CHAPTER~40
When the Recording Disappears
Of course, Cedric Glaston usually stayed at any party just long enough and left around this time, but today’s event was hosted by the king himself. Important figures from various countries were attending.
As a businessman who valued connections, Cedric would not have left such an important party early.
And since Logan also remained at the party, it seemed Yvonne had not left either.
“Did he really sleep with that woman?”
Cedric’s mocking voice suddenly came to mind, and at the same time, an inexplicable sense of foreboding arose.
Derrick Glaston immediately sought someone who might know Yvonne’s whereabouts.
“Lady Nadia.”
Nadia, enjoying wine with the other ladies, turned when she heard the familiar voice.
“Do you know where Yvonne went?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not Yvonne’s maid.”
Nadia spoke hesitantly, a slightly sharp edge in her gaze directed at him.
Remembering he hadn’t even thanked her after the last party, Derrick bowed with a polite smile.
“I apologize, Lady Nadia. That was not my intention. I just wanted to ask if you could assist me, as before. I apologize if I offended you.”
If Nadia didn’t know Yvonne’s whereabouts, there was no need to linger. Derrick turned to leave, but then she added another word.
“I think she went to the pavilion’s lounge.”
Her words carried a hint of reproach toward Derrick for squandering the opportunity she had offered.
Derrick chuckled softly. Though he found it audacious that a woman would mock him, he let it slide generously. After all, he had received her assistance.
“I won’t forget your kindness, my lady.”
With that, Derrick headed straight for the pavilion lounge.
Surrounded by tall trees, the pavilion felt completely separate from the garden where the party was held. It was a perfect place for rest, and also for clandestine encounters.
Entering the building, Derrick approached the nearest lounge. As he reached to open the door, voices came from inside — the unmistakable voices of a man and woman entwined.
***
His kiss was desperate and rough.
Even though she had prepared herself from their previous encounter, the persistent rubbing of tender flesh inside her mouth made her body tremble. Moans of anguish escaped from deep within her.
As she gasped for air and stumbled backward, Yvonne quickly found herself blocked by a wall.
With no way to escape, all she could do was endure the relentless pressure he applied.
Yvonne only managed to break free from Cedric’s hold when she was on the verge of losing consciousness, saliva stretching between them.
But barely catching her breath, his lips found her neck. Warm lips slid down over the loosened corset to her chest, and he tugged the corset slightly, burying his face in it.
“Ugh…!”
The thin chemise fabric was pressed to his lips. Her senses overwhelmed by the heat and rough breathing, she felt dizzy.
As if not knowing what to do, tears threatened to fall, and then Cedric’s arms lifted her lightly into his embrace. At the same time, muffled gasps escaped between their teeth.
“Ah!”
Her vision began to spin. Even in the haze of her consciousness, the sensations were unbearably intense, as if she might lose her mind entirely.
She forgot that this was a lounge, that anyone might walk in.
Desperately clinging to him to suppress her moans, her fevered body felt like it was boiling.
At that moment, a breeze came through the open window. The forest responded to it with a soft rustle.
Yvonne stared blankly at the scenery. Perhaps by the time the sound faded, this man’s desire for her would fade as well. Just as the sound of the forest disappears into fallen leaves, so too would this seemingly endless summer.
It was simply a matter of paying the price. It had to be so.
***
Derrick’s eyes darkened as he heard the voices from inside the lounge. Without thinking, he flung open the door.
“Kyaa!”
“W-what is this, suddenly!”
The couple clinging together recoiled in surprise at Derrick’s sudden appearance.
Muttering curses, Derrick immediately turned to leave. The sound of a woman crying loudly, “What should I do?” irritated him, even though it wasn’t his fiancée.
He approached the next lounge and opened the door.
“Oh, Sir Derrick?”
The women fixing their makeup looked up at him, surprised. They had exchanged greetings at the party before.
There was no time for him to maintain a gentlemanly appearance. He needed to find Yvonne immediately.
His steps quickened as he went up the stairs, the image of the previously entwined couple now vividly replaced by Yvonne and Cedric in his mind.
His heart pounded uncomfortably fast with anxiety.
“Damn…”
Since childhood, he had despised his half-brother. Cedric was an incomprehensible presence to him.
How could a commoner become his noble half-brother?
How could a commoner surpass him, a noble?
How could a commoner win their grandfather’s favor over him?
Every time reality refused to accept him, Catherine would say, “It’s because you are still young,” but as an adult, that excuse was useless.
Cedric was still better, still favored by their grandfather.
No matter what he did, Derrick could never become Cedric’s elder brother. That truth seemed eternal, driving him insane.
Sometimes he wished he could erase his brother’s existence entirely, just like now.
At the second-floor lounge, Derrick reached for the doorknob. Then familiar footsteps approached.
Looking over, his expression twisted.
“…What are you doing here?”
Cedric appeared.
The half-brother he despised, the one he had desperately hoped not to see here.
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be here? Did the king secretly issue a ban on me entering the pavilion?”
Seeing that smirk, Derrick’s unease surged and his blood ran cold.
Derrick glared at Cedric, then passed him.
“What? Move.”
“I don’t care what you do or with whom, but at a gathering like this, shouldn’t you behave? After all, the king and important figures from other nations are present.”
It was a reprimand about his personal life.
Cedric passed Derrick, adding:
“You don’t have to heed my advice, but if the king asks about you… I wouldn’t know what to say.”
“…”
“I can’t exactly tell him which lounge you were in with a woman.”
Derrick looked at Cedric with narrowed eyes.
Cedric rarely interfered first, especially regarding personal matters.
That he now blocked Derrick first gave him a strange premonition — that Cedric was hiding something.
Yet, as always, nothing could be read in Cedric’s eyes. No anxiety, no urgency.
‘Then I’ll have to check myself,’ Derrick thought.
He passed Cedric and headed to the next lounge. At that moment, someone ascended the stairs.
“Ah, so both of you are here.”
It was a palace attendant.
“His Majesty is looking for both of you.”
“Let’s go immediately.”
Cedric headed for the stairs, but the attendant did not move. It seemed the king had ordered him to bring both of them.
Understanding the significance, Derrick frowned but eventually returned to join Cedric. Nothing could take precedence over a royal order.
Derrick followed the attendant down the stairs, and Cedric, coming last, stopped to glance back at the lounge — the door Derrick had never dared open.
