Chapter 32

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chapter 32

“Rosetta.”

A slightly subdued voice called to her.

On top of the awkward greeting, Damian, who couldn’t hide his exhaustion, walked towards her.

Perhaps she was to blame for the visible tiredness on his face.

With that strong guess in mind, Rosetta let out a shallow sigh.

When her shoulders shook as she exhaled, Damian and Alicia’s eyes went straight to her at the same time.

By now, Damian must be feeling terribly guilty.

On the day of the incident with Katie, it was enough to see this when he gave that apology, along with his affirmative answer to her request to go out without a knight.

‘I’m truly, terribly sorry.’

He tried to hide his feelings, but Rosetta could tell from his eyes and by the way he was breathing.

So Rosetta had to use what she had to her advantage.

If there was someone pitying her, then she would pretend to be more pitiful. If someone was feeling sorry for her, then by all means, she would have to look more pathetic.

Before Damian could open his lips to speak, Rosetta beat him to the punch.

“I’m really sorry. I should have gone to greet you first the moment I returned, but I thought that I should bring this person to the doctor first.”

With closed lips, his gaze shifted from me towards the other person.

And where that gaze connected was Cassion, who was lying on the bed while receiving treatment.

His shallow breathing could be heard, and the way Damian looked at him was sharp.

‘It shouldn’t be possible, so you shouldn’t notice.’

Cassion’s black hair had already been changed to dark blue hair, and now his eyes were black.

And his hairstyle was changed, too.

They didn’t know each other personally, so now that his eye color and hair color had changed, there shouldn’t be a possibility of getting caught, but…

Rosetta couldn’t ignore the possibility of ‘one in a thousand’.

‘If we get caught here, the plans will get derailed.’

With her eyes down, she looked closely at Damian’s reaction.

His expression showed his discomfort. Then his lips, which were all chewed up, opened slowly.

“…Who is this man that you brought here?”

Oh, you didn’t recognize him.

Rosetta held her other arm and dug down the nails of her index and middle fingers. A sharp sensation could be felt, along with a strange sense of satisfaction.

Blocking the laughter bubbling up with that sharp touch, she opened her lips with a bitter smile.

“It’s… It’s a little complicated.”

“…Complicated?”

“Yes. Truthfully, I nearly got hurt. I almost went down a flight of stairs because I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh my goodness!”

“What?”

Two voices answered back at the same time.

The pressure on her arm grew tighter as she glanced up at the person next to Damian. Alicia looked very shocked.

“I’m al—”

“Are you alright, Sister? Did you get hurt anywhere? Did you get injured?”

Damian’s urgency disappeared after hearing Alicia’s voice.

She was someone who couldn’t even speak loudly in a crowded place like this, but the moment she heard that Rosetta almost got hurt, she immediately rushed to her sister’s side and looked around to see if she was injured anywhere.

Rosetta comforted Alicia by patting her shoulder.

“I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt at all.”

Alicia, who looked like she was about to take off Rosetta’s clothes any moment now, stopped fumbling, then looked up at her with a smile.

Rosetta stroked the lovely Alicia’s hair. Then, she lifted her gaze and looked towards Damian.

The eyes looking back were wide open.

As if he had moved unknowingly, the distance narrowed by a step, but that was all.

His arm flinched once, but it was such a minute action that it could be dismissed as nothing.

With that delicate distance between them, Rosetta and Damian faced each other.

“Did you really… not get hurt?”

The unfriendly voice asked a clumsy question.

His discomfort couldn’t be erased, and Rosetta almost laughed at this.

‘That’s a relief. I was worried that you’d start treating me like a real family member of yours just because you’re feeling a little guilty.’

If he had made a decision like, ‘Let’s start thinking of Rosetta like a real sister!’ out of that foolish guilt, then she would have been placed in a difficult position.

Because she thought that this relationship between them now was already perfect.

Moderate discomfort. Moderate guilt.

Perhaps, he would even be uncomfortable with her his whole life.

Every time he’d call her name, he’d feel uncomfortable, and just the same, he’d feel guilty.

It was quite the favorable situation.

Hating her would have been troublesome because it would hinder the path she was set to walk in the future, but at the same time, she didn’t want them to be close enough because he would put surveillance on her in the name of ‘family’.

…And she was afraid that he’d find out that she was a fake.

Anyway, this moderate discomfort and guilt was the best balance for their brother and sisterly relationship because it would provide her with the most favorable conditions.

The original Rosetta might have been sad because of this line that Damian was drawing between them, but ‘she’ wasn’t Rosetta.

At the silence that stretched between them, she looked away first.

“I’m fine. It was him who fell down the stairs instead of me.”

“That person?”

After staring at nothing in particular for a moment, holding her tongue, she looked back at Damian again and nodded.

Those golden irises faced Rosetta’s once more. And with a more relaxed expression than before, she spoke.

“Yes. He fell down the stairs because of me. He seemed to have been hurt a lot, so I brought him home…”

The excuse she decided to use to bring Cassion home was that he was her savior.

Damian was an upright man. Even as he didn’t entirely agree with his mother’s will, he tried to accept Rosetta as family. But when he couldn’t accept her fully, he felt guilty for it.

