Chapter 106

I thought Illya the aide would be here too, but it was just the Duke alone. He said he’d been making people work overtime a lot lately and had sent them home early today. He was a Duke who was faithfully following the advice he had heard from TWCR.

“I don’t want to make you do work, though.”

Since that last request for work collaboration to stop the matchmaking, the Duke hadn’t been the one to ask for help first. I naturally set my bag down on the empty desk beside the Duke and sat.

“You make people work overtime too much, Duke. What would you have done if I hadn’t been here?”

He snorted and propped his chin on his hand, looking at me sideways.

“Very reliable.”

There was amusement filling his eyes as he spoke.

“Right?”

I agreed coolly and picked out from the stack on his desk the documents that would be appropriate for the Chancellery to review. It seemed to be about half. Thankfully they weren’t difficult—mostly simple fact-checking or confirming whether the content fit the new form. Since I was the one who made the form, it couldn’t get much faster or more accurate than this.

Heh heh. Speeding up with thoughts of an early leave, I felt the Duke’s gaze and looked up.

“Duke, is something wrong?”

The Duke was staring at me exactly as he’d been earlier with his chin propped. I felt awkward for no reason.

“I’ll reduce the number of overtime nights from now on. As you said, maintaining an evening life seems likely to improve work efficiency. With the new form you made and the simplified reporting system, it looks feasible. It may take some time to adapt to this form for a while, but it’s more than worth the effect.”

He seemed to recall my previous joke about leaving early to meet my boyfriend.

“That would be wonderful. Shall we at least finish what’s in front of us first?”

I was dying to go out and play too. But if I did, the Duke would be the one to have to work overtime again tomorrow, wouldn’t he? I didn’t want that. So, deliberately not giving my attention to the Duke who somehow looked like he didn’t feel like working, I kept my eyes on the documents while we talked.

“How’s it been lately? Crown Prince.”

Fortunately, I heard him rustling papers again.

“He’s been poking around the central ministries. In various ways the Crown Prince’s people have entered the departments. I hope there won’t be many encounters with you, but given his position there may be occasions when he summons you separately, so I’m worried. If that happens, I want you to tell me right away.”

“You too, Duke.”

“Since His Majesty himself appointed him as Chancellor, I don’t think he’ll openly harm you like last time… But in my opinion he’ll try to coax you one way or another, or wear you down until you collapse from exhaustion.”

I agreed with his opinion.

“He probably wanted you to fail, to hold on without being recognized as a Chancellor and then self-destruct. He sees you as a green, inexperienced secretary and assumes you’re clumsy at the work. As proof, the secretaries he sent have no intention of cooperating.”

The sound of his fountain pen scratching on paper suddenly stopped.

“So he wouldn’t just leave things as they were, after all.”

His anger from last time didn’t seem to have subsided yet. But his reaction actually softened my own anger further.

“It won’t be me leaving on my own; it will be them. The Crown Prince will have to think of a way to unsettle me before that happens.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t like this situation that makes people focus on things other than work. They all have noble titles but won’t shoulder any duty. It was always like that, but it’s getting harder and harder to tolerate.”

In that short speech I could understand the Duke’s frustrated heart—living his life as imperial royalty, as the Next Archduke, as a Duke, carrying out his duties. He was so straight it made me worry he’d snap.

There was no immediate solution to this situation, but we didn’t get discouraged and instead lightened the mood by sharing small details of our daily lives.

“You hate carrots? That’s unexpected.”

“There’s no reason to like them. They have no taste.”

“But they’re healthy and they’re not particularly tasteless.”

“You can certainly live without eating carrots.”

I learned the useful detail that the Duke, who didn’t seem like the picky type, hated carrots. It seemed my favorite carrot cake would have to be enjoyed alone.

“Why on earth did Prince Raven summon you?”

The Duke, who had been hearing about my work, asked. I shook my head slightly.

“It was the Prince’s personal consultation. A secret.”

“I’m disappointed. I keep no secrets from you.”

At his sulky expression I let out a small laugh, then marked the incorrect entries on the document and noted the corrections.

“Is that so?”

