Chapter 36

“Pardon?”

Both of Diane’s eyebrows scrunched together.

“Everyone’s going. Do you want to go too?”

“Me?”

What an absurd idea.

Why would she go?

Yesterday, she’d spent time with Leon and Lady Lautrec only because they were supposed to get to know each other, and Diane had no choice but to be there.

But the opera performance was for adults only, so Leon wouldn’t be attending, and naturally, Diane had no reason to go either.

“You like performances.”

“Excuse me?”

When had she ever said she liked performances? Even if she did, it was strange for the President to act as if he knew her so well.

Today, it seemed the President had decided to behave oddly.

He’d always been strange, but today was especially so.

He wasn’t even barking orders as usual; his calm weirdness was more unsettling.

“I…”

“Oh! You don’t have to go with those boring people. I’m asking you to go with me.”

“What?”

Unbelievable!

It wasn’t calm at all.

It was like a lone boat suddenly meeting a storm on a perfectly calm sea.

If she had to go with the President, she’d rather choose to go with the Duke or the Earldom people.

No, why should she go to the opera performance at all!

“Don’t want to?”

“Well, it’s just…”

She couldn’t bring herself to say no, so Diane hesitated.

“Then let’s go together.”

“No, that’s not it…”

President Wale was truly an impossible man.

Why did he always do whatever he wanted? He was no different from Leon.

Leon was a child, but what about this man?

“Then I’ll see you later. Go on.”

He’d been listing his schedule earlier.

Suddenly, Diane felt like she’d become President Wale’s secretary.

As if she needed to jot down his opera viewing schedule.

But she wasn’t a secretary, and the thought of watching the opera with the President was something she didn’t even want to imagine.

What would the Earldom people, who had gone out to buy clothes for the opera, think of her then!

They’d already been giving her strange looks since yesterday because of President Wale.

“President Wale! I’m not really interested in opera.”

Whether noble or commoner, the doors of the opera house were open to everyone, and in fact, the cheap seats for commoners weren’t that expensive, so anyone could go if they wanted.

She’d even gone once when Gale got tickets for them.

The seats were so high up that she could barely see the opera singers’ faces on stage.

Still, she’d enjoyed it.

Even if she couldn’t see the stage well, she could hear the singing, and Gale, the person she felt most comfortable with, was beside her.

But to go there with President Edward Wale?

She might lose even her good memories of opera.

“Opera has everything you like. There’s music, there are lines…”

“…?”

Diane had never heard that she liked things with music and lines.

But, thinking back, she realized she didn’t dislike opera.

While she was lost in thought, Edward stared at her.

How should she answer?

She couldn’t just say, ‘I don’t want to go with you.’

“If I’m going to see a performance, I’d need proper clothes, but I don’t have anything like that.”

It wasn’t the best excuse, but she couldn’t think of a better one.

Commoners usually wore neat clothes, but nobles attended in evening dresses. If she was to go with the Marquis, President Wale, she’d need a dress to match.

“Clothes? Ah! Right. Clothes… Buy one. No, you should buy several.”

She got chills.

The President must be crazy.

“I don’t want to go. Seeing the opera with you isn’t part of my job.”

Finally, Diane spoke firmly and honestly.

She only needed to fulfill her duties as a reading tutor.

No matter how much she was an employee, no meant no.

At Diane’s words, Edward’s brow twitched.

“Job…”

“I’m sorry.”

Diane mumbled, slightly dispirited.

“Then quit!”

“What?”

She couldn’t believe her ears.

Was she being fired for refusing to go to the opera?

“I’m saying, come with me.”

Diane almost swore—something she rarely did, even in her head.

She truly couldn’t understand why the President was acting like this toward her.

Ah!

She suddenly remembered the issue she’d been too tired to think about last night.

Yesterday, when the Earldom people had cornered Diane about the piano performance, why had President Wale verbally attacked them in return?

It was like the strawberry cake incident.

People had been so shocked by the President’s harsh words that they hadn’t even had time to connect her and Edward in any strange way, but Diane had felt something odd then too.

Somehow, it had felt like the President was defending her against the Earldom people.

If so, maybe the strawberry cake incident was really him trying to help her.

And now, asking her to go to the opera…

‘…!’

Suddenly, Diane’s arm broke out in goosebumps.

〈Don’t you think you’re a bit presumptuous? Just because we’re eating together, do you think we’re friends?〉

〈The employer is eating, and the employee says she’s full and wants to put the fork down?〉

〈I’ll be joining you from tomorrow. Do you like it?〉

〈Did you come here as a reading tutor, Diane Lina, or did you come to flirt with the Duke?〉

〈Clothes? Ah! Right. Clothes… Buy one. No, you should buy several.〉

President Wale’s words flashed through her mind.

〈My room is in the West Wing on the third floor. Yours is in the East Wing on the fourth, right? Should I walk you there?〉

〈I like having a book read to me at bedtime, too.〉

He’d even said things like that.

And then…

〈I like other things, too…〉

Other things at bedtime?

She’d brushed it off then, but now the memory hit her like a slap, bringing shock and disgust at once.

Now she was glaring at President Wale.

She thought she understood why he was acting this way.

If her suspicion was correct, all his incomprehensible behavior suddenly made sense.

He’d scorned her, yet in front of others, he’d spoken as if they were close; he’d even bluntly suggested she wear clothes he bought and watch the opera with him. All his hard-to-understand words and actions could only be explained by this reason.

Professional Beauty.

It was a term for middle-class women who wealthy, high-status noblemen would take around with them.

Most were commoners, and even if they were nobles, they were from low-ranking families and not recognized as true nobles. In reality, they were no different from noblemen’s mistresses.

Noblemen never considered commoner women for marriage, not even as serious romantic partners.

There might be exceptions for daughters of wealthy families who could bring a large dowry, but even that only happened with low-ranking noblemen, and even they tended to avoid commoner women as romantic partners.

So the commoner woman who accompanied a nobleman was only ever a Professional Beauty—a woman to show off or amuse oneself with, not someone to love seriously.

Much less the ill-tempered, low-character but immensely powerful Marquis of the Wale Duchy and President of Wale Corporation, Edward Wale…

Yes, that was it.

It was so obvious it felt empty.

She was powerless and had nothing; he could fire her at will and must have seen her as a toy to play with.

He’d need her to have nice clothes to show off in front of others, maybe several outfits.

‘A bad person!’

Diane’s eyes, glaring at President Wale, held indescribable hatred.

“What’s with that look?”

The President, noticing the emotion in her eyes, frowned.

“President Edward Wale!”

“What?”

“I am not that kind of woman!”

“What?”

“I am not a woman you can toy with as you please!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“What! What are you saying!”

“If I’m fired for this reason, that’s unfair, but if you fire me, I’ll leave.”

Diane looked at him as if he were filth.

He was such a trash person that she didn’t care about manners, not even as her employer—she didn’t want to treat him as a human being at all.

“Ha! D*mn… ugh!”

The President’s face twisted violently, and he made a sound as if suppressing something.

He looked so threatening that he might hit her.

Who was really in a bad mood here?

He’d treated her like a woman for his amusement, but now he was furious just because she was being defiant.

Of course, Diane’s feelings meant nothing to him.

That’s why he treated her this way.

“Hey! You!”

‘Hey, you…’

Yes, to him, she was someone to call ‘hey, you.’

“Why are you doing this, President?”

Her voice, as she glared at him, trembled ever so slightly.

But it was not out of fear—it was out of anger.