Chapter 12
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Dear, I believe you may be misunderstanding.
Episode 12
"...Grace, I think it would be best if you lifted your face now."
Inside Lucas Black's black carriage, Grace could not raise her head, her face buried in her lap.
Several minutes passed in this state.
Lucas, who had been calmly waiting for her to compose herself, grew alarmed when Grace's shoulders trembled slightly, wondering if she was crying, and called out her name.
Grace's shoulders quivered ever so faintly, yet her head remained bowed.
'Could she actually be crying?'
Lucas narrowed his already sharp eyes with a hint of tension, observing Grace carefully.
Though her face was hidden as she bent forward, the tips of her ears had flushed crimson.
Grace's complexion was paler than anyone Lucas had ever encountered.
It was not merely pale—it possessed an almost luminous quality, as if reflecting light itself.
Because her skin was so fair, the blush rising across her cheeks shifted in hue with each passing moment.
Sometimes it was a pale crimson like the setting sun, and the next instant, a vivid scarlet like a red rose.
Then, in another moment, it would soften into a delicate pink like a pink diamond.
'Now that I think of it, a pink diamond would suit her perfectly.'
He found himself naturally imagining a pink diamond gleaming at her ear.
And just as naturally, he recalled whether the Black Family's diamond mines had ever yielded pink diamonds.
That was the moment.
Grace, who had been bowed for so long, suddenly lifted her head and cried out.
"Good heavens!"
With her head raised, Grace gazed at him with a brightness Lucas had never witnessed before.
Her violet eyes sparkled with an innocence as pure as a child's.
She spoke to Lucas with an unguarded smile spreading across her face.
"Wow! Did you see the faces of those people just now? Is it alright for you to do such things, Your Excellency? They must have been completely misled! But those people just now, their faces, their expressions were truly...! Haha! It was so funny!"
Grace's clear, melodious laughter filled the interior of Lucas's carriage.
It was Lucas who was startled by her sudden outburst of laughter.
Until now, Grace had seemed to him like a delicate flower planted in a vase, but now she was as if that flower had become human, radiating vitality in all directions.
So what? Was that strange?
'...It couldn't be.'
At the sound of her laughter, Lucas felt his own mood lift slightly.
This was a feeling he had never experienced before.
It was like watching a legendary flower transform into a spirit and dance before his eyes.
His future wife possessed a truly mysterious allure.
"I never knew you had such an eccentric side, Your Excellency."
Grace gazed at him with genuine astonishment.
The fact that she could look directly at him without fear, despite staring so intently, was because what had just happened had left a truly profound impression on her.
Lucas observed her silently for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle and replied in an offhand tone.
"There are still ninety-nine other charms you have yet to discover, so it would be troublesome if you were already surprised...."
"Ninety... nine other what?"
Lucas Black's lips twitched as he caught sight of Grace's bewildered expression.
"Charm...."
Surely the word that followed wasn't charm....
"Charm."
It was.
"...Pfft."
A laugh burst from me before I could help myself, and I quickly pressed my lips together.
But he had already caught that sudden burst of laughter.
One of his thick eyebrows arched upward.
I hastily averted my gaze.
Yet I couldn't suppress the trembling at the corners of my mouth.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. I'm not laugh.... Hup."
"...Hmm. Is the word 'charm' really that amusing?"
'...No, it was you saying such a thing with that expression so casually that made me laugh.'
A glance.
I observed Lucas Black rubbing his chin from the corner of my eye.
I had thought him only terrifying, but he seemed to be someone who enjoyed mischief more than I'd realized.
'Then again... only someone audacious would have pulled off something like that just now.'
In truth, it wasn't such a grave matter.
Lucas Black, who had been sprawled on the ground, grasped my hand and sprang to his feet.
He brushed off his clothes nonchalantly and stepped outside, then—paying no mind to the watching eyes—he swayed and leaned his body against me.
'Damn this chronic anemia.'
...For a man who exuded a wild, bestial, and terrifying charisma to mutter about "chronic anemia" was utterly absurd.
Everyone whispered with disbelieving expressions, yet he remained utterly shameless.
Even as he snapped his fingers to summon a carriage, he clutched his brow with one hand and murmured in a theatrical tone.
'Had Lady Grace not caught me, I would surely have collapsed to the ground. What a terrible breach of etiquette....'
