Chapter 49

Chapter 49

The people who gathered around Lucas soon started talking about him among themselves.

Meanwhile, Lucas, the protagonist of all of the discussions, was leaning back on the chair, slightly missing from the conversation, without anyone noticing.

He kept his mouth shut in order to not unnecessarily waste more energy, and only listened to what they were talking about while thinking that the ‘Lucas’ in their stories and the ‘Lucas’ he was were really different.

‘This is pretty normal,’

Lucas thought, and turned to look for something that was not as ‘normal’.

Looking through the greenhouse and through the people, he saw Selena’s back, which was sitting far away.

There was a man sitting opposite of her.

‘Jacob Cooper…’

He was the second son of County Cooper.

Jacob suddenly smiled at Selena in pure joy, revealing his white teeth.

Bam.

Lucas’s hand hit the table without him realizing. The murmurs of the people around him was drowned out.

The sensation from his fingertips passed on to himself.

His throat was strangely burning. What kind of expression was on Selena’s face, who was sitting opposite of that man? Did she have a bored face as usual? If so, that would’ve been great.

Selena’s shoulders lifted up lightly, then found their place.

‘Oh, that’s right.’ The corner of Lucas’s lips twitched up at that gesture.

Then, of course. There must’ve been expressionless, uninterested emotions hanging from that face. Not only from the face, but also the voice.

She must have been speaking in an even pitch, unimpressed by anything.

‘Sir Lucas.’

Lucas, who was pleasantly smiling and tapping his fingers to and fro, stiffened.

The sound of Selena’s voice calling out to him echoed in his head. The wave soon spread through his body, going out of control.

‘Sir Lucas.’

The sound rang once more, and Lucas straightened his back. The smile on his lips had long since disappeared.

“What’s wrong, Sir Lucas?”

When someone asked him a question, only then did he realize that his actions were unnatural.

Lucas, who quickly regained his usual leisurely composure, answered with a grin to the question.

“It’s nothing.”

However, unlike the words, his inside was not feeling nothing. A strange confusion crept into his mind. It felt like a box that shouldn’t have been opened had popped up, revealing its presence. Beckoning him to unlock it.

‘What is it?’

But he had to push back the confusion for a while. The vice commander of the Duchy shouldn’t be making any mistakes at a party held to silence the rumors of that Duchy.

“Excuse me… Sir Lucas. If it’s not rude, can I ask you one thing?”

The lady who was sitting closest to Lucas asked shyly. Her white face was dyed red.

“Anything.”

Contrary to his insensitive inner feelings, the voice he uttered felt kind to anyone who heard it.

The lady’s cheeks turned even redder at such a friendly voice. At first glance, they looked comparable to crabapples.

The lady, who could not calm her trembling heart, secretly straightened her neck, hoping that her voice would not tremble.

Everyone around her kept their mouths shut and focused their attention on the two of them, wondering what question she would ask.

The only person who was not interested in what question the lady would ask was Lucas, who had to answer the question.

“Well… Do you have any special reason for growing out your hair?”

That was a pretty courageous question.

A question that everyone has had at least once, but not easily asked because of Lucas’s dignity, position, or appearance.

Everyone’s eyes lit up at the interesting question and waited for Lucas’s answer. That was when the noisy conversations became quiet in an instant.

“It’s just a simple personal choice. Does it not look good on me?”

“Ah… no!”

When Lucas folded his eyes and asked, the lady waved her hands. After that, she was still talking gibberish, but Lucas wasn’t listening. The real reason for growing his hair was just out of a small rebellion. Male nobles rarely grew out their hair.

That was why he grew out his.

It was a cowardly rebellion, in which he did not completely abandon everything and hung out with the nobles while acting as pretentious as them.

Lucas raised the corners of his lips higher at the truth he couldn’t bring out of his mouth.

By the time the people were again distracted by their own conversations, Lucas turned to look in Selena’s direction.

Jacob was still smiling across from Selena.

***

“Thanks to Sir Lucas, I have the honor to speak with Lady Selena alone.”

‘And without Jacob, I would have been able to rest on my own.’ As I nodded, unimpressed, he burst into laughter.

“Lady Selena is a fun person.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, that is so.”

His tone and expression were a bit cheesy, but he seemed like a good-natured person.

Most of the people in this greenhouse shook their eyes constantly when they started talking with me alone, waiting for another person to come. I was amazed at my sociability that converged to zero as they came to me with their ambitions to make friends with me shining.

Oh, except for our passionate Vivian, of course.

Passionate Vivian had something on her dress earlier, so a servant led her outside.

With teary eyes, she left the greenhouse regretfully. It would take some time to wash, drain and dry the dress.

Anyways, for that reason, Jacob was the only guest whose eyes did not shake as they sat in front of me proudly, excluding Vivian.

“This touches my heart. Especially because it’s been so long since I’ve eaten an orange on Lord Aaron’s engagement day.”

PR/N: This play on words was also earlier in the story I’m pretty sure (“It’s been so long” happens to contain the same 3 syllables as “orange”, 오렌지), but I didn’t know how to properly edit the rest of the sentence, sorry if it’s a bit confusing

‘This human.’

I almost spit out the tea I was drinking, which would’ve gotten me another nickname from a party held to quell rumors, ‘The Princess Who Spouts Water’.

Jacob handed me a handkerchief with a smile, but I thought it would make the situation even worse if I refused it, so I accepted it.

“Sorry. I didn’t expect you to be surprised by this…”

“No, it’s okay.”

