Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 33
[Exciting Love Recipe That Will Make Your Love Come True].
A book with a pink cover sat shyly in the middle of Kaidel’s stark desk. Kaidel looked down at the crude petals, ribbons and hearts-filled cover as if it was an enemy’s severed head.
“Jonathan.”
Butler Jonathan sensed an unusual atmosphere in his master’s voice. He quickly approached him.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“What is this… strange and impure thing on my desk? Did you leave it here?”
Kaidel asked, pointing at the book with his trembling fingertip. Jonathan glanced at the top of the desk, shook his head and replied.
“I haven’t touched Your Grace’s desk at all…”
At that moment, a scene from earlier flashed through Jonathan’s mind.
“Ah, I saw Young Master Demian coming out of this room earlier. Perhaps Young Master put it there?”
“Demian?”
Kaidel’s eyes widened at the unexpected source. His hand landed on the smooth pink cover. Although he was bewildered, he didn’t feel bad.
Jonathan held out his hand politely to Kaidel.
“Give it to me and I will put that away.”
“To think that you’re putting this away. Even though Demian left it here.”
As if asking what kind of strange thing he was talking about, his fierce gaze returned at once. He covered it with his palm, like he was protecting the book.
‘Didn’t you just say it was strange and impure!’
It’s unfortunate, but what could he do? It’s his employer’s word, he has to obey it calmly. Jonathan quickly withdrew his hands.
“Go out.”
Jonathan left, and Kaidel carefully picked up the book.
“Make your love come true…”
Even re-reading it, it was a headline that made his mind wander.
Why did Demian choose this book? Anyway, since it was the first gift he received from Demian, he had to open it.
Phew. Kaidel took a deep breath before opening the cover of the book. A kissing lover was drawn in a crude drawing style. He raised an eyebrow slightly.
‘I’m reading this purely because of Demian.’
ㅡAre you, who has opened this book, suffering from a fever of love?
Reading the first line of the introduction, Kaidel naturally thought of Eleanor. However, trust in the book had already hit rock bottom in the title and cover design, so he didn’t reap his skeptical gaze.
‘It’s not even a fever, though.’
ㅡYou must have thought, ‘It’s not even a fever’. Yet when you open this book, someone must have come to your mind. The person you love. Don’t be shy.
Startle.
Kaidel’s fingers twitched as he was about to flip through the book. It’s been a long time since he has felt so accurately seen by someone.
ㅡI can bet all the royalties on this book that your romance business may not have gone so smoothly. Because if you were in a happy relationship, you wouldn’t open a book like this.
A cloud of doubt slowly lifted from Kaidel’s eyes. His grip on the book was strong.
ㅡDoes your person not know your feeling? Are you troubled by the appearance of a powerful rival? Are you confused because it’s the first time you’ve liked someone? If so, this book will be the perfect guide for you.
How can it be so accurate?
As he read line by line, Kaidel unconsciously nodded his head. Doubts about books had long since flown far away. Kaidel’s face was extremely serious as he read each sentence.
ㅡI support your love. May you live with your beloved for 100 years.
For a while, Kaidel’s room was filled with the sound of pages turning. Kaidel, who was burning with a passion for learning after a long time.
***
“Henry, what the hell… are all these?”
[Romantic Play, the Art of Seduction].
[The Lady of the Count’s Passionate Love].
[Secretly Passionately, Imperial Palace Love Story].
On Izmel’s desk, books with all kinds of embarrassing titles were stacked like a mountain. He examined them one by one with a stunned gaze.
“A person of Prince Lucas left these behind.”
“Lucas?”
Izmel frowned.
“This is… still too early for Lucas to see.”
Izmel, who picked up [The Lady of the Count’s Passionate Love] and flipped through it, made a strange face.
“Isn’t that a disturbing book?”
At first glance, stimulating words strongly penetrated his brain. He didn’t know that there were obscene novels like this in the Imperial Palace library.
“It seems that all the books with the words love, seduction, and romance in them are borrowed.”
“What is he thinking, goodness.”
He couldn’t help but burst into laughter. He knew for a long time that Lucas was trying to connect him and Eleanor. He seemed to be working his little brain hard and doing something cute.
“Should I return everything?”
“It’s okay. Leave it alone for now. Lucas is sincere, and it’s a brother’s duty to take a rough look.”
Izmel answered, glancing gracefully through the books. He had a serious face, as if he were studying royal studies, yet there was a strange sense of playfulness in his eyes.
The face of Henry, the chief of staff who looked at his superior, changed to a solemn one.
“Your Highness, please…”
“Alright. Take them all away.”
Izmel immediately lowered his tail at the voice containing subtle reproach. When Henry’s nagging started getting longer, it was very tiring. Even so, he didn’t hide his regretful expression.
“Isn’t it cute? To think that he cares for his brother so much.”
“The Prince does follow Your Highness a lot. It has been like that since he was younger.”
