DTV★CH 06

Episode 6

As soon as Etienne took the contract I handed him, his eyes scanned it from top to bottom.

Since this was a business deal, he was checking everything carefully.

After a moment of quiet, he finally spoke.

“There’s nothing one-sided or unreasonable here. It looks fine.”

I immediately agreed.

“Of course. This is a major life decision—we should make sure the terms are best for both of us.”

Thankfully, he didn’t ask for any changes.

He must’ve liked the content, because instead of editing anything, he simply snapped his fingers in the air.

A quill pen appeared out of nowhere.

“I’m ready on my end. Now it’s time to hear your final answer, Miss Loren.”

He quickly signed his name, then pointed to the empty space for my signature.

He even politely offered the quill to me afterward.

“Since we both gave our consent, as long as this contract is valid, we’re basically in the same boat.”

Whether we like it or not, we’ll be tied together by marriage and will be seeing each other all the time.

“As for the contract payment, we can talk about that later. There’s something else I’d like to propose first. Would you like to hear it, Miss Loren?”

Etienne intertwined his fingers and smiled lazily.

I’d been wondering what else we needed to discuss—
and that’s when he spoke.

“Since this marriage exists to deceive the princess, why don’t we widen the scale of the deception? Let’s aim for the princess, the entire kingdom… even the empire.”

If we do that, we’d basically be fooling everyone in the country—and the empire too.

The sentence almost slipped out of my mouth, but I held it back.

“How exactly do you want to do that?”
I asked instead, focusing on his words.

“If we suddenly announce a marriage out of nowhere, everyone will be suspicious. So first, we need to create a believable romantic atmosphere between us.”

He gave me a meaningful look, as if telling me to think with my good brain.

There’s only one way to do that.

I realized what he meant.

“You want us to pretend we’re in a love marriage.”

“Exactly. More specifically—start with a secret relationship, then make it public, and finally spread the news that we’re preparing to marry.”

Basically, gather anything that will attract people’s interest.

It’ll definitely be a hot topic.

This isn’t just any couple announcing a love marriage.

Even during tea time, the conversation will eventually turn to us.

If two influential people in the empire announce a love marriage, the social circle will talk about it endlessly.

“We could release all three pieces of news through newspapers at once, but if we want it to spread even further, weekly magazines will work better.”

A sudden idea popped into my mind, and I shared it.

Everyone reads newspapers—but weekly magazines are different.

Weekly magazine Avery.

It’s full of gossip, and anyone can read it as long as they pay the subscription fee.

“Good. We’ll use every medium we can—newspapers, weekly magazines, everything.”

Etienne accepted my idea without hesitation.

“So, what do you think about my proposal to enlarge the scam? Are you willing to do it together, Miss Loren?”

He asked politely, and I nodded.

“Sure.”

If we’re going through with this marriage, we should do it perfectly—without a single mistake.

Use every tool available.

“Oh, but I have one question.”

As I carefully folded the contract, something came to mind.

“If we’re pretending to date secretly, that means we actually need to meet. What kind of dates are you thinking of?”

When the rumors spread in articles and magazines, we’ll need witnesses who’ve seen us “on a date,” or else it won’t be convincing.

“Last time, I noticed we seem to have similar hobbies. So how about meeting naturally?”

“You mean creating situations where we ‘accidentally’ meet?”

“Something like that. But if we’re seen in the same places too often, it’ll look like we’re begging people to notice our secret romance.”

He emphasized that it could backfire.

As much as I hated to admit it, it wasn’t a bad plan—especially since I wasn’t exactly rich right now. Hobbies cost money, after all.

“I like that. Then I have just one more question.”

I almost forgot this one.

“It’s about physical contact… How far is acceptable?”

You’d think we could just act like any normal couple, but there was one problem:

Etienne’s gloves.

I have no idea if it’s okay to hold hands without them.

What if he has a hygiene issue?
I should check beforehand.

“You seem bothered by the gloves. Don’t worry. As long as I don’t take them off, there won’t be any problems.”

Noticing my eyes drifting toward his gloves repeatedly, Etienne chuckled softly.

“It’s kind of like a mild case of germ aversion.”

I knew it.

Just as I feared.

“Have you always had it?”

I asked carefully.

“No.”

He shook his head immediately.

“I got it thanks to the princess.”

Princess Sehera clearly affected his life more than I thought.

I shouldn’t ask any more. It might be something he doesn’t want to talk about.

Everyone has stories they’d rather keep buried.

But—

“I met the princess by accident once.”

He began explaining anyway, his voice calm.

“That was the first time we met. It was an ordinary encounter for me, but… her feelings seem to have been very different.”

So something really had happened.

“I wasn’t wearing gloves back then. By chance, she fell to the ground, so I offered my hand to help her up. That became the problem.”

Etienne gave an embarrassed smile.

I needed to hear the rest to fully understand.

“She held my hand with both of hers and stood up. Two weeks later, we met again.”

He added that the princess had been traveling around the empire during that time.

“We ran into each other at a famous shop. She recognized me immediately and happily struck up a conversation.”

I could easily imagine him politely greeting her back.

Even Etienne wouldn’t ignore a princess.

“Then she grabbed my hand again and told me this.”

Etienne hesitated several times, as if the words were too ridiculous to repeat.

“That she enjoyed our first encounter so much… and that when our hands touched, it left such an impression that—
she hadn’t washed that hand since then.”

…She didn’t what?

Did no one around her stop her?

Even though it didn’t happen to me, I felt my breath catch in disbelief.

How is that normal behavior?

“Since then, maybe because of the psychological shock, I’ve felt uncomfortable touching anyone’s bare hands. That’s why I wear gloves.”

Honestly, if that happened to me, I’d start wearing gloves every day too.
Multiple pairs. And I’d avoid the person responsible at all costs.

He must’ve had a rough time.

Now I fully understood why he wanted to avoid marrying the princess.

“And actually, Miss Loren…”

Suddenly, Etienne held out his hand toward me.

“…?”

I didn’t understand at first.

And then he said:

“Do you want to try holding hands?”

His tone was completely plain.

He tossed out the question casually, but my mind exploded with possibilities.

Whether he knew that or not, he added calmly:

“With me. Right now.”

Like he wasn’t asking about any other time.

Etienne’s eyes curved into a sly smile.

Then, in a voice soft enough to be a devil’s whisper, he asked:

“Well?”

Maybe it was because a man who looked like he stepped out of a famous painting was asking in such a gentle voice—but for a moment, I almost nodded without thinking.