Her throat was parched. Carol moistened her lower lip with her tongue and whispered as if telling a secret.
“Well, the Duke is different, you know.”
“How is he different?”
The viscosity of his emotions that came through his touch was different.
“That’s…”
“That’s what?”
“…You’re asking even though you know, aren’t you?”
“No way!”
“…”
Faced with Carol’s suspicious gaze, the Duke feigned innocence and shrugged his shoulders.
“If you don’t explain, I’ll believe you’ll give me that opportunity too.”
The Duke grinned and tickled the inside of Carol’s palm with his long fingers.
As her palm was scratched, a strange sensation ran up her spine.
“Ahh.”
Carol herself was the most surprised by this sound. She couldn’t believe she had made such a noise.
Carol hurriedly pulled her hand away. It felt as if her heart had moved to her hand, as it throbbed.
The Duke furrowed his brow. Until just now, he had only meant to tease her.
It was a bit of a mischievous prank.
But her short gasp had loosened the beast’s leash.
He knew he should go slowly as she wished, but at times like this, it was hard to endure.
He knew he should act like a tamed beast, but his wild nature whispered that it wouldn’t hurt to taste her a little more.
The Duke took Carol’s hand, which was floating in the air, and led it again.
Thirst began to rise in his innocent face. Even as he looked at her face, he wanted to see more, and even as he held her hand, he wished to see more.
“It wouldn’t be bad to exchange information either.”
The Duke muttered.
“What… information?”
When Carol asked about the sudden mention of information exchange without a subject, the Duke curled up the corners of his mouth.
She felt his curving eyes were provocative. The Duke cupped her cheek and made her meet his gaze.
The Duke briefly kissed her soft cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her silky hair caught on his fingertips. The Duke moved his fingers, slowly stroking from the back of her ear to her earlobe. Then he whispered as if telling her a secret.
“Because I haven’t told you yet what I did every night with the memory of touching the teacher’s cheek.”
“!”
Carol’s face turned bright red as if it might explode. She was dumbfounded, unable to utter a word, frozen in place while clutching her ears.
The Duke grinned at her.
“I’d like to tell you in great detail.”
“I…!”
She meant to say she’d decline the information exchange, but the Duke was a bit faster.
The Duke calmly took Carol’s hand and kissed the back of it.
Carol couldn’t tell if her hand was hot or if the Duke’s lips were hot.
“It seems we’ll have to dine somewhere else today.”
The Duke told the coachman to change their destination.
A single word of refusal would suffice, but she just couldn’t get her lips to move.
“Duke, I…”
She felt as if she might be swallowed whole by the Duke.
“I’ll behave like a gentleman, I swear on my honor.”
So just a little bit.
As if sensing her wavering feelings, the Duke whispered secretly.
He really knew her too well.
Carol simply couldn’t refuse his words.
The carriage that had been heading towards the townhouse changed direction.
****
Kevin and Dylan couldn’t focus on work all day, knowing Carol said she had something to talk about.
“If it’s too tough, clock out early.”
“No, sir!”
“It’s tiring these days with the rain coming and going.”
Usually, they’d be scolded for not working hard enough, but since it became certain they’d be appointed as knights, no one had been pushing them.
Not only that, when the weather was bad, patrol duties outside were usually left to the lowest-ranking members. But recently, apart from their training time, they hadn’t had to get their hands dirty during work hours even once.
Their bodies were comfortable, but their minds were uneasy. They couldn’t keep refusing here either.
“We’ll work harder tomorrow.”
The two had no choice but to leave work early.
“Alright. You know the 1st and 2nd Knight Orders have been looking down on us lately, but they’re really on guard now.”
Their senior said with a happy face as he sent them off.
“I wonder why Sis said she had something to talk about and wanted to meet in the evening?”
Kevin asked nervously, biting his nails.
“It’s scarier when she gives a warning like this.”
If they had a rough idea of what she might say, they could at least prepare mentally, but they had no clue what she might talk about.
The range of possibilities was so wide that it made them even more anxious.
“She’s not going to say she’s getting married, is she?”
At Dylan’s casually uttered words, Kevin smacked him on the back.
“No way!”
