Could he really not believe she was a noble even after receiving such a large sum of money?

No matter how much she tried to act modestly, Angela couldn’t help but reveal her wronged feelings when a surge of indignation rose up in an instant.

“…”

No answer came back. Instead, his eyes narrowed even more. His scanning gaze was still full of doubt and distrust.

Angela bit her lower lip hard.

The imperial banquet hall was only for invited nobles, so it wasn’t a place commoners could come. If there were occasional exceptions, it would be something like nobles’ mistresses.

Surely… that can’t be it?

“I received the money well. So let’s say you’re a noble lady. Well then, I’ll be going.”

His tone became polite, contrasting with his still suspicious gaze, but it seemed like he was mocking Angela.

She clearly seemed to have learned noble gestures, so why still couldn’t he believe it?

“Can’t you tell from looking at my attire and gestures right now? I’m from the Huntley family.”

Angela shouted in a moment of anger. Since it felt like all her efforts were being denied, she directly revealed her wronged feelings.

“Who was it that did strange things to someone they met for the first time? If you’re going to lie, do it moderately.”

What came back was the man’s voice, grown even colder.

Strange things…

At that moment, Angela’s face instantly flushed. When she recalled what she had done, she couldn’t even lift her head.

“You do feel ashamed, don’t you?”

With an angry voice, Dion’s hand grabbed Angela’s wrist and placed it on his lower body. Just from the touch, she felt a creepy sensation like a snake writhing.

“Let go of this.”

“Look at this. Even doing this, you claim to be a noble?”

No matter how much she struggled, his grip strength holding her wrist was so strong she couldn’t shake it off. Rather, when the contact area with his lower body increased, the man’s member even began to swell.

“I clearly told you not to do it, but weren’t you the one who groped my body back then? Why are you suddenly acting like an innocent person? Ah, is it because this is the palace, so you’re acting modest now?”

His sarcastic voice, filled with fury, seemed to pierce Angela’s heart violently.

‘Could it be that… he thinks I’m a pr*stitute?’

At that moment, Angela realized what Dion meant. It was even more humiliating than the word mistress, and displeasure surged up.

Angela tightly grasped the man’s member with one hand. She wished his hard, disgusting thing would burst.

Ugh, at that moment a low groan flowed from Dion’s mouth, his face contorting, and only then did he let her go.

‘Finally I’ve escaped.’

She had gripped so hard that red marks remained on her wrist, and shallow gasps flowed from angry Angela’s lips.

Hah. A deflated sound flowed from Dion’s mouth as he regained his senses. It was a mocking laugh.

“Your hand skills are still the same.”

Soon after making this sarcastic, dismissive remark, Dion lightly bowed his head and began continuing on his way.

Angela was about to stop him but didn’t. Even if she refuted his words, it didn’t seem like the unpleasant feelings would disappear.

“…”

Watching the man’s retreating figure, she let out a deep sigh.

“To think I looked forward to possibly meeting such a man… I must have been temporarily insane.”

She hadn’t expected a warm greeting, but since they had met once before, she thought they could at least exchange light greetings.

But far from greeting her, Angela only received insulting looks and misunderstandings from him. Just thinking about it was absurd.

“What a rude person.”

The man was as heartless and cruel as his first impression. That wasn’t refusing to let her get close, but was closer to sending signals telling her to get lost.

Tch.

She would never acknowledge him again. Regretting that she had acknowledged him first, Angela made this resolution to herself several times.

* * *

“Thanks for covering for me alone. Nothing happened, right?”

When Dion’s steps approached the palace, his fellow knight Mark approached him with an apologetic expression.

“Nothing happened.”

“That’s a relief then.”

“If you’re worried, don’t slack off.”

“You don’t know how thrilling it is to whisper love while avoiding others’ eyes.”

Mark winked one eye and poked Dion’s chest with his elbow.

He was maintaining a secret relationship with Baroness Curtin. So he often secretly slipped away during work hours to enjoy trysts with her.

Other knights cursed about adultery and such and wouldn’t grant his requests, but since he gave decent money whenever he asked, Dion was turning a blind eye to his transgressions.

He had no interest in thrilling feelings or secret meetings. In his world, money was supreme, so as long as someone paid, he could overlook such things.

“Not interested.”

So since he had no interest in the emotions Mark felt, Dion’s gaze toward Mark was indifferent. Whether he dated a married woman or not had nothing to do with him at all.

“Cold bastard. You have plenty of money, so why are you always so obsessed with money?”

“It’s my private life, so mind your own business.”

He ignored the grumbling, but Dion kept hearing what Mark had said earlier echoing in his ears.

‘You have plenty of money, so why are you always so obsessed with money?’

Plenty of money, who has plenty of money?

Though he didn’t show it outwardly, he almost laughed from how ridiculous it was the moment he heard those words. If he had plenty of money, there would be no reason for him to be so pathetically obsessed with money.

There were circumstances that led to Dion’s obsession with money that he couldn’t tell those around him.

‘Dear Bennett, everything in the Buckle family belongs to you, so you must show dignity as the eldest son.’

Born as the second son of the Buckle baronial family, Dion had lived discriminated against compared to his older brother Bennett since childhood.

Since Bennett was the eldest son who would inherit the family, he grew up receiving all expectations and abundant love, while relatively speaking, Dion grew up alienated from the family without receiving his parents’ love.

‘Mother, they say I have a talent for swordsmanship.’

‘Dion, are you determined to crush Bennett’s spirit? From now on, sword practice is forbidden within the mansion.’

No matter how much he craved love from his parents, they turned away from Dion and poured all their love only on Bennett.

As a result, Dion had to be satisfied with living an affluent life because he was from a noble family, without his parents’ love. Thinking that love wasn’t needed at all and was useless, and that money was simply the best.

So he had to enter the imperial knights and prepare his own path to survival. If he had the inheritance from the baronial family and the position of knight, it seemed like he could live with reasonable satisfaction in his life, so he chose the path of knighthood.

But his life completely changed after Baron and Baroness Buckle died.

‘Dion, there’s no inheritance for you, so get out of the family immediately.’

After the carriage accident, Bennett violated the baron’s will and took away all the baronial family’s wealth. Dion naturally tried to claim his share, but Bennett had already spent even Dion’s portion.

Suddenly left with no wealth except what he had saved himself, Dion needed money more desperately than anyone, and from then on, his obsession with money began to grow even stronger.

Having grown up unloved even by his family, he didn’t trust people. The only thing he believed in was money. Because money didn’t betray.

He was sure of that, but…

At the word “tryst,” Dion recalled the woman he had encountered earlier. She looked unsophisticated to put it badly, or pure and innocent to put it nicely, but despite her appearance, she was that worn and weathered woman.

What a truly unexpected place to meet…

He recalled the forest where he first encountered Angela.

He had gone looking for those rebels after hearing rumors that those planning rebellion were hiding in the forest lately, and had discovered that woman by chance.

Though she didn’t seem refined, her slender curved eyebrows, large sparkling brown eyes, straight nose, cute lips, and harmoniously delicate face were damn pretty.

When he first encountered her in the forest, he had mistaken her for a large doll rather than a person.