Chapter 15
Unpleasant gossip.
At those words, Kain, who had been subtly frowning, soon humbly stepped back.
“If I have disturbed Your Grace’s mood, I apologize. There was no particular intention. Just, as a fellow dancer, I was worried about Miss Agnes’s leg—”
“Duchess.”
“……Yes?”
“You should use the proper title. Anyway, you won’t have occasion to call my wife again.”
At Lionel’s attitude revealing possessiveness, Agnes drew in a breath.
Bewilderment was plainly visible on her face.
To such an Agnes, Lionel extended his hand.
“If you’re not going to stay here, why not take it.”
“Ah…….”
Agnes tried to refuse, but since she had left her crutches on the stage, walking properly was impossible.
At that moment,
From afar, Chloe’s voice was heard.
“Where on earth has Agnes gone?”
In an instant, Agnes’s eyes wavered.
She did not want to see Chloe’s face right now.
Because even the mockery she usually brushed off well seemed unbearable at this moment.
Wanting to quickly leave the place, Agnes eventually took Lionel’s hand.
Then, in an instant, her field of vision shot upward.
Before Agnes could stop him, Lionel had swiftly lifted her into his arms and exited the waiting room.
“……! Your Grace, what is this……!”
“If you don’t want to fall, it would be best to stay still.”
Saying that, Lionel carefully adjusted his posture, lest Agnes fall.
At the suddenly heightened view, Agnes instinctively clutched Lionel’s shirt.
The firm warmth felt through the cold fabric strangely gave her a sense of stability.
She had thought he would at most offer his arm.
At the unexpected full support, Agnes’s ears turned red.
However, the tenderness lasted only a fleeting moment.
As soon as they reached the end of the corridor and the presence of people disappeared, any warmth in Lionel’s arms vanished cleanly.
“For a woman about to marry to smile so recklessly in front of others is not an elegant attitude.”
Lionel trailed off and turned his head to the side.
His mouth had moved on its own. He himself knew well that this was not something to make such an issue over.
It was an emotion he had suppressed well even in front of the emperor and the dancers.
Yet uniquely in front of Agnes, his emotions would not settle.
“If you’re going to become the Duchess, it would be good to relearn the demeanor a noble should have.”
Those words subtly yet clearly targeted Agnes’s origins.
“No matter how much you adorn yourself, the inherent grain cannot be hidden. Especially if one doesn’t even know what they’re trailing around.”
Agnes pressed her lips tightly together.
The briefly uplifted heart felt as if it had been slammed into the mud.
It would be better to just ignore and pass by. If he was going to act like this, he shouldn’t have shown even a small kindness.
Agnes could not shake off the feeling of becoming pitiful herself.
In contrast, Lionel’s voice sank increasingly cold.
“How is it, are you satisfied? You stood on the imperial stage you so desired. And in the end, the marriage with me is proceeding.”
He stopped walking and looked down at Agnes with cold eyes.
“But let’s make one thing clear. There will be no affection in this marriage.”
Agnes’s expression hardened in an instant.
Lionel continued.
“If you have any shame, you wouldn’t dare hope for such a thing.”
And right after turning the corner, he finally drove in the last dagger.
“If you do hope for that, it would be fine to take a lover. For example, like that handsome-faced dancer from earlier.”
Agnes’s eyes shook violently.
“I don’t care who you do what with, but at least keep it from being seen by others.”
Lionel’s gaze pierced down coldly.
“If necessary, you can even present an heir that way. I wouldn’t mind if it’s not my bloodline.”
Even the treatment toward a back-alley prostitute wouldn’t be this insulting.
Agnes clenched her fist strongly.
So strongly that the feeling of her nails digging into her palm was chilling.
***
Passing through the garden while held in Lionel’s arms, Agnes opened her mouth with a suppressed voice.
“Please put me down now.”
However, Lionel did not even listen with his ears. His steps continued forward without a hint of hesitation.
“Don’t be stubborn. You can’t walk anyway.”
