Ashika bit the inside of her lip. To think someone had been watching Igraine’s carriage during all that chaos.
“If you already have the information, is there really a need to bring in all the fugitives?”
“This one deliberately chose Igraine’s carriage. I don’t think he’s the same as the other escapees.”
Ashika’s face tensed. Nile had said he would be needed, and Drushia was clearly pointing that out.
“What are you planning to do with him?”
“Obviously…”
Drushia paused mid-sentence and looked down at her face carefully.
“Are you trying to protect him now?”
Unconsciously, Ashika’s gaze dropped.
Protection? It was absurd to show such kindness to someone she had just met. However, she was also reluctant to hand over to Drushia someone who had clung to her like a lifeline, treating him like a criminal.
“It’s not so much that…”
“Not so much what?”
Somehow, Drushia seemed closer than before. A heavy, deep scent like moisture-laden wood hit her nostrils.
The thoughts that had been so clear in her mind became completely tangled. The unfamiliar yet somehow nostalgic scent consumed even Ashika’s thoughts.
“…well…”
Her wandering eyes suddenly stopped somewhere inside the tent. The rustling thing sensed her gaze and raised its head. It was the large lizard with a dark brown, elongated body that had escaped from the exhibition hall.
“…Ah!”
With Ashika’s scream, the startled animal jumped up too. As the creature the size of a human torso thrashed about, its long tail struck Ashika’s leg.
“Lady Igraine!”
Drushia tried to catch her, but it all happened so quickly. Her struck leg wobbled, and Ashika fell backward as if pushed.
Her flailing arms instinctively grabbed at anything. With a ripping sound, something tore away in Ashika’s grasp, and a dark shadow covered her body.
She thought she would hit either her back or head. There was a thudding sound as Ashika’s body landed on the floor.
“Ugh.”
However, the pressure of the weight pressing down on her body was greater than the expected pain. When she carefully opened her eyes, which had instinctively closed, she saw brilliant blonde hair sprawled across her chest.
“Haah, what is this…”
Hot breath poured directly onto her full chest. Drushia’s eyes widened as he realized the soft, plump sensation touching his face.
When he slightly raised his head, there were those pitch-black eyes looking at him. Completely frozen, too shocked even to scream.
For a brief moment, neither of them understood what had happened.
“This is…”
Drushia carefully removed his hands that had been cradling Ashika’s head and back.
“You won’t misunderstand, will you?”
Fearing Ashika might scream, Drushia raised their overlapping bodies with extreme caution.
But instead of screaming, Ashika’s gaze shifted to his chest. Drushia’s eyes followed hers and looked down at his own chest. The spot where taut, muscular bare skin was fully exposed.
The nipple protruding from the middle of his bare chest was exposed so nakedly it almost seemed obscene. The fabric that should have covered his chest was torn along with the ruffle decoration and clutched in Ashika’s hand.
Drushia’s face flushed red. In this confusing moment of not knowing whether to be angry or cover himself first, what kept him from speaking was Ashika’s strange gaze.
Ashika’s hand slowly moved toward his chest.
A long red mark stretching like a scar over the delicately sculpted chest muscles. The skin, sticky with sweat, clung to her fingertips.
‘It really was there.’
Just like in her dream. She knew where the long mark starting at the shoulder and trailing down the chest led. Though she had never seen it, she clearly remembered it.
Following that memory, Ashika’s fingertips traced his bare skin. The mark that continued from below the ribs to the center of the lower abdomen and deep into the inner thigh. However, the belt at his waist prevented her from tracing further down.
A large hand slowly approached and grasped her small, white hand. With a clear intention, yet careful not to startle her.
Drushia placed Ashika’s hand beside her head and pressed it down firmly. As his half-raised body tilted back down, a deep shadow fell over her.
Those deep blue eyes came right up to her face, and she felt hot breath near her lips. The body heat touching her was hot, and their entangled lower bodies were hot too.
The firm flesh pressing against the inside of her thigh was even hotter. That burning hot thing, crushed by his weight, squirmed.
