Chapter 5 (Part 7)

Now that she thought about it, their current position was quite embarrassing. With Therese sitting on top of the Duke, it looked as though she were caressing his face.  

“Even if I’m not your ideal man or someone you like.”  

The Duke’s words left Therese’s expression tinged with confusion.  

‘You’re my ideal type, and the person I like is you.’  

Everything he said was wrong, but Therese had no intention of correcting him.  

As she shook her head slightly, the Duke, pale-faced, whispered.  

“I’m starting to feel a little tired.”  

After losing so much blood, it was only natural for him to feel exhausted.  

“Then you should rest…”  

As Therese tried to pull her hand away, the Duke’s heavy arm wrapped around her waist. Instead of escaping, she found herself trapped in his embrace in an instant.  

When she raised her head to protest, her eyes widened.  

“Let me go, Your Grace!”  

No matter how hard she struggled with all her strength, she couldn’t overcome his firm grip.  

And then, she heard soft, steady breathing near her ear.  

“What? Did he fall asleep already?”  

Seeing the Duke asleep with his eyes closed, Therese was overcome with a sense of futility.  

“How is he so strong…”  

No matter how much she squirmed, she couldn’t loosen the Duke’s arms, which were tightly wrapped around her. When her nose accidentally brushed against the open part of his robe, Therese flinched in shock.  

“…Ha.”  

The flickering candlelight seemed ready to be extinguished at any moment, and with her back pressed against the Duke’s chest, her throat felt parched.  

‘I need to think about something else.’  

Squeezing her eyes shut, Therese tried to force herself to think sad thoughts.  

‘These arms will loosen soon. I just need to endure a little longer.’  

She tried to stay awake, but after moving around so much since dawn, her body quickly grew drowsy.  

‘I can’t…’  

As her heavy eyelids finally closed, the darkened bedroom was filled only with the sound of their breathing.  

***

The work of sorting through the information sent by owls from various regions was in full swing. After taking a day off, the backlog of work left no room for rest. Several empty coffee cups were stacked in front of Therese.  

“Information from Urcana has arrived.”  

“…You’ve worked hard.”  

At the messenger’s words, Therese let out a long sigh.  

Opening the waterproofed goatskin envelope, she unfolded the documents and reached for her coffee cup with her other hand.  

“…?”  

At some point, the Duke had approached and taken the cup from her.  

“I think you should stop drinking coffee.”  

“…Ha.”  

Therese was suffering immense regret from a single mistake.  

‘Just thinking about this morning…’  

She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.  

For the first time since her regression, Therese had slept soundly, free from the nightmares that usually plagued her.  

As she stretched and moved her body, her fingertips brushed against firm muscles.  

‘Oh no, I’ve lost my mind.’  

She had woken up in the Duke’s arms.  

She had barely stopped herself from screaming, but he had looked completely unbothered.  

‘Did you sleep well?’  

And that wasn’t the end of it.  

The Duke had insisted on escorting her today.  

‘Things are still chaotic outside. I can’t let you go alone. Protecting a member of the Richard family is my duty.’  

But Therese didn’t want to reveal her guild operations to him. To hide it, she had switched carriages and even disguised herself on the way to the bazaar.  

When Therese hesitated at a critical crossroads, the Duke spoke.  

“You won’t be able to get rid of me.”  

Seeing the Duke’s determined face, as if he were heading into battle, Therese decided to tell a small lie.  

‘I’m just helping my father with some work.’  

As the daughter of Baron Demori, it was a perfectly natural excuse.  

As long as she didn’t reveal the existence of the information guild, he would just think she was running a business.  

‘If that’s the case, there’s no reason to hide it from me.’  

‘But I, as the Duchess, is seen running a business…’  

Nobles often viewed merchants as vulgar and greedy people with no dignity.  

‘I don’t care what others think. I won’t stop you from doing what you want.’  

Since the Duke had said this much, she had no choice but to take him along.  

‘I absolutely have to visit the office.’  

After all, even one day of inactivity could result in significant losses in business.  

If she hadn’t quickly sent a message to Roshan telling him not to come, it would have been a disaster.  

