Chapter side3: Side Story 3

That’s it? Count Coultershe has a shameless smile on his face.

“I’m sorry. Actually, I haven’t met Lady Danekier yet.”

“Huh?”

“I just know that she’s beautiful from looking at her portrait......oh, don’t get me wrong. I haven’t been interested in her. However, the people around me advise me, so out of curiosity.......”

I let the uninterested chatter from Count Coultershe go in one ear.

What, so you don’t know anything, do you?

While I was disappointed, I thought it was a little unexpected.

He never met her before, so he didn’t know anything but her appearance.

‘Should I ask him if rumours are going around?’

Looking at his character, I don’t think Count Coultershe would have answered, ‘I don’t believe rumours and only judge the person who I saw with my own eyes!’

Hmm.

I smoothed my chin with deepening wonder.

What is it? The fact that Alice Danekier is a beauty that resembles a black rose was a long way from explaining what I experienced a while ago.

There’s no way that she’s treated as filthy just because she has a pretty face?

That’s impossible. I don’t know if the opposite is true though.

Outstanding appearance is usually a power in both genders.

‘Oh. Is there a rumour that she’s going out with a powerful man?’

Wait, does this make sense?

“Of course, everyone around me is busy praising the beauty and charm of Lady Danekier. I’m sure they’re all blind idiots. Real beauty is not a dark, dull black rose, but a red, bright, and fresh rose........”

Anyway, I’m going to deal with this noisy and useless quack first.

I raised my hand to hand over the non-stop chatting Count Coultershe to a passing servant.

It was then.

“Everyone, Lady Danekier from Baron Danekier is coming in!”

The servant’s voice at the entrance crossed the party.

The servant’s voice was still loud and unchanging, but this time there was a shake in his voice.

Like a person who is agitated by something.

I turned my eyes naturally to the entrance.

Not only me, but all the attention of the party hall seemed to be focused in one place at this moment.

I soon remembered the expression that Count Coultershe had put on his lips.

“Black Rose.”

The smooth black hair under the light was the first thing which caught the eye.

Next was the dress. The black dress, which reveals the silhouette of the body and gracefully drops the line, sparkled like a myriad of stars in the night sky as if it had been ground and sprinkled with pearls.

Lastly, the eyes.

Her eyes were pure black as a dress.

“.......”

I opened and closed my eyelids, feeling a little embarrassed.

‘It’s like a black rose.’

I can’t honestly say that I didn’t laugh at that expression when I heard it from Coultershe.

But when I saw the opponent in person, I was reminded of a black rose, so I had nothing to say.

It was her hair colour that especially supported the association.

Isn’t that the colour of the black rose petals?

Not black, but technically blackish purple.

I’ve read somewhere before that the leaves of flowers in the natural world can’t be completely black, so even if it’s a black rose, it’s not really black, but it’s a purple colour that’s close to black in that way.....

‘Let’s... let’s stop.’

I shook my head because I was thinking something useless too hard.

I don’t know what’s important to me whether she looks like a black rose or not.

I don’t have the ambition to compile a flower encyclopedia as a person.

And most importantly, I felt the same level as the Viscount Coultershe, so I felt a great sense of shame.

‘Just that......’

It was time for me to reflect on myself in great mental pain.

“Well, shall I go find Ash?”

I think they’re almost done talking by now.

I agonized silently in the middle of the wide-open party testing my sense of direction.

“Which direction did he go? Um... was it this way?”

“What’s this way?”

“So the man I’m looking for–“

I answered despite myself to the voice that spoke to me naturally and raised my head.

“Ash!”

“Did you look for me?”

Ash smiled enchantingly, making eye contact with me.

I closed and opened my eyelids in a daze.

“When did you get here?”

“Just now.”

I’m in no position to talk to others. I guess I didn’t even see Ash coming close because I was so distracted by Alice.

I moved quite a bit when we broke up earlier, but he managed to find myself right away.

I asked him, clasping my hand in joy.

“How’re the talks going? Moustache... No, with Count Donizoa?”

Ash kissed my eyelids as he answered.

For a moment, a small smile escaped from the tickle.

Someone might think we met after a day apart, but what’s the point? Let’s say that’s what we felt.

“What did the Count say?”

“He wants to take over any businesses that he’s heard about to be disposed of.”

“So? Did you agree?”

“Well, I didn’t have to say no.”

My hunch was right. I became satisfied. That’s good.

Wouldn’t Ash be freer than she is now once he’s sorted it out?

Anyway, I wish Ash had more time for himself.

I didn’t want him to walk around with me like now, but I just wanted to see him rest well alone.

Sometimes he seems like a person who has become a habit of overworking his body.

Or maybe he was looking fine for abusing someone else.

I stared at Ash with that thought.

Ash asked me in a light voice.

“Why?”

He’s asking me if I have something to say. But I already told him to take it easy last time. It feels like I’m nagging again.

I was contemplating and suddenly got playful, so I opened my mouth.

“Do you have anything to say to me?”

I threw an arrow at Ash and held back my laughter.

As expected, Ash asked again.

“Anything to say?”

“Think it over.”

Of course, thinking well won’t make him think of anything. It was just a joke.

‘Shall I make fun of him?’

I was very motivated to think that I could see his embarrassed face for the first time in a while.

There’s nothing more than impure motives.

I pretended to be serious, holding the corners of my mouth calmly as it was about to go up.

“Are you sure you don’t have anything to say?”

But Ash, who I thought would be more puzzled, quickly changed his colour.

As if he knew....... huh? What did he know?

Then Ash bowed his head and whispered to me in my ear.

“I missed you. My wife.”