***
‘In the end… I couldn’t figure out what was in Capella.’
All I finally found out was that something was threatening Edlade.
After sorting through the memories of the past that immediately came to mind, Leto grumbled about Aldebaran for not returning.
“Where the hell did he go to find Your Excellency? I didn’t send him to lay eggs.”
“Edlade…… He didn’t go back, did he?”
In the past, I disappeared as soon as I arrived without saying a word.
I didn’t this time, but I knew well that he didn’t like this boring ball.
I would be a little hurt if he had left me alone and gone back first, but there is no such thing as resenting him or anything like that.
I was rather happy just to have come with him.
“Your Excellency? Aye, it can’t be.”
Leto waved her hand as if she had heard me say a joke.
As if it doesn’t make sense.
“He’s probably hiding somewhere else to work. The problem with the Capella estate is serious.”
“If it were that serious, it would have been better to work in the mansion……”
“Ahaha! There’s no way he’d let his wife go alone to her first social event.”
“Oh, that’s true. I saw Halbert nagging horribly.”
“Halbert’s nagging is really scary. But other than that… Maybe Your Excellency…”
Before Leto could finish speaking, Edlade appeared with Aldebaran.
“Oh! Look at that!” I told you, right?”
“……That’s right.”
I only thought he had left me alone. As I did in my last life.
Did he really work away from people’s eyes for a while due to the Capella estate issue?
Then, even in his last life, he didn’t leave me, but maybe he had to leave because of an urgent matter.
Throbbing –
Edlade approached the table and called the attendant, drank a glass of wine, and looked at me.
If that’s truly the case. Then my last life started with a misunderstanding from the first step.
My heart was pounding, which I thought was no longer in pain.
Edlade’s eyes, staring at me, seemed to say that I was pathetic that I had such a thought, so it made me even more numb.
“Where… have you been?”
I asked without realizing it. He doesn’t have to talk to me wherever he goes, he doesn’t have to come and report.
To him, I am a formal duchess and a stranger.
“There was an urgent matter to be resolved.”
An unexpected answer came.
I shook my head and looked at him. Edlade ruffled his hair in annoyance and placed the empty wine glass down on the table.
“I didn’t intentionally leave you alone.”
Did he hear anything from Aldebaran on the way back?
He clicked his tongue a little annoyed.
Is this person… Now, making excuses?’
It just didn’t look like that.
I didn’t know what pleas had been given by Halbert, and I had no idea what Aldebaran had said to him.
However, the pain that had made my heart numb melted like snow.
The scent of flowers, decorated with spring flowers, gently flew in the wind.
Immersed in the terrible memories of the past, I didn’t have the time or mind to smell the scent.
I wasn’t even conscious of it until now because of the tension that I shouldn’t make a mistake this time.
Now, at this moment, I smelled that flower scent for the first time.
Misunderstanding, I misunderstood him from the start.
“I… It’s okay.”
The corners of my lips rose arbitrarily.
The fact that he didn’t abandon me, and the fact that he came back, filled my heart with joy.
The gray-haired man standing in front of me caught my eyes more than the spring flowers in full bloom.
Even for such a trivial reason, I was so happy.
“Sigh…….”
Edlade let out a short sigh.
“Then let’s enjoy the ball! Lil… No, My Lady! Please come to my tea party next time. I hope we can get to know each other properly.”
Leto, who was watching with her lips raised, grabbed Aldebaran’s arm and quickly wished for them, then went away.
I greeted them back lightly.
“It was really good.”
Edlade came over to me with a glass of wine that he had received from the attendant.
He asked, standing in front of me, without sitting on a chair, but leaning on the table.
“I heard you were humiliated.”
“It wasn’t a shame.”
“…Is that an insult then?”
He asked again, swirling the red wine in the flute.
I felt the unspoken pressure to be honest.
‘Compared to his last life, it wasn’t actually a shame. Even if it was an insult… it was something I always heard in the Rayburns.’
I pondered what the Marchioness Semele and Scotty had said.
Hearing those words again, I did not feel insulted.
“It’s just a familiar word to me…”
As he tilted his head, Edlade smirked and broke the wine glass.
“I’m used to it…”
Laughing, he placed one hand on the table and leaned over to me.
Sitting in a chair with my back straightened, my eyes widened.