I needed to tell him from the start that I wasn’t from another world, but I couldn’t find the right timing. Still, I planned to confess it someday.

“Ask me. I’ll answer anything.”

We hadn’t been dating long, and I didn’t want to grill him about every little thing as if demanding every detail. I thought dumping too many truths at once could be violent to the person receiving them. Still, I couldn’t miss such a good opportunity, so after hesitating I spoke up.

“Um… at the department heads’ dinner last time. I hid my personality from the marshal and did a kind of acting—were you very surprised? It looked like you and the Minister of Finance went pale.”

It had been bothering me. I wondered if he was disappointed in me.

The Duke flinched, then covered his face with both hands and answered quietly.

“…It’s true I was surprised.”

My heart dropped a little. I tried to appear composed as if that could be expected, but my face felt numb.

“I didn’t know you had this kind of charm.”

“…Yes?”

“I’d noticed you’re quick on your feet from watching you. But it’s admirable how composed you were in a situation where anyone would be upset. Actually… if you hadn’t acted like that, I would have been the first to… hmm, anyway, that’s how it turned out.”

The unexpected answer that had left me reeling turned my numbness into a light warmth.

“I’ll have to hone my quick thinking more—if the Duke steps in it’s trouble. Uh, thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

After that we talked about the fiefdom I would receive and the Duke’s domain and the archducal lands.

I had applied to receive a fief. The Duke gave various pieces of advice on managing it. There was a lot of useful information that I stored well in my mind.

“I have only one left now.”

Even though we handled things leisurely, the two of us were skilled, and we were nearing completion. There was an ambiguous part in the statutes. I needed to check the law books, so I stood. I walked slowly toward the bookshelf filled with law volumes on all sides. The book I wanted was just out of reach.

“…Ugh…”

Too lazy to fetch a ladder, I rose onto my tiptoes to try and pluck it, when a dark shadow fell over my head.

“This?”

Distracted by the Duke’s face, I absentmindedly forgot to lower my heels and toppled backward.

Thud.

My head landed on the Duke’s chest and his arm wrapped around my waist. The unexpected contact made my face flare hot again—what little composure I’d managed to maintain melted. I nonchalantly took the law book he held in his other hand and returned to my seat.

‘Ah, embarrassing. Give me a heads-up next time.’

I flipped through a law book I couldn’t actually focus on. Then the Duke, who should have returned to his seat as well, started coming toward me. I noticed but buried my face in the book as if I didn’t.

“Cornelia.”

There was no avoiding it. I slowly raised my head; he gripped the desk with both arms and leaned his upper body forward a little.

“I wish you’d be somewhat aware of what it means to be alone with a man confessing at such a late hour. You’re young, so perhaps you don’t know.”

A mischievous smile hovered at the corner of his mouth. But the moment his handsome face filled my vision, my body moved without thinking.

“…!”

My hand slowly caressed one of his cheeks. The Duke’s eyes widened.

I slowly leaned in and pressed my lips to his, then pulled away. It was a light movement, like a bird pecking at food. Even I knew it was a rather impulsive act.

He froze completely. His reddened eyes trembled violently as if he were about to be bewitched.

“I think it’s you who should be a little more aware, Duke.”

Even with my provocation, the Duke didn’t move. I met his gaze without looking away.

Deep into the night, our stares stuck to each other like a battle of nerves in suffocating air. It felt close to instinct.

“Vespera.”

At that moment, it seemed as if something snapped.

He cupped the back of my neck with one hand, breathed raggedly, and attacked my lips as if to devour them. My body was pushed back by the weight, and with his other arm he wrapped around my back to keep me from escaping.

Our lips met without a gap and our breaths mingled. He pushed in relentlessly and trapped my tongue so it couldn’t escape. It was a greedy kiss that seemed to swallow my breath. It was a kind of kiss I could never have imagined coming from his usually arrogant and gentlemanly self. I could scarcely keep up.

“Haah, wait.”

My head grew hazy. Suppressed sounds escaped him in broken bursts. Then a whimper that seemed like restraint leaked out. Still, he didn’t let go of the lips he’d taken for a long time.