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At that moment, everyone was shocked, including her. It seemed that the Grand Duke was really thinking of having a fake romance. That’s good, that’s good. But she didn’t expect to announce it in front of so many people. She still couldn’t believe her ears. She couldn’t even believe her tactile sense of feeling the Grand Duke’s body heat in their overlapping hands. What was that?
Her face was very red and her hair was mushy, so she would be like a ripe tomato right now.
“Wow!”
While everyone was speechless, the sound of children’s applause echoed through the dining hall.
“Everyone in the Grand Duchy’s palace should set the proper manners when dealing with Miss Hazel from now on, not as a nanny, but as a lover of the Grand Duke.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
It was when the Grand Duke even gave outrageous instructions and allowed everyone to leave while she was perplexed.
“When is the baby coming?”
“Luca!”
Before her and the Grand Duke could even say a word, Luna scolded Luca for asking an absurd and embarrassing question.
“You should start by asking when they will get married!”
Then another hit came.
“Get married!”
Match!
“Compete!”
Match!
“No. It’s not like that.”
This was a fake love!
* * *
“Did you cheat on me too?”
The fist that struck the desk in the office was visibly shaking. Elliot glanced up at Daniel, then he looked down again at his report.
“Sorry
 Nothing to say. You didn’t reveal that you were dating a white-haired witch until you hid it for three months.”
The white-haired witch was the word Eliot used to address Giselle. It was making fun of Daniel for calling Giselle her silver-haired beauty.
‘Aww!’ A scream rang through his office, and Elliot finally raised his head. Daniel roamed the office randomly from one end to the other. He even tore his hair out in anger and snarled at him. It was the first time he had ever seen Daniel, who didn’t have a wide range of emotions, behaving so violently.
“Somehow suspicious!”
Besides, it’s office hours and he didn’t use honorifics. It seemed that reason had completely blown away.
“Since you brought the witch as babysitter, it’s not unusual, so in the end, won’t she extend her contract!”
“It’s obvious that it’s because of selfishness.”
“She’s a witch no matter what she does.”
“She’s not a witch, but Miss Hazel.”
The name should be correct. But Daniel wasn’t in the mood to listen to that.
“Even if the witch breaks the rules, you tell me to watch over her! You said you wanted to loosen up!”
Elliot let out a deep sigh and looked back at the report.
“It was an excuse after all to spend time with your younger siblings. Now that I see it, you were chasing after the witch!”
It reminded him of a lesson Hazel had given him one day. When children express their emotions, give them time to sort themselves out. He never thought he would use that advice on Daniel.
“Ha, now I understand.”
And Daniel laughed and clapped his hands, as if he were making some wild guess.
“What you did at the ball was actually because you were jealous of Victor dancing with your lover.”
“That’s right.”
Jealousy was right. They weren’t lovers yet but he didn’t bother to fix that part.
“Are you saying that’s right? So proud?”
Daniel, who had been frantically wandering around the office by himself, suddenly came to the desk and asked in an earnest voice.
“Elliot, please don’t make an illegitimate child no matter what.”
He was an illegitimate child. Elliot’s eyebrows wrinkled as he concentrated on the report. He raised his eyes and glared at Daniel, who was talking too much, and the guy’s face turned gray.
“Could it be that already
”
“No.”
He had to guess as much as he could. Elliot let out a weary sigh.
“But there are already rumors about it. Now even I doubt that it’s just a rumor.”
“What rumors?”
“You two stayed up all night when you and the witch were isolated in the woods
”
“Stop!”
Elliot, who seemed to know the backside, raised his hand and covered Daniel’s mouth. As he closed his mouth, Elliot let out a sigh and rubbed his face roughly.
“I wish I was a witch. So that I can shut the mouth on everyone who spreads bad rumors.”
Elliot worked his head with one hand on his forehead.
“Daniel, I am a conservative. You’ll have to wait until the first night for that.”
He was embarrassed to talk about the first night with his own mouth, so he cleared his throat, but Daniel’s mouth fell open.
“I’m not even thinking of getting married
”
That was in the very distant future. He needed to hear Hazel’s thoughts. However, he neither affirmed nor denied it to Daniel.
“What’s conservative about marrying a commoner and a witch!”
Daniel burst into anger again and cried out.
“Besides, the other person is a witch who used to be a grandmother!”
