Chapter 74

When Diane went up to the fourth floor and Leon headed to the East Wing, Edward and Adrian walked side by side toward the West Wing where their rooms were located.

“Did Diane Lina say she doesn’t love you?”

Edward spoke in a voice full of laughter, directed at the back of Adrian’s head as he was about to enter his room.

Adrian stopped with his hand on the door and turned to Edward.

“That’s all you heard? You didn’t hear Leon say she doesn’t love anyone?”

“I didn’t hear she doesn’t love me, unlike someone else.”

“If Diane Lina loved me, that wouldn’t be right. It’s a feeling I couldn’t accept.”

At Adrian’s words, the laughter disappeared from Edward’s face.

“If you know it’s wrong, don’t ever ask another man’s woman to go somewhere with your son again.”

Edward’s voice also lost its laughter.

“She’s not someone else’s woman, I just asked my son’s tutor.”

“You know very well. To you, she’s not a woman, just your son’s tutor.”

“At least I know better than you, who goes around saying ‘my woman’ about someone you don’t even care about.”

“Don’t say things you don’t know. Diane Lina being my woman isn’t something I decided.”

“….”

If it wasn’t Edward’s decision, did Diane Lina say she wanted to be Edward’s woman first? Even if Diane Lina had started looking at Edward, that was too much. He should at least make sense.

Adrian just looked at Edward with a silent, pitying gaze.

“About your woman, Lady Lautrec. When are you getting married to her?”

Edward, ignoring Adrian’s look, kept talking about ‘your woman.’

Drawing a line: Diane Lina was his woman, and Adrian’s woman was Lady Lautrec.

“Marriage… I’m starting to dislike the idea more and more.”

When Adrian finally spoke again, Edward’s face twisted in frustration.

Maybe Adrian was saying these things because he knew Diane Lina’s gaze, ever since she confirmed her childhood brother was Edward, was turning more and more toward Edward.

“I heard you got a reply? The answer to your proposal. You’re already engaged, what are you talking about?”

Edward spoke slowly, as if holding back his anger.

Edward had apparently already learned through a footman that a reply had come from the Lautrec Earldom. Maybe he was only holding back his anger because the reply had arrived and the engagement was confirmed.

Yes, the reply had arrived, and the engagement was confirmed.

But even with the engagement settled and his feelings sorted, Adrian couldn’t help but want to provoke that lucky guy who was getting Diane Lina’s attention just because they shared childhood memories.

“Yeah, I’m engaged, not married.”

“D*mn it! Get married or don’t, just don’t get in the way of my woman!”

“…!”

Surprisingly, Edward didn’t rise to the provocation.

Instead of getting caught up, he just said not to get in the way.

With Edward acting like that, Adrian felt pathetic for making such petty remarks when he had no intention of breaking off the engagement or undoing things.

He was the Duke of Wale, and yet he was being told not to get in the way of a commoner tutor.

“Get in the way? You think I’d do that? I won’t. That’s your kind of thing.”

He patted Edward on the shoulder and entered his room.

The head of the Wale Dukedom didn’t avoid getting in the way of a commoner woman—he simply couldn’t.

His pride demanded that even the things he couldn’t do were because he chose not to.

* * *

After dinner, Diane returned to her room and anxiously checked the clock.

Edward demanded that she start working as his reading assistant immediately, reading to him for an hour each day.

Honestly, even though the contract said so, knowing he’d treated her as a professional beauty, and despite the generous salary and her lack of a place to live, she’d thought about tearing up the contract and leaving the house.

But she couldn’t bring herself to resign after learning he was the one who bought her purple shoes.

She also felt herself softening whenever he showed concern about her not eating properly.

<I don’t date women like that. I only date my woman. There’s only one woman for me, and I can’t share her with anyone.>

When he said that, his face showed no sarcasm or mockery, only seriousness so real she had to believe it.

Looking back, he’d never directly asked her to be a professional beauty.

