Chapter 7: The First Lie
OPHELIA sighed. Although she’d been cleaning every day in preparation for her upcoming transfer, the number of items on her desk only seemed to increase.
Every day, flowers and sweets arrived from Gian. Ophelia picked up one of the bouquets and noticed Claudio watching her from over the top of the flowers as if he wanted to say something. She held his gaze for a moment, assuming he had some orders for her, but he never said anything. When she finally couldn’t stand the awkwardness any longer and looked away, he also turned away irritably.
What’s up with him? He’s been like this ever since we went to the Cathedral.
Ophelia stood, intending to transfer the flowers into a vase, but a moment later, the bouquet was snatched right out of her hands.
“Let me help you with that.”
Bruno, flashing a brilliant smile that rivaled the flowers in its beauty, strode across the room and opened the door leading into the kitchenette. Ophelia raced after him.
“I really don’t want to be a bother to you, Lord Bruno…”
“You sound like the groveling underling of a demon lord when you phrase it like that.”
Bruno dipped his hands into a bucket of water and, with practiced movements, clipped the flower stems with a pair of scissors, trimming them down. If she was being completely honest, Ophelia was grateful for his insistence on helping her since this task required a good deal of arm strength, and as such, she didn’t try too hard to stop him.
“You seem quite familiar with stories featuring demon lords,” she remarked.
“Of course. As a child, I was fond of epic tales where heroes battled monsters and demons. I owned a lot of those kinds of books.”
Come to think of it, Bernard used to read books like that, too. However, something told Ophelia that the books Bruno had read as a child were much more advanced, containing many more words and a more difficult vocabulary than those Bernard had owned. While recalling her brother’s carefree expression, Ophelia prepared a vase for the flowers.
“Whenever I read those legendary tales, I would always wonder what inspired the heroes to take it upon themselves to go out questing to vanquish demons in the first place,” Bruno remarked almost as if talking to himself. Ophelia stood a short distance away, wiping dust off the flower vase with a rag and listening as he continued, “On their way to the demon lord’s castle, they would always inevitably spend the night in some nearby village where they would involve themselves in total strangers’ problems and somehow end up adopting a troublesome familiar.”
“I never realized people read heroic tales with such a perspective.” Ophelia filled the vase with water, a bit hesitant as she considered Bruno’s words. Once the vase was ready, Bruno plopped the trimmed flowers in.
“I feel that way all the time recently,” he admitted.
“What?”
“I never intended to get involved, I swear—it’s entirely unwilling, I assure you! But you both know what to do to achieve your objective, and yet neither will make the first move. It’s not in my nature to stand by silently watching, so I’ll lend you a hand.”
Bruno made that announcement with his brows raised as if pleading with her to understand, and all Ophelia could do was stare at him with her mouth open in a mixture of confusion and shock. She couldn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“All right, we’d better get back. If we dawdle for too long, we’ll get scolded by the demon lord.”
By “demon lord,” is he referring to Claudio? Ophelia pressed a hand over her mouth and bit back a laugh.
“Looks like you’re also one of the demon lord’s underlings.”
It seemed that Bruno had joined Ophelia’s questing party. Although she still wasn’t entirely sure what the quest was…
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🌷 🌷 🌷
“HEY, Ophie… Why hasn’t anyone started any rumors about us, even though we go on dates in highly visible places like this every day?”
They were currently seated in the exclusive and highly visible reservation-only terrace seating area on the second floor of a popular café in the Royal City’s bustling downtown area. These seats, which offered an excellent view of the fountain in the courtyard below, were allegedly booked out months in advance. There had been a last-minute cancellation, enabling Gian to get a reservation. It paid to have the social connections of a ducal house.
“Rumors…?”
Since the proposal, Gian had sent Ophelia presents and invited her on dates nearly every day. However, they still didn’t appear to be a couple at all. The likely reason for this was…
Still pouting, Gian reached for a cream puff. Without holding back, Ophelia likewise grabbed a savarin. Not long ago, a plethora of plates, each bearing a different dessert, crowded the table, but now only a few stragglers remained.
This terrace seating area gave the patrons a good view of passersby, but those same passersby also had a good view of the patrons. But to the people who spotted them as they went about their business, Ophelia and Gian likely looked less like a couple and more like two sweets enthusiasts indulging in a shared interest. When they’d gone on a date strolling through the city, they’d shopped up a storm, and surely the people around them must’ve assumed they were simply friends. It made sense they came off this way. They were, after all, two friends who had become quite close by this point. There was no reason that anyone should perceive a romantic atmosphere between them.
“It’s probably that no one recognizes you due to your secluded lifestyle, so there’s no reason for gossip. I’m sure that’s all it is.” Ophelia reached for the teapot, intending to refill her teacup.
“I suppose that’s also true, but you and Claudio are causing much more of a stir than you and I.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“They’re saying that you two have been secretly holding hands whenever you go out on work trips.”
“We weren’t holding hands!”
Gian shot her an unconvinced look when Ophelia became flustered, explaining that she’d merely been holding onto Claudio’s jacket to prevent herself from shaking due to the crowds surrounding them.
“Furthermore, there are a lot of rumors focused on you in particular going around in society.”
“What kind of rumors?” Ophelia frowned, having no idea what anyone could possibly come up with to gossip about when it came to her boring life.
“You know the type: a fated meeting between two star-crossed lovers who are forced to keep their feelings a secret, a seemingly insurmountable difference in social rank, and the wrath of a vengeful and wicked fiancée.” Gian reached for his teacup, displeased as he recounted what sounded like the synopsis of a trashy romance novel.
“Lady Stella isn’t like that, and she’s not harassing me either,” Ophelia protested sulkily, and after a moment of consideration, Gian cocked his head to the side.
“…Those rumors are too well-fleshed-out and seem to contain a suspicious amount of insider information.”
Most of the people who worked at the Ministry of Justice sympathized with Ophelia, given that the only interaction they’d ever witnessed between her and Claudio was him shouting at her. And she didn’t think that anyone who actually knew them well would spread such malicious rumors.
Then what was going on here? Ophelia, too, tilted her head to the side as she thought it over.
“I can’t think of anyone who stands to gain anything from the two of you becoming the topic of rumors. But either way, why did it have to be Claudio of all people?” Out of nowhere, Gian suddenly stabbed the cream puff on his plate with his fork, causing Ophelia’s eyes to go wide. “…I did say you could take a secret lover, but him? Hmm, but I can’t deny that he’s smart and good-looking… I suppose that could work, but there’s still the problem of that personality of his…”
As he rambled to himself, Gian picked up the cream puff by the fork, impaling it through the center, and took a huge bite.
“What are you talking about?!”
Gian replied to Ophelia’s agitated question in a tone that implied the answer should be obvious. “I’m talking about raising your lovechild with Claudio as our own, of course.”
“Wh-Wh-What?! What are you saying?! That would never happen!”
“I think a little pink-haired version of you would be really cute…”
Just as she was about to point out that their child could just as easily be a mini-me of the director with boring brown hair, Ophelia stopped herself. This was no joking matter.
“Sigh. I don’t lie to you, either. Why couldn’t it have been me?”
After heaving a huge sigh, Gian plucked an especially large and juicy strawberry off a fruit platter and chucked it into his mouth. Before he’d even finished chewing the first strawberry, he picked up another, which quickly met the same fate.
Just as Ophelia was thinking Wait a minute, what about the stem?! Is he going to swallow the stem, too?! a shadow fell across the table.