I couldn’t do anything but blink at his slow movements.
His tall nose brushed the tip of my nose.
As I exhaled, it felt as if my breath could be touched.
He was that close.
“Being the Duchess of Philemon, you’re used to those words…?”
“Uh… No, that’s not it…”.
Unknowingly, I remembered what had happened with him in the garden.
His behavior was too seductive.
“No shame, no insult… anything.”
“….”
“No one is qualified to do that to you.”
He slowly reached out to me with his hand that was on the table.
Then he touched the corsage that had neatly fixed on my head.
His fingers curled up and lifted.
I felt like I was going to get drunk by the familiar scent that was approaching me.
Why is this person approaching me in such a way when I’m not even mentally prepared?
He only touched the corsage, and I felt like my whole body was being touched.
I felt like I was stripped naked by those gazes looking down at me languidly.
Even if I didn’t look, it was obvious that my whole body was dyed red. Edlade was overly sexy, dressed up for the ball. He was so seductive that my lips went dry.
I wanted to close my eyes.
I wanted to hold my breath.
However, I couldn’t avoid the eyes I met.
His hand, which had barely touched the corsage, fell off. He slowly approached my face and stayed near my ear for a very short time.
“Keep in mind that there is no one but me.”
I got goosebumps till my toes.
My heart was beating wildly, and My lower abdomen heated up, giving strength to my fists, which were placed finely on my lap.
Seeing me like that, Edlade smirked leisurely.
Does he know?
The laughter like that was a tease to me.
He slowly moved away from me. I couldn’t breathe properly until Edlade picked up the glass of wine he had put down and drank it all.
I couldn’t calm down, so I had to moisten my lips several times.
Edlade slowly drank wine until he emptied the glass as if he was waiting for me. After taking a deep breath, I was able to speak properly.
‘Act so that no one can be rude to the Philemon family hostess.’
That’s what Edlade was trying to say.
“I know. I will act confidently in the future so as not to damage the name of the family.”
I was satisfied with accepting it lightly because I was too used to it.
It was a sign of abuse embedded in the body like brainwashing.
But I guess my answer wasn’t enough for him.
“Is that why Halbert said that?”
“What?”
“Looks like an idiot… but is rational in a strange way.”
“Is it a compliment?”
“Look where you are.”
Edlade set the empty wine glass again and turned his head.
The ball was already running towards the end.
I didn’t notice the passing of time because I was chatting so well with Leto.
I looked around and glanced at Edlade, and gave strength to the corner of my lips that was about to rise.
‘I didn’t know we’d be together this long.’
What he said ‘stupid’ was not wrong.
Like a fool, I frankly liked being with him like this for a little while.
Edlade, nicely dressed, is by my side. Even if I reach out my hand, he is within reach.
I wanted to do the last dance with him.
I am sure it’s greediness.
Perhaps he felt my glance, Edlade got up from leaning against the table in annoyance.
‘Oh, no. don’t go.’
Contrary to the cry in my heart, I watched him get up with a detached attitude.
Edlade swept his hair a few times.
A tulip that had been neatly placed on the table was suddenly in his hand.
“I’ll have to make sure the cheeky ones don’t say that again. Don’t you think so?”
He put one hand behind his back, holds out a tulip, and bends his knee slightly.
He was annoyed at the words, but he said to me as if he would kill me if I sat idly without answering.
“I want to share the spring flowers with my wife.”
That’s how a miracle happened to me.
***
Halbert looked at the pile of papers with wide eyes.
The heavy eye bags under his eyes, which seemed impossible to come down, had recently descended to the tip of his chin.
“Can’t Your Excellency be a little sweet to his wife?”
“Why are you looking for Your Excellency’s kindness?”
Halbert questioned, peering through the white paper.
The Duchess attended the prom, and her assistant, Noi, was relaxed.
The two of them went to the prom together, hence Noi was free but Halbert was busy.
There was only one answer.
Knowing both the secrets of the family and the secrets of the duke, the amount of work they could handle was different.
“It hasn’t been long since I’ve served my wife, but she’s so nice. It’s too much to treat someone so rudely.”
“…They went to the prom together today.”
“I saw you begging him to go with My Lady.”
Halbert vowed to lock the office door in the future.