A grandmother
 Elliot frowned at him and shook his head.
“She is not that witch. Never was she.”
“What are you talking about? Are you being manipulated by a witch?”
“I don’t think so?”
Daniel stared at Elliot and let out a deep sigh at her. He didn’t feel any special energy at all, so he must have known from the moment he spit out that his guess was wrong.
“I feel like she has been replaced by someone else. She is not even from the Brillant Empire.”
“What?”
“She didn’t know what to drink on New Year’s Day. Besides, she didn’t even know that the Pope has the ability to create illusions.”
“She didn’t know that?”
“And didn’t you see it with your own eyes yesterday? She didn’t even know that I couldn’t give up my right to the throne. As for my people, she doesn’t know what a five-year-old knows. So she can’t be a witch who has lived here for hundreds of years.”
Daniel, who blinked at his bewildered face, suddenly pointed out.
“Then you don’t know where she came from, and you don’t know who she is
”
“Her identity is suspicious. But she is not suspicious.”
Hazel was far from evil. No, on the contrary, sometimes it’s because she was too kind. Besides, there was no difference between the inside and the outside. Anyone who had be in contact with her would admit that ‘Hazel’, who had removed all the modifiers of ‘The Wicked Witch of the Black Forest’, was a good person.
“If her body and soul are different, wouldn’t she be a different person?”
Daniel couldn’t resist.
“I don’t know if there’s a story behind her pretending to be that witch, but she’s not a bad person.”
“It doesn’t matter what person she is. You are a Grand Duke; you can’t marry a witch people hate.”
“Daniel.”
Elliot, in a sudden serious voice, called out to him, put down his quill, and clasped his hands together. It was his habit whenever he told a story that was not very pleasant to hear.
“I know I’m selfish as the family head. But I’ve lived a life of sacrificing what I want. At least I want to do whatever I want. Before I was the head of the household, I was also a human being.”
Daniel was the closest to watching Elliot sacrifice what he wanted. He couldn’t say anything more because he knew the pain.
“Ha
 Do what you like, Your Highness.”
Using the honorific language meant that the anger was relieved and reason was regained.
“Thank you, Sir Daniel. The reason I’ve been able to lead the house so well in the face of countless crises is thanks to you, my trustworthy friend and reliable adviser, who always spoke bitterly by my side.”
Daniel eventually wins the argument and glances at Elliot, who begins to slyly placate him.
“Even though I have a lover, I won’t neglect our friendship.”
“If you don’t have anything more to say.”
Daniel sighed and left the office. If you think about the difficult contracts won and the lives saved with that remark, this was a losing argument from the beginning.
“If the people of the empire hate her, we can make them like her.”
Elliot muttered to himself.
“It’s okay if you gossip that you are really in love with me. My bad reputation will protect you.”
Those words, the more he thought about them, the more he hated them. Was he willing to take advantage of her bad reputation? Even if a person was too nice, it’s okay.
Elliott let out a sigh of relief at her. As much as this love affair helped him, he had to help Hazel as well. She gave him safety and he would give Hazel a good reputation.
He thought it was a sudden and premature confession, but it was because there was such a purpose in asking Hazel to be his lover. As the threat of assassination diminished thanks to this love affair, he planned to increase his outside activities even more. So that Hazel could meet a lot of people during social events and manor tours. Everyone wouldn’t help but like Hazel’s true face. Of course, liking his woman was forbidden.
Elliot remembered Hazel in the moonlight last night. At his request to be his lover, she widened her eyes and looked up at him for a long time. Could she possibly refuse? It was the first time Elliot had ever spoken of her as dating her, and the first time he would had been rejected by a woman. It was a time when he was embarrassed because he did not know how to cover up this situation naturally. Hazel belatedly nodded.
“Yes
 yes. Okay.”
“What are you okay with?”
“That, Your Highness asked.” she whispered in a voice quieter than the rustling of leaves in her wind.
She made him wait and he hated that she lifted and released the man’s heart, so he mistreated her a little.
“It’s been so long I can’t remember.”
Hazel blushed so that he could see clearly even in the dark of the night, she said.
“
I will be your lover.”
Had Hazel liked him too? It was when he was thinking about Hazel again, thinking about last night.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door
“Come in.”
Soon the door opened slowly, and the woman who had been interrupting his work, running lightly through his mind like last night in the woods, appeared in front of him.