“Haven’t you washed up yet?”

“Ah, that……”

Only after hearing her words did Lucas realize that he had headed straight to the bedroom without even taking off his outer clothes, let alone washing up. At the same time, a look of embarrassment crossed his face.

Giselle noticed his ears turning red and spoke.

“You don’t have to go this far, Lucas.”

“……What?”

He was wiping his face with one hand when he furrowed his brow at her words.

“I mean, we didn’t marry because we were passionately in love with each other. Oh, of course that’s what people believe, but still, you don’t need to be this excessively attentive. Besides, no one is watching except the employees.”

“Do you really think I’m acting this way because I’m conscious of other people’s eyes?”

Lucas asked Giselle with a hollow laugh. She tilted her head and looked at him with innocent eyes, asking in return:

“Aren’t you?”

The eyes asking if there might be another reason held no expectations.

They were eyes convinced that since their marriage was based on a transaction, there could be nothing else.

“……Well, there couldn’t be any other reason. Yes, you’re right. I was acting a bit excessive.”

Who would believe he wasn’t a man who had begged and clung desperately to get married?

To think he had rushed to the bedroom at the news of a headache.

Lucas ran his hand through his hair irritably, then turned around. He didn’t see that Giselle was about to say something.

Giselle withdrew her gaze from the man who had left abruptly as if he had remembered something urgent, and muttered to herself with an awkward expression.

“……I was going to thank you for worrying about me anyway.”

Her face had turned slightly pink without her even realizing it.

* * *

“Sigh……”

Lucas exhaled as soon as he left the bedroom. Just then, the head maid, who had been waiting in one corner of the corridor, approached cautiously.

“Um, Master. Regarding the baroness’s visit today, I have something to tell you……”

“That’s enough.”

He waved his hand before the head maid could finish speaking.

“There’s no need to report such details. Giselle…… my wife surely handled it well.”

“Pardon? But……”

The head maid couldn’t respond immediately to Lucas’s words and opened and closed her mouth. It seemed almost as if he was being sarcastic.

Toward none other than his beloved wife.

‘Could they have had an argument? Still, I should tell him that the baroness hurled verbal abuse at madam before leaving. And that madam was deeply hurt by it.’

According to the nanny, this wasn’t the first time, so it wasn’t something to be taken lightly. That’s why she had been waiting for his return.

The nanny must have felt similarly, which is why she had tried to speak to him hurriedly.

“Prepare a bath for me. I need to wash up.”

“Yes, Master. But……”

Just as the head maid opened her mouth to speak again, Lucas turned around with a cold expression. The head maid, who had missed her chance to speak, looked after him.

He was heading in the direction of his personal study, not the bedroom.

Which meant the bathroom he would use was not here either.

* * *

“……How pathetic.”

Lucas submerged his face in the water, then pulled it out and muttered to himself in a self-deprecating tone.

He was all too aware of how childish and pathetic his behavior had been.

He dipped his face into the water again, then pulled it out and wiped the dripping water from his face with both hands.

Perhaps due to embarrassment, he felt heat in his ears. Lucas swallowed a sigh that was about to escape and stood up.

Water streamed down his toned body without an ounce of excess fat.

The water that flowed down his broad shoulders, wide chest, and thick thighs formed a small puddle on the bathroom floor.

Lucas stared blankly at himself in the foggy mirror.

‘Why was I even angry?’

He posed the question to his reflection. But it was impossible to get an answer from his mirror image.

“Stupid fool.”

Lucas mocked himself and turned around. Then he dried his body and put on the robe that a maid had brought in advance.

Just as he tied the belt of his robe and was about to leave the bathroom to approach the desk in his study:

Knock knock.

There was a sound of someone knocking on the door. It was probably the butler who had been waiting outside, estimating when the bath would be finished.

“Come in.”

Lucas answered indifferently as he sat down at his desk. Without even turning his gaze, he opened a document and continued speaking.

“What did the baroness say to Giselle when she came today?”

