OIAR - Chapter 70

The Duke, who had been avoiding Shioana's face, turned around and rested his arms on the desk. His expression was so terrifying that she swallowed hard the moment she saw it.

"That is exactly why I ended up writing the papers—because I simply cannot trust your words."

Shioana hid her trembling voice while trying not to be scared.

"I don't understand why you are paying so much attention to a mere stand-in for a lover."

"Merely? The honor of the Bernhard family is at stake..."

"To think you would entrust a matter on which the family's honor depends to someone like me in the first place. Isn't that ridiculous? Besides, how did you know that I went to look at houses with the boss?"

Lately, there were times when the back of her head would sting a little on jer commute. When Shioana looked at him with a look of disbelief, the Duke smirked.

"Are you watching me?"

"Then did you think I would just leave a debtor who owes that much in gold coins alone?"

"...Ha."

He was a man so brazen and detestable that it was infuriating to think he had the exact same face as Etienne. To think he would say so brazenly that he was being watched.

"I won't cheat you out of it, and I won't run away."

"As I said before, I don't believe your words."

She felt it from the beginning, but Duke Bernhard had not the slightest affection for her.

Completely exhausted from the long conversation, she rose from her chair. Meeting the Duke was a hundred times more tiring than working all day.

"I've signed it, so that's all for today, right?"

"Who do you think you are..."

The Duke's eyes blazed as he strode around the desk.

Shioana, helplessly shedding tears at his red eyes, bit her lip, but at that moment, he suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed.

"...!"

It was the same symptom as when she saw it in the carriage the other day.

"Your Excellency, I will call a doctor."

"...There's no need to make a fuss."

Gasping for breath, he fumbled for the pill bottle in his inner pocket. But seeing that it wasn't there, he reached for the desk drawer.

However, perhaps due to severe heart pain, he kept his head down and only let out groaning sounds.

As Shioana quickly opened the desk drawer instead, she easily found the medicine bottle. Even though she didn't want to, she couldn't just stand by and watch him gasp for breath. She took out the medicine, placed it in his hand, and poured him a glass of water.

"...?"

And as Shioana stood in front of the desk to close the open drawer, something familiar caught her eye inside.

For a moment, she forgot where she was and fumbled with her hand to touch the edge of the handkerchief. A name was embroidered there in red thread.

“Etti-”

It was undoubtedly the handkerchief she had embroidered. It was when she pushed her hand a little further in to take a closer look.

"Don't you know that you shouldn't touch other people's things without permission?"

The Duke, wrapping her arms around Shioana from behind, slammed the drawer shut. Trapped between the desk and the Duke, Shioana broke out in a cold sweat.

'What I just saw was definitely the one I gave to him.'

Why is that in Duke Bernhard's office?

The Etienne she brought back from Regbell and this rude man pressing down on her body right now are completely different people.

"Are you thinking of another man? Have you forgotten that we are lovers in the meantime?"

"There's no one else here; do you really have to do this?"

The document she just filled out had a clause requiring them to look like lovers during the contract period.

"Because unlike others, I pursue perfection."

There was a limit to avoiding him while hunched over the desk. Her back felt like it was going to break, and her body was trembling.

'No, I hate you just as much as you do.'

She turned his body, tensing her shoulders. She thought the other person would recoil in disgust and back away. However, the Duke did not move an inch, and it looked like she was about to take a direct hit to the face.

Shioana couldn't breathe for a moment.

The Duke's face, pale from illness, held a beauty she had never seen, as she swore to the goddess Diana.

Lips holding a heat that contrasted with the pale face were blooming toward her, and they were so red that it looked as if touching them would stain the skin.

Shioana squeezed her eyes shut, clutching the corner of the desk tightly. If she looked at the Duke's face any longer, she might cause an accident she shouldn't.

"Are you trying to pull a stunt?"

"Are you crazy, Your Excellency? I'm just trying to get away."

"What excuse are you going to give for not being able to take your eyes off my face?"

"That doesn't have to be me, even if it's someone else..."

"Even if it's someone else..."

The Duke's lips, lowering their head little by little, drew closer as if to brush past Shioana's cheek.

"It's only natural that I get this reaction, Your Excellency, since you are handsome."

It hurt her pride to blurt out such an answer, but she couldn't help it. Her body, against her will, kept showing affection for the Duke.

"It’s too red to say it’s simply because I'm handsome."

"I have absolutely no other feelings."

"Why? You could make the most of this opportunity to act as a stand-in for the lover."

