บท 8: Chapter 8: Watchman's Rules III
Seeing that her father no longer intends to rattle him out to know the details of his reason for traveling to their territory, Helene started to make her move.
"Sir Herbert, I didn't realize that you are actually so interesting. Your current demeanor is completely different from the rumors. I didn't think that you could actually be so charming."
Herbert merely smiled at her. After receiving his other set of memories, he no longer cared about acting like the Herbert that he knew. No matter if he was Albert or Herbert, the most important thing to him right now was to not get killed by the protagonist. Besides, acting with Herbert's character was exhausting and a hindrance to what he intended to do.
The moment that Helene saw Herbert smile, she instantly had the delusion that Herbert might have already fallen in love with her. Regardless, she still continued on with her strategy to become his wife. At this point in time, among the children of the current Duke Rozenblood, only she and her younger brother had been unable to awaken during their awakening ceremony when they reached five years old. She knew that Herbert still had an Awakening Crystal on him, if she could become engaged with him then she might even get her hands on the Awakening Crystal. She then purposefully blushed and from the outside, it appears that she had been thoroughly smitten by Herbert's charming smile.
"I think that the people who spread those rumors must have just been jealous of Sir Herbert's talent."
"I'm thankful that you think that."
As they continued chatting, Ingrid who was just silently observing from the side noticed how little Herbert was actually eating. She then thought to herself that he must just be a light eater.
Once everyone had finished eating, Herbert was soon invited by the duke to stay for the night. As much as he did not want to do so, he had noticed Ingrid's stare at him from earlier. He had almost forgotten the main villainess who would appear as the last boss which will be defeated to serve as the climax of the whole story.
Ingrid the Blood Queen. That was the moniker that she had been given in the original story of the book. She was someone who had regressed after suffering terribly in her previous timeline. He originally did not want to associate himself with her, but knowing that she might already have regressed at this point, he understands that his actions must appear bizarre to her as this did not happen before she had regressed.
In the original story, Ingrid was someone that was extremely gifted and unique. If he had not made any changes to the current timeline then she would soon awaken through the use of an Awakening Crystal and become a supreme existence with two characteristics awakened from both her father's and mother's bloodline. Among all awakened individuals, the chances of it happening were extremely unlikely, and having it happen to her was a miracle that would change her life. Unfortunately, she went down the wrong path and ended up turning to people with bad intentions which heavily influenced her.
After the two of them made eye contact, Ingrid soon changed her line of sight toward the table in front of her. On the table was a beautiful pair of hands that stopped moving. Involuntarily, Herbert followed her line of sight and saw something that made him frown but he quickly hid it and no longer glanced in her direction.
Ingrid soon noticed his odd behavior and thought to herself that her conjecture must have been right. She had intentionally been trying to discreetly guide Herbert's gaze toward her left hand where an unassuming bracelet laced with red gemstones lay for him to see. One gaze was enough to trigger a reaction from him, by doing such actions she had shown him her initiative. She had now passed the ball back to Herbert.
After their dinner, Herbert momentarily left after excusing himself. The duke offered him a room to stay the night which he accepted gracefully. The room had everything that he needed, it even had a bath that was prepared for him by the servants. As he entered the room, he removed a glove from his left hand and placed two fingers inside his mouth to force a gag reflex. After puking everything that he had eaten for the night, he finally felt relieved and gazed at his reflection in the mirror. The man that was reflected in the mirror had his brows creased and had an unpleasant expression.
Due to the novel not being specific with the dates of the events, he had not foreseen that he would meet with the last boss this early. Due to her late appearance in the novel, he mostly disregarded her existence as she wasn't that important to the main story yet.
"To think that she would have already regressed at this point… It's a big miscalculation on my part."
After calming himself, he then used his right hand to take a handkerchief from his breast pocket to wipe the corner of his mouth before throwing it away and grabbing another from his pocket to wipe his left hand. Once he had finished, he then switched to another pair of clean gloves and went outside his room.
To his surprise, on his way out he happened to see Helene who was about to knock on the door. He had originally planned to meet Ingrid but since currently knows only a little about her, he decided to gather some information first to find out what type of person she is before her descent to madness. So, after closing the door he greeted Helene with a warm smile and decided to use Helene as a tool to his advantage.
"What brings you here, lady Helene?"
"My lord, I wanted to ask you if you would care to join me in taking a short walk at the garden behind the mansion."
With her typical lady-like appearance, she moved her left hand for Herbert to take. Inwardly, Herbert felt annoyed with her behavior since he had just replaced his gloves and would soon be replacing them again. Taking her hand, Herbert decided to walk with her to the garden which was brightly lit by a few lamp posts that were evenly spaced from one another. As he continued to walk with her, they finally reached a space where they could converse with each other in peace.
After Herbert asked her a couple of questions, Helene seemed to have noticed Herbert's interest in Ingrid. How could she allow him to be charmed by Ingrid? As such, she began to spout one-sided comments about her cousin to prevent Herbert from having a good impression of her. With her consistently trying to put down her cousin, Herbert took notice and mentally cursed at her for her unnecessary antics. Soon enough, he found it unbearable and counterproductive so he made a random excuse about being tired before heading back to his room to Helene's dismay. The moment that the two of them had parted, Helene frowned and thought of what she should do next to take advantage of Herbert's temporary stay for the night.
As he was walking past the corridor to enter his room, he felt doubtful as he saw that the door had remained open. Based on his memories, he had closed it moments before he had left together with Helene. Walking cautiously, he slowly approached the door and although he had somewhat expected it, he was still pleasantly surprised to find Ingrid sitting on a chair in front of the table that had light snacks and a pot of tea.
Herbert smirked as he thought of how hasty Ingrid had been. This was a blatant show of weakness as she had approached him once again despite having thrown the initiative over to him. Herbert then thought to himself, she must be feeling anxious since I approached her sister instead of her.
The moment that he had entered the room, he did not let his guard down and swiftly glanced over the place to see if Ingrid had done anything to tamper with it. With a cold glance, he then moved forward and eventually reached the place where Ingrid sat. As he took a seat for himself, he then looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
Seeing his gaze, Ingrid felt a chill crawl up her spine, it was as if she was nothing but prey in front of a stalking predator. After calming herself down, she guessed that perhaps this was Herbert's true nature. After all, there wouldn't be smoke if there wasn't any fire. The bad rumors that had spread about Herbert should probably be true in some way or another and his reputation for being a cold and unfriendly person should have originated from his current demeanor.
"You don't look surprised?"
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