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The young men, who tried to talk to Rachel somehow, became frustrated the moment the prince explicitly put them in their place.
Even if she was only a foster daughter, she was still the only daughter of a duke, and her original status was the only child of a count’s family.
Many young men wanted to try their chances at making her their bride, but the first gatekeeper of that proposal was the Duke himself.
Then the next gatekeeper was Lucian, who was known as the young lady’s ‘brother’. In addition, there were countless other men who kept each other in check. But as if that wasn’t already difficult enough, now there was an even stronger gatekeeper—they’d have to pass through a prince.
The young men lamented the fact that the prince proposed to Rachel.
Lucian quietly stared at Elliot. Without paying Lucian even a smidge of attention, Elliot persistently looked only at Rachel.
It was awkward for her. At such a huge banquet, the only thing she wanted to do was to slap this trash booger king’s mouth as he openly mentioned his proposal.
Elliot poured cold water over her pleasant bonding time with Lucian. She looked around, seeing if she could get out of this unwelcome triangular situation.
At this rate, there was going to be a rumor that she would marry the prince, and that wasn’t good.
“Hoho, what is that. I’m grateful to hear that Your Highness thinks that I’m elegant, but I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
Rachel tilted her head to the side with an innocent look, but her tone was quite pointed.
The young men who couldn’t leave the peripheries instantly brightened and looked at her with renewed interests.
Lucian also brightened up at her words. Only Elliot’s smile became subtle.
Before this crazy guy spoke again, Rachel looked around.
Then, one young man who made eye contact with her spoke with a determined look.
“Good evening, Princess. I am Zeppelin from the Nicholas County. May I have your first dance of the night?”
Rachel thought this was a timely opportunity. So she accepted his offer.
“Nice to meet you, Young Lord Nicholas. I would love to.”
Hearing her acceptance, Zeppelin immediately reached out a hand to her. Rachel unlinked her arm from Lucian’s and gave her hand to Zeppelin.
As her small hand moved away from him, Lucian watched with a disbelieving expression.
He already missed Rachel’s hand so absurdly. At the unexpected sight, his mouth slightly gaped open.
He watched her hand move away from him to hold another man’s hand. As they started dancing, something inside him seemed to writhe.
It felt like his insides were being twisted around. How could he describe this feeling?
It felt like he had a handful of flowers in his hand—flowers that he painstakingly dug out of the ground, so worried that he would damage the roots—but as he walked around with those flowers, someone would come up to him and say that they wanted only the buds.
It was ridiculous. He was aghast. This sentiment was unpleasant and made him feel feverish.
Right then, Noah approached him.
He nudged Lucian, who was unable to take his eyes off Rachel.
“I heard that you’re preparing for your ascension ceremony as the next duke. Congratulations, Lucian.”
“……”
Noah’s words annoyed Lucian. Many people approached him to flatter him due to his position as the next duke, but only Noah managed to touch a nerve.
Due to the unpleasantness, Lucian’s expression became distorted, but Noah didn’t back down.
Because in his own way, he was also in a rush.
According to Kylus’ foresight, it shouldn’t be time for Lucian’s ascension yet.
He knew that this foresight wasn’t always right, so he quickly had to revise the plan.
When Kylus, taking over Noah’s body, went to the ducal estate before, Noah didn’t know what he and Pedro talked about that day, but if Lucian were to become the duke now, then everything would come to a halt.
And here, when Noah saw that Lucian was ignoring his words, it felt like his mouth itched.
It wasn’t that Lucian didn’t normally ignore Noah, but because of his anxiety, he said anything that could pop out of his mouth.
“Lucian, your sister seems to be quite popular. Maybe because she’s beautiful and lovely.”
Whenever Noah brought Rachel up, Lucian would always listen, though he would look unhappy.
That’s why, with the thought of getting his attention, Noah mentioned Rachel. But at this, Lucian’s expression became terrifying.
His expression was cold, but his eyes were burning fiercely.
Noah was surprised, and he realized that before he even tried to talk to Lucian, the dance was already over.
As soon as the song was over, Lucian, who had been frozen like a sculpture just now, moved at once.
Even after the dance was done, he glared at Zeppelin, who was still holding Rachel, as though he was going to mutilate the other man. Lucian had one hand inside his coat pocket.
Seeing him, Rachel smiled broadly.
“Brother!”
