8. Blood-Red Eyes

The two returned to the mountain villa late in the evening after their trip to town.

Once back at the villa, Adeline stayed in the kitchen preparing dinner, not coming out at all.

Not even a single step.

‘His memory might never return……’

In truth, Adeline had been troubled since receiving the doctor’s diagnosis in town.

While the duke regaining his memory would be problematic, she was also at a loss about what to do if it truly never returned.

That wasn’t all.

Recalling what happened at the clothing store, Adeline paused while cutting vegetables for dinner.

The clothing store in town was quite large for a remote village.

She had selected a few clothes that might suit the duke and pushed him into the fitting room.

While sitting in a chair waiting for him to change, she overheard something.

“My, that young man changing clothes has a special hair color.”

“Mmm. That’s right. Such pitch-black hair isn’t common in the Empire. It’s just like Duke Torpeo’s black hair.”

Adeline focused on the conversation between the store owner and the neighboring shop owner coming from the counter in the distance.

“But what kind of man has such long hair? He looked normal otherwise.”

“Is the young man handsome? I should take a look. Wonder if he’s come out of the room yet.”

Just then, as the duke was about to exit the fitting room after changing, Adeline jumped up from her seat.

She quickly pushed the duke back into the fitting room as he was about to come out.

Afterward, she had all the clothes packaged, took Casis by the hand, and left the store.

“Haah.”

Adeline sighed as she recalled that moment, feeling a chill.

It was certainly an eye-catching hair color.

No one in the Empire had such deep black hair as Duke Torpeo.

In the Soltarius Empire, black hair was considered blessed. It was extremely rare, occasionally appearing only in the imperial bloodline, and thus highly valued.

But for a commoner to have black hair…

His hair color already made him stand out, and being long-haired made him attract even more attention.

Adeline’s worries deepened.

Would it be possible to keep him confined to the villa like this?

Eventually, Adeline shook her head.

That would be unreasonable. Even a man who had lost his memory would notice something strange if kept confined to the villa.

In that case, there was only one solution.

Adeline’s eyes sparkled with determination.

⁕⁕⁕

“Shall we sit over there?”

“Del, you’re going to cut my hair yourself?”

Adeline’s solution was to cut the duke’s hair short.

She thought this would be the best option for now, as shorter hair would be less noticeable than long hair.

“Yes. Since it’s just the two of us living here, who else would cut it but me? Sit down.”

Adeline seated the duke at a table in one corner of the study to trim his hair.

As she covered him with a white cloth and began to trim his bangs, she stared intently at the duke before her.

His haphazardly cut hair made it hard to believe he was a duke.

Who had cut the duke’s hair so messily, as if gnawed by mice?

It was a complete mess.

Though she didn’t know the reason, Adeline doubted that Torpeo, known as the Iron Man, would have cut it himself.

But Adeline couldn’t even guess the reason, so she decided to end her speculation.

What mattered now was tidying up this man’s hair.

Adeline moved a step closer to the duke to trim his bangs.

“Close your eyes. Hair might get in them.”

At Adeline’s words, the duke quietly closed his eyes.

Snip, snip. As the bangs that half-covered his face were cut away, the duke’s straight eyelashes were revealed.

When Adeline’s cutting hand paused, the duke’s downcast eyelashes lifted.

Adeline hadn’t realized how close they were, focused as she was on tidying his hair.

“Is it going well?”

The duke asked Adeline first.

But perhaps because she was concentrating, Adeline didn’t hear the duke’s question.

“Del?”

When there was no answer to his repeated question, the duke lifted his closed eyelids.

Flutter, his neat eyelashes trembled as his eyes opened.

And very slowly, Adeline’s gray eyes locked with his bright red ones. It was a moment when their gazes intertwined.

This should have created a romantic atmosphere.

“……!”

Instead, Adeline’s heart sank.

Even though she had seen these eyes before, Adeline froze at the duke’s red eyes so close to her.

Blood-red eyes.

They were completely different from the eyes she had seen that first day at the villa—the eyes she had glimpsed in the darkness or peeking through strands of hair.

The eyes that had always been buried under long bangs were now revealed.

‘Duke Torpeo.’

The duke’s red eyes were said to contain the blood of countless people he had slaughtered on battlefields.

People said they were so vividly red because they were filled with the color of carnage.

People would flinch when meeting his eyes.

That’s why the duke usually wore his bangs long.

This was also Adeline’s first time seeing the duke’s red eyes so closely.

That’s why her whole body froze.

Even though she knew the man before her was not Duke Torpeo but Mel, who had lost his memory.

“Del?”

When she had formulated her grand survival plan, she had somewhat underestimated Duke Torpeo.

Save the duke from the brink of death, persuade him, and then ask him to save her from the crown prince.

It had started with this seemingly simple plan.

But now, facing the duke properly, Adeline began to feel uneasy.

Would this man—who had killed countless people to become a duke—really save her?

‘Am I…… wrong?’

A man who could kill someone like Adeline without anyone knowing.

And she was deceiving such a man who had lost his memory, staying with him……

Only now did Adeline realize how incredibly dangerous her actions were.

Adeline forgot to breathe.

She felt her mouth drying up as if all moisture had disappeared. Adeline avoided the duke’s gaze as he kept trying to meet her eyes.

“Is something wrong? Did you cut my hair strangely?”

But the duke, not understanding what was happening, didn’t know to move away from Adeline.

“No. It’s nothing like that. Close your eyes.”

Adeline unconsciously backed away from the duke. It was because Mel kept trying to meet her gaze up close.

Then she tightened her grip on the scissors. Her hand was trembling without her realizing it.

It’s okay.

It would get better if he closed his eyes.

If those intensely red eyes disappeared from her sight, her heart’s trembling would subside too.

Repeating this to herself, Adeline spoke.

“Mel, please close your eyes……”

She was about to ask him to close his eyes again.

But just then, a large hand extended from inside the white cloth around the duke’s neck and touched Adeline’s shoulder.

Clang!

The metal scissors fell to the floor with a dull noise.

It was because Adeline had flinched at the duke’s touch without realizing it.

After the scissors fell and the noise subsided, silence hung between the two.

Adeline’s lips trembled slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

At the duke’s question, Adeline bit her trembling lips.

“It’s nothing. I’ll start again.”

“You’re trembling.”

When Casis gestured with his chin, Adeline’s reflection appeared in the mirror behind them.

More precisely, her trembling hands were visible.

Seeing this, she thought she should quickly finish tidying his hair before the duke noticed something was wrong.

“When am I trembling? Close your eyes, Mel. I still need to tidy up more.”

Adeline pretended nothing was wrong and disguised her voice.

Then she bent down to pick up the scissors, stood up again, and tried to continue tidying the duke’s hair.

“I said close your eyes, didn’t I?”

Adeline wanted to finish this situation quickly and be alone.

But seeing the duke not complying with her, she felt her patience wearing thin.

It was hard to keep avoiding his gaze indefinitely. And the duke kept refusing to close his eyes. Without realizing it, she raised her voice.

The duke, who had been staring at Adeline, grabbed her wrist.

And then.

“Del, let’s stop.”

He slowly took the scissors from her hand and placed them on the table.

“Let’s continue after dinner or some other time. You might hurt yourself like this.”

With those final words, Mel stood up and left.

Adeline’s eyes trembled endlessly as she watched his retreating back.

Thump, thump. Her heart beat roughly.

But she couldn’t tell whether her heart was trembling because of the man’s concern for her, or if it was constricting because of those blood-red eyes.