52. Thief, Noble Thief
Having grown up among brothers who had been knighted, Luka maintained strict military discipline despite never receiving military training himself.
He would reflexively stand at attention with his hands on his thighs whenever his full name was called, regardless of the situation.
Seeing everyone’s eyes in the reception room suddenly fixed on him, belated regret washed over him.
As his identity was in danger of being exposed in this critical moment, Luka gulped nervously.
“You must have gotten confused because they have the same name.”
Bianca said with a giggle.
“Teacher, please sit down.”
As she tugged on his sleeve, Luka sat back down, having avoided the crisis.
She turned to her father and continued the conversation.
“Come on, there’s no such thing as a ‘Free Pass at Meeting the In-Laws.’ Though if they had an impression like our Teacher Tranov, that would be different.”
At those words, Baptiski’s gaze fixed on Luka’s face.
In truth, he had only heard rumors about Luka Oblonsky but had never seen him in person.
He rarely visited the north, and even when he did, he only occasionally glimpsed the eldest son, the heir, in passing.
All the Oblonsky sons took after their father with their bear-like builds and rough appearances, but he remembered hearing that only the youngest son took after his mother, captivating women’s hearts with his refined looks.
The tutor before his eyes now looked very similar to how Baptiski had imagined Luka Oblonsky would look.
With such a face, he could somewhat understand the mindset of parents who would skip the formal meeting and go straight to setting a wedding date.
But that was other people’s business—Baptiski was different.
He believed there was no man in the world worthy of his precious daughters whom he cherished more than his own eyes.
He had only tried to get them married before they passed marriageable age to avoid public criticism—in truth, he wouldn’t have minded living like this with his daughters forever.
With Katya, he couldn’t even dare to think unfavorably of her match since her partner was the sovereign, his loyalty overshadowing everything else. But for Bianca’s partner, he intended to scrutinize with eagle eyes.
Yet Bianca, who had never shown interest in men or commented on anyone being handsome, praised this tutor for the first time.
‘Could my daughter possibly have other feelings for him?’
Due to the laser-like suspicious gazes being shot at him, Luka’s forehead felt hot even as he kept his head bowed.
Nikolai also felt strange about Bianca’s words.
He clearly remembered Katya saying something similar.
“He has such a friendly impression, doesn’t he?”
‘Do sisters have similar taste?’
Nikolai, who had never once been stressed about his appearance in his life, felt threatened for the first time.
Though she had said his face was her type, could it be that Katya actually found Luka more handsome?
As they say, those who have more fear losing it more, and Nikolai, with his insane good looks, was worrying over something completely pointless.
“Mr. Tranov does have a good impression. He’s handsome too.”
Katya agreed with her sister’s words.
Receiving praise from both Smirnov sisters simultaneously, Luka’s face turned red and he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Though he regularly received such compliments, being acknowledged by the person he liked and her family felt different.
“Anyway, I don’t think I’d like that Oblonsky family’s young master.”
Bianca replied in an uninterested tone.
“Why do you think that?”
Luka blurted out the question before he could stop himself.
“Seeing how women swarm around him, he probably has lots of dating experience and seems quite flirtatious.”
Though she didn’t state it definitively, her expression was confident.
Handsome men live up to their looks.
It was quite a common prejudice, like believing beautiful women with kind hearts don’t lie.
This was the moment when the rumored top bachelor became a confirmed playboy according to Bianca.
Watching this as an observer, Nikolai finally burst out laughing, holding his stomach.
“Sister-in-law, you know your stuff. Right. That’s how you should stay away from such men. Look at me. I’m clean without any women around me. I’m going to marry Tia with a pure and chaste body.”
“Your Highness, those are usually thoughts people keep to themselves.”
“What’s wrong with it? Pure? Chaste?”
“Sigh. You even talked about chastity before.”
“That’s right, isn’t it? I was a pure body until you took my chastity.”
Nikolai fluttered his eyelashes and put on the most virtuous expression in the world.
Excuse me?
Duke Baptiski blanched.
Previously he had made the outrageous excuse that they had only shared a bed, but it seemed something had indeed happened between them.
Moreover, it was the Grand Duke who had his chastity taken.
“Your Highness, I must have raised my daughter wrong…”
Seeing her father trying to bow his head again with a guilty expression, Katya waved her hands.
“Father, no! I’m not that kind of improper person!”
“There seems to be some misunderstanding–”
“Ah, Mr. Tranov, well said! There’s a misunderstanding, Father!”
