The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 128

Neris pondered and pondered again. And finally, having made up her mind, she knocked on the door. Tap tap.

The door opened immediately at the light knock. Neris, who hadn’t expected Cledwin to appear so quickly, widened her eyes like a startled rabbit.

“Were you on your way out? Oh—judging by your outfit, maybe not?”

It was already far past the castle’s official working hours; the moon had risen high in the night sky. Cledwin wore only a linen shirt and trousers—clothing suited for his room at this hour—but wearing such attire to his office would surely leave him frozen solid.

Leaning against his bedroom doorframe, Cledwin looked down at Neris with a faint, curious smile.

“I heard your footsteps.”

“My footsteps? Oh, right—I just noticed there’s no carpet around here. Is it to prevent assassins?”

“Yes.”

Carpeting covered nearly every corridor in the East Palace—where many people bustled about—and also graced the elegant living quarters of the Main and West Palaces.

Yet curiously, the area near the Grand Duke’s bedroom remained bare polished stone. Normally, this spot—meant to be the most refined—should have been adorned with the finest carpets.

Cledwin’s calm reply made his face suddenly resemble that of a sixteen-year-old boy. Neris looked up at him with a pang of sympathy.

Neris herself was dressed simply: a white linen dress beneath a loose, dark green velvet robe. Though every button on the robe was fastened, it remained undeniably sleepwear.

Above the robe, her slender, straight collarbone was half-exposed. When Cledwin’s gaze fell there and his expression soured, Neris flustered and offered an excuse.

“I told Mother I’d sleep with her, so I had no choice but to sneak out like this.”

“Wait a moment.”

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