A huge bedchamber, candles illuminating the darkened room.
Awkwardly, he sat still in his chair, waiting for Daphne.
Soon she came in.
“Hey-“
Rising to his feet, about to ask her if she remembered him, Ethan jerked his head away as if he’d been confronted with something he shouldn’t have seen.
Daphne was completely defenseless, clad only in a flesh-coloured robe, her hair unbound.
Ethan’s ears perked up at the sight of the woman’s naked silhouette, for he had never seen her in such a revealing outfit. Seeing this, Daphne smiled wryly and opened her mouth.
“I don’t know if you’re pretending to be innocent, or if you are. Why are you sitting there, not on the bed? Come here. Do your job.”
Only then did Ethan realize that Daphne didn’t recognise him.
As he approached her, he could smell the sweet scent of wine. Daphne looked at him with eyes that had relaxed a little.
To her, Ethan was just a slave, bought for one night’s satisfaction.
It wasn’t that she was bitter or regretful or anything.
He had heard that Daphne had been badly injured after their first meeting and had lost her memory in the accident.
He had wanted to visit her, but in his position it was impossible.
So it was clear that she didn’t remember herself. She must have forgotten her previous memories when she was in the accident.
Perhaps Daphne didn’t even remember how she’d affected Ethan, or what she’d promised him.
Still drunk from the alcohol and the heat in the room, he asked her, gloatingly.
“Do you ever remember promising a boy something when you were younger?”
“…I don’t know, something like that. I don’t remember… when I was a kid…? I got hurt really bad, so… did I promise something….”
Daphne blinked a few times, seeming to recall, and Ethan stared at the ancient sleeping form.
It was okay that she didn’t remember him. He could wait by her side, slowly, until the memories came back, until she remembered him.
“You know, I think you’re going to grow up to like me.”
“…Huh?”
“Later on, if things turn out the way I said they would, you can ask me to marry you! How about that? I’m sure I’ll grow up to be a very beautiful woman, and there’s no one better than me, so why don’t you ask me to marry you?”
“…Yes! I get it!”
“Good. Do you agree with your sister’s idea?”
“Yes, sister!”
I don’t feel bad for her, but I do feel a little unfair. I promised her my little finger, so I waited patiently, and now she’s forgotten all about it. So I decided to give her a bit of a head start.
“What’s your name?”
“I have no other name. They say a slave must be named by his master.”
“What did your former master call you?”
“I had no previous master.”
“You mean I was your first master? Hmm. That’s quite a conquest-inspiring way to speak.”
“You will redeem me as you promised yesterday.”
“There is no slavery where I come from, and since you should be in Imperial waters by now, you are legally a free citizen, so you are not my slave. You can make your own way when you get there.”
He was puzzled. No, she’d let him go? He’d thought she’d take him with her. Hadn’t she told him that when he was younger? You’ll grow up to like me!
At least this was Ethan, who was so sure he would like her, that he couldn’t hide his embarrassment.
“What about me?”
“What the hell. You’re out of slavery, you’re free, you should be happy.”
I wondered how anyone could speak with such a cold face, let alone the Grand Duke of the North.
Suddenly remembering the day, Ethan pouted. Whether or not Daphne knows how I feel about the whole thing, she’s busy doing her business in her office.
After checking and signing some documents with her aide, she left the room for a short break.
Daphne shook her head tiredly, frowned, and leaned back in her huge chair.
Ethan, meanwhile, sat still in a chair in the corner.
She’d made him do it. She had insisted that Dioana stay under her watchful eye during her lessons. She told me to stay still if she wanted me to do anything, and it was quite difficult for me to do so.
“You took my virginity,” Ethan muttered when we were alone, clearly disturbed by his earlier reminiscences.
“You took my virginity, and you threw it away in such a savage way.”
“What, what…!”
Daphne, who had been lying still at Ethan’s muttered words, quickly sat up and looked at him in disbelief.
