Chapter 10

The next day, Vivian finally met Grace.

“Vivian, are you okay?”

Grace looked at Vivian with a worried expression.

“Ah, I’m not feeling well, but it’s bearable compared to yesterday.”

“Oh, my brother, really! Can’t he take it easy!”

“Grace, you’re smiling right now.”

Vivian pointed out after seeing Grace’s expression. Grace, unaware, was startled.

“Oh no!”

“By the way, you said you’d take all the responsibility and then ran away alone without loyalty.”

Vivian looked at Grace with a reproachful gaze.

“Oh, no, that’s not true! Actually, I was suddenly pushed out of the bedroom by some force.”

“…Pardon?”

“It might be hard to believe, but it’s true. I think it was my brother’s doing.”

“What? The Marquis? Grace…. I won’t blame you. You can be honest.”

“No, no, it’s true. Really frustrating. Oh, right. My brother might have used magic! He’s good at all sorts of things. It wouldn’t be strange if he used magic to push me out.”

“Is that so? Amazing.”

Vivian was purely impressed.

“Right. My brother was the top of the class the year before I graduated! It’s entirely possible. And after doing such a thing, there was a big incident where my brother woke up. Would I run away without witnessing such an interesting scene? I would hide and watch, not run out of the room.”

“Oh, when you put it that way, it’s a bit convincing.”

Vivian, having somewhat grasped Grace’s love for novels, was accepting it.

“And I was worried, so I stayed in the next room!”

“…The next room?”

“Yes! If my brother tried to accuse you, I planned to appear and stop him!”

“…That means….”

“Ahaha, instead of accusing, the atmosphere was so good that I couldn’t find the right timing and ended up eavesdropping….”

“Did you hear?”

Vivian looked at Grace with more astonished eyes. Grace felt sweat trickling down the back of her head.

“What? Uh, no?”

“Did you hear or not?”

“That, well… I didn’t hear anything. I just planned to come out if I heard the door open!”

“…….”

Vivian still looked skeptical.

“Really. Oh, but, while waiting, neither of you came out, so I fell asleep in the next room.”

Grace, looking a bit dejected, watched Vivian’s reaction. She hadn’t anticipated things would go this far after making such an unreasonable proposal, so she was gauging Vivian’s mood.

“I’ll believe you for now.”

Seeing Grace’s somewhat apologetic expression, Vivian’s heart softened a little.

“Haha, thank you, Vivian. Then, shall we return to the guest room? Let’s talk in detail about yesterday….”

Grace chattered excitedly. Vivian, listening to Grace’s story, interrupted with a troubled face.

“Um, excuse me….”

“Yes?”

Grace, who was telling her story, stopped and looked at Vivian when she interrupted.

“I don’t think I can leave here. Can we talk here?”

“What? Why can’t you leave? What do you mean?”

“It’s about what I did. Because of that, the Marquis suffered a great mental shock, and if I want forgiveness, I agreed to stay here for a month.”

“What?! What did you say?! That’s confinement!”

“Oh, is it? But I agreed to it.”

Vivian scratched her neck awkwardly.

“What?! Why?!”

Grace demanded an answer, looking at Vivian with wide eyes. She couldn’t understand why Vivian would meekly accept such confinement-like treatment.

“Grace, you encouraged me, but if I didn’t have feelings for him, I wouldn’t have done such a thing. So, I wanted to be forgiven and regain trust. Besides, that happened….”

Vivian trailed off, blushing. Moreover, she couldn’t tell what kind of punishment awaited her if she left. Thinking about it made her face flush even more.

* * *

Grace left Cassius’s bedroom, where Vivian was, and walked down the corridor. She had a destination in mind. It was her brother Cassius’s office, where she intended to give him a piece of her mind and make him retract this absurd confinement proposal.

However, on her way to his office, she unexpectedly ran into the person in question coming from the other end of the corridor. Cassius was the first to greet her.

“Grace, hello. I received the gift you sent two nights ago very well. I didn’t expect you to do such a grateful deed. Thanks to you, things went very smoothly. Thank you. Well, I have work, so I’ll be going.”

Cassius seemed to be in a very good mood. He complimented Grace unilaterally and tried to continue on his way.

“Wait!”

Grace urgently called out to Cassius.

“Hm? Do you still have something to say? Oh, I see. You want a reward. As expected of my sister. So, what do you want….”

