However, why was he doing that? Edgar found the reason was Rubica. How she would react if he let her know he had done in purpose? Then, her rosy red cheeks would turn fiery red, she would also get mad and accuse him of teasing her.

He already had to restrain laughter at imagining that. He was going to roll on the floor and laugh hard when it actually happened.

Her so innocently being embarrassed without knowing he was doing it on purpose… it was a memorable scene he was going to tease her for a long time.

‘Yes, it’s all part of the plan to tease her.’

So, he justified his action like that. But today, despite his efforts, Rubica wasn’t looking at him. It felt like her body was here, but her mind was somewhere far away.

‘Have I done something wrong again?’

Edgar could swear he hadn’t done anything. After a week’s time, he had learned what Rubica liked and what she hated, at least to some extent. Of course, he still made wrong guesses from time to time. But at least today, he hadn’t done anything to make her feel bad. He had even kicked out Mrs. Shaynie who had come to speak ill of her.

“Rubica.”

“Yes?”

Rubica answered when he called her. As she wasn’t ignoring him, he probably wasn’t the reason for her sulkiness. It made him feel relieved and worried at the same time. Rubica at least liked his face. Even when she got mad at him, she looked away and reluctantly forgave him if he stared at her with his clear eyes. But now, the only thing that could flutter her heart, his beauty, wasn’t working.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Huh?”

Rubica, who had buried herself in the armchair to think, looked at Edgar in surprise. He had always literally looked down on her, but today, he was looking at her worriedly. She hadn’t known he could make that kind of expression.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“I can see that it isn’t nothing.”

Edgar pulled a chair near her and sat down. The maids left the room after lighting the incense. He then took Rubica’s hand. Her hands were always warm. He had to fight the urge to kiss them. Strangely, he was caught by an impulse he had never felt before when he was with her. Where were all those feelings coming from?

“You are distracted.”

“No, I’m not…”

When Edgar’s clear blue eyes looked straight at Rubica, she faltered and looked away. It was hard to lie when his eyes were looking at him. Unlike his personality, his eyes were so clear as if they had been forged with the clearest things in the world.

“Rubica, look.”

Edgar gently wrapped her cheeks in his hands and made her look at him.

‘They’re like jewels.’

Rubica’s auburn eyes, that he had thought to be made of ordinary colors, couldn’t look more wonderful to him these days.

The reddish tint of irises moved his heart.

“Are you worried Mrs. Shaynie might spread rumors? Don’t worry, she may be an arrogant fool, but she won’t be able to speak ill of you to others. Nor will I let it happen.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“Then what is worrying you?”

Rubica hesitated. Could Edgar really solve what was troubling her? He was an arrogant man. She could still not forget how he had behaved when they first met, but at least he did keep his words.

‘And he is smarter than me.’

It was easy to forget that because of his enchanting beauty, but he was smart enough to be called the genius of the century. Plus, his high pride wouldn’t let him use her worries or weaknesses against her. In the end, she decided to tell him what it was about.

“I have a problem.”

“A problem?”

“It’s about the girls who were being scolded by Mrs. Shaynie at the annex today… and they are each in a pitiful situation. I want to help them, but I don’t know how.”

So that’s what is troubling you. Edgar had to try hard to hide his lips curling up. He was glad that she wasn’t sad because of him, and he also found her so lovely for caring so much about the children in the annex. He had to resist the impulse to hug her tightly.

“Could you tell me the details?”

Thankfully, Edgar didn’t say her worries were useless. He listened to her instead.

‘Thinking about it, when we first met, Stephen reported I was running away after stealing things, but he left the carriage to ask me the reason.’

Maybe Edgar was nice, and Rubica looked at him in awe.

‘Oh, he is so handsome.’

However, when she looked at his face, she forgot about judging his character. She was once again enchanted by his black hair and marble-like skin. The line that ran down from his nose to the lips and chin was so beautiful that she sometimes wanted to trace it with her hand.

‘Wake up, Rubica. Wake up. You don’t love him. You were just slightly attracted to his face. People say you get used to pretty faces in less than a year.’

But would she really get used to that face one day? She tried to ignore her fast-beating heart and went on. She described all the details, and when she reached the part about Elise, she easily got excited.

‘She can be so pretty with just a little help!’

Edgar looked at her as she passionately talked to him. She was tweeting like a sparrow and it was cute. He wondered who those girls she was so passionately talking about were and envied them.

‘I am jealous?’

He had never been jealous of anyone till now. There hadn’t been a thing he couldn’t own or couldn’t do. But now, at this moment, he envied Elise.

If Rubica talked of him so enthusiastically like she was doing about Elise…

His heart beat so fast that it almost left his body. He felt dazed and couldn’t imagine it further.

‘He said it was only a temporary phenomenon, but it’s getting worse!’

He had had the Academy’s best and most famous medical doctor research on the negative effects of the heart beating fast and hands sweating hard when taking the medicine for the cold with champagne. The doctor had replied instantly.

[Your Grace, your heart may beat fast when you take alcohol and the medicine for the cold together. But it’s all temporary, so please don’t worry too much.]

However, that symptom wasn’t temporary. It rather got worse and worse. He sometimes felt so stuffy that he couldn’t breathe, but soon the pain vanished. His heart beat so hard and loud, but then it turned icy cold. That much would have been fine, but he had been getting strange impulses.

He kept thinking of the wedding when looking at Rubica’s lips. More specific, he recalled the moment he kissed her. Then, he suddenly wanted to hold her in his arms and kiss her. What was wrong with him, he really didn’t know.

‘Is it some kind of mental disease? I must call the doctor and get diagnosed.’

“Are you listening to me?”

Rubica noticed Edgar was staring at her lips and tapped on his finger to get his attention. Her gesture was so cute that Edgar couldn’t stand it anymore. He held her hand tightly. He wanted to pull her close and taste her lips, but then he would have to pay for the consequences.

His eyes were like a calm ocean. Rubica couldn’t even imagine there was desire boiling underneath that ocean. She just knew Edgar was staring at her in a daze as she talked and thought it was strange.

“I’ve been listening. Especially about that girl named Elise Roan de Solana. I can take a test on her right now.”

As he had perfectly memorized Elise’s full name, he probably had been paying attention. Rubica worried she might have unconsciously shown her interest in the fairy as she talked and quickly tried to mend it.

“Yes, I’m worried about Ms. Solana the most. She looked the least confident among them. Mrs. Shaynie had been so harsh on her. To fix it, someone must stay with her and keep working on it… oh, she will become so beautiful in an instant if she just had a little confidence.”

“You seem to be very worried about Ms. Solana.”

“She, she is a member of this family. I’m only doing what I should as the duchess.”

She was right. She was only doing her duty as the duchess, but it made Edgar feel somewhat sad. Oh, how good would it be if she cared about him like that? She did blush at seeing him from time to time, but it was only when he was in front of her. She wasn’t curious about him at all.

‘Of course, she said she was in love with someone else.’

Arman, just thinking of that man’s name hurt him now.

“Do you want to keep Ms. Solana at your side and take care of her?”

Rubica nodded without hesitation.

“But as the girls live in the east annex, it would be uncomfortable for its inhabitants if I go there too often…”

“There’s a very simple solution to it.”

It made Rubica immediately meet his gaze. Edgar was glad but, at the same time, he didn’t like that he wasn’t the reason for it. First the cook Steven, and now a girl. He would have already kicked out Steven if it hadn’t been for that smile Rubica made when she ate the cakes he made. Edgar now even wondered how far that strange feeling would go.