“Vivi! Why are you running like that?!”
Startled by my noisy entrance, Shasha jumped to his feet. Even though he’d barely moved, beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead. Shasha tried to wipe my forehead with his handkerchief, but I refused. My brother was terribly worried that, in my current state of irrational anger, I might cross a line I could never come back from.
“Big Brother, go outside for a moment.”
“What?”
“It’ll only be for a little while, so hurry.”
Shasha didn’t listen to me. He was determined not to leave, probably convinced that there was no telling what kind of trouble I might cause.
But Shasha had no choice but to leave the drawing room when Armin Gray said in a voice tinged with amusement,
“Do as she says, Lord Roha. I have something to discuss with Lady Roha as well, so I think it would be best if you gave us some privacy for a moment.”
With Armin Gray saying it too, Shasha had no room to resist any longer.
I also ordered all the maids who had remained to serve our guest to leave. Once everyone hurried out, only Armin Gray and I remained in the drawing room.
Armin Gray stared at me for a moment before speaking first.
“Did you receive the gift safely?”
“The gift?”
“I asked my mother to write you a letter and had it sent. Haven’t you received it yet?”
“Oh! That? Of course I did. Very well, too!”
I crossed my arms and glared at Armin Gray. It was the most intimidating pose I knew. Whenever I did this, Shasha would usually break into a nervous sweat and try to appease me. But judging by Armin Gray’s smiling face, it didn’t seem to put much pressure on him.
“You don’t look very happy.”
“Why should I be happy?”
“You said you liked that book, didn’t you?”
The way Armin Gray asked as though he genuinely didn’t understand almost made me lose my temper again. But, like an intellectual, I held myself back and spoke.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
At my words, Armin Gray’s shoulder lifted slightly. It was his way of telling me to go ahead.
“The Inquisitors. Are they still around?”
“The… Inquisitors?”
Armin Gray frowned.
“I suppose you weren’t very attentive during your theology lessons. They probably covered several times how barbaric the Inquisition was from an ethical standpoint.”
In other words, it had all been a complete lie.
“Then… then why did you say that to me that day…”
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question of why he’d said those things to me. I had an overwhelming urge to grab him by the collar and shake him.
Unaware of my thoughts, Armin Gray answered casually.
“Just because.”
“Just because?”
“It was simply a joke.”
For a fleeting moment, a mischievous smile appeared on Armin Gray’s face before disappearing.
“And seeing you get flustered was amusing.”
I finally shouted.
“Hey!”
“Hey?”
“Yeah! Damn it. Who do you think you are?! You scared me half to death talking about the Inquisition, and now you’re saying it was all because you wanted to show off that it was a novel written by your mother?!”
I wondered if Armin Gray had ever been addressed as “Hey” before.
For a moment, his beautifully sculpted, painting-like face froze. His expression of bewilderment looked strangely awkward. It was easy to infer that this was a man who rarely found himself caught off guard.
Seeing his expression, I immediately realized I’d gone too far.
But the water had already been spilled.
His bewildered face irritated me, so I kept firing off words at him.
“…You were scared?”
“Of course I was!”
I did switch back to polite speech after that, of course.
Being angry and digging one’s own grave were two completely different things. Even if it made me look cowardly, I couldn’t help it. Everyone has had moments like that, haven’t they? Like when you fight with your mother, slam your bedroom door, and then, terrified of what might happen later, cautiously peek the door open again. Or when you make some ridiculous excuse like, “I didn’t do it! The wind did!”
Fortunately, perhaps because I’d returned to polite speech, Armin Gray didn’t seem particularly angry about the way I’d addressed him before.
“Why was that so obvious? At this point, I’m more surprised that you actually believed it was true.”
“Well… because! You kept talking about devil worship and all sorts of scary things…”
“Setting aside your lack of knowledge about theology…”
Armin Gray asked, sounding genuinely puzzled,
“If you’d asked your brother, you would’ve found out immediately.”
I became completely speechless.
He was right. If I’d casually brought it up with anyone around Shasha, I would’ve immediately found out.
A wave of self-loathing washed over me. Anger without a direction only makes a person feel awkward. After all, when someone takes an obvious joke seriously, it usually makes them look like the one lacking common sense.
“I… didn’t know you’d actually be frightened. I’m sorry.”
His calm voice reached me as I stood there awkwardly after shouting at him.
At his apology, I was the one who became flustered, my eyes rolling around in confusion.
