Chapter 8
“Have you ever seen a spy say, ‘I am a spy’?”
“No…”
No, she hadn’t. If someone did that, they’d already fail as a spy.
Like a dejected puppy, Marlene walked weakly toward the wall and bumped her head against it with a dull thud.
“What are you doing?”
“Reflection time.”
“What?”
A faint crack seemed to appear in Gerald’s steady breathing.
But Marlene, lost in her own thoughts, didn’t notice.
“You’re right, Your Grace. No spy would ever admit they’re a spy. They’d deny it. I need time to reflect on saying something so foolish.”
“……”
Standing facing the wall, Marlene entered her “reflection time.”
She needed to show it through actions, not words. How could she prove she wasn’t a spy?
Should she hand over novel-like “useful” information for the duke?
No… why did the duke have so many enemies anyway? If he disliked the emperor, he could have joined a noble faction.
The duke, who disliked factions, stood proudly alone.
Because of that, both the imperial faction and the noble faction disliked him.
When the duke was in full strength, their jealousy and espionage attempts always failed.
But now, injured and in seclusion, spies from both sides had flooded into the ducal household.
That was why Olive couldn’t speak freely about the duke’s condition to her.
So she had to somehow prove she wasn’t a spy. If she were wrongly accused, it would mean immediate execution.
Reflection time?
A subtle crack appeared in Gerald’s indifferent expression.
He soon turned his attention to her actions.
She had hit her head against the wall and then stood completely still.
Was she really reflecting?
The heartbeat that had been noisy when she first entered the office had already settled into a normal rhythm.
What is she?
She seemed terrified of him, yet at the same time not entirely afraid.
Her attitude lacked consistency—unpredictable, impossible to read.
An unpredictable existence was dangerous. Like a monster.
A sense of caution rose within him.
Marlene Shuvets, viscount’s daughter.
After a carriage accident killed the head of the family and the eldest son, the house collapsed.
She had been living in a crumbling hut, supporting her sick mother, unable to make her debut, unable to marry due to lack of dowry.
Kay’s intelligence was always swift and reliable.
In just a single day, one could learn everything about her life—she wasn’t particularly secretive.
If she wasn’t a spy, then why had she approached him? Was it simply for money?
Even if she wasn’t a spy, she had hidden her true identity. For lying to him alone, he could punish and expel her immediately.
“How long are you going to stay there?”
“Until your aide arrives.”
If only it weren’t for that voice.
He had thought her voice was only irritating when reading reports, but that wasn’t the case.
Even her usual voice wasn’t unpleasant. When speaking to him, she deliberately lowered it, whispering softly.
Gerald crossed his arms and turned his head toward her.
“Come here.”
“My aide hasn’t arrived yet.”
“When Olive arrives, will you stand there and read the report too?”
She hesitated briefly before answering cautiously.
“…No. I’ll come.”
He heard her light footsteps approaching him. She must have been very thin—her steps were as light as feathers.
Kay, who lived in the shadows and always moved silently, might even be envious.
She stopped at a slight distance from him. A faint scent of dry autumn sunlight, long absent, drifted from her.
“The inside isn’t very visible from here, so… may I read it from here—”
In that instant, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward him.
“Hh—!”
With her free hand, she quickly covered her mouth to suppress a scream. Her rapidly beating heartbeat rang clearly in his ears.
Gerald slightly furrowed his brow and listened closely.
The secret of the Vines ducal bloodline was passed down only to direct heirs.
His close aides only knew that he could hear slightly better than others.
“Why?”
“…Yes?”
Her speech was muffled, still covering her lips.
“I asked why you didn’t scream.”
Marlene’s light green eyes trembled as she looked at him.
Is he insane?
Pinned close to him, Marlene seriously pondered the situation.
Now that she was this close, she could see the silhouette of his face hidden in darkness.
Black silk covered his eyes, and jet-black hair flowed over it. Beneath his sharp nose bridge, his reddish lips looked soft and alluring.
A dangerously handsome man, even just in silhouette.
He looked exactly like a male lead from a romance fantasy novel.
However, in “The Bluebird of the Western Duke Does Not Sing,” there was no mention of the male lead being insane.
Could it be something the heroine didn’t know?
The novel was written from the heroine’s first-person perspective. She had assumed he was simply a cold man to his enemies but kind only to his woman.
But what if he was actually kind only to his woman—and otherwise completely unhinged?
For someone who had to deceive him, encountering a madman was the worst-case scenario.
“Answer me.”
He sounded like a beast growling right in front of her, ready to tear her throat out.
Marlene’s mind raced.
Even if he was insane, she couldn’t bluntly ask, “Are you crazy?”
She needed to give him the answer he wanted.
“B-because if I scream, it’s noisy.”
“Being startled is a natural reaction.”
“Do you know that and still act like this?”
Her light green eyes wavered with anxiety.
He better not actually be insane.
“Don’t you find it suspicious that someone temporary doesn’t do something so natural?”
Marlene blinked in surprise.
Oh. So he wasn’t insane—he was testing her.
“Because it would be inconvenient for you to see—no, to hear, Your Grace.”
Relieved that he wasn’t mad, she carefully chose her words.
“……”
The duke silently listened.
“Also… I thought you might be sensitive to noise. I apologize.”
He had been shown in the novel to become violent when overwhelmed by sound. It wasn’t wrong to be cautious.
“You have good analytical skills.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Marlene bowed her head, anticipating his next words.
Spy?
“Are you a spy?”
“No, I’m not. Haa…”
As expected. She let out a long sigh without realizing it.
“Did you just sigh in front of me?”
Though he didn’t explicitly add “How dare you,” she could almost hear it.
Marlene shook her head firmly.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You did.”
His voice lowered further, like a warning.
“Would I dare do that in front of Your Grace? It wasn’t a sigh—it was merely a deep breath.”
She straightened her shoulders and spoke confidently.
Only she could define whether her breath was a sigh or not.
“……”
His jaw tensed slightly in displeasure, but he said no more.
Marlene quietly exhaled in relief. Still, his grip on her wrist was very noticeable.
Shouldn’t he let go now that the test was over? How was she supposed to pull her hand free?
At that moment, a thin sliver of light slipped through the gap in the black curtains, like shimmering paper.
Her gaze naturally followed it. The beam stretched and passed across the duke’s profile as he slightly turned his head.
What in the world…?
For a moment, her vision spun. Fortunately, she had already experienced this earlier, so she was prepared.
Marlene slowly covered her mouth again and called to him, suppressing any hint of a scream.
“…Y-Your Grace!”
“What is it?”
The glimmering light briefly illuminated his ear before disappearing again.
Marlene’s anxious gaze traced from his ear down along his jawline, stopping at the dried blood.
“Th-there’s blood. You’re bleeding.”
“It already was.”
The duke responded indifferently, as if it were nothing.
“You should get treatment quickly.”
If anything, she seemed more urgent than the person himself. She wanted to call a doctor—but her wrist was still firmly held in his grasp.
