DSDD 04

Chapter 4

What just happened?

I stared blankly up at him.

I was so shocked that I could only blink, and in my field of vision, I saw his clear eyes smiling brightly at me.

They looked almost excessively innocent, completely at odds with the way they had been so intimately entwined with mine just moments ago.

“J-Just a moment, Your Highness.”

Finally coming to my senses, I held out a hand toward him.

The man’s brows furrowed slightly.

I wondered if he had misunderstood it as me blaming him.

But then—

“Senior.”

“Yes?”

“I told you we agreed you would call me ‘Senior,’ didn’t I?”

“Ah, yes. Senior.”

I quickly nodded and said it, and only then did his expression relax.

“I’m really sorry, but I’m just so flustered right now…….”

“You said you needed time to think.”

“Yes, yes.”

“It would be best if you made your decision quickly. Unfortunately, I used to be a patient man, but I don’t intend to be one anymore.”

With those words, the Grand Duke reached out and ran his thumb lightly over my lips—the very lips he had been tormenting moments ago.

That simple gesture made me imagine that my lips were burning.

“Well, even if I don’t pressure you, it’s not as though you can run away.”

“…….”

“Then, I’ll see you again soon.”

He gave me an indescribably radiant smile before walking past me.

Even his back as he left the reception room, his steps both precise and graceful, looked perfect enough to belong in a painting.

Normally, as the host, it would have been proper etiquette to see my guest out—

But the strength drained from my legs, and I simply sank to the floor.

My body slumped onto the sofa like soaking-wet laundry, and my consciousness slowly began to drift away.

……What?

What on earth had just happened?

Why does everything keep getting so complicated?!

“Marquess? What’s wrong? Why did His Highness the Grand Duke come here? What happened?”

Laura came rushing over and asked with a shocked expression.

Why was I sitting there like that? What had the Grand Duke said to me? She bombarded me with questions.

Barely managing to keep my wits about me amid the whirlpool of questions, I grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Laura.”

“Yes, Marquess.”

Hearing my serious tone, Laura seemed to sense that something was wrong and became tense.

I stared at her silently for a moment before taking a deep breath.

“Pack your things immediately.”

“Pardon?”

“We’re going down to the estate right away. As quickly as possible. Hurry!”

“W-Wait, Marquess. Why are we suddenly going to the estate……?!”

Why?

Because it was dangerous to stay here!

This really isn’t going to work.

I felt like I needed to hole up at the estate for a while.

The next morning.

After waking up, I stared blankly at the ceiling of my bedroom.

Blink, blink.

I thought perhaps if I closed and opened my eyes, things might somehow be different.

But everything was exactly the same.

Damn it.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

Holding my throbbing forehead, I got out of bed.

Perhaps because I hadn’t slept properly the night before, a headache began to pound through my head.

There was a very simple reason I hadn’t been able to sleep.

“This crazy woman! Of all people, why did you have to go after the Grand Duke? And not just the Grand Duke, but his purity?! Are you out of your mind?!”

Eeeek!

Unable to scream out loud, I buried my face in the pillow and kicked my feet wildly.

Of course, that didn’t solve anything.

“The Grand Duke isn’t innocent either! He’s supposed to be a faithful servant of God! You said he only cared about God!”

You liar!

My anger quickly expanded until it reached the Grand Duke as well.

The person who had done the seducing was certainly at fault, but wasn’t the person who had fallen for the seduction also guilty?

Especially a man who had a history of being tempted by countless women.

He should have rejected her.

He should have resisted.

He should have at least given her a flick on the forehead and told her she was out of her mind, regardless of whether she got hurt!

“But instead of doing any of those perfectly normal things, he just accepted it?! What happened to his chastity?!”

At this point, I was genuinely beginning to wonder how exactly our dear Park Sumin had seduced him.

How irresistible had she been to make even such an ascetic man completely give in?

And how had the Grand Duke reacted?

All I know about it is that one kiss…….

A thought suddenly occurred to me, jolting me fully awake.

