Obsessed with Regressors

“I look forward to it.”

Count Burns’ wedge-piercing words made her heart throb with guilt. She made a mistake, so she quickly changed the subject before he asked more about the performance.

“The butler says that all the teachers on the list I gave have turned you down.”

“Ah, yes.”

Count Burns’ face, which had been lit up with a smile, sank. He saw me sit down, sat across from me, and spoke slowly.

“Everyone said they were busy or had work. I guess I’ll have to find someone else. Oh, of course I’m not asking Lady Biscon again.”

Soon a servant came in with tea. Count Burns said, lifting the teacup.

“Since you just gave me a recommendation, I felt like I had to tell you so I just asked the butler to pass it on.”

She guessed so. Biggs was like that too. He said he left behind only a message. But that’s her responsibility and she couldn’t just let go

“Sorry. I wrote only those who could accept the request, but it seems that something happened in the meantime.”

“It’s okay. It can be.”

Count Burns spoke leniently, but she shook her head.

“No. This is my responsibility.”

She had accepted Count Burns’ request, and she was responsible for fulfilling his request to the fullest extent. Of course, she made a list of people who didn’t have physical and temporal problems who could teach Count Burns. But the entire list rejected him? That really, really made no sense. Not only the reputation of the etiquette teachers, but also her reputation for introducing them would be blemished.

It’s strange. She tilted her head thinking of Sir Elbert, whom she thought would be unconditional. He had a gambling problem. It was because of gambling that he became, from the beginning, a teacher of etiquette to the sons of nobles. He’s paying off his debt like that. And, as far as she knew, gambling problems were not so easily solved. Sir Elbert must be in need of money to pay off his debts, and he thought he would surely grant Count Burns’ request.

“Did Sir Albert refuse?”

When asked just in case, Count Burns smiled and said,

“As long as Sir Albert is on the list.”

Everyone on the list said no. He let out a sigh and spoke quickly.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Huh? She didn’t know why he was apologizing, so she put on a puzzled expression and shook her head. It seemed that he took her words as sarcastic. But even if Count Burns criticized her, she had nothing to say. She nodded and started thinking about what to do.

All that could be written on the list were few. In the first place, there were only a few decent people because she wanted to get out of Count Burns’s etiquette education. Including people with gambling all that’s left were women or very old people, and the female teachers won’t accept them, unless Count Burns was in his teens.

Where was Professor Russ now? She wondered if anyone belonging to the young axis would be in the capital right now. Professor Russ, now in his seventies, no longer teached, but he and she exchanged greetings. He was probably in his hometown at that time.

“How about this?”

Count Burns opened his mouth.

‘Oops.’

She realized that she had been sitting her guest down for too long and thinking hard about it. she tried to apologize, but he kept talking.

“I’m going to see Sir Albert right now, but Lady Biscon is coming too.”

“Now?”

You shouldn’t go to someone else’s house suddenly. She was going to say that when Count Burns talked before she could point it out.

“I decided to visit today because I wanted to hear the reason for the refusal. Actually, I was going to go to him right away, leaving only a message.”

Ah, that’s why he left only a message for the butler. If so, it’s not that there weren’t any servants to run errands for.

She carefully asked a question that came to her mind.

“How did you get here?”

“I came on horseback.”

“I’ll go in my carriage.”

She said right away. She couldn’t ride Count Burns’s horse, could she?

“Come to think of it, weren’t your friends visiting?”

Count Burns, who obediently climbed into her carriage, asked as the carriage began to move. Sometimes there were men who take pride in riding a woman’s carriage together, but Count Burns didn’t seem to be that type.

She liked that.

“Not friends.”

No, were they friends? As for Julia, if you have to put it that way, she was her sister. So she quickly corrected her words.

“It’s my cousin. A friend of her came to me with a problem.”

“If she is your cousin, you mean Miss Escalee?”

Oh, he knew. Count Burns laughed at her expression of surprise.

“Because I have ears too.”

Come to think of it, it was Sir Escalee who guided Count Burns to His Highness at the ballroom where they first met. She nodded her head and said.

“Yes, my cousin is Julia Escalee. There’s a bit of an age difference, but she’s like my little sister.”

Their age difference was more like aunt and nephew than sisters. But they were like sisters. So, the eldest sister and the youngest sister?

