The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 39

“Why on earth did you bring me in here?”

“Shh! Be quiet!”

Giselle startled and covered his mouth. Literally his mouth, …his ‘lips’.

“Uh…”

She covered his mouth with her palm and rolled her eyes.

“Uh, um, that…”

Giselle’s eyes started blinking rapidly. In contrast, Lucas slowly closed and opened his eyes, then smirked.

With his mouth still covered by her.

“……!”

She felt his hot breath on her palm. She tried to remove her hand in alarm at the sensation of his lips on her palm.

But before she could, there was a knock on the door outside.

“Eek!”

When Giselle tried to remove her hand again in surprise, Lucas firmly held onto it. As a result, she could only shrink her shoulders, unable to take her hand away from him.

— Miss, sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve brought the cold medicine… Huh? Where are you?

As expected, the one who knocked and entered was the maid who had checked on her sleeping arrangements.

Giselle squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath. If she could, she would have covered her own mouth with both hands, but one arm was holding the cat and the other hand was covering Lucas’s mouth, so it was impossible.

‘No, I’m not covering his mouth because I want to!’

She cautiously opened her tightly shut eyes. Unlike Giselle, Lucas was looking at her with a very relaxed expression.

She could vividly feel through her palm that the corners of his lips were loosely turned up, as if he found this situation quite amusing.

‘Please let go of this hand!’

Because of the maid looking for her outside the door, Giselle couldn’t speak out loud and could only try to convey her message with her eyes.

But far from complying, Lucas slowly rubbed the soft inside of her wrist that was covering his mouth with his thumb.

“Hiiic!”

A strange moan escaped her mouth without her realizing. At the same time, she lost her grip on the cat she was holding.

“Meoow.”

The cat that had been in her arms and fell to the floor meowed in displeasure.

— Oh my, Miss! Are you in the bathroom? Is the cat in there with you too?

It’s over. It’s all over.

Giselle pushed Lucas away with all her might, making a tearful face. Now that she had been discovered in the bathroom, it was only a matter of time before it was discovered that he was hiding there too.

‘I should have just not hidden.’

Why did she do it? When the maid came, she should have just calmly greeted her. As for the torn clothes, she could have honestly said it was because of the cat.

‘No, if I had done that, I could have changed into proper pajamas.’

Giselle swallowed the lament that was about to escape at this belated realization.

— Miss? Is there any problem? Oh my! Did you perhaps slip and fall…

The maid’s voice became serious as she sensed something strange about Giselle not answering.

“Ah, there’s no problem! Um, Elizabeth came to find me. She seemed a bit dirty from wandering around somewhere, so I’m washing her.”

—You should have asked me to do that! I’ll wash her, Miss.

The maid promptly replied to her hastily made-up excuse. Fearing that she might open the door and come in right away, Giselle hurriedly spoke again.

“No! I’ll wash her. It’s just, um, I’ve taken off my clothes because I was worried they might get wet.”

At the excuse of being naked, Lucas raised one eyebrow and looked her up and down.

“Where are you looking!”

Giselle glared at him, speaking in a hushed voice so the maid outside wouldn’t hear. Lucas smirked at her reaction, and then the maid’s voice was heard again.

— Ah… So that’s why you didn’t want help with bathing, Miss.

The maid muttered as if she finally understood. Giselle had refused the maids’ assistance when bathing before bed, and it seemed the maid now grasped the reason.

Because she didn’t want to show her naked body.

Giselle just smiled awkwardly, not wanting to add anything to that statement.

— Then I’ll leave the cold medicine on the table, miss. Please make sure to take it before you sleep.

“O-Okay. Thank you.”

She barely managed to reply to the maid’s words. The sound of footsteps gradually faded, and then the sound of the door opening and closing was heard.

“Phew…”

Giselle finally let out a big sigh and collapsed on the spot, her legs giving out. The cat approached her, mewing as if whining, and rubbed against her body.

“Oh, Elizabeth. Sorry about earlier…”

She apologized belatedly for dropping the cat earlier while catching her breath repeatedly. Then, while stroking the cat’s back, she spoke.

“Whew, that really surprised me. If I had known this would happen, I should have just stayed still from the beginning. Because of me, even Senior had to hide in the bathroom…”

Giselle chattered with a more relaxed face, relieved. But there was no response from Lucas.

Not even his usual playful scolding about what a mess this was because of her.

“……?”

She raised her head with a puzzled expression at his silence. But sitting down and looking up, she couldn’t see his expression clearly.

Moreover, perhaps because she saw his sharp jawline first, she even felt intimidated by Lucas.

No, rather than simply intimidation…

How should I put it?

She felt like a small herbivore placed in front of a tightly drawn bowstring. As if one wrong move and she might be devoured by him.

…Gulp.

Giselle swallowed unconsciously. Even then, Lucas didn’t say a word.

“…Senior?”

She moistened her dry lips and then barely parted them. But still, only silence returned.

Giselle looked up at him, unable to even roll her eyes. Lucas’s gaze looking down at her gradually sank.

‘No, that can’t be. It must just be my imagination.’

She steeled herself once more, trying her best to suppress the instinctive flinch that came with Lucas’s gaze.

“Um, Senior? Why are you looking at me like that… Woah!”

Swoosh.

It was at that moment.

A sudden strong stream of water gushed out from the faucet.

“Hmh, hm, Se-Senior! What is this! What’s going on!”

Giselle, unable to open her eyes properly due to the water pouring down on her head, just flailed her hands around.

No, forget opening her eyes, she couldn’t even open her mouth properly. Every time she opened her mouth, water rushed in.

“Se… pffft, Senior…”

The moment she called out to him frantically, searching for him, the stream of water stopped. Just as suddenly as it had started pouring without warning, the water above her head stopped abruptly.

“……?”

Giselle wiped the water running down her face with her hand, and only then opened her eyes. But once again, she couldn’t see his expression properly.

Instead, she saw Lucas gripping the faucet tightly, as if he was restraining something.

And below that, the cat was hissing with its tail puffed up.

“Uh…”

“After we’re married.”

Just as Giselle opened her mouth with a bewildered expression, Lucas spoke through gritted teeth. Whether he was angry or not, his voice was not only lower than before but also came out quite hoarse.

“No matter what happens, we’ll have to make sure this one isn’t allowed in the bedroom.”

“Huh? Why suddenly Elizabeth…”

She blinked, wondering why he was suddenly issuing a ‘bedroom ban’ on the cat.

Ah…

But Giselle immediately recalled something and looked back and forth between the cat and the faucet — which Lucas was still gripping.

The sudden stream of water.

But neither she nor Lucas had touched the faucet. For water to have poured out means someone else must have touched the faucet…

There’s no one else here besides her and Lucas, but there is another ‘animal’.

A ‘cat’ that can easily jump to high places.

“Don’t tell me Elizabeth, did you do this?”

It seemed clear that she had touched the faucet, and when the water poured out, she got startled and hissed in anger.

“Was it you? Hm? Did you do it?”

“Meow.”

The cat replied nonchalantly as if it understood her question, and then started licking itself.

“Elizabeth, you really…”

“Haa…”

At that moment, Lucas let out a big sigh and then reached out his hand towards her.

“……?”

Giselle, who had been looking at the cat, turned her gaze to that hand. And naturally, she raised her eyes to look up at Lucas, the owner of that hand.

When their eyes met, he flinched slightly, turned his gaze sideways, and then spoke.

“Get up now, Giselle. It’s not good for your body to sit on the cold floor for too long.”

“…Pardon?”

“And those clothes… Haa, just a moment.”