The Imperial Ball ended not long after I had fled to the balcony.
My body was trembling like a leaf from the cold, but my mind was so noisy with thoughts I couldn’t sort out that I couldn’t bring myself to go back inside. Another reason was that I was afraid I might accidentally make eye contact with Armin Gray if I went back in.
Just as I was about to freeze solid from the cold, the balcony door opened.
It was Shasha who appeared. But the expression on Shasha’s face as he looked at me was anything but ordinary. He strode toward me and immediately began interrogating me.
“Bibi, what did you do?”
“Huh? Wh-what did I do? Ahaha. What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
They say a guilty person gives themselves away. Under Shasha’s stern gaze, my voice trembled involuntarily. He suddenly held something out toward me.
It was my familiar, fluffy shawl—the very one I had been wearing just moments ago.
“Then why did Armin Gray bring this to me?”
There wasn’t even the slightest trace of respect for the Gray Duke’s heir in his tone.
My brother had a bit of a sister complex. From Shasha’s perspective, there was no reason to be pleased that a man he already disliked had brought the shawl of his younger sister, who had been bundling herself up because she was cold.
“Uh…… huh?”
As I stood there flustered, Shasha took another step toward me.
“Why would Armin Gray bring your shawl? You really did something, didn’t you? Tell me quickly. Don’t hide it and make it harder to clean up later.”
I flinched at Shasha’s words.
“He brought my shawl? That man?”
Wondering what on earth was going on, I studied Shasha. My brother also seemed bewildered by this unexpected turn of events.
“Yeah. He said he found it lying in the hallway. Now tell me honestly. What happened?”
Should I tell my brother the truth? Or should I hide it?
In that brief moment, an enormous internal struggle raged inside my head.
‘That’s right! No matter how I think about it, I don’t think he’d actually report me to an Inquisitor just because I read that book. It’s a little strange, but when you think about it, nothing really happened. Right?’
In the end, I chose the latter.
The fact that he had brought my shawl back seemed like a positive sign somehow.
Rather than confessing everything and enduring two days and three nights of Shasha’s nagging, the temptation to simply get through this one turn without anything happening won me over.
“Oh, I must have dropped it while I was running, and he picked it up for me! Contrary to what you said, he’s actually quite kind, isn’t he, Brother?”
“Kind? It’s not just anyone. It’s Armin Gray. Does that man look like the type to pick up something someone dropped in the street?”
“Who knows? I’ve never met him, so how would I know? Ah, it’s cold! Can we go home now? A-choo!”
I sneezed while making a huge fuss.
It was probably because I had been outside for far too long.
The suspicion on Shasha’s face disappeared, replaced by concern. He still thought I was physically fragile.
“Of course you’re cold! You’ve been outside dressed so lightly! Come here.”
Shasha quickly draped the shawl over me.
I really was cold, but when I saw how worried Shasha was, I deliberately shivered even more dramatically. I wanted to make sure thoughts of Armin Gray disappeared from his mind.
My scheme worked perfectly. Shasha immediately ordered the carriage to be prepared, worried that I might catch a cold.
Even inside the carriage, I pretended to fall asleep from exhaustion. Pretending to sleep was the best way to avoid my sharp-eyed brother.
Several days passed, and a precarious peace continued.
After the ball, I had nightmares about Armin Gray every night.
The terrifying moment when I had been left alone with Armin Gray inside that oddly shaped room, facing him across the room, kept repeating itself in my dreams.
Because of the nightmares, my face gradually became haggard.
Mom and Dad blamed themselves for sending me to the ball in the first place. Shasha also seemed to regret nagging me about finding a husband.
I didn’t step outside my room, using illness as an excuse.
That was how afraid I was of Armin Gray.
I was terrified that the front door would suddenly burst open and Inquisitors would come to drag me away.
But aren’t humans said to be creatures of adaptation?
When nothing happened for an entire week, there was no helping the fact that my tense nerves gradually relaxed. Around that time, I became comfortable enough to start eating the cookies I had been avoiding.
Only after I started lazing around again did my parents finally relax, and Shasha also stopped questioning me about whether something had happened.
I thought all the storms had finally passed.
But the story I thought was over began again when Shasha came into my room carrying a book.
“Young Master seems quite angry.”
