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“What’s wrong Du– No.”
She almost habitually called him Duke. It was time to bring up the nickname that had been dormant for a long time.
“Aren’t you used to my beauty now, Jionee? What makes you so surprised?”
“Haa– Ah….. It really suits you.”
Kalcion stuttered as if he was being choked.
“I don’t look good in anything, do I?”
“That’s not true.”
“……I was joking.”
“Is there anything that doesn’t suit you?”
“…..No, but…..”
“Why would you be joking?”
“Quit it…..,” Selena just wanted to get out of the agony of having to explain a joke.
“Let’s give her the money and leave.”
Selena pulled out Kalcion’s arm. He roughly dropped a coin in the girl’s hand without asking the price and followed Selena.
As she turned around, she saw quite a few people wearing wreaths on their heads.
Some wore colored masks, and instead of wreaths, they put large flowers in their ears. The wreath wasn’t such a huge prop among the stylish people in front of her.
“If I knew this would happen, I should’ve bought one for Jionee.”
“What?”
Kalcion’s expression turned straight at once. But Selena couldn’t have been scared by it. Because Kalcion—who blew everything except her neck when they met—was not an object of fear anymore.
She recklessly dragged him to a nearby stand selling wreaths.
“No, this.”
Kalcion tried to refuse violently, but she was successful in placing a wreath on his head.
“Oh, it’s pretty.”
When she was done, he looked as beautiful as a character who walked out of a myth. Satisfied with her choice, she took the money out of his pocket and handed it over to the merchant.
“You two, you both look so beautiful!”
As always, Selena owned the word beautiful, but now it was also given to Kalcion.
Kalcion fiddled with the corolla on his head with an extremely awkward look.
Even if he was handsome, he always harbored a cold expression on his face. And because of that, he was ‘scary’ rather than ‘handsome’. But when she put flowers over his features, it felt like life returned to him. While walking, she kept taking a step forward as she admired Kalcion’s face.
“Wow, you look so handsome with flowers on you. If you carry flowers all the time, everyone in the world will fall in love with you.”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
Even his harsh words sounded like whining.
“Oh my, even cute.”
Never shrinking against his demeanor, she playfully tapped his shoulder.
She was so excited by the bright appearance of the flowery Kalcion, she almost forgot that she had to return to the mansion. After looking at the stalls at every corner, watching the performance, and wandering around for a long time, she came all the way to the mansion.
“Oh, too bad. Should we go one more time?”
“As you wish.”
“I’m just kidding.”
Kalcion had never actively refused, so she couldn’t even throw a random joke. That was enough for their act. Selena found a person disappearing into a dark alley as she trudged toward the mansion.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t someone she did not know.
“Someone just went over there. I think it was Juna.”
“Juna? …….Oh, her.”
“She was also in charge of Irelle, and she used to gossip about her a lot.”
Selena and Kalcion looked at each other at the same time. Dion—who was escorting one step behind—also caught their eyes.
“To enjoy the festival, many would have come out in the boulevard, right?”
It was suspicious of her to secretly enter the alley alone.
“Should I track her?”
The alley was situated between two main buildings. The main roads in front and back of the alley were packed with people coming and going.
“Would you remember everything she says in a conversation if you track her?”
“No. That’s only possible if we hire someone who specializes in tracking.”
“Then let’s just follow her and find out.”
There were many passers-by anyway. It might also be a case where she got intoxicated with the atmosphere of the festival and went the wrong way into the alley.
Kalcion and Selena—who bought two masks from a nearby stall—checked each other. Thanks to the masks covering their hair and the upper portions of their faces, their faces stood out unrecognizable. Many people were walking around wearing masks like these, so they were not particularly noticeable.
“What should we do now?”
“We have to be lovers who want to get away from people’s eyes and stick to each other.”
“How?”
Instead of answering, Selena hugged Kalcion’s waist.
“Passionately?”
There was no time to hold operational meetings to explain it one by one. Selena pushed Kalcion toward the alley.
“Ha…..!”
He reflexively tried to keep balance. However, it was already after being pushed into the alley.
Indeed, Juna was secretly meeting another person inside the alley. The person was also a woman of similar age to Juna.
“Oh, darling!”
Selena hugged Kalcion’s neck with one arm and rubbed his cheek with the other before they looked at each other closely.
“W-Wait.”
Passionate lovers didn’t need a moment to wait.
“Why, you don’t like me? You don’t like me doing this with you?”
“……”
Kalcion, who was pushed against the alley wall, could not say or do anything regardless of whether his mind and body were frozen at the same time. Nevertheless, Selena didn’t expect him to act like a passionate lover from the beginning.
