18. Deepening Misunderstanding

The figure emerging from the darkness was someone all too familiar.

Duke Torpeo. Unlike his usual self, his eyes had grown cold and icy.

He approached in one breath and pushed away Hailo’s hand that had grabbed her. So quickly there was no time to stop him.

Adeline blinked her eyes, unable to comprehend the current situation.

‘Wasn’t he sleeping?’

She had certainly checked that he was asleep before leaving.

“Me, Mel…… why are you here?”

Adeline’s trembling voice was filled with bewilderment.

The duke was confronting Hailo without paying any attention to her question. With eyes full of wariness.

“What are you doing?”

The duke’s cold voice scattered bleakly through the air.

Hailo’s eyes, which had been wavering in confusion, darkened deeply. As if he understood the situation.

“Del.”

Hailo asked Adeline in a gentle voice. To her, hidden behind the duke’s back.

“Is this person you mentioned living with a duk……”

“Stop! That’s……”

Adeline instantly moved past the duke and hurriedly covered Hailo’s mouth with both hands to stop the words escaping from his lips.

It would be troublesome if Hailo revealed the duke’s identity.

Adeline glanced at the duke’s profile, trying to gauge his reaction.

Why did they have to meet like this of all things? Adeline felt utterly helpless in this situation.

If Hailo knew that the person she was living with was a man, and moreover a duke, he wouldn’t stay quiet.

But she couldn’t lie in front of the duke either.

Hailo and Casis both turned toward Adeline simultaneously.

Adeline lowered her head under the intense gazes of the two men who seemed to be waiting for her answer.

‘It’s ruined. Everything’s ruined.’

“Well…… that’s right.”

In the end, Adeline had no choice but to confess honestly.

Hailo wore a desolate expression at Adeline’s answer, as if he had lost his country.

After a few seconds of silence, Hailo’s complexion changed as if he had finished thinking.

With a face flushed red, he shouted.

“What? No, Adel! How could you…… I need to move your belongings right now!”

Though she had known Hailo for several years, this was the first time she had seen him angry like fire.

Adeline stood in front of Hailo with a bewildered face.

“No, Hailo. Listen to me. It’s not like that.”

“What’s not like that? What if your family finds out you’re living like this? Even now, I should tell the Marq…mmph.”

Adeline hurriedly covered Hailo’s mouth again before he could say ‘Marquis.’

“There are circumstances!”

She whispered quietly to Hailo.

It would be even more troublesome to reveal everything about her family history here.

If the duke’s memories returned, it would become the worst possible situation.

However, the duke, unaware of the full story, stood frozen in place.

The duke’s face, as he watched the two, had turned not just white but blue.

He had known since first discovering the letter that the relationship between the two was not ordinary.

But seeing them looking so affectionate in person, the duke didn’t know how to react beyond anger.

‘Del really has another lover……’

Del’s past that he didn’t know. Family stories. The two people talking about things only they knew looked extremely intimate.

So much so that the duke felt there was no room for him between them.

‘What am I to Del?’

The moment doubt crept in, Mel was overcome with emptiness.

It was a greater loneliness than when he realized he had lost all his lifelong memories.

‘She has such an intimate lover, and I am……’

As bitter defeat enveloped his entire body, the duke turned around.

“Mel? Where are you going?”

“Where are you going? Don’t go, Adel!”

Adeline, who tried to run after the duke, was caught by Hailo.

And despite Adeline’s cries calling after him from behind, the duke did not stop walking.

⁕⁕⁕

On the way back to the mansion.

The duke had not recovered from the shock.

He had trusted Adeline without doubt when she called herself his lover.

But from the affection written in the letter to the intimacy he witnessed between them in person. With the appearance of a hidden lover, the duke didn’t know what to do.

‘She’s not even chasing after me.’

He had witnessed them about to enter an inn together in the middle of the night.

She had supposedly fled despite her family’s opposition, yet Adeline didn’t even come to stop him when he left in shock.

‘Is that man more important than me?’

Lost in thought, Casis didn’t know where his footsteps were leading him until he suddenly arrived in front of the house.

Entering the second-floor corridor, Casis naturally moved toward where light was leaking out.

‘Ah. It seems I didn’t turn off the light’

The study where Adeline had discovered the letter.

Approaching the desk, Casis reached for the drawer where he had stuffed the letter.

‘You probably don’t know how worried I am every night, unable to fall asleep.’

‘Unable to fall asleep at night……’

What was he to Del?

Today, he felt like he wouldn’t be able to sleep due to worry, just like the author of that letter.

Casis crumpled the letter paper with its elegant handwriting.

The man who was with Adeline was undoubtedly a noble.

