97.
“……Achoo.”
I must have caught a cold. My nose kept tingling.
Sniffling, I kept walking toward the lakeside.
‘I need to return the cloak, but I wonder if the Duke is still there.’
Just then, the voices of people chattering loudly nearby naturally reached my ears.
“Well, would you believe it? Count Kaneshion saved the lady by pulling her into his arms like that.”
“Didn’t I tell you? The rumors about them being estranged must be groundless!”
“You’re right. It seems the Count truly cherishes the lady.”
While I, who had fallen into the water, was bravely rescuing myself on my own,
Mariana seemed to have been rescued by her fiancé like a princess.
The way they chattered on, intoxicated by the fantasy as if it were some kind of medal, wasn’t exactly relatable.
Still, it was a bit unexpected.
‘It’s not like she was pushed like me; what reason would a lady have to fall into the water during a boat ride?’
But when I returned to the lakeside, the atmosphere wasn’t what I had expected.
People I thought would have scattered once the spectacle was over were still gathered around the lakeside.
Then someone gasped sharply and let out a short scream.
“B-blood!”
“Kyaaa!”
If they’re so faint-hearted, they shouldn’t be staring.
They went out of their way to come watch, only to squeeze their eyes shut and scream.
‘But, blood?’
I avoided the crowd and circled around toward a gentle slope.
When I finally came out to the lakeside, I could see it with my own eyes.
Because the Duke was in the lake.
Without any particular movement, he had dived and resurfaced after quite some time, and a murky redness spread around him.
I was startled for a moment, too.
It was quite a visually striking scene.
His wet, drooping hair was an unusually blood-like red under the sunlight,
and beneath it, his dark pupils seemed to reflect the deep, shadowy bottom of the lake where neither light nor wind reached.
‘Somehow, like a lake monster……’
Having conjured up a sentiment I couldn’t dare voice in front of the Duke, I let out a pointless cough.
By the way.
‘It’s not that I mistook the reflection of his hair color; there’s really blood spreading in the water.’
“Your Grace.”
I approached the water’s edge and called out to him.
He seemed to turn his head this way, but wondering if he hadn’t heard, I called again.
“Your Grace!”
Even though he had clearly seen me, he dove back under without much reaction.
‘What on earth is he doing?’
I grabbed some noble who was sending me suspicious glances from the side and asked.
“Why has His Grace the Duke gone in there?”
I didn’t even entertain the assumption that someone had pushed him in.
“Well, w-we don’t really know either!”
I turned my gaze away from the noble without hesitation, since he seemed so awkward talking to me that he even trailed off.
“What in the world is he doing in there……”
“Everyone, ch-check if anyone is missing right now!”
“Y-you don’t mean! Surely not……”
Unlike the nobles who were indulging in absurd imaginations.
I had a vague idea of where the blood that was turning the lake red like scattered paint was coming from.
“Your Grace, come out first!”
I gestured toward the Duke.
Since he still didn’t budge from inside the lake, I hiked up the skirt I had gone to the trouble of changing into and took a bold step forward.
As if to say I would go in myself if he didn’t come out.
As expected, it was far more effective than standing still and calling for him.
The Duke, who had just broken through the surface, saw me and hurriedly turned his body this way.
As he approached, the water grew shallower, and his shoulders emerged from the water.
His black shirt, soaked with water, clung to his body.
The nobles gathered around all took a step back together.
It was an attitude that made one want to scoff.
I stood close to the water’s edge and reached out my hand toward the Duke as if telling him to take it.
And when the water reached the Duke’s waist.
With a hawk’s eye, I could confirm the dark red bloodstain coloring his entire side through the hem of his black clothes.
That’s why I only noticed a little late.
The foreign object dangling in his hand.
It was…… my shoe.
I looked at the Duke’s face with my mouth half-open.
‘No way. Did he go in to retrieve that?’
I slowly lowered my gaze to my feet. I could see the shoes I had borrowed from a servant earlier.
Brown, low-heeled, off-the-rack shoes.
At that moment, I had to decide what to do.
Before the Duke completely approached and stepped onto the shore!
