Shioana, blinking slowly, gave a hollow smile.
'Did you love Etienne?'
It was a question that didn't really need to be answered.
Even if the world ends, the Regbell that the two of them were together will be there forever.
It seemed as though she could see Regbell's red rose beyond her slightly blurred vision.
'But it feels a bit strange that someone who looks like Etienne is asking that.'
Shioana, having composed her smile, parted her lips.
"Why are you curious about something like that?"
"Why can't I be curious?"
He answered Shioana's reply with a little anger.
She tilted her head at the inexplicable reaction.
Why would the Duke of Urcheka know about her private life?
Well, is he the type of person who needs to know everything about the world to be satisfied?
However, she didn't want to talk about her relationship with Etienne in a tavern like this. Moreover, if the person was Duke Bernhard...
'Anyway, why is it so hot?'
The air inside was stuffy, leaving her breathless and thirsty. She twisted the strings of her cloak and fanned herself with her hand. Just as she was about to inhale the lukewarm air out of dehydration, the Duke grabbed her wrist. He then snatched the glass away and placed it on the table.
“Stop drinking”
Suddenly, a surge of sorrow welled up inside her.
"...I'm paying for a drink with my own money, so why are you stopping me?"
"I'm saying this because you seem drunk."
"Do I look like someone who gets drunk at this level?"
With flushed cheeks and even hiccuping, Shioana insisted that she was fine.
"It’s natural for a drunk person to say they aren’t drunk."
Shioana became even angrier at the Duke's arrogant expression.
"No. What does my getting drunk have to do with you?"
Shioana struggled to pull her hand free from the Duke's grasp, expressing her annoyance.
“That way...?"
The Duke looked at Shioana, whose face was flushed red, with a look of disbelief.
He had absolutely no idea how to deal with this feeling. He hated this woman, who was acting like a drunkard, enough to want to kill her. No, he detested her.
'How dare you... when you can't even recognize me standing right in front of you...'
She's spouting nonsense, saying it's uncomfortable to look at him because he resembles someone she knew.
And isn't it only natural that she feels uncomfortable?
If you could commit such an act and still feel at ease, you wouldn't be human.
Unconcealable hatred seeped through the twisted lips.
"Alright. Sir, now that I've called you Sir, please let go of my hand."
Etienne wanted to embarrass her, who was acting so brazenly even after doing something wrong. Even if it meant using a very childish and cowardly method.
"I have a question..."
The Duke leaned deeply forward as if to touch her wrist with his lips.
"Why, what else are you curious about?"
"Were you really thinking of kissing earlier?"
"...Yes?"
A sigh escaped her lips as she frowned for a long time, seemingly unable to think of it immediately. Standing in front of the fountain, as if possessed by a ghost for a moment, she did something she shouldn't have.
'Sister, are you going to kiss too?'
The little boy's question rang vividly in her ears.
“Oh. No-”
She should have said no, but she just trailed off.
Because she wasn't sure.
If it weren't for the audience member interrupting earlier, she really might have done that. Especially since she hadn't even had a drink.
“Let’s go out!”
Shioana sprang to her feet, threw off her cloak and bag, and ran out of the tavern. Startled by her impulsive behavior, the Duke gathered his belongings and chased after her.
Shioana, having come outside, stood on the bridge and looked up at the moon hanging beyond the drawbridge. As the Duke draped a cloak over her shoulders, Shioana whispered softly.
"The moon is really round, isn't it?"
From Regbell's perspective, she looked exactly like the moon, but she had changed so much since then. Shioana let out a long sigh and began walking along the canal. Her drunken gait made it seem as though she might stumble at any moment.
"I will find Viscount Conrad for you."
"Walk slowly."
Shioana, pretending to cover her ears at the nagging, continued walking, and the Duke followed closely behind her.
"There's no way the Viscount would be over there..."
The Duke let out a sigh as he watched the retreating figure of Shioana, who absolutely refused to listen.
And the sight of the two of them reflected in the canal made her heart feel like it was splitting apart.
'I will go for a walk, so you escort me from behind.'
Long ago, when Shioana roamed the desolate garden holding a rose, he had guarded her from behind just as he does now.
He felt that if he dealt with Shioana's drunken antics like this, he would go insane first.
'I guess I should just leave her alone.'
The moment he decided to abandon Shioana, she disappeared from view with a strange sound.
"...?"
Worried that something bad might have happened, his pace quickened. But Shioana was sitting nonchalantly on the railing of the boat below...
Her body swayed like a sheet of paper, looking as if she might fall into the water at any moment.
