IDSTD 03

Chapter : 03

‘He’s still as dazzling as ever.’

I swallowed hard and slowly looked him over.

Golden hair that shone as brilliantly as the sun, and clear aquamarine eyes so mesmerizing that I found myself hesitating even to meet his gaze.

Smooth, fair skin, a high, straight nose, and lips that curved gently upward at the corners.

If an angel from the murals of the temple were to descend into the real world, surely they would look exactly like this—wings aside.

The fact that he was dressed in a pure-white uniform only made the impression stronger.

But wait.

‘Why is he smiling at me so brightly?’

Anyone looking at him might have thought he had just met someone he had been desperately waiting for.

And…

‘Did he just call me “Erna”?’

As though he were calling the name of a beloved lover.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“It’s all right. I’m the one who showed up without even sending a word beforehand.”

My uneasiness only grew.

For now, I gave him an awkward smile and sat down across from him.

His sudden appearance had left my mind in a muddle, but on the other hand, I thought it might actually be for the best.

‘Well, since things have come to this, I might as well test the waters.’

“Has it really been four years? I believe this is the first time we’ve seen each other since graduating from the academy. You’ve been well, haven’t you?”

I started with something harmless.

I made it clear that, as far as I was concerned, I was seeing him for the first time in four years, then watched his reaction.

If the man I had met that night really was the Grand Duke, he would surely react somehow.

I waited for his answer, having laid out my little strategy in my head.

“Well, I’m not sure.”

Huh?

What was with that strange response?

The Grand Duke gave me a faint, meaningful smile before answering ambiguously.

While I sat there wondering what on earth he meant—

“By the way, Erna.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“You’re not going to call me ‘senior’ anymore?”

“…Pardon?”

“I distinctly remember you promised you would call me that.”

“I did?”

What was he talking about now?

It was true that we were alumni of the same academy, but we certainly weren’t close enough to emphasize some sort of senior-junior relationship.

We had hardly ever crossed paths, and there had been even fewer occasions for me to call him anything at all.

‘He’s talking as if we used to be close…’

“Ah, yes. Senior. It’s been a long time.”

But I didn’t dwell on it for long.

To be honest, I had no memory of making such a promise, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

The urgent matter was finding out whether we had actually ended up in the same bed.

But…

What was I supposed to ask?

Did we happen to sleep together that night?
Did we happen to cross the line?
Did we do anything you might regret?

I couldn’t bring myself to say any of them out loud.

If it had happened, that was a problem.

But if it hadn’t, the fallout afterward would be just as tremendous.

‘Besides, if he really was the man in question, wouldn’t he have said something by now?’

Something like—

“Are you feeling a little better now? I’ve been worried ever since that night, wondering if you might have overexerted yourself.”

Yes. Something exactly like that.

……Huh?

My eyes widened on their own.

I was so shocked that I could do nothing but blink at him, unable to say a word.

Then the angelic man gave me a smile that was just slightly devilish and slowly approached me.

I stared at him, trembling.

No way. It can’t be.

There’s no way… right?

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh? So you’re going to deny it?”

“Haha. Deny it? I really have no idea what you mean, Your Grace…”

As I desperately darted my eyes around and continued pretending I knew nothing, the Grand Duke stared at me in silence before lowering his head with a disappointed expression.

“You’re being too cruel.”

His weak, subdued voice made me uneasy for some reason.

When he raised his head again, tears like dew clinging to a single rose had gathered in his eyes.

Then came the words—

“You took my chastity that night, and now you’re pretending you don’t know anything.”

A bombshell.

Good heavens!

I gaped at him in shock, stammering incoherently.

It was shocking enough that the ‘Leon Obsidian’ written in the note really was that of Leon Obsidian.

But the word chastity came from his mouth.

And beyond that…

‘I was the one who jumped him?!’

I wanted to protest that such a ridiculous thing couldn’t possibly be true, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth.

A drop of water that had been clinging to the Grand Duke’s eyebrow rolled down his smooth cheek.