He released an exaggerated sigh, then turned to regard the gathered people with a terrifying smile—eyes devoid of warmth, only the corners of his mouth lifted—and spoke.
'I beseech you, please keep this shameful moment of mine a secret. Especially if the Oellin Marquessate were to learn of it, I cannot fathom what they would think of me. So I implore you—keep your mouths sealed, and I shall make certain to remember every face here and send my regards accordingly.'
With a smiling face, he silenced the lips of those loitering before the Fountain Pen Shop.
It was a request in name only—a threat in substance.
Just then his secretary arrived with the carriage, and I found myself unceremoniously bundled inside as well.
Before closing the carriage door, Lucas Black turned to regard Viscount Thomas Hopkins—the blonde-haired man whose face bore the excitement of one who had discovered something amusing.
Lucas Black's finger pointed to himself, then swept sharply to point directly at Viscount Thomas Hopkins once more.
The meaning of that brief gesture was unmistakable.
'I know you'.
Lucas Black flashed a grin and closed the carriage door while still smiling, passing by the now-frozen Viscount Thomas Hopkins.
Until that moment I had been dazed, but I spotted Julie fidgeting anxiously nearby and immediately seated her upon the coachman's bench atop the carriage.
And so, immediately after we had completely left the City District behind.
"...Pfft."
Grace couldn't help but bury her face into her knees, overwhelmed by the belated embarrassment and laughter bubbling up within her.
And then there was the unexpected side of the man who had seemed so terrifying until now.
She had laughed so hard that even her stomach—bruised from Norman's earlier blow—began to ache.
When was the last time my stomach hurt simply from laughing?
The laughter was so persistent it felt almost miraculous.
Lucas watched quietly, a faint smile on his own face, as she wiped away tears and gradually composed herself.
'Laughing like that... well, it's not so bad.'
Lucas decided that from now on, whenever he saw Grace, he would often create an atmosphere where she could let her guard down.
'...Though if she falls for me any deeper, that would be problematic.'
He considered this quite seriously, but then concluded it was inevitable.
After all, what had already happened couldn't be undone.
Besides, it was a good thing for a betrothed couple to get along well.
Lucas gazed at Grace's white nape, illuminated by the sunlight streaming through.
Her slender neck stretched in a graceful line, her collarbone carved with deep hollows, and her pale skin possessed an almost austere beauty.
'A pink diamond would suit her perfectly.'
Lucas imagined Grace wearing a pink diamond necklace at their engagement ceremony.
It would look exquisite on her.
The urge to press Haem to procure a pink diamond immediately rose within him.
Thinking of Marquess Oellin left a slightly bitter taste, but after all, the person he would build a life with wasn't Marquess Oellin—it was Grace.
'When a new person enters, I'll need to redecorate the mansion. As for the marital bedroom, perhaps I should convert my current room into...'
Suddenly, Lucas's face flushed slightly as his thoughts reached that point.
'How far am I letting my mind wander? Lucas Black.'
He sighed and rubbed his heated face.
It was common for engagements to be broken even after the ceremony in noble families.
No one knew what might happen before the vows were sealed with a kiss.
Yet here he was, already imagining a new bedroom in a renovated mansion with Grace moving in and decorating it.
He wondered if he had been so starved for the idea of building a home.
Or could it be that he had fallen for this woman at first sight?
When exactly?
All she had done that day was tremble while drinking tea, call out his name, and faint...
'...Come to think of it, that wasn't truly our first meeting.'
A memory from the distant past flickered through his mind.
Lost in his own thoughts, he fell silent and gazed out the window, and a strange quietness filled the carriage.
Only then did Lucas notice Grace staring intently at him.
He glanced over to look at her.
For some reason, Grace didn't avoid his gaze and met his eyes directly.
Their gazes intertwined in the silence.
Lucas couldn't tear his eyes away from Grace's mysterious violet irises.
A distance neither too far nor too close.
In the sealed space with only the two of them, as their gazes quietly tangled together, the air grew slightly warmer.
He found Grace's persistent gaze remarkably bold.
Her eyes shimmered with an intensity that suggested she harbored something to say—something significant.
In that instant.
A light ignited in his mind, flooding it with sudden clarity.
He grasped in a flash what she meant to tell him.
'I see.'
Lucas regarded Grace with a gaze tinged with tension, his thoughts crystallizing.
'Is she about to confess....'
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org