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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: A Leopard Can't Change Its Spots
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“Why are you here?”
Roje flinched. Eric’s irritable voice pierced her ears. Cold sweat trickled down her back. With her heart pounding, Roje turned her head towards Eric.
“Oh, you’re here?”
Roje hid her panic, feigning composure.
“I said, what exactly were you doing here?”
Eric’s voice was sharper than before. Roje closed the window with a *thump* and smiled at Eric.
“The wind was blowing quite hard. I thought I should close it.”
She almost got caught. The moment she heard the doorknob turn, Roje had swept all the documents on the desk onto the floor and grabbed the window. She wanted to appear as if she were just closing the window after seeing the scattered papers, no matter who came in. Roje realized for the first time that she possessed such quick reflexes. She tried to calm her rapidly beating heart, looking at Eric with an innocent expression. Seeing Eric frown as he stared at her, Roje’s lips felt parched.
‘Will it work?’
Her fingertips trembled. Roje clasped her hands together to hide their tremor and offered him a faint smile. Her legs felt weak, but she knew that showing any sign of panic here would only arouse Eric’s suspicion. Roje forced strength into her legs and spoke in a gentle voice.
“The papers all fell. Let me help you.”
Roje reached out her hand towards the scattered documents on the floor. Eric strode over to her in one step and forcefully slapped her hand away. *Whack*. Eric shoved Roje’s hand away with force.
“Oh, I’m sorry. They must be important documents.”
Roje said, covering the back of her right hand, as if startled. A stinging sensation rose from her hand. Soon, it began to swell red. Eric gathered the papers on the floor and then looked at Roje. He had only lightly pushed her hand, but it had swollen so red.
“Did you see them?”
But instead of asking if she was alright, his only question was whether she had seen the documents.
“The documents?”
“Yes.”
“No, as soon as I came in, all the documents were scattered, so I tried to close the window first.”
“Why did you enter the study without permission? What business do you have in the study?”
It was a suspicious situation, but to Eric, Roje was nothing more or less than a foolish woman. Eric dismissed his suspicion and reprimanded Roje for entering the study.
“I didn’t know I needed permission. The butler told me that once he informed you, I could come in and use it whenever I wanted.”
“He told me?”
“Yes.”
At Roje’s words, Eric frowned and questioned her again.
“The butler said that? I don’t understand why he would allow you to come and go as you please without properly getting my permission. It’s absurd.”
“Oh, I have my private lessons here. Perhaps you weren’t aware?”
At Roje’s words, Eric’s brow twitched. Private lessons? Since when… Eric searched his memory and recalled a faint conversation with the butler.
‘The Countess wishes to receive private lessons.’
‘Let her do as she pleases.’
‘Then, what kind of tutor should I summon? I’ve roughly narrowed down some candidates…’
‘Handle it yourself. Don’t ask me about every single thing.’
After that, the butler came to him several more times, but each time, Eric raised his voice at the butler.
‘Do you not understand what “handle it yourself” means?’
‘I apologize.’
‘Whatever Roje does, I don’t care. You decide and handle it.’
Recalling the conversation, Eric sighed, as if in exasperation. He had thought no one but himself would enter this place, so he had just left the documents there for a moment. It occurred to Eric that Roje might have seen these documents. These papers contained matters related not only to the Former Emperor, the Former Empress, and the Grand Duke, but also to Roje’s own family, the Serviart family.
‘No matter how foolish she is, I can’t let her see this.’
“Don’t even think about stepping foot in the study again.”
He spoke coldly to Roje. At that, Roje’s heart grew anxious. If she had no opportunity to come here, wouldn’t that mean no chance to secretly look at those documents? Roje’s large eyes welled up with tears as she spoke.
“My… My Lord. Then where am I supposed to have my lessons from now on?”
Eric frowned at Roje’s feigned tears. He was quite susceptible to tears. Even when he was cruel to Roje, if she shed tears, he would eventually throw up his hands and give in to her wishes. Of course, that effect was only very temporary. Roje forced out tears. She believed that, according to the novel, Eric would react to her tears.
‘Ah… Why won’t the tears flow?’
Letting tears fall in big, heavy drops like a tragic heroine was harder than she thought.
“You…”
Had her plan worked? Eric slowly approached Roje, who was forcing out a few meager tears. Then he grabbed Roje’s face and gazed intently at her.
“Did you hit your head? Why the sudden ‘My Lord’? Call me Eric, as usual.”
Roje flinched at Eric’s unexpected words. Now that she thought about it, the female lead had affectionately called the hateful Count ‘Eric.’ On the other hand, Roje, who had been reading the book, always cursed him as ‘that hateful Count,’ so calling him ‘Eric’ felt quite unnatural.
