Gerlach Cygnus must meet Leonie Almaz. Do you understand?
I looked at him, calming my breath.
Facing Gerlach, my emotions became extremely complex with ambivalence.
Having died at Gerlach’s hands nineteen times, I was afraid of him, but thinking of how he had been kind to me recently, it wasn’t entirely dreadful.
However, regardless of my feelings, I must not get involved with Gerlach anymore to escape from here.
Let’s repeat it.
Gerlach Cygnus is everything to Leonie!
Gerlach is the man of the kind and beautiful Leonie!
And if the ending is predetermined, if that’s the only way I can survive, I don’t want to get close and then die at his hands.
It would be much better if he hated and resented me, remaining strangers.
“Something to say?”
“Yes.”
When I said I had something to say, Gerlach finally sat in the chair and looked at me with a languid gaze.
Oh, it’s really harmful.
Don’t look. I shouldn’t look.
His gaze blocked my words, and I couldn’t open my mouth easily, but he cleverly half-closed his beautiful eyes and whispered.
“You’re not going to ask me to pretend that night never happened, are you?”
“Pardon?”
“Surely you’re not shamelessly asking to erase the hot incident between us.”
“……”
“If not, you can say anything.”
Gerlach leaned back in the chair and gave me a persistent look.
Wow, shameless?
“Sh-shameless, you say.”
“Isn’t it shameless to collapse in front of me and seduce me, then try to escape alone?”
“Seduce? Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Wow, seduce? I just drank a little too much, that’s all.
And I just walked into the fountain?
Moreover, I was so out of it that I babbled nonsense, how is that seduction?
Even if you told me it was a method to make someone lose interest, I might believe it.
This is really unfair to me!
“No, no. I never intended that.”
“……”
“So, I collapsed because I drank too much.”
I feel like I should explain why I drank so much, but even if I explain, he won’t understand!
I’ve actually died several times, exactly nineteen times.
No matter how hard I tried, I kept dying, and it was at your hands.
I drank myself to oblivion with a sense of resignation.
How can I explain that?
Even if I explain, would he accept it?
As I stood there, unable to say anything, Gerlach spoke first.
“Perhaps, you.”
“……”
“Is something going on?”
The languid gaze that had been watching me changed somehow.
Until then, it had been persistent but somewhat playful, but now it had turned sharp, like the eyes of an investigator.
Simultaneously, past memories surfaced.
Feeling a sudden chill, I unconsciously hugged my shoulders.
“I remember what you said to me that night. You were confused, saying you didn’t know who you were. Moreover, you made strange remarks about not knowing where you were.”
“……”
“You didn’t say it explicitly, but if something is troubling you.”
“……”
“Could you tell me?”
“……”
“If it’s a problem I can help with, I’ll try.”
His last words made me clench my dry fists tightly.
My heart was pounding as if it would burst, and my head was dizzy as if the hangover from a few days ago was starting again.
But no matter how much he asked, it was something I couldn’t answer.
“No, there’s nothing like that. I just feel like I made a big mistake with Your Grace.”
“……”
At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed in my mind.
A way to smoothly get through this situation!
“So, how should I put it.”
I began to speak, watching his reaction.
“Actually, there’s one thing that’s been bothering me.”
“Tell me.”
Gerlach leaned forward and asked.
“Your Grace is such a high-ranking person, and I am just a humble daughter from an insignificant family.”
When I said that, Gerlach lifted one corner of his lips and let out a laugh.
“So?”
“There must be a lady from a family that suits Your Grace somewhere.”
“Is that it?”
“Pardon?”
Gerlach’s face became more relaxed than before.
“Is that what has been troubling you?”
“……?”
“Does Marquis Bernadette want a new title? I could grant one more for your sake.”
What on earth is he saying?
I was momentarily speechless, my mouth agape and frozen.
Ah, so that’s why Father’s nostrils flared like that.
“Judging by your expression, that’s not the issue.”
Where did you learn to read people so well? Why are you so perceptive?
“If that’s not it, then tell me.”
“But.”
