Didn't Plan to Become a Companion - Chapter 55

I felt my lips going dry.

“My feet were hurting so I took off my shoes for a moment, and they flew off somewhere. Just then, Young Master Chaplin came into the lounge, and he was about to pick up my shoes for me.”

I quickly summarized the commotion that had just occurred in one sentence. Although there were some strange parts, at least there was no lie mixed in my eyes.

Somehow feeling awkward, I searched his pupils, but his eyes were calmly gray, not seeming angry.

“Your feet… hurt?”

‘Huh?’

“…Yes, a little. I wore shoes with higher heels than usual.”

As Ricardo moved away from leaning on the door, it slowly closed and silence fell again in the lounge. He took a few strides towards Walter and smiled slightly.

“Walter, if such coincidences keep happening, won’t I start to misunderstand?”

“…Misunderstanding from the heir of Rochester. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more unsuitable word.”

Walter, who had been looking at me with resentful and self-reproaching eyes until just now, fortunately answered Ricardo with a firm expression.

As Ricardo reached out his hand, Walter willingly handed over the shoe.

“Right, a gentleman like you wouldn’t create a situation for me to misunderstand. The problem arises when it’s not a misunderstanding. Isn’t that so?”

I shook my head at the somewhat embarrassing situation unfolding before my eyes. If someone who didn’t know the situation at all saw this, it would be quite likely to cause misunderstanding. A man holding his fiancée’s shoe in an enclosed space.

But our engagement wasn’t based on affection, and Walter knew that too. In fact, he had experienced unpleasant things because of me, so such words were disrespectful to Walter.

Of course, I had no intention of intervening between the two of them now. I didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble.

“From now on, don’t touch my woman’s belongings. Rochester doesn’t like others coveting what’s theirs. You know that well.”

Ah, should I create some trouble after all? My face turned bright red with embarrassment.

Fortunately, Walter just looked at Ricardo without making any particular reply. After a moment, he slightly bowed his head towards me in courtesy and then left the place.

With Walter gone and the tension eased, I slumped down onto the sofa.

“Young Master, why do you say such things? Coveting? It’s true that our first meeting wasn’t very pleasant, but today Young Master Chaplin was only trying to help me.”

“……”

“You know that.”

Ricardo was still standing with his back to me, holding my shoe in his hand.

“I don’t know everything either.”

At those sudden words, I stiffened, freezing in place. Ricardo slowly turned to face me and approached. I wanted to say something, anything, but my mind went blank and no words came to me.

“If I could know everything, I wouldn’t need to feel this way now.”

With a smirk, he knelt in front of me before I could stop him.

Why does this man keep kneeling in front of me? Involuntarily, I tensed my stomach and straightened my back.

“G-Give it here. I’ll put it on myself.”

As if not hearing my urgent protest, Ricardo gently grasped my ankle. His large, hot hand completely enveloped my foot and heel. Only my foot was touched, yet it felt like my whole body was turning bright red.

“Don’t do this.”

“Stay still.”

I couldn’t move at all under his gentle but firm action.

Even though he was a man who had only shown his face after a few weeks since the engagement ceremony, and even then appeared late, my heart was pounding so much that there was no room for resentment to arise.

No self-respect, hopeless case, Lienne. You are the biggest fool in this world.

“As expected.”

“What is?”

“Your foot is as small as I thought. Just like your hand.”

“It’s about the same size as other women’s.”

My words came out bluntly due to embarrassment. Instead of putting the shoe on my foot, he took off the shoe from my other foot.

“What are you doing?”

“This one’s red too.”

Foot. Yes, the foot is red. What else would be red?

“It’s completely swollen. It must have hurt a lot.”

“Yes. It, it hurts. Please don’t look, it’s embarrassing.”

The more I spoke, the more I felt like I was sinking into a swamp.

“Stay still for a moment. It’ll feel better if I massage it.”

Seeing my foot disappear into his large hand, I couldn’t bear to look and turned my head away. I could feel him chuckling at my action, but I couldn’t say anything.

It was certain that falling in love was the same as becoming a fool.

“By the way, Lienne.”