“What’s it like to feel abandoned overnight….”
Ethan crossed his arms over his chest as if he was going to deliberately give her a hard time. Then, with a whimper, he shook his head pitifully.
“What nonsense!”
“It was my first time with Her Highness.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I really am.”
“Huh! To discuss chastity with a face like that. It’s not even funny.”
“What is my face like?”
“You know better than that. If you had a face like that, you’d be serving a lady’s night at a slave market.”
Ethan snorted, her pitiful expression never working.
No, this woman was real.
Ethan felt really bad. Because she was really his first. She’ll never know how many close calls he’ve had to endure to keep that childhood promise.
She’ll never know how he’ve fought through countless crises to keep that childhood promise he made to her.
Daphne then looked at Ethan and blinked rapidly, momentarily confused.
“What, what, that look.”
“I’m hurt, Your Highness.”
“What’s there to be hurt about…. Jeremy? Why are you there….”
Jeremy, who had been here for who knows how long, stared at Daphne and then at Ethan, looking quite surprised. At this point, Ethan shook his head, looking very hurt.
Then Jeremy shook his head.
“Wow. Your Highness, I didn’t see it that way, but you’re the worst.”
He said stingingly.
“What?”
“No, I mean, how could you say something like that…. I’d be hurt too.”
“How impudent of you, Archduke!”
“I speak as a cousin; and if Sir Russell had heard it, he would have beaten his breast and wailed, saying, I didn’t bring you up like this!”
“Oh, because he was just like me before he met your sister?”
“No, because Gregory was a one-trick pony.”
“Because I know him better than you, and I set him up to be the bad guy in the first place. Ha.”
“It’s just that when you’re at a disadvantage, you say things you don’t mean.”
Shaking his head, Jeremy stepped in front of Ethan and gave him a sympathetic look, as if he understood.
“You’ve been through a lot, Puffy. My cousin’s been a bit like that since she was a little girl.”
Then, in the distance, Daphne shouted.
“Call for the Archduke!”
“Look at that. She’s the perfect Northern Archduke and Changeling.”
Her cousin Jeremy, like many of the Sterrens, had a penchant for befriending the handsome and the beautiful. He was similarly unconcerned with status.
He glanced at Ethan for a moment and asked.
“By the way, did you really give your virginity to the ArchDuchess?”
Ethan answered very confidently.
“Yes. Her Excellency practically ‘stole’ my virginity. I thought she would take responsibility for it, but she said she didn’t know me.”
Daphne, who had suddenly become the bad girl, the insolent Northern Archduchess who had taken a man’s virginity and had no idea, was at a loss for words and could only make a series of “huh!” and “ha!” and “meh!” noises.
Daphne, who had only driven away Jeremy in a fit of rage, glared at Ethan with a fierce glare.
* * *
The afternoon’s business was almost over, and she was about to take a break when Jeremy came her to go get a snack.
She was stunned and speechless when she heard the words, “She took his virginity,” or ” She wasn’t responsible,” come out of nowhere.
She took Puffy’s virginity. How ridiculous!
What kind of woman would let a man with a face like that, a body like that go?
Worst of all, even if she couldn’t remember the night exactly, a vague sensation assured her that he hadn’t been a virgin.
Maybe I was being harsh, but it’s hard to believe that a man of uncommon beauty, rescued from the slave market, could have kept his virginity.
He talks as if I’m some sort of molesting, rogue lord.
Not one to obsess over anyone’s purity, I tried to dismiss it as a one-night stand, and though he had come to live here as a puppy, I had no intention of inviting him to spend the night in the presence of Dioana.
I finally kicked him out and slammed the door in his face when he came in and said that Jeremy was a vile archduke who deserved to have his tongue stuck out.
The puppy bastard who’d caused all this trouble just sat there nonchalantly.
“You. Don’t go running your mouth.”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“How do I know you’re not lying about your virginity ?”
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