Chapter 50

Chapter 50

People were glancing over at the side I was sitting in and talking amongst themselves. I was just hoping it wasn’t me they were talking about.

“I think Lady Selena doesn’t have a handkerchief. So you should wipe it with this, first.”

At Lucas’s words, Jacob’s face hardened for a moment. He immediately smiled, but the corners of his lips were quivering awkwardly.

Wait, why did someone who didn’t tremble when he saw me, start trembling so much when he saw Lucas, as if he had fallen in love at first sight?

Maybe I was a bait, and he actually liked Lucas.

It was a useless thought, but I thought it was good reasoning and nodded my head.

Jacob, who was alternately looking at me and Lucas with a stiff face, sighed and reached for his handkerchief.

At the moment Jacob’s fingertips touched the handkerchief, there was a small commotion behind us.

“Kyaak!”

“Oh my goodness!”

“Ack!”

When several screams sounded at the same time, the three of us stopped moving and turned our heads to the side of the small commotion. In the center of the commotion, a man and two women, unrelated to each other, stood up from their chairs.

Apparently, they were the owners of the scream.

First off, I, the host of the party, got up because of the sudden commotion. I glanced over it with my eyes, but I didn’t see any problems other than the scream.

“What’s going on?”

When I asked the question, the three people’s eyes shook violently. All the eyes in this greenhouse were focused on those three who stood up.

“Uh… That is…”

The woman, who looked the youngest among the three, was the first to open her mouth.

She was clutching the hem of her sleeve with the other hand, and when I looked closely, I saw red tea water in it. Did she spill any tea?… Then, the wandering gaze turned to me, and glanced to my side.

At the end of that gaze was Lucas.

The others mumbled, ‘Uh… ah…’ And continued to fiddle with their clothes. The sleeves, skirts, and forearms of the shirt, which they were trying to hide, were all tinted red.

I tilted my head at this unknown coincidence. It was an action that came out of a real coincidence, and it seemed to have affected the others.

The lady, shaken slightly by my actions, glanced at Lucas again and spoke in a low voice, like the sound of a mosquito.

“Well… I don’t… have a handkerchief…”

‘Aha.’

The things that nobles did were really cute. Anyone who saw this would think that there was a sudden mission for ‘spilling tea’ today.

I glanced sideways at Lucas’s handkerchief and his face, just like the three of us did.

Lucas was smiling as usual. But, was he really smiling like that on the inside?

Not that I had noticed earlier, but Lucas must have already seen that the commotion was caused by his handkerchief. He was probably inwardly fed up with this absurd situation.

“Well, it seems like everyone’s spilling their tea… I’m fine, so why doesn’t Sir Lucas lend his handkerchief to the others?”

Jacob, who was standing behind, opened his mouth. When his words ceased, the causers of the riot trembled.

The concentrated gaze on the three embarrassed them, and their faces and earlobes were red. However, despite such shame, their eyes, looking at Lucas, were sparkling with some kind of anticipation.

Perhaps the three of them were greedy for Lucas’s handkerchief, which he was about to give to Jacob.

They must have wanted to own the handkerchief before it completely fell into Jacob’s hands. So they spilled tea on their clothes and screamed to get his attention… That would have been their thought process.

They would have naturally tried to get a handkerchief with only a little attention, but who would have guessed that the three of them had the same thought at the same time?

Honestly, what was the value of a handkerchief? … I did not understand it, but I decided to roughly sympathize with it because everyone’s taste was important and should’ve been respected.

The three of them, with their bare faces and stiff bodies, refused to sit down. On the contrary, there was even a strange tension flowing between them.

Yes, they should’ve gotten some result since they’ve already embarrassed themselves to this extent. Unfortunately, there was only one handkerchief. Who would be the owner of it?

It was pretty interesting.

Feeling no need to stand any longer, I sneaked back into my chair. As I sat down, Lucas glanced at me.

‘Why, what is it?’

Jacob smiled and sat down again. Only Lucas and the three of them were standing now. No one ordered for it, but the greenhouse was quiet anyway.

When Lucas didn’t move and just smiled, the three of them showed their impatience in their own way. And in this quiet tension… clank.

There was the sound of a plate falling over. I wondered if this was something else, so I looked to the area where the sound was coming from, and another lady calmly stood up from her seat.

“Oh, I spilled my fork and got cake on my dress.”

With a troubled tone and a satisfied smile, another person had participated.

The atmosphere was really weird. It allowed you to do things that you would normally never dream of doing.

For example, it made it possible for nobles, who typically cared about their culture, manners, dignity, and appearance, to flip food over with their own hands.

Clank.

Another clattering sound rang out, and another lady jumped up.

“Oh my goodness! There’s black tea in my clothes!”

Finally, the number of people who stood up from their seats increased to seven. It was about half the number of people who attended the party.

Everyone was out of their minds.

Even the spectators, who were drenched in surprise at first, were watching with excitement as they seemed to understand the atmosphere.

The greenhouse was a mess. It was a waste of cakes and tea with the broken plates and teacups that the people spilled.

‘Ugh, only our employees will suffer.’

In the interesting situation, I slowly put a cake in my mouth. The freshly melted cream was very good. To throw away something so delicious in order for a handkerchief… I couldn’t understand it.

“I was drenched the most!”

“Wouldn’t the tea have already dried? There’s whipped cream on me.”

These were low-level quarrels. If Lucas summarized these people correctly, they had received great education from great teachers… The end result of that was these dogfighting noises. It was a sight that their teachers would fume at quite a bit.

Lucas could not sit down, as he was the party involved in the incident, and stayed up. It was amazing how he still kept his usual relaxed expression.

If it were me, I would spill tea on myself, wipe it off with a handkerchief, and say, ‘I don’t have a handkerchief anymore.’

