Chapter 15
“Aaagh! Are you crazy!?”
Aveline, who had been grabbed by Ares, barely managed to break free using the self-defense techniques she had learned during her knight training.
“What kind of sister just flips her precious brother? Don’t you know my face is my greatest asset?”
“Well, you should have let go when I told you to.”
Ares grumbled as he got up from the floor. However, his posture was somewhat awkward, as if his bottom was sore from hitting the ground.
“Anyway, isn’t that mark on your wrist from someone biting you?”
“Who would bite me? It’s my own teeth mark.”
It was a hasty lie, as she couldn’t possibly say that she had been bitten by a vampire with Duke Ribes’ face in her dream, only to wake up and find a real mark on her wrist.
Ares frowned at Aveline’s answer.
“Why would you do that?”
“I just do that sometimes.”
Ares’ face scrunched up even more at her forced reply.
Just as Ares was about to say something, Hans came in.
“Young master, Viscount Casey has arrived.”
“Guide him to the reception room and tell him to wait a bit. I’ll be there soon.”
Hans bowed at Ares’ instruction and disappeared.
“Viscount Casey… you mean Logan?”
Aveline reacted to the familiar name.
“We were supposed to go out together today.”
The answer came from a different direction.
As she turned her head, she saw someone leaning against the dining room entrance.
It was a handsome man with fine silver hair and purple eyes, his pale skin making him look somewhat sickly.
“Hello, Aveline.”
“It’s been a while, Logan.”
Logan was the only son of Duke Casey, who belonged to neither the imperial faction nor the noble faction, but remained neutral.
He was also one of the few friends who had been close to the twins since childhood.
They used to hang out together when they were young, but Aveline hadn’t seen him much since she started her seclusion.
“I told you to wait in the reception room.”
“I heard there were fighting twins here, so I came to see.”
Logan smiled mischievously.
“Well then, you two go out and have fun. I’m going back to my room.”
Aveline seized the opportunity to slip away.
“Where do you think…”
“Want to come with us?”
Logan’s bombshell statement made not only Aveline but also Ares, who was trying to stop her, turn their heads.
“What?”
“It’s been a while since the three of us went out together.”
Logan proposed with a refreshing smile that would make it difficult for others to refuse.
But Aveline shook her head.
“I haven’t been out for so long that I don’t have any suitable clothes to wear to the places you’re going to enjoy yourselves. I only have outdated frilly dresses, so if I go with you, I’ll just embarrass you.”
It wasn’t an excuse, but the truth.
Even when she went to meet Viscount Berta last time, she had chosen the least trendy outfit she had.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t shake off the somewhat provincial feeling.
What about when Duke Ribes suddenly visited?
‘Father had to close his eyes tightly.’
Aveline remembered the expression on her father’s face when he looked at her then.
She briefly thought about getting new clothes tailored, but she lacked the courage to do so.
‘It’s not like I’ll be going out often anyway.’
Having grown accustomed to staying at home like this, getting new clothes tailored felt like an overreaction.
“It’s okay.”
Logan interrupted Aveline’s thoughts with his usual refreshing smile.
“I bought your birthday present early.”
“But it’s still a month away?”
“Then I’ll give you another one then.”
At Logan’s gesture, one of his servants brought forward a gift package.
* * *
“So? Isn’t it fun to be out?”
Logan turned to look at Aveline with a grinning face inside the moving carriage.
“Mmm…”
Aveline was now dressed in the clothes Logan had given her as a gift and wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled low to cover her face.
Although she had come along on impulse, it had been a while since she had dressed up and gone out like this, so she felt awkwardly out of place.
“But what’s with this carriage? It doesn’t have a roof.”
The carriage Logan was driving was open on all sides, allowing passengers to feel the wind directly as they sat.
“Open carriages have been in fashion for ages.”
Ares, sitting opposite them with a sulky expression, replied in an unfriendly tone.
He was sulking because when he had asked Logan earlier where his gift was, Logan had evaded the question with a smile.
“I often ride in these on nice days like today. Do you like it?”
Logan changed the subject to prevent Aveline from feeling embarrassed.
“Yes. It’s nice.”
Aveline nodded and turned her gaze to the scenery.
How long had it been since she had come out like this for fun?
The only people she met were Ares, the maids, and occasionally Logan when he visited.
‘Even then, I didn’t really get along well.’
She used to avoid Logan by making excuses about being tired whenever he came to visit.
