Chapter 7

“This overflowing energy… Oh my God, Lady. What did you just spray on me?”

Robin thrust his thrilled face in front of me. I answered reluctantly.

“It was just an air freshener.”

“No, I know this feeling. It was… a stimulant, wasn’t it?”

Robin held his face closer and whispered.

Unbeknownst to me, an absurd expression was revealed. The perfume I sprayed was just one that had the effect of relieving fatigue.

Well, it is said that people who take a lot of drugs are sensitive to ordinary scents…

Wait. No way? I gazed at Robin with suspicious eyes.

“Lady. From the first meeting, everything’s like this… Ha, I’ve never seen such a reckless woman all my life.”

Robin clasped my hand. Surprised, I tried to shake it off, however, his grip was stronger.

“Other men might have run away in fright, but I’m different. I like the tenacity of this. I accept your temptation, Lady.”

I opened my mouth wide.

This crazy druggie seemed to be facing a great illusion.

“What are you talking about? Let go of me right now.”

“Whoo, you didn’t forget to flinch after blatantly seducing me. You’re changing my taste. Lady!”

“Ugh!”

The odor from Robin’s face struck my nose once again. I frowned. I can’t believe it still stinks. The smell was still lingering even after spraying the perfume.

Oh no, he must be a real druggie. I became vexed and tried to pull my seized hand back. Nevertheless, Robin was very strong.

“Let’s leave, Lady. There’s nothing more to hesitate about.”

“I’m going to report you. Here! Waiter!”

The waiter rushed with a startled look.

“What’s the matter, Lady?”

“Please report this madman. Ugh, Where are you going with my hand!”

Robin thrust my hand against his chest. I could feel his heart beating like crazy through the fabric.

“Do you feel it? This is my heart beating… the beating of love for my Lady. Ah, waiter. Please understand that my lady is as sharp as a cat. You may go back.”

What are you talking about, you crazy bastard. Did the scent affect driving people crazy?

I raised my undetected hand, vowing to mend the recipe as soon as I got home. I was proceeding to slap his face.

It was then.

“What are you doing?”

A voice that sank so low, as if scratching one’s eardrums.

I looked back reflexively.

Then, he opened his mouth slowly.

A completely unexpected person. Cedric Evans was standing behind me like a lie.

“Uh, are you… Duke Evans?”

Robin asked blankly with a stupid face.

Cedric strode in place of answering and flicked Robin’s hand, which was grasping mine.

His tenacious hand fell off easily. There was a red handprint existing on the spot it had previously seized.

Cedric, glaring at the mark, growled at Robin.

“I asked what you were doing.”

“What, even if you ask me what I’m doing… Well, we’re just enjoying our date.”

“Date?”

Cedric grumbled.

“It appears to me that a crazy sex offender is harassing a woman, in my eyes.”

“Ha, harassment!”

Robin shouted with a whitened face.

“Tell me however much you want to, but you’re talking too much! I and the Lady are very fond of each other…!”

“Shut up, your tongue is too long.”

Cedric lifted my wrist. The hand, which contained red marks.

“What shall I do, Lady Winston?”

Cedric asked, looking down at my wrist.

“Why don’t I place a mark on him?”

As Cedric said so, he slightly pulled the sword from his waist. Sheeth, an eerie sound was sounded from the sword’s sheath.

Then, Robin, who was sitting down in amazement, retreated.

“Your, Your Grace! Please do me a favor! I was imprudent!”

“You were imprudent?”

“Yes, yes! I forcibly gripped the Lady’s wrist, even when she refused! But my Lady did try removing her hand with words, and the truth is….”

“You admit it. Take him.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Two knights who were guarding Cedric’s back stepped forward. They lifted Robin’s shoulders.

“What, what! Let go of me!”

Robin resisted to the fullest, yet the knights just dragged him along as if he were a bundle.

All eyes in the restaurant turned to the scene.

After Robin was forced to leave, the restaurant was silently smothered in shock.

In the stillness, Cedric flopped and sat on the chair where Robin had been.

“It seems the Marquis of Marcel did not educate them properly. Raising sex offenders.”

