When Pride Fell At My Toes - Chapter 69



Only Krnovel

#69. Do you think he’ll do as you wish?
2024.03.09.

The two people’s eyes were fixed on Enrico’s short answer.

“I came here because I have something to say, so you should go first, my niece. Emilia, do you have anything to say to me?” He

certainly has a lot to say. Why haven’t you seen him all this time? Was that kiss really just a light game? And do you know about our rumors?

It would be hard to ask the former, but Emilia nodded once, thinking that she should at least talk to Enrico about the rumors.

“Your Majesty, I apologize. I think I need to talk to the person in question about the rumors you mentioned earlier. I ask for your understanding.”

Alessandro’s eyes trembled briefly. The corners of his mouth turned up as if they were stiff, but his gaze toward Enrico was cold.

“I understand. I’m glad that you overlooked my rudeness today. Okay, that’s all.”

He’s definitely kind, but strangely, people make him feel uneasy. Emilia looked at Alessandro’s back, who unexpectedly retreated cleanly, and then raised her head as her vision darkened.

“Stop looking and go in.”

She let out a small sigh as she looked at Enrico standing right in front of her. Today, she felt frustrated, wondering how much he was going to try to irritate her, and her trembling heart started to worry as the distance got closer.

***

Emilia stared at the steaming teacup, then looked at Enrico, who was slowly drinking it, in amazement.

It had been a few months since she had known him, but since he had mostly been drinking wine or water, it was the first time she had seen him drinking tea like this. And hot tea at that.

Sitting leisurely, savoring his tea with the raindrops sliding down the window in the background, he looked like a painting. His delicately lowered eyelashes went up as the teacup was placed on the table.

“Your face is going to pierce.”

“Ah… … . I thought it had been a long time since I saw you.”

“You don’t need to see me often. You’re not in a state to dance ballet.”

After the kiss, Emilia’s heart, which had been trying to treat him obediently, cooled down after breaking up with him in a hurt mood.

Was he drawing a line in advance, saying that he didn’t need to see her because she couldn’t do ballet? It seems that the value of his countless songs was currently in the worst condition.

“How’s your body?”

“It’s okay. I’m going to start practicing next week.”

“That soon?”

He raised one eyebrow.

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“When did I?”

When did he just give off that kind of nuance? Emilia shut her mouth tightly at his shameless answer.

“The answer is.”

“If not, I think I misunderstood.”

Enrico’s two eyes narrowed subtly. At his response, which seemed to be wondering why he was acting like that or thinking that he would dig deeper, Emilia just fiddled with her teacup and lowered her eyes.

The sound of the clock ticking and the wind filled the silence.

“… … What are we going to do from now on? I don’t care, but haven’t you been wary of rumors?”

After a while, his expression softened and he slowly stroked the rim of the teacup. Her gaze, which had been blankly staring at his long fingers, moved up his arm to his face.

“Yes. But since it’s just rumors and nothing concrete has been revealed, I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t have to come to my mansion for the time being. Instead, I’ll send the doctor over here. Did you get your ankle examined?”

“You don’t have to send it. As long as you apply the medicine I gave you properly, there’ll be no problem.”

“I seem to have a problem. I don’t know how many times I told you to get your ankle examined.”

Enrico tilted his head. Unlike his languid tone of speech, his sharp gaze swept over her.

“To this extent, I think you’re deliberately avoiding the examination.”

His jade-colored eyes shook slightly for a moment. Emilia picked up the glass she was holding and took a very slow sip, savoring it carefully.

“That’s impossible. “I know my body the best, so that’s all.”

“That kind of complacent thinking could cause problems later. Aren’t you someone who values ​​your body more than anyone else?”

After value, now it’s property. It’s not that there aren’t cases where ballerinas are told that their bodies are property, but what Enrico said was different. The property he talks about, who treats people like objects, is just a concept of assessing the value of an object.

In the first place, talking to him wouldn’t have helped clear up the rumors that had already spread. I should have just sent him back with Alessandro. Emilia belatedly regretted it and pushed the glass she was touching forward.