Who would the handkerchief go to? While I was chewing the cake and turning my body to watch the commotion, I heard a voice behind me.

“My Lady, I haven’t received the handkerchief yet?”

Oh, right. The starter of everything was here.

I turned my body to face the guest in front of me, chewed the cake, put down the fork in my hand, and fumbled around my clothes again, looking for a handkerchief, but I couldn’t find one.

‘I can’t.’

After some time, I returned to my original posture and beckoned to Jane, who glanced over here with bewildered eyes.

“Yes, My Lady.”

Jane came closer and bent her back. I whispered to Jane what I needed, in a low-pitched voice that no one could hear.

Jane, who had listened to it while nodding her head, bowed her back again and walked out of the greenhouse.

Lucas and Jacob were the only ones who saw me whisper something to Jane in the chaotic handkerchief fight.

“What’s going on, miss?”

“I asked her to bring my handkerchief from my room. Sir Jacob’s handkerchief is not yet dry.”

“That’s a relief,”

Jacob smirked and whispered softly. No, why did he keep whispering things?

I couldn’t even hear a normally volumed voice very well because of the weird fuss behind me about who was more dirty and who was more soaked.

Jacob quickly opened his mouth as if he was about to say something else. Again, he whispered it. To be honest, I was a little bothered and annoyed, but today I was the host and that person was the guest… Afterwards, I took a deep breath and pulled my upper body towards Jacob to better hear his voice.

And at that moment, Lucas, who was standing with his back on the chair next to me, tapped the table.

I looked up, but my eyes were still facing forward.

“Miss.”

“Ah yes. What did you say?”

“Oh dear, please focus on me a little more. I told you, I fell in love with Lady at first sight.”

You fell in love at first sight. I am not. I shrugged my shoulders sullenly, but Jacob didn’t mind and smiled.

“Miss.”

I was just stirring my tea with a teaspoon at the boring story when I turned my head to the familiar voice I heard from behind my head. This voice was neither Jacob’s, nor Lucas’s, nor Jane’s. It was a familiar voice…

“Aiden?”

It was Aiden.

Wait, why was Aiden here?

Aiden was my exclusive servant, but I excluded him from this party’s staff.

He might’ve become the Duchy’s wizard later, so I thought it would be bad to show himself in front of the nobles as a servant.

“I brought a handkerchief.”

Aiden held out a neatly folded handkerchief. It was definitely mine. I nodded, took it, and looked around.

Because of Aiden’s superior figure, some glanced at this side, but those seven were still the center of the greenhouse.

“Where did Jane go?”

“She met the Lord by chance and he needed her, so I came instead.”

Brother grabbed Jane? Why? If he had something to do, he could tell the other employees in the Duke’s residence.

There must have been some specific reason. For example… He was asking what the atmosphere of this tea party was like.

Yes, this assumption was the most likely. And maybe this was the correct answer.

“Miss.”

“Oh, Sir Jacob.”

For a moment I forgot his existence. The handkerchief in his hand was for this man.

“Here is your handkerchief.”

As I held out the handkerchief in my hand, Jacob looked at the handkerchief without saying a word. As I shook the handkerchief, urging him for not getting it quickly, he reached out his hand.

As soon as he grabbed the handkerchief, his hand touched my fingertips.

“I told you I like the lady.”

‘Yes, I heard. I’ve met you for the first time and I think I’ve already heard it four times just today.’

By the way, Jacob seemed to be a person who didn’t really notice the people around him.

Seeing that he had been expressing himself in the presence of others… Aiden rolled his eyes at Jacob’s words and looked down at me.

Yes, that was right. I just got a confession.

With this, the number of people who unwillingly heard about other people’s private lives increased to three. Jane, Lucas and Aiden.

No, there were four, including me.

“Ah, yes.”

I shrugged my shoulders and let go of the handkerchief. Jacob glanced at the handkerchief that had fallen off my hand, then smiled and wiped his sleeve with it. The marks had already dried away, so there was nothing on the handkerchief.

“I am very sincere. Sincere enough that I would pick up the stars in the sky for the lady.”

Wow. There were actually people who said these words directly.

Taking the handkerchief in his hand, Jacob elatedly folded the handkerchief neatly and put it in his chest pocket. It felt as if he was bragging about the handkerchief.

“Miss, may I ask for your ideal type?”

“I don’t have any.”

What was this about the ideal type, suddenly? I never really thought of one. In my previous life, I was so busy that I never even imagined dating, and in the first place, my parents didn’t even allow me for friends. For this reason, naturally, I had no preferences.

Even when I came here, I didn’t know much about men… For a moment, someone flashed in my head, but I couldn’t figure out who it was because it was such a fleeting thought that I couldn’t even recognize it.

“Still, there should be something. For example… If longer or shorter hair is better… Something like that.”

TL/N: ohhh so subtle XD

“If it’s between the short side and the long side… I think shorter is better.”

If I didn’t answer, the questions would continue, so I thought about it and responded. Satisfied with my answer, Jacob shut his mouth and smiled.

Come to think of it, Aiden was still standing next to me with a basket in his hand.

Jacob kept talking, so I missed the right time to send Aiden away.

Aiden, who was standing and listening to all kinds of stories, was staring into the distant air with an empty face. I was about to tell poor Aiden to go after handing over to me but Jacob, opposite me, opened his mouth first.

“By the way, are you going to keep this servant standing here, Miss?”

—

E/N: Jacob’s been calling Selena “Lady” the whole conversation, and I’ve just been replacing it with “miss” and “the lady” instead because the former felt derogatory, but that doesn’t feel quite right either… I’m just going to keep it at “Lady” for the next chapters. Also, the amount of times Selena’s been saying handkerchief is impressive… Even with my cutting out you could play a drinking game (although you probably shouldn’t)