Chapter 2 (Part 4)

Sienna crumpled the paper wildly with both hands. The miserably crumpled letter was scrunched up tightly in her fist.

“When he returns, I’ll kill him. Montague Onyx….”

She thought she should take him alive to the altar of the temple and offer him as a sacrifice. 

Spending 300 million to win the Duke is a crazy act? What is this utterly irresponsible attitude from the very person who instigated such madness?

Moreover, she now had to worry about being shaved bald and abandoned at the southernmost part of the empire. Though she wouldn’t actually be shaved since she hadn’t incurred a debt.

“This is driving me crazy, really.”

She stuffed the letter, now crumpled into a small ball, into her pocket and rubbed her face in frustration.

Once a magical spell is cast, it cannot be undone, and worrying now won’t change anything. She tilted her stiff neck from side to side and pulled the doorknob of the laboratory she had just arrived at.

“Did you wait long? Duke Felice… Kyaaah!”

Sienna’s scream echoed through the laboratory as she witnessed the scene inside the opened door.

“…Sienna. This is.”

Whatever wrong button he pressed, Eden, holding a model of a male organ that was wriggling in his hand with an awkward expression, stiffened when he saw her. Sienna, who was still screaming, looked as pale as if she had seen a ghost.

“It was too messy, so I just wanted to tidy it up for a moment.”

Eden stammered, still holding the vibrating item. Seeing the d*ldo vibrating with a proud presence, Sienna felt like crying.

She thought it might be better to faint, but she couldn’t. She ran across the floor, snatched the d*ldo and box from Eden’s hand, and began to kick the books, full of illustrations of a flesh-colored feast, to cover them.

“I-I’ll clean it up!”

After pressing the button to silence the bouncing d*ldo and quickly sweeping the other items back into the box, Sienna stacked the books so their spines wouldn’t show and shoved them into a corner, then staggered over to collapse onto the sofa.

“…….”

“…….”

A heavy silence filled the laboratory. Next to Sienna, who was curled up on the sofa with her face buried, Eden stood, his usual emotionless expression broken, his red eyes trembling slightly.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rummage through your things.”

“…….”

“I promise to keep what I just saw a secret. It won’t leak out.”

Eden managed to continue speaking. Sienna, who was curled up, suddenly lifted her head and glared at him with tearful eyes.

“I promise on Felice’s name. Really.”

Eden kept repeating his promise as if he had been pricked by something. Eventually, a large teardrop fell from the corner of Sienna’s eye.

She understood in her head that he didn’t rummage through her things on purpose, but right now she just felt so embarrassed she could die.

After a long while, when she had calmed down a bit, she sniffled and quietly opened her mouth.

“…It’s unfair. This is too unfair.”

“…What is unfair?”

“I’m the one who received your personal affairs for two weeks, Duke, but I’m the only one who got completely exposed!”

“……”

Eden could only look at Sienna with a bewildered expression, having nothing to say.

Meanwhile, Sienna, who was searching for something to blame, began to fully accuse him.

“It’s unfair. If you think about it, it’s all because of you, Duke! It’s against fairness that only my weaknesses are exposed. It doesn’t even align with the contract clause. The contract states that the contractor must fulfill the auctioneer’s demands until satisfied!”

Eden held back the urge to ask what that clause had to do with her being caught with obscene books and tools. Sienna seemed to take his silence as a kind of agreement, as she sniffled and subtly threatened with a slightly louder voice.

“Where in the world is there an auction that is so disadvantageous to the auctioneer! Maybe at this rate, the contract won’t be terminated.”

Eden wanted to ask if she thought that made logical sense, but seeing the large tears welling up in her eyes, he hesitated to speak rashly.

His intention to help organize her laboratory was good, but he indeed ended up exposing her secret, so he had nothing to say.

“…So, what do you want, Sienna Onyx?”

With a low sigh, Eden ran a hand through his hair and asked. It seemed he was willing to accommodate her to some extent, trying to soothe her.

She now had a shameful and dark history that would make her squirm under the covers for the rest of her life, and it somehow annoyed her that the person who caused these feelings looked so calm and emotionless. She felt wronged and sorrowful and wanted to make Eden feel this way too.

How could I make the Duke feel as ashamed as I did?

Pouting her lips for a moment, Sienna met Eden’s eyes with tearful determination.

“Can I touch you just once?”

“…What, what do you mean, what’s with that look?”

An uncharacteristically flustered voice slipped out. The words were so out of the blue that he stuttered naturally. He hesitated unconsciously under Sienna’s gaze, which swept over his chest and arms.

“I wish you could feel the same emotions as I do, Duke. So, I want to touch you just once.”

Sienna’s dark green eyes glistened with a strange madness. Her brazen and confident attitude left Eden speechless.