She remembered what Cedric had said as he passed by a while ago.

'Crawling into the Duke's bed at night-.'

"I have absolutely no intention of doing so. My child is waiting at home, so I will be leaving now."

After pushing the Duke hard on the shoulder with the hand that had been resting on the desk, she ran straight out of the office.

Cedric, who was waiting for her outside the office, escorted her to the carriage.

“Did you two fight?”

"How could someone like me possibly dare to fight Your Excellency?"

As she covered her flushed cheeks, Cedric tilted his head.

"But I have never seen a woman who angers His Excellency as much as you do."

The voice of admiration felt like a kind of praise, but it didn't matter.

"I have completed the paperwork, so I ask for your cooperation with the remaining eight as well."

The thought of having to meet the Mad Duke eight more times felt as arduous as eight hundred. Then, remembering the handkerchief she had seen earlier, she quickly asked Cedric.

"By any chance, did His Excellency have a twin brother?"

"I have been watching since I was young, and such things never happen."

“Yes. Thank you.”

Shioana, having climbed into the carriage, spun around sharply. She found everything about the Duke Bernhard family repulsive.

At the sound of the carriage moving, Shioana settled into the soft backrest.

'Who on earth is that person?'

Just as Shioana was leaving the Bernhard family garden, she looked up at the window at the back of the carriage.

It felt really strange.

It was painful because whenever she met the Duke, it felt like she was seeing Etienne. But at some point, she started to worry about the Duke himself.

Although she did not like a single thing about his arrogant tone or behavior, she reacted sensitively to the Duke's every breath and gesture.

Even earlier, she could have simply called the doctor or Cedric, but perhaps that was the reason she went out of her way to step forward. In fact, she didn't exactly dislike being hugged at the desk either.

'You're crazy. This is just like betraying Etienne.'

Shioana shook her head vigorously and felt a burning heat emanating from the scar on her back. It seemed that tensing her body too much earlier had been a bad idea.

The wound appeared to be completely healed on the surface, with no pus oozing, but she would occasionally develop a fever when she was not feeling well.

'It feels just like Etienne's whisper telling me not to forget him.'

So Shioana was quite glad that this pain came.

Shioana endured the dull, spreading pain and dropped her head.

That night was a very long night for Shioana.

***

Shioana drank the fever tea that Harriet often drinks from the morning. It didn't taste very good, so she made a grimace, and Martha let out a sigh.

"She was really sick last night. Boss, you shouldn't make people work until the night shift like that."

She didn't want to talk about visiting the Bernhard ducal family yesterday, so she made up an excuse that she had left the office late.

"It's okay. The boss said he'll pay me more per week."

"I should be of some help, but I'm just making things difficult for you, young lady."

"Stop saying things like that. It's because Martha takes care of Harriet that I can work with peace of mind. They are my precious family."

At Shioana's words, Martha handed over the bag containing the lunch box.

"Harriet. I'll be back!"

The slow-developing baby was still lying down when everyone else was holding on and standing up.

Shioana felt a tightness in her chest every time she looked at Harriet, as if it were all her fault for being lacking.

'I really need to save up money quickly so I can show the baby to a decent doctor.'

It seemed like whenever she thought she had saved up a little money, something always happened. Not long ago, the upstairs neighbor did some repairs because of a water leak, and her only table got damaged, so she had to get a new one.

No matter how frugally you live, you can't exactly sit on the bed to eat every meal.

"It's okay. I can just work hard and earn more."

If she looked at the matter with the Duke positively, meeting him nine times instead of eight could earn her ten more gold coins. Thinking that her whole family would be happy if she just endured a little inconvenience for her, it seemed like anything was worth doing.

Shioana, who had been heading to work so energetically, had no choice but to stop abruptly in the middle of the road. Her face turned pale in an instant. She immediately hid behind a streetlamp, her hands trembling.

'...That person.'

It was clearly Count Noah crossing the street accompanied by several men. His tall stature, slender build, platinum blonde hair, and sharp features were not easily forgotten. Shioana, clutching her bag, stood motionless for quite some time.

'If it were a debt, it would have been almost forgiven, but...'

Besides the light, there remained Eli and the promises exchanged with him. Count Noah seemed to regard her as belonging to Regbell.

With bloodshot eyes, he grabbed Shioana and shouted.

"Shioana, you know that you are included in Regbell, don't you? How long are you going to turn a blind eye to my face? I have put so much effort into you, and yet you treat me like this?"

His voice, which sounded like it would shatter her, was still vivid in her ears.

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