“I said to put me down.”
“…….”
Agnes’s eyes hardened.
Realizing words would not work, she unhesitatingly lowered her head and bit the back of his hand.
“Ugh……!”
Startled, Lionel’s steps stopped.
At the sharpness of the teeth digging into his flesh, Lionel had no choice but to set Agnes down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Agnes slapped his cheek hard without even catching her breath.
Slap-.
Silence swirled.
Lionel twitched his brow and stroked the struck cheek.
His tongue slowly swept the inside of his cheek.
A strange pain passed over the spot that dented following that motion.
At the unfamiliar sensation, a dry laugh escaped between Lionel’s lips.
“I was foolish to expect the elegant demeanor of a noble.”
Lionel turned his gaze again and glared at Agnes.
Just as he was about to spit venom again, Lionel raised his eyebrow.
Agnes was crying.
In the silence, her eyes reddened, and eventually tears fell drop by drop.
It was Ahnes, who hadn’t blinked an eye even when falling on stage or hearing mockery.
Yet now. Agnes Bardo was crying. In front of him.
Lionel’s expression gradually distorted.
‘Crying over just this kind of talk?’
“……Why are you crying?”
Agnes Bardo is a woman tougher and more tenacious than anyone.
The rumors, everyone. They all said so in unison.
Yet over just these words, crying as if breaking.
Why?
No, in fact, he knew.
That every word he had uttered had become a dagger stabbing Agnes.
Lionel frowned at the tightening nausea in his chest.
Agnes staggered back one step, barely grabbed a nearby garden fence, and stood.
Catching her breath, Agnes spoke in a choked voice.
“Don’t treat me like a cheap whore. I’ve never sold my smiles.”
At those words, Lionel’s mouth hardened slightly.
However, as always, he soon approached Agnes again with an arrogant nod.
“If you dislike such treatment, you should just behave properly.”
But this time too, Agnes did not just listen silently.
Her tear-filled lips trembled faintly, and she mercilessly brushed off the hand Lionel extended to support her.
“I can go alone.”
Her voice was still trembling, but clear.
Agnes limped, leaning on the fence, and dragged her leg without fully straightening her posture as she exited the garden.
The swaying hem of her dress, the dragging toes.
As that back figure grew farther away, Lionel let out the breath he had been holding.
And burst into a hollow laugh.
Lionel, who habitually looked up at the sky, frowned at the bitter taste.
Perhaps Agnes’s hand had been spicier than expected, the corner of his lip was split.
Lionel slowly removed the glove that had wiped the blood and brushed the back of his hand.
How hard had she bitten. Even though he was wearing gloves, Agnes’s teeth marks remained red on the back of his hand.
His short black hair was disheveled in the night breeze.
“……I’m in no position to criticize others.”
Lionel let out self-mockery toward himself.
The one no different from that dancer in the lounge was not Agnes, but himself.
The way he recklessly wagged his tongue. How was it different from them.
“Damn it.”
He hadn’t intended to make her cry.
Yet why, upon seeing Agnes with Kain, had his insides turned over like that.
It felt exactly like breathing in water filled to the brim of his head.
Lionel swept his dry hand over his face in frustration.
This is not good.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he was being drawn to Agnes.
Despite trying so hard to avoid it. The emotions were becoming more vividly colored.
Whether it was the remnant of emotions from his youth or currently his own was still unclear.
“If Cedric knew, he’d jump out of his grave and come grab me by the collar.”
Whatever it was, he loathed himself for being shaken by Agnes.
To harbor feelings for the woman responsible for Cedric’s death.
Lionel swallowed the rising self-loathing and slowly turned his body in the quiet.
He had to go now. It felt like he needed to put at least some distance from this foolish emotion.
At that moment.
Lowering his gaze at the crunchy sensation brushing his toes, he discovered a sheet of paper scattered at his feet.
It was a document Agnes had dropped.
Picking up the paper, Lionel’s eyes slowly narrowed.
“This is……?”
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