Come to think of it, there was another reason I hadn’t slept well last night.

I habitually rubbed my lips between my fingers.

The inside of my mouth still felt strangely hot, as though the sensation remained.

Even the trembling I had felt when he held me and kissed me was still vivid!

Wait, but…… how does a holy man know how to kiss like that?

And not just how to kiss, but how to kiss so…… seductively?

The moment our lips touched, my mind went blank and my heart began pounding wildly.

The kiss had started gently, then gradually deepened, becoming breathlessly sweet and, at the same time, dizzying.

As if he were slipping inside without leaving even the slightest gap.

The fingertips gripping my shoulder radiated a searing warmth, while his breath brushing against my ear tickled my heart.

And then there were those deep, intense eyes staring directly into mine.

For a brief moment, I could almost understand why people became so blindly obsessed with this man.

Wait. What am I thinking right now……?!

“Ahhhhh!”

Flail, flail.

I threw myself back onto the bed and began kicking my legs wildly again.

My face was burning.

If I stayed like this, something terrible really was going to happen.

“Haah. This isn’t the time to be doing this.”

After one last furious session of kicking the blankets, I finally got out of bed.

“Even so, I can’t actually take responsibility for this.”

Marrying Leon Obsidian.

Even imagining it for a brief moment made me instinctively shake my head.

The awkwardness of the picture aside, he was someone far beyond anything I could possibly handle.

“For now, let’s just hold out. If I keep holding out, I’ll eventually find some way out of this.”

The one fortunate thing was that he was a holy man.

If this fact became known to the outside world, it would effectively mean that his disqualification as a holy man had been exposed to everyone.

Even he couldn’t possibly go around spreading the news himself.

“No matter how powerful the Grand Duke of Bernstein is, what can he really do? In the end, he’d only be spitting in his own face.”

That must have been why he had come to find me secretly.

The same went for his demand that I take responsibility.

And his mention of marriage.

Perhaps because the matter was so serious, he was simply laying the groundwork for demanding proper compensation.

Thinking of it that way made me feel somewhat more at ease.

Of course, his final warning—“It’s not as though you can run away.”—bothered me a little.

And the fact that the “down payment,” as it were, had been a kiss also bothered me.

But I was too panicked to think properly, so I decided to interpret everything in the most favorable way possible.

“Everything will eventually fizzle out anyway. So, for now, I’ll drag things out as long as possible, and later we’ll negotiate something that satisfies both sides…….”

That was when—

“Marquess!!!”

Bang, bang, bang!

The door flew open with a thunderous knock, and Laura rushed inside with a pale face.

“What is it this time? Why are you making such a commotion first thing in the morning?”

“B-Big news!”

“Big news?”

Laura came rushing over in a panic and thrust the newspaper in her hand toward me.

It was the most influential daily newspaper in the empire.

“Marquess!”

Before I could even figure out what was going on, the butler of the Marquess’s residence, Valen, came running in as well, his mustache practically flying in the wind.

“Y-You need to see this. The entire capital has been turned upside down and is in complete chaos right now…… Huh? Laura?”

“Gasp. Butler?”

The two of them stopped in surprise at the sudden situation.

Then they noticed the newspapers in each other’s hands and exchanged strange looks.

Their expressions seemed to say,

‘You too?’

‘Yeah. You too?’

What on earth is going on?

I quickly unfolded the newspaper.

The moment I saw the article splashed across the front page, I froze.

“W-What…… what is this?!”

My hand trembled as I gripped the newspaper.

I felt like I was about to lose my mind all over again.

Because of yet another completely insane article.

[EXCLUSIVE] “The Holy Knight Who Swore Purity” Grand Duke of Bernstein Dishonorably Dismissed!

[SCOOP] The Downfall of the Divine Apostle Loved by All of Orden. A Fatal Temptation That Destroyed His Honor!

[BREAKING] In the End, Even the Grand Duke Was a Man! Who Is the Woman Who Stole Him Away from God?!

Wow.

Just reading the headlines was enough to make my head spin.