Chapter : 10
“You don’t even need to take it off.”
Noah’s golden eyes moved up and down as if appraising her.
Raeliana avoided his gaze and stepped back slightly.
“That… please stop. This is sexual harassment.”
“If you want.”
Noah smiled brightly.
Ugh. For some reason, Raeliana swallowed down the frustration of feeling like she had lost.
Noah took out a pocket watch from inside his coat, checked the time, and stood up.
“Then let’s end this pleasant meeting and return.”
She wasn’t sure who had enjoyed it. Had he been the only one having fun?
With a sulky expression, Raeliana nodded and followed behind Noah as he walked toward the door.
He was turning the doorknob when he suddenly seemed to remember something and turned around.
“Ah, if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask. Raeliana. There’s nothing that cannot be obtained at the Duke’s mansion.”
‘Is he saying, “Your family doesn’t have things like this?”’
What was this? Some kind of bragging contest?
Of course, there were no national treasures or anything like that. She had painfully realized that in this world, there were many things money alone could not buy.
Raeliana canceled the praise she had just given the class system.
“I’m so touched that you care about me this much, Duke. If I may say what I need without hesitation, what I need right now is ‘a space where I can be alone.’”
At that, Noah twisted his lips into a smile.
“You should call me Noah, not Duke, when speaking to your fiancé. My dear Raeliana.”
He emphasized her name and stared at her with a deep, lingering gaze.
“Ugh.”
Come to think of it…
Shouldn’t she also act like a young girl in love with the Duke?
From now on, having to pretend to be close with that man and call him by his first name was a difficult command.
“Do you dislike calling me Noah? Then why not make a nickname?”
“No. Absolutely not. I hate it. I’ll call you by your name.”
Raeliana answered seriously.
“Then try calling me.”
“When necessary, I’ll just call you… that thing.”
“If you don’t make your mouth accustomed to something, it won’t come out when it really matters.”
Noah grabbed Raeliana’s chin and lifted her face so their eyes met.
What was he doing?
Before she could even finish questioning him, he opened his mouth.
“What is my name?”
The calm sentence sounded stretched out like it was happening in slow motion.
He was annoyingly handsome at times like this.
She felt overwhelmed by his golden eyes, deep and endless like the depths of the ocean.
“No, No…”
‘Wait, why am I doing this right now? And why is this man’s face so close?!’
Her vision spun and it became difficult to breathe.
“Come on—”
His face moved closer, close enough that she could feel their breaths mixing.
“……No…ah.”
“One more time.”
This bastard.
Raeliana clenched her teeth.
“……Noah.”
“Good job.”
Noah praised her in a low voice, his eyes curving as he smiled happily.
It wasn’t the experienced smile of a politician wearing a gentleman’s mask.
It was a genuine smile that showed he was truly enjoying himself.
While Raeliana was briefly startled, his face moved away in an instant.
“I’ll be leaving now.”
Noah, having returned to his usual self as the Duke of Wynknight, grabbed the doorknob.
That man… could he possibly be a sadist?
Raeliana rubbed her cold, sweaty hands against her waist and, without even looking at Noah’s back as he left the room, walked straight toward the bed.
She planned to imagine the pillow was Noah’s face and beat it mercilessly.
Noah watched Raeliana’s figure until she disappeared completely, hugging the pillow as if she wanted to crush it.
Click.
The door closed and her figure completely disappeared.
Beyond the closed door, he leaned his head against it.
“Pfft—”
Noah began laughing quietly in that position.
That embarrassed expression of hers…
He remembered how, after finally facing him, she became pale and desperately tried to avoid his gaze by moving only her eyes as far away as possible.
The thought made him burst into laughter again.
Raeliana McMillan was truly a fascinating creature.
In that short moment, how many times did her expression change?
She would act boldly, then suddenly become restless, then become sulky.
Watching those endless changes in her expressions never seemed like it would become boring.
Adam, who was assigned to guard and monitor Raeliana, was standing across from the room.
When he saw Noah, he rarely showed a puzzled expression.
“Adam.”
“……?”
“How is she?”
