3 - I Got Engaged to the Blind Duke
Engaged to the Blind Duke Episode 3
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Marin sat on the servants' parlor sofa, anxiously shaking her leg.
She had come this far. Could she do it?
Just as she was trying to calm her trembling heart.
Click.*
The door opened, and a handsome man with slightly downturned eyes, radiating a kind atmosphere, entered.
Softly curled dark brown hair, warm hazel eyes, and a gentle smile naturally gracing his lips.
Olive Leon.
The name of the Duke of Vince's aide, one of the supporting characters from the novel, flashed through Marin's mind.
"Miss Marin?"
"Yes. I am Marin."
Marin shot up from her seat and bowed her head in greeting.
"I am Olive Leon."
So, it was him.
"Please, have a seat."
He offered the seat in a gentle voice.
"Yes."
Marin answered and gulped.
Never before had she felt so keenly that she was truly living inside a novel.
Facing a character from the novel for the first time, her heart pounded and cold sweat trickled down her back.
As she sat back down, Marin's back straightened rigidly with tension.
"Your handwriting is very neat."
Olive, who had been examining the fabricated resume, expressed admiration.
"Thank you."
"Where did you learn your letters?"
"I worked for a noble family for a long time since I was a child. The young lady and young master I served were around my age, so they taught me a lot."
Marin lied with as much sincerity as she could muster.
"I see. It's quite rare for a woman to know how to read. That's an unusual background."
"Yes……."
Marin replied in a timid voice.
A commoner woman learned to read?
She knew exactly how strange it must seem and instinctively shrank back.
Most noble young ladies don't learn to read either.
They prefer to spend that time cultivating their refinement through musical instrument lessons, appreciating art, and so on.
But Marin had pestered her father to let her learn to read, and afterward, she even cut ties with the few young ladies she associated with. Time spent reading books at home was more precious to her than gathering with them and wasting time pointlessly.
Perhaps she had been a print addict in her past life, which made her so obsessed with reading in this one.
After her family fell into ruin, it wasn't easy to find work that could earn money while maintaining her status as a noble young lady.
Thus, she had no choice but to pretend to be a boy, borrowing her deceased brother's name.
Had it been before she knew of her past life, she wouldn't have even dared.
Because she, too, had been just one of the common noble young ladies.
Employers, pleased with her quick work, often wanted her to continue working with them. But to avoid her male disguise being discovered, she frequently had to change jobs.
"Actually, if it weren't for the referral, this position wouldn't have existed. You know that, right?"
At Olive's voice, Marin snapped out of her thoughts.
"Yes……."
Her voice, deflated, grew faint.
This position had been created through an introduction from a supervisor she met while working in her male disguise.
"I heard a boy named Marion was coming to assist me with my work, so I was a bit taken aback when a woman arrived."
"Marion is my younger brother. He said he wanted to work in the capital and left. I didn't want to miss this good opportunity to work for the Duke of Vince's household."
Marin fabricated her story as politely as possible.
She had briefly considered disguising herself as a man again this time, but to be of help to the Duke, her original appearance was more comfortable.
"I see. However, the ducal household already has enough female servants. Furthermore, hiring female servants isn't my authority but the head maid's."
"I... applied not as a servant, but as an assistant to the aide."
"Ah, that's a bit difficult. Well, knowing that-"
"You will need me!"
Marin interrupted Olive, who was about to wrap things up.
"Me?"
A question arose in his hazel eyes.
"No. His Grace, the Duke."
The eyes of Olive, who had a kind impression with downturned eyes, turned sharply fierce in an instant.
"What do you mean by that?"
"The unfortunate accident that befell His Grace is something no one in this western region is unaware of."
Marin swallowed dryly and continued speaking a bit more boldly.
"Miss Marin? Do you know what you're saying right now?"
Olive's previously smiling expression hardened like stone.
Marin pretended not to see his sharp gaze, stood up, and looked around.
"Miss Marin?"
Olive called her in a voice straining to remain calm.
But Marin stubbornly scanned her surroundings.
A book, she needed a book.
However, since it was the servants' parlor, no books were in sight.
"Miss Marin!"
Olive's voice, his patience exhausted, was laced with sharpness.
At that moment, she spotted a book standing as if hidden at the edge of the window.
Quickly picking up the book, she began reading it aloud with great care.
"Where do Monsters come from?"
"What are you doing right now?"
Olive asked again in a voice as cold as ice.
But Marin, for now, turned her back to him and focused on the book.
"Why did they come? Many scholars bring up this discourse, but no one has found an answer.
Is that why? Some scholars have become enamored with a theory that cannot even be proven.
That the ecology of Monsters gradually changes to adapt to their surrounding environment.
Most scholars disagree with this.
The historian Count Blusher, who called this theory the nonsense of the century... shall I continue?"
Olive, who had unknowingly closed his eyes and was listening to her read the book, snapped his eyes open. He looked flustered, realizing he had closed his eyes without noticing.
"When His Grace cannot read documents... no, finds it inconvenient to read them, I can read them aloud for him like this. My voice might be more comfortable for him to listen to than yours, Aide."
That's right.
In her past life, she had been an audiobook narrator.
Even after regaining her past life memories, she hadn't planned to utilize her past profession like this. That is, if she hadn't been dirt poor, barely able to make ends meet.
"Please, sit down for a moment."
Olive, hiding his confused expression, offered her the sofa again.
"Yes."
She tightly gripped the book in her hand as if it were her savior.
"First of all, unfortunately, I do not have the authority to hire you, Miss Marin."
"Ah……."
Marin bit her lip, unable to continue.
Rent, her mother's medicine costs, food expenses, and with winter approaching soon, she also needed to pay for firewood.
A hallucination of winged gold coins flying far away into the sky appeared before her eyes.
Marin hung her head dejectedly.
"But you really read very well. Honestly, I was surprised. It's a truly special skill."
Olive, who had now relaxed the tension around his eyes, looked at her with a gaze full of favor.
"……Thank you."
Marin, still with her head bowed, mumbled a barely audible reply. Even receiving praise didn't make her happy at all right now.
"If it were just about hiring an assistant for me, I could handle it on my own authority. But if it's about reading documents for His Grace the Duke, that's a different matter. So, I am considering recommending you, Miss Marin, to His Grace the Duke."
"Pardon? Really?"
Her head, which had been looking at the floor, shot up.
"Yes. Let's give it a try. I was actually struggling with that very issue."
Olive gave a wry smile.
After His Grace lost his eyesight, reading documents to him had become his responsibility.
His Grace had a meticulous personality and wasn't the type to overlook even a single document carelessly.
He had to repeatedly read, or sometimes not read depending on the Duke's mood that day, all those documents.
Consequently, important matters of the ducal household were piling up unresolved.
Olive observed the woman before him, who was tightly clutching the book with both hands, looking nervous.
A clean but seemingly old, shabby dress; slender wrists visible below the sleeves; a short and very thin frame; platinum blonde hair tied up, subtly shining under the sunlight streaming from the window but lacking luster and appearing dry; snow-white skin; large light green eyes like spring buds; and even pale pink lips.
It was a cute appearance, but overall, her colors were so light that she gave a somewhat blurry impression.
However, her voice while reading the book was the complete opposite.
