Contract Marriage with the Devil Duke (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 41

“Still, it’s better to clearly refuse. Giving ambiguous hope just makes you look like a worse person.”

So Podeon’s rejection in the greenhouse garden had been the right thing to do.

While chatting with Podeon, who somehow felt strangely familiar, Orentia noticed time slipping quickly away. Before she knew it, the sun had set and evening had arrived, but Dimidius, apparently busy, did not join her for dinner. At Count Geranium’s estate too, he seemed to eat his evening meal carelessly.

With no guests to host, Orentia dined alone in the banquet hall and said to Bobby,

“Eating by myself in such a huge place feels really odd. From next time, I’d better eat separately in my room.”

Bobby nodded in agreement.

“Yes. I’ll arrange that. After all, at the Grand Duke’s residence, you only had breakfast together.”

Orentia stood facing Podeon in front of her room, preparing to say goodbye. He told her that since he had guarded her all day, another knight would now take over at her door—they rotated shifts, it seemed.

But then Podeon asked her in a puzzled tone,

“By the way, why do you sleep separately from His Grace the Grand Duke? Has something happened?”

Orentia froze for a moment at his question. Though she understood it was a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder, no one at the Grand Duke’s estate had ever asked—so she’d grown unprepared for such questions.

‘What should I say?’

After a brief hesitation, she replied as casually as possible,

“His Grace has rather bad sleeping habits. We’ll sleep together on some days, though.”

She couldn’t quite meet Podeon’s eyes, feeling unnecessarily self-conscious. Moreover, her statement about sleeping together someday wasn’t something she’d coordinated with Dimidius.

Read full content of this chapter on r e d c a t t y . c o m