Chapter 105
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105
“Ugh…! Seriously…!”
It was absurd, preposterous, and utterly humiliating, yet a strange surge of emotion overwhelmed him. His heart hammered against his ribs, pounding so hard he felt as if it might burst at any moment.
The reason? He didn’t know.
No, that was a lie. He finally understood.
I’ve fallen for her.
It was a hypothesis he’d dismissed as ridiculous until now, but he could no longer deny it.
As if there were any way not to admit it.
The moment he acknowledged his true feelings, every lingering question unraveled at once.
Kissing her in the carriage as they passed under the city gate; chasing after the flash of her pink dress even while drugged; the white-hot anger he felt when she returned from the Angelic Party; the way Tez Roark’s very existence grated on his nerves—it all made sense now.
A hollow laugh escaped him, slowly morphing into a pleasant, genuine chuckle.
He took one step, then another. His slow pace quickened into a stride, and soon, he began to run.
Harriet’s retreating figure drew closer and closer until, finally—
“Ah!”
Harriet, who had been walking away while desperately suppressing tears of indignation and embarrassment, let out a sharp gasp as a pair of arms suddenly locked around her from behind.
“Wh-what is this?”
Too startled to even scream, Harriet’s eyes widened. She could only roll them sideways, catching sight of the blond hair resting against her shoulder.
She knew it was Cedric the moment his scent enveloped her. But she couldn't fathom why the man who had just been berating her was now holding her as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
“H-hey! Your Grace? Your Grace!”
The arms trapping her were so strong that Harriet couldn’t budge. She struggled to break free for a moment before eventually giving up and going limp. Cedric, his face still buried in the crook of her shoulder, mumbled a question.
“Are you… truly alright?”
Harriet didn’t understand the intent behind the question, but she answered dutifully.
“I’m not so frail that staying up a little late would make me unwell.”
“The welcome drink on that ship contained a small amount of Angelic. Did you know?”
“Oh, that. Yes, well… I did feel a little strange after drinking it, but I’m perfectly fine now.”
He took another deep breath, then spoke again, his voice softer. Or rather, he tried to.
“Tez Roark…”
But he couldn’t finish the sentence. When he failed to elaborate, Harriet frowned and muttered her own explanation.
“I happened to find out he had an invitation to the ship, so I went with him as his partner. I don’t know what you’re worried about, but we stayed separate on the ship. He only escorted me home when we left.”
“Really?”
“Why would I lie? …And why have you been so informal with me lately?”
A pleasant vibration hummed against her shoulder. This wasn’t the first time she’d felt this. Even at the Laurel family’s garden party, Cedric had held her like this and chuckled softly.
Once he’d had his fill of laughter, he finally pulled away. He shed his own jacket and draped it over her trembling shoulders. Then, without warning, he scooped her up.
“Whoa! Wh-what are you doing? Put me down!”
“I know walking is difficult for you right now.”
“Your Grace’s clothes will get soaked too!”
“They’re already wet. Getting them a bit wetter won’t change anything.”
He turned, walking not toward the garden exit, but toward the mansion’s back entrance. For Harriet, it was a continuous string of bewildering events. Holding her tightly to ensure she couldn't squirm free, he kicked open the back door and immediately ordered the first maid he encountered to draw a bath in the guest room.
Harriet shielded her face with both hands, waiting for the maid to disappear before whispering urgently, terrified someone might recognize her voice.
“Hey! What exactly are you trying to do? If rumors spread that Harriet Listerwell bathed at the Kailas Mansion…!”
“Such rumors won’t spread. The ducal household’s servants are forbidden from disclosing anything they see or hear within these walls.”
“How can you be so sure? The person who stole your brooch might have been one of your own servants.”
“That is a painful point. Can’t you consider it mitigating circumstances that I found the culprit?”
He actually sounded pleased with himself. Harriet, feeling a strange mix of embarrassment and confusion, retorted sharply.
“No, I mean, why are you doing this?!”
