What I Gained by Giving My Body - Chapter 1.4

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The answer she couldn’t find all night could be known the very next morning. The doorbell rang at a house that hadn’t received visitors in a long time. It was a sound that felt as ominous as the church bells ringing on the day of a funeral.

Caitlyn, who was sipping a cup of warm tea to calm her anxious heart, immediately stood up from her seat. Caitlyn looked outside through a crack in the door that was opened narrowly enough to peek through with one eye.

“Are you Miss Caitlyn Hardick?”

She pondered for a moment.

‘Should I say no? That Miss Hardick stepped out for a moment, and I’m just a friend.’

But the worry was brief; Caitlyn soon resigned and accepted the situation. Postponing it slightly as a makeshift measure wouldn’t change the future that was about to strike. Furthermore, this man…… seemed to already know her.

“I can’t say I’m not.”

The servant, dressed smartly in a suit, nodded. He wasn’t flustered at all by Caitlyn’s cryptic answer.

“I’ve come to the right place. His Grace Archduke Akbar has invited Miss Hardick.”

Caitlyn moved her parched lips. Because the shock was so great, she couldn’t say anything. Archduke Akbar. She thought his status wouldn’t be ordinary, but to think he was a man who wielded power second only to the Imperial family.

‘……What do I do.’

Even though she tried to calm her heart as much as possible, her breathing quickened and her heart beat violently. There had never been a time like this in her life. She might have been afraid of a horrific future, but she had never been afraid because she couldn’t see the future. And to think that person was looking for her.

Caitlyn opened her mouth slowly.

“I’m afraid I might be a nuisance to His Grace the Archduke.”

“That is for His Grace the Archduke to decide.”

The tone of the servant, who consistently used formal address, was very coercive. Caitlyn could easily see the reason. One shouldn’t think this servant was of a low status just because he served the Archduke.

To serve as a servant for a high noble, one had to be a decent noble of a level that couldn’t be compared to a baronet. So, from the servant’s perspective, the sight of a baronet’s sister, who looked no different from a commoner, refusing the Archduke’s command was bound to be displeasing.

“I cannot see His Grace the Archduke without a chaperone and without knowing the reason.”

But she couldn’t be taken away like this. Caitlyn resisted by bringing out all sorts of cards. Since no one was willing to be her chaperone, wouldn’t the Archduke also have no solution for this?

“Fine.”

The servant replied in a flat voice.

“Then I will go back and report that since Miss Hardick cannot take a single step out of her house, there is no choice but for His Grace to come here personally.”

Caitlyn’s mouth fell open.

“The Archduke wouldn’t come here.”

“Do you really think so?”

The servant shook his head and took a handkerchief out of his b****t pocket to wipe his monocle.

“I’ll give you one piece of advice. It will be helpful if you take it to heart.”

Caitlyn flinched. Clear sympathy was felt in his gaze as he looked at her.

“The Archduke is someone who has never been refused until now. So, if Miss Hardick refuses this invitation…… you will be the first person to refuse him.”

This wasn’t a threat. Caitlyn, who had been treated as a boor, a con artist, and a gloom-filled person even after speaking the truth, had an intuition. The servant was merely speaking the pure truth.

“Unless you want to leave an unforgettable first impression on His Grace the Archduke, it would be best to quietly accept the invitation.”