‘Now that the prologue is over, let’s start the main act.’
“How romantic that you fell in love at first sight!”
With her expressions under control, she started the play she had prepared with sparkling eyes.
“My sister has always wanted to be loved by someone… I’m so relieved!”
Roselin, who deliberately pinched her thigh hard, teared up.
“She always looked lonely in our family. It wasn’t her fault…”
Looking down with an endlessly pitiful and sad expression, she spoke as if murmuring to herself.
“Ah… what on earth is that ‘scent’…”
In this play, she was the only one with lines, so certain emphasized monologues were clearly heard.
At the word ‘scent’, a fine crack appeared in Caeron’s previously calm expression. With a sharper gaze, he stared at Roselin.
“…Scent?”
Pascal asked with a puzzled expression.
“Oh my! I misspoke again…”
Roselin made another prepared mistake. With wide eyes and covering her mouth with her hand, she made a troubled expression. And as she always did, she naturally scanned Idel’s face.
Like a dark cloud suddenly covering the clear sky, her complexion was clouded.
Looking at the shaking green eyes, like a leaf in a strong rainstorm, Roselin felt a thrill rising from the depths of her heart.
‘Sister, you can never be happy. It’s just a fake harmony.’
With a bitter smile, Roselin naturally frowned a little more with a troubled expression.
“Please forget my slip of the tongue. This is a secret of our family…”
“A secret? There are no secrets in front of the emperor. Tell me properly what you mean.”
Unable to resist his curiosity at Roselin’s words, Pascal demanded an answer. Roselin, who had been hesitating for a while, fiddling with her fingers, opened her mouth at the moment when the audience’s attention was most concentrated.
“That is… our Fleur family has a genetic trait.”
“A genetic trait?”
“We are actually born with the scent of our birth flower on our bodies.”
“Your body… emits a scent?”
Pascal asked in surprise. At the same time, Caeron’s gaze landed on Idel. With her head slightly bowed and her eyes downcast, no emotional turmoil could be felt from her face.
However, he could feel her skin, which was under his hand, stiffening and trembling slightly. Caeron’s gaze deepened.
“That’s interesting. So that’s why you have such a strong rose scent!”
Pascal spoke with interested eyes as if he was admiring something. Despite the absence of roses in the banquet hall, the scent of roses was everywhere. He had thought it was perfume sprayed by Roselin, but it was body scent…
Pascal, who had been stroking his chin, tilted his head as he felt something was strange and looked at Idel.
“But the future Duchess… doesn’t have a particularly noticeable scent?”
“That’s because…”
Roselin highlighted and paused for breath. She then continued with a regrettable tone.
“My sister… was born ‘without’ a scent. The only one in our family…”
“She was the only one without a scent? What’s the reason?”
When Pascal asked with an air of curiosity, Rosellin naively tilted her head as if she really wanted to know but couldn’t.
“Well, I’m really curious as well. However… since my sister and I have different mothers, the late Countess might know the reason…”
It sounded like she innocently heard this from someone, but it was enough to arouse suspicions about her origin.
Even though it was a familiar story she had heard over a long time, Idel froze as if her breath had stopped. Her vision was spinning and she felt dizzy.
If she had been in front of the Countess and Rosellin, her emotions wouldn’t have been so shaken… but at that moment, the warmth enveloping her hand seemed as if it would disappear at any moment, making her eyes hot.
‘He, too… me…’
Idel was slowly consumed by the fear that she might be denied by him as well. She wanted to turn her palm upwards and hold his hand, but she didn’t have the courage to do so.
That was when it happened. His hand, which had been lightly holding hers, slipped his fingers between hers and gripped tightly.
“Your Majesty…”
A startled Idel raised her head and looked at Caeron. Her voice, weakly calling him, was full of moisture.
Seeing her teary eyes, he added a bit more strength to his hand. Caeron’s stiff gaze turned to Rosellin.
“I’m very impressed by your concern for your sister.”
Rosellin, who had been secretly smiling in triumph, froze at the Duke’s gaze. His words seemed to be a compliment on the surface, but his tone was cold as ice.
“There’s no need to worry anymore.”
Caeron gently pulled the hand he held, bringing her wrist to his nose. He lightly touched and pulled away from her wrist, where her pulse was racing.
It was a common and familiar gesture to kiss a lady’s hand in greeting. However, the sight of him kissing the inside of her wrist was strangely sensual.
‘Gasp…!’
Rosellin, who was watching this, took a sharp breath in surprise. The deep emotion in the Duke’s eyes made her tremble unknowingly, and she swallowed the moan that tried to escape her lips.
“I’m still… quite intoxicated by her.”
His action was as elegant as a dignified gentleman, but his eyes were filled with raw possessiveness.
Like a wild beast protecting its mate from anyone else, his deepening blue eyes stifled everyone watching.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
