It Was Me, Not You

I thought we’d never meet again that day, so I didn’t tell you who I was, but I think we’ll meet again like this.

‘Do I have to tell the truth today?’

Of course, I don’t want to hear him respect me.

It was simply that I lied to him twice that bothered me.

“Miss?”

Just when they were about to speak the truth, another voice split between them.

Diana shifted her gaze to the maid was calling me with a fake voice.

“… Maid.”

“Lady, what are you doing here?”

“Miss?”

It wasn’t Diana who answered the maid’s question. Edwin in front of her

I looked at the maid as if to say something.

‘I was going to say.’

Not wanting to turn out like this, Diana glanced at the maids Jean and Edwin alternately with her look of embarrassment.

However, the maid, not aware of Diana’s feelings, was already looking at Edwin.

“Aren’t you a knight?”

The maid asked, scanning Edwin’s uniform.

“That’s right.”

“But why did you come to the annex?”

“Ah, it seems that the maid who cleaned the lounge yesterday dropped something, so I’m here to deliver it.”

Edwin took a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his uniform and held it to the maid.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I will help the maids on duty in the future so that this kind of trouble doesn’t happen.”

“No, I must have accidentally dropped it… it’s okay.”

Edwin smiled softly at the maid, who lowered her head, saying that Edwin was fine.

When the maid raised her head, Edwin glanced at Diana and asked the maid.

“More than that, did I just say… this girl?”

“Yes? Oh, yes.”

“I heard that no other noble ladies were visiting the Grand Duke, didn’t it?”

“Yes? Oh, that’s…”

The maid’s face was stained with embarrassment. Diana felt the maid’s gaze turn to her own.

She seemed to be stingy when she said that she was an illegitimate child in front of Diana.

Edwin looked at the maid, who could not speak her words, with a strangely lowered gaze.

Diana, who was looking at the two of them, finally opened her mouth to look at Edwin.

“I’m not the daughter of another noble family, but the illegitimate daughter of the Grand Duke. Since I didn’t make it to the Grand Duke’s family tree, it’s only natural that you don’t know me.”

“Ah.”

Edwin made a short sound as if surprised.

The maid looked into Diana and Edwin’s eyes and said.

“Lady, knight, I have some urgent work to do, so can I go back first?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. Oh, the plate was delivered to Kunta, so there’s no need to stop by the house.”

“Yes, lady.”

As soon as the maid replied that this situation was incredibly uncomfortable, she jumped into the outbuildings.

And Diana was also uncomfortable.

Edwin couldn’t take his eyes off her, no matter what she was thinking after Diana revealed herself to be her illegitimate child.

Diana lifted her head from her bow and met his green eyes.

Even if he despises her, it is unavoidable.

Because illegitimate children of noble families who did not make it to the family tree are not viewed well by commoners.

Edwin narrowed his brow more suddenly than Diana.

Am I getting mad at the last time I said nothing and pretended to be a noble girl and got help from him?

She might consider this an insult, as Diana was an illegitimate child who was ignored even by the servants of the Grand Duke.

‘I’ve got to say I’m sorry…’

Just when she was about to apologize to Edwin, whose face was getting wrinkled, Edwin lowered his eyes and knelt on one knee.

“I’m sorry, lady. It hasn’t been long since I became a knight of the Grand Duke’s family, so I didn’t understand properly, so I was rude to you. Please forgive my rudeness.”

“… Yes?”

‘What did I just hear?’

Diana’s eyes widened at Edwin’s act of lowering her head as if begging her forgiveness.

“No, why are you like this? Knight.”

Edwin quickly shook his head. He looked at me with a very surprised face.

“Lady, you’re not a knight! You’re treating me with respect, so you shouldn’t do that.”

Did this man not hear what I said before?

Although Diana was the daughter of the Archduke, she did not enter his lineage, so she was tacit of a higher rank than Edwin, who had the surname of nobility.

Her failure to enter the family tree means that she will not be recognized as a member of the Grand Duke family.

That means that even if someone insults Diana, the Grand Duke doesn’t care.

But, you shouldn’t have been respectful to yourself.

Diana said softly as she saw Edwin treating her like her grand princess.

“I just told you… I didn’t make it to the grand duke’s family tree. I… you.”

“Even so, it is the unchanging truth that the young lady’s father is the Grand Duke. This is an article in which I pledged to protect all those who inherited the blood of the Grand Duke with my life. So, nothing else matters to me. please give it to me.”

“…”

There seemed to be no lie to Edwin, who even erased his soft smile and spoke with a hard face.

Diana bit her lips in embarrassment at his sincerity.

That was completely different from the reaction the people had until now when they found out she was her illegitimate child.

