The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 47

The woman’s cheek twitched at Giselle’s nonchalant words.

You should have picked on someone else. Feeling a surge of fighting spirit in her chest, Giselle continued speaking.

“It seems you deliberately tried to insult me. But that level of insult isn’t effective. Perhaps you should consider coming up with more original speculations…”

“Pfft!”

Just then, someone’s laughter was heard. It was the sound of laughter that had been held back but finally burst out.

Giselle and the woman’s gazes simultaneously turned towards the source of the laughter.

“Se… Senior?”

“Lucas!”

The one who had burst out laughing was none other than Lucas. The woman jumped up in surprise, then quickly put on a pitiful expression and spoke in an apologetic tone.

“It’s been a while, Lucas. I was just trying to congratulate Lady Anticia on her marriage, but she seemed to take offense to my words and instead said some harsh things…”

“Your excuses are also too cliché, Giana Dalton. I suggest you try to come up with more original explanations. As my fiancée advised.”

At Lucas’s words, laced with sarcasm, the woman, Giana Dalton’s face flushed red. She realized that he had been listening to their conversation.

She bit her lip, not knowing what to do, and then turned away.

“Huh? Lady Dalton!”

“My lady, where are you going?”

Giana headed not towards where her companions were seated, but towards the restaurant’s exit. Those who had been watching the scene unfold called out to her in confusion at the sudden turn of events, then hurriedly left their seats.

All while trying not to make eye contact with Lucas.

“This is ridiculous.”

As Giselle stood dazed at the situation that had resolved itself so quickly, Lucas’s voice was heard again. She turned her gaze from the exit to look at him.

Lucas clicked his tongue and pointed at the table.

More precisely, at her glass filled with wine.

“Ah… This is, well…”

“You were trying to drink more while I was away, weren’t you?”

“No, um…”

“Let’s go.”

Lucas gestured to Giselle, whose face had turned red in embarrassment. She made a face like a student being scolded by a teacher.

* * *

“…Ha, haha.”

Lucas suddenly burst into laughter as they were walking. Even thinking about it again, he couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd and bewildering it was.

「Why don’t you try to be a bit more creative, Lady Dalton?」

「You see, I’ve heard things like what you just said too many times. It doesn’t really affect me. I’m not particularly hurt either.」

When he returned after briefly discussing an investment matter with Marquis Bertan, what he saw was Giselle and Giana Dalton.

Or more accurately, he first heard Giana’s malicious mockery that was directed at Giselle.

「I understand the desire to package yourself in such a way when you have nothing else to boast about, but shouldn’t one have some sense of shame? It’s not enough that you shamelessly threw yourself at him…」

Giana’s voice was louder than usual.

It was probably intentional, to make sure everyone in the restaurant could hear.

To humiliate and mock Giselle in front of many people.

「It seems you deliberately tried to insult me. But that level of insult isn’t effective. Perhaps you should consider coming up with more original speculations…」

But Giselle lightly deflected those malicious words. She didn’t get angry, nor did she show any signs of being hurt by those words.

She just responded cheerfully, in a kind tone.

As if it didn’t bother her at all.

As if such words didn’t hurt her at all.

‘…Is that really true?’

Lucas rubbed his mouth where a smile had spread, then glanced to the side. He suddenly realized that Giselle hadn’t said a word since they left the restaurant and started walking in the nearby park.

…Just because she acted as if it didn’t bother her on the outside, didn’t mean she wasn’t really affected.

“Giselle, are you perhaps upset?”

He clicked his tongue softly, wondering if he had been too insensitive, and carefully opened his mouth. Giselle, who had been walking silently, stopped and looked at Lucas.

Her expression was pouty, like someone full of complaints.

“Don’t take such words to heart. They’re not even worth…”

“Are you close?”

Just as Lucas was about to offer words of comfort, uncharacteristically for him, Giselle cut him off and abruptly asked a question.

That was completely unrelated to what he was saying.

A question that didn’t specify who she was referring to.

“……?”

He opened his eyes wide, not understanding her question. Giselle looked at him with narrow eyes and asked again.

