Chapter 54

✧Taking Responsibility✧

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

Although Leyla didn’t show it, she was thoroughly distracted throughout the entire council meeting. She laughed, she talked, and she moved around, yet her focus was entirely on one person—the one and only Duke Herhardt.

‘What is he doing here?’

Anyone who caught sight of Leyla’s eyes would have to be blind not to notice the mix of curiosity and fear in them, as she studied Matthias’s face intently.

Matthias attended the meeting as if his sole purpose was to mock her. The Principal, however, was excited with the surprise visit from the Duke, and even more delighted when Matthias agreed to develop the school further.

Unknown to the Principal, Matthias wasn’t interested in anything related to the school. The same went for the meeting. What he was interested in was the woman seated in the far corner, trembling as she glanced periodically at him when she thought he wasn’t looking.

“Miss Lewellin.”

Matthias’s smile softened at the sound of a teacher calling her name.

“Miss Lewellin?”

The teacher hesitantly called out her name again.

As one, everyone in the conference room turned to look at the owner of the name. Matthias followed suit. Leyla was standing still as stone in the corner of the classroom, much like a child being reprimanded. As Matthias continued to stare, Leyla fidgeted nervously, not quite managing to look away from his gaze.

“Ah…..”

Leyla hesitated under the weight of their stares. Full of reluctance, she raised her head, mumbling,

“P-Pardon me…”

The woman trembling and bowing her head repeatedly in apology was the opposite of the woman he remembered; an outspoken, fearless woman who always acted courageously in front of him. It was pathetic. The more Matthias saw her low-spirited attitude, the more Matthias could feel his temper fraying, thread by thread.

“Now, Miss Lewellin..…..”

“Please continue.”

Matthias interrupted the frowning Principal as she opened her mouth to complain, voice blunt and gruff.

“With the expansion proposal.”

The Principal shot him a look, eyes wide. He smiled graciously at her, baring his teeth.

“I’d like to hear more about it in detail.”

“Ah, yes.”

It took only a mention of the new building for the Principal to regain her excitement. Leyla’s clumsiness was already fading from the Principal’s mind, replaced instead with new architecture and expenses.

As the discussion between Matthias and the Principal continued, Leyla helped Mrs. Grever prepare the tea.

‘Get your head straight, Leyla.’

She told herself, doing her best to put herself into a calm, trancelike state in an effort to control her nerves

‘Stop acting like a fool and behave naturally.’

Alas, her desperate wish was not to come true. It vanished into thin air without fail the moment she approached Duke Herhardt.

Leyla’s hands shook with nerves as she held the teacup. Matthias looked at her as the teacup as it clattered on the saucer, following her every move. The more he stared at her, the more emotions hopeless she felt, eyes glazing over with a mix of fear and confusion that increased with every step she took towards him.

Matthias had initially attended the school meeting with the expectation of seeing an incredibly flustered Leyla. However, at the sight of her misery, the emotion in his heart was not happiness as he originally thought, but a distorted sort of pleasure.

͢

Matthias looked away. Leyla appeared to be less intimidated by him if he didn’t look at her directly. Although Matthias still had hopes of seeing her spill the tea in her fluster, it wouldn’t do for her to be embarrassed in public, fun as it would have been to see her face grow red in fluster.

While Mathias had casted his gaze elsewhere, he caught a glimpse of Leyla’s hands out of the corner of his eye, white and smooth like the skin of a wax doll as she placed the teacup onto the table in front of him without spilling a drop.

Leyla walked back to the corner of the classroom as the meeting continued.

Her hands had a sensitive touch, with slender fingers and petal-like fingernails that sparkled at the tip. Matthias’s mind strayed constantly to the image of Leyla’s hands during the long speech and the Principal’s appeal, at how frantic and harmless those hands had seemed even as Leyla used them to pummel and scratch him on that memorable summer afternoon. How small and delicate her hands had been as he’d grabbed them and intertwined them with his own.

