I Seducing the Black-Hearted Duke Wasn't Me - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3
‘Still dazzling to look at.’
I swallowed hard and studied him carefully.
Golden hair that shone like sunlight itself, aquamarine eyes so clear I hesitated to meet his gaze.
Pale, flawless skin, a sharp, refined nose, and lips curving gently upward.
If an angel from the Temple’s frescoes ever descended into the real world, surely it would look exactly like this—minus the wings.
The snow-white uniform he wore only added to the effect.
But wait.
‘Why is he smiling at me like that? So brightly?’
Anyone watching would think he’d finally found someone he’d been desperately waiting for.
And…
‘Didn’t he just call me Erna?’
The way one calls out the name of a beloved.
“I apologize for making you wait.”
“Not at all. I shouldn’t have arrived without warning.”
My unease deepened.
I managed an awkward smile and took the seat across from him.
His sudden appearance had left my mind reeling, but on the other hand, I thought it might work in my favor.
‘All right then. Since I’m already here, let’s see where this goes.’
“It’s been four years, hasn’t it? I don’t think we’ve seen each other since you graduated from the Academy. You’ve been well, I trust?”
A safe opening, at least.
I began by emphasizing that I was seeing him for the first time in four years, then watched carefully for his reaction.
If the man I’d met that night truly was the Grand Duke, I’d know from whatever he said next.
I was waiting for his answer, my strategy all mapped out.
“Well…”
Hmm? What was that odd response?
The Grand Duke smiled mysteriously at my words, then answered vaguely.
As I sat there puzzled,
“By the way, Erna.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“You’re not calling me ‘senior’ anymore?”
“I’m sorry?”
“We agreed that you would, didn’t we?”
“Did I?”
What on earth was he talking about?
Though we were both Academy alumni, we didn’t have the kind of relationship where hierarchy mattered much between us.
We’d barely crossed paths, and I’d had no reason to address him at all.
‘It’s as if we were once close enough to use familiar terms with each other.’
“Ah, yes. Senior. It’s been a while since we last met.”
But I didn’t linger on the thought.
Honestly, I had no memory of such an agreement, and that wasn’t what mattered right now.
What mattered urgently was confirming whether we’d ever shared a bed.
But how could I ask?
1. Did we happen to sleep together that night?
2. Did we happen to cross certain lines?
3. Did we happen to do something I’d regret?
I couldn’t voice any of them.
If it were true, that alone was a problem—but if it weren’t, the fallout afterward would be catastrophic.
‘If it really was him, he’d have said something about it by now.’
Something like—
“I wasn’t sure if your body had recovered. That night, you pushed yourself so hard. I’ve been worried about it ever since.”
Yes. Exactly like that.
Wait…
My eyes went wide.
Too shocked to speak, I could only blink, when the angelic man’s expression shifted into something faintly devilish and he leaned closer.
I trembled as I watched him approach.
‘No. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be.’
It couldn’t possibly be…right?
“I-I don’t understand what you mean, Your Highness.”
“Ah, so you’re going to deny it?”
“Ha ha. Dodging responsibility? Your Highness, I truly don’t understand what you mean by that…….”
I rolled my eyes with deliberate innocence, playing dumb as effectively as I could, and the Grand Duke who had been watching me in silence lowered his head with an expression of bitter disappointment.
“This is simply too much.”
His voice came out hollow, and for some reason it unsettled me.
When he lifted his head again, tears clung to his eyes like dewdrops caught on a single rose.
Then came the words.
“That night, you took my chastity, and now you pretend ignorance.”
A bombshell confession.
Good heavens.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open in shock, stammering uselessly.
It was already staggering that the “Leon Obsidian” written on that note was actually that Leon Obsidian, but the word that spilled from his lips—”chastity”—struck me even harder.
And worse still…….
‘And he’s saying I was the one who pinned him down?!’
I wanted to protest against this absurdity, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth.
A teardrop clinging to the Grand Duke’s eyebrow slid down his smooth cheek.
At that same instant, my heart dropped with a sickening thud.
His face bore the expression of someone robbed of something precious—aggrieved, wronged, indignant.