“No, I meant about His Highness the Grand Duke.”
Luka, who had been sharpening his blade of revenge against the Grand Duke’s betrayal, said with a smile.
“He shares popularity with Lord Luka Oblonsky in the capital. Actually, while Lord Oblonsky barely maintains his following through careful image management, His Highness has a fixed demand no matter what you do—wouldn’t that make His Highness the true number one in society?”
His friend’s revenge was bitter.
Though Nikolai sent silent signals to shut his mouth, Luka just shrugged his shoulders mischievously.
“Ah, so you had a fixed following.”
“It’s a misunderstanding, Tia. I had none at all. Any woman who knows fear would never follow me.”
“You don’t need to lie because of me. What’s wrong with being popular?”
As Nikolai stammered explanations to Katya, the awaited designer arrived in the reception room.
The sisters became completely absorbed in the fabrics being laid out by the boutique staff.
Finally able to catch his breath, Nikolai threatened Luka with gestures that he wouldn’t let this go, while Luka pretended not to see and turned his head away.
Unaware of the men’s battle of nerves behind her, Katya listened intently to the tailor’s explanation.
The designer’s voice was as elevated as his spirits as he showed design samples before choosing decorations and fabrics.
It was understandable. Though famous within Padovangrad, he never dreamed he would make the Grand Duke’s wedding attire in his lifetime.
“How about this? When the previous Empress of the Charmente Empire wore it at her wedding, ivory dresses became trendy, so I prepared one.”
“I don’t really prefer designs with a lot of exposure.”
“What does Your Highness think?”
Even afterwards, the designer kept turning to look at Nikolai and checking his reaction while choosing each decoration.
When the question came to him for the fifth time, Nikolai could no longer hold back and said to him:
“You should listen carefully to the opinion of the person wearing it. There’s no need to get my permission for everything. Follow what the Grand Duchess wants.”
“I-I apologize for my rudeness, Your Highness.”
Seeing this, Baptiski couldn’t help but marvel inwardly.
Many nobles considered their wives as possessions.
They obtained beautiful women as spouses to show off proudly to others, and didn’t spare any expense on adorning their wives who were the face of their family.
In fact, Baptiski had been considered almost a heretic in both the south and among the nobility since his youth.
There were quite a few devoted husbands who loved their wives like him, but they weren’t free from public scrutiny.
Even when choosing a single dress, if women were with their husbands, the clerk’s questions naturally went to the husband who paid.
When couples were together in public, giving decision-making power to the wife was rare because it was seen as the husband losing a power struggle.
Baptiski couldn’t help but be pleased since his son-in-law’s attitude toward his daughter showed sincerity.
When fathers with daughters first meet their future sons-in-law, they usually view them as thieves.
Since Nikolai was the sovereign, he couldn’t dare call him a thief, so let’s elevate it to ‘noble thief.’
In any case, his son-in-law was an extremely rare and precious noble thief in aristocratic society.
“It might feel stuffy if the dress covers too much since I’ll only wear it once. Usually for state weddings, you need to look modest and cover everything from neck to wrists, right?”
“You can decide that for the state wedding too.”
“Isn’t it traditionally chosen by the previous Grand Duchess?”
“I told you. I’m a tyrant who doesn’t care about laws or traditions.”
“Can I really choose whatever I want?”
“What does design matter? You’ll blind my eyes no matter what you wear.”
At those words, Luka’s jaw dropped and he unconsciously spat the tea he was drinking back into his cup.
He was so shocked he wanted to grab the Grand Duke’s collar and ask if he was really the Grand Duke or an impostor wearing his skin.
To think that mouth that only spoke arrogant words was now pouring out such embarrassingly love-filled lines…
Ignoring his closest aide’s reaction, the love-struck groom could only gaze with honey-dripping eyes at Katya’s back as she departed to change clothes with the staff.
A bit far from the reception room, in a tree.
Assassins who had infiltrated Duke Smirnov’s residence were peering through telescopes at the situation in the reception room through the window.
Their target was, of course, Nikolai.
The Grand Duke, completely smitten with a woman, had a face that anyone could see was much less guarded than usual.
It was a good opportunity for them.
The bounty on the Grand Duke’s head was an enormous sum they couldn’t touch even if they died and came back to life.
Though being discovered meant death, the power of money was great enough that many risked their lives to try.
“Who’s there?”
As knights on patrol ran toward them, the masked assassins quickly jumped down from the tree and scaled the wall.
But they planned to return soon.
