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“I thought she went this way.”
Rian took a quick step and walked toward the direction where Dana disappeared. He could find her.
Rian caught sight of Dana again. He smiled suspiciously. Looking at her again like this, he became even greedier.
Well, she’s pretty. If I startle her too much, she’ll run away.
Dana wandered toward the garden of the annex, and she bowed her head somewhat as if she were admiring flowers.
Rian deliberately approached with loud footsteps. Dana looked at him with a little surprise and bowed slightly with a calm face.
“Lady, you came out early.”
“Oh… Count Felice, you woke up early, too.”
“Aha? You know me too.”
Dana naturally smiled and said, speaking to Rian as if she knew nothing.
“You introduced it to His Grace yesterday. I was next to him, too.”
“Is that all? Before that, nothing at all…? Do you mean you don’t know me?”
Dana gently lowered her eyes and opened them, making eye contact with Rian.
“Do I need to know?”
When she suddenly faced him head-on, Rian flinched for a moment and soon answered, turning his head.
“That’s… You should know.”
Rian quietly approached Dana, whispering in a sly voice close to her.
“Because I know you’re fake.”
To see how she would react when he said this, she glanced at him and threw it away. He didn’t know whether Dana was pretending not to know him or not, but what he said now was a secret that not many people knew about. Of course, it wasn’t the truth.
Dana replied in a small voice, frowning.
“I don’t know how you know, but what do you think you can do with that?”
Then Rian shrugged once and stepped back a little.
“You’ll find out later.”
“If you do that, you won’t be safe with the Grand Duke.”
“The Great Duke will not be able to avoid deceiving His Majesty.”
Dana frowned and responded unpleasantly.
“What do you want?”
Rian agonized for a moment, scratching his chin at her question.
“What do you want? What do you want from me?”
“It’s just a pure desire to have a good relationship with the future of the Grand Duchy, and I have no other intentions. Please give me a chance.”
With that said, Rian gently bowed down and held out a hand. He meant to ask for permission to kiss on the back of her hand. And this implied having an affair with her.
“No matter what you mean… It’s not related to me.”
“Right, it doesn’t matter.”
Dana and Rian were surprised by the sudden voice and looked to the side at the same time.
Leon strutted toward the two with a hard face. Rian quickly pulled back his hand and took a step back with an awkward look.
“Grand Duke Teratius… Your Grace, you are here?”
Leon kept his eyes fixed on Dana’s face, listening to Rian’s voice.
“What will happen to my lover? Count Rian Felice.”
“I just said hello to you.”
The tone was polite, but there was a sharp tension between them.
But that was all.
“That’s too much, no matter how courteous it looks, there’s nothing polite about it.”
Leon held Dana in his arms as if looking at her, making a ridiculous expression. He thought Rian’s face was a little twisted, but quickly lowered his head and gaze.
“Yeah… Your Highness. Then I’ll get going now.”
Rian escaped as if he was being chased.
He disappeared, but Dana somehow couldn’t make eye contact with Leon and lowered her head, saying something else for no reason.
“I thought you were sleeping, so I came out briefly… When did you wake up?”
“Dana.”
When her name was called, Dana was surprised but did not answer.
“Dana Deniz.”
She felt unspoken coercion in his voice. Dana finally looked up at Leon.
It was clear that he was angry. Leon was a jealous person, so he must have been offended by the scene with another man.
“Really… I just said hello.”
“Greetings.”
Repeating Dana’s words, Leon mixed a sarcastic tone with his voice. It didn’t feel good.
Dana was about to make more excuses when she felt tenderness on both sides of her jaw. Leon grabbed her chin roughly with one hand, making her look straight into his eyes.
“Why are you covering for him?”
“No, I’m not covering. Leon, Leon. Let me go.”
The nobles who had been playing until late seemed to have woken up. People were coming from all over the place. But Leon didn’t care about that.
“Why, looking at your old lover, you must be itching between your legs.”
Leon’s intention of trying to be patient until Dana opened up by herself, ended the moment he saw the two together.
Despite Leon’s harsh words, Dana understood the meaning and opened her eyes wide. Leon let go of her chin roughly, and Dana was so surprised that she couldn’t feel the tingling at that moment.
“How…?”
When Dana was embarrassed and did not deny it, Leon turned around, putting his hand in his pants pocket.
“Follow me, if you don’t want to be humiliated here.”
Dana stared blankly at Leon from behind, who was walking fast. Then she walked after him as if she had come to her senses.
They headed back to the Grand Duke Tertius’ quarters, and on one side, Princess Christine was walking past them with the help of the maids. Christine glanced at Leon and Dana, but they were immersed in their respective ideas.