Like an agile beast, I pulled my feet out of the shoes and kicked them toward the bushes near the lakeside.
‘I’ll pick them up and return them later.’
The shoes flew in a helpless arc and fell into the bushes, disappearing from sight. And almost simultaneously, the Duke stood before me.
And he stared blankly at my hand, which was still extended.
Because my hand was stretched out slightly to the side from having kicked off the shoes.
He seemed to briefly ponder what this meant, so I urgently wiggled my hand.
“Here, take my hand.”
He reached out, but upon seeing his wet gloves, he suddenly tried to withdraw his hand again.
I quickly grabbed his fingertips and pulled.
He smoothly stepped up onto the lakeside.
His heavy boots stepped onto the dirt ground with a splash.
He looked no different from a giant drowned rat.
‘Well, he did dive all the way in.’
I took the cloak I had been carrying even on my way here off my shoulder.
I had intended to return it to its owner anyway, though I hadn’t expected to return it like this.
I stood on my tiptoes.
Then, somewhat like a creaking wooden doll, he slowly leaned his upper body toward me.
Water running down his hair dripped onto my arm.
I lightly touched his shoulder and draped the cloak around its original owner.
Finally, I grabbed both sides of the cloak and pulled the strings to tie them.
Suddenly, the knot I was holding dropped down with a whoosh. The Duke had bowed his body.
I was tying his cloak’s knot, while he was placing a pair of wet shoes before my now-bare feet.
‘……It’ll press on his wound.’
Without straightening up, he rubbed away with his hand a leaf that had caught in the eyelet where the shoelaces go.
He brought the hem of the cloak and carefully removed the moisture before finally lifting his chin to look at me.
As if to say I could put them on now.
‘……What would I have done if I’d been perfectly wearing my shoes.’
Internally giving myself top marks for my quick thinking, I struggled not to twitch the corners of my lips.
Until the moment I pushed my feet into the shoes, his hand, which had been sitting bowed before me without getting up, moved again.
He took the shoelaces that had been lying on the ground and threaded them through the eyelets himself.
I flinched my toes but waited obediently.
To be honest, they were a bit damp.
I waited for him to rise, then quickly grabbed his arm and moved away from the lakeside.
The Duke didn’t even ask where we were going. I felt like I would sigh.
It was only near the villa that I stopped and turned around.
I opened the cloak and examined his upper body.
Even though I was acting arbitrarily, he simply showed his clinging, wet upper body obediently and asked me.
“What is it?”
Dumbfounded, I looked up at him.
“Your Grace, you’re bleeding.”
“……”
“What are you doing walking into a lake on your own when you’re injured? It’s not as if dropping a pair of shoes in the lake is the end of the world.”
“You might need them.”
At that utterly nonchalant reply, I nearly found myself at a complete loss for words.
Swallowing a sigh, I asked firmly,
“Even when your wound has gotten worse and you’re bleeding like this?”
“It’s nothing.”
‘Oh, yes. Nothing at all.’
The blood spreading through his clothes had already soaked all the way down to the hems of his trousers.
Until now, no one had noticed because of the water, but there was nothing to be gained by advertising to everyone that he was injured. It seemed best to leave as quickly as possible.
When I asked for a place where he could rest, a servant guided us to an inner room in the annex. I gave him a small gratuity and told him to quietly bring a physician.
I helped him to the sofa and turned away, only for my nose to suddenly tickle.
“Achoo.”
The duke sprang to his feet.
“Sit down.”
He remained standing for a moment despite my sharp glare, but in the end, he sat back down.
However, he began fumbling with his cloak to take it off.
“You just went into the water and came back out. It may be summer, but your wound has opened, and you could catch a chill, so the cloak……”
“It seems to me that you’re the one who has caught a chill. You just sneezed.”
“That’s still better than one person becoming two, isn’t it?”
Our hands, both gripping the cloak, engaged in a silent, fierce battle of wills.
“It’s because I think I need to take off the wet clothes underneath.”
“……”
At those words from the duke, however, I had no choice but to concede.
After he handed the cloak over to me, he swiftly stripped off the shirt clinging damply to his body.