Translator: Nabi

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Chapter 14

“Brother!”

As she glanced up, her eyes met with Seth Persen, who was staring down with a cold and expressionless face.

Min-ha smiled awkwardly and greeted him.

“…Oh, haha. When did you get here?”

“Since you said, ‘Come and play without any hesitation’.”

“…Really? Well, why did you come all the way here?”

“Can’t I just walk around my mansion as I please?”

“…T-that’s not it.”

“And, just above the library is my office. I’m sure you know that?”

‘…No, I didn’t know.’ Min-ha swallowed inwardly and peered at Seth, who extended his arm tenderly toward Noah

As if he had really come to his office as he said, he was wearing a relatively comfortable white shirt and black uniform, not the fancy outfit she saw yesterday.

Even so, he still looked like a well-crafted piece of art.

Min-ha got up, brushing the hem of her clothes once again as if trying to avert her eyes away from the sight of him. Seeing so, Seth, who was holding Noah and glanced at Min-ha, opened his mouth.

“You’re in bad shape again today. Maybe… have you fallen into a strange superstition?”

“Strange superstition…?”

“If you are covered in dust, you’ll be more beautiful.”

“Does that even make sense? Ah, I was just cleaning this place as you told me to?”

“I told you to work, I never told you to roll yourself in the dust.”

“And, I’m doing that. Do you not pick up the dust while cleaning normally?”

“That’s true, though it’s strange to hear it from your mouth.”

“What? That’s very rude, isn’t it?”

Min-ha answered with an indifferent voice, then turned and grabbed the doorknob of the slightly opened library before she turned to Seth and Noah and said, “Well, I’ll go clean up again. I have to do as much as I am supposed to be paid.”

“…What about the amount you’re supposed to receive?”

“Noah, let’s play after work! Think about what we are going to do while I’m working!”

“Yes, sister-in-law!”

“…Wait, who allows it?”

“Of course, it’s up to Noah. There is no law that requires Noah to get permission from anyone he wants to play with.”

She simply responded to Seth’s words and entered the library.

However,

“…Excuse me.”

“What?”

“Why are you following me?”

All of a sudden, Seth, who she thought was going to the office, followed Min-ha into the library instead. When asked in bewilderment at the sight, he replied with a laugh.

“I told you a while ago. There is no place in my mansion that I cannot go.”

“I understand that. I see…”

“Then, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

‘Well, the problem is that you’re the only one who doesn’t seem to have an issue about this.’ Min-ha rolled her eyes as she was in a difficult situation, and for a moment, an excuse popped up in her mind.

She spoke hurriedly.

“Oh, right! Work! Aren’t you working?”

“I’m thinking of doing it here today.”

“…Pardon?”

“I came here because I needed data on the local tax revenue.”

“….”

“Sir Kei.”

Nonetheless, after simply defending Min-ha’s attempt, Seth just turned around and called a man named Kei. At that, a young knight with light green hair, wearing monoculars, appeared from a blind spot in the hallway.

He bowed down to Seth and said, “Did you call, sir?”

“Bring all the necessary documents related to taxation in the Clois region from the office to here.”

“I will take your orders.”

He quickly rose up at Seth’s command and walked quickly down the hallway. Even though he took the order, his movement was very swift.

It was just that.

“….”

Because everything went by so suddenly, Min-ha stared at Seth, who stood in front of her, and Kei, who had already become so far away, in turn with a bewildering gaze.

Her eyes met his, and he just smirked briefly as he spoke through his eyes. ‘Is it all right now?’ Minha responded to that gaze with the same eyes, ‘Isn’t this too much?’

She then asked Seth in a voice full of doubt.

“Are you trying to keep an eye on my cleanliness? Don’t tell me, the Duke isn’t doing that, aren’t you?”

“It’s a disease to be over conscious.”

“Huh?”

“And, even if it’s surveillance, isn’t it good to know that you’re not lazy and doing well?”

In the end, all that came back was even more empty words. The sarcasm was also mean, but his words were not wrong, so she felt that it was even more mean.

Staring at Seth for a moment, Min-ha then sighed deeply as Noah was staring between them before she turned around.

“…All right. It’s up to you. As you said, this is your mansion. Noah, then, have a good time! See you later!”

“Yes!”

Min-ha thought it would be better to clean up or work hard, rather than arguing more in a battle she can’t win.

It would have been great if he could use his word and have a mind as good as his handsome face. Obviously, ‘Minase Persen’ has done a lot of things to deserve this treatment, though she is actually, ‘Kim Min-ha!’

