Chapter 21
“…Who, me?”
“You said you had no honor. As if reputation meant nothing to you.”
Arius’s pale green eyes were so earnest that I couldn’t help feeling flustered.
Honor?
The illegitimate child of a politician — even in my previous life, my existence had nothing to do with honor.
And since coming into this novel, nothing much had changed.
If anything, my odd-colored eyes and black hair made me stand out even more openly.
Not that I was particularly discouraged about it.
I shrugged lightly and muttered,
“My hair color, if anything, is the Duke of Sephardi’s disgrace.”
“That’s hardly the Lady’s fault.”
“Of course not. I know that.”
“Then why do you keep speaking as if it were?”
His low voice rumbled, and I tilted my head to look up at him.
The gaze that met mine was stern and unyielding.
Arius Romero was the sort of man whose noble temperament could not bear even the slightest self-deprecation from the lady he was escorting.
It was me who had overplayed my hand out of embarrassment.
“Isn’t honor something you earn when you accomplish something great on your own?”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“The Duke of Romero, who led his army to victory, certainly has it. But I don’t. I’ve never done anything honorable.”
“Lady Sephardi.”
“Ah, being born a Sephardi isn’t exactly an honor either. It’s more like a bad stroke of luck.”
That, at least, was the truth.
Even in my old life, before I had achieved anything myself, I’d always been ashamed of who I was.
So if I could do something meaningful in this life — like protecting my younger brother — maybe things would be different.
But that wasn’t something I wanted him to see through, so I smiled up at Arius.
“When I said I had no honor, I meant it that way — not because of my bloodline. So you don’t need to feel upset, my lord.”
“I’m not upset.”
“If you keep being so gentle after I’ve already fallen for you, I might fall even harder. Are you all right with that?”
“That’s…!”
Arius couldn’t find any words to answer such a brazen flirtation. His mouth opened, then closed again, and he shook his head.
Just then, Beaumont returned, holding the prototype fan they had been working on.
The fan, resting atop a blue silk cushion, wasn’t bad — though it lacked a bit of splendor.
“Would this design be all right with you, my lady? It’ll take some time to finish a more refined version.”
“I think it looks fine. May I take a closer look?”
“Of course, Lady Maribel.”
I opened and closed the fan, fanning it lightly, testing its weight and feel.
While I fanned myself absentmindedly, I was already planning my next steps.
“Hmm.”
I had just reached a decision and was about to explain some details when I noticed something odd in the atmosphere.
“Um, L-Lady…”
“Yes, Beaumont. So, I have some jewels to send for—”
“I—I’ll excuse myself for a moment.”
Wait, what? Leaving before even hearing the customer’s request?
Madame Beaumont, bowing so deeply I couldn’t even see her face, fled the room — leaving behind a flushed, red-faced Arius who let out a long sigh.
“Lady Sephardi.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t speak for a while after that, so I hesitated and asked,
“Did I… do something wrong?”
“The fan,” he said quietly. “You said this was your first time using one?”
“…Yes.”
“Do you know what the gestures you just made mean?”
“Gestures? What did I even do?”
A creeping sense of dread filled me. What had I done?
All I did was wave it around a bit! Yet somehow, the mood had turned bizarre.
He still wouldn’t look straight at me.
“Do you truly not know?”
“This is literally the first time I’ve gone out to buy a fan.”
“You mean… you’ve received no instruction of that sort?”
He looked doubtful.
And I was indignant — why was I the one being treated like I’d done something indecent?
“Th-the head maid said she’d teach me soon, but…”
“Ah.”
Even as I stammered, Arius’s refined features stayed flushed.
One eyebrow arched as though he were looking at a scoundrel caught in the act.
“What exactly did I do with this fan?”
“That…”
His pale green eyes wavered violently.
Arius’s elegant lips parted — and then closed again, as though the words were too indecent to speak.
“Duke Romero.”
“It’s… difficult to say out loud. You’d best ask your head maid later.”
At that point, I could pretty much guess.
If Madame Beaumont had fled the room and Arius’s face had gone scarlet, then, well — there were only so many possibilities.
Embarrassment looked strangely good on him, too.
That tall, well-built frame, that devastatingly handsome, noble face — and on those mature, perfectly composed features, that faint blush…
I couldn’t resist the sudden urge to tease him. I jumped up from my seat.
“What exactly did I say? If you tell me, I’ll make sure not to repeat the mistake.”
After all, it was an accident.
If I had to guess, maybe it was something tame, like ‘Do you have time later?’ or ‘Meet me somewhere private?’
In a place this uptight, that would already count as scandalous.
Putting on my most shameless smile, I took a step toward him.
“My lady—”
“Please. Help me so I don’t embarrass myself again, my lord.”
“If you stay where you are, I’ll… tell you.”
When I tried to take another step, he lifted a hand to stop me. It was such a hesitant, almost shy gesture that I froze.
I bit my lip and nodded.
Surely, whatever came out of that noble mouth wouldn’t be that bad.
He exhaled, softly biting his lip. The sigh that followed was not a light one.
When I leaned forward a little, he took a step back — then finally, in a low, velvety voice, said:
“I love you. Please love me back. If you desire me, take me now.”
…Huh?
The words went far beyond anything I’d imagined.
And as if mortified by what he’d just said, Arius’s face darkened all the way to his neck.
“Right here, right now, remove your clo—”
“W-wait! Stop right there!”
Remove my what?!
Panicking, I reached out as if to cover his mouth, and he immediately stepped back again.
Good grief, what kind of misunderstanding was this?!
My throat felt dry as dust.
“My lord, wait, are you saying I actually said that?”
“That’s what your gestures with the fan conveyed.”
“Me? When? How? How could you say something like that with just a fan?”
Just how risqué were these fan signals supposed to be?! I thought this world was prudish!
Arius, clearly flustered himself, shook his head.
“Frankly, I can’t believe it was an accident. You somehow managed to choose the most explicit gesture possible.”
“Of course it was an accident!”
I thought ignorance would be a good enough excuse.
But I hadn’t known it would be that explicit!
“I really had no idea…”
Trying to tease the duke a little had ended with me dying of embarrassment instead.
“The weather is unbearably hot today,” I grumbled under my breath.
I reached for the fan again — then froze midway.
That damned fan!
“The fan, it’s just… suddenly so hot in here…”
My brain was short-circuiting. I waved my hand vaguely above the fan, then gave up.
Too mortified to meet his eyes, I stared at the floor and began fanning myself awkwardly.
“Sephardi is just so hot this time of year…”
The room, now empty except for me, Arius, and that accursed fan, filled only with my incoherent muttering.
“Lady Sephardi.”
Still staring at the floor, I stammered,
“Y-yes, Duke Romero?”
Since what I’d done apparently had that kind of meaning, I had to clear things up somehow.
He probably thought I was some shameless woman — I had to set the record straight.
“I know you must think I have no sense of propriety, and I realize I, uh, confessed to you yesterday — which must have been absurd enough already — but this time I really didn’t know, and right now, honestly…”
The words humiliated and mortified hovered at the edge of my tongue.
After a long, shaky breath, I finally said,
“…right now I just feel so sorry, and so utterly embarrassed…”
“If you truly didn’t know, then there’s no need to apologize to me,” he said calmly.
That made me look up.
Arius met my gaze squarely — steady, composed, and unwavering — cutting off my apology with the dignity of a man who refused to let me abase myself any further.