“People.”
The opponent glanced toward Kalcion and Selena, who had stormed in impatiently.
“It’s better to go somewhere less crowded.”
“They’re busy anyway, they can’t even hear us. Just say it.”
“But–”
“I don’t have time, I somehow managed to get out of the mansion. The Duke will be back soon, so be quick. I have to go back.”
Thankfully, Juna urged her opponent without being wary.
Meanwhile, Selena buried her face in Kalcion’s neck and her hand found its way to his hair. Unable to stand it, Kalcion covered his face with his palm, a low cracked groan erupting from his throat. His reaction wasn’t bad because he seemed like a shy man who couldn’t beat his enthusiastic lover’s offense.
It had been a while since she teased him like this. Since he came to the Capital, he had been adapting well to acting, so she spared him the teases.
“Mhm, darling……”
Kalcion—who found it difficult to accept the fact that she was acting—seemed like he could die due to her soft body pushing into him. He stared at the sky as he clenched his jaw.
“Okay. Next is the tea party of the Hice family. The Lady is going to the invitation. Since it’s her first time receiving it,”
“Okay.”
Hice. Selena memorized the family name.
She thought that was the end of the important conversation, but it continued.
“What about you?”
“She’s a crazy b*tch.”
That was Juna’s voice. So, the one she cursed was Selena.
Selena’s hand, which was flirting with Kalcion’s body, stopped.
“Like Irelle, she can’t stay quiet, she wants to explore everything. I don’t know where the Duke picked her up, but she does whatever she wants. Oh, really, I think I’ll have to go back because of that b*tch.”
“You must be having a hard time. Any weakness?”
“It seems like she buys a lot, but she doesn’t take anything. I guess she rolled in from a brothel where she used to seduce guys.”
Learning people to make such insults about you behind your back was the worst. Meanwhile, Selena was almost on the verge of tears because of such criticism.
Kalcion quickly took hold of Selena’s shaking fists in his hand and hugged her tightly. It was too radical to be a lover’s hug, but it was perfect to calm her tremors before she lost herself.
“Shh…… Calm down.”
Coincidentally, it was also appropriate for him to soothe his exasperated lover.
Juna’s opponent turned away after having a brief look at the ones ‘having fun’.
“The Duke of Renbird got caught in her traps.”
“That’s right. Mrs. Janet seems to have not overcome it. You heard what happened to the butler the other day, right? That’s a piece of her art.”
“Wow…… Would the Duke listen to her again?”
“Listen? I think they also make mischief at night. The Duke has become crazy for her.”
Kalcion coughed to hide his accidental laugh.
Crazy. It wasn’t that wrong. What else could they call him, considering he was crazy enough to be doing it in a ridiculous disguise in a dark alley right now?
“Then she could be more promiscuous than Irelle. You said she was fine.”
“Irelle used to rush after men like ghosts. But, she is so clingy to the Duke that she can’t see another man in the proximity.”
“It was once. If you remember Irelle, she used to shake while touching a man at first.”
“That’s true.”
Selena—who was now away from the desire to twist Juna’s neck with superhuman patience—paused.
Men.
They were talking as if Irelle had a thing with men.
Selena and Kalcion’s eyes met in the dark. His eyes shone sharply as if he was having the same thought like her.
Their short chat was quickly over.
“Where’s our next appointment?”
“On the day of the tea party. Come to the cosmetic store when the tea party starts.”
“Okay. I’ll get going.”
Juna turned around first. There was also a road on the other end of the alley, but she chose to turn this way.
Selena hurriedly grabbed Kalcion’s neck and buried his face within her arms.
Luckily, they did not get caught by Juna. Without paying much attention to the suspicious man and woman, she hurried out of the alley and toward the mansion.
After a while, Juna’s opponent also left the alley.
Kalcion flew a signal toward the roof. Soon, the light footsteps of Dion found them.
“We finally caught the tail.”
“Since we’ve stationed a tracker, it’s only a matter of time before we find the body.”
In earnest, they began to search for the criminal. Now that Selena caught Juna’s secret meetings, she could suspect her with a little more confidence.
“Now, through Juna, we can trace back what the criminal is thinking. If we participate in a recommended party, wouldn’t we be able to figure out a way?”
“I guess so. Rather than catching them right away, we’ll have to get to work after a while.”
Anyway, Juna was the tail. If they caught the tail before finding the body, the tail could be cut off. In that case, the body to which the tail belonged would be lost forever.
“Yes. We have to wait and see how much the tail wags.”
Selena’s lips drew into a forced smile, her eyes full of hatred. She just had to smile like this in front of Juna for the time being.