“Young Duke Leon, hello.”
With his stomach still in knots as he listened to Zeppelin’s courteous greeting, Lucian took something out of his pocket and threw it.
Slap!
A white glove slapped Zeppelin on the cheek, and it slowly fell.
Shhk.
The glove that fell to the floor was clearly embroidered with the duchy’s insignia.
It was an emblem with two swords, signifying the duchy’s vow to protect the imperial family and the empire. Those two swords intersect, and in the middle of that cross, a black was drawn between them.
The act of throwing a glove with the family emblem was an implicit challenge to a life-threatening duel.
Furthermore, if the family’s head was the one who threw it, this would be the same as saying that it would be a battle over territories.
From Zeppelin, who was met with a glove to the face for his actions, to the people around him, and to Rachel—everyone was surprised by this escalation.
The only one relaxed here was Lucian as he faced Zeppelin.
Rachel was inwardly screaming as she wracked her head to try and see how she could smooth over this situation.
Rachel took out the handkerchief she had in case of an emergency from her pocket and dropped it to the floor.
Then, pointing to the handkerchief that fell exactly on top of the white glove, Rachel asked Zeppelin.
“Young Lord Nicholas, can you pick up my handkerchief for me?”
“…Yes, of course.”
Despite suddenly being hit on the cheek with a glove, he continued to act like a gentleman and picked up the handkerchief and glove at once. Then, he handed them both to her.
And he also noticed her quick judgment right then.
“Goodness. My handkerchief got dirty. Hmm, I’ll need to go to the powder room for a moment.”
It was so out of the blue, but no one pointed this out for fear of the death match to proceed.
Everyone just thought the situation would fall through on its own.
If something unsavory were to happen at the spring banquet, of course it would be fun for the bystanders to watch, but no one knew what this would spark.
Rachel moved elegantly, but she was also quick on her feet as she left the banquet hall.
Before leaving, she made eye contact with Pedro. But as though nothing had happened, she turned again and fixed her gaze on the door.
Lucian followed closely behind her. As the gatekeeper exited through the door, the atmosphere became less severe.
He was so frustrated to be in the same enclosed space as so many people.
Though in fact, Rachel was a little angry at him. She didn’t understand why Lucian did that.
Although she was always on her bias’ side, there was one such time when she got mad at him.
This was when Lucian didn’t eat.
Whenever he didn’t eat well, she often became serious. But compared to those times, she was angrier now.
“Rachel.”
Closely following behind her, Lucian called her name in a mournful tone.
He was also quite surprised because she had never ignored him like this before.
But Rachel didn’t stop walking.
With his larger strides, Lucian soon caught up to her. He grabbed her shoulder tightly, but as he was surprised by this himself, he relaxed his hold on her.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t let go. Like a lifeline, he grabbed her thin waist with a very weak hold.
He was shocked that he was able to do such a violent thing to Rachel.
The shock that he felt stemmed from the fact that he always agonized over even just a finger’s touch to her, but he acted impulsively here as he couldn’t stand it.
Dark blue eyes that resembled the night sky stared up at him. The hair he braided himself fluttered gently in the motion.
And the amber necklace that looked like a full moon in the night sky faced him as well.
Rachel always talked to him first, but here, she kept her lips shut. Lucian felt as though his heart had plummeted to the ground.
With this dizzying, terrifying sensation, his eyebrows drooped down.
“I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
Truthfully, he didn’t know what he did wrong. But he knew that she was angry at him.
At what he said, she sighed softly. It wasn’t a loud sound, but it was as deafening as thunder to him.
Just as he used to be scared that he would hear thunder booming through the sky, even just her sigh was also frightening.
One step away, Rachel continued to stare at him. Then, she approached him and lifted her heels.
Coming close to his ear, she whispered.
“Never throw gloves at a banquet hall again. Okay?”
“……”
He couldn’t answer. Because he could still vividly feel her hot breath melting over his ears.
How sweet the scent was that carried over from that exhale.
His eyes were relentless as he stared at her, holding back his emerging desires.
But she still looked a little stiff, and soon, she tried to pull out her wrist from Lucian’s grip.
Seeing a hint of fear in her expression, Lucian pulled her slender wrist with a determination not to let go again.
“Brother.”
She spoke in a cold tone. It couldn’t have come from her beautiful lips. It was as if the ground was collapsing beneath Lucian.