“Though the weather has warmed, the wind is still chilly. If you stay in those wet clothes, you’re bound to catch a cold.”
“If you were so worried about that, you shouldn’t have thrown the brooch into the water in the first place!”
“Who would have guessed you’d dive into a fountain to retrieve it?”
While they exchanged barbs, Harriet was dutifully ‘transported’ to the guest room.
After Cedric set her down in the bathroom and retreated, the maid helped Harriet out of her sodden clothes. Once she had finished washing in the warm tub, a beautiful, comfortable day dress and fresh undergarments were laid out for her.
“I will escort you home.”
Cedric reappeared before the now-clean Harriet. He brushed off her protests and personally saw her into a carriage, accompanying her all the way to the Fellon Estate.
Just before stepping out of the carriage, Harriet turned to him, her face still full of unanswered questions.
“You know you’ve been acting very strange today, right? When we first met, you treated me like I was some sort of villainess…”
“It’s late, but I apologize.”
The brooch Harriet had retrieved was pinned firmly to his lapel. Cedric took her hand to help her alight, then added one last, meaningful remark.
“From now on, I intend to take a page out of your book.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Harriet received no answer. Cedric simply gazed at her with eyes that held a strange, simmering warmth before getting back into the carriage and driving off.
Leaving her standing there with a bewildered expression, Cedric smiled faintly to himself as the carriage pulled away.
I’ll try to follow my heart from now on, too.
The emotions he’d realized amidst the splashing water had finally set him free.
* * *
There was someone else just as shocked as Harriet.
“What in the world was that?”
Edgar, who hadn’t slept a wink because of Cedric, lay sprawled on his bed, laughing hollowly. He had been changing his clothes, about to rest his exhausted body, right around the time Harriet arrived. But his rest had been interrupted by Cedric’s voice drifting through the open window.
“…I’m asking you! No matter how…”
At first, he thought he’d misheard. He had never once seen Cedric raise his voice in front of anyone. Curiosity overcame his fatigue, drawing him to the window. Sticking his neck out, he watched as Cedric shouted at someone in front of the fountain.
“Oh? Miss Harriet?”
He was pleased, thinking Harriet had indeed come to return the brooch, but judging by Cedric’s posture, the Duke seemed furious.
“That madman. He should at least thank her for finding it… Oh! What the hell!”
Cedric threw something into the fountain. Judging by his instincts, honed from years as an informant, it was clearly the brooch Harriet had just handed him.
“That crazy bastard! Why would he throw it?!”
He debated whether he should shout at Cedric to go pick it up.
“My god! What is she doing now?!”
Harriet plunged into the fountain with a splash. While she waded through the water searching for the jewelry, Cedric shouted her name and tried to jump in after her. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Harriet stumbled out with the brooch before he could.
What happened next was even more of a spectacle.
Harriet thrust the brooch into Cedric’s hand, snapped something at him with a defiant glare, and turned to leave. Cedric hesitated for a heartbeat.
Just as Edgar was about to click his tongue and mutter, ‘What an idiot,’ Cedric suddenly bolted after her.
When he pulled Harriet into a full embrace, Edgar almost screamed, completely forgetting he was supposed to be hiding.
“Good heavens…”
By the time Cedric had picked Harriet up and carried her back into the mansion, Edgar quietly retreated from the window, clamping a hand over his mouth. He hadn’t been able to close his eyes since, simply grinning like a fool.
Is that block of wood finally opening his eyes? What in the world is happening?
Just as his curiosity reached its peak, a servant arrived to announce Cedric’s return. Edgar sprang up and burst into Cedric’s room, throwing the door open with an elated expression, as if he were about to sing an opera aria.
“Has spring finally arrived?!”
Cedric’s face, upon seeing him, was utterly frigid.
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, get out.”
“They call that a ‘princess carry’ in the common tongue, you know.”
As Edgar mimicked the way Cedric had just carried Harriet, an ink bottle came flying off the table.