In the Place where the Golden Rose Was Broken - Chapter 13
Just then,
Screech─.
The car running on the road came to an abrupt stop.
“I apologize, Your Grace. Suddenly, a young lady jumped in front…”
“Instead of explaining to me, go out and resolve it.”
“Yes, yes!”
Not only the driver but also Roches got out of the car to assess the situation.
Arcturus, who wasn’t curious about who had jumped in front of his car, closed his eyes while leaning back on the seat.
“Haa…”
He covered his heavy eyelids with the back of his hand and loosened his neatly tied tie.
‘Nothing’s going right today.’
From the damn scandal to the journey home, it’s all been nothing but trouble.
Arcturus hoped Roches would quickly compensate the person who nearly got hit by the car and send them away.
“He-Help me…!”
Until he heard a familiar voice from outside the vehicle.
‘This voice…’
As soon as a face appeared in his mind, he reflexively got up and stepped out of the car.
The face of the woman surrounded by the driver and Roches wasn’t clearly visible. However, a glimpse of white skin was visible between them.
That was enough for him to be certain.
“Do you need help?”
Arcturus uttered the first words he had spoken when he first conversed with the woman.
As soon as they heard his voice, Roches and the driver turned around, naturally revealing the woman’s face that had been hidden between them.
“You are…”
The woman’s eyes widened, seemingly not expecting Arcturus to be the owner of the black car.
“I’ll ask again.”
Arcturus took a step towards the woman with bare feet and disheveled hair, just like before. As he got closer, the woman’s surprised expression gradually calmed.
“Do you need my help?”
“…Yes.”
A different answer to the same question as before. But for some reason, Arcturus preferred Karen’s changed response.
“I thought so.”
For the first time today, a playful smile bloomed on Arcturus’s face.
Arcturus, looking Karen up and down, said in a casual tone.
“My, your appearance is exactly the same as last time. What’s the reason?”
“For the same reason as before.”
“That time, that… Geoseff Miller?”
“Joseph Mallon.”
Arcturus, accustomed to ignoring others’ piercing gazes, naturally led Karen into the car.
Instead of sitting side by side in the back seat like before, Roches naturally took the passenger seat. When alone with Arcturus, it might have been different, but now was the time to return to being a faithful secretary. However, even knowing this, his heart was racing.
The newly rising Golden Rose of Gloretta.
Karen Chaner, who was with Arcturus at the hotel before, was now riding in his car.
‘I want to tell grandfather about this quickly…’
But knowing he would surely face official retaliation from Arcturus if he spoke carelessly, Roches decided to hold his itching tongue for now.
“Roches, get out.”
Well, Arcturus didn’t even give Roches a chance to enjoy an interesting spectacle.
“Your Grace, what do you mean…”
“I mean get out and come separately.”
Roches hesitated with a visibly dejected face but eventually got out of the car. Karen felt sorry, thinking an innocent person had been kicked out because of her, but Arcturus, who had actually kicked him out, showed no signs of remorse.
He ignored Roches’s lingering gaze, started the car, and stared at Karen.
“Where’s your home?”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“Then where shall I take you, Miss Karen?”
“……”
Karen kept her lips tightly closed, fidgeting with her hands on her knees.
Joseph Mallon probably knew the location of her old mansion anyway. Judging by the lack of footsteps following her, there was a high chance he was waiting for her at home.
But there was no other place in the Gloretta Empire that she could trust and go to.
“Just for one day…”
Her hands, which had been restless all along, clenched into fists, creating wrinkles in her skirt.
“Could you let me stay for just one day?”
“Well, this is…”
Arcturus furrowed his brow as if troubled.
“That’s quite a blatant seduction.”
“Don’t misunderstand! It’s not like that, it’s just that Joseph Mallon might be at my home…”
“Don’t worry, Miss Karen. No one dislikes an eager partner.”
“It’s not like that…”
Karen tried to explain somehow, but the problem was that Arcturus had no intention of listening to her explanation. Arcturus tapped the window casually and gave a short order, “To the mansion.” The car immediately changed direction.
There was enough time on the way to the mansion to hear what had happened to Karen.
Arcturus silently listened to Karen’s story. He didn’t even try to forcibly reassure her.
Upon arriving at the mansion, Arcturus told the butler to bring out the car.
“Follow me.”
Then, contrary to his polite tone, he nodded and walked ahead. The servants scattered, reading the atmosphere rather than staying close to attend to them. But they couldn’t hide their glances at Karen.
“I must look quite a sight.”
Finally alone in the reception room, Karen couldn’t hide her slightly dejected appearance.
“What do you mean?”
“People keep looking at me.”