He seemed surprised to see him, so he must have known him too.

‘Did she have another noble lover besides me?’

The duke recalled that man who had been affectionate with Adeline. He was as handsome as his handwriting.

With bright blonde hair and vividly shining blue eyes, he was a contrast to himself.

‘Perhaps her heart is drawn to a more reliable man than me, who has lost his memories and become weak.’

‘Maybe she’s preparing to go to that man because my memories haven’t returned.’

Casis’s thoughts began to spiral.

Today, he resented himself more than ever for not remembering a single memory with Adeline.

‘Who should I blame?’

Though it was he who had lost his memories, Casis continuously blamed himself.

The longer Adeline’s return was delayed, the more Casis’s self-loathing grew.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, as the dawn wind was blowing, Adeline was seen entering the yard.

Casis, who had been watching outside through the study window, felt conflicted.

— Click.

After some time had passed, the door to the study opened.

“Why are you here?”

The duke, who had been standing with his arms crossed, straightened up from where he had been leaning against the wall of the study.

“You’re late.”

Instead of answering Adeline’s question, the duke said something else.

“I met a friend after a long time, so our conversation went on a bit long.”

She couldn’t even imagine the duke’s misunderstanding.

She was just tired from putting all her effort into sending Hailo back.

“……”

“Mel, why did you leave alone? You didn’t answer even when I called.”

Adeline, who had spent a long time with that man before returning, answered nonchalantly.

The duke’s brows narrowed at her behavior, acting as if nothing was wrong.

“Who is he?”

“I told you I was going to meet a friend.”

Casis’s mood began to twist more and more at Adeline’s indifferent words.

“Does a friend come all the way here to find you in the middle of the night?”

Hailo coming all the way here was something Adeline hadn’t expected either.

She was just as surprised by Hailo’s sudden visit. Adeline hesitated, not knowing what to say.

That brief silence was enough to further fuel the duke’s misunderstanding.

“Was he your fiancé before you fled?”

Casis spat out the words irritably.

“What are you……”

Before Adeline could fully answer, Casis unfolded the crumpled letter from the open drawer and began to read it.

“You told me to wait, but seeing that there’s no contact from you, I find it hard to endure…… You probably don’t know how worried I am every night, unable to fall asleep.”

Adeline quickly approached Casis and tried to snatch the letter paper he was reciting.

“Why are you reading someone else’s letter!”

Despite Adeline reaching up, there was no way she could match the height of Casis’s raised hand.

At Adeline’s startled gaze, Casis flashed his red eyes as if he had lost his reason.

“Do you want to go back to this affectionate fiancé?”

After the momentary shock that Casis had seen the contents of the letter, Adeline also began to get angry at his seemingly mocking attitude.

“I told you he’s a friend.”

“Friends can be this passionate, I see.”

Adeline felt suffocated with frustration.

The Marquis who had come looking for her after she fled, and then Hailo who suddenly appeared before the tension could ease. Having been on edge all day, she had no energy left to deal with Casis.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding, but I’m tired, so let’s talk tomorrow.”

Just as Adeline was about to leave the study, not wanting to waste energy on meaningless arguments.

“Are you going to that man?”

Casis mocked Adeline again as she tried to escape from him.

“What did you say?”

“Isn’t he your fiancé?”

Adeline’s patience finally hit rock bottom with Casis continuously picking a fight.

“And what if he is my fiancé?”

Adeline, who could no longer deflect Casis’s words, began to speak irritably.

“If you like him so much, why don’t you go to your fiancé?”

“If I want to go, I’ll go on my own, so mind your own business.”

Both highly sensitive, they were only intent on saying words that would hurt each other.

The fiancé Casis was referring to meant Hailo, but Adeline was increasingly bothered by the word fiancé, which kept reminding her of the Crown Prince.

Her irritation surged.

Unable to contain her anger at the meaningless verbal battle, Adeline slammed the door shut and left the study.

After Adeline left, Casis threw down the letter he had been holding irritably.

‘I’m truly pathetic.’

Perhaps it was because Casis had no grounds to stop Adeline if she decided to leave him.

He was like a frightened cat with its fur and claws raised, terrified of being abandoned.

‘I shouldn’t have looked at that letter.’

From the beginning, it was Casis who had read the letter without permission. Casis quickly regretted it, as if he had never been angry.

Casis thought he should apologize to Adeline once he calmed down and began picking up the letter again.

Having read it without permission, snatched it, and even thrown it, he felt morally obligated to put it back in its place.

Casis reached for the letter paper that had gone under the furniture after being thrown.

As Casis bent down to pick up the letter, something caught his eye.

“Why is there a hinge in such a place?”