No matter how important friends were, this was too much. It was vacation. What kind of promise could he possibly have made? Insolent brat. As if she would not realize they were all excuses.
She had even wondered if her discipline had been wrong, but he had grown too much now to spank him and teach him a lesson, so all she could feel was frustration.
Look at him, completely deflated.
The Duchess pretended to brush cookie crumbs from Bliss’s lips and gently patted his soft cheek. After indulging her private affection to her heart’s content, she smiled with satisfaction and spoke.
“Then shall we play together today? I happen to be rather bored myself.”
“With you, Duchess?”
At the unexpected suggestion, Bliss stopped chewing and looked up at her. When those large, round eyes fixed on her, the Duchess felt her expression soften on its own and nodded.
“Yes. Well, we could talk like this, take a walk in the garden….”
As she spoke, she glanced at the child to gauge his reaction. As expected, Bliss’s face was filled with boredom. The Duchess hurriedly asked,
“Th, then what would you like to do, Bliss?”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
The Duchess nodded thoughtfully.
“Let’s do what you want. What would be fun?”
At her question, Bliss blinked and seemed to think for a moment, then suddenly brightened and looked at her.
“Duchess, can I watch a drama?”
“A drama?”
The Duchess could only stare at him in confusion. Bliss seized the chance and pressed more enthusiastically.
“There’s one I’ve been watching. If you watch it with me, you’ll really enjoy it. I guarantee it! I’m serious.”
Seeing the child chatter so fervently, the Duchess’s lips curved naturally. She smiled and nodded.
“Very well, let’s do that. Shall we move somewhere else then? To a room with a television.”
“Yes!”
Bliss jumped down from the chair in excitement and skipped along beside her. Looking down at him, she asked with a lingering smile,
“So, what is the name of this drama?”
At that, Bliss beamed and answered,
“It’s called The Seductive Wife Is the Queen of Revenge!”
“…What?”
At a title she could not make sense of at all, the Duchess asked again in bewilderment. She had assumed it would be some childish drama about friendship, family, or trivial adventures. It was only natural that she found this difficult to accept.
Unaware of her thoughts, Bliss kept talking.
“I’ve watched it more than ten times! It’s still fun. You’ll get completely hooked too, Duchess. I promise. I really do.”
“Is that so? I look forward to it.”
Though she had no idea what to expect, the Duchess humored him. For some reason, she felt a faint sense of unease, but she ignored it.
“You filthy bastard. I’ll boil your bones and eat them, stew them and eat them, grind them and eat them. I will never forgive you. You XX, XXXXX, XXX, XXXX…!”
“Oh my!”
On the large screen, an actress was screaming in rage. At the harsh curses she had never heard in her life, the Duchess gasped and covered her mouth with one hand.
“Heavens, how can she use such dreadful language. Oh Lord, forgive her. Lord.”
Pressing her hands together in urgent prayer, she sat beside Bliss, who solemnly explained the situation.
“That woman’s husband seduced her and married her. Then he had an affair with her friend. So now he’s trying to kill her. He says he won’t give her a divorce.”
“Oh my goodness. What a terrible thing to do.”
As the Duchess placed a hand over her chest in shock, Bliss immediately continued.
“So she pretends to be dead and vows to get revenge. Now she’s going to pay her husband and her friend back.”
“I see. Yes, yes, she must.”
Nodding repeatedly, the Duchess fixed her eyes on the screen and asked,
“So what happens? Does the revenge succeed? How does she do it?”
“No, if I tell you, it won’t be fun.”
At the child’s firm refusal to spoil it, the Duchess pleaded regretfully.
“Bliss, don’t be like that. Could you at least tell me one thing? I am terribly curious about what happens next. Hmm? Please.”
At her repeated appeals, Bliss’s resolve quickly weakened. In truth, his mouth had been itching to spill everything he knew about the drama. After a brief hum of contemplation, his eyes sparkled and he unlocked his lips.
“She puts a mole under her nose to pretend to be someone else. Then she goes to see her husband.”
However, the Duchess did not immediately believe this valuable information.
“A mole under her nose? And everyone is fooled by that?”
Startled and instantly suspicious, she looked at him doubtfully. Bliss grew impatient.
“Oh, just watch it. You’ll understand when you see it.”
“Yes, yes. I understand. Let us keep watching.”
Laughing as though conceding defeat, the Duchess waved a hand and immersed herself in the drama again with Bliss. In the end, the two of them even ate their meal there, sitting side by side on the sofa for several hours, watching the lengthy drama.
When the tall man pushed open the door of the club and stepped inside, the people near the entrance casually turned their heads—and then stared wide-eyed. Someone took a photo, someone else simply gaped, but the man merely scanned the interior in search of a familiar face.
“Cashian, over here!”
Amid the loud music, a man called out cheerfully, waving an arm. The man who had been standing at the entrance glanced toward the source of the voice and relaxed his furrowed brow.
“Jeffrey.”
Calling his name simply, he walked over. Eyes followed him wherever he passed. As though such attention were nothing unusual, Cashian reached the bar without the slightest interest. Watching him order a beer, Jeffrey spoke.
“So, how is it? Is your glamorous escape plan going well?”
“Haa.”
Instead of answering, Cashian sighed first. He had too much to say; he did not even know where to begin.
“What’s wrong? That reaction is strange.”
Jeffrey asked in puzzlement. It had only been a few days. What could possibly have happened? Yet his friend’s expression looked as though a great deal had occurred. Lifting the bottle, Cashian drank deeply. The beer bottle was half empty in one go before he set it down on the bar table and spoke.
“It’s a mess.”
“Oh? Sounds like it’s going exactly according to plan.”
Jeffrey laughed. Just then, a woman came to stand beside Cashian. Whether he was pretending not to notice her glances or truly did not see them, he replied indifferently.
“This isn’t the kind of mess I wanted.”
The message from his friend had been a welcome chance of escape. Without a second thought, he had left the castle and come straight to the club Jeffrey mentioned. And now he would drink heavily and enjoy himself recklessly. Yes, this was the mess he had wanted.
“Tell me what happened. The atmosphere doesn’t seem ordinary.”
Jeffrey kept pressing, but this was not the place to go into details. This was a place to drink, get thoroughly drunk, and roll around with whoever happened to be there. Above all, if he admitted that after fleeing in a rush under the pretense of a vacation he had ended up babysitting, he would only be mocked. So Cashian casually changed the subject.
“That camp I mentioned before—are you planning to come too? If so, I’ll put you in.”
“Huh? Wasn’t I obviously going?”
Jeffrey frowned. As a woman who had been watching Cashian from the side was joined by another who appeared to be with her, Cashian answered.