Chapter 2
Chapter 002.
The moment I bowed my head and turned around, I heard a voice grabbing me.
“W, wait.”
‘He’s the type who can’t let go.’
The type to show up and wait on the day of the meeting between families.
Even if Mom’s remarriage story didn’t exist, he wasn’t someone I could like even if I had no one else to meet.
“I, I!”
The nobleman, his elegance gone, raised his voice with a slightly flushed face.
“I came to escort Lady Merian, not Madam Tetiana!”
His urgent words made me stop abruptly and turn around.
The bouquet he had been holding was already rolling on the floor.
He sighed, ran a hand through his hair with his white-gloved hand, and said.
“Call her out.”
I scrutinized his face, rummaging through my mind.
‘It’s not like I have a bad memory.’
I definitely hadn’t seen that face before.
There was no way I could easily forget such a striking face.
The knight next to him, unable to bear my silence, spoke up.
“The Lady must be inside, right? Tell her the message.”
I looked around in silence.
A man with a bouquet, who brought knights in uniforms with emblems, a pure white saddle on a thoroughbred horse, a luxurious-looking carriage, and this velvet carpet laid beneath my feet, was looking for me.
He was even looking for me with me standing right in front of him.
It wasn’t a situation that made sense, but I had to accept it for now.
First, I corrected the part that bothered me the most.
“Please refrain from calling me Lady.”
“What?”
“I don’t like it.”
“What does that……”
I told the bewildered man something he didn’t know.
“I’m Merian.”
The nobleman’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.
At the same time, the knights next to him made strange noises as if something was caught in their throats, probably because they were also flustered.
“Madam Tetiana’s? That……?”
It was a familiar gaze.
With this level of reaction, it was actually mild.
Having lived as ‘Mom’s daughter’ for so many years, every time I introduced myself, I had to be doubted whether I was ‘that Tetiana’s daughter.’
The daughter people imagined would probably be very different from me.
“Yes, I’m Merian.”
All I could do for those people was just answer whenever they asked.
Madam Tetiana’s daughter, Merian, was me.
Dana, who came down late, hid behind the door and whispered to me.
She also seemed to desperately want to avoid this strange sight unfolding at the back gate.
“Miss, come quickly. I’ve rented a carriage at the front gate.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you have to leave now to not be late.”
I glanced at the carriage in front of me, which was burdensome just to look at, and was about to turn around without hesitation.
The man who said he came to escort me quickly bowed his head and grabbed me again.
“I apologize for the misunderstanding, Lady.”
“Merian is fine.”
“I am……”
He hesitated for a moment, then took another step closer to me as if he had made up his mind and revealed his identity.
“Orion Miller, the Vice Duke of the Miller Dukedom.”
U | 99
“And I will be Madam Tetiana’s stepson.”
He lowered his body slowly as he revealed his identity.
I stared blankly at the man bowing his head and greeting me politely.
Although Mom was making a name for herself in society, I, her daughter, was a commoner whose father wasn’t even known.
For him, a great noble, to lower himself and greet me.
He continued to speak politely in front of me, who had stiffened.
“As today’s meeting is an important occasion, I visited to escort the Lady. I apologize for not contacting you in advance. I also received a sudden call……”
A hand wearing a pristine white glove was extended in front of me.
Instead of placing my hand over his politely extended hand, I fell into contemplation.
Accepting his escort meant walking on the velvet under my feet, riding in that luxurious carriage with patterns, and crossing the downtown area with knights on both sides.
“Vice Duke Miller.”
“Miller is enough.”
I was sorry to him, who was kind, considerate, and polite, but there was a line I could accept.
After much deliberation, I eventually rejected his offer.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go with Miller.”
“Yes?”
He looked at me in bewilderment.
Rejecting the Vice Duke who came all the way here to escort me, even bringing knights and the family’s carriage, was not a wise thing to do.
The other party was a high-ranking noble and the son of my mother’s remarriage partner.
But still, no matter what.
“I don’t think I can handle it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m a bit different from my mother.”
I gave a bitter smile.
Then, I pointed to the very conspicuous carriage with my finger.
“I don’t want to go to the meeting while attracting everyone’s attention.”
After a moment of silence at my honest words, he slowly turned his head to look at the carriage once, then at my plain clothes and fidgeting hands.
His face, as he took a breath and spoke again, was quite serious.
“I failed to consider the Lady’s preferences.”
“No, thank you for your kindness.”
The other party was none other than the Vice Duke of the Dukedom.