Henry’s face softened as he remembered cute Lucas. Izmel, who was smiling, murmured softly.
“I need to work on it. My younger brother is cheering me on, I can’t stay still.”
***
“They’re having fun.”
Eleanor sat on her knees on the sun-warmed window sill and looked out the window. Adrian was playing with Sienna and Demian under the spruce tree. The high, clear laughter of children could be heard faintly through the window.
Today was the day they decided to visit the Imperial Palace Library. While the carriage was being prepared, Adrian volunteered to tour the garden with the children. Thanks to this, Eleanor was able to take a short break. It was what she needed most at this moment.
Lately, Eleanor hasn’t been able to get a good night’s sleep. This is because for the first time in Eleanor’s 24-year life, the genre of ‘romance’ intervened. She never imagined that the other side would be Duke Valentine, who is said to be the most handsome man in the Empire.
She tried to go to sleep, thinking it was no big deal, yet strangely, her eyes went blank as soon as she lay down. When she lay on the left side, Kaidel’s voice lingered in her ears, and when she turned on the right side, she heard his low laugh. After tossing and turning like that, it was a repeat of the night when she ended up burying his face in his pillow and rolling his feet.
Eleanor looked away from Demian’s smiling face and opened the book with a red cover. It was half sticking out of Adrian’s bag.
“[Between Love and Friendship]… I didn’t know that Rian likes novels like this.”
The book was an obvious romance novel whose ending could be predicted after reading the first two or three pages. The story of two friends who slowly fall in love. Eleanor’s gaze quickly skimmed the contents, drawing a diagonal line from upper left to lower right.
Flutter. The moment Eleanor turned over the book, a flat, parched stem of lemon verbena fell off. It seemed Adrian had placed it as a bookmark. Eleanor read carefully what he was reading.
[From that day on, a strange urge arose in Enoch’s heart as he looked at Rozia. At first, Enoch wondered if he was mad at Rozia. Every time Rozia smiled at him, he turned his head away because he couldn’t keep his eyes on her. It was almost a reflex action. The heat that pooled in his chest would often turn into a hideous pillar of fire, which seemed to burn everything in front of him, and soared up.]
Eleanor’s gaze shifted from the book back to the window. Adrian was holding Demian up and showing him the view down the hill. Eleanor brought out one of the secret memories that she had buried deep in her heart.
‘Rian will never know. That I, like Enoch, was once into him.’
Eleanor closed the book and put it back in Adrian’s bag. Eleanor remembered her childhood love for the first time after a while.
***
Adrian has always been a cute younger brother to Eleanor. That fact, which seemed to never change, was shattered by a very minor accident in the summer of seventeen.
It was an exceptionally hot summer day. The two families were vacationing together at the Blake estate mansion.
Dwight and Adrian were busy running around the mountains all day, while Eleanor passed the time reading classic novels, lying on a soft cloth under the shade of a tree.
Then the Countess approached Eleanor with a basket of juice, bread, and some apples.
“Ellen. Could you pass this on to Dewey and Rian? It looks like they’re starving outside all the time. How could it be that they don’t even know they are hungry and play all the same even when they grow up?”
Eleanor replied with a sullen expression.
“Leave them alone and they will come back on their own. If they’re really hungry, they’ll even graze on grass.”
“Ellen!”
“Alright. I will go.”
Eleanor took the heavy basket and the book she was reading and walked into the fir trees. She grumbled and walked for a long time until she found a familiar figure on the shore of the lake. The two of them were joking around, pushing each other’s shoulders.
“Anyway, both of them are really annoying.”
It was when Eleanor was about to call the two of them. In an instant, Dwight tossed off his shirt and kicked away his shoes before jumping into the lake. Adrian also took off his clothes and threw himself into the water without hesitation.
The unexpected development made Eleanor pause and blink her eyes. Eleanor, who had been watching the two happily swim in the green lake for a while, decided to wait for them quietly.
“They will come out sometime, well.”
Eleanor sat down on Dwight’s shirt on a rock and opened her book. It was a book that she had enjoyed reading well until recently, yet strangely, it wasn’t interesting. Eleanor’s gaze kept moving away from the book and toward the lake.
“One, two, three…”
She heard Dwight counting. The two seemed to be making a silly bet on who could hold their breath underwater longer. Adrian’s brown hair was spread out in circles on the surface of the lake.
‘Why doesn’t he come out?’
By the time she started to worry, Adrian came out of the water and inhaled. He ran his hand through his wet hair and smiled brightly. His flushed face was wet and glistened in the sunlight.
Water droplets ran down Adrian’s neck. His broad shoulders and his well-muscled back were slightly tanned by the summer sun. Eleanor wondered why she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She hadn’t seen it like that once or twice, but it was strangely unfamiliar to her.
Eleanor muttered to herself, cooling her hot cheeks with the back of her hand.
‘What’s wrong with me? I must be really crazy.’
this chapter is sponsored by My Name is not Important (9/14)