The Duke stayed silent on purpose, enjoying the control he had taken for a moment. The corners of his lips lifted slightly. Leaning lazily against the doorway, there was nothing about his posture that wasn’t relaxed.
Sophia wanted to die from embarrassment. At the same time, she wondered if she could run really fast and snatch the letter back before the Duke could read it.
But even in her imagination, she failed. The Duke took the letter from her easily. Sophia knew. He would never give up this small victory that had fallen into his hands.
“To Carl.”
The sound of the letter being opened and the Duke’s smooth voice reading the beginning of it reached her ears. Sophia wanted to cover them, but she forced herself to hold her head high.
“I miss you.”
But as soon as he read that sentence, she had no choice but to shut her eyes tightly.
“Mmm, short but powerful. Did you learn how to write letters like this, Miss Hilden? If so, that’s very dangerous. Every time you pick up a pen, someone might fear you’re writing them a letter like this.”
The Duke gave a smooth, teasing review of the letter, then spoke to her in a playful tone. He even used formal speech, which was unlike him, and approached her at a relaxed pace, waving the letter as if teasing a cat with a string.
Sophia held herself back from jumping up to snatch the letter from his hand and replied,
“Please stop teasing me.”
“I’m not sure what you mean by teasing…”
“What you’re doing now is teasing me. You’re being annoying.”
“So Sophia thinks all forms of affection are teasing?”
“Duke.”
“You say you’re innocent, but you sure know how to use my name effectively, don’t you?”
Sophia’s face turned red. She knew she only called him “Carl” when she was desperate or needed something.
Cold sweat ran down her back, and her mind was spinning, but Sophia did her best to keep her dignity. In moments like this, the only way to keep her pride was to act like everything was perfectly normal.
She stammered out a defense.
“I don’t know why you’re saying this. I just… I just wrote a letter that a fiancée would normally write.”
“Hm.”
“And since when were you standing there?”
“Let’s see… maybe around the time you crumpled the first letter?”
“What? Why were you standing there in silence like that? Do you like sneaking up on people and catching them off guard?”
She was feeling petty, so she deliberately used words like “sneaky” and “attack.” Even Sophia thought she was being a bit childish, but the Duke just shrugged and sat in the chair closest to her.
“Well, wanting to watch the one you love a little longer is natural for a fiancé, don’t you think? I want to surprise you, and I like seeing all your different expressions.”
No way.
He really answered that directly?
Sophia knew this was probably just a verbal game to avoid losing, but her heart still felt shaken. Who wouldn’t feel that way hearing sweet words in that voice? Her ears felt hot, and she stood up, covering them.
She wanted to get out of there and clear her head. But just then, the Duke grabbed her arm. Her summer lace gloves were thin and made of cotton, so they clearly passed on the warmth of his touch.
“Isn’t it time you said it out loud?”
“What?”
“That you missed me.”
Sophia’s face turned red instantly. She had imagined herself saying that to him—and it was too embarrassing.
Saying those words to the Duke felt completely different from saying them to family or close friends. It felt like sticky molasses, like the mushy flesh of an overripe fruit.
“I…”
Her lips parted weakly.
Then it happened. A sharp pain throbbed in her head, and a strange, blurry image appeared in her mind. She saw herself—Sophia—with her chin tightly grabbed by the Duke.
That version of herself was hesitating about something. Her lips were sealed, like they were stuck with syrup.
Sophia, dizzy from the sudden memory, held her head and swayed. The surprised Duke quickly stood up and supported her.
“Are you okay, Sophia?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I just felt a little dizzy for a second.”
“Are you not sleeping well again? Are you still taking your medicine?”
Sleep? Medicine?
For a moment, Sophia didn’t understand what he meant. When had she ever told the Duke she wasn’t sleeping well? And what medicine was he talking about?
She was confused, but then remembered the small blue glass bottle the maid brought her every night. She had thought it was just something to help with the smell. Was it actually for sleep?
“I’m taking it. And I’ve been sleeping well too.”
Even though she hadn’t known, it wasn’t that strange. She couldn’t remember every word she said. Maybe she had casually told the Duke she wasn’t sleeping well. Besides, she had been meaning to tell him about her sleepwalking anyway.
She hadn’t had any weird dreams or sleepwalking episodes since taking the medicine, so it seemed fine. Sophia rested briefly in the Duke’s arms before straightening up again.
The Duke watched her face. His eyes briefly flashed with something like suspicion, but soon returned to calm when he realized she really didn’t know.
“That’s good. I heard you haven’t been eating well, so I brought a chef from the capital and told him to prepare some softer food. Let’s go downstairs.”
“Wait a moment.”
Sophia hadn’t been going near the kitchen because the smell there made her feel sick. But that wasn’t why she stopped him now.
Sophia lifted the Duke’s hand and placed it against her cheek. The awful smell that had been lingering around her faded, and a normal, comforting scent returned.
The Duke raised an eyebrow in surprise but let her do as she pleased.
“For some reason, when I’m with you, the smell goes away.”
Sophia spoke without thinking, moved by the sudden peace she felt. Then, shocked by her own words, she looked up at the Duke. But he only looked bored.
“At least I’m useful to you in some way.”
“You’re not surprised?”
“About what?”
“That I’m saying I smell something strange and that it only goes away when I’m with you. Aren’t you worried I’m saying nonsense? Or do you think I’m just talking nonsense and you don’t care?”
“Of course not. I believe everything you say.”
The Duke said it simply. Sophia looked closely at him, trying to see if he was serious. He smiled and added,
“I don’t think anyone else would believe you but me.”
At that time, Sophia thought the Duke was exaggerating. Just a typical romantic line like “you’re the only one for me.”
But later, Sophia would truly understand what the Duke meant.
He had only told the truth. Truly, Sophia had no one but the Duke. And the Duke had no one but Sophia.
Was that a sweet thing?
Sophia didn’t think so. To her, it meant loneliness. It was a curse.
Yes. A curse.
Sophia heard the name “Ezekiel” again during a meal the Duke held at the Rillum mansion, where he invited everyone.
Because the Duke was with her, the awful smell that usually followed her was gone, and she could finally eat. Looking back, the smell had disappeared the moment she entered Rillum mansion. It was as if nothing could rot here, and everything simply existed.
The smell of cold wind. A faint smell of crumbling plaster. That was the only kind of liveliness the mansion held.
“They say the next performance will be about the myth of Ezekiel, right?”
Sophia, who had been too focused on enjoying the delicious food to care about the conversation, froze when she heard that name.
The man who had appeared in her dream.
The man with long black hair and an eyepatch, who stared only at her. The man who said he would die with her and turned his back on everything else. She remembered him. His name was Ezekiel.
At that moment, Sophia noticed the Duke looking at her hand that had stopped mid-air—with a cold, unreadable gaze.
‘Could he know I’m thinking about Ezekiel?’
Sophia knew that was impossible, but she still got flustered and dropped a few peas. When she looked at the Duke again, he was calmly looking somewhere else, as if nothing had happened.
“What performance?” Sophia asked.
Solid answered,
“Oh, right. You weren’t feeling well. It’s the Vienna Atheunita Orchestra. They decided to do one more show before leaving. I heard they recently chose Ezekiel’s myth for their next performance.”
“The one where Ezekiel fights monsters and stops the flames of Hallas, right? But isn’t that kind of boring? I like romances more.”
Sophia pretended to grumble on purpose. Then Felix, who had brought up the topic, replied with a curious smile, as if he had been waiting for that complaint.
“But didn’t you hear? They recently discovered Ezekiel might have had a lover.”
