Seized by despair, Shioana grabbed the employee and pleaded.
"Could you please pass on a message to His Excellency that I have something to say?"
"Would you like to come and sit here?"
The employee seemed unable to hear Shioana's words and focused only on dressing her up.
"I really don't think I can wear this dress."
She refused time and time again, but they only smiled.
"It’s all done. You can check it in the full-length mirror provided over here."
Where the employee, who had been giving only an unnatural smile like a wooden doll, pointed, there was a wonderful mirror with a gold frame.
"No. It's fine."
Shioana, who was stroking the neckline of her low-cut dress, shook her head.
'It's going to be a ridiculous clown look, no doubt...'
There was no reason to specifically check in the mirror.
"Please wait a moment, and I will bring the Duke."
As all the employees who had finished their work stepped back, Shioana stood up from her seat and straightened her back.
All she had to do was go grocery shopping and return home, but she couldn't help but sigh at how things had turned out this way.
'If His Excellency saw me like this, he would probably cancel the story about the stand-in lover.'
The ornament pinned to her wavy hair, the accessories wrapped around her neck and arms, and the tight-fitting dress seemed to instantly suffocate her.
"I need to let some air out."
As Shioana walked outside, she discovered a hallway leading to the back door of the shop. A cool breeze came in through the slightly open door.
Leaning against the wall just as she was, Shioana gazed at the half-visible moon.
'I'll take half of it.....'
She wanted him, who was asleep in Regbell, to look after the remaining half.
“I feel stupid.”
She burst out laughing at the childish thought that only a little kid would have.
In that moment, everything seemed ridiculous—having been chased here by Count Noah, and struggling desperately to save her nephew.
'No matter how hard I try, the truth is, nothing might actually change...'
A foreigner living in District 8. Because that was all there was to describing Siona here.
Just then, a sound was heard, and someone's shadow enveloped her body.
"I thought you had run away..."
At Duke Bernhard's voice, Shioana hurriedly hid her back against the wall.
"...Ah."
The moonlight shattered endlessly over his brow as he stood in the dark hallway.
The collar and sleeves of the Duke's pure white uniform were decorated with gold thread, and he wore red sashes on his shoulders. And medals hung profusely on his chest.
Shioana blinked her eyes wide at the restrained and sophisticated uniform, which was different from usual.
"Your gaze is very disrespectful."
The Duke narrowed his eyes and slowly took another step closer.
“Well, that’s not it.”
Shioana, fumbling to cover her neck with her hand, stammered. The Duke, standing right in front of her, swallowed a sneer.
"What are you hiding?"
“There is no such thing.”
“Is that really the case?”
The Duke examined her attire with an emotionless face.
The black velvet dress perfectly revealed Shioana's slender figure. The long sleeves and neckline were finished with small pearls, and the skirt below the waist was bell-shaped, appearing to dance with every movement.
"It’s to the point where I don’t want to show it to anyone else."
"...!"
She thought it was a compliment, but what flickered in those red eyes was not affection, but burning hatred. Shioana turned her head away from the persistent gaze.
"Turn around."
The moment Shioana had been so worried about had arrived.
Shioana hesitated, then slowly turned her body, and he remained silent for a moment.
'His red eyes must be staring at the hideous scar on my back.'
She could tell without even seeing the Duke's expression.
'He probably has a look of disgust on his face.'
Although she was clearly wearing a dress, she felt as though she were naked. Shioana, trembling, struggled to move her lips.
"I'm sorry."
Now it was his turn to send Shioana back to Sector 8.
"What are you sorry for?"
She flinched at the light breeze behind her and continued speaking.
"For showing you such a hideous sight."
"...Is that so?"
His voice trembled slightly as he asked back.
"Why aren't you asking?"
Shioana waited for him to say that he could not go to the banquet with her in that state.
"What should I ask?"
Feeling something was off, Shioana slowly turned around. The Duke's face, bathed in moonlight, was vivid. His bloodshot eyes and stern expression were directed at her.
'Why is he making such an inscrutable face?'
She had expected him to be angry or frowning since she had ruined today's banquet. However, no matter how she looked at it, he did not have the look of someone sending her away. Growing anxious, Shioana wanted to know what was truly on his mind.
"Your Excellency, do you still need me?"
He answered by turning his body a few seconds later.
"It's late, so hurry up."
***
The four-wheeled carriage, having sped through the night like an arrow, quickly took them to the banquet hall.
