Chapter 10
“I’m not in a position where I can just wander around leisurely.”
This was the answer Sis had been waiting for. He was the head of the dukedom that was, without a doubt, the most prestigious in the empire. Just managing the business he had set up would take up his entire day. With that being the case, he would not have the luxury of going out with women.
So, this was an opportunity for Sis.
“It’s okay to meet here.”
“… … .”
“It’s okay if we don’t meet outside. I… …want to see the Duke.”
This is a golden opportunity to enter and exit the duke’s residence without suspicion.
There was silence in the room. Sis felt the urge to bite her tongue as she thought back to what she had said to him. She had no idea what the hell she had just said. She felt so ashamed that she wanted to hide her head in a mouse hole, but she didn’t show it. She couldn’t ruin her plan before it even started.
Alexis’s eyes never left her face, as if trying to see if there was any sincerity in that wicked tongue. A cold sweat ran down Sis’s back at the persistent gaze that seemed to have a hole in her face.
After a while, Alexis languidly rubbed her lips with his hand. I don’t know if it was an unconscious action while lost in thought or an action to show his envy, but it was an extremely sensual action.
“We meet like that and had sex?”
“… … .”
“Why are you looking so surprised? You said you liked the night you spent with me and that you missed me.”
He had clearly been flustered by her words just a moment ago, but now his expression of bewilderment had completely disappeared and he asked her back like a snake.
Sis tried her best not to show her expression, but it was too much for her face that was already starting to burn. Unable to show it, she took a deep breath and averted her gaze from him. Before she could notice, Alexis’s smile deepened like a spring.
“As you can see from spending the night with me, I am quite shameless.”
Knowing that night well, Sis’s fingertips holding the teacup trembled slightly.
“I could even spread your legs here, in the garden, or somewhere else with another attendant. Do you still want to spend time with me?”
Again.
He speaks in a vulgar way, but if you look closely, you’ll see that he’s not always forceful.
It seemed like he was swinging whatever he wanted, but in fact, he always naturally left the choice up to the other person. Whether it was the last time he just pointed a gun at her and looked at her, or now he was asking her questions in a blatant manner. Even then, if he had been suspicious enough to bother her, he could have just shot her right away, but he simply threatened her. If Siss had been scared and wanted to turn back, he would have let it go. It was a lax attitude.
As I watched him come out to the front door to greet me today, a question naturally arose. Sis still couldn’t tell whether this kind of consideration was shown to everyone or whether it was only applied to her.
On one hand, that consideration was seen as a warning. It was a warning that a red line had already been drawn between oneself and others, and that one must be prepared to cross it.
If it weren’t for that magic tool, the music box of the dead, Siss would never have thought of crossing the line he drew. She would never have gotten involved with him in the first place.
But the goal had already been set and the means to achieve it were within reach.
If I spent a night like this once, would it be difficult to do it twice?
“I want to do it.”
Alexis was slightly surprised when she suddenly met his eyes, having avoided eye contact until now. Rather than being surprised in his head, his heart felt strangely fluttering.
It was only natural. He couldn’t help but be swayed by the way she was wagging her tongue at him with that face that he had missed so much. If it was as he had expected, it would be her, not himself, who should be swayed by now.
Armed with her earrings, he had a premonition that his chances would be slim. But the woman was unexpectedly persistent, and without batting an eye, she lied that she liked me. Just like when
we first met.
Actually, the strange thing was not her, but Alexis, himself.
Since he was young, Alexis had been deceived by others so much that he hated the feeling of being deceived by someone. And in his opinion, the beginning of deception is a lie. So the woman in front of him was no different from deceiving him.
If it were him, he would have personally kicked the other person out of the mansion, telling them to stop talking nonsense and get out. However, he couldn’t do that to the woman in front of him. He couldn’t easily kick out a woman who wanted to be his lover, who wanted to win his heart in order to do that, and who wanted to spend time with him for that purpose.
A reckless impulse was suppressing his reasonings.
Sis Millan. She was a suspicious being whose age and personality I didn’t know. But the reason I kept coming to her side, the reason I pretended not to know that sly deception, was simply because her face resembled someone whom he was searching from his past. And I couldn’t kick her out right away because I didn’t know anything about her.
Even as he reluctantly came to that conclusion, Alexis couldn’t shake the feeling of discomfort that clung to his chest like mud.
“… … Okay, I’ll give you a chance.”
His voice, which came out after a long time, was filled with a strange emotion.
“Come try it out.”
