Chapter 183: Chapter 182
“My lady, Miss Roxy is right. I don’t know what noble title he or his father has in his home country, but I think it’s very unlikely that he is a high-ranking aristocrat comparable here in the Aslan empire. How can a man with such a title be rude to you? Obviously, this guy was born in a plain family and didn’t learn manners properly. I feel disgusted at the way he is speaking to you so rudely. Even though he is from a foreign country, you shouldn’t deal with this guy who doesn’t know elementary etiquette,” Cordelli said, fuming and frowning.
Marianne alternately looked at the angry Cordelli and Roxanne. She thought she had to stop them, but she couldn’t think of any plausible excuses right away.
The man was standing too close for her to remind Cordelli that she had already told her about the man briefly. And it looked like Roxanne would be upset about her, not him, if she reminded Roxanne that she was also very rude to her recently.
And on the other hand, she thought to herself, ‘Yeah, he is really rude. But as I already know that man is a Faisal’s royal family member, I don’t feel that bad, but Codelli and Roxanne might feel he is a crazy guy. I don’t know if he is rude by nature or behaving rudely on purpose? ‘
She felt she didn’t need to give him a bad impression from the beginning because she was not sure how he would be used by Ober.
Marianne grabbed Cordelli’s arm, who was about to go get Iric right away. Roxanne, whose temper was as fiery as Cordelli’s, also expressed hostility to him without hiding her displeasure with him.
‘I’m in trouble now. What should I do? ‘ Marianne looked around, agonized for a moment.
Right at that moment a familiar shadow was approaching her from the central entrance. Dressed in the capital’s latest fashion and neatly swept hair, which was pretty dark as if soaked in dark red paint, he was none other than Ober.
“Sir Ober!” She did not hesitate to call his name loudly. When she called, not only Cordelli and Roxanne but also Shahar turned their eyes at him.
“May the blessing of Anthea be bestowed on you, Marianne!”
Approaching her, he greeted her politely. She smiled brightly as he raised his body after kissing the back of her hand.
“I wish you the same blessing of Anthea. I thought you were at the palace. I wonder why you are staying at the mansion at this time. ”
“I left early because I had an appointment with a special guest.”
“As for the special guest…” Marianne glanced at Shahar standing next to him.
“Yes. Have you already introduced yourself?”
“Yeah. He says his name is Akad of Elam in Faisal. Right?”
Shahar laughed, looking at her eyes.
“Oh, as I don’t know Aslan’s manners, I think I have behaved rudely to the lady.”
“Oh my… Is that true?” Ober knitted his brows with a worried look. Marianne smiled faintly, waving the fan gently.
“Let me apologize on his behalf. It is the first time that Sir Akad visited Aslan, so he doesn’t seem to know proper etiquette. It’s my fault. I wish I had dispatched a servant to escort him…”
“It’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes at first,” Marianne said.
As the two expressed apologies and forgiveness with an exaggerated tone, Shahar looked at Ober and Marianne alternately with a very interesting expression.
He was still smiling, but he seemed to enjoy their conversation as if it were an interesting play, rather than feeling sorry for his rudeness.
As if she noticed the weird atmosphere, Cordelli snorted with a sullen expression. And Roxanne, pretending she didn’t get upset at all, shut her mouth after Ober arrived.
“By the way, why did Sir Akad come as far as Milan? To meet you? Is he your close friend?”
“Of course, Sir Akad is a good friend of mine, but it’s too far for him to come here to simply inquire after me. Regrettably, he came a bit late to express condolences. ”
“Ah, condolences… ” She deliberately paused for a moment. She had to pretend to have realized it as naturally as possible.
“Have you come to express condolences about the late Duke Hubble?”
“That’s right. I left as soon as I got the news, but only now I have arrived. ”
“I see. Your eyes are very similar to the olive-colored eyes allegedly handed down by the Hubble family.”
At that point, Ober’s face hardened briefly. But he quickly smiled to skillfully conceal his intimidating look.
“I think it’s because he is a distant relative of the late Hubble, or his eyes may have coincidentally overlapped with the characteristics of the Hubble family… I hear that in Faisal, unlike Aslan, there are many people with olive eyes.”