Cedric, who spit out harsh words, emptied the wine glass made for Robin at once.

“So.”

Tak. Cedric placed down the glass of wine and gazed at me. His red eyes lit up like a stabbing knife.

“What brings you here?”

“…That’s what I’d like to ask your grace.”

“Oh. Me.”

Cedric slowly lowered his head to one side. It was a strangely lax attitude. The look on his face was similar to the one I might have made the moment I met Robin earlier. the smell of an unbearably unpleasant odor.

“I stopped by for business. As the business partner inevitably wants to eat in an open place.”

Cedric threw his gaze elsewhere. When I turned my head, I noticed a middle-aged man looking this way with a frightened expression, most likely seeming to be Cedric’s partner.

“If I meet you in a closed place, would you eat with me?”

Cedric, who smiled in vain, gazed at me once again. It was a pungent red glare.

“So, Lady. What were you doing with that bastard?”

“I…”

It was a little embarrassing to answer him straightforwardly. Oh God, you were sitting face to face with that guy. With a sigh, I replied, shrugging.

“My father arranged a meeting. I’m here because he wishes for me to meet him.”

“…Meeting?”

Cedric retorted. As if the single word was unfamiliar to him.

“Yes, I wouldn’t have come out if I had known he was like this.”

I wouldn’t, really. No matter how much I loved money, my stomach wasn’t immune enough to dine with a druggist and sexual harasser.

I decided to thank Cedric first.

“Well, thank you very much for now. He wouldn’t have listened to me. And how strong he is…”

I grumbled and patted my wrists that still had visible marks. A deep reply was heard overhead.

“…Aha. So, Lady.”

Cedric leaned forward slowly. His red eyes were even more darkened.

“Are you saying that you have sentenced me to a sudden farewell, and in a week you are already planning a new spiritual and future plan?”

“…Yes?”

I opened my eyes wide at the unexpected line. Cedric narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly.

“It’s a contract-bound relationship, but we’ve been together for more than half a year. I didn’t know you’d do this in the end.”

“What do you mean, Do this?”

“Isn’t there any courtesy in breaking up?”

What do you mean courtesy? I was a bit dumbfounded as I opened my mouth.

“So… Does the Duke mean that my family should have closed off searching for other candidates and meetings for me?”

“That’s the story.”

“…I’m sorry, Your Grace.”

I frowned at the story.

“Didn’t you find my relationship unpleasant?”

“Unpleasant?”

Cedric retorted the word and frowned at the middle of his forehead. What was certain was that he seemed quite displeased at the moment, although he didn’t know of it.

‘Yes. It could be unpleasant.’

On reflection, Cedric’s words were not wrong.

No matter how contractual it may be, they were in a formal relationship. Besides, Cedric and Ariel were quite famous as Cedric Evans was politically powerful.

It was clear that she would stay in the old society for a while when it became known that she had been with another man as soon as such a relationship broke.

So it is indeed. I admitted my mistake belatedly. Cedric was right. There was courtesy in parting. No matter how contracted the relationship was, it was the same.

“No, Your Highness. Come to think of it, it is my fault.”

As I admitted my fault, Cedric gently lifted one brow, surprised.

“Regardless of my true intentions, you and I are official lovers. It’s my fault that I came out with another man. I’m sorry, haha.”

Instead of accepting my apology, Cedric replied with something rather confusing.

“When did it start?”

“What?”

“When did you decide that you weren’t in love with me and that you would marry another man?”

That was a very random and unexpected question.

I managed to come to my senses and replied quietly.

“…It wasn’t exactly what I decided to do with the Duke. No, that’s not a matter of what I was going to decide… Wasn’t it that I had no options from the beginning?”

Cedric stared at me intently instead of answering.

The sensation of his red eyes, not only on my face but also looking over my skin, gave me goosebumps. I said with a seemingly casual expression and a faint smile.

“I knew for a long time that I couldn’t be the Duchess of Evans.”

No matter how hard Ariel tried, all she did was make all kinds of love scents and hand them to Cedric.

Ariel Winston was just Ariel Winston after all. ‘Evans’ was never to be said after her name. Because there existed a real hostess rightful of that name.