Chapter 68
***
‘He didn’t hear it, right?’
Returning to the front of the drawing room following Lionel, Agnes bit the tender flesh inside her mouth.
Although she had vaguely glossed over the conversation with Kain, she didn’t feel at ease because it felt like she had lied to Lionel.
‘First, I should ask Kain and meet the person who said they were a merchant knight.’
Anyway. Since she had made up her mind to clear up the parts where Lionel misunderstood her.
The story about the accident…….
‘Let’s talk about it a little later…….’
Agnes touched her right leg, which felt like a piece of wood.
She had promised herself that she would confess the truth once her rehabilitation was somewhat successful, but she rarely felt that it was getting better.
Creeeeak.
The sound of the drawing room door opening cut through her complicated thoughts like cold water.
The moment the door closed quietly, she felt Lucian’s presence from the inside first.
Lucian was completely different from the fiery impression when they met on the street last time.
If he was like a powder magazine on the verge of explosion then, the Lucian sitting here now gave off a calm feeling like an old lake.
“Welcome, Duchess.”
Lucian’s hazy pupils could not find the exact direction and remained in an ambiguous position.
“As you can see, my eyes are like this, so I am sorry I could not come out to the door myself.”
“No. Rather, we are the ones who are sorry.”
Even though Agnes knew Lucian could not see her movements, she straightened her shoulders and bowed her head politely.
“I apologize once again for the rudeness committed by my sister.”
“Hmm.”
The wrinkles around Lucian’s eyes, which had been hesitating for a moment, curved softly.
“To be honest, I was a bit surprised. I never thought you would apologize like this.”
As if accepting Agnes’s apology, Lucian reached out his hand to find the handle of the teapot.
Then, he poured warm tea into the teacup without trembling.
He said he was gradually losing his sight due to an accident, but it seemed his body remembered his old habits as they were.
“There have been many who made demands no different from threats to put on a play or a dancer they wanted, but there were almost none who apologized to me.”
Lucian pushed the teacup, exactly half-filled, toward the direction where Agnes’s voice was heard.
“The Duchess I’ve met in person is different from the rumors.”
It was a somewhat strange, yet gentle way of speaking.
Lucian etched a faint smile on his wrinkled eyes, as if recalling a memory from a long time ago.
“Actually, the fig tart the Duchess gave me was something an old friend of mine used to make often. It was so delicious that I used to pester them to release it as a seasonal product.”
“Could that friend be…….”
“Yes, it was Elena Bardo, the founder of the Bardo trading company and the Duchess’s aunt.”
Why the tart recipe was found in her aunt’s diary,
And why Lucian had been looking for that taste, unable to forget it.
It was the moment all the puzzle pieces fit together naturally.
“There was quite an age difference, but we were friends who truly saw eye to eye.”
Lucian’s passing memories settled quietly upon his expression.
His hazy pupils turned toward Agnes, and that gaze looked like a person searching for traces of Elena.
Since Elena passed away before Agnes was even a year old, Agnes had no memory of her at all.
Therefore, she couldn’t fully understand Lucian’s longing, but she felt she knew what the texture of that emotion was.
After a moment, Lucian’s voice became even more gentle.
“I heard the Imperial Family ordered our theater and the Bardo trading company to prepare the dance drama for this Eve festival together. Perhaps the reason you sought me out is also because of that.”
Wrinkles full of experience rippled softly every time Lucian spoke.
“Fine, let’s do it. However, I would like to discuss the contract extension again after the preparation for the dance drama is finished without a hitch.”
Lucian maintained a cautious stance, saying that he was not sure if they could continue doing business together based on the attitude of the Bardo trading company so far, not just because of Chloe’s incident.
“Until then, I intend to suspend the decision on whether to terminate the contract for a while, how does that sound?”
“Yes. If so, I will prepare the documents again according to those conditions.”
“By the way. The dance drama preparation will be conducted with the Duchess, right?”
Agnes, who was continuing the conversation flexibly, made a sound in her throat from embarrassment.
Then she looked back at Lionel, who was guarding her side like a stone statue.
Then, the eyebrows of Lionel, who had been resting his chin on his hand as if bored, twitched.
“Well. Is there a need for my wife to proceed with it?”
Lucian’s pupils fumbled through the air toward the side where the sound came from.
“There is no absolute need to do so, but having a conversation like this with the Duchess makes me feel like I am facing my friend Elena. Please view it as an old man’s greed.”