My breath caught at the soft calling of my name, making it difficult to answer properly. His hand continued to knead my red, swollen foot.

“What exactly did you do to make Walter have that kind of expression?”

“Pardon?”

The moment I suddenly raised my head and our eyes met directly, Ricardo’s thumb pressed firmly on my big toe and then pulled it, as if punishing.

“Ah, ah!”

Ricardo’s hand paused at the moan that escaped me involuntarily. I bit my lower lip hard, but it was already too late.

For the past few days, memories of him had come like attacks, shaking my daily life. Although my heart remained calm if our eyes didn’t meet, certain moments would suddenly come to mind, making me stop in my tracks. Things like his jet-black hair reminiscent of the night he knelt and proposed, or the look in his eyes persistently pursuing me at the temple.

Probably this moment too would appear unexpectedly throughout my life, stirring up my daily routine.

Things like his hot touch massaging my feet, or the straight forehead occasionally visible under his well-combed hair. A sigh escaped me involuntarily.

As memories with him accumulated, it felt like heavy weights were being attached to my chest one by one. I increasingly felt scared that I might be trapped in the terrible punishment of memory.

“You’re not… answering?”

“What answer…?”

Ah, we were talking about Young Master Chaplin’s expression, right? The expression he was probably making towards me was…

“Resentful.”

“What?”

“And self-reproaching.”

That’s right. What he was doing towards me was. Resentment and self-reproach.

“Actually… I asked him not to touch my things because I didn’t want to fly off somewhere again using shoes as a medium. It seems those words made him feel resentful. He asked if I thought he was an incompetent person who couldn’t even properly use his family’s power.”

He chuckled, and somehow I felt a sense of relief.

“We’ll have to buy all new shoes then.”

“There’s no need for that. It’s not like I’m going to take them all with me.”

Ricardo frowned slightly as if frustrated and pulled his cravat down. Somehow feeling hot at that sight, I raised my voice a little to dispel the suddenly heavy air.

“But surely you’re not going to tell me to ask the Duchess for permission even for shoes this time?”

“Would that be wrong?”

Ricardo, who asked a question that I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or serious, stared at me for a moment. As if he was about to say something grand.

“Have you been well? You ran away quite far.”

“I didn’t run away, I just wanted to stay where my family was.”

“I see.”

After massaging my foot carefully a few more times, he reached out his long arm and grabbed a cushion placed next to me. After putting it on the floor and placing my foot on it, he stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to post someone outside. I don’t want anyone seeing my fiancée’s bare feet.”

Just say you like me instead. That would make my heart flutter less.

“Where are you going?”

“To get shoes.”

I jumped up and grabbed his hand as he turned to leave. Having come down from the shoes, I had to tilt my head all the way back to see his face. Even such a trivial moment made my heart crumble.

“It’s okay. I can endure this much.”

“No.”

“Yes, I can. These shoes go best with this dress. It’s a very important issue for women. Besides, we’re already very late. At this rate, we’ll enter after His Majesty the Emperor has made his entrance.”

“……”

“I’m already sure to feel intimidated next to you, Young Master, and I don’t want to look even shorter.”

“……”

“Yes?”

Seeming to have been persuaded by my words, he nodded. I returned to the sofa, quickly put on my shoes, and stood next to him.

‘Let’s go now.’ After saying this resolutely, I straightened my chest. It was the first official event where I would stand as Rochester’s fiancée in the social circles of the Dermeyer Empire.

“Entering Young Master Ricardo Gardarelli Rochester and his fiancée, Miss Lienne Lowy Pennel.”

With this grand introduction, the doors opened and dozens, no, easily hundreds of eyes poured on us at once.

Hesitantly, my feet unconsciously moved backward, but it wasn’t easy to retreat because of the hand supporting my back. Glancing up, I saw him standing with his usual calm and arrogant face.

Somehow, that sight made me feel a little more at ease.

Ricardo’s eyes, which had been lingering in the air for a moment, seemed to move towards my feet, and then he immediately leaned over and whispered. Of all times, at this moment when everyone in the hall was watching.

“If it hurts, lean on me. If you can’t bear it, hold onto my arm tightly.”

“I understand. I understand, so let’s go in quickly.”