Lost in the lust-tinged memory of touching Leyla’s lips while clasping her dirt-covered hands to the ground, Matthias barely noticed the ending of the meeting.

The school expansion would proceed as agreed by all sponsors. Satisfied with the arrangement, the sponsors thus headed back to their residences.

“May I take a look around the classroom for a while?”

Matthias politely asked for permission from the Principal. The Principal, who was already in high spirits after the successful meeting, would have seen no reason to refuse, especially when it was a request made from the sponsor who had made the most generous donations to the school.

“Of course, Duke.” The Principal said immediately. But the other sponsors are returning, so I’m afraid I have no choice but to bid them farewell.….”

Troubled, the Principal glanced around the classroom. Her eyes rested on Leyla, who was standing awkwardly in the corner of the classroom.

“Would you mind if I assign Miss Lewellin to guide you around?”

It was the answer he had been hoping for. Matthias rose steadily from his seat.

“Not at all. Let’s do that.”

***

Leyla was in charge of the lower classroom on the first level, positioned at the very end of the school corridor. As the students had returned home earlier in the day, the heater had been switched off, leaving the classroom cold and humid.

Leyla switched on the light. She walked stiffly around the classroom, expecting her role as a guide to end once she showed him around. Matthias conducted himself perfectly as a keen sponsor, checking over the school’s amenities, and thanks to that, Leyla was able to guide him around without too much fear and stress.

‘Just a little more.’

“This is where the young students stu….”

Slam!

The door slammed shut with a thunderous sound, cutting Leyla’s explanation short. She flinched at the sound, back ramrod straight with shock as she whipped her head to the door. Standing there was Matthias, leisurely standing against the closed door.

“This must be Miss Lewellin’s classroom.”

Matthias broke the silence as he carefully observed the teacher’s desk. Her belongings were placed neatly on its surface, with her coat hanging over the chair’s backrest.

“Yes, that’s right, Duke.”

Leyla retreated a reasonable distance away to the window with small steps. Her heart was pounding in her ears, like the insistent heavy drumming of rain beating upon a window pain.

She stuck close to the desk near the window, unable to do anything but fidget helplessly as Matthias narrowed the gap between them.

“Pfft..why are you scared? Have I ever said I would hurt you?”

Matthias laughed, but his quips failed to provide her with any comfort. Gaze calm, smile sweet as honey, the Duke was mean as he watched her.

“We’re in school, Duke. This isn’t Arvis.”

“You didn’t even tell me that you were going to attend, so why would….”

“Do you take me for a fool, Leyla?”

Matthias stopped at a distance of about two steps away from her. He slowly clasped his hands behind his back.

“If you had known earlier that I were to be attending the meeting, you wouldn’t have been here. You would have avoided me at all costs.”

Unable to refute his words, Leyla moistened her lips. “If you have anything else to say, please say it at Arvis.”

“Well, Leyla. I think it will be much better here.”

Matthias smirked. He stepped forward to the teacher’s desk as Leyla desperately stared out of the window at the hallway, hoping against hope of finding someone for help.

“We’re able to have a conversation now because of this classroom.”

Matthias’s words were light. Leyla gasped for air, audible against the pleasant sound of rain against glass. Looking away from her, he moved towards the desk, running his eyes over the neatly organised items on the desk.

A quill pen and blotting paper.

An exquisite porcelain doll.

A pile of unused pen nibs in an empty chocolate box.

His eyes paused on the three ink bottles placed at the end of the desk.

Black. Blue. Red.

With each color he saw, Matthias’ lips widened into a grin. He reached out to the bottle nearest to him, the one filled with red ink.

After much contemplation, Leyla bowed her head. Matthias was simply examining the table, Leyla thought. She didn’t want him to see her reactions.

Please. Leyla held her hands in prayer, hoping for the return of the other teachers, who had left to send the sponsors off. Meanwhile, Matthias had opened the lid of the ink bottle. Leyla heard the sound of the lid falling , and the movement of the Duke finally caught her attention.

