Chapter 3.3

“Eugenie, is that true?”

Rumors that Elliot Burns had become a Count quickly spread throughout the capital. No wonder he was in the newspaper the very next day after visiting her house.

When the story spreaded through Oliver’s club, it was published in the newspaper two days later at the latest. If you wanted to spread the word, you had to tell the men’s club members.

I was at a ball with Julia, daughter of Lord Escalee, and Viscount Aston. Viscount Aston was showing off his wealth at the ball, and one of them was the ice sculpture decorated in the middle of the ball.

“If this piece of ice is enchanted to not melt for the rest of the day, that will be perfect.”

She looked at the ice sculpture of the fairy Margo and said calmly. Viscount Aston himself boasted.

The price of ice cubes were also expensive, but to cast a magic that doesn’t melt for a day, he wanted to show off his riches in so many ways.

However, the story Julia was telling was not about ice sculptures. “Oh,” she said, crossing her arms at me.

“I mean Count Burns.”

“Burns became a Count?”

If that’s the case, it’s in the newspaper. No matter how late she was to rumors, she read the newspaper.

She tried to tell Julia that she knew it before it was in the newspaper. Knowing that before it appeared in the newspapers freed me from the infamous stigma of being the most late to rumors in Balthian.

But that wasn’t what Julia was asking. She took two cups of tea from the servant and handed her one.

“I heard that Eugenie will be Count Burns’ etiquette teacher.”

“What? Cough.”

I was sipping the tea that Julia gave me, and hearing it made me go crazy. said Julia, rubbing my coughing back.

“I heard that Earl Burns asked the Viscons for help to adjust to society, right?” she said.

“No, Cough, right, Cough, Cough.”

She couldn’t answer properly because of her cough. Julia also listened to her and asked, tilting her head.

“Are you saying it’s right or that is it wrong?”

“Wrong. No, you are right.”

Her throat hurted. She said “Hmm” and cleared her throat. In the meantime, Julia was making a face asking what kind of answer that was.

Where the hell did that rumor come from? It must have been Oliver’s work. It is also clear that he went to that damn men’s club and boasted with great pride.

They should call her brother a peacock, not her. Oliver was definitely a peacock when it comes to paying attention to his outfit every morning.

She asked the servant for another cup of her tea, and she said to Julia.

“You are right about Count Burns asking for help, and the part about Oliver helping him is true too, but you are wrong about me becoming an etiquette teacher.”

Weird rumors needed to be corrected. Damn it. If Julia was talking about it, half the people there may know the rumors, right?

She deliberately raised her voice.

“All I have decided to do is recommend a etiquette teacher. It’s absurd that I become Count Burns’ etiquette teacher.”

It seemed that the people around them were listening to her conversation with Julia. As soon as she finished her words, people started whispering.

‘Ugh.’ She sighed and looked at Julia. She looked at her with a puzzled expression and said.

“I heard Count Burns was very handsome?”

He was good looking, but she said it softly.

“It’s that so?”

“No?”

“You saw him. At the palace ball.”

He suddenly showed up at the ballroom and made a fuss. The matter was still in the newspapers. The Balcian Daily wrote an article on how Count Burns dragged so many people and moved in front of the palace with the help of a wizard.

There were several opinions. But neither was very likely. Didn’t it make sense that Count Burns was a wizard strong enough to forcibly perform large-scale spatial movement in the anti-magic palace?

“I didn’t see him. A little on the face…”

There was a lot of stuff buried in it. Besides, he was wearing a terrifying helmet. She said, nodding her head, not minding when Julia paused in her speech.

“He is handsome. By the way…”

Uncomfortable. She didn’t even want to be friendly with him. Also because of the dream. It also takes the fact that there was no weapon that cannot be handled by him.

But she couldn’t say that. However, it bothered her to end her sentence with ‘handsome’.

She hoped Julia didn’t get too close to Count Burns. That was also because of the dream. She wished Julia the best. To be honest, she agreed with Lord Escalee that she didn’t want for her to marry yet.

“Not good.”