The area around the entrance was crowded with carriages pouring in from all directions. Shioana swallowed hard at the sound of horses snoring and people talking coming from outside the window.
Was that all? Her head was spinning, and her stomach was churning.
'What on earth is the Duke thinking?'
The exposed scar touched the backrest of the carriage, and Shioana swallowed a groan. The wound had long since healed, but it felt slightly stinging.
It wasn't exactly pleasant to show this side of herself to anyone. Just because she had cast aside her pride didn't mean she was incapable of shame.
'To ask to go together even after seeing all that—the Duke is definitely out of his mind.'
The carriage soon came to a complete stop, and the servant standing by the door waited for the Duke's instructions.
'One, two, three!'
It was when Shioana took a deep breath and was about to get out of the carriage.
“Wait a moment.”
As she turned around at the sound of a voice that seemed to be in pain, she saw the Duke's face contorted with agony.
"...?"
He stretched out his arm as if to grab Shioana's hand. However, the Duke, seemingly lacking strength, let his arm hang down and gasped for breath.
Startled, Shioana examined his face closely.
"Your Excellency, are you feeling unwell?"
"...Medicine, medicine.”
He reached out his arm to reach into his bosom, but he couldn't even finish his sentence. Cold sweat trickled down his face as it grew pale.
'I'm going to die at this rate.'
The hesitation was brief, and Shioana, closing her eyes tightly, reached her hand into his bosom. She felt a medicine bottle deep inside his cloak pocket. After giving him the medicine, the Duke's breathing improved compared to before, but his complexion still had not returned to normal.
“Would you like one more?”
Having roughly grasped the intention from the Duke's gaze, she administered the medicine again, but his face kept tilting downward. As she struggled to push the next pill between his lips, the Duke's tongue touched Shioana's fingertips.
A sigh burst from her mouth as something hot and rough brushed against her.
"...Hmm."
And she quickly moved away from him.
With fingers that looked as if they were on fire, tightly hidden beneath the dress.
"Haa, haa."
At the edge of Etienne's blurry gaze, as he gasped for breath, he caught sight of her staring out the window. In his mouth, the taste of the medicine was mixed with a familiar yet painful scent of her body.
"...Ha."
He felt nauseated at the sight of her frail, broken-looking back.
'Yes, you are terrible, and I am ugly.'
Everything today was thoroughly planned.
Everything—preparing a backless dress, dragging her here as he pleased.
'But I am not the bad one.'
Shioana, laughing and chatting while surrounded by several men, appeared before his eyes like a hallucination. The woman standing over his heart, gushing blood, was not the Shioana of the past.
'So, even if you call me despicable, it can’t be helped.'
He had to witness with his own eyes the sight of her collapsing from the wounds.
'I will be shattered as much as you are broken.'
However, Shioana’s movements as she struggled to save him were quite desperate. Just like when she saved him when he collapsed in the barn in the past.
'The woman of Regbell is dead...'
Etienne’s red eyes, which had been desperately searching for Shioana of Regbell, met the vivid scar embroidered on her back.
'Do you think your scar is hideous?'
It is a scar that holds the entirety of the time the two of them have spent together
When he saw her leaning against the door, perhaps entranced by the moonlight, he almost scratched Shioana's back with his hand. As he traced the long, bumpy wound with his fingertips, Shioana's back beneath his hand would glow red.
In that instant, that night with Regbell, which he wanted to forget but could not, came back to life.
"Open your eyes. See clearly who I am."
"...E, Etienne."
Shioana, with cheeks flushed with excitement, whispered his name. It was a night when a sweet, thick air enveloped the two of them.
"...Ha."
Unable to bear it any longer, he bent down and tightly hugged Shioana's back. As the Duke's warm breath touched her scar, Shioana twisted her body violently.
“Duke, duke.”
"Please stay still for a moment."
Reaching out, he wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders and waist and buried his head in Shioana's neck. The Duke's lips emitted a hot aura, almost touching Shioana's shoulder.
"Your Excellency, since your fever is high, please consult a doctor..."
Shioana felt as if a ball of fire was embracing her.
“It’s no use.”
A metallic sound, rough to the core due to the heat, flowed from the Duke's mouth.
A heart shattered into pieces could not be healed with medicine.
Blood and pus will flow forever from a wound that will never heal.
'I hate you like this, so why am I...'
He wondered if he had been longing for this pain all along.
Etienne could not open his eyes because he found his own appearance so terrible.
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