“Got it. I did not know that. I met several Faisal sculptors, but they all had dark eyes. Well, as you are the minister of the foreign ministry, you have met far more foreign envoys than me, I think.”
“Yes, but I’ve never seen anybody with as beautiful and vivid green eyes as you.”
“Oh, how kind of you! I’m flattered.”
Ober livened up the atmosphere before naturally raising her hand to kiss in farewell.
“I wish I could talk more, but Sir Akad’s schedule is a little too tight… Let us leave now. ”
“Yeah. It was a pleasant conversation. Sir Akad, don’t worry too much. I will never blame your rudeness again. ”
Shahar gently grabbed her hand after Ober released it. Although Ober was looking at him with an ominous look, he didn’t care and put his lips on the back of her hand, making eye contact with her. .
“Thank you for your kind consideration. I will surely repay it later. ”
“Oh, you don’t have to.”
“I will definitely repay you. Absolutely!” He replied firmly, smiling brightly.
“If you insist…”
She withdrew her hand with a light smile.
Shahar looked at his empty hand with regret, but soon left the place with Ober.
But he looked back at her more than five times while walking toward the wagon pulled near the porch, as if he had lingering wistfulness.
“What the hell is he doing here? Is he really a distant relative of the late Hubble? Although the color of his eyes are similar, I haven’t heard anything about it from my father…Besides, he didn’t seem to have deliberately acted rudely at first, given his polite manners. Don’t you think so?”
Only then did Roxanne open her mouth and grumble.
Marianne belatedly shrugged after quietly watching Mrs. Chester’s wagon following Ober and Shahar’s carriage.
“Well, I don’t know. Do you think he fooled us, Miss Roxy?”
“In my opinion, Yes. He suddenly changed his attitude when Ober arrived. Wasn’t he conscious of Ober? It looks like he is weak before the strong, but strong before the weak,” Cordelli pouted, answering before Roxanne.
Looking at Cordelli with a smile, Roxanne quipped, “… Exactly. I didn’t expect that you had such a discerning eye, Cordelli.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Why are you angry? I’m praising you. ”
The two, who had just seen eye to eye on Shahar, were now about to pick a quarrel again.
Marianne opened the fan and roughly put it down on the palm of her hand with a snap.
The boiling atmosphere of the two cooled down. They turned their eyes to her right away.
“I’m sorry, but shall we stop walking here? It’s much hotter than I thought and I want to go back and rest. ”
With a reasonable excuse, Marianne naturally led the two to walk towards the exit of the garden. She was lost in thought while walking toward the wagon.
She felt she had to go back and do something right away.
* * *
“The woman named Marianne, ” Ice in the glass tilted to one side, creating a cool noise.
“Is she the woman you love?”
Ober put the tilted cup down on the carriage table. When he looked at Shahar across the table, there was suspicion and a bit of annoyance in his ash eyes.
“It looks like you’ve heard the rumors in the street. Who is this guy Yurt?” Ober asked.
“Oh, it seems you don’t love her. Then, is she the woman you need for your interests?” Shahar asked.
“Well, If you love, you need her.”
“Hummm…. you thought you came to love the woman because you needed her.”
Shahar grinned gently. Be it coincidence or inevitability, his judgement of Ober was very accurate.
Ober clenched his teeth tightly. When he devised this plan, he predicted how Shahar would react, but he realized that Shahar was a very sophisticated guy when he sized him up in person. There was a faint but intense ambition behind Shahar’s gentle expression. Ober turned his mouth up, feeling a strong displeasure.
“I hear that the emperor loves her dearly. I wonder if he needs her all the more because he loves her. If he wants to embrace that woman with such a lousy reputation, he wouldn’t love her just because she is cute. Usually the members of the royal family bet their lives on their honor.”
“Of course most of them do, but what you are saying seems pretty contradictory.”
“Me? Well, I’m not in that league. My title is not proper enough to put me in that league that values my honor more than anything else.”
While talking about himself, Shahar acted casually as if he were indifferent. However, there was still something significant in his words that looked just banal.