CH 1.07

CHAPTER 1: THE SUPPORTING ROLE IS ALSO QUITE DIFFICULT (VII)

Part 008

The banquet hall was much busier than Adrian remembered. As soon as he graduated from the academy, he was commissioned as a military commander and lived away from the social world for a long time. Since he had fallen out with his father, the former Duke of Bigor, he hadn’t even attended a New Year’s banquet, and he hadn’t been in Midoc for a while, so the last time he attended one was when he was seventeen. It’s already 6 years ago.

He came because he had to show his face because the King requested it, but the fatigue that came between the gazes with obvious intentions became heavier. The King, an outspoken enemy of the former Duke’s friends, those who spoke of him as friends, those of power who were trying to line up enemies with the former Duke, and some nobles who were really close to the former Duke and were willing to join his rebellion, take good care of the royal family and crown prince. He tapped him on the shoulder, but the crown prince, who pretended to welcome him with a disapproving face, smelled of alcohol. And the most difficult thing was the request for a dance by two gorgeously dressed young ladies.

To dance with a woman… For a long time, he had lived in a blood-soaked sword dance. It was doubtful whether the body even remembered the steps. Adrian, who had no leisure or motivation for the time being, laughed. He went to the terrace to avoid the seat when the atmosphere was moderately ripe. He lowered the curtains and leaned against one of the railings, half-releasing the cramped cravat. By the time he had finished emptying the wine glasses he had brought with him, the curtains were drawn back without warning. As he looked back with a frown, a small young lady in a bright cream-colored dress strode in, as if she hadn’t noticed Adrian, and sat with her back to him.

But soon things got noisy.

“No. Let’s lie down. Uh, better lie down.”

The young lady, who was lying down with her legs up on the long bench attached to the railing, looked up to the sky and made a comfortable face. Adrian, who was looking down at Damian, and Damian, who was looking up at Adrian, who was standing behind his head, met for a moment and were silent.

“Hee!”

The moment he thought he heard a strange noise- she jumped up and the cream-colored dress explode.

“Hey!”

The young lady grabbed her side.

“No! Jennie! Do not die!”

Adrian couldn’t read that absurd situation. Damian held on to her side with a teary face and couldn’t move as she met Adrian’s eyes. Adrian, who had been looking at her for a while, noticed that there was something wrong with her dress belatedly. Was it that dress that made the sound of something exploding earlier? Kids these days seemed to name their dresses too, didn’t they?

Adrian pondered for a while, thinking about what would have been the flagship if Damian knew. Was it better to pretend not to know, or was it better to help in some way? Her heart had already spurred out of this place, but the young lady, who was unable to do this or that and was crying, was very uncomfortable. Though she was still a young girl, he decided to be a little more tolerant at the thought of how disappointing she was.

“Do you need clothes, young lady?”

Damian pondered for a moment, immediately recognizing that he would take off his clothes if she needed something to cover. It was difficult to tie that colorful black beaded jacket around the waist, or to put it on.

“Please lend me your arm.”

“My arm?”

Standing up with one hand wrapped around her side, Damian went to Adrian’s right and crossed their arms. As she stood close to him, her left flank was covered with a small rupture.

“Excuse me, but could you please go to the wagon?”

Damian’s face as he looked up at Adrian was still teary.

‘What, is there such a ridiculous waste? Why did I forget that the pulled down curtains were a sign that there were people inside?’

Blaming the fruit wine she had only had one glass of, Damian fretted over what this cold man would do. She couldn’t help it even if he refuses and turns around. He was a man who had rejected even Philia and Ailene, so her expectations were low, but now she had no other alternative, so she grabbed his arm as if it were a lifeline.

Looking down at the round top of the head of the young lady standing next to him, Adrian slowly lifted his foot. As he moved, Damian started walking along. When the Duke of Bigor appeared with a woman by his side, all eyes in the hall were drawn to them. She was Damian, who wanted to rip the curtains and cover her face, but she knew that if she lowered her head at this moment, she would become even more strange. Pretending to be supported by her head pain, she made a face that looked like she was in pain as much as possible and hurried her steps inside her dress. She saw Rootvan’s eyes widening from afar, but she pretended not to see them. She felt a cold sweat on her back.

Adrian smiled. He could feel her tension vividly in her attached body, but he let out a weak smile as he looked down at the crown of the young lady’s head as she walked steadily as if nothing was wrong. A dirty novel wais written with the lips of the nobles who saw Damian’s reddened face and Adrian’s cravat half-unlocked. Adrian, who had the same face the whole time, smiled for a moment and more words were exchanged.

It was a low voice, but it was heard in Adrian’s ears. He glared at the face of a certain young man who was picking up low-quality sounds and walked a little faster. Those were the things he didn’t like to hear. He wanted to say sorry for the quickened gait. Although she was walking with her side tight, about a hole as big as one of her fingers could be seen by him.

It was absurd to see the situation in which people had to choose between walking around the banquet hall with the arms of the famous Duke of Bigor and running around the banquet hall with her torn side. However, the brief scandal with the Duke, who would have no contact in the future, would soon be forgotten.

It was better than getting the sneering stare at his side every time he attended a banquet.