After she said it all, she looked at Julia’s face, and she had a strange expression on her face. It’s like a crucian carp. She thought of a crucian carp she had seen in the garden of a certain house. It looked like it had something to say, but it seemed like it couldn’t.

At that moment, an ominous feeling hit the back of my head once again. No, was it just a blow? A familiar voice came to my ears.

“Isn’t he good-looking?”

‘Oh My God. Damn, damn, damn, damn it!’

The curse that couldn’t come out of her mouth rose up to her throat and crawled down. She turned my head with a creak and found Count Burns standing right behind her.

“Bur, Count Burns.”

She barely said hello to him. Damn it. She wished he didn’t hear it, but she couldn’t be sure. Before she knew it, Julia was running away with her backward steps.

That traitor.

While she was criticizing Julia with only her eyes, Count Burns was holding her hand and saying hello.

“Noble Lady, Biscon.”

“It’s just Lady Viscon.”

“Just call me Elliott, too.”

She hated that. She quickly pulled her hand out of his and apologized.

“Sorry. It didn’t mean anything bad.”

“I know.”

“Julia is still young. She shows interest in Count Burns, what?”

As she scrambled to make excuses, what he said came to her mind a little later. Did he say he knew When I widened my eyes, Count Burns spoke again.

“I said I knew. That Lady Biscon can’t say anything in a bad way.”

Wait, saying that made her embarrassed. Her face started to heat up.

She meant it in a bad way. He was handsome, but he was a bad guy in her dreams, so he was not good. She meant just that.

But to agree with her because she didn’t mean it badly, she felt guilty. She bit her lip and looked at Count Burns, then apologized again.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t just talk about other people’s stories. Especially if it’s not a good story.”

Even if Count Burns wasn’t listening, she shouldn’t have said anything bad about it. After repeated apologies, Count Burns looked at her quietly and said,

“Then would you give me the honor of dancing with Lady Biscon?”

“Pardon?”

“If you’re so sorry, I’ll forgive you with one dance.”

Dancing, she hesitated for a moment at Count Burns’ request. His actions in the dream still lingered in her mind, but first she was ashamed of having behaved rudely in the grip of such an absurd dream.

So she nodded and said.

“If you’re okay with that.”

“Twice is fine if you don’t mind.”

Laughter flowed out at Count Burns’ joke-like words. SheI quickly checked where Julia was and said with just the look of his mouth.

Stay there.

Julia rolled her eyes, but she nodded her head. Yes, she should. Julia was able to attend that prom because she was with her.

Since unmarried female nobles must have a companion. She was Julia’s best companion ever.

“Did you also learn to dance from the tutor?”

Count Burns asked, holding her hand. As she reflexively tried to withdraw her hand, she realized that the song being played was nearing its end.

They have to go into the next song. He must have held hands because he feared that he would lose me, his dance partner, while the current dancers rushed out and the next ones rushed in.

“Yeah. A little bit. How about the Count?”

Since he went to the academy, he must have learned. Thinking so, she looked at Count Burns, but his expression was strange. Why was he like that? She tilted her head and asked.

“Have I made any mistake?”

“No. Calling me Count is a bit…”

Why? He was Count Burns. So he should be called Count. Count Burns said to her what the problem was.

“That’s awkward.”

Was it? Come to think of it, he would have been called only Burns all that time. That’s why the title of Count must have felt awkward.

She smiled to reassure him.

“You will get used to it soon.”

Everyone did. She was told it was usual to get used to it quickly. Miss Albany, whom she had been close with, said that when she became Baroness Crum, she felt awkward for a while, and after about three months, the title Miss Albany became rather awkward.

“I do not know.”

When the music ended and people started clapping their hands, Count Burns said. Wait, why were they already holding hands? She didn’t have to hold hands because she had to clap first anyway.

As she removed her hand from his and began to clap, Count Burns clapped along with her.

“It’s not easy to change the title just because it has changed.”

That’s it. She was supposed to call her Baroness Crum, but it was a bit difficult because Miss Albany had been on her lips for years.

But that wasn’t Count Burns’ case since she had called him Burns for a very little time. She asked as she walked into the middle of the hall with Count Burns when the applause stopped.

“Have you ever had an old friend whose title has changed?”