There was an irresistible heat entangling them. Something binding them together so intensely that it made her mind dizzy. Just from the contact alone, she felt a powerful sensation swirling throughout her body.
Drushia’s lips narrowly missed hers. Though he wanted to devour those moist lips in one breath, a thread-thin rationality held him back.
Drushia dropped his head beside Ashika’s face.
“Haaah…”
Ashika swallowed dryly and barely managed to speak.
“…this is just…”
The sensation of that firm thing still pressing between her thighs was dizzying. It felt strange, yet this man didn’t feel unfamiliar, creating an odd feeling.
“…an accident.”
“That’s right. Perhaps…”
“Perhaps.”
Drushia exhaled a long breath and rose. Rejecting the strongly drawn instinct, desperately pushing away the desire not to let go of the woman in his arms.
After Drushia stood up first, he extended his hand to Ashika. He wondered if she might refuse, but she took his hand quite naturally and raised herself up.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
It was the first thing that caught her eye as she stood. At eye level, the man’s bare skin shimmered.
“Damn it.”
Drushia’s brow furrowed sharply. One side of his chest was exposed where the clothing had been torn. Covering it seemed ridiculous, but leaving it exposed was embarrassing.
Ashika, her face flushed red, extended the torn piece of fabric in her hand. Drushia couldn’t hide his reddened face either.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Perhaps… should I go outside and call someone?”
“You want a scandal about Igraine and Talion appearing from a private space with torn clothes, is that it?”
“Ah, I see.”
“You see?”
“Well, since it seems there’s nothing I can do to help, I should just…”
Ashika began backing away toward the tent entrance. But Drushia was quicker to block her path.
“You’re just going to run away and leave me like this?”
The man growled with half his chest clearly exposed. Ashika’s face contorted strangely, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“What do you expect me to do? I can’t call anyone, and I can’t hide the Duke inside my clothes and take you out. Wouldn’t it be better if at least one of us left before someone discovers us?”
“You speak well. Now I understand. Is Lady Igraine’s specialty to act first and run away?”
“Act and run? What did I…”
Suddenly remembering the incident at the Imperial Palace, Ashika closed her mouth. It was something that couldn’t be excused even with ten mouths.
Though he grabbed her out of indignation, Drushia was equally perplexed. Then his scowling face suddenly lit up.
Having decided to discard etiquette altogether, he stepped toward Ashika and pulled at the cape draped over her shoulders.
“This will do.”
“W-what are you doing?”
“Your dress is fine. Concede this to me.”
“You’re going to walk out wearing a woman’s cape?”
“Would you prefer I go out with my bare skin exposed?”
Even as he spoke, Drushia was incredibly embarrassed. Seeing Ashika’s lips quiver after twitching, his face scrunched up even more.
“Don’t laugh.”
Ashika subtly covered her mouth with one hand, but couldn’t hide her shaking shoulders.
“Pfft…”
“I said don’t laugh.”
Though he growled with a grim face, it was useless. Ashika couldn’t face Drushia directly and turned her head away. Behind her, she heard the sound of a sigh barely containing anger.
“This is really…”
“My lady, are you in there?”
The flush that had been on Ashika’s face instantly drained away.
“Lib?”
“Yes, I’ve been looking for you since you’ve been gone for so long. May I come in?”
“No, just a moment.”
Ashika, turned pale white, grabbed Drushia’s arm. Surprised, Drushia gaped but couldn’t make a sound. Without giving him time to refuse, Ashika dragged him deeper inside.
In a corner filled with all sorts of odds and ends, behind stacked boxes, the space where Drushia had first hidden appeared. Ashika pushed him inside, almost shoving him in.
Drushia’s lips parted involuntarily in astonishment.
“What are you doing?”
“Shh. Keep quiet.”
Drushia’s protests were completely ignored.
After stashing him in the corner, Ashika hurriedly tried to leave. In that moment, Drushia reached out and snatched the cape. As Ashika turned around in surprise, he glared at her with a frown.
With an “Ah,” she took off the cape, and her lips trembled again. Curses rose involuntarily to Drushia’s lips. Ashika merely shed the cape like a molting skin and quickly disappeared from sight.
