The Monstrous Grand Duke's Fake Lady

She wasn’t only tardy, but truly tardy. It had been said that women would take longer time to prepare than men, but still, this was just exceedingly late. When he realized that Knox’s gaze had already been fixated upstairs, the Count hurriedly stepped in.

“Since my daughter tends to devote herself to dressing up, she takes an even longer time. If she isn’t satisfied with her current appearance, she would even cancel an appointment all of a sudden, which would put me in various awkward positions as well.”

“…I see.”

Even though he had answered the Count, albeit absentmindedly, Knox’s gaze still didn’t move away from the upper floor. As the Count saw how Knox was consistently in an unmoving position, he discreetly whispered to the butler.

Then, after waiting around 30 minutes more, a rustle could be heard from upstairs. It was right at the moment Knox emptied his second cup of tea because he could no longer contain his agitation.

The skirt fluttered on the stairs before slowly descended, which eventually caught his sole attention. And perhaps since she had allotted to beautify herself up, she showed no signs of illness at all. Her appearance that was without a hat had looked even more confident than Knox had ever thought of.

“It’s been a long time, Your Highness.”

She approached closer and as she slightly bowed her head, her hair fluttered along as well. Her hair was curly, probably due to the fact that she had curled them before and they swayed following the rhythm of her breath. As her voice was neither blunt nor apologetic, Knox could only catch his own breath.

All this time, he had always been thinking of what he should be saying, but now that he was already in front of her, he couldn’t say anything out loud that easily. Maybe it was only because of those uninvited guests all around them. Knox cleared his throat a couple of times before reaching out towards her.

“Can we be alone for a moment?”

The Count didn’t waste even a single chance to get even closer to the Grand Duke.

Not only did he disregard Alexia’s opinion, which was clearly displaying an unwilling expression, he had also pushed her along with Knox to the garden.

Although it wasn’t as much as the one in the Grand Duchy, the neat garden was still emitting the scent of flowers.

Both of them had been walking side by side for quite a while, but neither of them started the conversation just yet. Only the quiet sound of footsteps treading on the pebble was surrounding themselves.

Knox, who had been fidgeting with his clothes for quite some time now, slowly glanced at her. Unlike his previous bravado that wished to hug her after a long time, he was now unsure how he should be treating her.

Her clothes were unusually fancy today and yet, he instantly felt like her petite figure would ultimately be squashed if he were to just embrace her tightly.

“Have you been well?”

The words that were finally uttered had been that of a formal one. Alexia, who was surprised, hesitated her step for a second, but she soon harmonized along with him once again.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you come and visit this whole time?”

“Because I was sick.”

“Were you feeling extremely ill?”

“Well… I was sick—just like how others do.”

Unlike Knox, who was trying his very best to have a conversation, Alexia was just busy building a wall between them. If he had talked a little, she would mercilessly respond with a curt answer.

Is she still angry because of that time? Knox then carefully continued to speak.

“…I’m sorry.”

Alexia completely stopped herself at that phrase.

“For hurting you.”

“It’s fine. My sickness was never because of you, Your Highness.”

“But…… weren’t you unable to speak about the thing that you wanted to say to me at that time?”

“It was a mere trifle. Even I have forgotten about it, sir.”

“Still, I want to hear all about it.”

“…but I truly don’t remember it at all.”

Alexia’s words, which sounded as if she, herself, was confused, began creeping in.

And thus, Knox realized—the fact that she hadn’t been calling out his name nor did she meet his eyes.

“But still, I want to hear it.”

Knox’s urges that had been pestering for answers, made her heave out a faint sigh.

“I’m sure that it must’ve been trivial. It must’ve been either I wanted to say that I’d like to meet you again. Or if not—maybe I like you.”

Immediately with that statement, Knox’s eyes eventually grew bigger. As he seemed to forget all about his own status, he suddenly grabbed both of her shoulders.

“Who are you?”

Alexia’s eyes began to waver at the Grand Duke’s sudden question.

“Wh-who, you ask? It’s me. The Young Countess of Britton.”

“If you’re just planning to play such a useless joke, you’d better stop this instance. Just because I haven’t been able to see, do you think that I’m unable to recognize the one whom I’ve been meeting all this time?”

A sense of despair had instantly decorated Alexia’s face at Knox’s firm question. She sighed once again before propping her forehead.

“This is precisely why I wouldn’t want to meet you.”