Through the open doorway, I could hear Shasha’s heavy footsteps.
Michelle said that as she cleared away the cold tea.
“Something unpleasant must have happened.”
I answered casually.
Whenever Shasha’s footsteps echoed like that, it meant something had happened outside. Usually, in such cases, Shasha would return to his room and slam the door shut.
“Huh? His footsteps seem to be getting closer.”
But today, Shasha’s footsteps weren’t heading toward his room.
They were coming toward mine.
At this unexpected development, I lifted my eyes from the book I was reading and looked toward the door.
“Vivian Loha!”
“My ears hurt. Why are you shouting?”
Startled by my brother appearing while huffing and puffing, I widened my eyes and protested.
Instead of answering, Shasha roughly extended his right hand.
There was a book in it.
It was <The Demon Duke Is Obsessed with Me>, the book Armin Gray had taken from me.
I realized Shasha was carefully observing my startled expression when he saw the book.
Trying my best to hide the tremble in my voice, I asked,
“What is this?”
“What do you mean, what is this? That’s exactly what I want to ask you!”
“Did you buy it?”
“Do you think I would?”
“Then where did you get it?”
It was already sold out, so even if my brother had gone to a bookstore, he wouldn’t have been able to get it.
Seeing my confusion, Shasha told me where it had come from.
He was so angry that every word seemed to be ground out between his teeth.
“I received it as a gift.”
“A gift? From whom?”
“Bibi.”
Instead of answering, Shasha called my name.
When I looked up, I saw Shasha staring at me with a cold expression.
When Shasha looked at me like that, it meant he was truly angry.
“You really didn’t do something, did you?”
“I told you I didn’t! Why do you keep thinking I did something?”
I spoke confidently, almost as if I had hypnotized myself.
Nothing had happened for an entire week.
If nothing happened, wasn’t that basically the same as not having done anything?
I kept asking and answering myself that question.
But my confidence was shattered by Shasha’s next words.
“Then why did that bastard give me this book?”
“Who is that bastard?!”
“Armin Gray! The bastard who brought your shawl to you at the Imperial Ball!”
Shasha’s angry voice finally burst out.
“What?!”
I shot to my feet in shock.
“A-Armin Gray?”
The suspicion in my brother’s eyes deepened even further.
“You really did something, didn’t you? Can’t you just tell me now?”
“No, of course I’m surprised! Why would he suddenly do that?”
“How should I know? He came up to me and told me to give it to you. I was even more surprised than you. And that’s not all.”
Despite his harsh voice, Shasha carefully opened the book’s cover.
Then he held it right in front of my face.
“Look at this. Why would he tell you something like this?”
I took the book with trembling hands.
There was a short note inside.
[Thank you for loving my book. With love, to Lady Loha.]
And beneath the note was a seal.
[-Rebecca Gray.]
Unable to understand what it meant, I stared at the paper with my nose practically pressed against it.
Shasha sighed.
“There are two things I want to know. How did Armin Gray know that you liked this book, and why is he telling you the identity of Rebecca Gray?”
Shasha pressed his fingers against his temples as he continued.
“I knew something was suspicious ever since the ball. I told you several times not to get involved with him.”
“Shasha!”
“What!”
“Who is Rebecca Gray?”
I asked Shasha, suppressing my anger.
When I had been reading this book, Armin Gray had accused me of being a demon worshipper.
But the author who wrote it had the surname ‘Gray’?
I didn’t know who Rebecca Gray was, but that meant Armin ‘Gray’ and Rebecca ‘Gray’ knew each other!
Which meant that Armin Gray, who knew the author’s identity, had only been joking when he asked whether I was a demon worshipper.
Why had he done something like that to me when we’d only just met?
I couldn’t understand it.
Why?
Why would he play such a prank?
“Who is Rebecca Gray? She’s the Duchess!”
Shasha practically shouted at me as though I were the one being unreasonable.
My twin brother loosened his cravat and tugged it open.
“Then Rebecca Gray is…… the Duchess…….”
“Yeah. She was the author R.G. Why would he reveal something she’d been hiding so carefully all this time to you? And how did he even know that you liked her books?”
“Phew…… The Duchess, huh.”
By then, I couldn’t hear Shasha’s words anymore.
