I Seducing the Black-Hearted Duke Wasn't Me - Chapter 4

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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 4
‘What on earth is happening?’
I stared up at him in a daze.
Too startled to do anything but blink, I found myself meeting his clear eyes, which gazed down at me with a gentle smile.
Those eyes held a purity that seemed almost excessive—utterly unlike the messy entanglement of moments before.
“Wait, please. Your Highness.”
Managing to collect myself, I thrust my hand toward him.
The man’s brow furrowed slightly.
I wondered if it sounded as though I were blaming him.
“Senior.”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you agree to call me senior?”
“Oh, yes. Senior.”
I nodded quickly, and only then did his expression soften.
“I’m truly sorry, but I’m so flustered right now…….”
“You said you needed time to think.”
“Yes, yes.”
“It would be wise to think quickly. Unfortunately for you, while I was once patient, that’s about to change.”
With those words, the Grand Duke extended his hand and traced my lips—which he had tormented moments before—with his thumb.
That trivial gesture left my lips burning as if on fire.
“Though I suppose you couldn’t escape even if I didn’t hurry you along.”
…….
“Then, I’ll see you again soon.”
He smiled with an indescribable brilliance, then brushed past me and left.
His figure receding from the reception room—each step precise yet graceful—was a picture of absolute perfection.
Under normal circumstances, seeing a guest out would be the proper courtesy of a host, but—
My legs had gone limp, and I simply collapsed onto the sofa.
My body draped across the cushions like a wrung-out cloth, my mind drifting further and further away.
……What is this?
What in the world just happened?
‘Why does everything have to go so wrong!’
“Marquis? What’s wrong? Why did the Grand Duke come? Tell me?”
Lora came rushing in, her face etched with alarm.
What was I doing there, what did the Grand Duke say, and so on and so forth.
Barely clinging to my senses amid the torrent of questions, I grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Lora.”
“Yes, Marquis?”
Sensing something grave in my tone, Lora’s eyes grew tense.
I stared at her in silence for a moment, then spoke as I drew a sharp breath.
“Pack immediately.”
“What?”
“We’re heading to the estate right now. As fast as possible. Move!”
“W-wait, Marquis. Why are we suddenly going to the estate……!”
Why? Because it’s dangerous to stay here, that’s why!
‘This won’t do.’
I’d need to hole up in the estate for a while.
* * *
The next morning.
I woke and stared blankly at the ceiling of my bedroom.
Blink. I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them something might have changed, but everything remained the same.
Damn it.
“So it wasn’t a dream.”
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead and sat up.
Perhaps because I hadn’t slept properly last night, a headache came crashing down.
The reason for my sleeplessness was painfully simple.
“What kind of lunatic touches the Grand Duke, of all people—and his celibacy, no less? Have you lost your mind?”
Urgh!
Unable to scream aloud, I buried my face in the pillow and thrashed my legs wildly.
Not that it solved anything.
“And the Grand Duke—he’s a faithful servant of the Holy Priest, devoted only to the divine!”
What a liar!
Her fury spread quickly, now engulfing the Marquis himself.
Yes, the seducer bore responsibility—but didn’t the seduced party share in the guilt?
Especially if he was a man with a documented history of succumbing to the advances of countless women.
He should have refused. He should have resisted. Whether it hurt or not, he should have come to his senses and knocked some into his own head!
“But instead, he swept aside every shred of normalcy and just… accepted it? So much for celibacy!”
At this point, Park Su-min found herself genuinely wondering how exactly she’d managed to seduce him.
What fatal blow had she struck to topple even a man sworn to abstinence?
And what had been his reaction to it?
‘All I remember is one kiss, and that’s it….’
The thought hit her like a thunderbolt, clarity flooding back—and suddenly she understood why she’d tossed and turned all night.
She reached up absently to her lips, running her fingertips across them.
They still burned. The sensation lingered—even that trembling, that moment when he’d held her pinned and kissed her breathless.
‘But really… what kind of priest kisses like that?’
And so brazenly, no less.
The instant his lips touched hers, her mind had whited out and her heart had thundered like it would tear free.
Soft at first, then deepening—the kiss had been impossibly sweet, suffocating, dizzying.
As if he were pressing into her with no space, no mercy.
His hands gripping her shoulders had burned with heat, his breath at her ear had made her pulse race.
And those deep, fathomless eyes meeting hers.
For just a moment, she’d understood why people became so blindly devoted to him.
‘Wait—what am I thinking right now?!’
“Ahhhhh!”
Flap, flap.
She hurled herself back onto the mattress and thrashed about wildly.
Her face was burning so hot she was afraid something terrible would happen if she didn’t move.
“Okay, okay. I can’t afford to think about this right now.”
After a furious bout of kicking blankets aside, she finally rolled out of bed.
“And I certainly can’t actually accept responsibility for this.”
Marriage to Leon Obsidian? The very notion made her shake her head instinctively.
Never mind how awkward the image was—he was someone far beyond her control.
‘Let’s just hold on. Something will work itself out eventually.’
At least there was one saving grace: he was a priest.
If this ever came to light, it would be tantamount to publicly exposing his disqualification as a holy man.
Even he wouldn’t dare spread such information himself.
“No matter how powerful the Marquis Bernstein may be, what could he possibly do? It would only end up spitting in his own face.”
That’s why he’d come to her in secret.
Why he’d demanded she take responsibility. Why he’d mentioned marriage.
Perhaps it was a prelude to demanding compensation for something so grave.
Thinking of it that way made her feel better.
Though that final warning—”You can’t run away from this”—still gnawed at her a little.
And the fact that the “advance payment” he’d taken had been a kiss bothered her too.
Panic had made proper reasoning impossible, so she’d resolved to think everything in the most advantageous light.
“Eventually, it’ll all fall apart anyway. So I’ll just buy time and negotiate something mutually satisfactory later….”
That was when it happened.
“Your Lordship!!!”
Bang-bang-bang!
The door burst open alongside the thunderous knocking, and Lora burst in, her face ashen.
“What on earth? It’s barely morning—what’s all this commotion about?”
“B-big news!”
“Big news?”
Lora, who’d come running in a fluster, thrust the newspaper she was holding straight at her.
It was the Empire’s most influential daily gazette.
“Your Lordship!”
Before she could even assess what was happening, Valen—the Marquis’s butler—came sprinting down, his mustache quivering.
“I-I believe you need to see this right away. The entire system is turned on its head, there’s absolute chaos… Oh? Lora?”
Both of them froze momentarily, then caught sight of the newspapers in each other’s hands, exchanging a peculiar glance.
As if saying: ‘You too?’, ‘Yeah. You too?’

‘What on earth is this?’
I unfolded the newspaper with hurried fingers.
The moment I saw the article dominating the front page, I went completely rigid.
“This… this is… what in the world is this?!”
My hands trembled as I gripped the newspaper. I felt the blood draining from my head.
And the reason was painfully clear — this absurd article.
[EXCLUSIVE] “Holy Knight Sworn to Chastity” — Grand Duke of Bernstein Stripped of Honor!
[BOMBSHELL] The Fall of God’s Apostle, Beloved by All Orden. The Fatal Temptress Who Destroyed His Reputation!
[BREAKING] So the Grand Duke Was Only Human After All! Who Is the Woman Who Stole Him from God?!
Just reading the headlines made the world spin.

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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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