Chapter: 79
Gregory suddenly realized something as he watched Larit.
Whenever Larit was around Gregory, she had always shrunk into herself and watched his mood carefully.
……Not once had she ever looked at him with eyes like those.
‘No. That can’t be.’
Gregory bit his lip until it bled.
‘Larit has no one but me!’
And so, Gregory persistently followed Larit’s back.
Then, by chance, he noticed that the Duke had briefly left his place.
Larit, left alone, moved toward a secluded window where there were few people around.
‘Now.’
Gregory hurried forward.
He intended to at least try talking to Larit somehow.
Whether by persuading her or luring her in.
Whatever it took, he had to hold on to Larit and keep her from slipping away again.
“……”
But the moment Larit spotted Gregory, she looked utterly disgusted and tried to move somewhere else.
The emotion reflected in her flower-pink eyes was none other than……
Deep disgust.
‘How dare you?!’
Gregory’s eyes widened.
His steps grew faster and faster.
Just as the distance between them narrowed enough for him to reach Larit at any moment—
“Gasp.”
Gregory sucked in a startled breath.
The Duke had suddenly appeared and stepped between Gregory and Larit.
The Duke casually turned his head to look behind him.
Gregory instinctively flinched and stiffened his shoulders.
It was only natural.
Those piercing blue eyes were fixed directly on Gregory.
“……”
“……”
The Duke was doing nothing more than silently glaring at him.
And yet……
The pressure was so intense that it felt as though Gregory’s throat were being squeezed.
The Duke casually shifted his body, completely blocking Larit from Gregory’s view.
Then he escorted Larit away from the place.
‘Damn it!’
Left alone, Gregory was overcome by the urge to scream like a madman.
Larit Ansi.
His childhood friend whom he had known since they were young.
His old fiancée, foolish and dull, who had known nothing except trailing after him wherever he went.
Gregory had thought that Larit would remain in the palm of his hand forever……
‘Why?!’
Why had she suddenly gone so far away, to a place he could never reach?!
As Gregory stood there, panting heavily and unable to control his emotions, a noblewoman spoke to him.
“Excuse me, Young Master Gusto?”
“……”
Gregory turned around with a twisted expression.
The oblivious noblewoman gently asked,
“Didn’t you come with Lady Lopez today? I feel like it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Lady Lopez lately.”
“How the hell would I know?!”
Gregory snapped sharply before storming away, breathing heavily.
The noblewoman left behind could only stare in bewilderment.
“My goodness, why did he suddenly react so sensitively? He used to go everywhere with Lady Lopez.”
“He’s been staring only at Lady Ansi this whole time.”
Another noblewoman clicked her tongue.
“He should have treated her well when they were engaged.”
“Exactly. I don’t know what good acting like this now will do.”
The noblewomen continued to chatter among themselves.
“Speaking of which, haven’t you noticed that Lady Lopez hasn’t been around much lately?”
“Well, today is the university end-of-term party, so it’s not really a place Lady Lopez would attend.”
“Still, it’s strange that she’s hardly been seen anywhere else either.”
“Exactly. She used to make sure to show her face at all the famous events somehow……”
While the noblewomen gathered together and talked,
Gregory, consumed by a sense of defeat, strode out of the ballroom.
“How dare she flaunt herself with the Duke right in front of me?”
Madness flickered in Gregory’s eyes.
“Just you wait, Larit. You think I’m going to let you go?”
The determination in his voice was chilling.
Meanwhile.
Seraphina sat hunched up in her room at the apartment, biting her lips over and over.
‘What on earth is going on?’
Ever since she had gotten into an argument with the Young Lady at the Grand Temple the other day,
Seraphina had been experiencing something extremely unpleasant.
And that was……
“I’m sorry, Lady Lopez.”
“Our establishment is unable to accommodate Lady Lopez……”
She was being banned from every establishment associated with Claudius.
‘How could they do this to me?!’
Seraphina simply could not believe the reality she was facing.
She had been the most pristine lily of high society.
She had never once been rejected anywhere.
Everyone had showered her with attention, and they had all been desperate to receive even a small piece of her smile.
And yet what?
They were rejecting me?!
Seraphina’s shoulders trembled with her rising anger.
But there was an even bigger problem.
‘If this keeps happening…… I’ll really become an outcast in high society.’
Art galleries, concerts, exhibitions, and so on.
Every event Seraphina had been banned from was extremely popular among high society.
If she could not attend those events, it would be difficult for her even to participate in conversations.
Moreover, Seraphina was one of the most popular figures in high society.
Naturally, she had to be highly sensitive to the latest trends.
‘That girl Larit supposedly goes to every kind of event with the Duke without missing a single one. But I……!’
Seraphina was practically going mad.
And that wasn’t all.
Wasn’t Gregory now putting Seraphina aside and following only Larit around?
There had been places she had been able to attend precisely because she went with Gregory!
‘This is so damn annoying!’
Seraphina thought about the gentlemen she could call upon besides Gregory, but soon gave up.
They were all worthless.
Gregory was the most decent of the lot, which was why she had gone around with him in the first place……
After huffing and puffing for quite some time, she looked down at the invitation in her hand with dull, lifeless eyes.
For nearly a week, Seraphina had received only three invitations.
And two of those had absolutely nothing to do with high society.
……In the past, invitations had arrived nonstop, to the point where it had been difficult even to reply to each one individually.
‘Then…… this is the only invitation I have left.’
It was an invitation to dinner.
Two days later, several ladies were supposedly going to gather at an upscale restaurant for a social get-together.
At least, Seraphina had visited this restaurant several times before.
And since it had no connection to Claudius, they would not separately block her from entering.
‘Good.’
Seraphina jumped to her feet.
It was her first social event in a long time.
She intended to pay the utmost attention to everything, from her dress and jewelry to her shoes, so that she would not be outdone by anyone.
The next day.
I visited the Claudius Ducal Family’s townhouse for the first time in a while.
The Young Lady had invited me to have tea with her.
“Lari!”
The Young Lady, who had been sitting in the drawing room, gave me a mischievous smile the moment she saw me.
“I heard. You finally wore the earrings yesterday, didn’t you?”
“……How on earth did you hear about that?”
“There are ways of finding things out.”
Well, for the Young Lady, news from high society must have been as easy to learn as the palm of her hand.
I shook my head and sat down across from her.
The Young Lady continued with a beaming smile.
“I heard you and my brother were sooo affectionate with each other yesterday.”
“……”
“How was it? My brother is pretty useful, right?”
Useful?
Was that all he was?
When I remembered how the Duke had stopped Gregory yesterday, I felt a warmth spreading deep within my chest.
But I hadn’t come here to talk about that right now.
As I narrowed my eyes and looked at the Young Lady,
“W-What is it?”
The Young Lady looked at me with a guilty expression.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Eva, I heard you asked the Duke to do something for me?”
“Ugh.”
The Young Lady’s shoulders stiffened with a flinch.
I let out a deep sigh.
“I’ve told you several times. The Duke is a busy person, so you shouldn’t thoughtlessly take up his time.”
“No, but, that……”
“I didn’t even know about it…… Do you know how sorry I felt when I heard?”
“B-But still.”
The Young Lady glanced at me cautiously before pouting her lips and muttering,
“I didn’t like seeing Young Master Gusto hanging around Larit.”
“Then you should have told me beforehand.”
“But if I had, you would have refused, wouldn’t you?”
“……”
She had hit the nail right on the head.
