“Oh.”

I realized I’d been staring with my mouth half-open and quickly widened my eyes.

I’m crazy!

“What? What is it?”

But I feigned innocence and looked at him as if I had no idea what he meant.

That’s right. The Grand Duke was sitting in the chair with his robe loosely draped around him.

So this wasn’t my fault.

When someone wears a robe that’s practically the same as being n*ked, how can I not look?

“Just a moment…”

Before picking up the tweezers, I realized there was something urgent I needed to do first and reached out my hand.

“What are you doing?”

I was going to tie his robe securely.

I picked up his robe’s belt that was lying messily on the floor and continued speaking.

“This is for Your Highness. I’m fine, but I thought you might feel uncomfortable while getting your wound treated.”

After I tightly secured his robe and even tied a pretty ribbon, he raised one eyebrow and stared at me arrogantly.

It was a piercing, haughty smile.

“Ah, so peeping at others’ bodies is your hobby?”

What?

“Of course not!”

My face burned hot, my ears turning red with embarrassment at having my thoughts seemingly exposed.

Of course it wasn’t a hobby and I’d never done such a thing, but I was flustered because I had indeed looked, and didn’t know what to say.

“I swear I wasn’t peeping at your body!”

When someone is openly n*ked right in front of me, how am I supposed to avoid looking?

“But… did I stare for that long?”

“Are you really asking me that?”

“I thought I only looked for a moment…!”

Oops, I quickly shut my mouth.

For an instant, his bluish eyes seemed to lighten and his gaze deepened.

The incoming breeze slightly tousled the light blonde hair covering his forehead.

What was that just now?

“Huh? Did you just… smile?”

“Hardly.”

How strange? I wanted to say I definitely saw something, but couldn’t easily speak up.

His expression had returned to its expressionless state so quickly that I wondered if I’d imagined it.

Unable to say anything more, I picked up the tweezers.

“Hmm…”

Moving to sit in the chair beside him to examine his wound, I realized I couldn’t see the entire long gash from this position.

To properly examine the wound, I thought it would be better for me to sit on the floor.

I put the silver tray down on the chair and sat on the carpet, and his gaze naturally followed me down.

“What are you doing?”

“The wound extends to the back here, and I don’t think I can see it well sitting in the chair.”

“You’re really going all out.”

“Tch, no need for the sarcasm.”

After glancing at him briefly as he fell silent, I carefully applied disinfectant-soaked gauze to the wound.

It was clearly a knife wound, and I wasn’t sure if this level of treatment without a doctor would be sufficient, but for now, I gently wiped away the congealed blood.

As the wound became fully visible, I couldn’t help but wince.

“You need antibiotics too.”

“……”

“This must have been incredibly painful… how did you endure it…”

As I continued speaking, I noticed him deliberately looking elsewhere, pretending not to hear me.

“Sigh… I’m sorry, body. You really ended up with a terrible owner.”

When I said this loud enough for him to hear, he frowned and looked down at me.

“Are you saying that for my benefit?”

“I’m saying you need to take better care of yourself.”

I changed the gauze, soaked it in alcohol, and continued disinfecting.

“Your Highness’s health is extremely important to me. It’s the most critical thing to pay attention to.”

“……”

“From now on, if anything hurts, you must tell me immediately. No, you should take care not to get hurt in the first place. Do you understand?”

I looked up at him, expecting him to ignore my words like dust in the air, and our eyes met directly.

His eyes, resembling transparent sapphires, were coolly looking down at me, lost in thought.

“Ah… did I offend you?”

“……”

“If I was too noisy…”

“I’ll admit it. Your act is quite convincing.”

“…What act?”

“What do you want?”

What do I want? Confused by his meaning, I looked at him quizzically, and the Grand Duke fixed his gaze on my face with an expressionless countenance and spoke.

“You wouldn’t do this without expecting something in return.”

“No, that’s not it!”

“I’ll listen, so tell me.”

“No, I didn’t do this hoping for…”

Did I?

