed to stop myself from laughing.
Kiara had just called Hernan an old man.
“Well…”
“Hernan is old enough to be your uncle.”
“So you’re not entirely wrong.”
‘Come to think of it…’
‘How old was Hernan again?’
He was definitely in his mid-twenties or older.
‘Kiara is eleven…’
Then the original heroine and hero should be around that age as well.
‘I wonder where they are right now.’
I could make a rough guess.
One was a noble young lord.
The other was the illegitimate daughter of a count.
‘I remember the story’s main theme was family regret.’
If I could, I’d storm into the count’s estate where the heroine was and demand they hand her over.
The problem was…
I couldn’t remember which count’s family it was.
‘First I forgot the original villainess.’
‘Now I’ve forgotten the original heroine too.’
Just as I couldn’t remember which orphanage Kiara had been in, I had completely forgotten which count’s family the heroine belonged to.
Well, more than twenty years had passed since I’d been born into this world.
I’d forgotten almost all the minor details of the original novel.
‘I guess I’ll just comfort myself with the fact that Hernan will rescue the heroine later.’
That was how he earned the title of the heroine’s benefactor in the original story.
He took in the heroine after she escaped from the count’s household.
And he cared for her.
Completely soaked in front of the tea house on Denzer Street, we had taken shelter in the nearby Cleor residence.
There was no other choice.
The Jonas residence was far too far away.
Even after squeezing beneath the tea house awning, the rain had only continued to pour harder.
So where was our noble Duke Hernan Cleor now?
“His Grace is currently working.”
He was in his office.
I had always thought he was someone who only attended banquets.
Apparently, he really did work.
Even if he always looked like he was playing around, he was still the empire’s greatest businessman.
The happiest person because of that was Kiara.
“Fidelia.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go bother him.”
“…”
‘This is supposed to be the original villainess?’
Even without looking in a mirror, I knew my eyes were trembling.
“You can’t do that, Kiara.”
“Why?”
Why?
“Because…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence.
‘Come to think of it…’
There wasn’t actually any rule saying we couldn’t bother him.
Was it the Imperial Palace?
Or perhaps another noble’s mansion?
Either way, we had been there for a banquet.
Most of our meetings happened in places like that.
At some point, I realized Hernan had disappeared from my sight.
That wasn’t unusual.
As always, I went looking for him.
I found him in one of the private lounges on the second floor.
Some couples used those rooms for intimate moments.
But that had nothing to do with Hernan and me.
So I entered without hesitation.
The unlocked door swung open.
Inside the dark room, Hernan sat in a chair with his eyes closed.
“Hernan.”
I turned on the light and walked over.
Even after the room brightened, he didn’t open his eyes.
No…
Perhaps he had never been asleep in the first place.
Then why was he keeping his eyes closed?
“Hernan.”
I stepped closer.
“…Are you asleep?”
Tap.
The tip of my shoe lightly touched the tip of his.
“…”
A suffocating silence.
The room was filled with stillness.
Hernan sat motionless, his eyes closed as though dead asleep.
A strange sensation overtook me.
For a fleeting moment…
It felt as though time itself had stopped.
As though I alone could move within that frozen world.
Perhaps it was the alcohol.
That reckless courage bloomed inside me.
On impulse…
I reached out.
I touched his bangs.
Because his hair was brushed halfway back, his hairline was exposed.
‘His hair is really beautiful.’
Following the gentle curve, my fingertips traced across his forehead.
They brushed over his eyebrows.
Then slid down the sharp bridge of his nose.
Finally…
They touched his lips.
That was when Hernan opened his eyes.
“…”
“…”
I’d been so absorbed that I hadn’t realized we were close enough for our breaths to mingle.
Our eyes met at that distance.
Eyes as deep and blue as the sea stared straight into mine.
My breath caught.
‘…I’m doomed.’
My mind turned completely blank.
Excuses tangled together in my head.
Just as I thought my brain might explode—
Hernan’s crimson lips parted.
His low, slightly husky whisper was quiet…
Yet somehow deafening.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t notice.”
Then his eyes slowly closed again.
As though he had never awakened.
Like Snow White after biting the poisoned apple.
“…”
Only a moment later did I understand what he meant.
He was referring to what he believed I intended to do next.
Something I hadn’t even imagined.
I realized exactly what Hernan had misunderstood.
Yet more than correcting that misunderstanding…
What mattered to me was how he had responded to it.
‘…He’ll pretend he didn’t notice.’
There was only one meaning behind those words.
Hernan was giving me permission to play the role of the prince on a white horse.
Some kinds of permission carried a very different meaning under certain circumstances.
Even though no one else was there to hear me, I asked quietly,
“What you just gave me wasn’t permission.”
“It was encouragement.”
“Do you realize that?”
“I wonder.”
“…Do you know that moments like this make me want to punch you?”
And every time something like this happened…
I wanted to ask him something.
Are you this generous with everyone else too?
If I believe I’m your only exception…
Would that just be my own misunderstanding?
In the end, we never went to bother Hernan.
Simply put…
I didn’t have the courage.
“The biology books aren’t over there.”
“Yes, I know.”
“I’m looking for pharmacology books.”
‘…Wait.’
‘Why am I even doing this?’
“…Pharmacology?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve recently become interested in it.”
“I’m still young.”
“There’s nothing wrong with trying a different field.”
“That’s true.”
Hernan nodded before lowering his gaze to the book in his hands.
I glanced at him before continuing.
“There are surprisingly many pharmacology books here.”
“I was interested in it once.”
“Really?”
‘Liar.’