At the same time, my heart seemed to drop with a heavy thud.

His face looked as though he were deeply wronged and upset over having something precious taken from him.

That single tear was proving everything.

That I had no way of escaping this utterly ridiculous crisis.

‘Damn it…!’

“You’re not seriously planning to snatch away the chastity of a priest who has devoted everything to God and then simply pretend nothing happened, are you, Marquis?”

“……”

“My body, which was meant to serve only God and accept only Him, has been stained and corrupted by something worldly. I can no longer even uphold the teachings of the Temple.”

“Th-Then… what is it that you want from me…?”

I lowered my gaze as much as I could and asked cautiously.

At that, a gentle smile spread across the Grand Duke’s face once again.

As though he had been waiting for me to ask that very question.

“What else? Obviously, Marquis, you—”

M-Me?

“—must take responsibility.”

“……And by ‘responsibility,’ you mean…?”

“Marriage, of course.”

His reaction made it sound as though he had just stated the most obvious thing in the world, and for a moment, my mind went blank.

Then another question came to mind.

‘What on earth did this man find so attractive about me?’

He was an ascetic man who wouldn’t even bat an eye no matter how beautiful a young lady or noblewoman came before him.

It was strange enough that he had supposedly let himself be swept away simply because I had jumped him.

All right, let’s say that the idiot woman who had entered my body had fallen for the Grand Duke at first sight.

There was the troublesome and cliché stage called dating, and I had no idea why she had skipped all of that and jumped straight into bed with him, but let’s say that was what she wanted to do.

‘But do people really just sleep together because someone says, “Let’s sleep together”? Does it… really happen that quickly?’

I subtly lowered my gaze and looked over my own body.

A gaunt figure, the result of devoting myself entirely to work and barely bothering with proper meals. A flat silhouette with hardly any curves to speak of.

I’d never even received a confession during my academy days.

The only remotely appealing thing about me was probably my strikingly vivid red hair.

Even that looked this good only because Laura personally brushed and cared for it. If I neglected it, my naturally curly hair would quickly become dull, coarse, and tangled.

Anyway, no matter how much I thought about it, there wasn’t a single thing about me that seemed particularly exciting.

‘What? Could it be that the Grand Duke has some… unusual tastes?’

If not…

“Did you perhaps drink a lot that night?”

“According to the teachings of the Temple, those who serve God are forbidden from drinking alcohol.”

“Th-Then perhaps I knew some sort of weakness of yours and threatened you with it—”

“Do I look like someone who would be swayed by something as trivial as that?”

“No, then how on earth did this happen…?”

At my bewildered question—how had that impenetrable wall fallen to someone like me?—he smiled faintly.

“After you knocked me onto the bed, you climbed right on top of me.”

Gasp.

“You grabbed both my wrists before I even had a chance to resist and kissed me. You pinned me down with your entire body as I struggled, and I couldn’t move at all for fear that I might hurt you. While I was helpless, your hands quickly began removing my clothes. And your other hand moved lower, toward my…”

“Th-That’s enough! I understand, so please stop!”

Please. I understood perfectly well!

I was in shock.

Good heavens. I really had been the one to jump a strange man.

It was something a proper, chaste lady would never do, but if the other woman was that outsider from another world, it was different.

The flower-brained woman I’d sensed even through the letter, someone who had come from some strange, unfamiliar place—if it was her, I could absolutely believe she would do something like that.

All right, so for now…

“P-Please give me some time to think.”

In my current state, any decision I made was bound to be something I would regret.

So when I asked him to give me some time, he unexpectedly nodded quite willingly.

“Still, I should at least receive what I’m owed, shouldn’t I?”

Of course, he wasn’t going to make things that easy for me.

I was about to ask what he meant by what he was owed, but he had already stepped right in front of me.

He grabbed my shoulders and lowered his head.

Then his lips lightly brushed against mine.

Before I could even react in surprise, he gave my lower lip the slightest bite.

At the gentle pressure, my lips naturally parted, and a warm sensation slipped inside.

A kiss that was brief, yet deep.