Hysteria hit her instantly.

“D…duke!”

Matthias had sidled up to her chair. As if he were serving wine from a decanter, he gracefully tilted the bottle, pouring a stream of red ink onto her coat as Leyla screamed in shock and alarm.

Matthias backed away elegantly as Leyla rushed towards her ink stained coat, grasping the half-empty in bottle lightly in his hand.

Whipping out a handkerchief, Leyla hurriedly tried to blot off the ink staining her light grey coat.

“What the hell are you doing!”

Leyla wailed, but Matthias appeared calm.

“Taking responsibility.”

Matthias’s nonsensical reply rendered Leyla silent, mouth agape, lips flushing scarlet.

Eyes locked onto her lips, Matthias sauntered over to Leyla with the bottle of red ink in his hands—she barely had time to react before he upended the bottle over her shoulders. Ink splashed onto her blouse, her skirt, her pumps, staining them a bright red.

The argument ended with Matthias pouring every last drop of the ink onto her clothes. The glass bottle fell to the floor with a loud thump, rolling to a stop at his shoes. Their polish had been smeared by the bright red ink as well, but Matthias gave no reaction.

Leyla was so angry that she wanted to scream. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Frozen still, she gasped as if she were full of fear, the ink smeared over her upper body glistening red like blood as she held back the urge to strangle something.

“What to do, Leyla?”

Glancing at the mess Matthias himself had caused, he narrowed his eyes.

“I’ll have to take responsibility.”

Despite the tragedy, his lips curled up with pleasure.

***

“Thank you very much for your kind understanding of Miss Lewellin’s mistakes.”

Walking by Matthias’s side, the Principal apologised once again.

After escorting the sponsors out of the school, the Principal and other teachers had rushed to see Duke Herhardt, only to be left dumbfounded by the scene they witnessed inside the classroom—their youngest teacher bathed pitifully in red ink with a very concerned-looking Duke.

“It was my mistake,” Matthias repeated. “I dropped the ink bottle on her by accident; I really should apologise to Miss Lewellin.”

“Even so, your grace, it is your first time in this place. I apologise for failing to show you the better side of our school.”

“I had quite a pleasurable visit here.”

Once they reached the school entrance, Matthias bade farewell to the panicked Principal.

“Miss Lewellin, please come along with me.”

His gaze shifted from the Principal to Leyla, who was scrubbing at the stain on her blouse. The more she tried to scrub it off, the more the ink smeared, until her clothes looked like they belonged to a person who had suffered grievous injury.

“No, I’m fine.”

Leyla’s voice trembled with anger. Despite the fear coursing through her, she gave Matthias a stern glare. Matthias favored her current attitude much better than the low-spirited behavior from earlier, even if her eyes were still filled with fear.

“Miss Lewellin. Please, just go along with the Duke. He’s trying to apologise.”

The Principal chuckled as if it was a trivial matter, but her eyes, full of nerves, told a different story.

“You didn’t bring your bicycle today, and it’s going to rain! Do as the Duke says.”

“Even if the rain falls, I have an umbrella, so I can walk back home.”

At Leyla’s stubborn refusal, the Principal’s complexion grew even more wane.

“I do understand you, Ms Lewellin.” Matthias said, smiling. “However, will you not scare the passers-by that see you walking in the rain dressed as you are right now? The police officers would appear, thinking there might’ve been a murder case.”

Leyla pursed her lips and looked down at her clothes as everyone in the crowd laughed uproariously at Matthias’s joke. Like it or not, what he said had been nothing but the truth. The red ink stains on her white blouse did indeed make her look like she had just committed a gruesome murder.

At a sharp glare from the Principal, Mrs Grever approached Leyla, who was stiff as a board. Getting into the car, Matthias , calmly watched the scene.

Full of resignation, Leyla allowed herself to be dragged and loaded into the car like luggage. Matthias moved to the side, giving her a comfortable amount of space to sit in.

The car’s engine roared to life the moment the door clicked shut.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*