That single tear was proving everything: there was no escape from this impossible predicament.
‘Damn it……!’
“Surely you’re not trying to seal your lips after so carelessly robbing a Priest of her chastity—a Priest who has devoted everything to God, are you, Marquess?”
“…….”
“A body meant to serve only God, capable of receiving only God’s grace, has now been soiled and defiled with worldly matters, no longer able to uphold the Temple’s doctrine.”
“I… I’m not certain what it is you want from me…….”
I asked carefully, my eyes narrowed to slits.
At that, a gentle smile bloomed across the Grand Duke’s face once more.
As if he had been waiting for precisely those words.
“What else could it be? Naturally, Marquess, you must—”
Me, I must?
“Take responsibility for me.”
For him?
“You must do so, obviously.”
“……What, when you say responsibility…….”
“Marriage, of course.”
At his matter-of-fact reply to what should have been an impossible question, my mind went blank.
What followed was bewilderment.
‘Just what about me could this man possibly desire?’
This was a man known to remain unmoved even when beautiful noblewomen or ladies of rank approached him—a paragon of asceticism.
Yet the fact that he’d so readily accepted what he claimed was my advance struck me as deeply suspicious.
Fine, let’s say the idiot woman in my body had fallen for the Grand Duke at first sight.
There was the tiresome, clichéd stage called romance to contend with, so why she’d skipped it entirely and thrown herself into bed remained beyond me—but let’s say she’d wanted it that way.
‘And saying you want to sleep together means it just… happens? Like that?’
I glanced down at my own body, examining it briefly.
My frame was gaunt from months of obsessive work and haphazard meals. My silhouette offered precious little in the way of curves.
Even during my time at the Academy, I’d never received a single confession of love.
The only remotely appealing feature I possessed was perhaps my striking crimson hair?
And even that owed everything to Lora’s devoted care and maintenance; left to my own devices, it would quickly become dull, stiff, and hopelessly tangled.
In any case, no matter how I examined it, there was nothing remotely thrilling about me.
‘What’s going on? Could the Grand Duke have some peculiar inclination I’m unaware of?’
Otherwise…….
“Is it possible you’d drunk heavily that night?”
“According to Temple doctrine, all those who serve God are forbidden from drinking.”
“Then, could it be that I somehow learned a weakness of yours and used it to blackmail you into—”
“Do I appear to you the sort of man who would succumb to such a thing?”
“Then exactly how did…….”
In response to my dumbfounded question about how that impenetrable wall had possibly been breached by someone like me, he smiled softly.
“You knocked me down onto the bed, Marquess, and immediately climbed on top of me.”
I gasped.
“Before I could resist, you seized both my wrists and locked me in a kiss. As I struggled, you pressed down with your entire body, and I dared not move for fear of injuring you. Meanwhile, your hands swiftly stripped away my clothes. And then your other hand drifted lower, to…….”
“Stop, stop that! I’ve heard enough!”
Please. I understood perfectly well already!
I froze.
Good heavens. I was actually the one who made the first move on a stranger.
A proper lady would never do such a thing, but with him—with him it was different.
The flowery quality I’d sensed even in his letter, that nameless, foreign place he came from—with someone like that, it felt not only possible but inevitable.
So, that is to say, for now…….
“Please, give me time to think.”
In this state, any decision I made would only lead to regret.
When I asked for that—for time—he surprised me by nodding readily.
“Though I do need to collect what’s owed to me, don’t I?”
But of course, he wasn’t about to let the matter rest there.
What’s owed? I started to ask what he meant, but in a breath he’d closed the distance, seized my shoulders, and lowered his head.
Then his lips met mine, feather-light.
Before I could even register surprise, he caught my lower lip gently between his teeth. As the careful pressure coaxed my mouth open, warmth flooded in.
A kiss both brief and profound.
When he drew back, I could see his breath suspended between his parted lips like a thread of silk.
The Duke’s mouth curved upward in a smile, as though he’d just tasted something delicious.
It was the expression of a man entirely satisfied, as if everything had gone precisely according to plan.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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