“I can’t forget the anxious look in your eyes since that day. I want to know what’s going on.”
Gerlach’s gaze made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.
There were probably many reasons for the anxiety in my eyes.
Between Gerlach Cygnus and me, there is a complex situation that cannot be defined in a single word.
He is the man who put me on the gallows to protect the woman he loves, the person I’ve desperately avoided until now.
Deep inside, there must have been a part of me that felt I should avoid him.
Additionally, there was a deep-seated anxiety that my actions might ruin everything.
However, since that night, new emotions have piled on top of my fear.
Fortunately, it seemed Gerlach decided to stop the interrogation here.
“Is it something that needs time?”
After I spent a long time silently biting my fingers, he spoke first.
“Yes. I think so.”
I answered inadvertently, and he showed a dry smile.
Wanting to escape this fearful and confusing situation, I managed to smile back at him.
“There will be a ball in three days. I hope to see you with a more relaxed face than today.”
I can never have a relaxed face in front of you.
“Th-that ball.”
I was about to say I might not be able to attend the ball.
But Gerlach looked at me with a somewhat cold gaze.
As if he would immediately say something harsh if I said I wouldn’t go.
“That ball?”
“I will prepare diligently and attend.”
“I look forward to it.”
With those words, Gerlach stood up.
As he left the drawing room, my mother and father were standing straight with their hands clasped.
Surely they hadn’t been standing like that the whole time?
Gerlach paused for a moment, looking at my parents standing like statues, then calmly spoke.
“Thank you for welcoming me despite the sudden visit.”
At times like this, he seemed like a very gentlemanly and calm man.
However, the expression he showed me earlier was quite frightening.
“Not at all. Feel free to visit anytime.”
As soon as my father finished speaking, my mother suddenly stepped forward.
“Um, Your Grace.”
I glanced at my mother with anxious eyes.
“We were about to have tea. Would you like to join us? The new tea we brought in is very good.”
My mother managed to ask the question calmly, though her face turned white and then red repeatedly.
Satisfied with herself, she continued with a bit more strength in her voice.
“And if you have time, perhaps you could join us for lunch as well.”
My mother clasped her hands with a face full of expectation.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll join you next time.”
But Gerlach declined in a calm voice.
Phew, thank goodness.
I barely managed to hold back a smile that almost broke out.
“Yes, it’s a shame, but please do join us next time to brighten the occasion.”
“Understood.”
Gerlach gave a short reply and was about to turn away when I suddenly sensed a presence and turned my head towards the main entrance.
The sound of unfamiliar footsteps echoed a few times, and then—
A very tall man stood there.
“Oh? With everyone coming out to welcome me, I feel like I must be someone important.”
It was a face I had never seen before.
Of course, the Bernadette mansion often had visitors.
From travelers exploring the vicinity to numerous people visiting for personal or official reasons.
The people who had passed by until now were not that important to me.
They left no trace in my life.
But if this stranger called my name so affectionately—
That changes things.
“My goodness, could this beautiful lady be Liberata Bernadette?”
Pardon? Me?
I blinked, unable to say anything in response to the stranger’s words.
‘Who are you, exactly?’
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out who he was.
But what left me even more speechless was his beauty, to the point where I wondered if I was really facing a person.
His subtle and elegant ash-brown hair and deep, abyss-like dark blue eyes were so transparent that they made me want to confess my past.
While I hesitated, the gentleman standing before me seemed to quickly glance at me and then at Gerlach.
“My goodness, Adrian!”
As that fleeting moment passed, my father affectionately called out the name and embraced the man warmly.
‘What? Adrian? Who is he?’
No matter how much I thought about it, he was not a figure in my memory.
I regretted not reading the novel more thoroughly. I was truly frustrated with my past self for not doing so.
“How have you been?”
“Oh, yes, of course. Oh, Adrian. You’ve become such a fine young man.”
It seemed my father was meeting Adrian after a very long time as well.
“How long has it been?”
“It’s been so long that Liberata doesn’t remember me.”
He then showed a very peculiar expression.
He looked at me with eyes filled with emotions that couldn’t be described in a single word.
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