Chapter 11
“None of this would’ve happened in the first place if the Lady had simply stayed seated. It was dangerous.”
At the brazen remark, Kyrie’s brow furrowed even deeper.
“And none of this would’ve happened had Your Grace not taken my necklace.”
“By that logic, none of this would’ve happened if the Lady hadn’t snuck into the Crown Prince’s bedchamber.”
“I don’t regret it.”
Kyrie spoke plainly.
“That incident isn’t even a weakness for me. I believe I made that clear. I even asked you to spread it, didn’t I.”
“Do you want to marry the Crown Prince that badly?”
“Yes.”
“Yet you don’t seem to love him all that much for someone so desperate.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“Because what’s in your eyes isn’t the fear of having your love rejected.”
“…”
“If anything, you’re afraid of something else.”
It was an observation Dominique picked up keenly, a predatory awareness for fear, and it struck unnervingly close to the mark.
Kyrie narrowed her eyes and looked up at him at the provocatively loaded words.
Was this man planning to say such a thing to Lexion? That Kyrie Ehrenberg neither loved nor truly desired him as much as she claimed?
‘Was that why Lexion kept his distance from her?’
Even as she considered it, she knew it was a ridiculous assumption. After all, Dominique had met her for the first time just last night.
There was no way he could have planted such notions in Lexion’s mind. It was an excessive, unfounded suspicion.
And yet, she wanted to blame him.
This man, who in barely half a day kept trying to strip away the weapons she clung to. Who kept shattering the calm she’d so carefully maintained.
Like a burr snagged beneath her nail, a faint irritation took root in her heart.
Just as she was working to clear those intrusive feelings, the Duke spoke on as though it were nothing.
“Then, would you like a piece of advice, my lady?”
At those words, Kyrie looked up at him, not quite understanding what she’d just heard.
“What?”
“I asked if you needed advice.”
“What do you…”
“It’s just that you seem to be moving in a rather inefficient way. Or perhaps… making a rather absurd effort.”
For a moment, Kyrie felt her mind go numb.
‘Inefficient, is it.’
Rather than telling her to stay away from the Crown Prince like everyone else, the Duke dismissed her entire endeavor with those words, belittling her struggle as one would assess a failed military operation, utterly ignorant of the heart behind her every move.
Kyrie clenched her fists. She opened her mouth, about to declare she had no use for his advice, but, as always, the Duke was a step ahead.
“Start by getting rid of that smile you always wear.”
Though it was a remark born of impulse, Dominique easily rationalized it.
Kyrie Ehrenberg was a potentially valuable asset. Properly cultivated, she could be of use.
‘Which is why I should steer her in the right direction.’
After all, Dominique too wanted her to stay by Lexion’s side. If some other woman were to replace her, someone like last night’s wretch, then what would’ve been the point of all this carefully staged proximity?
So, a little advice wouldn’t hurt.
“I mean you should stop smiling at him.”
It wasn’t something he said for any particular reason.
Dominique simply preferred Kyrie Ehrenberg without a smile. Those moments when her expression stiffened as though stung, it gave him a sense of conquest, as if he’d struck at a prey’s weakness.
‘For Lexion, it would have a different effect.’
“That woman clings to him with that foolish grin no matter what she hears.”
And thinking back on those words only made it clearer.
The more Kyrie clung to him with that bright smile, the greater Lexion’s pleasure in stringing things along. But if she acted coldly instead…
“Perhaps it’d be better if you showed interest in another man. That might be more effective in catching Lexion’s attention.”
“Effective?”
“Yes. Effective.”
The Lexion Dominique knew could not tolerate having the attention once focused on him turned elsewhere.
If Kyrie withdrew her gaze, Lexion would react immediately, toward Kyrie Ehrenberg, who no longer smiled at him, no longer clung.
Dominique found himself slightly curious what Lexion’s reaction might be when faced with a Kyrie Ehrenberg who no longer greeted him with that bright smile.
And if it managed to wound Lexion, that too would be an entertaining prospect.
It was, frankly, the first time in his life he’d ever offered anyone advice.
For Dominique, it was practically a lavish act of generosity.
Not that he expected her gratitude. Still, he thought Kyrie would show some suitable reaction. At least enough to mull it over.
‘She struck me as clever enough for that much.’
But at that very moment, as he looked upon Kyrie Ehrenberg’s face….
“..…”
The woman who’d only moments ago been exchanging sharp retorts now stood with her lips sealed.
Her expression was a blank slate, every trace of emotion wiped away.
Dominique’s brow furrowed faintly.
