The Duke, launching a relentless barrage of questions, leaned even further forward than before. Fearing that their lips might touch, Shioana pushed her head back.
'Seriously, why is he acting like this?'
The carriage accident that day was a simple accident.
Contrary to the Duke's misunderstanding, she had not deliberately thrown herself in front of him with the intention of seducing him or for money. Even collapsing in the garden was a coincidence, but he seemed to think that was intentional.
'No matter how bad the situation, who would do such a reckless thing?'
However, the problem was that this was all just her own opinion.
'Because His Excellency the Duke doesn't seem to believe that at all.'
Shioana felt her body becoming damp with cold sweat running down her spine.
"What on earth are you thinking with me right in front of you? I'm asking what my face looks like."
"Well, that is... so..."
If someone asked her if she wasn't a fan of someone who looked exactly like Etienne, what should she say?
“Look straight at me!”
The Duke shouted fiercely at her, who kept avoiding his head.
Just then, the carriage traveling on the bumpy road rattled, and the Duke, having lost his balance, was thrown to the ground.
A moment later, the Duke, having collapsed on the floor while holding onto Shioana's knees, lifted her head.
"...Ah."
Shioana let out a short sigh.
His downy blonde hair was disheveled over the dress, and his red eyes stared solely at Shioana's face.
"Judging by your expression, it looks like you're totally smitten with me..."
As he slowly returned to his seat with a satisfied smile, Shioana clutched her flushed cheeks and could not say a word.
'I should say it's not true.'
She couldn't bring herself to speak.
No, she almost touched the soft blonde hair.
"Stop working in that man, Raul's office immediately."
The Duke's words instantly shattered the excited atmosphere inside the carriage.
"I don't think that is something you need to worry about, sir."
"When do you plan to pay back the debt you owe me by working like that?"
"How much is it on earth?"
How immense must the debt she incurred without even knowing be for the noble gentleman to have personally traveled all the way here?
'I really hate the word 'debt'.'
Eli abandoned his family because of debt, and Shioana had to leave Regbell.
'It's not easy to live'
She didn't realize it while she was living in Regbell, but even maintaining that single shabby room cost money.
Because of their difficult circumstances, they couldn't even make Harriet a proper baby meal or show her to a doctor.
So she got angry at the Duke, who kept saying "debt, debt."
'No, it's just that I feel sad about my poor situation.'
The Duke, gazing at Shioana's slender neck as she hung her head low, spoke.
It's not much. It's about two hundred gold coins.
"...Yes?"
As Shioana was left speechless by the absurd amount, he took a document from his pocket and handed it to her. She hurriedly took it and examined it, her eyes looking as if they were about to pop out.
The dress she had worn the other day was worth dozens of gold coins, and the doctor was not just any doctor, but the family's doctor. Shioana, having barely regained her composure, spoke calmly.
"I am truly grateful for treating my injuries and lending me a dress since I had nothing to wear. However, I never asked for such an expensive dress, nor did I request that your doctor be called. Therefore, demanding that I repay the entire amount is pure exaggeration."
"So, are you saying I should have asked which doctor to see someone who had collapsed, was bleeding profusely, and was unconscious? Besides, I don't wear anything unless it's expensive, so I have absolutely no idea about other things."
There was no greater absurdity than this.
However, she could not get angry at the noble Duke, so she merely bit her lip. With two hundred gold coins, one could own dozens of mansions like Regbell.
"In any case, I beg for the generous mercy of the noble gentleman."
"Since you're acting like that, I have no choice. I'll cut it exactly in half."
"...Ah."
Although she was certainly grateful that the amount had been reduced, she wondered what difference it would make whether it was one hundred or two hundred gold coins, given her circumstances. Since ten silver coins equal one gold coin, it was obvious that she wouldn't be able to save ten gold coins even if she worked all year long.
'Besides, I have to use it for Harriet's medical expenses as well.'
When Shioana couldn't easily answer with a troubled look on her face, he smiled.
"Didn't I tell you from the beginning? That you don't have to pay it back with money."
"What are you thinking? Just because someone lives in District 8, you..."
Startled, Shioana hugged her chest with both hands and kept her guard up against the Duke.
"Oh dear, I don't have a preference for women who are only interested in money like you, so there's no need to worry."
