Chapter 58
58
Play with Me
A hollow chuckle escaped from the thin lips of the principal, who had been keeping silent. Leila, sitting primly across from him, gazed at him with polite yet quite resolute eyes.
“Are you serious, Teacher Llewellyn?”
“Yes. That’s what I want.”
It was a serious response, not something she’d brought up lightly. Of course. She wasn’t the type to carelessly toss out such a declaration about voluntarily transferring to a distant school.
“I don’t understand. This school is the closest to your home, isn’t it?”
The young teacher who pedaled her bicycle to school with a distinctive puffing sound wasn’t exceptionally capable yet, but she was diligent and tenacious enough. The principal liked her overall, despite the occasional nagging. Moreover, considering her circumstances, this village school was the best option in every way.
“There are no openings at other schools in Kalsvar. You know you’d have to go to a distant city to transfer, right?”
“Yes, I know.”
“If there’s any problem here at the school, tell me. If it’s something I can resolve, I’ll gladly do so.”
“No, it’s not like that. Everyone treats me well, and I’m getting along great with the children. It’s just…”
“Just?”
“It’s just a decision I made because I want to experience a wider world.”
Leila wavered for a moment but managed to deliver the prepared answer smoothly.
The principal let out another scoff. He had reason to. Kalsvar was a prosperous city in the Berg Empire that rivaled the capital. But no matter how much she pondered, Leila couldn’t come up with a better excuse. Fortunately, the principal didn’t press further and nodded.
“There are plenty of teachers who want to teach in Kalsvar, so finding your replacement won’t be hard. Still, you have until the next semester, so think it over deeply.”
It was a conclusion unlikely to change even after time for reflection, but Leila gratefully accepted the principal’s consideration for now. As she left the principal’s office and returned to the classroom, a long-suppressed sigh escaped her.
Leila leaned quietly against the window frame in the empty classroom after all the children had gone home. The oak tree outside the window had now shed nearly all its leaves. Its bare branches cast long shadows that stretched across and draped over her.
Leave Arbis.
After several nights of restless sleep and daze-induced foolish mistakes, that was the conclusion Leila had reached. Her precious daily life with Uncle Bill weighed on her heart, but losing Kyle had taught her something. Clinging desperately might end up ruining even more.
She decided to simply stick to her original plan.
Even if she took a teaching post in a neighboring city, she could visit Uncle Bill on weekends. Boarding away from home would require more money than now, and preparations for university might slow down, but it would be okay.
As long as she could leave Arbis—and that man.
“It’s fine.”
Leila approached her desk with a faint smile.
Thinking back to her powerless childhood, shuttled from relative to relative and left alone in the world, she felt she could endure anything. She was an adult now, she had her beloved Uncle Bill, so everything would be fine. It would be okay.
Unconsciously rubbing and wiping her lips, Leila hurriedly put on her coat and grabbed her bag. Her eyes flickered momentarily at the duke’s handkerchief she’d kept buried deep in her bag for days, but she soon pushed away the turmoil.
Mounting her bicycle, Leila began pedaling vigorously as usual.
Riet spotted the woman just as she turned onto the road leading into Arbis.
Leila Llewellyn had parked her bicycle between the tall trees and stood there motionless with her hands behind her back. As if waiting for someone.
Who could that someone be?
The vague answer she suspected intrigued Riet, so she pulled her car over to the roadside. Leila, who had been tapping her toe against the ground, snapped her head up brightly. Realizing it wasn’t the face she’d hoped for, she tensed up and took a step back.
“Hello, Miss Llewellyn.”
Leaning against the closed car door, Riet greeted her with a bright smile. Leila frantically looked around before retreating another step.
“Hello, Marquis.”
The greeting, delivered after a long pause, dripped with wariness and tension.
“What are you doing here?”
“……”
Her face showed intense deliberation, but Leila ultimately couldn’t answer. That silence was the most certain reply, and Riet let out another laugh.
“The doctor’s son isn’t here, so it must be Duke Herhardt, right?”
At the nonchalant remark, Leila lifted her bowed head. The furrowed eyes visible through her glasses and her flushed cheeks betrayed her embarrassment and shame.
“The man you’re waiting for, Miss Llewellyn. It’s Matthias, isn’t it?”
Riet stepped right up to Leila’s nose and stood with her hands behind her back.
Leila gripped the bag strap tightly with her sweaty hands. She’d planned to return the duke’s handkerchief, which made her heart race like a ticking time bomb. But since she didn’t want to seek him out separately, waiting on this road seemed best.
“Why no answer? Ah, I’ve hit the nail on the head.”
“Please move aside, Marquis.”