With the handkerchief that Jacob had given me, I gently pressed my lips down. Seeing the lipstick stains on the handkerchief, I assumed I would have to wash and return it or return the favor with another gift.

Naturally, we would have to keep in touch after this party.

Did he give the handkerchief with that in mind, or was he just giving away the handkerchief? As I looked at the man while fiddling with the handkerchief. Jacob, who was frowning troublesomely, smiled awkwardly.

“Jane,”

I called Jane while still looking at the man. Jane, who was standing near me, came to me quickly.

“Yes, My Lady.”

“Please wash this handkerchief.”

“You don’t have to give it back so quickly.”

When I handed Jane the handkerchief to wash, Jacob hurriedly said so with a stiff face. His expression even hardened for a moment, as if he was surprised, but then he returned to his soft smile.

Then, with one hand on his chin, he lowered his voice and whispered to me, unlike his previous tone.

“Actually, I came to this party with a dark heart for the lady.”

This time, there was real silence.

Jane’s face, who was holding the handkerchief while next to me, was blue. It was the color someone would have in the face when they heard a story they did not want to know about.

‘I’m not the only one, Jane. I didn’t really want to know either.’

Jane glanced down at me.

‘What to do? Please let me go,’ she seemed to be saying.

“Go on, Jane.”

“Yes, My Lady.”

As I spoke to rescue the poor Jane, she bowed her head and went out of the greenhouse right away.

Turning my head back to follow Jane’s back out of the greenhouse, my eyes met Lucas, who was sitting behind me.

Lucas, who was smiling and talking with the people around him, closed his mouth and raised his eyebrows when our eyes met.

I looked at him without avoiding his gaze, wondering if he was picking a fight from a distance, and he said something with his mouth.

‘Jo… Je… K? No, it’s ‘co’… Co… CoX Cola?’

Of course, that wouldn’t be it. Because there was no cola here… But I didn’t have the talent to understand the meaning of words just by looking at the shape of the mouth.

In novels and dramas, people seemed to know it well… Did everyone practice this at home? No, why were they practicing it?

In the end, I shrugged my shoulders to say, What are you talking about?, and turned my head again. Once I did, blazing blue eyes were staring at me this time.

‘Wow, it’s a mess both here and there.’

“Sir Lucas is really popular.”

Jacob, who was looking at me with burning eyes, looked behind me once and spoke. The raised corners of his lips were slanted at an angle.

Well, Lucas is popular.

First of all, wasn’t he the male lead of the novel? He was talented, he had a good face, and I hated to admit this, but… First and foremost, he had a good personality.

From an objective point of view, he deserved to be popular.

“Yes… Well, that’s right.”

Jacob’s smile faltered at my answer. He quickly grabbed the teapot and started pouring tea into his own cup. His gaze on me slowly turned towards the teacup.

“Does Lady Selena also like Sir Lucas?”

What kind of crap was this?

If I had had tea in my mouth right now, I would have fired a water cannon at this man’s face.

The content of the question was absurd, but most importantly, the question itself was absurd.

Should I have said it was bold or disrespectful to immediately have asked who I liked?

As I looked at him without answering, the eyes of the man who was pouring tea turned to me. His eyes folded roundly as if he was chasing me with them.

Yes, I was the host, and this person was the guest. A guest’s mistakes should be understood with broad generosity.

In the first place, the purpose of this party was to silence bad rumors about me.

‘If you want something, you have to give up something.’

For a day or so, I would let the other person do what they want. So I did my best to answer his questions with sincerity.

“First of all, he is my brother’s friend, and since he is the vice commander of the Duchy, he is dear to me. Of course, in a rational sense.”

Hearing the answer, Jacob raised the teapot he was pouring into.

Poouuurr.

The tea, slowly flowing through the spout, filled his teacup. By the time the sound finally stopped, Jacob’s teacup was full of tea.

He was the first person in my life to drink tea from such a full cup. Was he planning to drown an enemy in the tea…?

“That’s a relief. I said earlier that I have a dark heart.”

Jacob lowered his voice and opened his mouth. And as soon as he opened his mouth, he picked up the teacup. I flinched as if the red water would spill, but he only glanced at it indifferently.

I was the one who looked at the full teacup. Jacob paused his hand, as if he had just noticed it, and then moved slowly.

“I fell in love with the lady at first sight.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the tea overflowed. As the overflowing tea water wet the back of his hand, the man let out a small sigh and put down the teacup.

“This… I don’t have a handkerchief… Could I borrow one, miss?”

The reason Jacob didn’t have a handkerchief was because of me, so I couldn’t refuse. Of course, to be precise, it was because of this man’s useless remarks.

I quietly looked at the man and compared his actions so far. It was a coincidence that I spilled my tea, but was this just one too? ‘No way.’

To be honest, I didn’t want to move according to his shallow inner thoughts, but I already borrowed his handkerchief.

So I couldn’t help it. In the end, with a slight sense of responsibility, I fumbled around the waist of my clothes for a handkerchief. Apparently, there was a small pocket around here for a handkerchief to be placed in… Oh, was it because it was casual wear?

“Here you are, a handkerchief.”

While I was pretending to look for a handkerchief while being unsure if I had one or not, a hand holding a handkerchief protruded from behind.

The initial was finely written on the light blue handkerchief.

‘L.’

It was handwriting as smooth as the voice.

“Sir Lucas?”

He was definitely in the middle of that crowd earlier… At some point, he came all the way here.

I turned around in wonder, but he only smiled.