“From the start, you were planning to invite me to dinner, were you not?”
At that, he smiled faintly, as if he felt he had been found out.
“I thought you might accept if I asked you, so I instructed them to prepare it in advance.”
He plainly acknowledged the fact. As I looked at the expensive-looking dishes that kept being served, I was a little taken aback.
“If I had gone back without eating, would you have just thrown all this food away?”
“If you did not wish it, I could not have forced you. Still, I prepared it thinking you might dine with me.”
Despite holding an unimaginably high position, his manner of speaking was, as always, humble and considerate toward the other person.
The Duke gently swirled the wine glass and changed the subject.
“Is your ankle no longer uncomfortable now?”
“Ah, yes. It isn’t completely healed yet, but it does not interfere with walking.”
“Please do not overexert yourself until it is fully healed. If you need it, I will lend you a carriage for a while.”
“Ah, no! That is really too much…”
This person was always excessive in one way or another. When I firmly declined, he said he understood and once again shifted the topic.
“By the way, seeing that you were injured so badly just from colliding with me, it seems your body is rather weak.”
The Duke’s words continued calmly. It was a warm voice tinged with concern.
“You should eat well and exercise regularly. This isn’t much, but please eat a lot today. Next time, I will prepare a proper full-course meal and invite you.”
‘Not much?’
The spread of foods laid out across the table was roughly as follows.
From a soup filled with lobster meat, to tenderloin steak, to beautifully plated oysters… There was even an abalone steak accompanied by precious medicinal herbs said to restore vitality.
But after hearing the Duke’s words and looking again, these dishes were not merely flashy and expensive foods.
‘These are all restorative foods. Especially that herb, if this were Korea, it would be like ginseng in samgyetang.’
Only then did I realize.
‘He knew I was being treated poorly at the Krone mansion. So he must have thought my body was weak. He prepared this meal to make me eat things that are good for my health.’
Considering his information network, he would have easily found out what kind of treatment I was receiving at home.
‘Even in my previous life, Duke Blake tried hard to make sure I ate well.’
It must have been because he could see me growing thinner and more haggard day by day in House Lansval. Suddenly, the bridge of my nose stung.
‘Sally worries about me, and the Duke takes care of my meals.’
I quickly lowered my head to hide the tears that were about to fall and answered.
“Thank you. I will eat well.”
My voice came out slightly trembling, but he didn’t point it out.
“Please enjoy your meal. If your engagement is ever broken, I would like it if you came to stay at my manor. So that I may take care of you every day with foods that are good for your body.”
Even after deciding to be friends, it seemed he still had lingering feelings about the contract marriage he mentioned earlier.
Still, since it was said in an unburdensome, joking tone, I was able to smile softly and reply.
“I will try so that we can meet often, if possible.”
“Yes. We will meet again as soon as possible, the two of us.”
***
In the carriage returning home after the wonderful meal, I sank into thought.
I could understand the circumstances that made a contract marriage necessary for Duke Blake.
‘But why did he propose it to me, of all people?’
Since I was already the person he would be dealing with over compensation, it would be reasonable to think he made the proposal along with that.
But if I thought that way, I couldn’t understand the attitude he showed after I refused the proposal.
If marriage wasn’t possible, then at least an engagement, and if that wasn’t possible, then even as friends, his words asking to stay by my side made it feel as though, no matter what the relationship was, the other person had to be me.
‘Because the look in his eyes when he said that was that desperate.’
But I was nothing more than a daughter scorned as useless even in a House with neither power nor money.
‘There must be a reason it has to be me… ah.’
That might be exactly why. What he needed was the daughter of a family that bore a noble name but had neither power nor money.
A woman he could easily discard once the contract period ended, a woman with no backing so there would be no unnecessary repercussions later.
And on top of that, one more fact suddenly came to mind.
‘The Duke has a woman he is in unrequited love with.’
