Lisellon, who had seemed startled for a moment, soon regained his composure and answered.
“Well. Would it not be fastest to go and confirm it directly?”
“How?”
“I will send someone.”
“What if I go myself? With Luzbel’s personality, he wouldn’t treat me coldly.”
She meant that Luzbel surely hadn’t been able to forget her.
“That would be fine as well.”
But the answer she received was astonishing.
Aisha’s expression hardened instantly. Knowing full well that the man still loved her, he was telling her to go anyway.
“Would you like to go?”
Even though he could clearly see her stiffened expression, Lisellon asked instead. Asking if she truly intended to go.
If she said she would, he would naturally allow it, given his personality, but that wasn’t what Aisha wanted.
She only wanted reassurance that Lisellon loved her.
“…If you tell me to go, I will go.”
“Then do not go.”
“What?”
“I said do not go.”
“Why?”
Her eyes, which had instantly brightened as if her earlier displeasure had never existed, looked at Lisellon clearly. She didn’t seem like the Aisha notorious as a villainess to others.
“Because I am jealous. The Duke has surely not forgotten you.”
Though his tone was mechanical, without any real inflection, Aisha smiled.
“…Really?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I will just go and confirm it myself.”
“Will that be alright?”
“Yes. It will be fine.”
And in the end, she insisted on going herself to confirm it.
Based on what Lisellon said, and her own thoughts as well, she believed Luzbel couldn’t have forgotten her, and she thought it might be amusing to see him miserable at least once.
What kind of expression would he make if she went in person?
“Hehe.”
Still, the biggest reason it bothered her was that leaving him to become entangled with Edith would expose several inconvenient truths.
***
Unlike Aisha’s confidence, Luzbel had been living fairly well recently.
The number of times memories of Aisha surfaced had noticeably decreased. Of course, the nightmares at night couldn’t be helped.
However, after Edith stopped having tea with him during the day, he naturally found himself unable to sleep again.
“Are you waiting for someone?”
“…No. Who would I be waiting for?”
“Then why do you keep looking at the door?”
“When did I ever do that?”
Luzbel feigned ignorance.
Still, since the person who used to come at the same time every day hadn’t come, he was curious, and since he himself couldn’t sleep, he was under stress.
“Please hurry and review the documents.”
“I’m reviewing them.”
He tried to focus on the documents, but perhaps because he had grown used to sleeping a few hours during the day, his eyes felt dry, and the words wouldn’t register properly.
“Shall I bring you some tea?”
“…Tea?”
“Yes, why?”
“No, it’s fine.”
At the mention of tea, Edith naturally came to mind again.
When Monet asked several times whether he should bring tea, he told him to bring it. He had thought Edith would come.
He had been quite shocked at that moment.
‘I was waiting for Edith? Why?’
“Are you really alright? You look very tired…”
“That’s enough. You may leave as well.”
“Yes, very well.”
Monet didn’t try to continue the conversation and simply left. Luzbel held his throbbing head and let out a sigh.
It was the same headache he always had, but he didn’t know why he had become so sensitive lately.
In any case, he had work to do, so Luzbel forced himself to focus on the documents with hollow eyes.
***
It had already been about a week since Luzbel had last slept properly.
By now, she thought he would ask for help first. But Luzbel was more stubborn than expected. He never yielded first.
Whether it was because of his pride, or because he still didn’t believe she was the reason, she didn’t know.
Perhaps it was both.
Or perhaps it was for an entirely different reason.
“Your Grace.”
“…Lady Edith?”
“Would you like to have some tea with me? It has been a while.”
In the end, it was Edith who yielded first.
She had even dismissed the servants and come herself, saying she would prepare the tea personally.
“…Please sit.”
“I will try brewing it myself today.”
With an uneasy expression, Luzbel set down his documents and offered Edith a seat. She sat across from him and busied herself brewing the tea, the sound of clinking echoing for a while, until the room suddenly grew quiet.
“Your—”
She raised her head to say something, but Luzbel had already fallen asleep with his head lowered.
“…Good grief.”
Edith let out a disbelieving laugh.
Before, he had at least stayed awake until the tea was finished brewing before falling asleep, but today it seemed to take barely five seconds.
Letting out a deep sigh, Edith laid Luzbel down on the sofa so he could sleep more comfortably, then sat across from him.