Regardless, even if she said a hundred times that it was unfair, he wouldn’t believe it.

‘Even if I die soon, my appearance is still Minase Persen…’

Min-ha decided to pour her resentment of the injustice into cleaning as she climbed the ladder again and wiped the old books with a cloth.

Indeed—

Wipe, wipe.

Let’s pretend to be ignorant of Seth’s gaze, which is sometimes directed to her like that.

* * *

It’s been a couple of hours since then.

After finishing all the documents Kei brought, Seth stroked Noah’s head, who was sitting next to him.

At first, Noah, who sat next to him was enthusiastically reading a children’s book, soon got bored and fell asleep with the book open.

So, Seth slowly put a wool blanket over his younger brother’s shoulder in case he would be cold, gently patted his small shoulder affectionately, then involuntarily lifted his head and looked up at the second floor.

There, Minase was seen taking out old books from the bookshelf, dusting them off, and organizing them. Except for stretching occasionally or loosening her stiff shoulders from lifting and lowering heavy books, she was constantly dusting and cleaning.

He was truly amazed by the scene in front of him. He has so far doubted whether she was the Minase Persen he knew.

‘…Did she really become someone else?’

However, Seth quickly shook his head.

The Minase Persen she knew was not that kind of woman—working hard like that is definitely acting, and she must be working hard like that because he was watching.

It was clear that she was trying to change the image she had, by pretending to be hardworking as though she was a different person.

…Yes. That must be it.

Thinking so, Seth stared at Minase, who was cleaning, with sharp eyes again.

“….”

But, as soon as his gaze reached her, she got up and put the book she was holding onto the clean bookshelf. Then, looking at the cleaned bookshelf and the next uncleaned bookshelf alternately, she grinned slightly as if proud.

She looked so happy and innocent that Seth was distracted. It was a smile that she had never shown him from the moment she first met him until now.

Maybe that’s why—he couldn’t believe it with his own eyes. Seth shut his eyes and opened them hesitantly, checking to make sure if he had seen an illusion.

Although, at that moment, he was surprised to see something that had caught his eyes, so he unknowingly kicked the desk and got up.

Rattle—!

“Huh?!”

“…Ugh, what’s going on? Brother?”

‘Am I crazy…?’ For a moment, her figure appeared as a woman he had never seen, with black hair.

‘…Just a moment ago, what was that?’

Startled by the noise he had made, Seth looked back at Minase once again.

“What—what, what? Earthquake? Or, a worm?”

Instead, what caught his eyes was Minase Persen, with blonde hair and emerald green eyes that were all too familiar. At that, he finally shook his head with a blank expression on his face.

“…Nothing.”

“What, you scared Noah and me.”

“Yes… Well, I was surprised.”

“….”

“Did you doze off for a second?”

“…Maybe.”

“After all, working was an excuse, wasn’t it?”

‘…He is just dozing off while I’m working hard.’

Minase clicked her tough and went back upstairs to the second floor, and Noah, still sleepy, laid down again with his book.

“Ha…”

Seth, who stared at Noah and Minase alternately, took a deep breath and buried his face in his hands.

It seems that the thought that Minase, who has suddenly changed recently overnight, seemed to have accumulated from fatigue. Surely, because without that, he would have never seen such a nonsensical fantasy.

‘…I must have seen something wrong.’

Yes, ‘that’ Minase Persen is laughing. That’s why he sees that woman as someone else. That was just impossible.

Seth firmly believed that what he had seen was, and should be, a haze, an illusion, or a vision. He convinced himself that he was concerned about her sudden change, and the fantasies were all an illusion created by her mind.

“Brother…?”

Did the agitation of the heart show on his face?

Noah, who was slightly awake by Seth’s strangely changed mood, raised his sleepy face and asked. Faced with the child’s innocent and cute face, he straightened his stiff expression and stroked the boy’s small head.

“I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“…Are you going to work?”

“Yes.”

At his words, Noah nodded his head and fell asleep again. Seth gazed down at that peaceful figure with a complicated mood.

…The child is so pure that he forgets so quickly and forgives so easily.

Until just a while ago, he would be afraid of being criticized if only Minase Persen were around, though it’s as if he let those thoughts go already.

“…I don’t—I can’t.”

With that thought in mind, he eventually stood up with a complicated look on his paperwork and muttered to himself.

All the more complicated fluctuations in Noah’s appearance are fantasies and delusions. So, if he didn’t see Minase Persen’s face for a few days, these feelings would definitely disappear.

Yes. That is the case.

Seth repeated the thought to himself again, as if brainwashing himself.

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