"Stay right there, don't move."
With flushed cheeks, Shioana just stomped her feet, seemingly unable to hear him.
"It feels like I'm on a swing."
"You'd better not breathe in from now on."
Standing behind her and gripping Shioana's arm, the Duke whispered roughly
"You said that just a moment ago, didn't you?"
"Don't you realize you're acting dangerously right now?"
"The breeze is just refreshing, so what is there to be dangerous about it?"
At the nonchalant answer, Etienne felt a surge of anger for no reason.
If the man here with me had been someone else, what would he have thought when he saw me, Shioana, who was so drunk she could barely stand?
Her rosy cheeks, exposed slender neck, moonlit blue eyes, and lips reddened by alcohol caught his gaze.
Suddenly, the butcher he had captured and locked up in the underground prison came to mind, followed by a man named Raul who was nothing but bulging muscles.
"Absolutely not while you are my lover."
As Etienne muttered roughly, Shioana's body suddenly swayed toward where he was standing. She appeared to have fallen asleep while sitting. He picked her up as she leaned against him, but he was so dumbfounded that he could not speak.
"...Ha."
A sharp energy filled Etienne's eyes as he looked down at Shioana in his arms.
"I guess I'll have to go back for now."
As they went up, the waiting employee quickly opened the carriage door.
"Where shall I take you?"
“To her house.”
"I will obey your command."
He was in a terrible mood after seeing Shioana off with Cedric yesterday. He smiled at the women who spoke to him and answered them incessantly, but he couldn't remember a single thing.
'Because I was thinking of only other faces the whole time.'
Even though he hated her to the point of no end, he couldn't bear not seeing Shioana.
"Am I really crazy?"
He smiled bitterly as he watched Shioana sleeping soundly with her head on a cushion inside the carriage.
“But I can’t stop.”
Of course, it was a lie that he was lost.
He came here specifically to meet Shioana. He stood leaning against the fountain and waited for her until her work was finished.
It felt very new.
He was always the one working at Legbell, and it was Shioana who was the one waiting.
"What should I do?"
Etienne planned to thoroughly crush his former lover whom he had met again.
That was the reason he took her to the banquet, claiming she was a stand-in lover. He wanted to see her humiliated or insulted in an inappropriate setting. As he expected, Katrina did not even treat Shioana, who was not a noble, like a human being.
'But it wasn't as happy as I had expected.'
Shioana was not uncomfortable at all; rather, it was he who was suffering. The two people he hated most in the world.
Because he had to deal with people at the same time.
Katrina unleashed attacks not only on Shioana but also on him.
'She must have been angry because the dog wasn't obedient.'
Etienne knew it well.
To Katrina Bernhard, he was nothing more than a tool.
'Duke, I cannot express how relieved I am that you are safe.'
He was the only one who could revive the family on the brink of ruin, but at the same time, to Katrina, Etienne was not so.
He was not a welcome presence. Because, originally, he, too, should have died along with Edwin.
It was sad to be in a situation where he was not welcomed anywhere, neither Regbell nor Urcheka. However, in this worst-case scenario. Still, he had to survive.
'Edwin, I'll keep the promise I made to you.'
With a terrified look on his face, he stammered and opened his mouth to start the play.
'I was kidnapped.'
He said that when he came to his senses, he couldn't remember anything.
He said that he had wandered lost for a long time in an unfamiliar place, gotten into a carriage accident, was taken to the countryside, and worked himself to death. Since the main points were true, there was no difficulty in fabricating the story.
'It’s safe to check it out for yourself.'
In this way, Etienne Bernhard became a miraculous figure who was kidnapped and returned.
'From now on, you are His Excellency, Duke Bernhard.'
After placing him on the puppet Duke throne and acting like she was doing him a favor, Katrina was even planning to force a political marriage upon him. It seemed she had so much blood on her hands that she was blind to reality. It was obvious that she believed the entire world was beneath her feet.
'No way.'
Etienne decided to become the person she wanted him to be until the day he grasped the full extent of the tragedy and exacted revenge.
He was a dissolute nobleman with little desire for power who frequented banquets every night, but after putting on a performance in front of the enemy who had taken his family's lives, his stomach would twist so much that it was difficult to endure while remaining sane. Naturally, his breathing became longer, and his sleep diminished.
'How long can I hold out?'
But ironically, there was one face that he, burning with revenge, could not erase.
Hate and hate, yet ultimately cannot let go.
“This face.”
Etienne sighed again as he watched Shioana sleeping peacefully in his carriage.
"What should I do with you?"
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