“Yes. I’ll be careful. Then, I’ll assume you won’t be going to the duke’s residence for the time being, so if you could just go back now, I’d appreciate it.”

“Are you trying to kick out an uninvited guest?”

“No way. I just thought about it and wondered if it was necessary to ask the duke to come in when there was no way out.”

Enrico smiled with the corners of his mouth widened at Emilia’s flat voice.

“Then do you regret letting him in? How dare you come to the house I gave you?”

Now he’s going to show off this house too. Since all of his actions looked bad, Emilia’s face also became cold.

“You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“I don’t think it’s a leap. I think you blurted out your true feelings for a moment.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Do you think I’ll just sit by and watch another guy come here?”

“… … I didn’t ask to take the house in the first place. You gave it to me under duress. If I had known you were going to restrict me one by one like this, I would have refused!”

“Did I really? You didn’t have a choice in the first place.”

“If I had known it was this kind of contract, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place. I didn’t put my body on the line. I put my ballet skills on the line. Ha… … . If we talk more here, I think we’ll only get hurt.”

Emilia was getting tired of this situation where they kept fighting over the same thing. She took a deep breath, touching her forehead, and got up from her seat and walked toward the front door. Enrico followed her.

Before she could even get to the front door, her wrist was suddenly grabbed in the hallway and pulled. Emilia’s body turned around, following her wrist, and she seemed to be jumping toward his chest.

“Why? Now that you’ve collected some evidence, do you think it’s time to break the contract?”

She instinctively stopped her body by grabbing his chest and shaking his arm as if trying to push him away.

“Let me go!”

“I will never break it first. Do you think I’ll do whatever you want?”

He whispered roughly as if to provoke her. The grabbed arm was pulled again, and his face came close to her eyes as she raised her head. His head tilted at a dangerous distance.

“You’re mine. I have to have what I like.”

It was as if he was desperate to hurt her.

“I told you I’m not an object!”

“Even if it’s not you, you’ve already made a contract that has a value attached to it like an object. A precious person? What does that matter? Isn’t what’s right in front of you the most important?”

“What does that matter? It’s just a passing interest anyway. It’s just one of those works of art that I’ll soon get tired of, just like the ones I buy once and never look at. Do you really have to make me this miserable?”

After watching for a few months, Emilia had come to know Enrico’s style to some extent.

The paintings he bought from the exhibition halls he frequented and the various art pieces he collected always took their place, pushing out the old ones in the ducal residence.

And Enrico never once visited the art pieces that came into the ducal residence. It was as if he had them now that he didn’t need to look at them anymore.

“Well. I guess just looking isn’t enough.”

He whispered softly, his lips curling up. Her hand, which had been pushing his chest, was now tightly gripping the hem of his shirt and trembling.

“So I think I’ll be able to see what it is if I have this body. What do you think?”

With a sharp friction, his head turned slightly. Her hands that had been holding the clothes had already split the air, turning her palms red. She clenched her fists as if to calm her trembling hands and blinked her eyes. A

heavy breath burst out. Her face, breathing heavily as if all she had held back was bursting out, was a mixture of surprise and anger.

His head slowly turned. Her face, which looked like it would burst into tears at any moment, was reflected in his purple eyes that had lost their smile.

“… … If you want to break it, you do it. But if you can’t handle all the aftermath, don’t even try.”

There was a gloomy and sticky desire in his eyes. She eventually closed her eyes tightly as he continued to press her as if this was all he could do right now.

The tears that had been barely holding back ran down her cheeks and dripped from the tip of her chin to the floor.

She felt the strength that had been holding her wrist loosen and the strength that was grabbing the back of her head. His hot lips touched her cheek where tears were streaming down. Tears seeped into his lips.

“I’ll never let you go.”

Soon, all the warmth went away. Her eyelashes fluttered and her eyelids lifted at the faint wind brushing past her and the sound of her footsteps moving away. Silence surrounded them with no one around.

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