She was always grateful to Logan, who approached her without showing any hurt feelings even though he had every right to feel upset.
“By the way, how did you know my size? It fits perfectly, like custom-made clothing.”
It wasn’t just flattery; the clothes Logan had given her fit as if they had been precisely measured for Aveline.
“I calculated how much you grow each year. You’ve always maintained about a hand’s width difference from me since we were young. And you’ve always had a consistent weight difference from Ares, so knowing Ares’ clothes size made the calculation much easier.”
It was an answer typical of Logan, who had always had a somewhat twisted scholarly enthusiasm and persistence since childhood.
“Creepy guy.”
Ares muttered, glaring at Logan. He looked disgusted.
Then he suddenly turned his head towards Aveline.
“What are you looking at?”
“…”
At Aveline’s words, Ares frowned and shifted his gaze to Aveline’s wrist.
It was the same wrist where he had discovered the bite mark earlier.
After staring for a while, Ares roughly messed up his own pink hair as if something was bothering him.
‘What’s wrong with him?’
Even though he was her twin brother, sometimes she couldn’t understand what he was thinking.
As Aveline quietly watched Ares’ hair becoming disheveled, she suddenly realized that her own hair color was as noticeable as Ares’.
If they went around like this, it would only take a moment for rumors to spread about twins with the same pink hair hanging out with the young Viscount Casey.
Aveline, having been out of social activities for so long, didn’t welcome becoming a topic of conversation among people.
‘I should hide my hair under the hat.’
The carriage had just entered the bustling area.
As she was about to untie the ribbon under her chin to hide her hair before reaching the crowded place,
“Ah!”
A gust of wind blew her hat away.
She quickly stretched her arm back and barely managed to catch the hat.
“Are you okay?”
“…”
Logan asked worriedly from beside her, but Aveline couldn’t answer.
Because at the moment she reached out, her eyes met directly with Theron, who was standing nearby with his group.
And on his cheek was the same scratch mark that Aveline had left in her dream.
* * *
Aveline, Ares, and Logan were sitting on the terrace of a dessert shop that was said to be the most popular in the capital these days.
Aveline wanted to sit in a corner of the shop, but Ares kept insisting on the terrace, saying all the indoor seats were already taken.
As Aveline grumbled with an expression of incomprehension, Logan kindly explained.
“Ares likes it when passersby admire his face.”
It was indeed a very Ares-like reason.
In fact, many people glanced at Ares and blushed as they passed by.
Each time this happened, Ares took a deep breath with an inwardly satisfied expression.
“Is he smelling the scent of popularity or something? He absolutely wouldn’t be able to stand even the tiniest scratch on himself.”
As Aveline shook her head in disgust, Logan let out a small laugh.
“…”
However, Ares alone didn’t laugh and furrowed his brow. Then he suddenly stood up, pushing back his chair.
“Where are you going?”
“I have an errand to run.”
With Ares gone, only Aveline and Logan remained at the table.
“What’s wrong with him?”
As Aveline grumbled, confused by her brother’s sudden behavior, Logan spoke up.
“Well. Could it be because of the wound on someone’s wrist?”
“…You saw?”
Aveline’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
“When you caught your hat earlier.”
It seems that was the arm she had stretched out to catch the flying hat.
‘Then did Duke Ribes see it too?’
The brief moment when her eyes met Theron’s flashed through her mind.
Though it was just for an instant, his gaze had definitely been directed at Aveline’s wrist.
‘Did I really meet Duke Ribes in my dream?’
It was an assumption that didn’t make sense even to herself.
It had been a dream with Hiskin, but it turned out to be Duke Ribes.
‘Wait. Then does the Duke know the contents of the book too?’
As the thought occurred to her, a chill ran down her spine.
It was an incredibly risqué book, and of all things, she had to get caught with that.
Moreover, even though it was just a dream, she had even gone so far as to punch him.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
Aveline clutched her head.
She could feel Logan looking at her strangely from the side, but she couldn’t manage her expression.
Then suddenly, another thought struck her.
‘No, wait. He bit my arm too, didn’t he?’
If we’re talking about doing strange things, they were even.
‘Right. It’s a tie.’
Just as she was trying to regain her composure with that thought,
“Hey, here.”
Suddenly, something shiny was thrust in front of her eyes.
Ares, who had returned from wherever he had rushed off to and was now sweating, stood holding a thick bracelet with a large jewel embedded in it.
