I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend – Chapter 209 – Side Story 9 – Friends or Lovers

Author: Nikss

But, conscious of the attention, he quickly managed his expression and walked forward.

Rudrick stood in front of the stairs.

I shook my head. He climbed back up the steps and stood in front of the podium.

Shaking my head, I gestured to my side.

“…?”

Only after he was finally beside me did I look back at him. Rudrick now looked more than bewildered, he looked uneasy.

Smiling softly, I took a step toward him.

Before he could take a step back, I quickly grabbed him by the tie and pulled him forward.

At the same moment, Rudrick’s lips met mine.

Then.

“Shhh…!”

A small scream broke through the breathless silence.

Turning to the crowd, which had completely frozen along with Rudrick, I declared.

“With Duke Bouser, I announce my engagement to Rudrick Bouser!”

News of my engagement to Rudrick spread quickly throughout the Empire.

By sea, all by intent, of course.

Rumors of Bouser and Averine’s in-laws had been circulating lately, and proposals had begun to pour in from both houses.

‘One last poke before they get married. Or maybe for a mistress.’

In truth, I wouldn’t have minded if it was just a marriage proposal, but it was the deliberate approach of the men who began to approach me.

It’s a bonus when they try to arrange a meeting by citing the family’s business dealings with the Duke.

That’s why I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind.

Duke Bouser and Princess Averine eventually agreed to marry.

The love was so intense that they even kissed in public!

‘It won’t solve everything, but at least they’ll see the light.’

People’s reactions to my bombshell were mixed.

While many people congratulated me because it was a natural fit, others were concerned that the two families would be united…

“No!”

And of course, there was plenty of opposition.

“Bouser needs a Duchess now. We can’t have His Grace running the family’s affairs forever!”

The most vocal opposition came from Bouser’s vassals.

As soon as the news spread, they traveled to the capital, somehow knowing about it, to question Rudrick.

Although Rudrick didn’t even pretend to hear them, I was shocked to see it from the sides.

‘I was too complacent.’

My family had thought that my union with Rudrick would be welcomed, if not opposed, as it would further enhance our standing in the Empire, especially since we had a good relationship with the magic supply contract.

But in retrospect, they were right.

The only reason there’s not much opposition in Averine now has to do with the fact that I’m still the heir, and my parents have made amends.

But Bouser was different. Rudrick was the de facto head of Bouser, and he needed a wife.

Even if I took over now, I couldn’t stay in charge forever, not even if I succeeded Avery in the future.

As I was wrapping my head around it.

“Well, I’m here.”

An unexpected voice offered a helping hand.

“The Duchess.”

The former Duchess of Bouser.

At the time, Rudrick and I were sitting in the Bouser residence, brainstorming and trying to come up with a plan.

We were arguing, of course, he insisted on ignoring it, as if he had no choice, and I argued that we should find a way to compromise.

While we were still discussing this, we were suddenly informed that the Duchess of Bouser was on her way to the mansion.

As we rushed to greet her, she immediately brought up the subject in front of us.

“Oho, I heard you two are getting engaged, and soon you’ll be married, so how long are you going to call me Duchess?”

“Madam, but…”

The Duchess spoke lightly, as if joking, but I couldn’t help but laugh at her words.

‘I heard you were quite emotionally distraught…’

She had seemed fine when she was reunited with Rudrick, but the truth was, her mind had been racked beyond imagination.

The Duchess didn’t stop taking sleeping pills for a long time afterward.

She was often awakened in the middle of the night by nightmares, and she was so afraid of being alone that she always had a maid at her side.

Sometimes she even hyperventilated when she was alone in a room.

Even though she’s much better now, the effects are still there.

Perhaps she would have to live with it for the rest of her life.

‘But what if the Duchess takes over as hostess…’

That would mean going back to the source of the nightmare.

“It’s okay.”

I raised my head.

“The truth is… I thought I’d never make it to the North. It was once a place I loved, but now I hate it so much…”

The Duchess laughed softly.

“But then again, I don’t see why I should be the only one hiding. Everyone else from that day is gone, dead…”

“…”

“This is the North for you to shape.”

“Duchess…”

“I’ll tell you if it’s hard. But won’t you leave me to it this time? I don’t want to run away anymore, and…”

The Duchess paused for a moment, then looked at Rudrick. At the same time, she smiled sadly.

“I would like to be of some help to you, too, for once.”

“…”

“Because I was a terrible mother…”

There was a small tremor in the Duchess’s clasped hands.

They stared at each other for some time. I don’t know what they were thinking. I only know that it was not long before Rudrick reached out and took her hand.