“E-Eric…”
Roje, whose tears had even dried up from embarrassment, awkwardly called Eric’s name. The Count looked at the blinking Roje with a strange gaze.
“…You seem quite unfamiliar today. Well, I’ll see you later. You should rest until dinner.”
“Oh, then the study…!”
“Didn’t you hear me? Don’t even think about coming in.”
*Bang*. Eric pushed Roje out the door and slammed it shut. Left stranded alone in the hallway, Roje let out a deep sigh and muttered.
“Then what about Grand Duke Arteum…?”
Roje was filled with anxiety that she might be powerless to do anything in the face of his impending death. *** It was already evening. Roje and Eric sat across from each other at the long dining table, eating. Eric found Roje, who was picking at her food, irritating. The woman who usually ate so well was suddenly dejected and barely eating. Eric quietly put down his fork. Then he spoke irritably to Roje.
“What’s bothering you?”
“Huh?”
Roje, who had been thinking about Grand Duke Arteum, blinked at Eric, who was suddenly giving her a displeased look.
“I asked what’s bothering you that you’re picking at your food like that.”
“I just don’t have an appetite.”
Roje was not pleased that the Count suddenly spoke to her. She just wanted him to eat and leave like he usually did.
‘An innocent person is about to die because of you; it would be strange if the food tasted good…’
Roje, who didn’t want to exchange words with the Count, lowered her head and forked her food quickly. The Count saw Roje’s red, swollen hand. It was the hand he had hit earlier. It looked quite swollen, more than he expected. Seeing her hand suddenly made Eric feel a pang of guilt. But instead of apologizing directly, he spoke indirectly.
“How about we take a trip together in a week?”
Roje doubted her ears at Eric’s voice.
‘He’s… talking to me, right?’
Roje looked at Eric with an expression of disbelief.
“With me?”
“Yes. That place you went for your honeymoon. You said you wanted to go back.”
‘So… why with me? Why not with your mistress?’
Roje blinked her eyes, then spoke to Eric.
“I don’t think I can. I have a separate engagement.”
“An engagement?”
Eric frowned and looked at her, as if he hadn’t expected Roje to refuse his offer. He had thought that if he suggested a trip, her dejected mood would instantly lift.
“What engagement? Surely, you don’t not know what day that is?”
At Eric’s words, Roje tilted her head. She wondered if there was some important event that day.
“What day is it?”
“…”
At Roje’s unexpected question, Eric was speechless and stared at her. That day was Eric’s birthday. She always made a fuss and celebrated his birthday, so why was she suddenly pretending not to know? Eric’s mind was simply tangled, unable to discern her intentions. Roje glanced at the silent Eric and then quietly continued.
“I was invited by Grand Duke Arteum. A banquet will be held ten days from now.”
“Grand Duke Arteum invited you?”
“Yes.”
“You haven’t met Grand Duke Arteum, have you? How do you know him?”
“I met him when I went to the auction house to buy you a gift.”
She said she didn’t know what day it was, but she went to buy a birthday gift? Eric finally caught on to Roje’s intention at her contradictory words.
‘She must be trying to get my attention by pretending not to care.’
Roje wasn’t the only woman like this. Women who obsessed and demanded love, but then suddenly became distant. Eric thought they had broken up, but they would say that wasn’t the case. They said they wanted him to hold onto them and whisper words of love. Eric thought the Roje in front of him was no different from them.
‘Annoying.’
He loathed relationships that involved coaxing and coddling. Eric decided to feign ignorance of her tactics. After all, Roje was the type to cling to him on her own anyway.
‘But Grand Duke Arteum…’
To invite the wife of the family that ousted him.
‘What is he thinking?’
Eric couldn’t grasp Grand Duke Arteum’s intentions. But he didn’t think too seriously about it. Whatever that man was thinking, he was going to be executed soon anyway.
“Alright. Then we’ll go on the trip another time. I want to attend Grand Duke Arteum’s banquet too.”
To the party that would brilliantly mark the Grand Duke’s end.
‘I didn’t want to go with him.’
Roje couldn’t hide her displeased expression, looking at Eric with disapproval.
*** At that moment, in the early evening, before the sun had fully set. The voices of a man and a woman could be heard from a bed in a certain room.
“To want me even though you spend every night with the Count.”
The man with red hair, unlike the black-haired Count, looked down at Doana and licked his lips. The red-haired man looked down with satisfaction at Doana, who was blushing at him. When Doana said she had become intimate with the Count, he had spent a considerable amount of time drowning his bitter feelings in alcohol. She, who he couldn’t charm into his bed no matter how many times he tried, was suddenly so aggressively throwing herself at him. He stroked Doana’s face as if he couldn’t believe the current moment. As the saying goes, a leopard can’t change its spots. Even after transmigration, she hadn’t changed her habit of meeting multiple men, indulging in a dissolute lifestyle.