Hiding the bag with the handkerchief behind her back, Leila turned to leave. But Riet blocked her path even faster.
“You haven’t met Matthias yet. Leaving already?”
“Move aside!”
“Do you know where the duke you’re pining for has gone?”
Riet clicked her tongue as if disappointed and grabbed Leila’s shoulder.
“Duke Herhardt went to pick up his fiancée, poor Miss Llewellyn.”
What started as mischievous teasing was beginning to grate on Riet. Ignorant of Matthias’s whereabouts, Leila would wait here endlessly. The sight was irritating, pathetic, and above all pitiable—and Riet candidly admitted it stemmed partly from self-pity.
When she’d heard Claudine was visiting Arbis and seen Matthias head out to meet her as if it were natural, smiling vacantly and waving before driving off aimlessly alone—it felt like looking at herself. That unpleasant feeling, perhaps a sense of kinship.
“Matthias—isn’t he boring?”
Blocking Leila’s path as she tried to flee the other way, Riet grabbed the bicycle handle with one hand.
“I doubt his attitude toward his mistress is much different.”
“……W-what did you say?”
“The duke’s mistress. Why? Too crude a term?”
Looking down at Leila’s face, which looked like she might suffocate any moment, Riet smirked.
“If so, sorry, Miss Llewellyn.”
“Give me back my bicycle!”
“Miss Llewellyn, whom both the doctor’s son and Duke Herhardt like, hates only me—it makes me a bit jealous.”
Pretending to relent, Riet released the handlebars. While Leila was distracted, she snatched the bag from her hand. Leila’s face drained of color as she lunged at him.
“What about me?”
Riet lifted the bag high above his head.
“I don’t know about the doctor’s son, but I’m definitely more fun than Matthias.”
“My bag—give it here!”
“Matthias and I even look alike, don’t we? Not as grand as House Herhardt, but I won’t leave you unsatisfied either, Miss Llewellyn.”
Consumed solely by the need to retrieve her bag, Leila boldly grabbed and pulled at his arm. Her tightly pressed lips trembled.
“Let the boring duke live happily with his equally boring fiancée, and play with me, Miss Llewellyn.”
As if the bag hid some great treasure, Leila clung to it with pitiful persistence.
With a snicker, Riet finally released the bag. Clutching it, Leila abandoned her bicycle and fled. Not toward Arbis’s entrance, but the opposite direction, frantically. One of her shoes lay tumbled on the road, but she seemed oblivious.
“Sorry, Miss Llewellyn. I’ll stop now!”
Even as Riet called after her, Leila didn’t stop. She only fled more desperately.
Sighing, Riet picked up the discarded shoe and chased after her. Right after Leila rounded the corner, a screech of tires and a dull thud of impact echoed.
Riet rushed toward the sound with a panicked face. In front of the halted black car, a woman lay huddled on the ground. The woman who’d fled from him—Leila.
As Riet stood frozen, people emerged from the car. The driver and attendant hurried first to Leila, who’d collided with it, followed by Matthias and Claudine stepping out from the rear door.
“Oh my god! Leila!”
The startled Claudine cried out the name like a scream.
Matthias’s gaze, upon seeing the trembling Leila still clutching her bag tightly, stopped on Riet’s face in the beam of the headlights.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a serious accident.
Despite the hard impact that sent her tumbling, Leila stood on her own two feet. She stubbornly shook her head even when asked if she needed to go to the hospital. Confirming she could ride her bicycle home alone, Matthias quelled the commotion there.
“We should head back now.”
He calmly ordered the people, who were peering worriedly after Leila’s departing figure. Not a hint of curiosity escaped about the situation or why Marquis Lindman had been chasing her.
“Yes, that sounds best.”
Claudine, giving Riet a brief glance, agreed with her fiancé.
That was all. Matthias got back in the car with Claudine, and Riet, standing awkwardly, returned to his own car parked at the entrance of Platanus Avenue. The two vehicles passed through Arbis’s gates, ahead of Leila.
“She hit pretty hard. Thank goodness she’s not hurt.”
Claudine sighed, glancing out the car window.
Seeing Leila flee like prey chased by hounds only to be struck by a car had shocked even the unflappable Claudine. And when Riet appeared afterward, holding Leila’s shoe in one hand, she’d nearly let all her emotions show on her face.
Still, she hadn’t expected Riet to act so recklessly and impatiently.
Claudine tensed, watching Matthias’s reaction closely. But no emotion was readable from him. No concern for his woman, no anger at the one who’d endangered her—he was simply the same Duke Herhardt as always.
Just as pity for Leila began to well up unexpectedly, the car pulled up in front of the duke’s residence.