"...Yes."
She was so nervous thinking the Duke might pull some strange trick, but when he actually said he didn't like someone like her, she felt bad about that in its own way.
“Then by what means?”
"I would like you to act as my stand-in lover."
The Duke's words were clearly decipherable in text, but they were difficult to understand.
“Stand-in... lover?”
"You understood correctly."
"Your Excellency, you don't even know who I am."
"Shioana, living in District 8 with her mother and son. Is there anything else I need to know?"
Shioana adjusted her posture and calmly argued.
"How can I, a mother, possibly pretend to be His Excellency the Duke's lover?"
"What I need right now is a fresh face that the Tabrian social circles know nothing about."
"But I'm in District 8..."
"You are the woman I love, so who would dare point a finger at you?"
Shioana's heart sank for a moment at the Duke's words.
That's not what he's saying to her.
It seemed like it was because the carriage was rattling violently.
"I'll pay you ten gold coins for every time you stand in as a lover stand-in."
Just as she was about to refuse, he made an offer she absolutely could not turn down.
'Ten gold coins!'
Aside from enduring a slight inconvenience, she wasn't actually losing much.
At that rate, the debt could be repaid with ten plays.
However, it was not right to decide such an important matter on the spot.
"I'll give it some thought."
"What is there to worry about?"
The Duke's red eyes touched the old brush with its tattered tips. Shioana ran her hand over the brush and turned her head. She wasn't ashamed of being poor, but she was just a little self-conscious in front of this person.
“It takes time.”
“Yes, let’s do it.”
Before anyone realized it, the carriage had stopped in front of the alley, and Shioana greeted him without even looking at him.
“Let’s go in first.”
She stepped out of the carriage and disappeared into the alley without looking back. The Duke's face turned strange as he watched the carriage door slam shut.
"What on earth is this feeling?"
After returning to Urcheka and remaining lethargic for a while, the first thing he did was send someone to the Caspian Empire to find someone.
'But you said she disappeared without a trace.'
To forget his troubles, he deliberately sought out banquets and drank a lot.
'Alfredo, please bring me some alcohol.'
It was difficult to survive even a single day in his right mind, and when night fell, he could barely breathe due to the pain. He sobbed, clutching her signature on the documents betraying him in one hand and the handkerchief on which Shioana had personally embroidered his name in the other.
'Did she really die?'
Rather than that, she would have preferred to be alive and well somewhere with another man. So he wished she could see his face just once, even by chance.
The woman who betrayed him was the very embodiment of hatred, yet the time they spent together could not be easily erased. Even standing far away here, he thought of Shioana when the wind blew, and remembered her when it rained.
'I feel like I'm going crazy.'
He thought that if he met her again, he might end up strangling Shioana or grabbing her ankles and begging her to tell him why she did it.
"To think we ended up meeting like this."
He never dreamed that the woman from the slums who had initially nearly jumped in front of the carriage would be her. However, as if entranced by Shioana's voice, he stepped out of the carriage, and Etienne could see her. Shioana, terrified and shabbily dressed.
'She must have been punished for betraying me and chasing money.'
He also felt a very slight sense of satisfaction.
All he had to do was laugh at her miserable reality to his heart's content and leave the scene. But why did he have someone follow Shioana?
"Why am I so shaken by just a single word from her?"
She stole his heart and then cast him aside like a worn-out shoe. Blinded by the reward money, she sold him out and is now raising another man's child.
'I curse her.'
The thought of Regbell made his head feel like it was going to split open, so he fumbled for the medicine bottle in his bosom. Etienne quickly swallowed the pills and closed his eyes. Is a life that has become a mess, like a tangled ball of yarn, never going to become smooth sailing?
"And yet everyone just says they envy me."
What is so great about becoming the owner of a mansion where the ghosts of his younger and older brothers sleep?
If it hadn't been for Edwin's last request, he would never have inherited the title.
"...Ha."
Far away, where Etienne's gaze fell, a flag marking District 1 fluttered. Seeing the red flag, which symbolized all power, he was automatically reminded of his stepmother and the godmother of the Bernhard family, Katrina Bernhard.
'Because she is still alive and well despite having blood on her hands.'
His bloodshot eyes grew redder and redder as he gasped for breath with rage.
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