“Ugh… he is so heavy.”
Even lifting one of his legs was difficult, and she staggered slightly as she straightened him out. She also covered him with the blanket she had brought just in case.
After watching the sleeping Luzbel for a while, Edith sipped the tea she had brewed and walked around the office a little.
Since she hadn’t come out for so long, the sound of Monet, a servant, and Verina arguing could be heard just outside the office.
Pressing her ear to the door, Edith listened for a moment, then smiled faintly and opened the door wide.
“Gasp!”
Verina, startled, immediately checked Edith’s condition.
“Did he fall asleep?”
Monet and the servant looked inside and asked, then clicked their tongues in disbelief when they saw Luzbel stretched out.
“Tsk tsk. If he was going to be like this, why did he resist so much?”
***
Luzbel, who woke up after sleeping deeply, wore a blank expression.
He didn’t know how long he had slept, but the sun was already setting, and he seemed unable to believe that it was because of her.
At this point, even if he tried not to believe it, he couldn’t deny it.
“Did you sleep well?”
Because Edith had stayed by his side instead of leaving, Luzbel, who had woken after sleeping deeply, remained silent for a moment, then asked in a trembling voice.
“What exactly did you do to me?”
“Nothing.”
“…Then why do I keep falling asleep whenever you are here?”
“I do not know either.”
In truth, Luzbel had already confirmed it several times with his physician.
He had asked whether there was something wrong with the medicine.
But the physician said there was nothing wrong and even told him he could call another doctor to confirm it.
If so, it meant there was something about Edith.
If she were acting, it didn’t seem possible that he would fail to see through it.
Edith looked genuinely wronged, as if she truly didn’t know anything.
“I really do not know.”
“…”
He was too exhausted to even think about it.
From the beginning, the woman named Edith was someone who couldn’t be explained by his understanding of the world.
He didn’t know.
He kept having the same thought, but he didn’t know whether it was correct.
“Then can I enter your bedroom now?”
“You cannot.”
How could she say such absurd nonsense so confidently?
Edith didn’t seem to realize it, but Luzbel had noticed the recent atmosphere among the servants.
He knew they were treating Edith as if she were already the Lady of the House.
Even now, when she was nothing officially, they acted like that. If they were to see her coming and going from his bedroom as well, it would become uncontrollable.
“Why?”
“Are you truly asking because you do not know?”
“Yes.”
Edith blinked as if she didn’t understand what the problem was.
He couldn’t sleep, and although she didn’t know why, she seemed to have some kind of ability and simply wanted to help him. She didn’t understand why he disliked it so much.
“My Lady.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“What if I were to harbor ill intentions?”
“What? You?”
Edith widened her eyes as if he had said something ridiculous, then laughed and waved her hands.
“You would not do that.”
“Of course I would not, but I am worried you might behave like this elsewhere too.”
“What? Worried?”
“…”
When Edith looked at him with surprise, Luzbel bit his lip, realizing what he had said.
But it was his honest feeling.
She was such a kind person that it would be strange not to worry.
“I do not act like this elsewhere.”
At that, Luzbel’s brow twitched in discomfort.
“You are saying you only act this way in front of me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I trust you.”
His previously tense brow relaxed, and Luzbel was bewildered.
‘Why? Why does she trust me?’
At this point, everything about her was suspicious.
“Are you perhaps acquainted with Aisha?”
“What?”
Luzbel asked without realizing it.
“…Because it is strange.”
“W-What is strange?”
The way she visibly panicked at the mention of Aisha only fueled Luzbel’s suspicion.
In truth, Luzbel knew better than anyone that the two hadn’t been close.
But it was strange.
Edith’s manner of speaking resembled the changed Aisha’s unique way of talking.
Her kind and considerate behavior.
And even the subtle way she acted as if she were familiar with this place.
Of course, logically, it made no sense for Aisha to become Edith, so his reason was suppressing his emotions.
But no matter how he looked at it, there were actions that couldn’t appear unless she knew something.
She was too similar.
“I kept having these thoughts, and I wondered if I had completely lost my mind, so I could not say it…”
“…”
“…Aisha.”
“…Hk…!”
“You are exactly like Aisha.”
He kept being reminded of Aisha from the time when she had been kind.
