TPOTLPIM Chapter 12

Teros reached out and gently moved aside Cecilia's hair that was precariously dangling over the food plate.

"Hmm."

Just then, Cecilia stirred, and Teros quickly withdrew his hand. If she opened her eyes and saw him holding her hair, there was no telling what kind of misunderstanding might arise. The alcohol might wear off instantly, leaving her with frightened eyes. It was the first time he had ever been so attentive and considerate of someone else's small movements.

When it was time for Le Stouef to close, Teros helped Cecilia to the carriage.

Inside the carriage on the way home, unlike the trip to the restaurant, Cecilia became unusually talkative. She had settled right next to Teros, practically glued to his side, continuously throwing out meaningless questions.

"Why don't you look much like Lord Dmitri?"

Teros raised an eyebrow at the name that suddenly popped out.

"I am more handsome than my older brother, though."

Though it was a nonsensical question, he answered earnestly.

"No, no. Lord Dmitri is much, much more handsome!"

"That's strangely hurtful to my pride."

Though he had never given much thought to his appearance before, Teros felt his pride wounded by Cecilia's comparison.

"She likes someone who smiles well, someone whose smile is warm," he recalled Asen's words as she had earnestly explained Cecilia's preferences.

"Do you like Dmitri's smile? That fake expression of his?"

Teros forgot about maintaining formal speech and leaned his face close to Cecilia's, as if seeking an answer.

"Fake? The fake one is Rosein... that awful girl..."

"Ah, here we go with sister-in-law Rosein again."

Teros felt his head throb and raised one hand to cover his eyes.

This had been the pattern of every conversation since earlier. All the meaningless chatter eventually led back to Rosein.

If anyone else had been going in circles like this while drunkenly complaining to him, he would have left them on the roadside long ago.

But then,

"My lord. We have arrived at the Count's estate."

As the carriage stopped, Teros felt disappointed that he would have to send Cecilia inside. Even if she only babbled incomprehensible things, he wanted to keep her by his side a little longer.

He slowly stepped down from the carriage and helped Cecilia descend.

"Huh? When did we get to my house? Hehe, Lord Teros. Thank you."

As Cecilia tried to curtsy by spreading her dress skirt and bending at the waist, she staggered, and Teros caught her and helped her stand upright.

"Oh? I thought I was going to fall. Did Lord Teros catch me? Thank you."

Having just helped her up, she tried to bow again.

"The greeting is fine."

Teros now stepped directly in front of her and held both her arms to keep her steady.

Her breath, rough from drinking, touched his face as she inhaled and exhaled. He could smell the sharp scent of wine at the tip of his nose.

He didn't want to send her into the house like this. If they parted today, what excuse would he have to make to see her again?

"We should hurry the wedding."

Teros's quietly whispered voice tickled Cecilia's ear.

"Wedding? A wedding? Ah..."

Upon hearing the word wedding, Cecilia's eyes wavered back and forth, and she looked as if she might cry at any moment.

'Does she hate marrying me this much?'

He had no idea how to persuade her. It seemed impossible to hold onto her without forcing things.

"Ugh... Lord Teros. The wedding is... ugh... urp."

The red wine she had been drinking all evening came back up through Cecilia's esophagus and spilled directly onto Teros's trouser leg.

"Ugh... my head."

Cecilia struggled to sit up in bed, writhing in discomfort.

Her head felt heavy with a crushing hangover, and her throat was parched as if on fire.

Staggering out of her bedroom, the corridor was as quiet as a tomb, apparently still too early for the servants to be awake.

'I'm thirsty.'

There would be tea water that Dalein had left on the side table at the end of the corridor. Cecilia took heavy steps along the long hallway.

Why did the path feel so endlessly long? Dizzy spells kept coming, and Cecilia repeatedly had to stop while walking down the corridor, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

'Just how much did I drink?'

Trying to calm her throbbing headache, she attempted to reconstruct the events of yesterday.

