Please Grant Me a Glorious Regret [Novel] Chapter 20

From the moment she stepped inside the mansion, her already racing heart began to pound as if it were going into overdrive.

The words he had just spat out felt impossibly distant.

Even though she had heard them clearly with her own two ears, she could hardly believe them.

Arte wasn't the only one frozen stiff.

The butler and the head maid, not to mention all the servants lined up in the hall, couldn't hide their visible shock.

Only Dimion, the man who had just dropped the bombshell, remained entirely unfazed.

He strode casually into the mansion as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

His long legs and wide strides quickly widened the distance between them.

Leaving behind the people who had turned into living statues, he swiftly crossed the lobby and was already ascending the grand staircase.

Only then did Arte snap back to her senses.

If only to contain the chaotic atmosphere brewing behind her, she had to stop him right this second.

"Your Grace!"

This was no time to worry about dignity or decorum.

Arte chased after him in a panic, calling out his name.

"Your Grace, please wait a moment!"

Despite her rather desperate tone, his steps didn't falter.

He just kept walking forward, as if he couldn't hear a thing.

Unyielding, his feet were already nearing the top of the stairs.

Pausing for just a second, Arte bit her lip hard and pushed herself to sprint faster.

She ran as fast as she used to when she and her siblings raced across the Count's fields.

Sprinting until she was completely out of breath, she managed to overtake him.

An undignified dash was the perfect way to halt his infuriatingly elegant stride.

Suddenly blocked, a faint crack appeared in his picture-perfect expression.

His brow furrowed, just a fraction, and his eyes narrowed into a sharp glare.

He was a man she could only look down on if she stood two or three steps above him.

Yet, even from that higher vantage point, she didn't feel as though she was looking down at him at all.

The sheer chill and overwhelming pressure radiating from his upturned eyes only made Arte shrink back further.

Even so, she couldn't just hopelessly surrender the high ground she had barely managed to claim.

She needed to make it crystal clear just how absurd this situation was.

"I refuse to believe Your Grace is unaware of the unwritten rule that a man does not reside under the same roof as an outside woman unless she is his wedded wife."

Though her shoulders heaved from her ragged breathing, there was no tremor in her voice or her gaze.

"Well. I have no intention of marrying, so I wouldn't know."

Arte bit her lip to stifle the scoff threatening to slip through her teeth.

As if the great Duke of Rocata wouldn't know a rule that even a lady from a quiet countryside knew.

It was a brazen lie.

"Even if a couple is engaged, Imperial etiquette dictates that they don't freely frequent each other's estates before marriage. Therefore, if the seat of the Duchess is to remain permanently vacant as you wish, no woman should be staying in this mansion. That includes me, or anyone else."

She delivered her explanation in a quiet, measured tone, as if dealing with someone who was genuinely clueless.

At her patronizing attitude, despite her knowing full well he understood the situation, Dimion's right eyebrow twitched slightly.

It was by no means a positive reaction.

It was glaringly obvious that he was displeased by her attempt to defy his will.

With his signature oppressive aura, it would be normal to cower or feel intimidated, but Arte didn't yield in the slightest.

She had to prevent them from staying together in this mansion at all costs.

It was crossing a line.

It would naturally throw the household into an uproar, and the fallout when the news leaked outside would undoubtedly be explosive.

And the one who would have to bear the brunt of that fallout wasn't Dimion, but Arte.

After all, no one would dare touch the Duke of Rocata.

However, pleading with him to hold back out of pity for the poor girl who would be torn apart by rumors was never going to work.

It was better to drag Dimion into the equation.

She needed to repeatedly explain just how much damage he would suffer if he brought her into this mansion.

"If I stay here, no one will view us as simply a patron and a painter. They will all look at us with dirty suspicion."

"…"

"Naturally, Your Grace's discerning eye will also be degraded. People will certainly gossip that they thought you sponsored me solely for my artwork and talent, only to find out there were ulterior motives."

