Chapter 16
The shaking hands had stopped, Alexis couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Looking through the magnifying glass, she looked completely unchanged.
In his magnifying eyes, Millan had the same face he was looking at now.
Alexis put down his magnifying glass and stared blankly at her as she slept.
What on earth is it? If it was true that she changed her appearance, it would have been clear that she had some intention of approaching me. But no. At least Sis did not deceive me about her appearance.
I thought everything would be over once I confirmed it.
My mind is all tangled and complicated. My heart is in turmoil, with emotions that are hard to define in one word.
I’m surprised that she didn’t change her appearance, relieved that she didn’t deceive me, but I also feel puzzled and empty because the hidden agenda seems even more obscure.
In the meantime, my heart raced at the thought that this exact look was real. I began to anticipate that it might have something to do with the woman I was looking for.
‘…heredity?’
My mind suddenly became cold and frozen as he thought of that woman.
Perhaps, Sis was a distant relative of the woman who saved me? If the resemblance was due to blood, then it wasn’t completely unreasonable. It was too similar to be genetic, but… … Still.
Although he had learned about her family through their dating, Alexis didn’t believe her story because he was always aware of her unintentional advances. If she had approached him with an ulterior motive, it would be natural for her family history to be a lie.
‘I need to take a good look at the Millan family.’
He carefully sat down on the bed and fixed his gaze on her face. It was a face that he had been longing for so long that he could never get tired of looking at it. Perhaps that was why he was becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of a clear answer.
Who on earth is she, why did she appear in front of me, what does she want from me?
At some point, he became more curious about what Sis wanted from him than why she had approached him. It was a change so subtle and discreet that even Alexis himself had not noticed.
As the bright moonlight grew deeper, his confusion also deepened.
* * *
Sis had to share bed with Alexis during her few days at the duke’s residence, so her grand plan to shake him off and visit the exhibition hall was doomed to fail every time.
Even in such a pitiful situation, thanks to the courteous treatment of the staff at the Duke’s residence, I was able to recover from my cold. Now that I could finally go back, Sis prepared to leave with regrets about the exhibition hall. She looked down at the elegant dress that the maid had brought out and thought.
‘There are so many dresses.’
The day after our first night, the day it rained, and today. The servants all brought out different dresses. It was amazing that the unmarried Duke of Vegas had so many different dresses.
‘… … There must be another woman besides me?’
Wasn’t he originally famous for choosing women and spending the night with them? So, there must have been many women who had passed by Alexis until now, other than Sis. Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but hate the look of that dress. It felt like I was wearing clothes that clearly had an owner.
“There are a lot of dresses in the duke’s residence.”
The maid who was making the bed raised her head at the words that had many meanings. She was the maid who had been taking care of Sis for the past two days, and her name was Mona. Sis was not very sociable, but thanks to Mona’s outgoing personality, the two had become quite close in the two days.
“Oh, when the master invites a designer to the mansion to have his formal attire tailored, he sometimes orders a dress as well.”
“He wants to give it to the other young ladies as a gift? He must be kind.”
Sis bit her lips as if she didn’t know why she was acting like that, then grumbled in response. Mona made a bewildered expression, but then smiled as if she understood her reaction.
“No. You are the only one wearing that dress.”
Sis’s hands, which had been fiddling with the buttons on her dress, suddenly stopped.
“What did you just say?”
“This is the first time, young lady. You’re wearing the dress that the master has.”
After answering, Mona came up behind Sis and helped her put on the dress. Sis was dumbfounded as she put on the dress easily under Mona’s touch.
“So you’re saying that he haven’t given dresses to any other young ladies yet?”
“Yes that’s right.”
There was a question on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t ask Mona, who was just a maid. For example, it was a question related to the master’s extremely private life, such as what the other ladies wore after spending the night with Alexis.
What was even stranger was that Mona’s answer had completely dispelled her unpleasant feelings. The one who was more bewildered than anyone else by the sudden change of heart, as if someone had turned the palm of their hand over, was herself.
“Oh, right. Miss.”
While Siss was lost in thought, Mona, who was finishing adjusting her dress and leaving, called out to her.
“huh?”
“This is what you asked for yesterday.”