“There is an age gap.”

Count Burns said with an expression of disbelief, then added with a serious expression.

“I thought you were a friend.”

Was that a compliment? If anyone else had said it, she would have thought it was a good word, but Count Burns seemed to think so sincerely. Thanks to him, she missed the opportunity to say thank you for the compliment. Instead, she briefly explained why Lauren had come.

“It can’t be. It’s Lauren Leeds, Julia’s friend, and she seems to be worried about her future.”

“That’s the age.”

Count Burns’ calm reaction made it easy to talk to him. He didn’t show undue interest, nor was he negative or more agreeable with her story. It was just a response, so she involuntarily talked a little more about Lauren’s concerns.

“She said she had a dream, but she seemed to be bothered by it. She says she doesn’t want her own life to flow like a dream.”

“You mean a precognitive dream?”

Immediately, Count Burns also spoke of a precognitive dream. He looked interested and asked as if telling a funny story.

“Lady Biscon, do you think your dreams will come true?”

Her dream came naturally to that question. A dream in which Count Burns killed her brother and her mother. It’s an unbelievable dream.

She was nervous at first. She was afraid to see Count Burns. But not now. She had a kind of thin faith that he wouldn’t hurt her. If he was going to hurt her, he wouldn’t have saved her from Lord German.

“I didn’t believe it if you were talking about precognitive dreams or prophecies.”

“It’s past tense.”

She nodded her head at the soft remark. She didn’t believe it before. Because she had never seen a prophet who gave a proper prophecy. But now she didn’t know. Lauren and she had a strange dream and they actually met someone they had only seen in their dreams. She saw Count Burns, and Lauren saw the man who would make her his mistress. 

Of course, things are a little different after that. So she didn’t think Lauren’s life would go that way either. But it would be different if it was in Lauren’s position. Just like she did.

So, to prevent that from happening, she must have made a plan to quit the academy and run a clothing store.

“I do not know. How are you, Count Burns?”

Would he believe the prophecy? He couldn’t believe it. If he had believed, he wouldn’t even have gone to defeat the dragon. As she expected, he shook his head and said.

“Don’t you believe the future is fixed?”

Right. She thought for a moment about his answer. Prophecy was an act that can be done because the future was fixed. Believing in prophecy was, after all, thinking that the future was fixed.

“Wait, go back to the left.”

Count Burns shouted to the coachman as the carriage turned the corner. Lost in thought, she was startled and looked out the window.

Where was that? A quick check of the road revealed the name of the street where Sir Albert lived. Oh, they were on the right track. When she was relieved, Count Burns said with an apologetic expression.

“Because the alley over there is not a very good road. I’m sorry if I startled you.”

The alley he pointed to was a bit narrow and almost empty. What’s not a good way? She turned my head and looked around the alley and asked.

“What alley is it?”

“Lady Biscon is better off not knowing.”

What kind of place would she better not know? To be honest, there were so many that she couldn’t even guess. She fixed her eyes on two men walking down the alley. The back looks familiar.

“Uh?”

When one of them turned his head to reveal a profile, she stepped back in surprise. Was the face she saw right? She leaned out the window to get a good look, but suddenly her body was dragged into the carriage.

“Eugenie!”

It’s a surprise. When she came to her senses, she was in the arms of Count Burns.

‘Uh, what is it?’ Startled, she bounced on the other side of him.

“What, what is it?”

Why did he suddenly hug someone? Unlike her, who was surprised, Count Burns’ expression looked complicated. He looked a little angry and worried about her. Wait, was that guilt? Count Burns said while she was trying to read his expression.

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“What?”

“You tried to get out of the window.”

Out the window? Her?

She looked at him with an expression as if this man was insane. Then Count Burns put on a suspicious look. Oh, that’s right. It looks like she was about to jump out of the window when she leaned out of the window. Common sense made it impossible. She said with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, I have no intention of jumping off the moving wagon. I just…”

She just saw a familiar face. As she hesitated, Count Burns raised an eyebrow.

“Just what?”

“I just saw a familiar face.”

“If it’s a familiar face…?”

She didn’t know if she saw it correctly. She said, reflecting on what she saw step by step, frowning.

“Awning. My fiancé.”