Adam’s red eyes blinked quickly a few times.
His hand unconsciously touched the bag of chocolates Raeliana had given him.
Combining all the information he had gathered so far, Raeliana McMillan was…
A woman who got angry because of him.
A woman who smiled while giving him chocolate.
And…
“……A strange woman.”
“Really?”
Noah looked at Adam with slightly surprised eyes.
Had Adam taken a liking to her?
For Adam, who instinctively only categorized humans as enemies or allies, this was an extremely generous and unusual evaluation.
A strange woman.
Noah covered his rising smile with his hand, feeling amused.
“Keep watching her.”
Leaving those words behind, Noah walked away.
Adam stared at Noah’s back, thinking he should tell the aide that perhaps Noah was sick because of his strange behavior.
After she entered the Duke’s mansion as the future Duchess, teachers who were among the best in every field—from basic studies equivalent to middle and high school education to etiquette and cultural refinement—lined up to visit the mansion.
Facing lessons such as tea ceremonies, dancing, embroidery, and etiquette—things she had never even dared to attempt before—Raeliana was slightly horrified.
‘Will I be okay?’
However, her worries were unnecessary.
Once she started something, her body naturally followed.
It was the same movement she used when shooting.
Raeliana McMillan had been raised as a precious daughter of a wealthy family and had received the kind of refined education expected of someone of her status.
The memories left in her body allowed her to perform unfamiliar tasks without any shortcomings.
The ladies constantly praised her.
“How could she be such a perfectly educated lady?”
“She really is someone worthy of the Duke’s choice.”
“She probably doesn’t even need lessons.”
However, what surprised the teachers was not only her ability in cultural classes.
The predecessor of the current Chaimus Kingdom was the Lazy Empire, which had once nearly unified the entire continent.
The Lazy Empire used a more detailed class system than the current kingdom.
At the top were the Camillan class, consisting of the highest-ranking royalty and nobles.
Below them were the Estota class.
The Vita class, which became the commoner class of the present day.
And finally, the Chamilan class, which was the slave class.
When the empire became a kingdom, the old class system was technically abolished.
However, some things remained as customs regardless of the written laws.
One of them was the difference in the range of education people were allowed to receive.
Women of the Estota class did not study basic academics such as science and mathematics.
Even within the kingdom, there were still many people who felt uncomfortable with women of lower classes learning such subjects.
Changing those perceptions was extremely difficult.
And Raeliana McMillan, like any ordinary Estota-class woman, had originally been far removed from basic academics.
That was what worried the teachers who visited the Duke’s mansion.
Could a woman of the Estota class really keep up with these lessons?
When those teachers first presented the problems they had prepared for Raeliana, she narrowed her eyes.
Although she had entered Raeliana McMillan’s body, her soul belonged to another person from another world.
That soul had taken mock exams every three months, taken the college entrance exam, and had been a former exam student preparing to retake the exam in a private study room before her transmigration.
Solving middle-school-level basics was as easy as breathing.
When the math teacher wearing glasses asked if she knew the four basic arithmetic operations, Raeliana wondered:
‘Did someone who was supposed to teach Rosemary accidentally come here instead?’
And when the teacher showed her a simple linear equation, saying it might be difficult, she even thought:
‘Did Noah hire this person on purpose to insult me?’
Raeliana crushed all the teachers’ worries and concerns effortlessly and demonstrated astonishing results.
“Miss, you were truly perfect again today.”
“You’re praising me too much. It’s all thanks to your excellent teaching. I’m still a student with much to learn.”
After class ended, the teacher praised her as usual.
Raeliana hid her happiness and responded modestly.
After exchanging a few more compliments, the teacher left the room.
As soon as he left, Raeliana opened a history textbook because history was the one subject she could not completely cover with the knowledge from her previous life.
When she was still Park Eunha, the first essay she ever wrote was titled:
‘I Don’t Want to Lose.’
That was how much of what had raised her for twenty years consisted of competitiveness and pride.
When that useless competitiveness and the professional habits of a former exam student who felt more comfortable at a desk than anywhere else combined, the effort she had once lost her purpose for continued to move her like a machine.
