TSPGD 19

Chapter 19

It was possible that Count Carbon wasn’t attached to the household.

That was why I interrupted their conversation, and the atmosphere froze slightly.

What’s going on? Didn’t you know that Count Carbon gambles?

I had assumed they would have done at least a quick background check, so their reaction was unexpected.

Ah. Maybe there wasn’t enough time for that?

Still, it wasn’t something worth worrying about.

If they didn’t know about Count Carbon, I could simply tell them.

“Hmm. Don’t just stand there. Bring me some paper and a pen.”

“Yes, Lady.”

Aaron concealed his embarrassment and elegantly handed me paper and a pen. I wrote down the names of several gambling houses.

“Either way, you’ll find out soon enough that Count Carbon is a hopeless man. There’s no need to be so surprised.”

“I wasn’t surprised.”

Jurgen pretended not to be surprised despite the astonished look on his face.

“Then that’s a relief.”

After I finished speaking, Aaron bowed his head once more and left the office.

As soon as Aaron was gone, Jurgen immediately asked me another question.

“Are you trying to become my mistress because you can no longer endure Count Carbon’s violence?”

“Yes.”

Even without the truth serum, I could answer this honestly.

“Why?”

My brows naturally furrowed at Jurgen’s question.

Why would I need a special reason to run away from my father’s abuse?

His question was strange and unpleasant, and when I grimaced, he added an explanation.

“Wouldn’t it be better to marry a decent young nobleman?”

Good grief. Marriage? Seriously?

I didn’t want to escape one bastard only to end up inside another bastard’s fence.

Being a mistress is better than getting divorced.

Rather than preserving some ridiculous sense of honor, getting divorced and living miserably afterward, I’d rather openly serve my purpose and be discarded once I was no longer needed. At least that would benefit me more.

If he were to ask whether I couldn’t simply meet a good young nobleman without getting divorced, that would only show how little he understood aristocratic society.

First of all, a young lady of my rank—a count’s daughter like me—wouldn’t be considered marriage material unless she had money.

And any man who was willing to marry me despite that would most likely be someone openly planning to keep marriage and romance separate.

So why would I willingly jump into a fire?

That’s why I answered firmly.

“No. It wouldn’t be better.”

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

“Why do you think I went through all this trouble to come here?”

Even if I regretted it now, I didn’t think he would simply let me leave peacefully.

He’d probably kill me rather than let me go.

I knew his secret, after all. He would try to kill me.

At this point, the only thing standing between me and a safe separation from Jurgen was the female protagonist’s appearance.

Until then, I simply needed to secure a way to make a living.

Good.

I reviewed my plans and gave him a determined smile.

Jurgen responded with a grim smile of his own.

“I like your resolve.”

Relieved that he approved, I held out my hand to him.

When he saw my hand, he gave a small laugh and promptly took it.

Clasp.

The moment his large hand touched mine, I witnessed something astonishing.

“Wow…”

His intensely red eyes gradually became lighter, slowly changing into blue.

Wasn’t he deliberately hiding his eye color?

This was something I had never known.

For the first time, I was looking at the Jurgen I knew from the novel—the one with blue eyes.

“What the…? Your eyes were originally blue?”

Is the original story really allowed to explain something this important so casually?

I stared at him with wide eyes, and Jurgen gave me a languid smile before speaking slowly.

“You didn’t know this about the curse?”

“……”

“You look quite surprised.”

“…I am surprised.”

“Is it fascinating?”

I hated to admit it, but it was sexy.

There was something decadent about him, yet strangely, I felt no aversion toward it.

His red eyes had an unusual attraction, like the dark mastermind of some sinister story. But when that color disappeared and his eyes turned blue, they were like a blue ocean that seemed to pull me in completely.

“Yes.”

Once again, I simply told him the truth. There was no reason to hide something like this.

“Phew…”

Jurgen let out a long breath, almost like someone recovering after a rough night.

Not that he looked like some middle-aged man or anything. It was hard to put into words, but somehow, he looked incredibly dangerous.

I glanced down at our joined hands and scratched my cheek.

“How long do I have to keep holding your hand?”

The red tint had disappeared from his eyes, but they hadn’t yet become a clear, vivid blue.

“Who knows? A little longer.”

Clench.

Despite the weight of his grip, it tickled strangely as it pressed against my hand.

“Ahem. Then I’ll let go after another five minutes.”

“Fine.”

After we finished holding hands, Aaron showed me to the room where I would be staying from then on.

“If you need anything, please pull the bell cord.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

I needed some rest myself, so instead of looking around the room, I immediately lay down on the bed.