Arte poured out her words rapidly, as if she had forgotten how to breathe.

"It might even drag down the entirety of House Rocata. Seeing you act this way, they'll speculate that the family's past patronages were also tainted with corruption or scandal."

"…"

"I am well aware of how profound House Rocata's artistic knowledge is, and how immensely proud the family is of that heritage. This is tantamount to putting a blemish on a reputation built over a long time. Do you think the rest of the Rocata family will just sit still?"

She genuinely prayed that Dimion's drive to protect Rocata's honor was fierce, that he would find the nagging and grumbling of his family members utterly annoying, and that, as a result, her persuasion would work even just a little.

"A young lady who cares this much about Rocata's honor…"

Her desperate wish, however, was instantly dismissed.

Dimion's response was a blatant sneer.

It was proof that he had seen right through her, he knew full well she was worried about herself, not Rocata or him.

"Are you really that worried?"

At a passing glance, it might have sounded like he was asking if she was worried about Rocata and him.

But it wasn't.

Arte could see the hidden question mark he had folded and tucked between the lines.

He was asking if she was truly that afraid of the staring eyes that would cling to her, the countless rumors and slander that would follow, and the grueling future that lay ahead because of it.

Meeting her wavering golden eyes, Dimion let out a sudden chuckle.

"I thought you were completely clueless. I guess not."

At that whispered addition, Arte's face flushed a deep red.

She felt humiliated.

It was mortifying that her best effort had failed so pathetically, and it infuriated her that she had looked so ridiculous he thought she didn't even know the basic mechanics of high society.

"Right. Just as you said, we are patron and protégé."

Unable to meet his gaze, she kept her head bowed low as Dimion slowly stepped up the stairs.

One step up, and their eyes were level, so another step up, and the dynamic was inverted.

Even though he was still standing one step below her, he was looking down at her.

Dimion pushed Arte off the high ground with far too much ease.

As if reasserting that this was their proper dynamic, he swiftly and effortlessly placed himself above her.

"But that was just a plausible wrapper I put on things out of consideration for you. That wasn't the deal you originally proposed to me, was it?"

It was an irrefutable point.

She had merely been enchanted by the wrapper Dimion had created and momentarily forgotten, but at the core of their relationship lay an audacious contract.

"You took 50,000 lirang promising to be the doll that replaces Phelia. Would you leave a doll that expensive outside the house? Because I wouldn't."

Seeing his cold face completely stripped of its smile, her heart pounded violently.

The tempo of her escalating anxiety was far too fast.

"Ed!"

Keeping his eyes fixed on Arte, Dimion's mouth called out an unfamiliar name.

At the crisp, loud summons, the elderly butler standing at the bottom of the stairs took a step forward.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Move the lady's belongings to my room. She will be sharing my quarters from now on."

This time, even the seasoned butler couldn't mask his utter shock.

The explosive force of this magnified bombshell was truly immense, swallowing the massive mansion whole.

Everyone froze in their tracks, paralyzed by sheer astonishment.

"Didn't you promise to fend off the women being shoved into my room? I believe you clung to me quite desperately, promising to free me from that annoyance."

"…"

"To do that, shouldn't we share a room? They'd at least have to see another woman lying next to me to run away trembling in anger, wouldn't they? Don't you agree, Arte?"

Faced with the declaration that they wouldn't just share a mansion but a single room, there was absolutely nothing Arte could do.

She was frozen stiff, as if struck by a paralysis curse, doing nothing but blinking her eyes.

She didn't even notice the fact that his infuriatingly pleasant voice had just called her by her name for the very first time.

That was how dizzying and overwhelming the situation had become.

"Oh my?"

Before she even had the chance to fully process Dimion's words, an unfamiliar guest crossed the mansion's threshold with a short gasp of surprise.

"I had no idea you were at the estate. It's been a while, Your Grace."

The sultry voice shattered the dead silence of the mansion.