“Right? It’s too early, isn’t it?”
Though they knew about the Duke’s favors, marriage was an entirely different matter.
“By the way, Brother Louis…”
Starting with the Duke, their thoughts naturally shifted to Louis. A solemn atmosphere briefly hung between the two.
“Didn’t you say Louis has been frequenting the royal palace lately? Shouldn’t he be there now?”
Having crossed paths with him a few times coming and going from the palace, they could guess where Louis might be.
Sure enough, Louis was where they expected. What was unexpected was that Louis, who always maintained a proper expression outside, wary that someone might be watching anytime and anywhere, was now coming out of the royal palace with a dazed look.
“Why is he making such a foolish expression?”
“Could it be… because of Sis?”
Their eyes filled with sympathy. At the same time, they became more convinced that what Carol wanted to talk about in the evening might be about marriage.
“Brother!”
Kevin quickly approached Louis. Louis, who had been walking unsteadily, belatedly noticed the two.
“Kevin? Dylan? What brings you here?”
“We finished work early and thought we’d have dinner with you.”
“Did something happen to you?”
At Dylan’s question, Louis’s gaze wavered intensely.
“Something… I think I made a mistake.”
“What kind of mistake? Work-related?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Louis’s lips trembled before he shook his head. His face turned pale in an instant, then flushed red. His condition was visibly abnormal.
Kevin and Dylan patted Louis on both shoulders.
“Sis also said you should come over when you have time.”
At the mention of Carol, Louis’s face suddenly awoke as if splashed with cold water.
“How is Carol doing?”
Louis was the only one close to the twins among those who knew the exact reason for Carol’s injury.
They needed to coordinate their story about how they changed the reason for her injury to maintain secrecy.
“Sis? Her wounds are almost healed.”
“What about the tutoring center?”
This was what Louis really wanted to know. He hadn’t heard what happened to the tutoring center.
“Didn’t you hear it was robbed? It was closed for a few days due to the investigation of the serial offender, but it’s open again now.”
“Fortunately, they caught the culprit quickly. They say it was a petty criminal.”
Louis, watching the two who didn’t know the truth, let out a shallow sigh.
“That’s a relief.”
Sensing something off in his weak voice, Dylan stared intently at Louis’s face.
“Brother, are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
“Why?”
“It’s not that, I’m just too busy.”
“Is that so?”
He had been busy before, but this time felt different. The two didn’t press further. If he wanted to confide his troubles, he would have said so already.
“…Tell her I probably won’t be able to visit for a while.”
“Okay.”
“And I don’t think I can have dinner today either. Work’s piled up.”
“Take care of yourself while working.”
“Yeah.”
This time, Louis patted the two on their backs.
Louis disappeared, exuding an unsettling atmosphere. The faces of the two became very serious.
“Does Brother know what Sis is going to say and that’s why he’s in such a bad mood?”
“…Surely not.”
Their growing imaginations made them afraid to go home.
But no matter how much they tried to avoid it, a few hours was the most they could manage.
“How should we react?”
“Whatever choice Sis makes, we should support her.”
“That’s right, isn’t it?”
The two made a firm resolution as they wandered the streets.
By the time they solemnly arrived home, Carol had already finished preparing dinner.
“You’re a bit late today?”
Carol greeted the two, wiping her hands on her apron.
“You came home earlier than usual, Sis?”
“We agreed to talk, remember? Let’s eat first.”
The three sat side by side. For a while, only the clinking of forks and knives could be heard.
“I’ve decided to accept the Duke’s proposal.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m thinking of going to the North.”
“…What?”
They looked at Carol, who was solemnly stating facts they already knew.
“Is that all?”
“…And I’m thinking of becoming a sponsor for a child.”
“The kid you mentioned before?”
Since Carol had talked about the position at the Northern Academic Academy and Benjamin when the two were present, they knew about Benjamin as well.
“Yes.”
“Is that all?”
“Huh? Yes.”
Despite Carol’s long consideration and solemn delivery, her brothers’ reactions were underwhelming. Their looks seemed to say, “Is that all?”
NAH DUKE WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT HER HUH? TOUCHING CUCUMBERS??