That’s it? Count Coultershe has a shameless smile on his face.
“I’m sorry. Actually, I haven’t met Lady Danekier yet.”
“Huh?”
“I just know that she’s beautiful from looking at her portrait……oh, don’t get me wrong. I haven’t been interested in her. However, the people around me advise me, so out of curiosity…….”
I let the uninterested chatter from Count Coultershe go in one ear.
What, so you don’t know anything, do you?
While I was disappointed, I thought it was a little unexpected.
He never met her before, so he didn’t know anything but her appearance.
‘Should I ask him if rumours are going around?’
Looking at his character, I don’t think Count Coultershe would have answered, ‘I don’t believe rumours and only judge the person who I saw with my own eyes!’
Hmm.
I smoothed my chin with deepening wonder.
What is it? The fact that Alice Danekier is a beauty that resembles a black rose was a long way from explaining what I experienced a while ago.
There’s no way that she’s treated as filthy just because she has a pretty face?
That’s impossible. I don’t know if the opposite is true though.
Outstanding appearance is usually a power in both genders.
‘Oh. Is there a rumour that she’s going out with a powerful man?’
Wait, does this make sense?
“Of course, everyone around me is busy praising the beauty and charm of Lady Danekier. I’m sure they’re all blind idiots. Real beauty is not a dark, dull black rose, but a red, bright, and fresh rose.…….”
Anyway, I’m going to deal with this noisy and useless quack first.
I raised my hand to hand over the non-stop chatting Count Coultershe to a passing servant.
It was then.
“Everyone, Lady Danekier from Baron Danekier is coming in!”
The servant’s voice at the entrance crossed the party.
The servant’s voice was still loud and unchanging, but this time there was a shake in his voice.
Like a person who is agitated by something.
I turned my eyes naturally to the entrance.
Not only me, but all the attention of the party hall seemed to be focused in one place at this moment.
I soon remembered the expression that Count Coultershe had put on his lips.
“Black Rose.”
The smooth black hair under the light was the first thing which caught the eye.
Next was the dress. The black dress, which reveals the silhouette of the body and gracefully drops the line, sparkled like a myriad of stars in the night sky as if it had been ground and sprinkled with pearls.
Lastly, the eyes.
Her eyes were pure black as a dress.
“…….”
I opened and closed my eyelids, feeling a little embarrassed.
‘It’s like a black rose.’
I can’t honestly say that I didn’t laugh at that expression when I heard it from Coultershe.
But when I saw the opponent in person, I was reminded of a black rose, so I had nothing to say.
It was her hair colour that especially supported the association.
Isn’t that the colour of the black rose petals?
Not black, but technically blackish purple.
I’ve read somewhere before that the leaves of flowers in the natural world can’t be completely black, so even if it’s a black rose, it’s not really black, but it’s a purple colour that’s close to black in that way.….
‘Let’s… let’s stop.’
I shook my head because I was thinking something useless too hard.
I don’t know what’s important to me whether she looks like a black rose or not.
I don’t have the ambition to compile a flower encyclopedia as a person.
And most importantly, I felt the same level as the Viscount Coultershe, so I felt a great sense of shame.
‘Just that……’
It was time for me to reflect on myself in great mental pain.
As Alice entered, the party venue, which had been quiet for a while, became noisy again.
However, this time, the disturbance was concentrated around one person.
“Lady Danekier! You’ve come. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Wasn’t it hard to get here?”
“If I had known you were coming, I would have sent you a carriage and a servant to escort you.”
“Just a servant? I would have gone myself.”
“You want to go in person? Don’t you think Lady Danekier would feel burdensome?”
“What do you mean burden? I put my heart and soul into it! But don’t you know that spending your servants alone is a way of you ignoring Lady Danekier?”
“Ignore? Huh! I guess you don’t know the word consideration for balls.”
“What!?”
I watched the uproar with a blink of an eye.
‘They’ll eventually fight.’
As soon as Alice appeared, the men who flocked round her like bees began to squirm with each other in an instant because each tried to look good to her.
It was quite a spectacle to watch.
‘By the way…….’
When I saw the commotion around Alice, I destroyed one of the hypotheses that I had just now.
‘The rumour couldn’t be because she’s going out with a powerful man.’
If it had been, such a sight could not have been possible now.
