Chapter 9 (1/2)

“Or are you doing it on purpose? Does this make your body warmer or something like that?”

Edwin looked at Herietta and laughed. It didn’t suit him; he spoke like a gigolo. Herietta couldn’t think properly. The one in her memory and the one in front of her eyes overlapped, and her mind was all mixed up. It felt like being slapped in the face by a monster.

The hand that had been resting on Herietta’s face gradually went down. His hands, which had reached the edge of her chest, were clenched and stopped in front of her dress.

“By the way, you’ll have to use a very strong drug to get my mind moving. I’m sorry, but you’re not my taste.”

He tilted his head at an angle and rolled his eyes down to look at her. One of the corners of his lips went up. It was dazzlingly attractive and sensational.

“It doesn’t matter because they will all look the same when you’re drunk.”

He fiddled with the laces that held the front of the dress tightly and then fumbled around as if he were about to untie them. Ziipp. She felt her breathing loosen when the string holding her corset together unfastened. And thanks to that very alien feeling, Herietta was able to come to her senses.

“Sto, stop!”

Herietta pushed Edwin away as hard as she could. The gap between the two widened.

“You, what, what are you trying to do to me now?”

Herietta stared at Edwin, her eyes wide open in disbelief.

“What… What the hell are you going to do?”

She tried to argue again, but her throat choked and she couldn’t finish her sentence. She was so shocked that she couldn’t even cry. This is a nightmare, she seriously thought.

* * *

Edwin stood a little away from Herrietta and stared at her. Her hands, which fastened back the loose front sash, were trembling uncomfortably. Her eyes, which had a warm light like the sunlight of the spring day, fluttered like a shipwreck swept by a storm.

Edwin’s expression, which had only been so cold, looked disturbed. Just as there are different kinds of people, different reactions can come out in the same situation. But what is this? Her reaction was something he had never expected.

She might be acting, Edwin thought. But he immediately questioned his thoughts. Is she really acting when she is trembling this badly? He frowned.

“You don’t want to subdue me.”

He said. However, he said it in a slightly softer voice than before.

“You don’t want to see myself succumbing at your feet in such a wretched manner that I can no longer be uglier.”

“What did you say? Me, you?”

As Herietta let out her breath, she cut him off.

“Are you crazy? What kind of pleasure would I get from seeing you bowing down to someone like that!”

“…”

“I don’t want to see that, even if you pay me millions!”

As terrifying it is to imagine, she trembled like an aspen tree and felt a chill run down her spine. It was a strong reaction. So much so that she thought she might pass out again.

It was an unexpected development. Although he had an indifferent expression on the outside, Edwin was confused on the inside. Wasn’t she a great actress? If she puts her mind to it, she can deceive even him and get over it.

No, that’s not it. She’s not lying now. The instinct that had been with him since birth whispered in his ear.

But it didn’t make sense. Herietta knew his past. And, as the Marquis Macnaught said, no one in Philioche should have known his true identity. He had already done all the pre-checks, didn’t he say that? He was sent to this unheard-of country village for that reason alone.

Even if he thought about it two or three times, the circumstances did not line up. So, of course, he had no choice but to be suspicious.

“Hey, why are you like this?”

Herietta asked sarcastically.

“Why, why are you, when you’re so much nobler than anyone else?”

It wasn’t a criticism, it was a look of pity. Edwin’s expression darkened at that.

Yeah. Why did this happen?

He asked himself. He was no longer the same. The life he had lived for the past year had gnawed at him both on the outside and the inside. The twenty years of life he had lived up to that point did nothing to help him survive that year.