Chapter 188

Chapter 188: Chapter 187

Giyom turned around at the sound. His response was faster than she expected. As a result, the door that had just opened was blocked by his arm and closed in less than two seconds.

Fortunately, she was shorter than Giyom.

Her bright green eyes shone brilliantly in the afternoon sunlight. Underneath her stretched arm, she had a glimpse of the gap between the door and his body, as if she was appreciating a good painting. Indeed, it happened in the blink of an eye.

“What are you doing here? Isn’t Sir Ober in? The maid I met at the front door said he is in the office…” She brazenly asked and stepped back.

“Giyom, escort her inside. ”

As if he already heard her complaint, Ober’s voice was heard from behind Giyom’s back.

Only then did Giyom bow to her and leave the door. Coming to her senses belatedly, Cordelli quickly helped her.

When she entered the room through the wide open door, Annette, standing in front of the cupboard-lined cabinet, greeted her by raising her dress slightly.

Ober walked toward her in stride.

“May the goddess bestow blessing on this lovely lady.”

His hot breathing scattered over her thin lace gloves.

“I wish you the blessing of goddess Anthea!”

When she was about to withdraw her hand after greetings, she suddenly felt somebody pulling her from the other side. The moment she thought she was falling, she felt dizzy and someone grabbed her from behind. She barely stood up, holding his hand wrapped around her waist when she felt some unfamiliar breathing on her neck.

“I smell a very good scent from you. Did you roll in the flower garden before you came here?”

She thought to herself, ‘Is this guy crazy? Isn’t he a pervert? ‘

Holding back the urge to ask him, she secretly signalled to Cordelli with eyes.

Cordelli, who turned red like a ripe apple, saw her eyes and turned up her mouth. Given that the fan in her hand trembled, Marianne would have used self-defense skills she had learned from Mrs. Charlotte if Cordelli had not blocked her.

“Well, I took a bath with rose perfume this morning…Maybe it’s because of that.”

In response to her answer, Ober lowered his head deeply. Cordelli, standing in front of him, tried to make her expression as gentle as possible, but she couldn’t stop frowning.

She just felt terrible when the breathing of the most unpleasant man in the world touched her body. She felt touching a repulsive toad would be better than this.

“I will pick up some new perfume bottles for you soon. Lilies, roses, acacias and daffodils you like… What else do you want? Tell me anything. Let me get you everything. ”

“Thank you. That’s enough. ”

Marianne quickly replied, turning in his arms. His arms wrapped around her waist seemed to have loosened a bit, but he hugged her tightly.

“Ober. Your face looks a bit tired. Are you okay?”

She reached out and touched his cheeks gently. Of course, Ober’s face was quite fine, and she wasn’t worried at all even if it got much worse than now. But she had to do so in order to change the topic.

She brainwashed herself that it was somebody else that held her in his arms now.

Somebody like Eckart, golden hair and blue eyes sparkling enough to blind her, a man always snowed under with lots of work cannot sleep easily until the starlight of the first dawn disappears, a man sitting by her side holding her sleeves on the night of thunder and rain, a man who felt jealous of her past that did not exist anymore…

Soon her eyes looking at Ober were filled with extreme anxiety. She was almost crying.

“I’m fine. Do I look so pale to you? ”

“Yeah. you look kind of haggard… Ah, you had a special guest from Faisal yesterday. Didn’t you sleep well because you had to pay attention to lots of things? ”

“Well, I went to bed slightly later than usual… ”

“Look. You can’t deceive my eyes. When is Lord Akad returning? Unless you don’t have to take care of it in person, why don’t you let your servants do it? He said he came to express condolences for the late Duke Hubble, not to see you anyway. I think you carried out your duty by giving him conveniences.”

“Well, I’m already acting like that. He’ll probably return today or tomorrow, so don’t worry too much. ”

Although she couldn’t believe him entirely, Shahar would soon be leaving Milan, if Ober was right. Perhaps he would go back to the Faisal Empire, or go somewhere else.

If not, it would mean that nobody would be able to find him.

“By the way, we have the martial arts competition tomorrow, ” Ober murmured as if it was not a big deal, while she was trying to collect the intelligence for Eckart,

But she could feel some sort of pressure from his short response.

“Oh my goodness. I didn’t know that. Already tomorrow? It looks like yesterday I was very much worried when the rainy season would end.”

“As the weather is nice, the banquet will be fun.”

“I hope so. I have been looking forward to it because I waited a lot.”

“You haven’t forgotten the gift I prepared for you, right?” Ober said meaningfully. Marianne smiled brightly and nodded.

“Of course. You said it was a great knight. In fact, I have lots of expectations because of that. Everybody in the capital knows you have the best discerning eye, so I think the knight you mentioned will be terrific. I can’t even imagine him. It looks like he is a much stronger knight than Iric.”

“No matter what you imagine, he will probably not disappoint you.”

Ober did not regard humility as a virtue. And she knew it well, so she felt a little nervous when she heard that.

‘If that knight is so terrific like he said, I wonder if he might be one of the most competent. Maybe it’s Kiara, the assassin.”

Although Iric mostly stayed by her side, she was afraid she might not be able to move around freely if Ober’s mole was assigned to her as her bodyguard after scoring good results in tomorrow’s martial arts competition. But her rash movements would only invite Ober’s suspicion and resentment, so it was difficult for her to block Ober’s men from getting good scores even if she knew Ober’s cunning tricks.

“Oh, by the way…”

After some angst, she looked at Ober again. Her gaze mixed with life and exhaustion was fixed on him up close, when she said, “How do I know that knight is your gift for me? Can I identify him if I just keep waiting? ”

“You’ll naturally know before the competition begins.”

“Really? It looks like it’s a fun game, just like the treasure hunts I used to do when I was young.”

Marianne made an excited expression on purpose.

“That was a fantastic figure of speech. If you find my gift and put it in the right place, you win. ”

Regarding her as stupid, Ober willingly smiled at her. His gaze at her, as if he was looking at an immature child, was, in fact, a definitive trap to deceive himself.

He thought that Marianne was a valuable hostage he could make use of. She was like a chess piece that nobody dared to touch unless he pushed it out in the middle of the chessboard first. She was like a joker hiding in his hand from the beginning. She was like a decisive winning card that even if it was in the hands of someone else, he would eventually take it back.

“May the Goddess of Victory Kader bless your decision tomorrow.”

Ober fully loved Marianne’s folly, but he still did not realize the fact that her betrayal was always predicated in all the treasons he plotted. He also didn’t realize the truth that her ignorance and love would remain unchanged in the name of contempt and lies.