The delicious food. Le Stouef's pleasant atmosphere. Teros's face visible beyond the flickering candlelight on the table.

'Lord Teros?'

Right, something had happened with Teros, hadn't it?

As she rummaged through her dark memories, unfamiliar scenes seemed to emerge one by one.

"Are you all right?"

Just as something was about to surface, a deep voice spoke alongside a large hand that caught her arm for support.

"Gasp!"

Turning her head to look beside her, Cecilia's jaw dropped so wide it seemed it might dislocate.

Teros, wearing a nightgown that was slightly too small for his frame, was looking at her.

"Why is Lord Teros here!"

Cecilia barely managed to hold back a shriek and lowered her voice. She didn't want to cause a commotion that would bring servants rushing out.

"Don't you remember?"

Teros spoke with a calm expression. Having just woken up, his black hair was disheveled and messy.

Cecilia's gaze moved to the nightgown he was wearing. Because the gown was too small for his body, despite being tied at the waist with a cord, his muscular, firm chest was completely exposed. The pajama bottoms he wore underneath were also too short to fully cover his calves.

"I don't remember! And why are you dressed like that?"

Cecilia turned her burning face away and tried to pull her arm from Teros's grasp, but he firmly took hold of her arm again.

"You look like you're having trouble walking. Let me help you to your destination."

She gave up on refusing his kindness further and obediently leaned on his arm. Knowing Teros as she did, it would be faster to go get water together than to continue arguing here.

As soon as they reached the side table at the end of the corridor, Cecilia poured the cool tea water into a cup and gulped it down.

Teros leaned against the wall, watching her. It felt as though he had plenty to say but was waiting for her to feel better first.

Though she was afraid to ask about last night's events, under his persistent gaze, Cecilia finally opened her mouth.

"Uh, um. Lord Teros. So, that gown looks like it belongs to my father..."

"That's right. It's Count Serin's gown."

"Um... then why is Lord Teros wearing my father's gown and here?"

Teros looked at her with wounded eyes.

"...Do you really not remember?"

Teros took her arm again as if to support her.

"Come on, I'll take you to your room. If you want to hear the details, treat me to a meal later."

"Of course I'll provide a meal since you're a guest at the Count's estate..."

Something seemed to have happened, but since she couldn't remember at all, Cecilia felt anxious.

With his support while walking, they quickly reached her bedroom door.

However, she couldn't readily enter her room and hesitated, fidgeting, before finally catching Teros as he was about to turn away.

"Lord Teros! Can't you tell me what happened?"

Then, a mischievous smile appeared on his lips as he turned around.

"I'm disappointed, Cecilia. To pretend not to know what happened yesterday to this extent. If you can't remember, I suppose you can't be held responsible either."

"Responsible? Did I do something that would make me responsible to Lord Teros?"

"Of course you did."

As Teros stepped closer to her, Cecilia stepped back with an inexplicable sense of unease.

Then he took another step toward her, and as Cecilia tried to step back, her back touched the firmly closed bedroom door.

Teros's shadow fell over her.

"Yesterday, you defiled me."

"Eek!"

'He's crazy, what is he talking about? Defiled him?'

Teros took her hand and gently stroked each finger as he murmured in a low voice.

"It was my first time experiencing such a thing. So you need to take responsibility for me..."

"Shh, quiet!"

Cecilia hastily stopped Teros from speaking.

She could hear the servants beginning their daily work on the first floor. To make matters worse, she thought she heard someone's footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Someone seems to be coming up."

Even seeing Cecilia turn red and fidget restlessly, Teros spoke brazenly.

"Who would be coming up? So, do you still not remember what happened yesterday? Yesterday you..."

"Oh, really!"

Casting anxious glances toward the stairs, Cecilia finally threw open her bedroom door and pushed Teros inside. Teros was spouting strange words and his appearance wasn't decent either. She didn't want to encounter the servants looking like this.

Thud—

After pushing Teros inside, Cecilia herself hurried into the room and quickly closed the door. Fortunately, the large man had obediently allowed himself to be pushed in.