“You’re treating me and keeping it secret for no reason? That doesn’t benefit you.”

I’d only done it because I was worried his continued suffering might cause problems for my safety.

If the wound festered, he would become even more ill, and then famous doctors would need to be called, which would inevitably lead to rumors.

That would make me easy prey for the Azanie family, who were waiting like hyenas for an opportunity.

“Tell me.”

The Grand Duke, who seemed to hate repetition, urged me once more as if trying to understand my intentions.

I was about to shake my head when I suddenly paused and thought.

“……”

Could it be that the anonymous helper told me not to fall asleep last night to lead me to this situation?

In other words, to create a situation where I could make demands or negotiate with him.

If so, this was the moment to negotiate.

I swallowed hard and looked up at him.

“Will you grant me anything I ask?”

At my response, his expression quickly returned to a leisurely one, as if he’d expected this.

His gaze bothered me, clearly convinced I wouldn’t have done this without expecting something in return, but at this point, telling the truth seemed pointless.

He leaned back slightly in his chair and looked down at me obliquely.

“Nothing unreasonable.”

Of course, this wasn’t the time to ask him to spare my life just because I’d disinfected his wound.

Demanding divorce compensation right away would be equally unreasonable.

While considering what to say, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Then… please grant me one small favor. It’s very small.”

“Are you busy?”

When I opened the door to the Grand Duke’s office, the afternoon sunlight streaming through the wide windows poured over my face like a curtain.

Barely opening my eyes against the brightness, I saw him sitting with his back to the glass windows, looking like a shadow in the distance.

Is it because of the backlighting that makes him look dark?

He looked like a very angry man.

“I believe you asked that question an hour ago as well.”

The sharp irritation in his deliberately slow tone was clearly felt.

Thinking I should come two and a half hours later next time, I smiled broadly.

“I was just curious about what you were doing.”

“Can’t you see?”

“Then can I come closer to see?”

“No.”

After refusing with a serious expression, he immediately took his eyes off me and looked back down at his documents.

How cold. He was absolutely ruthless.

“Would you like some tea?”

Just then, Norbert smiled at me as he casually offered.

“Is that okay?”

At the same time, the Grand Duke’s gaze, which had been indifferently scanning documents, sharpened as if he’d heard news of war.

“Norbert.”

“Please sit here.”

He called for Norbert, who was standing next to the desk, with a furrowed brow, but Norbert guided me to the sofa as if he hadn’t noticed the Grand Duke’s irritated expression.

“Thank you.”

I quickly walked over and sat down politely on the plush sofa.

Norbert had been watching me come at one-hour intervals in the morning and one-and-a-half-hour intervals in the afternoon over the past day or two.

Perhaps he felt sorry for me, voluntarily subjecting myself to being ignored repeatedly, and now he even smiled a little when our eyes met.

“Get up and leave right now.”

“But I just sat down?”

“Huff…”

At the sound of his sigh, I looked at Norbert pouring warm tea into a teacup, then deliberately turned late to look at the desk where the Grand Duke was sitting.

“I’ll just have some tea and go, Your Highness. Norbert has already poured it for me.”

“……”

The Grand Duke glanced reproachfully at Norbert after hearing my response, but Norbert didn’t even blink as he finished placing the pretty teacup in front of me.

“Please enjoy.”

“Thank you.”

After expressing my gratitude, I held the teacup with both hands.

“Drink quickly and leave.”

“It’s hot, so I need to blow on it and drink slowly.”

“……”

“By the way, what do you think of my request?”

“I haven’t thought about it.”

Annoyed by his response, I turned my body completely to face the Grand Duke.

“It’s only for a short while. Is even that difficult?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t do it?”

“Rejected.”

Well, he told me to ask for what I wanted, and yet…

Seeing my indignation, the Grand Duke casually added while turning a document:

“Just ask for an object you want instead.”

“There’s no object I want.”

Unless it’s a reasonable divorce settlement!

Pretending to drink my tea, I recalled what I had asked of him.