Chapter 23

He must be the type of person who insults others without thinking about them, and on the other hand, he himself was shocked when he was the one who was insulted.

He opened his eyes wide under his frown brows and opened his mouth.

“Are you cursing to me now?”

He had a very angry expression on his face, but to me, who had been dealing with Villain’s temper, he was just a bad boy.

“……but what is a squid?”

This is a little funny.

“It is an eight-legged fish.”

“What? Are you stupid? Why do fish have legs?”

I turned to the table in the room so as not to show a smiling face.

While we quarreled, the maid left the serving of food on the table and disappeared.

It was a wise choice.

‘I wish this person leaves soon.’

I began to worry about Larissa who was sitting alone in the next room.

I want to eat with her before the food cools down.

“What the hell?”

Richard’s voice came from behind.

He must have seen the food on the table.

“Is there anyone else here?”

Oh, it’s annoying.

“I have to eat a lot because I’m growing up.”

“How old are you?—No, that’s not the point. There are two sets of cutlery!”

“Oh my, are you asking a lady how old she is now? And I’m an ambidexter.” (T/N: Ambidexter is someone who is able to use both hands with equal ease or dexterity)

“It doesn’t mean you will eat with both hands!”

“That’s how I eat. Go away.”

Although I was blatantly annoyed and gave him a rough answer, Richard hardly showed any sign of leaving the room.

‘How do I get rid of him? Should I spill food on his clothes and pretend it was a mistake?’

There was also a knife on the table… but I ignored it.

Even though he is two years younger than me, a man is a man.

I was physically unable to win.

‘Wouldn’t it be safer for me to spill the food rather than using a knife clumsily?’

As I glanced at the food placed on the table, I started to think what should I spill?

‘Spilling the thick soup on his crotch…?’

I was thinking about what food to throw at Richard, but suddenly I felt a strange feeling.

I turned around. He was still there with his eyes fixed on one spot. Standing with his blue eyes wide open.

Ah, why has my ominous premonition never been wrong?

At the end of his gaze was Larissa.

She held a peach jelly cup in one hand and a small silver spoon in the other.

“Larissa!”

Were you scared of being left alone in the room? Or maybe you were hungry?

Maybe she just ate all the jelly.

Larissa stood at the doorway and stopped moving.

She glanced at me and then shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes.

“Is your name Larissa? Hmm……you two look alike.”

I heard an indifferent voice from behind.

I turned around and stood between Larissa and Richard.

“She is my sister. I’m sorry, Sir Richard, but would you mind leaving? My sister has a bad cold right now, so she can’t even speak. If you do not want to get infected, it would be better to leave immediately.”

“Tsk. Dirty commoners are very easy to catch colds……”

Even nobles would catch a cold!

“So, please go out now. If you don’t want to catch a cold that common people get, suffer from a high fever, lie down ill for several days and lose your voice.”

I strode past him and resolutely opened the door to the hallway.

“Come on, hurry up.”

“Judging by your clothes, I can see that you have no manners. If someone comes to visit you, don’t you have to tell them to sit down first, huh? Or, if someone is sick, tell them to come later.”

I didn’t ask you to come in in the first place, so what do you say after you come in as you please?

‘Aren’t you ignorant of manners?’

Fortunately, he walked out the door.

The funny thing is that I didn’t even hear his heart at all.

‘This is the first time this has happened. It’s pretty fresh.’

Before I closed the door, he turned around and said,

“I’ll send you a doctor. So…”

“There is already a doctor who visits once a day. Then, bye.”

I closed the door in front of Richard’s nose.

Surprisingly, he left without knocking on the door again or trying to come in.

We were able to finish lunch peacefully.

I thought it would end safely, but it wasn’t.

An hour later, Richard had sent a letter through a maid.

『Miss Larissa and her sister are invited to dinner tomorrow evening. Attendance is required.』

He invites me to dinner without knowing my name.

***

“You don’t have to attend it.”

Fabian said as if to convince Marcia.

“But I have to. I will go alone. I have no intention of letting Larissa go either. But if we both don’t go, I think he will come to this room tonight.”

In the first place, it was an invitation that did not give me a choice.

‘I can’t ask to put an escort on the door. It will look even more suspicious…’

“I’ll give you another room.”

I shook my head at Fabian’s suggestion.

“He has already figured out that we are staying in this mansion.”

Even if we moved to another room, the maids could not do it without his knowledge.

Preparing to welcome guests to another room, moving the luggage to that room, and delivering meals to that room are all the work of the maids.

Richard will surely find out which room we were in.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just sit at the end of the table and have a quiet meal before coming out? Besides, you would be there as well, right?”

Fabian nodded lightly. I smiled and continued,

“If I get a difficult question, you can appropriately turn the topic over.”

The day after tomorrow is the third day since Fortus left.

If he arrived safely, the marriage papers with the king’s signature would arrive as well.

Fabian will become the Grand Duke.

After that, Richard won’t bother me or Larissa again.

Fabian replied, “Okay. Instead, if you feel even the slightest discomfort, please get up immediately with the excuse that you are not feeling well. I will take care of the rest.”

It looked like he didn’t want to show it, but Fabian’s under eyes were dark.

Are you sleeping properly?

“Do you have a lot of work to do?”

“Yeah?”

“You look tired.”

“I’m not.”

Fabian quickly wiped his face with one of his hands.

He soon returned to his usual expression and there was no sign of tiredness anymore.

“I’m sorry to get you involved in this. I tried to crack down on the maids, but it seems I couldn’t do it myself yet.”

“It’s okay. I only need Larissa to be safe.”

He raised one eyebrow as if asking if I was serious.

Don’t be too serious.

‘Besides, that cheeky boy named Richard isn’t even that scary.’

I’m a little sorry for Larissa, who has to have dinner alone.

But I thought it was all right.

In a few days, Fabian’s relatives become my family too. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a look in advance to see who they are.

I smiled brightly.

Fabian looked at my face and lowered his gaze slightly. His gaze rested on my upper body for a moment.

He looked like he was thinking of something with a firm expression on his face, then looked into my eyes again and said,

“The day after tomorrow, Fortus will come back. Please be patient until then.”

He should come back safely.

Just before leaving, I remembered Fabian’s words that told him to come back alive.

‘Hopefully, nothing will happen.’

After Fabian left, I changed into my pajamas and lay down on the couch next to Larissa’s bed, thinking.

‘I have no dress to wear.’

The fact that there was no evening dress to wear to the dinner party was something that the real Marcia would be furious about.

If it’s dinner with close relatives, it’s a battlefield, and in such a place, the dress is like armor.

I had neither armor nor weapons.

‘The only thing I can rely on now is my face.’

I smiled and pulled the blanket up to my chin.

After all, the goal of dinner tomorrow is not to stand out.

Besides, they will see me as nothing but a commoner, without knowing that I am the future Grand Duchess.

‘In that sense, the dress Nora gave me is just fine.’