When she arrived at the coach station and prepared her startled coachman for departure, Damian fell away from Adrian’s side. With one hand on her side, she bent her knee in an awkward posture and greeted him.

“I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much, Duke Bigor. I’m sorry to trouble you.”

Adrian, who was looking down at her indifferently, shook his head lightly.

“No problem. I’m glad I was helpful.”

“Thank you again.”

It seems that Adrian’s attitude today was unsociable. He was at a loss for what to do with embarrassment and gratitude, but for some reason, he felt a pang in his heart when he saw the young lady who said that she would repay him by not bothering him. How difficult would it be to say hello to this little lady who wanted to express her gratitude? Did he scare the young lady who was in trouble because of his too stiff attitude?

He lowered his head again and looked at the perplexed Damian, then Adrian carefully raised the corners of his mouth to create a smile.

“You can ignore it, Lady Etihad.”

He peered at the carriage’s pattern with a sidelong glance and spoke in the most friendly voice. She was also a part of the Laurentian he was determined to keep. Having lived as a soldier for too long, he had no time to learn social skills, but he wanted to add something kind to him.

“That… I hope Jenny is safe too.”

While thinking of something that might ease the bewildered young lady’s heart, whose eyes widened when he added a word, he hoped that it would not be rude to comment on the lady’s attire.

“How does the Duke know Jenny?”

“Didn’t you just call that dress that?”

“Pardon?”

Damian, who rolled his eyes and tried to recall what she had said, laughed as she folded her waist forward.

“Puhaha! Ahahaha Duke, Jenny is cu cu cu cu cu cu. Oh, what should I do? It exploded more.”

Damian couldn’t explain because she was laughing, but Adrian knew for sure that he had misunderstood something.

Adrian had never seen a woman smile so pure wide-mouthed. His mother always smiled quietly, and the noblewomen covered their mouths with their fans and laughed vaguely. Rather than ambiguous and ambiguous expressions, he definitely liked it. At the sound of bright laughter, Adrian was laughing along with her. It wasn’t a smile that he made with effort, but a smile that bloomed naturally, but he didn’t know it.

“Sorry for laughing, Duke. You’re more erratic than I thought.”

Damien continues her words with a clear voice, laughing excitedly and hanging teardrops from her eyes. Her bright voice and clear tone were much better to hear than the embarrassing apology from earlier.

“Jenny is not a dress, but my maid. And the dress, well, looks like it’s already unsafe. I think I’ll have to go see it before it gets harder to fix. Well, see you next time.”

“I’ll see you next time, Lady Ethart.”

Damian climbed into the wagon opened by Adrian and closed the door. Damian opened the small window and poked her head out.

“My name is Damian, Duke Bigor. You can call me whatever you like.”

She left a refreshing self-introduction and the carriage departed. Adrian, who was looking at the tail of the vanishing carriage for a while, noticed the eyes of his subordinate staring at him from a distance. He looked up and saw George looking at Adrian with his mouth open.

Adrian, who turned back to his hard face and took a few steps towards the banquet hall, stopped. It was a noisy and busy place. It must have been that he had cooled his face enough to go back now. As he walked toward the carriage of the non-public noble, George, who had been rubbing his eyes, checked Adrian’s hardened face up close, tilted his head, and climbed into the coachman’s seat. The carriage of the Duke of Bigor soon left the palace.

In the banquet hall where Adrian and Damian swept away, the story was quite different. There was some kind of spark on the terrace, and since the two of them went out together and never came back, there was a lot of room for imagination.

Count Ethart was questioned several times by those who wanted to line up with Duke Bigor. It was equally embarrassing because he didn’t know anything, so it was best to spill it in vague words. If he did something wrong, his daughter’s reputation would be damaged.

Rootvan hurriedly arranged the conversation with the pleasant lady and called a public wagon to head to the mansion.

The Lady of Ethart, she must have been a great beauty enough to catch Duke Bigor’s eye without paying attention, right? Although her body was definitely great. The Duke of Bigor must have been the type to look more at her face than her body. She was a little girl who didn’t have much to look at, but everybody saw them proudly crossing their arms.

Even if a calm cat goes up to the stove, it’s an oil fountain, maybe it threw itself on the terrace? It seemed like he was just an escort, but couldn’t it be that the young lady suddenly got sick? That’s something they didn’t know. Did she feel bad or pretended to be like that?

Anyway, nobody wanted to talk about Duke Bigor. They were afraid, in case Lady Ethart and he became an official couple, that their words hit them like a boomerang later. But, even so, it’s an unexpected combination.

Ailene followed Damian and the Duke of Bigor with her curious eyes, but for other reasons she couldn’t care for long. She smiled at the reddish-yellow eyes, which overlapped nicely in front of hers, thinking that she would ask her friend tomorrow.

She was the eldest daughter of a family that leads the royal faction that was openly pushing the crown prince. Ailene, who secretly talked about her engagement to the Crown Prince, and Dozern, who was smiling at her, couldn’t have had a connection. Even when she was dancing and breathing together for a while, she was polite but not special. Dozern, who had met and had a long talk with Veronica, her mother and her husband, approached Ailene, who was their daughter.