170 - I Got Engaged to a Blind Duke
Engaged to the Blind Duke Episode 170
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Marin was deeply engrossed in the book until she finished the last chapter and quietly closed it.
It had been a while since she'd read so voraciously. This is why novels are so fun, she thought.
Feeling pleased, she lifted her head to find Gerald still with his eyes closed.
He's really handsome for someone's fiancé, she mused.
Admiring him inwardly, she gently stroked the small bag she'd placed beside her.
Since they were on a date, she had brought something she'd made, planning to propose when the mood felt right.
After confirming the item was safe, she turned her head to look outside.
Dusk had fallen, casting a dark reddish gloom over everything.
"Huh...?"
But something felt strange. Though it was a dark road, it felt oddly familiar.
Pressing close to the Diamond Carriage window to peer out, she realized even the trees lining the road looked familiar.
"...Lord Gerald?"
Marin turned to look at Gerald with trembling pupils.
Gerald had already opened his eyes and was watching her warmly.
"Don't tell me this is... Schwentz's Viscountcy?"
Her voice came out shaky without her realizing it.
"Yes. You haven't been back since you left, have you?"
"...No."
This was the home she had fled from with her mother. She had never once thought of returning.
"I wanted to come here with you once. Because it's where you lived."
His affectionate words made a hot feeling surge up and choke her.
As the brightly lit Viscountcy, illuminated by torches, drew closer, her body grew restless.
The Diamond Carriage passed through the wide-open main gate and slowly traversed the garden, exactly as it used to be. The flowers her mother loved sparkled with evening dew.
The carriage came to a slow stop in front of the mansion.
"Welcome, Miss."
"Butler? How is this place...?"
Seeing the familiar face of the butler, whom she had paid his last wages and sent away, tears welled up that she had been holding back.
"His Grace the Duke rehired me. The former servants as well."
Marin turned to look at Gerald with tear-filled eyes.
"How... how did you... manage all this...?"
Her throat kept tightening, making it hard to speak.
She forced the words out, haltingly and with effort, as he approached and wiped her tears.
"Don't cry. I don't have a handkerchief again."
"I know. I know. But the tears just keep coming."
Her gaze fixed on him held a mixture of affection and gratitude.
He always accomplished things she hadn't even thought of.
"Shall we go in? Your Grace, Miss."
Gerald silently extended his hand to her.
Marin took his hand and followed the butler's guidance into the mansion.
Upon entering the lobby, Marin stopped in her tracks in surprise.
The paintings and decorations in the lobby were arranged exactly as they had been in the past.
"My goodness. I sold all those things."
"We repurchased all the former items. By order of His Grace the Duke," the butler explained kindly, as if anticipating her reaction.
Marin looked at Gerald with a tearful face.
He met her eyes and chuckled softly.
"Dinner has been prepared in the Miss's room."
"My room?"
"Yes. This was also His Grace the Duke's order."
"I see."
Marin glanced questioningly at Gerald walking beside her, but he just smiled silently.
"Have a pleasant evening."
"Okay. Thank you."
The butler bowed respectfully in front of her third-floor room.
Marin took a deep, nervous breath and grabbed the doorknob. Even though she had only been gone for a few years, it felt like something from decades ago.
When she slowly opened the door, her childhood room, decorated in pink, was revealed exactly as it had been.
"I didn't know your taste was like this," came Gerald's low voice from beside her, causing her tension to instantly melt away.
"It's too childish, isn't it?"
Even to her own eyes, it looked like a young girl's room.
In response, he raised one eyebrow as if to ask what she was talking about and said firmly, "It's cute."
Marin laughed cheerfully at his unexpectedly assertive tone.
"Mom wanted to redecorate the room, but I insisted I liked the room I'd used since childhood."
Shifting her gaze to the center of the room, she saw a lavish meal set on a round white table.
The maid standing by the table bowed her head in greeting.
"Long time no see, Miss. Have you been well?"
"Bell! How have you been?"
Marin happily grabbed Bell's hands.
The maid whose hands she held had reddened eyes.
"I'm sorry, Miss. For not being able to serve you until the end."
"No, Bell. I know all the circumstances."
Marin patted her hand reassuringly.
"Thank you for saying that, Miss. I'll be outside the door. Please call me anytime if you need anything."
Bell spoke quickly, worried she might shed tears in front of her long-absent mistress.
"Okay."
Bell quietly opened the door and left.
Marin looked around the room slowly with a nostalgic gaze.
Everything was the same, but one spot looked conspicuously empty.
The vanity she had inherited from her grandmother was now in her room at the Duke's Castle.
Thinking of the vanity reminded her of her father, and her thoughts extended to her mother at the Duke's Castle.
"Mom would have loved to see this too," Marin's voice was filled with tenderness.
"We'll come together next time."
"Yes!"
Marin answered deliberately cheerfully and beamed a bright smile at Gerald.
She wanted to show him only a smiling face, for him who had so thoughtfully prepared all this for her.
"Did you like reading books on that bed?" he asked.
Following his words, her gaze naturally turned to the bed. Even the bed and bedsheet colors were exactly as before.
"Yes. It was my favorite spot. Reading books on the bed."
Gerald gently took her hand and sat her down on the bed.
Marin's face instantly turned red as she whispered, "L-Lord Gerald. Right now, here—"
"Marin, I can guess what misunderstanding you're having, but that's not it," Gerald corrected with an amused voice.
"It's not?"
Marin averted her eyes, her face embarrassed.
"No. Disappointed? If so, we could make that misunderstanding not a misunderstanding—" he said in a suggestive, tempting voice.
Marin quickly raised her voice. "No!"
When he stared at her as if to ask if she was sure, Marin shook her head vigorously.
You lecherous demon, begone! Come on, pure thoughts. Cats are cute. Dogs are lovely. Gerald is lovely too.*
While she was fighting an internal battle with herself, Gerald suddenly knelt on one knee.
Marin's eyes widened as she looked down at the Duke. Could it be?
Gerald's face, which rarely showed tension, was pale.
He stiffened his expression and opened a black velvet box. Inside was a beautifully crafted diamond ring.
"A handsome Duke like you choosing an engagement ring... Last time, since I was blind, I was recommended a ring similar to your eye color, but this time, I chose it myself," he said, teasingly bringing up her past words, but his gray eyes were trembling with nervousness.
"......"
"I wanted to ask you in the place you love most. Marin, will you—"
"Wait!"
Marin hurriedly covered his mouth.
Gerald, his mouth blocked by her hand, froze on the spot.
He had definitely read reports that most proposals are successful. Was he not part of that majority?
Gerald clenched the ring box tightly in his hand.
What if she refused him like this?
He couldn't lose her. She was his first and last woman. His disappointed heart felt so constricted he could barely breathe.
How could he persuade Marin?
But then, Marin, who had been covering his mouth, took something out of her bag and knelt before him.
Although Gerald was looking down at her from his lowered eye level, he was so preoccupied with how to gain her consent that he didn't immediately notice the object wrapped in a handkerchief.
"Lord Gerald, will you marry me?"
"What?"
For a moment, he couldn't process her words and blankly repeated the question. Marin smiled charmingly with her eyes.
Only then did the object wrapped in the handkerchief come into view. It was a pair of rings.
In the center of the roughly crafted, silver-gray shining bands were set a Black Opal Jewel and a White Opal Jewel, respectively.
