Thank You For The Confinement, Grand Duke! - Chapter 59.2
Greedy people always end up losing everything they have. Even the fairy tale about the greedy dog showed that.
“Frii, I—”
What should I do now?
….
….
….!
‘D*mn it, this just isn’t me!’
Thinking alone only leads to vain answers circling in my mind. How many times had it been like this? How many more times was I going to repeat the same mistake? If I wanted to know what was true, I should just act as usual!
“Frii, let’s go!”
“Kkiiu?”
Seeing Frii tilt its head as if asking where to go, I smiled and picked up Frii and shouted.
“To Enfrise’s room!”
* * *
“Your Grace!”
I burst into the study with force, swinging the door open. Enfrise’s eyes widened in surprise as he held a bundle of unknown papers.
“You… why are you here…?”
Was this deja vu? I felt like I’d seen a similar scene before.
“I came to see the Grand Duke.”
“…Me? Didn’t we just meet? Was there something you couldn’t say?”
“Yes!”
Although I tried to answer as usual, I was actually quite nervous. After giving Frii, who was wrapped around my neck and quietly observing me, a gentle pat, I took a deep breath.
…Here we go!
“I have something I want to ask!”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
Enfrise set the bundle of papers aside and moved aside. And this time, too, I didn’t sit in the chair.
“Why are you suddenly avoiding me?”
“Avoiding…? I haven’t avoided you.”
“I felt like you were avoiding me.”
As I took a step closer to Enfrise, he subtly backed away toward the bookshelves.
“That… why would I avoid you?”
“That’s what I came to find out. Why are you avoiding me?”
Enfrise, who seemed about to say something, looked into my eyes and then tightly shut his mouth. He must have realized that his current excuses wouldn’t make me back down. However, I didn’t want to continue like this, with this awkwardness every day. I didn’t want to let my mind wander into strange thoughts.
“Do you hate me now?”
“What—!”
“Did the Grand Duke hate it when I held you back and kissed you first? Did it make you disgusted?”
“Absolutely not! Why would you think that? I could never feel that way about you.”
“Then, why do you keep avoiding eye contact? Why do you avoid touching me? Why are you even moving away now?”
Enfrise, who had positioned himself towards the bookshelves, was losing ground. Every time I moved closer, he backed away, but eventually, his back hit the shelf and he had nowhere else to retreat. It would be difficult for him to dodge sideways as that would mean acknowledging my words.
I finally pressed myself against him, blocking his escape by placing my hands on either side of Enfrise’s waist.
“I’ve got you.”
“Well, really, I…”
“Look me straight in the eyes and tell me. Are you really not avoiding me?”
Our eyes met for a second. He turned his head sharply away.
His ears were still bright red.
Seeing that… it still seemed like he liked me.
“If you don’t hate me, then why are you avoiding me?”
When he tried to slide away to the right, I pressed even closer. With the determination to hold him tight, I watched him let out a low sigh.
What, he was sighing?!
“How could I ever dislike you? You are…”
I wanted to know what I was to him. Looking up at him with those eyes, he again sharply turned his head away.
“Because I… I asked you to leave, didn’t you end up in another dangerous situation?”
…Huh?
“Me?”
“I’ve never seen you so worked up before. It’s clear… that the medication alone couldn’t have resolved it. Still, I couldn’t even muster the courage to reach out to you properly…”
But that wasn’t Enfrise’s fault.
It was mine.
“Grand Duke.”
“I won’t repeat the same mistakes again. I’ll make sure not to ask too much of you, not to overstep my bounds…”
“Grand Duke?”
“I’ll be careful. From now on… I’ll keep a proper distance from you…”
“Enfrise!”
The way he muttered to himself without looking at me reminded me of how I had been earlier, lying on the bed and digging into the ground alone, so I called his name loudly.
Was I too loud? Or maybe it was just that it had been a long time since I called his name in front of him. Or perhaps it was the sound of Enfrise’s heartbeat that I had caught. My own heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst.
“….”
Enfrise looked at me with a face as red as a tomato. Was it for the same reason as mine? Or for another reason?
Why was I so curious about him?
“That day, the Grand Duke kept me safe from being kidnapped.”
“No, if I hadn’t left in the first place…”
Ah, he was digging into it again. If I left him like this, the earlier situation would just repeat, so I decided to stop him from speaking.
“You’re dangerous…?!”
Enfrise’s eyes widened in surprise.
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