That’s how she ended up in front of this townhouse. Nelie looked up at the building, still dazed.

‘Did that really happen?’

Such an abrupt and sudden question crossed her mind. Nelie unconsciously touched the side of her head. Where the Duke’s hand had touched her. Where he had touched and comforted her with an uncharacteristically gentle touch.

‘Was it just a dream?’

It still felt strange thinking about it. While Nelie was pondering that peculiar atmosphere with an odd feeling……

“Hya!”

A carriage decorated with restrained white and gold ornaments quietly approached and stopped in front of the townhouse’s main entrance. Though it bore no family crest, she instinctively knew whose carriage it was.

“…Ah.”

The Duke stepped out when the door opened. It was an elegant movement that didn’t make a sound.

“Duke.”

“Miss Heich.”

Nelie still looked uncertain as the Duke gave a brief response and turned to the secretary. The secretary met the Duke’s gaze with an impassive expression, and the Duke gave him a nod.

The moment that signal dropped, the secretary silently vacated his position. Elroy hid an inner laugh watching him leave while maintaining perfect etiquette.

‘Pretending to be nonchalant.’

He acts so calm in front of me but will run straight to grandmother. That the Duke has finally taken in a mistress. That she needn’t worry anymore.

He deliberately arranged the secretary to escort Annelie Heich instead of guiding her himself for this purpose.

‘Now she’ll be less intense.’

His grandmother had gone so far to push a woman into her grandson’s bed. Now that things had turned out this way, he might avoid such incidents by pretending to take Annelie Heich into the townhouse and making her appear his mistress.

He considered telling Nelie about this but decided against it. It was just a momentary whim anyway. She wasn’t a woman he’d keep for long. Wouldn’t the relationship end once he tired of her body?

Unaware that she’d been transformed into the Duke’s mistress, Annelie showed her clear face again. It was a puzzled face that seemed not to understand why she was here at all.

The image of the woman crying loudly beneath him overlapped with that face.

He got needlessly irritated and drove her to her limits for hours, and the woman cried like a child, without shame. She cried like the world was ending, looking like someone mourning being ravished in her lover’s house, and it instantly soured his mood.

The fact that the woman’s insides melting around him still felt terribly good drove Elroy’s mind further into the muck. Irritated by that, he snapped at her, and what had she said?

“It’s hard, it’s so hard.”

“……”

“Why is it… so hard……”

The woman speaking those words while breathing heavily looked truly exhausted. When he saw the tears clinging to her eyes, his fingertips tingled for unknown reasons.

Only then did Elroy realize he had driven the woman from broad daylight until dusk. That man hadn’t returned all that time. Not knowing his woman was crying so erotically beneath him.

Seeing the woman’s eyes tired from their long lovemaking and her body disheveled with marks he’d left, his irritation completely vanished.

She was already unattractively thin, probably from not eating properly, with only her perky br*asts and soft bottom worth touching.

Pushing such a woman this far, it made sense she would cry. A mercifulness he never felt toward other secretaries or attendants unconsciously raised its head.

While he was making this not-quite-reflection, the woman rambled incomprehensible things. About printing houses, art museums……

“I just, just drew because it was pretty.”

By that point, he felt he could somewhat understand the random words she was spewing. The “pretty” thing she mentioned was probably himself.

Just when he was about to sneer with a small laugh, transparent eyes filled with water stared blankly at him.

That gaze made his chest ache strangely. Maybe that’s why.

When he unconsciously reached out to brush her hair, the woman stopped crying and looked at him with clear eyes. Still breathing heavily from exhaustion.

“Don’t cry.”

Instead of thrusting more into her soft, pleasant insides which wouldn’t have been enough, he pulled out and uttered words of comfort that didn’t suit him.

“…Don’t cry, Annelie Heich.”

Even calling her name.

‘Stupid fool.’

Even while speaking, irritation welled up at himself. After embracing another man’s woman to the point of losing her mind in that man’s house, he felt weak for his heart softening just because she cried a bit and tried to comfort her.

But right after he comforted her like that, the woman leaned her face against his hand. Whether intentionally or unconsciously.