No matter how beautiful and attractive she is, everyone would have been unable to speak to her in a public place like now and secretly attacked her with gifts from behind the scenes.
That’s not the reason for that, after all.
Then what is it?
‘……jealousy?’
I came up with a word that naturally derives from the loud sight before my eyes.
However, it was not clearly convinced.
She’s being treated as filthy because of jealousy?
She’s popular with men, so she’s filthy?
‘I don’t know.’
I stopped thinking half-heartedly, giving up the speculation.
Since the girls who only gave me curiosity and left ferociously would know the truth.
‘I’ll have to ask anyone if I see one of them later.’
I didn’t think it would be very profitable to just think about it by myself.
After all, Alice Danekier, who I see, is pretty, looks like a black rose – which I hate to admit it because of Viscount Coultershee- but she was just an ordinary young lady who was popular with the opposite sex.
Of course, being normal here is not enough to be treated as filthy.
That’s what I thought, so I took my eyes off Alice.
There’s no reason to keep an eye on her.
I was going to do it a while ago, but I need to get rid of this……….
‘Where did this quack go?’
I turned to the side and stopped. The waste that could not be disposed of was automatically gone.
At that time, a familiar voice and lines were heard around Alice.
“Lady Danekier. As soon as I saw my lady, I prepared a red wine like my heart, which started to jump like an active volcano. Would you like a drink?”
I laughed as soon as I saw Viscount Coultershe moaning with wine among the crowd.
It’s fast, too. I’m glad I didn’t take any trouble cleaning up.
“Madam, if you’d like me to do something. “.”
“No, that’s okay.”
The servant, who I called by raising my hand, approached me belatedly.
Looking at the hint, the servant was fascinated by Alice, but he seemed to have finally come to his senses.
There’s no other woman with a charm like this. I thought little of it and sent the servant away.
The servant gave me a nod and glanced back at Alice.
Alice was surrounded by more and more people, and now she was barely seen.
I watched the servant’s useless attempts and quickly looked around the party.
“Well, shall I go find Ash?”
I think they’re almost done talking by now.
I agonized silently in the middle of the wide-open party testing my sense of direction.
“Which direction did he go? Um… was it this way?”
“What’s this way?”
“So the man I’m looking for–“
I answered despite myself to the voice that spoke to me naturally and raised my head.
“Ash!”
“Did you look for me?”
Ash smiled enchantingly, making eye contact with me.
I closed and opened my eyelids in a daze.
“When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
I’m in no position to talk to others. I guess I didn’t even see Ash coming close because I was so distracted by Alice.
I moved quite a bit when we broke up earlier, but he managed to find myself right away.
I asked him, clasping my hand in joy.
“How’re the talks going? Moustache… No, with Count Donizoa?”
Ash kissed my eyelids as he answered.
For a moment, a small smile escaped from the tickle.
Someone might think we met after a day apart, but what’s the point? Let’s say that’s what we felt.
“What did the Count say?”
“He wants to take over any businesses that he’s heard about to be disposed of.”
“So? Did you agree?”
“Well, I didn’t have to say no.”
My hunch was right. I became satisfied. That’s good.
Wouldn’t Ash be freer than she is now once he’s sorted it out?
Anyway, I wish Ash had more time for himself.
I didn’t want him to walk around with me like now, but I just wanted to see him rest well alone.
Sometimes he seems like a person who has become a habit of overworking his body.
Or maybe he was looking fine for abusing someone else.
I stared at Ash with that thought.
Ash asked me in a light voice.
“Why?”
He’s asking me if I have something to say. But I already told him to take it easy last time. It feels like I’m nagging again.
I was contemplating and suddenly got playful, so I opened my mouth.
“Do you have anything to say to me?”
I threw an arrow at Ash and held back my laughter.
As expected, Ash asked again.
“Anything to say?”
“Think it over.”
Of course, thinking well won’t make him think of anything. It was just a joke.
‘Shall I make fun of him?’
I was very motivated to think that I could see his embarrassed face for the first time in a while.
There’s nothing more than impure motives.
I pretended to be serious, holding the corners of my mouth calmly as it was about to go up.
“Are you sure you don’t have anything to say?”
But Ash, who I thought would be more puzzled, quickly changed his colour.
As if he knew……. huh? What did he know?
Then Ash bowed his head and whispered to me in my ear.
“I missed you. My wife.”
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