It was already a grateful thing that he was ‘properly treating’ my mother, who was not from a good family, and showing all the sincerity he could to me, her daughter.
Even if he had ignored me without even talking, I was in a position where I couldn’t say anything.
“Then how does the Lady plan to go to the meeting place?”
“My maid has rented a carriage at the front gate. I’m going to ride that……”
Fortunately, he seemed to be someone I could communicate with, so I relaxed and explained.
Taking advantage of my carelessness, his mouth, which opened, embarrassed me again.
“I’ll ride that too.”
“Yes?”
Orion Miller, with his shimmering blonde hair and blue eyes, was serious.
“I can ride that carriage too, right?”
I looked back and forth between the two knights next to him, who were spaced out with bewildered faces.
It was surprising that he would ride the rented carriage with me, but what would happen to the knights who came with him?
“Um, it’s a bit…… if the knights are escorting outside the carriage……”
“Let’s all ride together.”
‘That’s a two-seater carriage, though.’
If three burly men rode in a small carriage pulled by one horse, wouldn’t that be abusing the horse?
Even the knights were looking at the Vice Duke with pale faces, as if saying, ‘What are you talking about?’
Their opinions were not included in the Vice Duke’s statement.
“That, the carriage is going to be very cramped and uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay.”
It seemed like the knights next to him were not okay.
He answered without even looking at the grim-faced knights of the Dukedom.
“There’s no problem.”
There was no way there wouldn’t be a problem.
Soon after, four people climbed into the cramped carriage.
The three burly men who were squeezed in across from me had to huddle together as much as possible.
‘Still, he’s the Vice Duke of the Dukedom……’
Every time their shoulders bumped into each other and the carriage rattled, everyone’s breathing became rough.
The weather was cool, but the three of them were wearing uniforms with emblems.
There was no way they wouldn’t sweat when they were wearing clothes and rubbing against each other in a cramped space.
“It would be better for one of you to come next to me.”
“As a knight, I cannot covet the seat next to a lady.”
The knight on the left couldn’t even wipe the sweat flowing down his chin and groaned as he politely refused.
He was gritting his teeth, probably because the ride was terrible, and he was holding on with the strength of his thighs while lifting his butt slightly.
‘Trying to be polite is going to kill someone.’
Even in the midst of suffering, Orion seemed to want to say something to me.
As I watched him hesitate, unable to say what he wanted to say while moving his lips, I guessed the purpose of his visit here.
Duke.
Mom was remarrying a Duke, no less.
A Duke from only three families in the Empire.
Once the two of them became a couple through documents, I, who had no blood of the Dukedom, would also become a member of the Dukedom on paper.
Ah, I see.
He must be a very polite and courteous person, so he couldn’t easily bring it up.
‘Let’s tell him first to ease his burden.’
I spoke gently as if I could understand everything.
“I don’t think you need to worry.”
The blue eyes under the long eyelashes widened.
I admired the shimmering light like glass beads and spoke more directly.
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Huh?”
“It doesn’t matter if I don’t enter the family register.”
I’m going to come out again someday anyway.
“What does that……”
“I won’t be looking for any crumbs. I’m already planning to become independent after graduating from the Academy.”
He opened his mouth and gaped at me.
The knights, who had been sweating and lifting their butts next to me, sat down with a thud at my words.
“Ugh!”
All three of them screamed as their butts got stuck at once.
“It would be right for you guys to ride this carriage. I’ll walk.”
“W, wait a minute.”
“Here, stop.”
As I jumped out of the carriage and looked back, I saw the three people waving their arms.
“Oh dear. Looks like you guys are stuck.”
Their butts and shoulders must hurt.
The horse pulling the carriage also stuck out its tongue and looked exhausted.
‘That’s what happens when you squeeze into a small carriage like that.’
If you had just set a date and told me, I would have written a blood oath or a written oath and even confirmed the abandonment of property on my own, but what kind of hardship is this for the innocent horse?
“Ah, I should have told Mom that she doesn’t need to worry either.”
Madam Titi is truly someone who lives only for love.
She is not a person who covets wealth and power.
The sponsorships and gifts she received from society alone were enough to live on, and she was satisfied with the new products that salons and workshops brought to her.
It’s just that she falls in love easily and is immersed in it.
I walked leisurely towards the meeting place.
‘Even if I’m late, I won’t be the last one to arrive.’
Of course, it’s not my fault that he’s late because I didn’t ask the Vice Duke to come with me.