“Ha.”
Kyrie let out a hollow laugh, then broke into the most brilliant smile he had ever seen on her.
A dazzling, radiant smile, like a bloom bursting open beneath the morning sun.
It was the most beautiful smile Dominique had ever seen.
And it irritated him terribly.
“What’s the matter, my lady?”
“I thank you for your advice, Your Grace.”
Kyrie, too, was struggling in her own way to swallow down her fury.
This man she hadn’t even known for a full day had dismissed her most cherished weapon as worthless, casually invalidating every desperate effort she’d made.
A man who would never understand the torment behind her bloodied hands.
What made her even angrier was the fact that, in truth, his words weren’t entirely wrong.
In hindsight, Lexion Roman Kalak was precisely that kind of man.
One who wouldn’t be moved by her desperation.
‘If anything…’
Perhaps the Duke was right.
The way Lexion occasionally doled out favors or interest as if bestowing charity, as if keeping her under his thumb, it made sense.
If she were to show interest in another man, Lexion would likely react with displeasure.
But if, on the other hand, he used that displeasure as reason to sever their arrangement entirely?
Kyrie couldn’t afford to take that risk.
She was already walking a tightrope. Even the slightest misstep, and she would plunge beneath the ice.
The Duke’s suggestion was the kind of reckless advice only a man with nothing to lose could offer.
Only one whose life wouldn’t be upended if the arrangement were broken.
So Kyrie chose to laugh, as she always had.
“I’ll give it serious consideration.”
“Is that so?”
“What else could possibly displease you, Your Grace? I said I’d think it over.”
“Fine.”
The Duke’s reply was equally dry.
It sounded like acceptance, but Kyrie swiftly caught the displeasure in his voice.
A sigh, mingled with the smoke of his cigar, scattered like a shimmering haze in the air.
For a brief moment, the atmosphere between them was taut with tension.
“We’ve arrived, Your Grace.”
The coach came to a stop with a creak, and the driver’s voice called out. It seemed they had reached the palace gates.
Without hesitation, Kyrie opened the carriage door and stepped down.
“I thank you for your courtesy.”
She straightened her back and offered a perfectly polite nod. As though she hadn’t, mere moments ago, been hurling barbed words.
Thud.
This time, when she closed the carriage door, no hand stopped her.
The sound of the departing coach echoed faintly.
“Ha.”
A belated sigh escaped her lips. Kyrie’s gaze slowly turned toward the Crown Prince’s palace.
The midday sun glinted sharply off its ornate roof.
But rather than heading there, Kyrie turned toward the nearby garden.
She had only come to retrieve her pendant necklace in the first place, and with her objective achieved, there was no need to visit the Crown Prince.
‘Still… should I at least see Lexion while I’m here?’
But for now, she didn’t feel like it.
A walk might clear this stifling feeling from her chest.
It was as she moved mechanically, weaving between thick rose bushes, that she heard it.
“Hahaha!”
A laugh, far too familiar, brushed against her ears.
Not far off, two figures came into view.
“Lexion?”
And the flame-red hair beside him scattered her thoughts.
𓂃˖˳·˖ ִֶָ ⋆🌷͙⋆ ִֶָ˖·˳˖𓂃 ִֶָ
The carriage that had carried Dominique came to a halt not long after dropping off Kyrie.
The faint scent of mint, still lingering, mixed with the residual aroma of cigars inside the cabin as Dominique stepped out into the piercing sunlight.
“……”
Before him stretched the vast garden that connected the Crown Prince’s Palace and the Imperial Palace.
The dazzlingly vivid greenery, so bright it almost stung the eyes, could do nothing to dispel the faint, lingering displeasure that clung to one corner of his chest like residue.
It wasn’t the fact that the first piece of advice he had ever offered in his life, one he’d deemed quite useful, had been so brazenly dismissed.
That hardly mattered. After all, if she chose not to heed it, it was her loss, not his.
No, what left a bitter taste was something else entirely. The way Kyrie Erenberg, who had so openly furrowed her brow and revealed her raw emotions before him, had then raised a flawless wall between them and responded with a smile.
That same poised, impeccably noble smile she showed to everyone else.
The more he recalled that moment, the heavier his mood grew. Had he never seen the face she’d made before, perhaps it would not have bothered him.
But Dominique had already witnessed it, the look Kyrie Erenberg had given him as she glared up from within his arms, sharp and indignant.
That expression. The incredulous scowl creasing her brow.
And every time that image came to mind, a small, involuntary chuckle threatened to escape his lips.