From what I heard while we were walking together at the birthday banquet, it was quite a heartfelt, earnest one-sided love.
‘She must surely be an unparalleled beauty from a great House.’
If it were someone like that, he couldn’t put her forward as a fake fiancee who might risk earning the Imperial Family’s displeasure.
He would have to consider her family’s standing, but more than that, he would need to hide her well so that no stray spark would reach someone precious to him.
It was cold, but this was the most realistic and rational guess.
Even though they were all objective facts, accepting that reality made one side of my chest ache dully for no reason.
‘In truth, I knew it deep down as well.’
That was why, even though I had several chances to ask the Duke, ‘Why would you propose that to me of all people?’, I couldn’t bring myself to ask and was instead making these guesses alone.
Because I was afraid I might actually hear those words come out of the Duke’s own mouth.
It had been only two or three hours since we had shaken hands and agreed to be friends, yet I was suddenly keenly aware of the distance between the two of us.
In my previous life, he had been a true friend who cared about me without asking for anything in return, but I couldn’t guarantee that he would be the same in this life, where we were bound by a different kind of relationship.
Of course, I didn’t want to believe that the warmth he showed me today was all a lie.
Regardless of my situation, he had always been a friend who consistently took care of me and supported me.
But in this life, the Duke was already showing a slightly different course of action from his previous life.
So I shouldn’t believe that he would be exactly the same as before and lean on him too much.
If nothing else, so that I wouldn’t be too deeply hurt even if he truly thought of me as a woman he could use and then discard cleanly afterward.
***
I returned home together with the new maid, Iris. The circumstances under which I ended up going home with her, whom I met for the first time today, were as follows.
“Thank you for today. Then I will be on my way.”
“Wait.”
Just as I finished speaking and was about to leave the Blake manor, he stopped me. Soon, the head butler brought someone over, and the Duke had that person step forward and introduced her.
“This is the person I mentioned earlier, who will become your dedicated maid, my Lady.”
“I will serve you with all my heart. My name is Iris. Please feel free to call me Ris.”
Iris politely gathered her hands and bowed deeply at the waist.
Contrary to her delicate-sounding name, she had broad shoulders, and even at a glance her arms looked solid. Her gaze was no ordinary one either.
‘She’ll definitely be reliable in terms of physical strength. As expected, the caliber of people working for a Ducal House really is different.’
If someone was offering to lend such high-quality talent for free, I should just accept it gratefully.
‘The Duke is the wealthiest man in the Empire, and right now he also has a perfectly reasonable excuse, compensation for injuring me.’
In the past, I would have talked about pride or propriety and refused to the very end, but now I had no intention of saying things I didn’t truly mean.
While I exchanged a silent greeting with Ris, the Duke continued his explanation.
“Iris will be exclusively in charge of attending to and guarding you, my Lady.”
At the unexpected word, I blinked.
“What? Guarding me?”
“She is quite strong. And if she is known to belong to the Ducal House, House Krone will not be able to treat her carelessly either.”
At that, Ris lifted her head slightly, and her eyes flashed faintly.
Was what shone in that gaze passion, loyalty, or a subtle hint of madness?
“My Lady, you have nothing to worry about now. I will always ensure your safety.”
The moment I stepped into the mansion together with Ris, who had newly become my maid, a sound like a wild boar charging at full speed echoed through the hall.
There was only one wild boar in this mansion.
As expected, a moment later, Huan came running all the way up to me and shouted.
“How do you know Duke Blake?! Why would someone that incredible treat the likes of you so well?!”
It must have been quite a shock to him that the Duke had come earlier and taken care of me.
“His Grace already explained it. We happened to bump into each other on the street, and I got injured.”
“Hey, you think a great noble like that would worry so much just because you got hurt? Does that make any sense?”
Huan, who had been squawking loudly, suddenly lowered his voice.
“Be honest. You are not doing something filthy to seduce men around, are you?”
