Chapter 017

Before our marriage, contrary to my bold proposal to him, I had hardly ever interacted with a man my age other than Delos.

“He seems like an incredibly cold man.”

Moreover, every time he frowned, a fierce aura radiated from him, making it even harder to approach him.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

As I lay on the bed, lost in thought, the ticking of the clock sounded unusually loud in the quiet room.

Suddenly, I recalled the image of Roman from earlier today. Specifically, the documents he had been holding tightly in his arms.

‘Is he very busy?’

It seemed he had been working all day at the palace, and now that he was home, he was still unable to rest, dealing with his backlog of work. I couldn’t help but worry about him.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually, I found myself blinking in the darkness before finally sitting up.

Wrapping a thin scarf around myself, I headed toward his office.

When I reached my destination, I noticed a faint light seeping through the crack of the door.

“Hmm…”

However, once I arrived at the office, I hesitated to open the door. I had come to see the man inside, but now that I thought about it, he probably wouldn’t be pleased to see me.

As I stood there, raising and lowering my hand indecisively, pacing back and forth in front of the door, it suddenly flung open.

Bam.

“What is it?”

Through the slightly opened door, I saw a large figure—no, the Duke—leaning against the door with a fierce gaze, looking down at me.

“Oh, I’m sorry… You hadn’t returned to our room yet, so I came to check on you.”

“Didn’t the butler inform you? I clearly instructed him to let you know not to worry and to go to bed first.”

“He did.”

I noticed his eyebrows twitch slightly upward in response to my words, as if questioning why I came if I had already received the message. His probing gaze left me momentarily speechless.

The truth was, I didn’t really know why I had come to see him.

“I just… I hadn’t seen you properly today and I couldn’t sleep, so…”

As I stumbled through my excuses, I inwardly regretted coming at all. After all, it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen each other for a day or two before feeling this way.

I turned to leave, intending to head back to my room.

“I’m sorry for interrupting you while you’re busy. I’ll just go back to my room…”

“Is this a habit?”

“Yes?”

If it weren’t for his question that stopped me in my tracks.

When I asked him to clarify his vague question, he frowned slightly and continued.

“Apologizing for no reason. Is that a habit of yours?”

I was at a loss for how to respond to his words; my mouth was opening and closing without sound. Eventually, he let out a short sigh and said in a curt tone,

“Please don’t keep apologizing when you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Oh…”

Only after hearing his words did I realize that I had been apologizing to him out of habit. It was so familiar to me that I hadn’t even recognized it as a problem.

In that moment, an indescribable feeling washed over me. It wasn’t just the content of his words, but the fact that they were coming from this man in front of me.

I felt an almost ticklish sensation in the palm of my hand, and without realizing it, I clenched my fist tightly.

“Anyway, I’ll head back now.”

Just as I was trying to leave quickly to hide my flustered feelings, he said,

“Come in.”

The Duke straightened up from where he had been leaning against the wall and spoke to me.

“Just don’t expect me to be entertaining,” he added in his usual blunt and gruff manner.

I had intended to head straight back to my room, but I hesitated for a moment.

‘What should I do?’

However, seeing the Duke wait by the door for me to enter made me feel an urge to go in quickly. In the end, I stepped into his office.

“Leave whenever you feel like it.” With that final remark, he sat back down at his desk, lowering his gaze to the papers.

***

Scritch-scratch.

In the quiet office, the only sound was the scratching of his pen.

‘If he was going to work like this, why did he ask me to come in?’

Watching him work without paying any attention to me, I rolled my eyes.

But after standing awkwardly for a moment, I walked over to the sofa in the office and sat down. If I turned my head slightly from where I sat, I had a clear view of his desk, so naturally, my gaze kept drifting in that direction.

And so I found myself unexpectedly observing him in detail.

The first thing that caught my eye was his strong forearms, busily moving over the desk. Under the rolled-up sleeve, his skin bore several old scars, evidence of the hard life he’d led.

As I raised my gaze a little higher, I saw his indifferent face looking down at the documents.

‘They say he’s a blood-soaked murderer.’

Contrary to that terrifying nickname, the Duke’s face was actually quite handsome. However, his perpetually stern expression and sharp eyes contributed to his menacing aura.

I sank deeper into the sofa and continued to observe the Duke.

At that moment, I realized something new.

‘I didn’t notice it yesterday because I was too tired.’

Now that I was sharing the same space with him, I felt an inexplicable sense of comfort. Even yesterday, I felt this way. In a situation where I had to sleep in the same space as a stranger, I fell asleep without any defenses.

Though he was awkward and still somewhat frightening, strangely, I felt more at ease being with him.

Perhaps because of that, I found myself speaking out without thinking.

“Evan.”

I had called his name.

At that, his busy hands suddenly stopped, and he turned his head toward me.

“…Is it okay if I call you that?”

Meeting his sharp gaze, which was intense enough to make my hair stand on end, I quickly added the rest. I realized that until now, I’d been addressing him as “hey” or “Duke.”

And he had also been calling me “Lady.”

As we locked eyes, waiting for his response, the Duke averted his gaze and muttered.

“Do as you wish.”

His hands resumed flipping through the documents, and they seemed to move even faster than before.

Sensing his unspoken reluctance to continue the conversation, I decided to say what I wanted to say.

“Thank you. I’ve kept making unreasonable requests, but you’ve granted them all.”

I sincerely expressed my gratitude to him. In my heart, I was also thanking the other him who had died trying to help me that night.

“Don’t thank me.”

At that moment, a heavy voice cut through the silence in the office.

The Duke added in an even colder tone, “It was merely a marriage I had to enter due to the royal decree. Someone who told you not to expect anything from your husband isn’t someone you should be thanking.”

He was drawing a very clear line between us.

From the moment we first met until now. If the distance between us were to close even a little, it felt as if something catastrophic would happen.

“Right…”

Faced with his resolute words, I had nothing more to say. I fiddled with the shawl draped over my shoulders and sank deeper into the sofa.

The rustling of papers soon became the only sound in the office.

Despite what could have been an awkward atmosphere, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. His demeanor had always been consistent from the start.

Even now. Despite being alone in the room with a man who wasn’t family, rather than feeling tense, I felt drowsiness creeping in.

Since when did I begin to see him as someone who made me feel safe?

‘Ah, I should return to my room.’

But contrary to my thoughts, I couldn’t resist the heaviness of my eyelids and soon fell asleep.

***

I awoke, squinting against the piercing sunlight, and sat up in bed.

‘…Huh? Bed?’

In an instant, I became fully alert and took a deep breath, looking around.

The unfamiliar scenery of the bedroom came into view. Moreover, bright sunlight was streaming through the gap in the curtains, almost blinding me.