He shut his eyes and covered her with the duvet, but that was a mistake. With his eyes closed, he couldn’t see Rubica turning. His fingers then touched something soft and warm.

“Agh!”

His eyes snapped open. It was good that he had just covered her entirely. If he had seen her face, he would have failed to control himself.

‘What, what did I just… touch?’

He looked down at his fingers. The softness had felt nothing like his own hard skin.

‘Oh, what on earth are you thinking, woman?’

Wearing that is cheating. Having that, that soft skin is cheating!

Edgar silently protested to Rubica who was sleeping soundly without noticing a thing, but that protest couldn’t last long. He had to leave the room before he turned into a beast.

“Your Grace?”

Carl had been waiting outside and was surprised to see Edgar suddenly jump out the door with a fiery red face.

“Have you seen it?”

However, Edgar said nothing and just went past the butler while running.

“Your, Your Grace! Your office is not that way!”

Carl yelled behind as Edgar ran down the stairs, but he couldn’t listen. He ran out of the building in no time and ran across the garden. The cold wind of the night went past him, but it wasn’t enough to cool his passion.

He couldn’t get rid of the image of Rubica, even though he had seen it under the dim candlelight. That thin fabric that covered only parts that had to be covered aroused him even more. He couldn’t help imagining what was beneath it.

Splash!

He ran to the garden’s fountain with the mana quartz statues and dipped his head in the cold water. When even that wasn’t enough, he just went in there, still wearing his shirt. He drank the water that came into his mouth and nose.

“Your Grace?”

Stephen came faster than Carl did and offered Edgar his cape, but he shook his head.

“No, I don’t need it.”

“But you’ll get cold.”

“Just leave me alone. And why are you still guarding me when it’s so late? This is my mansion and I’m safe here. Just go and tell everyone not to come.”

Stephen nodded and went away. Edgar then looked up at the night sky inside the fountain. His body managed to calm down after counting about a hundred stars. He came out of the fountain and sat down while dripping with water.

He had been so shocked that he had kept the ring in his pocket. He took it out again.

It faintly glittered under the starlight. The ring’s blue stone looked like an ordinary stone under the sunlight. However, under the starlight, its light flowed like a river.

‘There’s no need to think further. I sent her back in time using this ring.’

He didn’t know why, but it seemed like he was going to lose his sight in the future. How many years had passed? Edgar tried to clear his mind and think of everything Rubica had said about Arman.

‘But why did I never tell her I loved her?’

That was his first thought. He had been cursing Arman for a long time, and he really couldn’t believe he was actually Arman.

When Rubica talked about Arman – he still didn’t want to accept his future self as himself – she shyly blushed. Moreover, Arman had also liked Rubica. Then, why did he never tell her that? Edgar really couldn’t understand.

He was so happy when Rubica was only slightly shaken by him, so why had Arman done nothing?

‘He could walk day and night, so it sounds like he found a way to break the curse… oh, is it because he lost his sight?’

Edgar made a mental note about the other possibility of breaking his curse. However, losing his sight meant he wasn’t going to see Rubica’s lovely face ever again, so he was not going to take that way as long as he had a choice.

‘And she sounded like he was blind and poor.’

Maybe that was why Arman had been silent about his love. However, that reason entirely denied the possibility of Arman being himself.

Edgar looked around his mansion quickly. Two annexes, lab, and the main building. It was practically a castle. He had too much money. He didn’t lack anything. But in Rubica’s description, Arman had nothing.

‘I lost all of this?’

He couldn’t understand. What had happened? Had there been a rebellion? When Rubica talked about Arman, her eyes sparkled but she was also worried she might say something wrong.

‘I must talk to her about this.’

Edgar knew about the ring and its power. However, Rubica looked like she had come back in time without knowing a thing. Of course, she couldn’t open up. She must have been very afraid.

‘Stupid Arman. At least you should have given her a clue.’

Like telling her to find Duke Claymore and show him the ring or confessing he was actually Duke Claymore. One sentence would have been enough, then everything wouldn’t have become this difficult!

“Isn’t he an idiot? I could have just come back!”

He spoke his next thought out loud. Did he become a fool after being hit in the head by a rock or something? He could have just come back in time himself and meet Rubica with all his memories.

He could have convinced her to marry him and everything would have been fine… or not.

‘She must have been surprised as well.’

Of course, she would have been surprised if a guy she had never seen before showed up and confessed his love for her. She would have wondered if he had been bewitched by dark magic. Things wouldn’t have been fine at all.

They couldn’t have come back in time together. Only one of them had been able to do it and things would have been difficult and hard either way.

‘Huh!’

Edgar suddenly thought of something and snorted.

‘Of course. You didn’t want to be forgotten, you idiot.’

If he had come back in time, she would have lost all the memories about him. He must have calculated whether it was better to send her or come back himself, and that selfish idiot -himself-probably didn’t want to be forgotten by her. He must have wanted her to remember everything about him. That was why he sent her back.

If Edgar announced he was Arman now, she was going to be happy. She would surely love him then. But would that love be toward Edgar? No, she would find Arman’s traces and past in him and love those.

‘If I tell her the truth now, I will never be able to win against Arman.’

Edgar gritted his teeth. He loved her, and he wanted to be loved by her. Not as a substitute of another man, but as himself. He didn’t want her to find someone else’s shadow in him and love him for that, even if that someone was his future self.

‘I’m glad that I didn’t tell her.’

He had run away from Rubica’s very… stimulating nightdress. She normally wore thick nightdresses that made him somehow sad. When he couldn’t resist the urge and tried to order the sexy nightdress, she had been extremely mad. Then, why did she wear that tonight?

‘Maybe… to seduce me?’

He couldn’t help but smile like an idiot. She was definitely being drawn to him. He was sure it was only a matter of time. He didn’t want to confess the truth now like an idiot and let that Arman win, and he still couldn’t get rid of the grudge he held against his future self.

‘I’ll tell her I’m Arman when she starts to love me more.’

He made up his mind. He then stood and went back. Of course, thinking about how he was hating his future self all along, he felt a little embarrassed.

Nevertheless, the future was the future and the present was the present. For now, Edgar just couldn’t accept he was Arman.

He decided to turn his future self as his rival in love and defeat him. Rubica would be confused, of course, but he thought that much would be fine as he had been so confused because of her.

‘She’ll get a headache, not even dreaming I am her Arman.’

Rubica was already being shaken by him. He was sure of it. He knew well how those who loved him looked at him, so Edgar was going to be patient and wait until she admitted she liked him more than she liked Arman. Either way, she was going to choose him.

“Your Grace, what is this about?”

Carl freaked out at seeing Edgar completely soaked with water still dripping down from his sleeves.

“Oh, I had something to think about.”

“You’re wet. I will immediately prepare warm water.”

“… not in the bathroom. It might wake Rubica. Just choose an empty room.”

“Okay.”

Carl brought a movable bathtub into a room that had been used as a nursery but was now empty. Edgar then lay in the warm water. Carl glanced at him, a little worried. He had thought something must have gone wrong after Edgar suddenly ran out, but now the duke looked so calm. He was even humming.