Although it was Drushia who had snuck in from the beginning, he hadn’t anticipated this situation.
‘What a humiliation.’
Drushia wiped his face, which was soaked with cold sweat, and let out a long sigh.
****
Darkness had fallen, and the busy sounds of the servants had died down. At a time when everyone was asleep, although the candle in the room had long been extinguished, Ashika tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
“It really was there.”
The so-called dispatch mark. She had heard it was like a scar that occurred when dispatch troops were injured in dangerous areas.
From the moment she saw his bare skin until the moment just before their lips met, the sensation of their bodies overlapping was still vivid.
“I must be going crazy.”
Ashika buried her face in her hands and muttered feverishly.
She knew there had been many ladies who admired Drushia before his engagement. But his nature was so unapproachable that most women couldn’t even speak to him.
“His personality should be a bit prickly.”
What good was being handsome and charming? His personality was bad. His fiancée must be tolerating it.
Yes, he was a man with a fiancée. Although it wasn’t her intention, it might have seemed as if she had seduced him. If Drushia hadn’t exercised restraint, what would have happened?
“Ha, that’s not the issue here.”
There was a more urgent problem. What Drushia had said during the day wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
‘Should I tell Grandfather?’
What she had thought was a simple fire incident involved Talion, and behind that were entangled issues of the Grand Duchy. But she immediately erased the thought.
‘Not yet.’
Weive had long withdrawn from Grand Duchy matters. If she brought up an uncertain issue, she would only be criticized for incompetence.
‘Where should I get information?’
Suddenly, she remembered a person who knew about this fire in advance.
[Come find me! The oldest art shop on Saint Reed Street. You must come!]
‘She said Saint Reed Street.’
She was clearly a woman who knew something.
‘Let’s meet her first. Then I need to talk to Duke Talion again.’
This wasn’t a matter to be overlooked. She needed to meet with Drushia and confirm the information he knew.
After tossing and turning with all sorts of thoughts for a while, she seemed to have dozed off. The moment she sensed a shadow approaching her face, a man’s hand covered her mouth.
“Hm!”
“It’s Nile, Young Duchess. Don’t be alarmed.”
A cautious voice whispered in the midst of darkness. It was a voice she had clearly heard before, but her startled heart was beating wildly.
“You won’t scream, will you?”
When no answer came, Nile added pleadingly.
“Please, Young Duchess.”
After rolling her dark eyes back and forth, Ashika nodded quietly. She realized there was nothing she could do with her own strength at the moment.
Nile removed his hand and stepped back, then found a nearby candlestick and lit it. Despite having only moonlight streaming through the window, he managed to find the object in the room.
As the shock subsided and the room brightened, Nile’s face became clearly visible.
“How…”
Ashika couldn’t close her gaping mouth.
The place where Nile was confined was on the third floor. Plus, there were guards outside. Had he escaped from there? Why had he come here?
Questions lined up in Ashika’s mind.
“I have no intention of escaping, and even less intention of harming you, Young Duchess. As I said at first, I just need help.”
Belatedly, Ashika realized that he had snuck into her bedroom.
‘My goodness. Was the mansion security this loose?’
It was a chilling realization.
“Ah, Young Duchess. Don’t be afraid. I’m special—there’s nothing wrong with the mansion’s security.”
The man who had invaded her bedroom in the middle of the night maintained an apologetic expression throughout. His repeated apologies didn’t seem false.
Ashika regarded Nile with a cool gaze before pointing to a chair behind him.
“Bring me that shawl over there.”
“The shawl? Ah, yes.”
Ashika was meanwhile trying to cover her thin nightgown with the blanket. It was not appropriate attire for conversation.
When Nile found the shawl and handed it to her, Ashika took it without taking her eyes off his face.
‘He doesn’t seem like a knight. Nor does he look like a mercenary.’
She had heard there were people like assassins who performed covert tasks. But nowhere in this man’s face could she sense such danger.
“Are you willing to talk with me now?”
“That’s precisely what I want to ask. How did you get out?”
