“Duke, please don’t poke me!”

In an instant, the hall was drenched in silence, like cold water had been poured over it. The dance music had just ended, and they were near the floor of the hall, which had excellent acoustics.

Duke, please don’t poke me.

Don’t poke… me.

Don’t… me.

The voice she’d shouted unintentionally not only rang throughout the hall but, since this was a location where opera stages were occasionally set up, it spread with a humming resonance, blocked by walls specially constructed to carry sound well.

The voice that echoed several times returned directly to Evelyn’s ears, and her face, having drawn everyone’s attention, flushed bright red with embarrassment. 

Those few seconds of that moment felt like hours had passed.

Fortunately, a noble gentleman nearby gestured to the musicians, and music began to flow again. 

People who had been standing frozen in time began to move again, but Evelyn couldn’t budge, frozen in place. 

Amid the uncomfortable silence, Evelyn belatedly noticed the Duke’s face, which seemed greatly flustered.

His expression, which she’d thought handsome, was strangely contorted. When his lips slowly parted, seemingly having something to say:

Evelyn, barely regaining her senses at the whispering sounds from behind, fled the scene with a flushed face.

* * *

Past midnight, the family head’s reception room in House Windelson was brightly lit. 

The Count and his wife, who always went to bed at a set time, hadn’t even thought to change out of their formal wear and wore faces full of worry.

“Evelyn. After I begged you so earnestly.”

The Countess, pressing her forehead with one hand, sighed and finally collapsed onto the sofa. 

The Count, leaning against the window frame, took out a cigar he’d quit and silently puffed away.

Evelyn, who had caused all this trouble, stood like a criminal with her hands clasped demurely.

“But the Duke poked me from behind with something strange first.”

Even if she admitted to causing a disturbance, Evelyn felt wronged. She’d reacted somewhat sensitively, forgetting where she was, but none of this would have happened if the Duke hadn’t acted that way in the first place.

“You think you did well enough to talk back!”

“But it was definitely the Duke who…”

“Fine, let’s say His Grace bumped into you by accident. Even so, what kind of place was that for you to dare raise your voice? It’s fortunate His Majesty had stepped away…”

The Countess shook her head in horror, saying that if all the imperial family members had been present, an apology alone wouldn’t have been enough to resolve it.

Evelyn was impatient enough that she couldn’t stand waiting, and her actions were as hasty as her thoughts came quickly. Despite teaching her with this concern in mind, their worry was that her innate temperament showed no signs of changing easily.

After Evelyn, who had caused that commotion, left, the Count and his wife had to repeatedly bow their heads to people and the Duke, making excuses that their daughter seemed unwell. 

They had to leave the imperial palace in a rush without even hearing the second dance music.

“Honey, what do we do now?”

“What choice do we have? As soon as day breaks, we must visit immediately and offer a formal apology.”

White smoke, exhaled like a sigh, dispersed hazily.

“I’m sorry.”

Evelyn said in a shrinking voice, her eyes squeezed shut. She could understand why her parents were so angry—she could have handled it with noble composure, but instead she’d shouted first. 

She’d never intended to trouble her parents, but she’d ended up becoming a hasty woman.

“Evelyn, this isn’t something we can just let pass. You’ll go apologize in person.”

“I… go in person?”

“Then who should go? Even if His Grace graciously overlooks it, you need to make a proper apology, don’t you?”

The Count and his wife repeatedly urged Evelyn to go to Berenberg tomorrow and apologize to the Duke in person.

Only after receiving such a scolding could Evelyn return to her room, taking on a two-week house arrest as punishment. She flopped face-first onto the bed and grabbed a pillow within reach, burying her face in it.

A sigh she couldn’t hold back scattered inside the fabric. Tears welled up from the injustice. 

Moreover, Caroline’s face as she’d shaken her head and clicked her tongue when leaving also made her furious enough to go crazy.

Her throat heated up at how obvious it was that the girl would tease her about today’s events. Evelyn, removing the pillow, bolted upright.

“This is all because of that man.”

Evelyn blamed the Duke for all the trouble that had resulted in her getting scolded as soon as she returned. If he hadn’t suddenly poked her back with something strange, she wouldn’t have shouted in surprise and wouldn’t have fled.

Evelyn fumed for a while, upset that she’d gone all the way to the banquet only to return empty-handed without dancing once, when she suddenly recalled a fact she’d forgotten.

What exactly was that hard thing that had been poking her back…?

* * *

At that moment, like House Windelson, the Berenberg ducal residence also had its lights on past dawn.

“So the lady shouted like that in front of all those people?”

Aiden laughed, clutching his stomach hard enough to shake his navy-blue hair. While thinking shouting loudly was excessive, he could also understand the woman’s reaction on one hand.

How strange must it have felt for her to shout like that?

When his closest friend snickered and simply took this situation as comedy, Elkas raised one eyebrow.

“You find this situation amusing?”

