The Monstrous Grand Duke's Fake Lady

‘Knox!’

The voice echoed as if it was still resounding in his ears and made his heart confused. The scent of flowers that was teasing the tip of his nose felt like it was fueling his hallucination even more so.

He slowly walked closer to the bed. When he took a seat on the chair that she usually sat on, the bed looked rather enormous. The chair was much harder than he thought. If one were to sit on this chair for long hours, no matter how thick the lace in the skirt had been, their bottom must’ve been sore.

He slowly reached out and touched the bed. As he thought of her, who would always gaze at him while being lit under the sunlight behind her, he became uncontrollably tormented.

“Seriously, why—how come you’ve never told me……”

He tossed around in frustration. Then, Knox hit against his numb heart with a ball of fist.

Now that he looked back, her betrayal was definitely quite strange. There was no way that such words would come from her, who had always been considerate towards himself. And that thought was proven real when he finally met with Alexia, who had the same voice as herself.

“…Vivian.”

If I were to call out this name from the first time, wouldn’t you not run away then?

“Vivian.”

Knox faintly called out her name where no one could hear him at all.

He regretted being unaware of anything while referring to her as Alexia. He wondered how painful it was for her towards the name he lovingly called when their love-making had ended.

“Vivian.”

The reason he could still hold back on not revealing his feelings was the chance of meeting her if he ever visited the County. She was in a place that he could reach whenever he felt like reaching out. That fact alone made Knox feel utterly complacent.

Knox’s back eventually weighed down. The silent cry had swallowed him whole. He desperately wandered here and there, but people who really knew of her face were extremely rare.

Just like how Vivian had hopelessly tried to keep the secret, there was absolutely nothing he knew about her. He thought that she was the one whom he always talked about. But actually, he knew her just enough to be counted with mere fingers.

The truth that he tried to disregard had rushed towards him like a wave. The fact that he could no longer meet her bolted in as horror. As fear began enveloping, he slowly closed his eyes.

‘Knox’

If he had his eyes closed, he could faintly hear her voice. Even though he could feel like she was now by his side, once he had opened his eyes, she was still nowhere to be found. That ironic reality prompted Knox to close his eyes once more.

He eventually felt the need to return to the time when his eyes couldn’t see at all.

***

One and a half years later.

Just like what she always did, Vivian began opening her inn. To be precise, it was actually ‘that very physician’s inn’, but since it was no different than him giving it entirely to her, she was already acting proudly as the owner.

The first time she had seen this house that he entrusted to her was utterly embarrassing to be called an abode. It had been a place that was pervaded in dust, just like the other place where he had exchanged her clothes with Alexia previously.

Flustered—Vivian began staring at him, but his statement remarking the fact that she could stay here made her surprised even more.

Therefore, she didn’t feel disappointed in that. With the words that allowed her to arrange this place as much as she wanted, Vivian immediately started decorating this huge yet extremely empty house.

She set the bed and moved the table. Although it was rather arduous to be working on it alone, the experience of working as a maid back in the County was proven to be very useful indeed.

But when her stomach was gradually bulging, she was no longer able to work by herself alone. She had decorated the inn’s appearance to some extent, but the operation was the main problem. As a pregnant woman with a somewhat distracting stomach, she could barely sit down as well.

She eventually made a big decision by hiring an employee. It was a rather waste of money since she had been desperately trying to earn them, but she had no other choice. She needed a sincere male employee who was strong enough to continue operating the inn, even during the times approaching her delivery.

And even after she had given birth to her child, Vivian didn’t regret that decision at all. She was barely able to meet her child amidst the hardship, but that was when her work had started. Just like how happy she was during the days when her child was still residing in her stomach, the bustling days still continued.

While she was managing the inn, Vivian suddenly had to run quickly to her child when she heard her cries.

The baby would cry without any regard to the time—whenever she was hungry or even when she had relieved herself. And of course, there were also a number of times when she cried for no apparent reason.

Nevertheless, she didn’t hate that busyness at all.