“Ah…”
Arcturus chuckled and hung his jacket on a chair.
“It’s because it’s the first time I’ve brought a woman home personally, so don’t worry about it.”
“……”
“Don’t just stare blankly, sit down. I’ll show you to the bedroom later.”
While it’s true that she came here to stay the night…
Arcturus’s words about showing her to the bedroom seemed to have a different meaning. Just then, seeing Arcturus unbutton a couple of buttons on his shirt that had been buttoned up to the neck, Karen unconsciously trembled slightly.
Seeing this, Arcturus stopped as he was about to sit opposite Karen.
“I don’t recall frightening the lady.”
“Um, I have something to tell you clearly…!”
Karen looked up at Arcturus with flushed cheeks. She was holding her hands tightly together, seemingly nervous.
What on earth is she trying to say?
Arcturus gazed at her intently, signaling her to speak.
“Pl-Please don’t misunderstand.”
“Misunderstand?”
“I really had nowhere else to go, I didn’t intend to seduce you, Your Grace…”
Had she been holding onto those words he had said in the car just to tease her a little?
Arcturus, who had forgotten about his light joke, burst into laughter.
“You’re so innocent…”
Finally sitting comfortably in the chair, Arcturus tilted his head sideways and asked with genuine curiosity.
“How does one do such things?”
“Such things…”
“Don’t dancers often receive indecent sponsorship offers?”
“Not all dancers receive sponsorship.”
“Yes, looking at you, that seems to be the case.”
If she were a sponsored dancer, Joseph Mallon, with his considerable wealth, wouldn’t be stalking her.
Arcturus observed Karen’s face intently. Her blushing face seemed to indicate she felt her profession was being insulted.
“It’s not the dancers’ fault. Most come from poor backgrounds, and even within the ballet company, dancers aren’t treated well. We have to pay for replacing worn-out ballet shoes from our own pockets. The ballet company needs sponsorship, so they’re forcing dancers to get sponsors…”
“I’m not curious, but…”
“……”
“Well, one thing does make me curious.”
Arcturus recalled that day. The day when Karen was voluntarily at the hotel despite disliking Joseph Mallon.
“Are you being forced?”
If this woman truly had no intention of accepting Joseph Mallon, then someone must be forcing her.
“If that’s the case, will you help me?”
“Miss Karen, you seem to need a lot of help today.”
His tone was like dealing with a child who required a lot of attention.
But Karen didn’t back down. Desperate people have no choice but to reach out first.
“Please help me.”
Karen looked straight into Arcturus’s eyes without avoiding them.
“Our ballet company needs sponsorship.”
Arcturus didn’t give any particular response. But it seemed like permission to continue talking.
“To Baron Theron, who runs the ballet company, I’m the best product to show to sponsors.”
“And?”
“But I don’t want such meetings. So, if Your Grace would sponsor me…”
Listening to her story, Arcturus made a puzzled expression. His reaction naturally made Karen stop talking.
“Why are you looking at me like that…?”
When Karen asked with an anxious expression, Arcturus opened his mouth with a hint of a smile.
“Why do you think I would be any different?”
“What do you mean…?”
“I’m also a nobleman with money and power.”
Arcturus, who had been sitting lazily, got up and approached Karen leisurely.
“A man who could desire a beautiful woman.”
His large hand, with visible veins, wrapped around the armrest of the chair she was sitting on. Karen shrank back as if her bare skin had been caressed.
Just as a strange tension was building up.
─Your Grace.
Along with a knock, the butler’s voice was heard.
“Come in.”
Arcturus allowed the butler to enter.
Karen let out a sigh of relief at the appearance of another person. It seemed she could escape from the tension this man had created.
However, at that moment, her hand was grabbed. By the large hand that had wrapped around the armrest earlier.
Soon, Arcturus knelt beside Karen. It was almost like a posture of proposing.
“What…!”
Karen was too surprised to finish her sentence.
She wasn’t the only one surprised. The butler who had brought the tea set also blinked several times in confusion.
“Why, why are you doing this…”
In the silence where time seemed to have stopped, Karen was the first to move. As she pulled her hand away, looking flustered, Arcturus, with a seemingly regretful look, spoke in a tone that seemed to be scolding the tactless butler.
“I’ll handle this, so put down the tea and leave.”
“Ah, understood.”
The butler hurriedly left the reception room as if he had witnessed something he shouldn’t have. Arcturus observed Karen’s flustered face with a mischievous expression.
He hadn’t suddenly embraced her or made any intense physical contact like kissing. But the scene of kneeling and holding the hand of a woman he had brought home late at night was enough to evoke pleasant imagination in the observer.
