Deflower Me If You Can Chapter 22

“No matter how important his friends are, this is too much. It’s vacation, what kind of commitment could he possibly have made? That insufferable brat. As if I don’t know they’re all just excuses.”

She even wondered if her own discipline had been wrong, but he was already too big to spank and scold, so she could only feel frustrated.

Look at that, he’s completely deflated.

The Duchess patted his soft cheek, pretending to brush away cookie crumbs from the corner of Bliss’s mouth. After filling her heart with ulterior motives, she gave a contented smile and spoke.

“Then how about playing with me today? I happened to be bored too.”

“With you, Duchess?”

At the unexpected suggestion, Bliss took his mouth off the cookie and looked at her. As his large, round eyes turned toward her, the Duchess felt the corners of her mouth naturally soften and nodded.

“Yes. Hmm, we can talk like this, take a walk in the garden…”

As she spoke, she glanced at the child’s reaction. Sure enough, Bliss’s face was full of boredom. The Duchess quickly asked a question.

“Th-then, what do you want to do, Bliss?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

The Duchess nodded thoughtfully.

“Let’s do what you want to do. What would be fun?”

At the Duchess’s question, Bliss blinked his eyes, seeming to think for a moment, then suddenly looked at her with a brightened face.

“Duchess, can I watch a drama?”

“A drama?”

The Duchess merely stared at the child in bewilderment. Bliss, seizing the opportunity, persuaded her even more eagerly.

“There’s a drama I’ve been watching. If you watch it with me, Duchess, I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it. I guarantee it! I mean it.”

Seeing the child chatter enthusiastically, the Duchess’s lips naturally curved into a smile. She nodded with a smile.

“Alright, let’s do that. Shall we move to another spot then? To the room with the TV.”

“Yes!”

Bliss jumped down from his chair excitedly and walked alongside the Duchess, hopping and skipping. She looked down at the child and asked with a still-smiling face.

“So, what’s the name of that drama?”

At that, Bliss beamed and answered.

“It’s ‘The Seductive Wife is the Queen of Revenge’!”

“…What?”

Taken aback by the utterly incomprehensible title, the Duchess asked back. Having expected at most a drama about children and their friendships, families, or trivial adventures, it was only natural that she couldn’t easily accept it.

Completely unaware of the Duchess’s feelings, Bliss continued chattering on.

“I’ve watched that drama more than ten times! But it’s still fun. You’ll get hooked too, Duchess. I mean it.”

“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it.”

Even though she had absolutely no idea what to expect, the Duchess played along with the child’s words. She had a strangely bad feeling about it, but she ignored it.

∞ ∞ ∞

—You son of a bitch. I’ll boil your bones, eat them, stew them, and grind them to dust. I will never forgive you. You XX, XXXXX, XXX, XXXX…!

“Oh my!”

On the large screen, an actress was screaming with rage. Startled by the vicious curses she had never heard or seen in her life, the Duchess covered her mouth with one hand.

“Good heavens, how can she use such harsh language. Oh, Lord, forgive me. Lord.”

As the Duchess hastily clasped her hands together and prayed, Bliss beside her provided a serious explanation of the situation.

“That woman’s husband seduced her and married her. Then he had an affair with her friend. So they’re trying to kill the protagonist. Because she won’t give him a divorce.”

“Oh my, good heavens. What wicked deeds.”

As the Duchess placed a hand on her chest and exclaimed in astonishment, Bliss immediately continued his explanation.

“So that’s why that woman is pretending to be dead and vowing to get revenge. Now she’s going to pay back her husband and her friend.”

“I see. Yes, that’s right, she should.”

The Duchess nodded repeatedly, fixing her eyes on the screen and asking.

“So what happens then? Does the revenge succeed? How does she take revenge?”

“No, I can’t tell you that. It wouldn’t be fun if I did.”

To the child who neatly refused to spoil the plot, the Duchess clung to him regretfully.

“Bliss, don’t be like that. Couldn’t you tell me just one thing? I’m so curious about what’s going to happen next. Hmm? Please.”

At the Duchess’s repeated pleas, Bliss’s heart quickly softened. In fact, he’d been itching to spill out everything he knew about the drama’s plot for a while now. After thinking “Hmm,” Bliss soon brightened his eyes and unlocked his lips.

“She puts a mole under her nose to pretend to be someone else. And then she goes to find her husband.”

However, the Duchess didn’t immediately believe the advanced information Bliss had given her.

“A mole under her nose? Wait, everyone is fooled by just that?”

Surprised yet immediately casting a suspicious look, the Duchess was met with Bliss’s anxious reply.

“Oh, come on, that’s why I’m telling you to watch it. You’ll understand once you see it.”

“Alright, alright. I understand. Let’s keep watching.”

The Duchess, who laughed and waved one hand in defeat, soon immersed herself in the drama alongside Bliss. In the end, the two of them sat side by side on the sofa for hours, even having their meals there, watching the lengthy drama.

∞ ∞ ∞

When the tall man pushed open the club door, the people at the entrance instinctively turned their heads and went wide-eyed. Some took pictures, some stared blankly, but the man merely scanned the room casually, looking for a familiar face.

“Cassian, over here!”

Amidst the loud, throbbing music, a man called out to him cheerfully and waved his arm. The man standing at the entrance, who had been looking around, soon located the source of the sound and relaxed his furrowed brow.

“Jeffrey.”

Calling his name simply and walking over to him, gazes poured in from every direction he passed. As if such things were commonplace, showing absolutely no interest in the attention, Cassian reached the bar. After ordering a beer, Jeffrey, who had been watching him, spoke.

“So, how’s it going? Is your splendid escapade going well?”

“Hah.”

Instead of answering, Cassian let out a sigh first. That was only natural, as he had so much to say that he didn’t even know where or how to begin.

“What’s wrong? Your reaction seems a bit off.”

Jeffrey asked curiously. He’d thought, it’s only been a few days, how much could have really happened? But unexpectedly, his friend’s expression made it seem like a lot had indeed transpired. Drinking straight from the bottle, he set the beer, now half-empty, down on the bar counter and spoke.

“It’s a mess.”

“Looks like things are going according to plan then.”

As Jeffrey said with a laugh, a woman happened to stand beside Cassian at that moment. Whether he was pretending not to notice her furtive glances or truly didn’t, he remained indifferent as he replied.

“This isn’t the kind of mess I wanted.”

The contact from his friend had been a most welcome opportunity for escape. Without a second thought, he’d left the castle and come straight to the club Jeffrey had mentioned. And there he would get drunk and have a wild, messy time. Yes, that was the kind of mess he had wanted.

“Come on, tell me what happened. The atmosphere seems kind of serious.”

Jeffrey kept pressing, but this wasn’t the place to go into lengthy explanations. This was a place to drink, get thoroughly wasted, and fool around with anyone. And above all, spilling the fact that he’d run off in a hurry for a vacation only to end up looking after a kid was bound to get him laughed at. So Cassian casually deflected the conversation.

“About that camp I mentioned before, are you still thinking of coming? If so, I can fit you in.”

“Oh, what? Wasn’t I obviously going too?”

As Jeffrey spoke with a frown, a woman who had been hovering near Cassian was approached by another woman who appeared to be her companion. Two of them, nice. While Jeffrey was thinking that, Cassian answered.