“Phew. I’m exhausted.”

At least I’d accomplished one of my goals.

But I couldn’t simply rejoice over it.

I need to come up with a solution within at least a week.

A way to remain safe from Jurgen’s curse.

That was one of the few important pieces of information I knew.

“The flower that blooms in the Imperial Palace. Lerensing.”

Honey made from the purple Lerensing flowers.

But it couldn’t be ordinary honey.

It had to be honey collected by bees called Parei, and it was honey that could only be consumed with the bees’ permission.

If I eat it once every three days, I won’t go mad no matter how much I touch Jurgen.

That was the most important secret I’d seen in the synopsis.

Of course, I hadn’t remembered the name at first. But after spending five years digging through books, I’d finally found its exact name.

“Good. Mission number two is to obtain honey approved by Parei!”

Of course, there were a lot of things I had to do to accomplish that.

“First, I have to get to the Imperial Palace…”

The Lerensing flower only bloomed in the Imperial Palace. So I needed Jurgen’s help to get there.

On top of that, I didn’t even know where in the Imperial Palace the Lerensing flowers bloomed.

“If the Grand Duke’s castle is already this huge… how much bigger is the Imperial Palace?”

It was the center of the Empire, after all. Surely it would be even more impressive than the Grand Duke’s castle.

“I have a mountain of things to do.”

Just thinking about having to accomplish all of this within a week already made me feel as though dark circles were reaching all the way down to my toes.

“I really am blessed with an endless supply of work.”

The road ahead looked completely dark, but for now, I decided not to overthink things. I’d deal with them when the time came. For now, I needed to rest as much as possible.

As I lay still, looking around the room, I finally noticed that it was actually quite beautifully decorated.

“It’s pretty…”

Perhaps it had been designed around the theme of spring flowers. The room was quaint and charming, decorated in a combination of pink and white.

“Was this the taste of one of his former mistresses?”

I tried to remember who it had been, but eventually gave up. There had been too many of them, and thinking about it gave me a headache.

“But if he acts that seductively, I can see why some women would become obsessed with him.”

Jurgen was definitely a seductive man. If I hadn’t had a clear purpose, I might have been captivated by his face too.

Well, even when I first met him, I thought he was a pervert, but I was still tempted by his looks.

I remembered the women among Jurgen’s former mistresses who had caused trouble.

“Didn’t one of them say she’d die if he didn’t love her?”

She had caused an enormous commotion, but Jurgen hadn’t even blinked. He simply took another woman as his mistress.

Remembering that, I thought Offering the Dragon’s Heart really had a ridiculous number of absurd settings.

I was resting while thinking about such pointless things when—

Knock, knock.

I lifted my head at the sound of someone knocking on the door.

“Yes?”

“Lady Carbon, excuse me for a moment.”

It was Aaron’s voice. I sluggishly got up from the bed to greet him.

Behind him stood a servant dressed in a maid’s uniform.

“I apologize for disturbing your rest. I have brought someone to introduce to you who will be attending to you from now on.”

“Yes.”

“Introduce yourself, Marie.”

At Aaron’s command, a cute maid with navy-blue hair and freckles greeted me.

“Hello, Lady Carbon. My name is Marie. Please ask me whenever you need anything.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Lady, why are you speaking formally to me? Please speak casually.”

Marie approached me with an easygoing smile, looking quite friendly.

Aaron, who had been watching us, bowed.

“Then I shall take my leave.”

“Yes, Aaron.”

Click.

Once Aaron closed the door and left, it was just Marie and me.

For someone with poor social skills like me, being alone with a stranger was an exhausting experience.

“……”

I awkwardly rolled my eyes around, while Marie had already found something to do and subtly glanced toward my luggage.

“Lady, may I call you Miss from now on?”

“Yes. Yeah, sure.”

“Miss, then shall I unpack this luggage first?”

“Hmm. No. I’ll do it.”

“No, it’s fine. This is the kind of thing I’m supposed to do.”

“…I’ll do it.”

I didn’t want to show my personal belongings to someone else.

Aristocrats probably wouldn’t consider their servants strangers, but I was a K-office worker down to my bones.

So I refused to give in.

Perhaps she sensed my personality, because the quick-witted Marie hurriedly changed the subject.

“Then, are you perhaps hungry? Shall I prepare you some snacks?”

“Would you?”

I wasn’t particularly hungry, but being alone with Marie was even more uncomfortable, so I said yes.

Marie seemed delighted to have something to do and hurried out of the room.

And I was left alone once again, finally able to enjoy some peace.

“Good grief. This is complicated.”