He spoke only briefly.

“Thank you, Mother.”

The Duchess smiled wordlessly.

💫

A few days later, Rudrick and I were enjoying dinner with our parents in Duke Avery’s dining room.

My mother’s congratulatory remarks at the banquet made me think.

‘Well, my dear, I congratulate you, but you could have at least told me…not here…but later, the four of us will have dinner, because I think we have a lot to talk about.’

When I heard this, I admit to feeling a little daunted.

After not seeing each other for almost half a year, I wondered whether I had just announced the engagement out of the blue.

‘…Should I have told my parents?’

I regretted it in hindsight, but the water had already been spilled.

After making my excuses and preparing myself, I headed home with Rudrick, but despite my reservations, the dinner went well.

“So, how have you been?”

My parents’ reaction was surprisingly mild.

On the contrary, they were happy to see us and asked us what we had been up to.

As I answered my parents’ questions, I relaxed a bit. Chef Averine’s specialty dishes were delicious, the desserts were excellent, and we moved to the sitting room for tea…

“Dahlia, are you pregnant?”

“Huh.”

Barely able to contain myself, I almost spit out my tea. But the question came from the other side.

“Co, cough—”

“Oh, my gosh, Rudrick. Are you okay? You should have sipped it slower. Here, wipe it with this… So, a boy or a girl?”

“Honey, we don’t know that yet, it’s early in the process, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’m sure it is, looking at your belly.”

Rudrick looked back at me with shocked disbelief. Oh, come on, you can’t look at me like that!

“No, no! We’re not there yet… haha, anyway, I’m not pregnant!”

“Oh yeah, I see, well, I guess that means we’re not…”

My mother smiled softly.

“I thought you got pregnant and announced your engagement in haste. Without telling us?”

Suddenly, I saw a glimmer of life behind her.

Only then did I realize why my parents had been so gentle with me? They weren’t gentle. They were saving up for this very moment!

But I knew I had done wrong, so I meekly apologized. If only Rudrick hadn’t intervened.

“I apologize. Duke, Duchess.”

What, what?

My eyes widened. My parents did, too. Rudrick bowed gravely, whether he meant to or not.

“I missed Dahlia and asked her to come north immediately, so that’s what happened. Next time, I’ll be sure to come visit you together.”

“Ah…”

My parents looked at each other and exchanged glances.

In the awkward silence, I broke out in a cold sweat. Usually, after this silence, my parents’ playfulness would kick in.

“I see, we miss our little girl so much…”

My Mom’s, to be exact.

“Yeah, I see, we didn’t know you two were so hot…”

“Mm-hmm, well, in good times.”

“Of course, it’s the best of times. My goodness, it seems like it was just yesterday when you two were little kids, and now you’re both so anxious to see each other…”

“They’ll grow up, you have to understand.”

By now, Mother was grinning from ear to ear, and Father, despite his best efforts to stop it, was slowly turning up the corners of his mouth.

Suddenly, Rudrick realized something was wrong, and his face turned pale.

Seeing the two of them slowly getting into it, I opened my mouth in surprise.

“Haha… I don’t think I can keep it to just you two, you’re still hot as it is.”

“Yeah, but now that we’re older, we used to stay in our room all day… Are you guys the same?”

“What?”

“Honey?”

The corners of my father’s mouth turned down in an instant.

“Well, honey, I don’t think we should talk about that… do you?”

“Why? The kids are all grown up now.”

In my mother’s clear eyes, I suddenly saw madness. I looked at my father resentfully. Why didn’t you join in and stop her?

“Oh, right.”

Whether my father was avoiding my eyes or not, my mother smiled broadly and clapped her hands.

“Now that I think about it, I should get you an engagement gift. I’ve been trying to figure out what to get you… but since things are so hot, I think this would be perfect.”

“What? What is it?”

“A whip.”

“What?”

“We’ve done this before when we were really in the heat of things. It was all the rage back then that it was supposed to spice things up between couples, so I bought one.”

“What?”

“But now that I’m using it, your dad says he can’t hit me, so he’d rather hit himself.”

“Oh…”

For a moment, I glanced to the side. Rudrick’s face was contemplative.

“No, honey, sweetie.”

“So I did, but it wasn’t to his liking. Your father got a few, and he cried that it hurt.”

“Oh… he cried…”

“Honey, oh, look!”

“Why, sweetie?”

My mother blinked, her face innocent. Then she saw the pleading look in his eyes and covered her mouth in surprise.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Adelio, you were so cute when you were sobbing, I had to stop…”

“No, it’s okay, please, I’m fine…!”