There’s no way that such a person would easily make light of a savior.

Damian swept a hand over his face as though he had a throbbing headache.

Then, he quietly turned towards the doctor examining Cassion and asked him.

“How is that man doing?”

“There are bruises here and there, and he seems to have a gash on one side, but… fortunately, it’s not a big injury. However, it might interfere with his daily life for a while.”

“Goodness…”

While listening to the doctor, Rosetta let out a small sigh.

She could feel Alicia looking towards her worriedly.

Rosetta kept mum for a while, but after a moment, she opened her lips and spoke with a heavy voice.

“Brother.”

At the low whisper, Damian’s eyes shifted entirely towards Rosetta.

She looked down towards her index finger and thumb that were facing each other, her lips shaking.

“I… I know it’s shameless of me to bring this up when you’re already worrying about me this much, but… Brother, I would like to ask a favor.”

A favor.

Damian’s eyes widened at Rosetta’s earnest plea.

Hooded by thick eyelashes, Rosetta’s own golden eyes met with Damian’s.

Originally, Rosetta wasn’t the type of person who would ask for a ‘favor’ in all her life.

And in the end, what’s rare was bound to become a weapon on her side.

“Favor? You’re… asking me a favor?”

“Yes. Is… Is that alright?”

When asked if she could, he nodded hastily.

“Of course. Just say the word.”

It was still a rather rigid tone, but he was speaking faster than usual.

Rosetta laughed inwardly.

‘Just say the word?’

That was such a dangerous thing to utter. How could he spew out such words so quickly?

With an awkward smile on her lips, Rosetta replied.

“If that’s so… There’s a lot of eyes here, so let’s talk outside please.”

“Ah, right. Let’s go.”

Gladly, Damian opened the door and went out first.

After checking Cassion first as he was sleeping, Rosetta followed behind Damian.

Alicia also tried to follow, but only until there. Rosetta sent her a sign not to follow.

Alicia stopped in her tracks, looking worried instead of disappointed.

In Rosetta’s perspective, it wasn’t like she was in any danger, but it was exactly that in Alicia’s eyes.

‘It’s alright.’

Rosetta turned her head slightly and mouthed the words towards Alicia.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work.

Eventually, Rosetta and Damian went into a drawing room that wasn’t far from the guest room.

As soon as a maid served tea, Damian dismissed them all from the room.

It was a signal for Rosetta to talk comfortably.

Damian had a rigid expression on his face right now, but in his golden eyes, there was a glimmer of weakness.

It seemed like a strong sign of him agreeing to the favor Rosetta would ask of him.

Even if he couldn’t treat her like family or worry for her as a brother, was he going to do this favor just to relieve his guilt?

“Don’t worry anymore, Rosetta. Just tell me what you need.”

As if hesitating, his voice trembled slightly, and he opened the door to this discussion first.

Rosetta nodded, pretending to be encouraged by his words.

And she also opened her lips.

Damian’s expression started to become darker in an instant.

Because the request Rosetta was asking of him wasn’t exactly easy.

“Brother, I want to hire him as my escort knight.”

And there followed a heavy silence.

“Rosetta.”

Within that stagnant silence, he spoke slowly.

Damian’s expression had a slight distortion.

The quiet voice that called back seemed to express both the difficulty and the absurdity he was feeling.

Well, it was understandable.

Would it be commonplace to give a stranger a job in a noble household just because he saved her once?

In addition, it wasn’t just a regular job, but a position as an ‘escort knight’.

Rosetta knew him well.

If she were in Damian’s shoes, she also wouldn’t have liked this situation.

However, that was none of her concern.

All she was concerned with now was to get Cassion into this house.

“Then, you want that man as your escort knight?”

“Yes.”

At the firm answer that held no reservations, mixed feelings passed through Damian’s expression.

“Actually, that person… He’s someone I know.”

“You know each other?”

“Yes. When I was younger, I mean before I came to the Duchy, he was a childhood friend who often played with me. After that, we only exchanged letters once in a while.”

“……”

Fortunately, Damian didn’t seem to be suspicious of this. Indeed, what was there to suspect?

If there was something he doubted right away, it would be under the premise that she was lying.

But at the moment, the thought that ‘Rosetta is lying’ was an assumption that he would forcefully suppress.

At best, he would suspect Cassion and have him investigated later.

‘I left it to Blanca, so there won’t be a problem.’

In the first place, this was the script that Blanca had written, so there was nothing to worry about.

With trembling eyelashes, Rosetta reached towards the elegant white teacup, steam rising from it.

But as she reached out, her hand paused in the air and she brought it back down over her lap.

“To be honest, I was lonely sometimes. I… I actually know everything. Brother and Father are uncomfortable with me.”

As she uttered these words in a subdued tone, the gaze that was on her fluctuated slightly.

“Rosetta.”

She smiled bitterly as she heard the answer that only mentioned her name. Then, she continued speaking in a calm manner.

“It’s alright. I’ve put it behind me. It’s not Brother or Father’s fault, but still, I’m really sorry.”

“……”

“I just brought this up because I wanted to tell you that he was the only friend who cheered me up when I was so lonely. His letters that arrived once in a while were my salvation.”

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────