“I mean Lady Dalton. It seemed like you were on a first-name basis earlier.”

“…What?”

Lucas made a bewildered expression, wondering why that woman’s name was suddenly being brought up here. But since he had been asked a question, he answered her straightforwardly.

“There was a friendship between our predecessors. So I’ve known Lady Dalton since childhood, but other than that, we don’t have any particular personal…”

He stopped mid-sentence and narrowed his eyes. He saw that Giselle was still making a sullen expression.

“Are you perhaps…”

The question ‘Are you jealous?’ was about to leave his mouth without him realizing it. Even though he knew it was nonsense.

Jealousy.

An emotion that couldn’t possibly exist between the two of them.

He swallowed the words that almost slipped out, then waved his hand with a hollow laugh.

“Anyway, we don’t have a relationship that could be called particularly close.”

Although Giana had unilaterally visited his house and tried to maintain a connection using the friendship between their fathers as an excuse.

Despite Lucas’s answer, Giselle didn’t ease her dissatisfied expression. Then she abruptly brought up something completely unrelated to their current conversation.

“From now on, I won’t call you Senior anymore.”

“……?”

What kind of thoughts were racing through that small head of hers so quickly?

Lucas furrowed his brow at the conversation he couldn’t keep up with and asked.

“Then what will you call me?”

“Lucas.”

“……!”

It was an unexpected answer. Lucas stared at Giselle, who had called his name without hesitation and quickly turned her head sideways.

Was it because of the sunset?

He felt her cheeks and ears were unusually red. At the same time, Lucas’s heart started racing on its own.

Thump. Thump.

“Lucas. I’ll call you that too.”

Unaware of his state, Giselle called his name once more in a completely nonchalant tone.

Lucas.

He felt his heart race again hearing his name from her lips, but he tried to speak casually.

“You’ve grown up, Giselle Anticia. Now you’re declaring that you’ll call me by my name.”

“It’s not like that… No, isn’t it natural that I should?”

Giselle quickly retorted to his words, then countered with a dissatisfied expression.

“We’re not senior and junior anymore. I’ve quit my job, so we’re not employer and employee either. We’re clearly a couple about to get married.”

Giselle’s face turned even redder when she said ‘couple about to get married’. But she continued speaking, clenching her fists as if determined to finish what she had to say.

“Isn’t it strange to still call you Senior now?”

“Well… You have a point.”

“And stop using informal speech with me too!”

Giselle pointed out sharply as soon as Lucas finished speaking. He was at a loss for words and just stared at her.

Whatever was making her so upset, Giselle’s green eyes were brimming with tears as she looked at him with tightly closed lips.

“I’m not… I mean, I’m not Sen– your subordinate anymore. We’re on equal footing now.”

She barely swallowed the ‘Senior’ that was about to come out of habit, then spoke in a resolute tone.

* * *

‘Oh my goodness. I called Senior ‘you’!’

Giselle clamped her mouth shut, feeling like she might scream at any moment. Her clenched fists trembled, and her heart pounded wildly.

How could she describe this feeling?

It felt like she had committed an unforgivable act of insubordination. Just calling him ‘you’ made her heart race like it was about to jump out of her chest.

‘I could never be a rebel.’

She calmed her timid heart, then gathered courage to look at him again.

Lucas’s expression was dazed, unlike his usual self.

Well, he had not only been called by his name but also addressed as ‘you,’ so he must be bewildered.

“So… treat me accordingly.”

Giselle’s voice came out slightly shaky. He might be perplexed and bewildered, but she was also speaking while mustering all her courage.

「…It seems you came with Lucas. Right?」

She remembered Giana, who had spoken his name so naturally.

When that name she had never called came out so easily from that woman’s mouth, she felt a mixture of inferiority, defeat, and aversion.

Who was she to do that?

If you think about it, I’m the one who’s closer to him.

Even if it wasn’t a marriage out of true love, they were going to be a married couple. As Lucas had said, how many people really marry for love?

So it wasn’t strange at all that she was angry now.