Heh.
Lionel let out a dry breath.
Agnes pressed that small action deep into her eyes.
Lionel did not add any particular words, but his face, still arrogant and beautiful, was already giving the answer.
Lionel does not want it. For her to be involved in this matter.
Agnes lowered her lush eyelashes.
Preparing a dance drama.
Following Kain’s proposal, the inside of her chest tickled once again.
It would be a lie to say she didn’t want to try, but what she had to handle with Lucian was only up to the contract termination issue.
Therefore, this was not her part to play.
“……It’s a pity, but I am planning to step away from the trading company soon. Someone else from the trading company, not me, will take charge and proceed.”
“Oh, is that so? If the Duchess says so.”
There was a noticeable trace of regret in Lucian’s voice.
“I expected that I could create a stage once again with someone I see eye to eye with after Elena. It’s truly a pity.”
***
After the conversation with Lucian, which left a bitter taste, ended.
Just as she was about to get back into the carriage.
“Duchess!”
Kain hurried over.
“This is the location of the shelter I mentioned earlier. I thought it might help when you are considering it.”
He carefully held out a small piece of memo paper in his hand.
“And if you change your mind about preparing the dance drama for the Eve festival, please let me know anytime. My grandmother also said she would be waiting.”
As a subtle sense of expectation flowed from Kain, a heavy warmth suddenly drew closer behind Agnes’s back.
Lionel, standing behind Agnes as if embracing her, snatched the memo paper Kain held out instead.
“This is quite a unique experience. Exchanging secret letters while the husband is watching intently.”
“It’s, it’s a misunderstanding. Your Grace the Duke.”
Kain hurriedly waved his hands.
“It was not such an impure intention. It was just that I had asked if the Duchess could look over the dance lessons for the children I care for, so I was only giving her the address.”
“That is a fact I have already heard and know.”
Lionel looked down at the memo for a moment, then crumpled the paper into a ball and dropped it on the floor just like that.
“Regrettably, I cannot grant that request. My wife is not planning to step outside the Duke’s residence for the time being.”
Lionel slid his arm around Agnes’s waist and hugged her naturally.
As if claiming she was his.
Then he climbed into the carriage just like that and closed the door. In an instant, Kain disappeared from Agnes’s sight.
It was an act that couldn’t be more childish.
However, just seeing Agnes together with Kain made Lionel’s mood jump uncontrollably out of bounds.
Kain shared a commonality with Agnes called dance.
Thanks to that, he naturally shared a sense of identity with Agnes, and at that point, Lionel felt a gap that he could never close.
Even that alone was unpleasant, but teaching children.
Then it was obvious he would be more deeply intertwined with Kain than now, and he was expected to just let that happen.
‘Out of the question.’
Lionel’s eyebrows arched sharply.
Furthermore, after the plan to link the entire Valheim with Rebelt along with Agnes went awry, Jerome was watching with glaring eyes for any opportunity to drag Agnes back in at any moment.
In this situation, Agnes’s frequent outings would only result in throwing prey to Jerome.
Even just for now, it was right to keep her inside the Duke’s residence for her safety.
The vow that he could throw away the existence called Agnes once her use was finished had long since vanished.
Lionel had no intention of letting Agnes go. As long as she had come into his hands.
“You’ve overexerted yourself handling the trading company business, so rest inside the mansion for the time being.”
“……Yes.”
At Agnes’s sunken answer, Lionel examined her face closely.
Quitting the trading company work, and not being able to teach dance. She seemed quite regretful.
“If you really want to teach dance to others, I’ll create a small dance troupe for you.”
Couldn’t she just pick those dance troupe members to her liking and train them as she wants? That way would be more enjoyable.
However, even at the proposal that any dancer who had retired from the stage would have dreamed of at least once, Agnes merely shook her head quietly with a somewhat awkward smile.
“It’s okay. I don’t have the confidence to teach well anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
“If you say so.”
Lionel tilted his head slightly.
There was still a shadow on Agnes’s face, but he didn’t think much of it.
Anyway, the regret was temporary.
Since Agnes is someone who likes luxury items. If he heaped splendid dresses and ornaments upon her, she would soon forget this current disappointment.
Since the internal affairs of the Duke’s residence were becoming quite stable, that much was not difficult.
Lionel lazily entrusted his body to the movement of the carriage, picturing dresses in his mind that would likely suit Agnes.
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