Were you not given proper etiquette lessons? Don’t you know it’s not polite to laugh at people?
The Confucian girl within me from Cheonghak-dong*, was displeased with Armin Grey’s lack of manners. But Vivian Roha should not react that way. I quietly waited for Armin Grey’s laughter to subside.
[*T/N: Village in Korea that exercises old Korean traditions.]
After a moment, Armin Grey wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes from laughing so hard. I couldn’t believe he found it that funny, but I was relieved that the grim atmosphere of accusing me of being a heretic or involved with demons had lifted.
“Indeed, the fur color of a popori is also brown. There is a resemblance,” he said.
“…Yes. Since childhood, I’ve thought I resembled a popori…”
As I said it, I felt my face flush like a tomato. If I were to die now, the cause would be embarrassment. Who could shamelessly promote themselves as cute? At least, I couldn’t.
A brief silence followed. Armin Grey stared at me as if he was checking if I really resembled a popori.
Avoiding his gaze, I glared at the innocent wall. Then, Armin Grey’s voice reached my ears. Unlike the low and threatening voice he used to chase away Jericho, it sounded amused, as if he had found something enjoyable.
“Alright. I’ll believe you.”
“About what?”
“That the ‘shut-in’ thinks of herself as cute.”
“Ugh! Cough, cough. Yes! Th-that’s right. That’s what I’m saying.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can trust that you’re not a demon worshipper.”
“What?”
After all this, he still suspects me…?
I stared at him in disbelief.
If it were Sasha, he would have yielded a step by now, but Armin Grey was different. Without batting an eye, he spoke to me coldly.
“You seem to cherish this book quite a bit.”
“Yes. It’s a new book I recently bought.”
“Lady Roha.”
A voice calling my name made me look toward Armin Grey. His crooked smile seemed to carry both mischief and amusement.
“A proper young lady wouldn’t smuggle a newly purchased book hidden inside her dress to a ballroom.”
Right after, Armin Grey added another comment.
“They say devil worshippers always carry a grimoire to summon demons at any moment.”
He lightly tapped the black cover of the book with his long, pale fingers, smiling slyly.
“And, conveniently, the title of your book is The Demon Duke.”
That smiling face left me uncertain whether this was a joke or a threat, making it even harder to figure out how to respond. I stood there in silence, unable to decide which tune to dance to.
Seeing my reaction, the Demon Duke—or rather, Armin Grey—spoke with a voice brimming with amusement.
“Well then, I’ll take this book with me to check it out.”
“No… you can’t!”
The words burst out of my mouth, and Armin Grey scrutinized me suspiciously. How could you look at me that way, It’s mine!
“It’s a limited edition! I went through so much trouble to get it.”
“Then.”
The look on his face, as if he were asking, “Shall we go meet the Inquisitor together now?”, made my courage shrivel like fingers soaked in a bath for two hours.
“No, that’s not… not what I meant.”
“I’ll return it if there’s nothing unusual after I check it out.”
His tone left no room for argument. I managed a small nod.
He’ll return it, right? Or is he just saying that because he finds it interesting after flipping through it? Suspicion crept in, but I shook my head. No. Surely, as the heir to the Grey ducal house, he wouldn’t stoop to something so petty.
“Well then, let’s go meet your brother now. He might be worried since you’ve been out of sight for so long.”
Pretending to care after keeping me here all this time?
Still, I lowered my gaze demurely and nodded, trying my best to appear composed.
The moment I closed the door behind me, I bolted madly toward the ballroom hall.
* * *
“Haa… Haa!”
As soon as I arrived at the bright ballroom hall, gasping for air after running madly through the dark corridor, Sasha quickly approached me, probably having been searching for me after my prolonged absence.
“Vivi! Where have you been?”
I wanted to vent my frustration to Sasha, who was frowning, but after opening and closing my mouth a few times, I ended up shutting it again. After all, it hadn’t even been a day since he’d warned me, and I’d already gotten myself into a huge mess—definitely worthy of a three-day-long scolding.
However, Sasha immediately noticed something was wrong when he saw my pale face.
“Why do you look so pale? Did something happen? And where’s your shawl?”
It was only after hearing his words that I realized I’d left my shawl in that room with that devil. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth and instead mumbled something vaguely.
“Oh? Did I drop it somewhere? I just took a quick walk in the garden.”
