3.

“Shall I say it again? I have no feelings for you. Not for a single moment did I think you were special…”

Daniel’s harsh voice gradually faded. He couldn’t finish speaking when faced with Lenore’s sad face.

“I’m sorry, wife. I…”

“What’s wrong? Did you forget your lines?”

Lenore pointed to the lines with her finger, showing him what he should say. She helped with his acting as promised. No, saying she helped wasn’t quite right. Under the pretense of helping Daniel’s acting practice, she was tormenting him.

Suddenly admiring a character whose appeal he claimed he couldn’t understand?

Lenore wasn’t naive enough to believe Daniel’s excuse. She immediately noticed that he was spouting nonsense in his panic.

But she pretended not to know, acting as if she sincerely believed and wanted to help him. The reason was simple. It was fun watching him squirm and blush up to his ears.

“No. I know what to say. I’ve read it many times. But to say such terrible things to you, wife, I just can’t…!”

Daniel squeezed his eyes shut. Judging by his expression and voice, you’d think he was being tortured. Though it might feel like mental torture to him, Lenore showed no mercy.

“Don’t be weak. You’re the one who said you wanted to become Count Tivonne.”

Lenore whipped him with encouragement.

“Come on, repeat after me. ‘Not for a single moment did I think you were special. You are nothing to me.'”

They were practicing the scene where Count Tivonne pushes away his beloved Lucy, knowing his life is in danger. But Daniel, who was supposed to deliver the lines, trembled with his lips shocked. Going by his reaction alone, he was the perfect Lucy.

“Oh, please… please don’t say such things.”

“Excuse me, Count. That’s my line.”

“I’ll look at the lines. Just please don’t say with your own lips that I’m nothing.”

Daniel made a crying face, saying it was painful to hear. His blue eyes grew moist as if tears would fall any moment.

Did I tease him too much?

Feeling remorseful, Lenore delivered Lucy’s original lines.

“No matter how much you try to deceive me with lies, I love you.”

Originally, Count Tivonne was supposed to pretend not to hear Lucy’s declaration of love. But he forgot they were practicing and broke into a bright smile.

“You love me!”

While tears still pooled in his eyes, Daniel’s face turned red. Even though he knew it was just lines, his happiness was obvious. Though she had thought him a boring man without a single interesting point, his unexpected innocence was somewhat endearing.

“And you love me too, don’t you, Count?”

Though the book ended with ‘Count Tivonne,’ Lenore deliberately left off the name. Daniel nodded as if enchanted.

“Yes, I love you.”

This was already his second confession today.

Lenore felt strange every time she heard him say he loved her. She never expected this when getting married.

After all, arranged marriages were strictly business. Spouses were just partners for mutual benefit — if you wanted love, you found lovers on your own as was customary.

As far as Lenore knew, there wasn’t a single couple who married for love in an arranged marriage. Her mother and father, and her two older sisters were the same. They accepted loveless marriages as natural, and her sisters naturally kept lovers on the side.

‘Now that you’re married, stop just reading books and find yourself a lover.’

They even said it at the wedding and wrote it in letters. After becoming Lady Sillingdeer and socializing with others, she even met someone who had five lovers.

As her sisters said, it was exceptional to not have lovers like her father and mother. Well, in her mother’s case, it wasn’t so much choosing not to have lovers but more like being unable to. She had no time for lovers due to her controlling husband’s rigid schedule.

As for whether Duke Bergis, her father, had lovers, she honestly didn’t know. She wasn’t particularly curious either.

In any case, what’s more unusual than her mother without lovers was her brother Meric.

‘I want to marry someone I love. They’ll be my lifelong partner. How could I endure without love? Though I don’t know if anyone could endure me…’

He was unique in his absolute determination to marry for love. Of course, Duke Bergis didn’t even pretend to listen to his son’s wishes.

He hadn’t been married off yet only because he was a son — if he had been a daughter, he would have long since married a man chosen by the Duke and had children, like her sisters.

But even the shield of being a son only bought temporary time. Lenore thought Meric wouldn’t be able to marry someone he wanted. He would end up just like her.

In that sense, Daniel was truly unusual. From what she heard, it wasn’t that he grew to like her after marriage. He had felt attracted to her and proposed before marriage.

Just when did he start liking her?

Before the proposal, they had only met at parties. Did he fall for her just from dancing once? He was a strange man.

“That’s wrong. Here you should say ‘Such delusions will only make you pitiful.’ Look here.”

Though he was strange, Lenore pretended not to notice his confession and didn’t accept it. She just treated it as a mistake in the lines and corrected him.

As mentioned before, his reactions were entertaining.

“It is written there…”

See? Though he bit his lip in frustration, he couldn’t push back and ended up accepting it dejectedly. Looking like a rain-soaked puppy, he was so pitiful it was fun to tease him.

She never knew that being loved by someone as a woman could make her feel so happy. Though Lenore knew it wasn’t right to play with someone’s feelings, she just couldn’t stop.

“Now, read it.”

“Such delusions… ah, I can’t do this!”

Daniel covered his eyes with both hands. Lenore found it a little, just a tiny bit, cute.

“If you can’t do it, we have no choice. Let’s stop this acting practice.”

Though she had no intention of letting him off.

“No! No, wife. Couldn’t we practice the part where Count Tivonne becomes honest with Lucy? I think I could do that.”

Daniel cupped Lenore’s cheeks and looked straight at her. His blue eyes seemed to have a strange power. Something like the ability to make others listen to him.

She almost forgot about teasing him and nearly agreed. If he used acting as an excuse to kiss and embrace her tonight, she felt she might accept without resistance.

Lenore desperately looked away before he could completely dominate her.

“Lenore.”

Daniel called her name in a sweet voice, trying to catch her gaze again. Lenore felt her heart flutter.

Honestly, she didn’t mind noticing his feelings. When would she ever be loved like this again?

Though she thought it might be okay to accept him, there was something bothering her that needed to be addressed first.

How many people might he have trapped in those unexpectedly clear, beautiful blue eyes of his?

Of course, even after having him followed for a while, no suspicious persons were found. Even if he really did have lovers, it wouldn’t be strange since everyone had at least one.

But somehow, if he had lovers it would feel truly shocking. Why? Was it because he acted so shy and innocent in front of her that it would feel two-faced?

“Count, may I ask you something?”

Lenore broached the subject. Daniel nodded with a puzzled look before stopping abruptly. She could see his eyes moving quickly.

“If I answer, what will you do for me?”

“You’re speaking just like Count Tivonne. There weren’t lines like that.”

“Didn’t you say not to try memorizing lines perfectly but to understand his way of thinking?”

He proposed a negotiation using the words she had carelessly thrown out to tease him. Though innocent, he showed his true colors as the head of the Sillingdeer family that had long dominated maritime trade by making sure to get what he wanted.

Lenore accepted his proposal.

“Let’s each ask one question. That’s fair, right?”

“Let’s make a vow before asking. To answer questions honestly without avoiding them.”

Daniel held out both hands. Though it seemed excessive, he was firm about it. Lenore eventually took his hands and vowed to answer truthfully.

“May I go first?”

“Yes, wife.”

“Count, how many lovers do you currently have?”

Daniel’s eyes stopped moving, not even blinking.

She’s not asking if I have any hidden lovers, but ‘how many’?

After being frozen for a while, he suddenly came to his senses and tilted his head.

“I’m sorry. I must have misheard the question because I’m nervous. What was it again?”

Daniel asked again as if suffering from short-term memory loss. Lenore asked again, clearly enunciating each word, how many lovers he currently had.

Daniel wore an expression of disbelief.