Chapter: 123
Wow, to think I get to see that handsome face first thing in the morning.
It’s pleasing to the eyes, but it’s terrible for my heart health……
I smiled awkwardly.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, I slept soundly.”
Even though he had spent the night sleeping against the sofa, the Duke looked perfectly refreshed.
……Apparently, I was the only one whose entire body was creaking.
‘I should get up first.’
I should at least stretch a little.
With that thought, I tried to slowly get myself up.
“Where are you going?”
The Duke suddenly tightened the arm wrapped around my shoulders.
I turned to look at him with a flustered expression.
“Um, Your Grace? Please let me go first……”
“No.”
The Duke narrowed his eyes and smiled teasingly.
My face grew hot.
“No, I mean, there are servants around, too. Eva will wake up soon, and it would be better to be mindful of what people might think……”
“You’re really too cruel.”
The Duke let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Last night, you kept telling me how handsome I was.”
For a moment, I wondered if I had heard him correctly.
‘What?’
At the same time, the Duke lowered his eyebrows and looked at me as though he were hurt.
“So you’re done admiring my appearance now?”
“What?”
“Are you saying there’s nothing worth looking at except my face?”
“Whaaat?”
No, I would never say something like that……
At that moment.
An image flashed through my mind.
The pure white moonlight pouring in through the window.
A man even more beautiful than that moonlight.
When I had encountered the Duke shimmering before my eyes like an illusion, I had naturally assumed that it must be a dream.
And with my lips being more honest in my half-asleep state, I had said things I would never normally say……
“How can someone be this handsome……”
Was that all?
“To think the Duke is beside me. I must be dreaming……”
Hadn’t I even gone and spouted that kind of embarrassing nonsense?!
‘Aaaah, I don’t know!’
I screamed internally.
Ah, what am I supposed to do?
I felt like I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole right then and there……
I hurriedly changed the subject.
“Um, Your Grace? Actually, since it’s the Feast of Saint Laila, I prepared a small gift.”
“A gift?”
Fortunately, the Duke showed some reaction to those words.
I desperately nodded.
“Yes. But I need you to let me go so I can get the gift……”
The gift boxes were piled beneath the fir tree placed in one corner of the living room, after all.
The Duke smiled brightly.
“In that case.”
His strong arms suddenly lifted me up.
In an instant, my eye level shot upward.
“Eek!”
I instinctively wrapped my arms around the Duke’s neck.
Wait, why was he suddenly carrying me like a princess?!
At this rate, my heart problems would get so bad that my heart would actually stop! I was going to die young!
“Y-Your Grace! Put me down. I can walk by myself!”
“That won’t do.”
But the Duke merely shrugged with a sly smile.
“I don’t want to be separated from Lady Ansi, and Lady Ansi needs to check the gifts.”
His elegant eyes curved playfully.
“Isn’t this the only solution?”
What kind of ridiculous logic was that?!
But before I could protest, the Duke strode toward the fir tree.
Underneath it were four gift boxes of various sizes.
Two of them were familiar to me.
One was the pair of cufflinks the Young Lady had bought for the Duke, and the other was the wristwatch I had purchased.
“Ah, that one.”
I hurriedly slipped out of the Duke’s arms.
The Duke looked down at his now-empty arms with a disappointed gaze and grumbled in a sullen voice.
“Did you really have to get down as though you were running away from me?”
“……”
I deliberately pretended not to hear him and bent down to pick up the gift box.
“This is…… the gift I prepared.”
I timidly held out the present.
The Duke stared down at the gift box, his eyes lighting up.
“May I open it now?”
His usual relaxed demeanor was nowhere to be seen. His eyes were filled with anticipation.
He looked almost like a young boy.
Without realizing it, I gave a faint smile.
“Of course.”
The Duke eagerly opened the gift box.
A moment later.
The wristwatch appeared.
‘I hope he likes it.’
I swallowed nervously.
I didn’t know much about watches, but I had heard that it was from the high-end line of a prestigious watchmaker.
Yet when I imagined it around the Duke’s elegant wrist, the watch somehow seemed shabby……
“I…… I noticed that you usually wear a wristwatch, Your Grace.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and gathered every ounce of courage I had.
“A wristwatch is something you wear on your body all the time. So I thought that whenever you checked the time, I wanted you to think of me……”
“……”
After rambling on, I cautiously glanced at the Duke.
‘Wow, why am I this embarrassed?’
But then.
“I…… never even thought of that.”
The Duke gently caressed the wristwatch with a deeply moved expression.
“I suppose we’ve only recently become lovers, so I thought it would be fine to simply let this feast pass without doing anything.”
“There’s no way I could do that.”
I frowned in earnest without even realizing it.
“It’s our first feast since becoming lovers. How could we just let it pass?”
“……Is that so?”
“Of course. How much help have I received from you, after all?”
I nodded firmly.
“I really wanted to do something for you this time.”
“If it’s a gesture of gratitude for my help, you really didn’t have to……”
“Well, it is partly to say thank you.”
I subtly averted my gaze.
My mouth went dry as I tried to say something so embarrassingly sweet.
“……But now, we’re in a relationship where I can openly take care of you, too.”
“……”
Rarely, the Duke looked completely at a loss for words.
“A relationship where we can take care of each other, huh.”
The Duke repeated my words in his mind before continuing in a low voice.
“……I like that.”
“So, do you like the watch?”
At my cautious question, the Duke smiled brightly.
His face looked as innocent as a young boy’s.
“Of course. Thank you very much.”
The Duke’s smile deepened as he looked down at the watch.
“I’ll treasure it.”
Since the Duke looked genuinely happy as he said those words, I finally felt a little relieved.
“The wristwatch.”
At the same time, the Duke suddenly held out his wrist toward me.
“Would you put it on for me?”
“……”
……Wasn’t this very obviously a deliberate response to the Young Lady?
Something to do with the friendship bracelets the Young Lady and I had gotten together……
It was a reasonable suspicion, but instead of saying anything about it, I quietly picked up the wristwatch.
As I fiddled with the watch and fastened it around his wrist,
the Duke, who had been watching me with a warm gaze, spoke to me teasingly.
“However, Lady Ansi, you really don’t know anything about me.”
“What?”
What on earth did he mean by that?
I raised my head in confusion, only to stiffen my shoulders without realizing it.
Just a moment ago, his expression had been nothing more than playful.
But the Duke now……
“When you gave me this watch, you said that you hoped I would always think of Lady Ansi.”
His vivid blue eyes quietly gazed into mine.
Those eyes were like an abyss that would swallow me whole the moment I stepped into it.
His gaze was so intense that it seemed as though he might devour me from head to toe at any moment.
“I’m already doing that.”