Of course, he’d said things that could be interpreted that way, but maybe that was just her overthinking or misunderstanding.

And if all of it was her misunderstanding…

When the Lautrec Earldom people insulted her, he tried to stand on her side; when he invited her to the opera house, those were all acts of goodwill.

Of course, she didn’t believe her childhood prince would still be her prince today.

Even when she mistook the Duke for her prince, she never expected such dreams.

But if all of Edward’s actions toward her were truly goodwill, maybe she should respond to his kindness at least once.

Even if that response was simply doing her contracted job for money.

Unlike him, who had only material things, all she could offer him was her work.

He said to meet at seven.

She was prompt, and it was already ten minutes to seven.

She headed to the library.

To the library filled with romance and mystery novels Edward had bought.

* * *

She’ll come.

She will.

He talked big, but if Diane Lina didn’t show up in the library at seven, he wouldn’t know what to do.

Unlike other employees, he couldn’t fire her or force her to work by getting angry and shouting. On the contrary, he was most afraid she’d quit and leave—the kind of employee the employer had to treat with care.

Knock, knock.

The sound of knocking made Edward’s heart drop.

His heart pounded at just a knock.

He really wasn’t the master here.

“It’s me.”

It was really her. Diane Lina.

She’d come to read to him, to give him a full hour.

“Come in.”

She didn’t say she hated it or wanted to leave—she came to him.

* * *

“…Upon hearing that the foreign tribes were trying to pass through Lugdunum, Caesar hurriedly left Rome and marched as quickly as possible toward Segalia. He…”

In the silent library, only Diane’s voice reading the book echoed.

“Read slowly.”

At Edward’s curt words, Diane swallowed hard.

She was only on the third page, but her throat was already dry.

Edward sat across from her, leaning back on the sofa with his arms crossed, not moving at all.

Because of the strange tension and discomfort, she realized her reading was getting faster.

“They had no choice but to pass through the land of the Droncus tribe, but the terrain was narrow and rough, and the Droncus tribe did not allow other peoples to pass. Caesar…”

“Too slow.”

This time, Edward complained she was reading too slowly.

She thought her pace was fine.

Diane couldn’t help but glare at Edward.

“Why?”

Edward, still in the same pose, looked at her and asked.

“Just a moment ago you said I was too fast, now you say I’m too slow. What exactly is the right speed?”

“The right speed is one where I can fully understand the content.”

“So what speed is that, exactly?”

“Normally, it’s easier to understand a book if you read along while listening, rather than just listening.”

“…?”

“That means there’s a seat next to me.”

“…!”

Diane involuntarily shivered.

She was already struggling to breathe.

It was a quiet evening, the staff had finished their work, so there was no sound in the halls. The room wasn’t completely dark yet, but the lamp-lit space, tinged with sunset, was awkward enough.

To sit next to him and read together…

“I’ll try to read at a proper speed.”

“Do that. And if I fall asleep, wake me up.”

He said that and actually closed his eyes.

She couldn’t believe it.

Her resolve to sincerely read as an apology for misunderstanding him and to repay his kindness seemed to crumble.

A bad person. A rude person.

“Aren’t you reading?”

He asked with his eyes closed.

‘Yes, yes. I’m reading. I’m reading.’

“Caesar formed the Roman army with heavily armed infantry and cavalry…”

Diane began reading again, trying to keep her pace neither too fast nor too slow.

Fortunately, for a while, Edward listened without comment.

“…!”

Was he really just listening?

As she got into the book, Diane became immersed in the story, but suddenly realized Edward had been silent for a long time.

She stopped reading and looked at him cautiously.

He was still leaning back on the sofa, arms crossed, eyes closed.

Had he fallen asleep?

“President?”

She called him softly, just in case.

“President, are you asleep?”

She asked in an even quieter voice.

As expected.

He didn’t move at all.

He’d really fallen asleep.