“No, what are you talking about? That’s not it! Brother, what are you planning?!”

Grace, who was trying to grasp the situation, shouted, interrupting Cassius’s unexpected words.

“What are you talking about, Grace?”

Cassius asked calmly, in stark contrast to the excited Grace. It was clear he knew what she was talking about but was pretending not to. This only provoked Grace further, and she approached Cassius with determined steps.

“Do you not know? It’s about Vivian. No matter what, there’s no need to hold her like this! I knew you liked Vivian, but this is too much!”

“Hm…. Grace, you’re telling an interesting story. Isn’t it the same for you?”

Cassius’s eyes curved gently, creating a soft smile. However, Grace, intimidated by his demeanor, stepped back and replied.

“I-I didn’t do anything!”

Though she was guilty, she feigned innocence, unable to hide her true feelings, and inadvertently raised her voice. Even as Grace shouted, Cassius calmly watched her with a leisurely smile.

“You used Vivian for your selfish desires too, didn’t you? You told me to drink a beverage with a sleeping pill in it. You asked Jayden to make an aphrodisiac, didn’t you? Vivian drank that, right? You aroused her desires and told her to climb on top of me in a state no different from being n*ked. My sister, but you’re quite the rogue.”

As Cassius recounted all of Grace’s plans, her complexion turned pale. She hadn’t expected him to know so much.

“…How did you know…! Did you know from the beginning?”

“Yes, I was awake even before you knocked on my bedroom door. No, it’s more accurate to say I was waiting without sleeping.”

He smiled slightly, eyes narrowed. To Grace, it seemed cunning and sly.

“You sly fox….”

“Haha, that doesn’t seem like an appropriate title for your brother. Besides, you were the one who orchestrated this situation, Grace. And you did it by forcing Vivian.”

Having already grasped the situation, he pressed Grace by hitting the mark.

“T-that’s because Vivian was okay with it! Besides, Vivian has some feelings for you….”

“I know.”

Cassius replied with a bright smile. He seemed to be in an even better mood.

“What?!”

“I was trying to approach cautiously, thinking Vivian might feel burdened as her friend’s brother. But you laid the groundwork so openly. I’m neither kind nor naive enough to endure that. Besides, Vivian climbed on top of me herself. If I let her go, I’d be considered impotent, wouldn’t I?”

His voice was somewhat elevated, as if he felt good just thinking about it.

“So, you plan to continue like this?”

“Of course, I won’t do that. I plan to do so only until I get what I want.”

“What do you want? What do you want? Vivian’s family is a Baron’s house. You know they don’t even have a territory and are nobles in name only, right?”

“Riches are overflowing in our house. You know that too, Grace.”

Cassius shrugged his shoulders. Grace couldn’t argue.

“Then, what on earth is it?”

“Of course, it’s Vivian. I want to completely own Vivian.”

Grace’s lips twitched at Cassius’s words full of obsession.

“No, what…?”

“Didn’t you understand? I’ll make her mine and have her live in this Marquis estate forever. I’ll take away her surname and engrave Lofaere on that name. It’s not such a bad thing for you either, is it?”

“That, that’s….”

Grace couldn’t properly answer and just opened and closed her mouth. Her confused eyes were busy shaking.

“Seeing you can’t refute, it must really be so. If you understand, just watch what I do. You’ll see something more than the scenes you desire in novels. From a front-row seat, too.”

Having said all he wanted, Cassius walked ahead without listening to Grace’s answer.

“…….”

Even as Cassius completely walked away, Grace couldn’t say anything to him and just stood there with a shocked expression, her mouth opening and closing.

“Miss Grace? What are you doing here?”

Her personal maid, Anna, who was passing by, found Grace standing blankly in the corridor and spoke to her.

“Isn’t he completely crazy?”

Finally coming to her senses, Grace belatedly expressed her feelings. Calling her brother crazy, Grace was quite agitated. She continued to speak excitedly. The maid standing nearby watched Grace’s actions, wondering what was happening.

“Oh my…. Truth is stranger than fiction…. This is exactly that. What should I do? It’s too…. too stimulating. Thrilling!”

In the novel, Marquis Rimor was depicted with little reckless or obsessive behavior, perhaps fearing a real person would complain, and his gentle side was emphasized. However, seeing the unfiltered reality of Marquis Lofaere’s obsession with Vivian, it seemed fresher to Grace.