“You say such things to me for just that kind of woman!”

“Just that kind of woman.”

Benson closed his mouth again at that chilly voice. Duke Tevant soon stared piercingly at Benson with a cold face like he had never smiled. Suffocating pressure crashed over his body.

“Unlike someone with a loose mouth, she achieved this without formal education or unfair intervention. For a woman who won an award—”

“……”

“I think she’s worth defending.”

“S-so……”

Soon the Duke began moving slowly toward Benson. Benson flinched and looked for a corner to escape but people blocked all directions.

They were all people sending accusing glares at the ruffian, wondering how he dared ruin the good atmosphere. None of them, not even his father, seemed willing to take his side. He felt suffocated.

The moment the Duke came right in front of him, Benson tightly closed his eyes. Lukewarm liquid soon slowly flowed down over his head. The sticky smell of alcohol dripped onto his nose that had already half lost its sense of smell from being drunk.

When he slowly opened his eyes, the Duke was pouring the beer mug he held over his head. Once the beer ran out, the Duke leaned in and whispered so only Benson could hear.

“The world has gotten so nice.”

“What……”

“Even trash artists like you were praised everywhere calling you an artist. In the old days, you would have gotten your wrist cut off for insulting the art world with just your skills.”

“……!”

The words were more threatening because they contained sincerity. Unlike his appearance, praised as the angel of Tevant, his words were utterly cruel.

“From now on, every work you make will be treated like garbage.”

“Th-that……”

“Let me be honest. Even without me particularly driving you out, I’m certain they’ll treat it that way because of your skills.”

Coming from none other than Duke Tevant’s mouth, those words paralyzed Benson’s reason. There was no scarier situation for an artist. Though Benson started trembling like an aspen tree, the Duke didn’t stop speaking.

“You have more talent for flattery and fraud than art anyway.”

“I, I—”

“Think carefully about what value your life has.”

“……”

“Think about how well your family business will do in the future, just eating through what your ancestors left.”

Benson, who unconsciously started hiccupping, backed away thoroughly soaked. The Duke was already turning away from him to return to his seat of honor at the banquet.

“D-Duke!”

The moment Benson called out to him unconsciously, the Duke who turned his head grabbed his shoulder like he just remembered something and pushed him against the window.

“Eek!”

The drunk was helplessly dragged by the monstrous strength coming from that solid body. People around watched but couldn’t think to stop the Duke.

After everyone turned away, Benson finally hit the wall hard with his back. One shoulder crashed into the cold glass window with a sharp sound. The window must have cracked from hitting with such strong force.

Hearing that sound, people standing nearby parted like waves and distanced themselves from the two men. Benson ground his teeth at their appearance fleeing like they wouldn’t get involved in this matter.

However, even that anger soon disappeared.

“Ugh!”

Crack.

Hearing what sounded like bones dislocating from his grabbed shoulder, Benson started sweating profusely. Though he wanted to scream, the pressure rising from the Duke in front of him held his mouth shut like it was glued.

Soon came a whisper.

“One more thing. You’ve been saying irritating things since earlier.”

“……”

“She is not some mistress.”

While Benson couldn’t even answer and just gaped his mouth, the low voice fell. The voice fell with a pause like hesitating for a moment.

“……She was my lover.”

Actually, he didn’t want to pretend to have a mistress. If anything, he wanted to pursue romance.

Rather than a mistress and patron relationship, he had wanted to become each other’s only lovers. In reality, Elroy treated Annelie exactly as he would if they were dating.

He wanted to bring only precious things because she was a precious woman, and only pretty things because she was a pretty woman. Worried she might feel burdened, he deliberately brought cheap pigments but still gathered all kinds of materials and art supplies so she could create freely.

Wanting to date her, he made excuses to stop elsewhere just to walk home together after her work and felt helplessly happy when Annelie fell asleep leaning on him. To avoid drawing attention outside, he got a townhouse where they could look out at the park together, because holding hands inside felt like walking in the park. He slept and woke up in the same bed with her, watching in rapture as she laughed and chattered around him.

He even dreamed of placing her in the position of duchess.

He dreamed of slipping his mother’s ring onto her finger and keeping her by his side. He dreamed of becoming her model while she drew whatever pictures she wanted.

When that failed, he dreamed of waiting until the woman who ran away carrying his child gave birth, using the child to keep her with him permanently. If he gave her the freedom to do whatever she wanted, even inside a cage, she wouldn’t notice she was trapped.

“Like you said, we’re no longer anything to each other.”

Annelie’s voice pronouncing the end of their relationship sharply grazed his ear. Though it became a vain dream that ended like that, it was what he truly wanted.

Just because Annelie was a commoner, not a noble lady, others saw her as a mistress.

If her status had been different, people would have called Annelie the Duke’s lover or fiancée rather than mistress.

Despite that, he hurt Annelie by speaking clumsily. He knew so little since it was his first time liking someone this much, losing his reason and being swayed, not wanting to admit he liked them more.

He should have just spoken honestly.

That she wasn’t his mistress but his lover. That he truly thought so regardless of what others said.

‘That’s all I needed to say.’

Putting forth useless pride to give insults, making the woman run away startled, getting tangled in scandals with completely irrelevant other women—he was the worst lover.

Though angry at all those situations, he had nowhere to vent. What would change by blaming others when it was his own fault.

At least this man who appeared suddenly insulting Annelie was a worthy target to properly vent that anger on. Elroy opened his mouth chewing his built-up anger like chewing cud.

“So if you run that filthy vulgar mouth anywhere,”

Meanwhile Benson’s ears didn’t properly register talk about lovers and such. He just wanted to escape from the Duke. The force on his shoulder kept growing stronger. The sense of crisis that his bones would break or dislocate any moment chased right behind Benson. His breathing grew rapid and groans leaked out.

“Ugh……”

“Next time, I’ll hire someone to really cut off your wrist, so keep going.”

Those words whispered by those beautiful lips didn’t sound empty at all. No, even without hiring someone, the Duke could ruin his arm. By breaking his shoulder right here.

‘N-no!’

The pale Benson struggled several more times. The Duke released him like he’s pushing him away without any lingering attachment. Though clearly freed, the pain in his shoulder kept growing stronger.

“Uu, uuu……”

Turning his back on the trembling terrified Benson, the Duke started walking back toward the bright center. His attitude was like nothing had happened.

“Please continue.”

“Y-yes!”

“Come to think of it, were we discussing the compensation money issue?”

“Th-that… that……”

“Looking into it, I saw some embezzlement.”

“No, that can’t be! It’s just money being held. So……”

The lord started trying to appease the Duke while sweating cold sweat. When people gathered around the Duke rubbing both hands together and flattering him, the small band maintaining silence in the corner started playing to boost the mood. After a while, the space regained its warm atmosphere. Only Benson and his father remained pale and alienated from that air.

Soon Benson’s father glared sharply at him. It was the eyes he often showed when he treated him like a failure in life.

“D-damn it!”

Benson ran out unable to bear that place. While trying to cool his anger in the tavern yard like that, the fear that had risen to his head slowly began turning to rage.

“Damn it! Damn it!”

He felt pathetic that he could only freely curse in places where the Duke couldn’t see. It made no sense that though he was also a noble, he had to be treated so one-sidedly just because his family’s power was lacking.

“That damn Duke Tevant!”

No matter how he thought about it, this was unfair. Having to face this for just insulting one mistress. When both that woman and himself committed fraud anyway, why did only he have to face this.

‘The Duke must have completely lost his mind!’

While ranting with bloodshot eyes like that, someone entered Benson’s line of sight.

Surprisingly, it was that mistress.

* * *