Leaving Teros standing alone in the room, she pressed her ear to the door, trying to listen for footsteps in the corridor.

She stayed like that for a while, but no sound of anyone passing by could be heard. It seemed the sound of footsteps on the stairs had been a hallucination created by her anxiety.

"I told you no one was coming. I'm better at detecting presences than you are."

At Teros's voice from behind her, Cecilia jumped and her shoulders trembled once again.

Right, I pushed this man in here with my own hands. What was I thinking doing such a thing!

"Lord Teros keeps saying strange things, so I'm hearing things!"

"Ah, now someone really is coming up the stairs."

Someone's coming up? Cecilia pressed her ear to the door again. Indeed, someone's footsteps were getting closer, then passed by Cecilia's bedroom door.

"This is troublesome. When will I be able to leave?"

Teros spoke with an expression that didn't look troubled at all.

"Don't cross over that line!"

Teros sat at a table placed on one side of the room, while Cecilia sat on the bed wrapped in her blanket, pointing to the line of the carpet spread wide beneath the bed.

Her rather dignified declaration made her look like a queen threatening war if borders were crossed.

"Cecilia, you don't cross over to this side either."

Teros made a rather disappointed expression, then like a knight guarding a castle, he also clearly defined his territory.

"By the way, your room is quite cute. I'll prepare a room like this at Hasblue as well."

Teros looked around at the wallpaper and curtains with their subtle floral patterns, as if exploring her tastes.

"Hey, don't look around carelessly! And don't talk to me either!"

"You forcibly pushed me into this room and now you want me to close my eyes and mouth too?"

Faced with his protest, Cecilia found herself at a loss for words.

"Then just make sure you don't cross that line."

As Teros chuckled and stood up from his seat, Cecilia wrapped herself even more tightly in her blanket.

He slowly walked toward the bookshelf that decorated one wall of her room.

He was curious about what kinds of books she usually read. If she liked books enough to hold reading meetings, he could probably understand her tastes and values from the books on her shelf.

"Hey, hey! Don't look at the bookshelf, I said don't look!"

"I just can't cross the line."

To Cecilia, who peeked her head out from under the blanket to warn him, Teros replied cheekily.

His gaze began quickly scanning the titles of the books on the shelf.

Meanwhile, Cecilia turned bright red and pulled the blanket over her face.

She was worried about the romance novels on the bookshelf. There were books that had secretly taken high society by storm, though trivial, like stories of love affairs between noble ladies and wandering painters.

If Teros discovered these books, her shame would last for days.

'No, so what if he finds them? What more could happen than him thinking I'm a pathetic woman?'

'No, why would that be pathetic? They're all bestsellers. Be confident, Cecilia!'

Having steeled herself, Cecilia peeked her face out from under the blanket again to watch Teros, only to be startled.

Teros was examining the cover of a book that had once been her favorite.

It was Dmitri's poetry collection.

She would have preferred him to discover the romance novels. Though she couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, she hated seeing Teros look at Dmitri's poetry collection. She hated him discovering the pages worn ragged from reading that poetry collection every night.

"Please don't look at that one!"

Cecilia threw off her blanket and ran toward Teros in an instant, grabbing the hand that was trying to turn the pages.

When their eyes met with his somewhat surprised dark blue eyes, an inexplicable guilt washed over her.

Teros closed the poetry collection with a thud and carefully placed it back on the shelf.

"You crossed the line, Cecilia."

As soon as a mischievous smile appeared on his lips,

Smooch.

Before she could avoid it, a soft sensation touched her forehead and disappeared in an instant.

"This is your punishment."

After causing such confusion with his sudden action, Teros calmly changed the subject.

"Now it seems there's no one in the corridor, and I've had a good look at your room, so I should be going. I'm quite good at hiding my presence, so I'll manage to get out."

'You could have left all along but hid it, didn't you?'

Though reasonable suspicion arose and Cecilia felt annoyed, she couldn't confront him without evidence.