Chapter 30

But before I could even finish speaking, Fabian opened his mouth.

“A little while ago I reached out to raise you up. It was you who put your hand in mine. I remember the same thing happened at dinner last night.”

……It wasn’t wrong.

He is right that he touched me, but when I wrote it in the contract, I didn’t mean it that way.

It was kind of a metaphor.

“Sigh, but today didn’t end there, you held my hand and didn’t let go until a while ago.”

“I don’t think holding hands is out of the category of courtesy. If you’re having trouble holding hands, what do you think of the previous contact?”

“The previous contact……”

Fabian jumped on me, knocked me to the floor, and fell on top of me.

He even hugged me before shooting……

‘……I was wrong.’

When he saved my life, I didn’t say anything, and I was pissed off with just holding hands.

However, thinking about it, I could not guarantee that there would be no such kind of contact in the future.

“That…… I’m sorry. Please pretend I didn’t say anything a while ago.”

First of all, I sincerely apologized.

Fabian looked down at me and said, “Let me set the range.”

“The range?”

“The range of physical contact. The extent to which I can touch your body.”

He spoke in a cool and businesslike tone, but somehow it sounded a bit strange.

As I rolled my eyes to the side, one of Fabian’s mouths seemed to rise a little.

“Let’s not make physical contact to the limit of married life at night. Would you be okay with that?”

Married life at night.

Am I the only one embarrassed to hear this, even if my face is hidden by a veil?

“Good, good.”

“If you have anything to add, say it now. Don’t grumble later.”

“No. That’s enough.”

Then he nodded his head with a firm expression and turned his body.

“You’re hurt……are you okay?” I asked behind his back.

“It’s nothing. It’s just a scratch.”

“Really?”

“I am not lying.”

He answered without looking back, strode down the hallway, and disappeared.

***

After Fabian left the room as the new Grand Duke, holding hands with his wife, Heloise took a seat in the parlor.

She watched with blank eyes as Dominic and Valerie were taken by the police’s hand and moved into the next room.

‘Brother Fabian, how could you do this to me?’

Heloise clenched her fan to break.

The only daughter of Marquis Conrad, she had everything she wanted as she grew up, and she grew up to be as precious as a princess.

It was Fabian who had so far rejected her.

He was the grandson of the Grand Duke Laurent, but at the same time, Fabian was also the son of a lowly witch.

No one thought that he would be able to succeed the Grand Duke.

I myself also thought the same.

For a half-aristocrat to ignore the only daughter of a prestigious marquis family, Heloise was furious at that fact.

Heloise thought that if she showed favor and affection for Fabian, he would go away immediately.

But even though she waited patiently, she was still rejected.

‘How dare you reject me!’

Even though you can inherit the title of marquis after you marry me.

‘Despite my mother’s objection, I said I would accept you.’

It had been a long time since Heloise had opened her heart to Fabian for the first time.

She did not give up despite his continued rejection of her.

Because she thought that one day he would have no choice but to accept her offer.

Like a noble lady, she gracefully waited with patience.

I didn’t know that waiting would hit the back of my head like this.

“He really is already married. Oops, what are you going to do, sister Heloise?”

A sarcastic voice came from the side.

It was a familiar boy’s voice.

“You didn’t even know that the Grand Duchess was there, and at last night’s dinner, you flirted with Fabian like that.”

In front of Heloise, Richard giggled.

“I’m more worried about you, Richard. Didn’t you see my uncle being dragged to the next room?”

“That was the same for my aunt.”

“If a boy is born between brother Fabian and that woman, you will lose your position as Grand Duke. Is this the time for you to laugh like that?”

The smile on Richard’s lips slowly turned into a smirk.

He looked straight at Heloise and said, “You look very nervous, sister. Well, I understand.”

In fact, she wasn’t just nervous.

She wants to hold onto anything that has the potential to break that marriage.

But she knew what Richard had to say.

“I’ve never had any interest in becoming a grand duke since I was born. After all, I was born to Grand Duke Frederick’s second son.”

It was as expected.

He was furious at Fabian becoming Grand Duke, but he didn’t think of putting himself in his place.

It was funny.

After the eldest son, Xavier, passed away, the second son, Dominic, acted as if he had already taken the place of the next grand duke, but Dominic’s son, Richard, not greedy at all.

Heloise could not understand.

He gave up on a position that she couldn’t even dream of because she was a woman, and that he was born as a man without even trying.

Richard shrugged his shoulders.

He got to see Fabian again for a bit.

As soon as the will was announced, he married the woman who was right next to him.

He deserved recognition for his determination and action.

‘Whether it is a good thing or not remains to be seen.’

“Of course, it’s not that I don’t have any regrets……but I’d like to say that I’m done with this today. Well then, sister.”

Heloise suddenly raised her head.

‘What is that?’

But Richard ignored her gaze and turned his back.

He went to his mother, Emma.

“Mother, please go back to the mansion first. Father will go home after the investigation is over. I’ll see you off.”

Emma sat with a fly-faced face, and then she raised her head to look at her son.

She asked in a weary voice, “Are you going to stay here?”

“What the new owner of the mansion asked to stay here was all the guests other than my father and Aunt Valerie.”

Richard shrugged his shoulders and held out his hand.

Emma looked at her son’s hand for a moment and then stood up from the seat as soon as she took the hand.

Without saying goodbye to any of the guests, she immediately left the parlor.

Heloise looked at Richard and Emma leaving the parlor like that and then stood up.

A squeaking sound came from under her feet.

She looked down and found a fragment of the teacup she had dropped earlier.

It seemed that the clumsy maid didn’t clean it properly.

‘Brother, do you think I will accept this situation?’

She gave strength to her feet, as she stepped on the shards.

The small pottery breaking into finer pieces represented her feeling well.

3. Love at First Sight?

The funeral ended like that.

Fabian asked to stay as long as he could, but the mourners did not stay overnight and left, giving various excuses.

He returned to the mansion and called his staff for a meeting. They need to come up with a quick response to this shocking incident.

Among the mourners, only two were left in the mansion.

One was Richard Laurent and the other was Marquis Leonid Orlov.

Leonid said that he volunteered to help Fabian and stayed.

Seeing that Fabian didn’t even bother with it, he seems to be a big help.

I don’t know why Richard was here.

‘Well, I don’t really want to know.’

If he gets in the way, Fabian will kick him out.

Like he kicked out Dominic and Valerie.

The mustachioed police ambitiously arrested Dominic and took him away, but the case ended when he obediently rode into the police carriage.

He had been released before being interrogated. Maybe he paid a lot of gold to the top-rank police.

Who it was, of course, was not known.

In the end, it was not decided who was trying to harm Fabian, and it was left in the dark.

Valerie was not even taken away.

Because I had stopped her attempt to poison Fabian before it even happened.

It’s good that no damage was done, but would it have been better to just let her do some minor damage?

‘Had she done that, she might have been taken by the police and shuddered in fear.’

No, even then, she would have paid the top-rank police with gold. Like Dominic was released without charges.

‘What if there are more shooters or assassins in the future?’

I was in the middle of a thought when I heard someone knocking.

“The letters have come for you, Grand Duchess.”