There were only two of them in the bedroom, and Mona whispered softly and secretly slipped a square piece of paper into her hand. Without opening it, Sis quickly figured out what it contained.
Just last night, Sis came out to the bedroom terrace under the pretext of getting some fresh air. Mona, who was following me, opened her mouth slightly.
‘Mona. I have a question for you.’
‘Yes, Miss. What is it?’
‘Do you happen to know the location of the exhibition hall in this mansion?’
Mona tilted her head, perhaps because Sis’s question was unexpected.
‘If it’s an exhibition hall, are you talking about the one on the third floor? The third floor is the owner’s private space that only
employees with the owner’s permission can enter, so I don’t know the exact location. … … But why are you asking that?’
Mona gave him a suspicious look, unusual for someone who had been able to carry on a conversation so far. Sis, who had fully anticipated her reaction, responded calmly.
‘I heard he likes to collect art. I wanted to give him a small gift as a token of my appreciation for taking care of me for the past two days, but I was afraid I might end up giving him something he already owns.’
Mona returned to her smiling face again, as if she had understood the brief explanation sufficiently. Fortunately, it seemed that the excuse she had been thinking of while lying in bed for a whole day had worked.
Last night, Sis was worried and worried as her plan to escape from the bedroom and search for the exhibition hall herself kept failing. She would continue to meet Alexis, so it would be easy to come to the duke’s residence, but since she was staying this long, she thought it would be a good idea to at least find out where the exhibition hall was. No, if she found out where it was, she could find the magic tools more quickly, so it was a very good idea.
Sis had been racking her brain over the method, and the conclusion she came up to was Mona. That’s why she led her to the terrace, avoiding the magic tools Alexis had installed in the bedroom.
‘Could you please tell me where the exhibition hall is?’
Mona couldn’t readily say yes. It wasn’t easy to sneak into Alexis’s personal space on the third floor. Sis took her hesitant hand and whispered secretly.
‘If you do that, I will reward you handsomely.’
Although there was still a hint of hesitation, Sis saw Mona’s eyes sparkling for a moment. Even though she was friendly and kind, she was ultimately just a servant who could not help but respond to money. As if Sis’s expectations were right, Mona nodded cautiously after a while.
And now, the location of the exhibition hall that Mona had found out was in Sis’s hands.
Sis was wondering what to give her, so he gave her all the jewelry she had on her ears and neck. If she sold it, it would probably be enough to pay for half a year’s salary for Mona as a servant.
“Are you ready?”
While Mona was looking deeply moved, the bedroom door opened and the maid came in. Mona quickly withdrew her hand that had been holding the ornament and stepped back.
According to her, the head maid, who has served in the duke’s mansion the longest, is quite strict with her servants. She also added that since she has taken in Alexis since he was young, there is no one in the mansion who knows her as well as the head maid.
Sis felt Mona tense at her appearance, and she too swallowed dryly.
“A carriage has been prepared in front of the main gate.”
“I will go quietly without telling the Duke. I owe you so much for the past two days… … .”
As Siss glanced at Alexis’ bed, the head maid looked at her for a moment.
The number of young ladies who had occupied Alexis’ bedroom so far was quite a lot. Above all, since the only person he wanted for a one-night stand was a green-eyed young lady, sometimes the young ladies who had come would walk away again.
The young ladies who first entered his bedroom all wanted to spend time with Alexis the next day, and the young ladies who visited for the second time acted as if Alexis was their official lover.
Of course, Alexis’s attitude towards them was consistently cold. It was as if spending a night together was no big deal. His indifference soon fell to the maid’s job. It was the experienced maid’s job to ward off the young ladies who tried to occupy Alexis’s bedroom.
This was the first time she had encountered such a type of woman. The last time Alexis asked her to eat, she disappeared without looking back, and today she asked not to let anyone know that she was leaving.
At the first time, the maid thought this was Sis’s way of doing things. She thought it was a way for her to divert the attention of her cold master.
But judging from her attitude, who had stayed at the mansion for two days on the pretext of being sick, it didn’t seem to be that way. Sis kept showing reluctance, as if the favors she was receiving were really burdensome, and said that she would return to the count’s mansion, but Alexis refused all of them. In the process, he gave Sis things that were his own, such as his bedroom and servants, that he did not allow to others to have.