“Of course it’s amusing. I regret not being there. Hah… I should have seen that scene…”

Elkas, glaring at Aiden who was laughing so hard tears trickled out, set down the whiskey glass he was holding with a thud.

“Fine. Go ahead and keep laughing.”

Aiden, who had been laughing for a while, raised his head, feeling the temperature in the room drop at the low tone that settled in.

Elkas’s already expressionless face had become fierce, seemingly tinged with murderous intent.

Aiden, forcibly suppressing his laughter and clearing his throat with a cough, composed himself with a serious expression.

No doubt he’d been wearing that stiff expression at the banquet too. Even if others didn’t know, Aiden was one of the few people who knew Elkas’s true nature.

Some called him a cold-natured man with no interest in women, while others gossiped that he might be homosexual, having far exceeded marriageable age.

However, knowing Elkas’s true face, these were all absurd enough to make him laugh until he lost his dignity.

Unlike his stern and masculine exterior, Elkas’s real face was different. He had rarely met women, being devoted to the pressure of having to take responsibility for his family, so he had no immunity in front of women.

Having never properly conversed with the opposite s*x privately, he was, in a word, hopeless in front of women.

“Don’t be angry. That part of yours happened to cause trouble in that place.”

Aiden, referring to it as “that place,” firmly pressed down his lips that threatened to twitch again. 

Otherwise, he’d be kicked out right now. Seeing Elkas’s expression become serious again, the situation was indeed bad.

Elkas, having poured all the contents of his glass into his mouth, swept back his bangs with a frustrated expression.

“Hah… The lady must think I’m a lunatic.”

“Don’t worry. The lady of Windelson probably didn’t realize.”

“I really hope so…”

Elkas muttered to himself with a face loaded with worry. Aiden, watching Elkas’s face become as serious as though the world had collapsed, realized the world’s inequality even in this situation, looking at his friend’s handsome appearance.

Usually, if someone had outstanding looks, their family would be in decline or they’d lack something, but Elkas had none of that.

Starting with his tall height, seemingly a head taller than others, and broad shoulders, his descending physique boasted a refreshing frame that made any man standing before him seem diminutive. 

His trained body was smooth without an ounce of excess fat, and his well-defined muscles weren’t bulky but evenly distributed just enough for women to love.

To that extent, everything about his body was large. That included his private parts as well. As his gaze naturally dropped to his friend’s lower body, a deep sense of defeat washed over him.

‘This is why I can’t believe in God.’

While Aiden sent envious looks, Elkas’s expression remained dark. He couldn’t forget Evelyn’s displeased expression he’d seen at the banquet hall.

Having looked forward to today’s meeting so much that he’d even called the capital’s famous tailor in anticipation of meeting Evelyn, the moment he saw her after ten years, he’d frozen like a statue.

Evelyn, with her smooth platinum blonde hair that seemed like it would slip away if caught on a finger, calmly flowing down, had grown into a woman far more beautiful than his memory. 

In the meantime, she’d grown taller and her body had ripened voluptuously, transformed into a complete woman.

Her frame was still smaller than her peers, making her seem exactly like a fairy. That’s why when their eyes met, he thought his heart had stopped.

To think she’d grown into such a beautiful lady.

He’d had to calm his heart pounding like thunder and the instinctive reaction below several times.

Though his face had become stiffer from tension, throughout the banquet, his attention was focused solely on Evelyn. Seeing her gradually close the distance, he’d anticipated and rehearsed greetings in his mind, but soon grew anxious at her retreating figure.

He was curious about her thoughts on the marriage proposal he’d sent, and his desire to see her a bit closer led him to approach nearby, which became the root of the problem.

Eventually, what he’d feared happened. His manhood began to swell. He knew he was reacting, but having maintained some distance, he never imagined his thing would touch her body.

He’d been too careless. Just as he belatedly realized and was about to leave, those large violet eyes like a rabbit’s glared at him and the words she spoke:

<Your Grace, please don’t poke me!>

Looking at those eyes brimming with tears, seemingly about to spill, his heart dropped with a thud.

Though she might have shouted without knowing exactly what it was, Elkas was momentarily seized by the feeling of being treated like a pervert.

“I’ve ruined everything.”

Elkas, letting out countless low sighs, looked down at his lower body.

A perfect Duke receiving everyone’s admiration, lacking nothing.

Despite the modifier “most popular in the empire,” he had his own troubles. Namely, his thing, which was significantly larger in size compared to others.

Here was a sad beast, burdened by being well-endowed.

When he was young, he’d received all his friends’ envy. When men gathered, cheap, vulgar conversations always dominated, and the topic inevitably ended with his thing.

<My God, Elkas! …This bastard, he was a beast. Women will go crazy.>

<What’s your secret? Did you take medicine? Or did you visit the Tower Master? Don’t be stingy and keep it to yourself. Spill it to us.>

Friends who saw his body would exclaim in admiration, spouting words too crude to mention, like horse d*ck or horse c*ck.

They meant no woman wouldn’t be ecstatic if he held her, but Elkas himself didn’t welcome his friends’ reactions.