Of course, Sis had no idea what those feelings meant. She was simply glad that permission had come from his lips and that she would be free to come and go from the duke’s residence from now on.
* * *
A cloudy and not so sunny afternoon.
She was in a vast garden that she could not see at a glance even if she turned her head. No matter how cloudy the weather was, the beautiful garden scenery was not obscured by it.
The countess’s mansion, which she managed, was also thought to have a splendid garden that could compete with other mansions, but that confidence completely disappeared when she saw the garden of the duke’s mansion. It was a garden that was as magnificent as the Bethania Garden of the imperial palace, a famous attraction in the empire.
The occasional breeze swept over Sis’s exposed arms beneath her sleeves. Although the weather wasn’t that cold, the wind felt cold, perhaps because she was tired and not feeling well.
This body was really strange. It naturally healed serious wounds that she couldn’t heal on her own, but it was quite vulnerable to minor pains that she could overcome. In simple terms, even though it was an immortal body, it was susceptible to minor illnesses like colds. Since the immortal body rejected not pain but death, it didn’t react to colds, which were not fatal illnesses.
Although Sis is someone who rarely catches a cold because she stays at home most of the time, she has been going out frequently these past few days, so she has accumulated fatigue and that has become the main culprit behind her current poor condition.
“Does the tea suit your taste?”
Sis nodded at the question that suddenly came from the other side. Alexis seemed relieved by the obedient response and began to look through the documents. It had been a habit to see him like this for the past few days.
It’s been a week since I met him at the duke’s residence.
Alexis, who considered himself to be a bit shameless and threatened to leave her alone whenever they met, acted unexpectedly like a gentleman. In fact, he seemed too busy managing the business of the duke’s family to even bother to rush around. It would not be an exaggeration to say that half of the time he spent with her was spent looking over documents. Because of that, Sis could tell that he was giving her his valuable time.
The conversation with him, which I was worried would be awkward, flowed surprisingly naturally. Age, family relationships, birthdays, hobbies, and other seemingly trivial things were the main topics of conversation. She and he, who only knew each other by name, had come to know quite a bit about each other.
Of course, nine out of ten of Sis’s answers were close to lies, so she felt guilty for deceiving him. But that didn’t mean she could just ignore the truth that her family had been dead for hundreds of years, and that she was no less old.
For her part, it was best to respond to the conversation in a way that seemed as natural as possible without arousing his suspicion.
What she found quite surprising was Alexis’s attitude of answering what seemed like a trivial conversation with considerable sincerity. He kept looking over the documents, but he didn’t miss a single question she asked.
Thanks to that, Sis felt like she was finally having a proper conversation with someone for the first time in a long time. It wasn’t just a simple exchange of words, but a feeling of respect for herself.
So Sis sometimes forgot why she approached him. She had to find out where the music box of the dead was right away, but she was so focused on talking to him that she often put off her original purpose. The past week was one of those times.
It was an incredibly sloppy attitude considering that she had approached him with a purpose, but it wasn’t because she wanted to do it.
It might seem like a trivial conversation to some, but she had always missed these conversations.
For hundreds of years after her family died, she had rarely had a chance to talk to anyone about her daily life. Perhaps she was so lonely because she had no one to talk to about the stories she kept in her heart.
Even though I could only lie to Alexis, it was still nice. That we could do this, face to face, eye to eye, listening to each other’s words and spitting them out with our mouths.
It’s just an ordinary exchange, but isn’t it a proof that we’re alive?
That’s why, whenever I had a conversation with him, something would sometimes well up inside me. Sis had to suppress those inexplicable emotions every time.
Sis reflected on Alexis, whom she had met during a week of conversation. He was born in the cold winter, and he often went horseback riding, and he also enjoyed collecting firearms from various countries. He also said that he planned to participate in hunting competitions held in the spring and fall.
The Imperial Hunt, hosted by the Imperial Family, was founded about 50 years ago. It is said that Alexis won the hunt six times in a hunting competition with a long history.
From the moment he freely handled the gun, I felt that he was very good at using his body. Not only that, but from what I felt on the bed, his movements were quite rough… … Sis was startled by a sudden thought and grabbed the hem of her clothes under the table. Fearing that he might catch those sinister thoughts, she quickly turned her eyes to the green garden.
“Do you like flowers?”
Alexis asked, looking at Sis like that. Sis’s figure sitting against the backdrop of colorful roses in full bloom looked like a masterpiece. It was a captivating scene that caught his attention so much that he couldn’t even think of looking back at his papers.