The thought of being in the cramped office with both Roshan and the Duke was horrifying enough to give her a headache.  

As her head throbbed, she craved coffee even more.  

When Therese fiddled with her empty cup, the Duke, standing beside her, scolded her.  

“You should drink some warm tea instead.”  

And the Duke even personally brewed tea and brought it to her. Though his movements were clumsy, spilling about half of it, he still managed.  

“Thank you.”  

Looking down at the tea, Therese wore a slightly bewildered expression.  

She never imagined she’d be drinking tea made by Duke Richard himself.  

“You can rest on the sofa over there.”  

Trying to focus on her work, she attempted to send him away, but instead of heading to the sofa, the Duke casually perched on the edge of her desk.  

“This seems a bit crooked.”  

“……”  

The bandage she had tied firmly in the morning was now a mess.  

‘What on earth did he do with that hand?’  

Suppressing a sigh, Therese reached out to rewrap the bandage, but the Duke spoke softly.  

“Just out of curiosity…”  

His voice instinctively made Therese’s back stiffen with tension.  

She hadn’t realized it before, but the Duke had a knack for making her heart drop.  

Every time he started a sentence like that, none of what followed was ever good.  

‘I need to shut him up somehow.’  

“No. Don’t say anything, Your Grace.”  

Therese responded coldly.  

As she tied the bandage, Duke Richard finally opened his mouth.  

“When did you start climbing walls?”  

“…….”  

She had wondered why he hadn’t asked about it, but now the troublesome moment had arrived.  

It was hardly normal for a lady of a Baron’s family to climb over walls.  

If she hadn’t been caught in the act, she would have denied it outright.  

“It’s a personal matter, so I won’t answer.”  

As Therese avoided answering, he leaned slightly closer.  

“Did the bastard who taught you how to use a dagger tell you to do it?”  

The Duke’s voice was low and chilling as he fiddled with the bandage.  

“Why on earth do you want to know that?”  

“Because I want to know about you.”  

“Is it really necessary for you to know?”  

Without even glancing at Duke Richard, Therese pulled out an abacus. She was about to place the beads while flipping through the ledger when the Duke asked,  

“Don’t tell me you learned it from that bastard?”  

“……Yes.”  

It was true.  

Roshan had taught her many useful things that neither her father nor her teacher had shown her.  

She wanted to shut the Duke up as he continued his relentless questioning.  

When Therese admitted it outright, the Duke’s expression turned grim, and he stood up from the desk.  

When she glanced at him, he was already acting as though she didn’t exist, focusing on her abacus.  

‘Is a slave more important to her than her husband?’  

Just mentioning a mere slave had made Therese act as though she were annoyed.  

‘Even after all this, she still won’t look at me.’  

Jeremy frowned as he looked at his injured arm.  

This morning, he had been utterly shocked.  

The two of them had fallen asleep, tightly embracing each other in bed.  

Although he had thought about not letting Therese leave before he collapsed into sleep, he hadn’t intended for things to happen this way.  

Moreover, this was something entirely foreign to him.  

‘To think I shared a bed with someone…’  

Even if he told Georges, Georges probably wouldn’t believe him.  

Having lived his entire life under the threat of assassination, Jeremy’s nerves were overly sensitive. For this reason, he didn’t even allow a single attendant in his barracks at the frontier.  

‘But despite all of this…’  

Jeremy Richard couldn’t take his eyes off the woman who was ignoring him.  

It had been over two weeks since Jeremy Richard had volunteered to escort Therese. Since they were always together when the knights weren’t busy, Therese had half given up.  

‘I wish the ball would be held soon.’  

That way, she could escape this suffocating escort, which felt more like surveillance.  

As she watched the raindrops tapping against the window of the swaying carriage, Therese became lost in thought.  

‘It needs to rain a little more…’  

Recently, there hadn’t been much rain, and the damage to crops had been severe. Even though they were preparing in advance, it was only a temporary measure.  

At that moment, Duke Richard, seated across from her, interrupted her thoughts.  

“…About the divorce. Are you still set on it?”  

“Yes. I want a divorce.”  

Her unwavering response made Jeremy try not to grimace.