Chapter 1
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* * *
But then.
“No.”
Unexpectedly, Ines shook her head.
“You were angry on my behalf.”
Enoch looked at Ines with astonished eyes.
It was also embarrassing to meet the eyes, so Ines kept her head down.
“Your Excellency, thank you for taking care of me.”
Her voice was now so small that it could not be heard unless he tried to listen carefully.
“For stopping Ryan from trying to bully me.”
Still, Ines stuck to his words.
“I’m grateful.”
“…….”
Enoch rarely had a blank face.
Ines, who raised her head slightly, smiled at Enoch.
“More than that, I became the Duke’s partner for the first time, but it’s a shame that we couldn’t dance properly once.”
At that moment Enoch sprang up from his seat.
Ines, embarrassed, looked up at Enoch.
“Duke?”
“Take a break.”
Enoch turned hurriedly.
“I’ll send a doctor right away.”
“What? A doctor? I don’t need a doctor.”
“No, you can go back to the banquet hall after receiving treatment. Until then, I will be entertaining the distinguished guests.”
Enoch, who had spoken with determination, left the lounge.
Ines, who was left alone, said to herself in a bewildered voice.
“Why a doctor all of a sudden?”
By all accounts, her wrist didn’t have to be treated by a doctor.
Above all.
“Hasn’t His Excellency already treated it?”
Ines looked down at her wrist with wonder.
* * *
Enoch, who rushed out, stood against the wall.
“Ha.”
A long sigh came out.
He lifted his gaze and looked at his reflection in the window glass.
He had rushed out in a hurry.
“I’m speechless.”
His face was red as if painted and warm as he touched it with his palm.
* * *
At that time.
Viscount Gott was stunned.
Ryan, who confidently attended the celebration, came home long before the celebration was over.
It was because there was a crack in one of his wrists.
His whole arm was swollen and looked like a sausage.
“Oh, my God, my son!”
Elder Viscountess Gott brought in a doctor to check his injuries and was terrified.
“Ryan, what the hell is this?”
Meanwhile, Viscount Gott was worried about what other accident his brother had caused.
“He’s hurt now. Is that all you have to say?”
The mother of the Viscount Gott gave him a straight face and scolded him, so he stepped down without asking more questions.
The next day after the disturbance.
“Ugh.”
Ryan was lying on the bed, groaning.
Then, he got very angry with the maid who was taking care of him.
“Oh, it hurts!”
The old maid, who had worked for a long time in the Gott family, suddenly stiffened her shoulders.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.”
“You can’t even take care of people properly. Are you serious?”
“…….”
The sarcasm flushed the maid with shame.
It was actually a ridiculous nitpicking.
The maid was just taking care of Ryan, and she didn’t put a finger on him.
Ryan was just grumbling in an irritating voice, whether the maid was embarrassed or not.
“Oh, it hurts like hell. How can he use violence against a person like this?”
It was a short time when he was exaggerating like that.
Ryan gritted his teeth.
‘No matter what, how could he send an invitation and kick me out of the banquet hall?’
He remembered the Duke’s strong grip on his wrist.
The icy blue eyes that looked down at Ryan like a bug.
He was elegant even when he was verbally abusive, saying, “You’re crazy like a dog.”
Everything stimulated Ryan’s inferiority complex.
And the biggest distortion of Ryan’s judgment was….
‘Ines, that girl. She acted like a host and I don’t like the way she hangs out with the Duke of Sussex.’
It was that Ines and Enoch looked terribly good together.
When he recalled the images of the two, he felt like his head was burning white with rising jealousy.
“Oh, that’s enough! Get out now!”
In the end, Ryan couldn’t beat his anger and threw out the maid with a temper.
“It’s so annoying…… Ugh.”
Ryan tried to sweep up his head with his habitually cracked right hand, frowning in the surging pain.
His eyes turned toward the table.
A heap of envelopes of letters came into view.
Among them, the name that stood out.
<Charlotte Jason.>
Every single letter came from Charlotte.
Ryan clicked his tongue briefly, looking at the seemingly five letters.
‘Really, I’m tired and sick of Charlotte’s letters.’
Ryan picked up an envelope and read it roughly.
But only for a short moment.
He crumpled it up and tossed it at random.
‘Well, Charlotte isn’t important right now.’
He must hold onto Ines somehow.
Ryan lay on the bed, glaring at the ceiling with nervous eyes.
‘This time, the Duke of Sussex intervened, so I couldn’t get close.’
At that moment, Ryan was unknowingly choked up.
‘Why the hell does the Duke of Sussex keep interrupting me?!’
When he first had a scuffle with Ines in the art exhibition, he thought it was worth it.
Anyway, it was an art exhibition hosted by Enoch, and Ryan’s making a fuss there would have hated to see.
But this was not the case.
Although the Duke of Sussex was the one managing the art exhibition, this time’s action was clearly excessive.
‘How can you drag a person out like a dog? Because he’s the Duke and His Majesty’s brother?’
Ryan thought arrogantly, without considering the rudeness he had committed.
And he remembered the Duke’s expression.
The coldness and deadly expression as if he could rip Ryan to death right away.
“D*mn it.”
The wrist held by Enoch throbbed once again.
Ryan looked down at his wrist with a sad expression.
It was then.
Someone burst open the door.
Boom!
The door was pushed out so hard that it hit the wall and was about to break.
Beyond that, there was Viscount Gott standing and panting.
“Brother?”
Ryan looked at Viscount Gott with puzzled eyes.
“What’s wrong with your face? Like you saw a ghost.”
Viscount Gott’s face was literally blue.
“You b*stard!”
Viscount Gott, who strode into the room, raised his fist.
Puck!
“Ugh!”
Ryan fell flat on the bed.
Suddenly being beaten, the bewilderment was much greater than the pain.
Ryan held his tingling cheek and stared at his brother.
“No, what are you doing!”
“What the hell did you do at the celebration? The royal family sent me a letter of complaint in person!”
“What?!”
At that moment, Ryan opened his eyes wide.
What Enoch said yesterday came to his mind.
“Or would you prefer to be stigmatized that young master Gott, who attended the imperial celebration on behalf of Viscount Gott, was as mad as a dog?”
“Otherwise, after today’s celebration, the royal family will directly hold the Gott family responsible for ruining this celebration.”
Ryan didn’t really expect the Duke to send a letter of protest like this.
He thought the Duke said it to put pressure on him.
Ryan felt his head dizzy.
Viscount Gottthrew the letter of protest he was clutching in his left hand over Ryan’s face.
“Now, open your eyes and look! What have you done?”
Ryan stared blankly down at the paper scattered on the floor.
On top of a luxurious piece of paper emblazoned with royal designs, the neat handwriting specifically described Ryan’s actions.
<The young Master Gott intimidated the Countess of Brierton, the staff of the exchange, and tried to embarrass her.
The Countess of Brierton is the management staff of the exchange that I, Helena, the Queen herself appointed.
So the royal family will deal with this issue strictly.>
“What are you going to do?”
Viscount Gott stared at Ryan with a deadly expression.
“You incompetent fool, the best thing you’ve ever done in your life was to marry Countess Brierton!”
“Wait, brother! I..!”
“Don’t call me brother, either! You’re such a useless b*stard!”
Viscount Gott, who shot back fiercely, shuddered out of the room again.
He didn’t even want to talk to Ryan anymore.
“Are you taking this seriously? What the hell is this?!”
Alone, Ryan’s face was horribly distorted, stained with despair and anger.