“……”

“Bushin?”

He frowned and looked up when silence followed his words.

The head maid had clearly seemed to have something to tell him. If the butler was unaware of it, that could be a serious problem.

Lucas looked sharply toward the door to point this out.

Flinch.

His navy blue eyes wavered momentarily. The person standing at the doorway, or more precisely, the person who had opened the door just a crack and was peeking in, was not the butler but Giselle.

“……I hope you’re not disappointed that I’m not Bushin?”

She made a joke with an awkward smile after a beat.

“Of course not.”

He felt his sharply raised nerves somehow calming down and smirked. Giselle, seemingly encouraged, opened the door a bit more and looked at him again.

Like a puppy asking for permission to enter.

‘What? A puppy?’

Lucas chuckled at the sudden thought and spoke.

“Why are you standing there as if someone told you not to come in? Come in, Giselle.”

“Haha, you’re right. Why was I standing like that?”

She entered the study with an embarrassed smile. Lucas closed the document he had been looking at and stood up.

“Haven’t you eaten dinner yet? I asked them to bring it here…… Eek!”

Giselle was walking toward where the table was placed when she looked at him and turned around in shock. Lucas narrowed his brow as he approached the sofa, retying his loosened robe belt.

“Why are you so shocked to see me?”

“Because it’s shocking! Why are you so scantily dressed!”

“What? ……Ah.”

Lucas looked down at his attire upon hearing her startled voice and chuckled. Despite having tied the belt tightly, his chest was exposed through the gap in the robe.

“We’ve already seen everything of each other, so why the sudden……”

“S-seen what? I’ve never properly seen anything because it was dark!”

Giselle shouted with her back turned to him, covering her eyes with both hands. Lucas quietly observed her trembling back before moving toward the coat rack.

Clothes prepared in advance by the butler hung there without a single wrinkle.

“You say you’ve never properly seen me because it was dark?”

He asked Giselle, who was still standing with her back to him, as he put on his pants. Giselle’s pink head moved quickly in response.

Nod nod.

Thinking how vigorously she was nodding her small head, Lucas smirked again and continued.

“If you were disappointed by that, you should have said so earlier. From now on, I’ll keep the light at the head of the bed on. So you can fully appreciate my body.”

“W-what? What are you…… That’s not what I meant!”

‘Who are you making out to be a pervert!’

She was dumbfounded by his words. As a result, Giselle forgot that she had turned her back due to Lucas’s inappropriate state of dress and turned to face him.

Fortunately, Lucas was neither in a state of wearing only a robe nor in the middle of changing clothes.

He was buttoning the top button of his shirt when he looked at her and tilted his head. A playful smile hung at the corner of his lips.

“If that’s not what you meant, then?”

“……W-well, anyway, that’s not it!”

Giselle, with a bright red face, was at a loss for words for a moment before shouting again.

‘This is all because this man is different from usual!’

She felt unjustly accused and pouted with her fists clenched.

The appearance of the man wearing only a robe was completely different from his usual self.

Instead of his perfect attire that wouldn’t allow even a needle to pass through, he was wearing only a loosely draped robe.

Moreover, he hadn’t even properly dried himself after washing, as his wet hair was disheveled and slightly covering his forehead.

Perhaps that was why.

Giselle couldn’t look directly at Lucas. Even now, after he had properly changed his clothes.

Knock knock.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. It was the most welcome sound to her at that moment.

“Come in!”

The door opened as soon as she answered, eager to escape the awkward situation. The head maid and a couple of maids entered with a trolley and bowed politely.

“We’ll prepare your meal.”

No sooner had the head maid finished speaking than the maids quickly began setting food on the table.

Oyster stew with chopped vegetables and meat, perfectly browned sea bass, turkey roast with cream sauce, potato croquettes with a rich aroma, and more.

“I asked them to serve everything at once, do you mind?”

As Lucas slightly raised one eyebrow at the feast filling the table, Giselle cautiously asked while checking his reaction.