‘He apologized?’
The Armin Gray I’d heard about was supposed to be an arrogant, unpleasant man who thought he was the center of the universe.
I hadn’t expected the words “I’m sorry” to come out of his mouth so easily.
But anger has momentum. Once it starts, it takes time before it can come to a complete stop.
I deliberately crossed my arms even more tightly and said,
“Is saying you’re sorry enough?”
“I assumed you’d naturally realize it was a joke because it was so obviously ridiculous.”
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.
“There are things you can joke about, and things you shouldn’t joke about.”
“I’ve never really played a joke on anyone before. I suppose I made a mistake. But you know…”
When apologizing, you should never say things like “but” or “you too.” They’re words that only make the other person even angrier.
Armin Gray had clearly never apologized properly any more than he’d ever played a joke.
“I think there’s also something wrong with the person who believes something so ridiculous. Even if Inquisitors really existed, wouldn’t it be more logical to assume they wouldn’t arrest someone simply for reading a romance novel?”
I stared at Armin Gray in stunned silence.
Had he really been saying that it was ridiculous all along?
“You mean it was ridiculous?”
“There’s no way the Inquisitors would take an interest in someone merely for reading a romance novel like that.”
“So you’re saying this is my fault?”
Armin Gray gave a quiet chuckle as he elegantly set down his teacup.
“I’m not exactly assigning blame. I’m merely telling you that you’re more innocent than I expected. The mistake was mine. I didn’t realize you were quite that innocent.”
“But you took the book, didn’t you? You said you had to investigate it.”
Feeling wronged, I stomped my foot.
Armin’s expression changed into something similar to the one he’d worn when we’d met at the Imperial Palace.
“You liked my mother’s novel enough to bring it all the way to the ballroom, so I thought you’d be happy to receive a letter from her.”
A strange expression, a mixture of amusement and mischief, appeared on his face. Armin Gray leaned back against the chair and smiled lazily.
“Then you could’ve just told me that that day.”
“I couldn’t reveal my mother’s private hobby to someone else without her permission, simply because I felt like it.”
That was true.
If Shasha went around telling other people about my hobbies without my permission, I’d be terribly upset too.
I still felt frustrated, but I couldn’t find anything to argue with.
Then I heard Armin Gray’s gentle laughter.
“I’m sorry again. If I’d known you’d be that frightened, I wouldn’t have played such a joke on you.”
It was an awkward but sincere apology.
Before I knew it, I nodded.
“Well… then it’s fine.”
“So. What did you think of my gift? Was it not very good because you were so angry?”
Quite the opposite.
I’d loved it. How could I not?
It was a limited edition of Alji’s novel, complete with a letter from the mysterious author herself and her personal seal.
Of course I loved it.
I reluctantly shook my head.
At that, I heard Armin Gray chuckle again.
“Does that mean you liked it?”
“Very much.”
“I’m glad. It seems all the trouble was worth it.”
“Trouble?”
At my question, Armin Gray merely shook his head as though it were nothing.
I had been certain that some huge incident would occur when I came down from my room to the drawing room.
Yet, unexpectedly, everything ended rather anticlimactically.
Only after the heat in my head had finally subsided did I remember that I was alone in the drawing room with an unrelated man.
According to the customs of this world, having an unmarried man and woman alone together in a room was considered anything but proper.
Feeling strangely embarrassed, I hurriedly changed the subject.
“Since we’ve finished talking… should I call Shasha?”
“Vivian Roha.”
Before I could even finish my awkward sentence, Armin Gray called my name.
My heart sank.
Given the situation, and because no one had ever called my name quite like that before, I felt something strange that I’d never experienced before.
I turned toward Armin Gray at the sound of his voice.
His violet eyes were fixed intently on me.
There was still a smile in them.
“Just like the last time we met, and today as well…”
He spoke to me with a faint smile.
“Your actual personality is quite different from the rumors about you.”
“Rumors? What do you mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Somehow, the tables had turned.
Just moments ago, Armin Gray had been the one apologizing, but now I was the one being cornered.
A cold bead of sweat slowly trickled down my back.
“I heard you were a sickly and quiet young lady.”
I am sickly and quiet, though…
But since this was the first time I’d shown someone other than my family this side of myself, I was too flustered to answer.
Armin Gray continued,
“You smile a lot, talk a lot…”
I heard another quiet chuckle.
“And you get angry quite easily, too.”