There were almost one of two.

Either pity or ridicule Diana.

However, Edwin was looking at the existence of Diana itself, not the stigma that was overlaid on the existence of Diana as an illegitimate child.

This kind of reaction is the first time you are born.

Diana groaned inside her, and she felt emotions soaring.

“Oh, you don’t cry.”

I don’t want to cry, so I give my eye’s strength, but because of that, Edwin asked with a worried look on his face if he had a strange expression on his face.

“Lady, are you okay?”

” … It’s okay… you. This.”

“Because you can’t do it with respect.”

“Al, no, ugh.”

As Diana changed her words, she had a soft smile on Edwin’s face, as if satisfied with it.

“But lady, what is that?”

Edwin’s gaze turned to Diana’s laundry basket, and she hurriedly hid her basket behind her.

For some reason, it seemed that he would make a fuss over calling the maids when he found out.

“Nothing.”

“Well, that’s right.”

“Yeah. Then go ahead. I have a place to go too.”

“Ah, that’s right. Then I’ll take you there.

“Huh? No, it’s okay. You must be busy. Just go.”

Aren’t knights always busy? I don’t know, but I thought it wouldn’t be okay to wander around leisurely like this. But was Diana wrong?

Edwin shook his head.

“I am not busy at all because my morning training is over. So I’ll take you to where you’re going. After that, give me the luggage.”

“Really… it’s okay.”

Edwin paused as Diana took a step back. Her eyebrows narrowed, and her mouth opened as if puzzled as he felt Diana’s stubborn rejection.

“If it’s okay with you… I’m leaving.”

“Yeah. Come on.”

“You’re answering me like that right away… Are you sure you don’t like me?”

Edwin’s eyes fell, probably because Diana responded so quickly that it was sad.

Diana hurriedly shook her head from side to side.

“It can’t be. I never hate it.”

“Is that so?”

As if when he was sad, Edwin rolled his eyes.

It was his horse curled into a half-moon.  

“Then I’ll just go away. Miss.”

Diana, watching Edwin move away, straightened the hand that was biting behind his back only after he had completely disappeared.

Diana, holding her laundry basket in her arms, glanced at Edwin’s place as she moved to her laundry.

“I hope to see you again.”

I wondered if I could meet him again, who lived like the person who showed pure kindness to him for the first time in the Grand Duchy since Kunta, but I couldn’t prevent a bit of anticipation.

Diana hurried to her laundry to see who could see the corners of her lips that kept rising.

It was said that the weather had cleared up, but the water in the stream was cold, as if not to forget that it was still winter.

“Ugh. It’s cold.”

She immersed her clothes in ice-cold water that she was not used to, and when she took them out, her body trembled.

“Where’s the bat?”

When I looked around, I saw a bat left by the maids who had already finished washing their clothes.

“You should do it quickly.”

Diana, who returned with her bat, hurriedly took a seat on a large boulder in her frostbitten hand.

As she unfolded her laundry and was about to hit the clothes with the bat, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps.

‘It’s not time for the maids to come to do the laundry, who is it?’

Diana raised her head and saw the presence of a person standing near the river, and her eyes widened in surprise.

The man’s golden hair, standing on the pebbles of the stream, gleamed in the sunlight.

Did I say that my soul goes out if I am too surprised? She even dropped the bat she was holding because of the unexpected person.

Diana looked at him and moved her lips unconsciously.

“The Grand Duke… Your Highness.”

A small voice scattered through the cold air. It was a very faint murmur, but the Archduke’s eyes turned to Diana, and he could hear it in his ears.

“It’s you again?”

As if surprised to see Diana, the gold inside the duke’s eye shook. However, it was only a brief moment, and the duke immediately captured his expression and looked at Diana with a cold gaze.

‘It’s you again… ?’

I felt a moment of wonder at his words as if we had met since then, but Diana came to her senses at the cool gaze of the Archduke and shut her lips blankly open.

Her eyes were colder than when we first met.

‘Scared.’

Diana shrugged her body in fear.

She had a different fear than when she was hit by Leah. He posed no physical threat, but the duke was crushing Diana just with his gaze.

Diana avoided his eyes and looked down as she could hardly meet his gaze. She looked at the jagged, angular stones on the floor, trying to calm her pounding heart, tired of the house.

When she was holding her breath, the duke’s feet moved.

I wish I could pretend I didn’t see you.

But contrary to her earnest wish, the duke’s feet were getting closer to her.

The nose of the black shoes the duke was wearing stopped right in front of her.

“Raise your head.”

A low voice fell over her head.

She couldn’t pretend she didn’t hear his orders, so she slowly raised her head. As if waiting, the Grand Duke’s golden eyes met.