The moment her eyelashes still wet with tears scratched his palm, all his nerves were yanked taut. He felt his entire consciousness shoot up to the sky and then fall from that height.

The woman who had just acted as if she were being ravished now sighed softly, seeming comforted by his actions. Her eyelids and lips quivered, and she rubbed her face against his hand as he comforted her slightly…

She seemed so pitiful and lovely.

‘You’re the pretty one.’

He thought that in the moment. And then felt more stupid for it, to the point of irritation.

So this was just kindness he was bestowing. A mutually beneficial arrangement — he would pretend to have a mistress to deceive his grandmother’s eyes, and Annelie Heich would get a decent place to live. He thought it wasn’t a bad deal.

“Go in.”

“Really?”

“Did you not hear the secretary’s explanation?”

Annelie opened her eyes wider at the slightly irritated response. They were eyes that seemed like they would make a clear ringing sound every time he looked at them.

“So… can I really use this place?”

“You won’t go to a welfare facility when told, won’t get a proper job when told.”

“…That’s also a workplace where many people work, Duke. Even if it’s not proper.”

He ignored the voice that sounded slightly offended. What a proper workplace it must be that has this woman drew such terrifying illustrations.

“Since you won’t listen, I have to at least provide space.”

“I……”

“How long do you plan to impose on that man, Miss Heich?”

“……”

“Will you keep clinging to him under the name of lovers? I heard you don’t even have money for rent, Miss Heich. How much of a pushover must that man be……”

The moment he spoke with an even more depressed mood, Annelie Heich widened her eyes and opened her mouth.

“That man? You couldn’t mean Jerome?”

“If not him, then who……”

The next moment Annelie Heich waved her hands frantically.

“Lovers? No!”

“Ha.”

“Please don’t talk about Jerome that way. He’s a really good friend.”

Elroy was suddenly gripped by a strange feeling.

He felt good seeing the woman jump to deny being lovers with that man, but he felt bad about her defending him too. While he couldn’t decide which feeling to lean toward, Annelie Heich kept bouncing around.

“Really, please don’t say such things!”

“……”

“I have no intention of blocking Jerome’s marriage prospects. Besides……”

“Besides?”

The woman hesitated slightly. That needlessly irritated him, so he deliberately stared at her with blatant eyes, and Annelie Heich mumbled as she opened her mouth.

“…I’ve never dated anyone either.”

She frowned while speaking, seeming embarrassed. It was the face a virgin might make when asked if she was married. Elroy barely held back the laugh that was about to burst at her slightly indignant expression.

‘Never dated anyone.’

She mixed bodies so easily with him when they first met, and the woman casually made sounds like an explosion in a powder magazine. How could that be? If that was true, it meant he was her first man. What woman would give up her first experience so easily?

But……

But her frowning face saying that with wounded pride seemed sincere. And those words were so pleasant to hear.

Elroy swallowed to suppress the thirst he kept feeling.

“You really have no dating experience.”

“Yes. Unlike a certain duke.”

“Ah.”

The woman mentioned other women like before. Instead of denying it, Elroy chose to tease her more.

“Aren’t you of age, Miss Heich?”

“……”

“Yet you’ve never dated?”

“…You haven’t added anything positive.”

Her sharp retort came from red lips. He almost impulsively kissed her and interrogated her. Whether he was really her first. Whether he was the only man.

Instead of acting so unseemly, Elroy suppressed the urge to press down on her lower lip and answered mockingly.

“Why so sensitive? Is never having dated such a flaw?”

Annelie immediately made wronged eyes. Her face seemed to say wasn’t it you who was teasing just now, and though it made him want to laugh, Elroy suppressed even that laugh and deliberately opened his mouth sternly.

“Miss Heich. You seem to have gotten too comfortable with me lately.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Though she apologized to his deliberately mischievous response, she narrowed her eyes. It was a face that didn’t look sorry at all while saying sorry. He couldn’t understand why seeing such a rebellious expression made him feel so good.

‘Then.’

Then let’s just go along with it in this good mood. Whether those words were truth or lies.

While he was organizing his thoughts like that, Annelie Heich carefully opened her mouth.

“Anyway, about the rent, I should pay here too……”

“There’s no need to pay.”

“…Why?”