Sasha raised an eyebrow slightly, as if my explanation didn’t quite make sense.
“Aren’t you the one who kept complaining about being cold? What were you doing taking a walk in the garden?”
“I just felt a little stuffy. But then I heard a noise behind me, got scared, and ran back. I must’ve dropped it then.”
“Where exactly? I’ll go get it for you.”
“No! It’s fine.”
I stopped Sasha firmly. Even if he went to the garden, there wouldn’t be a shawl lying around. And the last thing I needed was for Sasha to run into Armin Grey near that room.
While I was having a brief conversation with Sasha, I suddenly felt a commotion brewing behind me.
I didn’t need to look to know. Armin Grey had arrived.
Before Sasha could connect the timing of his appearance and start suspecting anything, I quickly pushed my brother forward.
“Oh, Brother! I suddenly feel so hot! I think I’ll step outside for some air.”
“What? You were the one complaining about the cold, and now you’re hot? Didn’t you say you were just in the garden?”
“Running back made me feel all hot and flustered! I’m just going to step out onto the balcony for a bit.”
The greatest fear of a wallflower is drawing attention. While it seemed unlikely that Armin Grey would acknowledge me in such a crowded space, today was not the day to take any chances.
What if he brought up something about romance novels or worse, heresy? Just imagining it made my head spin.
I cautiously made my way to the balcony. The chilly night air pricked at my skin, making my hair stand on end, but I couldn’t afford to care.
‘What is he thinking, really?’
The way he so casually threw around words like “Inquisitor” as if they were no different from local police officers left me completely dumbfounded.
I was genuinely at a loss. Armin Grey was far too intense for a comfort-loving homebody like me to deal with.
Honestly, isn’t this all absurd? So what if I brought a common romance novel to a ball? So what if I hummed a tune or muttered to myself while reading? Can that seriously warrant accusations of devil worship?
It seemed ridiculous, but I couldn’t be certain, and that uncertainty gnawed at me. With the kind of power the Grey Ducal House wielded, who knew what was or wasn’t possible?
Sasha had been right. I should’ve listened to my brother when he warned me to never cross paths with him.
‘But why was he hiding in that place to begin with? Seriously?’
I vented my frustration by kicking the balcony railing. I felt the front of my shoes bending slightly, but I didn’t care. If I didn’t vent somehow, I felt like I’d explode.
‘How am I supposed to fix this mess?!’
My mind spun furiously, but no solution came to me.
‘I’ll return it if there’s nothing unusual.’
How would we even meet again for him to return it? I began to accept the fact that I might have to give up on The Demon Duke.
‘It was the best book I’ve read all year.’
Tears threatened to well up from the injustice of it all, but the thought of meeting that wretched man again made me think it might be better to just accept having one less book in my collection.
‘At least I finished reading it before it was taken.’
If the book had been snatched away while I was still in the middle of it, I might have fallen ill for days, unable to find another copy. As things stood, I decided it was better for my mental health to chalk it up to bad luck—like getting some money extorted by a thug.
Even though I’d tried to explain away my situation with some flimsy excuses about being a recluse, Armin Grey definitely saw right through them.
‘What if I really do get dragged off to face the Inquisitors?’
I shuddered at the thought. While I could feign innocence well enough, I was hopeless at lying. Those people with their nerve-wracking jobs wouldn’t let me get away with such flimsy excuses.
The moment they caught me, I’d probably start spilling everything—my past lives, my hobbies, everything. That alone would be enough to mark me as a heretic.
Am I worrying for nothing? Armin Grey’s face, with that amused smile as he looked at me, flashed in my mind. Would he really report me? Just because I was reading a book?
He was someone I’d met for the first time today. I didn’t know anything about his personality, so I had no way of predicting his actions. I knew why I’d come to this ball, but I felt no motivation anymore.
A prospective match? What a joke.
I shouldn’t have come here in the first place. Even if it meant going without my allowance for a few months, I should’ve feigned illness and stayed home like usual.
All I could do now was sigh and regret my choices.
“Ah-choo!”
I sniffled and rubbed my bare shoulders. The autumn breeze felt chilly against my exposed skin, thanks to the off-shoulder dress I’d worn. From the cheap son of the Jericho family to a thug with only a handsome face—today was, without a doubt, the unluckiest day of Vivian Roha’s life.