Meanwhile, an inexplicable heat, its origin unknown, ran up his spine and warmed his nape. 

What had those obscene things I just witnessed done to my mind?

He should be angry at such an absurd claim, but seeing her teary eyes staring at him with her mouth tightly shut, he couldn’t bring himself to speak coldly. Eden barely managed to squeeze out a rebuttal.

“You haven’t forgotten that the word ‘proper’ is written in the contract, have you?”

“If both parties agree, isn’t it irrelevant to the magical contract?”

Half of it was an impulsive remark, but Sienna had no intention of taking back her words. What could she do at this point? Having already been exposed as an immodest woman, she thought she wouldn’t feel so wronged if she could at least touch that body she had always secretly admired. Isn’t this the epitome of aligning words with actions?

Sienna seemed determined to grope his body. Eden sighed deeply, rubbing his temples.

He was indeed surprised when those items spilled out, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t know she was a pervert from the start, and was this really necessary?

But what was more bewildering than anything was his own desire to just give in to her ridiculous demand. Seeing her, who had been so jubilant just moments ago, now curled up on the sofa shedding large tears because of him made him uncomfortable.

There were still over ten days left, and he wasn’t confident he could watch Sienna tearfully every day during that time. If all it took was letting her touch him once, then perhaps accepting her absurd demand and erasing his mistake might be more efficient.

And underlying this thought was the assumption that Sienna wouldn’t actually be able to touch him. Her words of wanting to touch were likely just out of spite, so he thought he could let her try and naturally give up.

After pondering deeply, Eden looked at Sienna with his usual calm demeanor.

“Well then, do as you wish.”

Whether it was permission or not was ambiguous, but Sienna decided to take it as permission. She sprang up and approached Eden. Her hands, still trembling from shock and embarrassment, reached for the well-ironed shirt.

As her face drew closer, the sound of swallowing nervously was vividly audible. Sienna carefully pinched the collar of his shirt with two fingers. It looked more like she was about to grab him by the collar rather than grope him, causing a low chuckle to escape Eden’s lips.

“Are you going to hesitate like that and not touch today?”

“…I can touch. I will touch!”

Somehow, it turned into a situation where Eden seemed to be provoking her to touch him. Feeling provoked, Sienna bit her lip and grabbed his shirt with trembling hands. Eden was greatly taken aback by her subsequent action. Sienna gritted her teeth and pulled Eden’s shirt apart with force.

“Wait, what are you doing, ugh!”

As the shirt tore away, his chest muscles were fully exposed. In the moment she flinched at the suddenly revealed bare skin, Sienna’s hand landed on his chest. The sudden cool touch made Eden’s muscles contract tightly.

With each bewildered breath he exhaled, his firm muscles split apart and moved dynamically, leaving Sienna momentarily forgetting her actions as she admired his exposed body.

‘Oh my….’

She thought such a body was a kind of fantasy only depicted in the statues of the Great Temple. The large chest muscles swelled and deflated repeatedly, rising and falling, and the sharply divided abs looked as if they would pool water if poured over them.

It was the first time standing so close, so she hadn’t realized it before, but seeing him right in front of her, his shoulders seemed twice as broad as hers. He was such a large person. Sienna, who was newly surprised, quickly looked up when a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.

“What are you doing, ha….”

Eden frowned, looking down at her in confusion, and sighed. Seeing his ears slightly reddened eased her sense of injustice a bit. His face, which always seemed so calm to the point of being boring, was now twisted with all sorts of emotions. She had finally succeeded in flustering the Duke.

However, one problem was that although she had impulsively managed to place her hand on him, she lacked the confidence to move it.

“Uh….”

The heat emanating from his body was directly transmitted to her palm, and she could vividly feel the firm muscles supporting the soft skin beneath. She froze, her hands placed on his thick, large chest.

“Ugh…. Sienna.”

Eden was equally frozen. The strange sensation that arose the moment her hand touched him tangled his thoughts.

Why…. Exposing his upper body was something that happened often during training or when treating wounds on the battlefield. There was no reason for him to feel this way. Yet, because of her small hands, which seemed like they could fit entirely in one of his, he couldn’t move at all.

Eden, who was swallowing hard, looked down at Sienna intently. The courage she had boldly declared to touch him seemed to have been completely used up in tearing his shirt, as she looked even more flustered than he was. He moved his throat prominently at the sensation of her hands fidgeting on his chest.

He really hadn’t expected it to come to this, but now that she had been allowed to touch, it should be enough. Just as he barely maintained his composure by biting his lip and was about to slowly move the hand that held her wrist, a startled Sienna pulled back, causing his hand to inadvertently move downward.

With a missed grasp, Eden’s hand, which was covering hers, ended up sliding down his chiseled abdomen.

“D-Duke….”