“Are you back, Count? How was your day today?”
At Penelope’s smiling face welcoming him as always, Cassian got out of the car and wordlessly rolled his eyes to check his surroundings. There was no one around. She was alone, as always.
Only after confirming that fact did Cassian give a short nod and readily move his steps. As expected, he thought with satisfaction. He had thought there was no way Penelope would go against his will. And just as he expected, ‘he’ had disappeared.
It did not matter whether he was really Penelope’s relative or not. The important thing was that he disappeared from his sight. And with that, it was all over.
His own footsteps echoing in the quiet castle sounded refreshing today of all days. It felt as if his briefly collapsed daily life had finally returned.
Even while climbing the stairs and walking down the long hallway, his thoughts remained unchanged. Yes, as expected. He ruminated on the words he had repeated countless times on his way back with a relieved feeling. There is no problem with me.
...There shouldn't be.
The moment he opened the door to his room and stepped inside, Cassian ended up stopping dead in his tracks. An unbelievable sight entered his completely frozen silver-gray eyes.
Right in the middle of the room, he was standing there. Unbelievably, looking exactly as he had in the morning.
No, it was different. Unlike his stiffly frozen appearance in the morning, he was smiling brightly and welcoming Cassian. On top of that.
“Welcome back, Count!”
...Now he's even speaking.
Cassian was so dumbfounded that he became speechless.
Standing with the door open, a few more seconds passed. Feeling his heart pounding recklessly, Bliss swallowed dryly, gulp.
As expected, Penelope was nowhere to be seen. Cassian's face, who had looked back as if belatedly realizing that fact, distorted.
Bliss was extremely tense, but this was already a planned event. Because the person who had set up this entire plan was exactly Penelope.
A few hours ago.
Penelope, who had finished her daily tasks early, called Bliss right into this room.
“I've thought about it all day, and as expected, this method would be the best.”
“What is it? What could it be?”
When he asked hurriedly with full expectation, Penelope narrowed her eyes and pretended to stealthily check her surroundings before lowering her voice and whispering. Even though there was no one else on this entire floor but the two of them anyway.
“Today, Bliss, you will attend to the Count at bedtime.”
“Pardon? Me?”
Startled out of his wits, Bliss raised his voice without realizing it, and Penelope hurriedly covered his mouth with her finger to motion for him to be quiet. Hurriedly doing as he was told, Bliss covered his lips with a “Shh,” and then lowered his voice to whisper urgently.
“Attending to him at bedtime, suddenly? Me?”
“Yes.”
Nodding her head, Penelope quickly continued speaking.
“It was something that was bound to happen anyway. Of course, it came much faster than I thought. But it can't be helped. Looking at the Count's reaction over the past two days, yesterday and today, it seems the 'attend to him and slowly get closer to the Count' plan has failed.”
“So?”
It was time for Plan B to come out. To Bliss, who was waiting with his ears perked up, she answered confidently.
“So, we are going with the 'attend to him and quickly get closer to the Count' plan.”
Bliss stared at her without saying a word for a moment. At Penelope's expression, still looking at him with a proud face, he had no choice but to give an awkward smile.
“Um, Penelope. Nothing has changed except for one word?”
At Bliss's point, Penelope wagged her index finger left and right as if telling him not to worry.
“That's obvious. Because the two of you getting closer is a predetermined conclusion.”
“But...”
“Now, Bliss. I've been watching the Count since he was at the ducal estate. Would I know him better, or would Bliss know him better?”
The answer to this question was obvious. Bliss answered helplessly.
“Of course it's Penelope, I think so too, but...”
“Now, then that's settled. Let's get ready starting now. Sounds good? Come over here. No wait, would here be good? Let's try standing here. As expected, over there would be better. Yes, good. Let's go with this spot...”
Penelope busily dragged Bliss around here and there. She changed his employee uniform into a new one, combed his hair nicely, and taught him every single line he had to say one by one.
“I newly ordered wine to put in the wine cellar today, and I placed the list on that table. You see it over there? That's it. If the Count asks for the list, you just have to give him those documents...”
And after all that effort, it led to this current situation. Bliss recalled this while sweating cold sweat down his back. Penelope's words are right. Isn't that why I came all the way here anyway? I can absolutely never succeed if I just run away!
Having thought that far, he mustered up his courage and forced a difficult smile.
“How was your day today? Um, excuse me, should I prepare the wine?”
Now that he said it, it was strange. What is it? It feels like I missed a whole lot of things.
'The wine is at the very end.'
“Ah!”
At the same time Penelope's words came to mind, he ended up letting out an exclamation without realizing it. Oh no, I skipped the entire middle part.
But he couldn't remember it anyway. What was important right now was the fact that he had made a colossal mistake in front of Cassian.
Is he going to yell like yesterday?
Bliss became fearful for a moment, but there was nowhere to run. It was because that large man was still blocking the door.
Since it's come to this, there's only one method left.
Bliss forced the corners of his mouth up and asked.
“You drink wine before bed, right? Then what would you like to do before that? A bath first?”
Cassian still did not speak. Bliss had absolutely no idea whether he was lost in thought or preparing to do something. He was just smiling so strenuously that his cheeks were twitching.
Suddenly, Cassian moved. He took large strides, walked over, and haphazardly tossed the coat he was wearing onto the bed; Bliss merely blinked as he watched the sight.
Oops.
It was then that he remembered Penelope's words about having to tidy up his clothes. As he hurriedly moved his body and picked up the coat Cassian had taken off, something was suddenly thrust out in front of him. Turning his head, he saw Cassian taking off the suit jacket he had worn and holding it out to Bliss.
Is he telling me to put it away?
He felt bad, but he silently accepted it and held it along with the coat. The last thing handed over was the tie. As he draped the thin, snake-like piece of cloth over the clothes he was already holding, Cassian unbuttoned a couple of buttons on his white shirt, turned his body, and headed to the bathroom. The moment he let out a sigh of relief, Phew.
“You.”
Opening the bathroom door and stopping, Cassian called out to Bliss out of nowhere.
“Y-yes?”
As Bliss shouted in surprise, becoming extremely tense again, Cassian stared at him for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Come in, you too.”
“...Pardon?”
For a moment, Bliss thought he had heard wrong. As he looked at him, still smiling to the point where his cheeks hurt, Cassian gave a cynical laugh and repeated the exact same words once more.
“I said come in, you too.”
And just like that, Cassian went inside the bathroom. The clothes dropped with a thud from the arms of Bliss, who had been standing there staring at him blankly.
What did he saaay?
Unable to believe the words he had just heard, he ended up letting out a silent scream. The bathroom? Why? How come? Me? To do what? He grabbed his cheeks with both hands and screamed again, but as expected, only a thin breathing sound lingered in his throat.
He wanted to check if the words he heard were real, but there was only one way to do that. To ask the person directly. But if he did that, the answer he would get back was obvious too. Just as he felt like he had fallen into a dilemma, Penelope's voice suddenly rang in his head.
'Do not miss this opportunity!'
Right, this is an opportunity. Bliss swallowed his dry saliva and nodded. He couldn't even guess what was about to happen, but still, he mustered up his courage and headed toward the bathroom. The door to the bathroom Cassian had gone into first was left slightly open.
Gulp. The sound of him swallowing dryly seemed to echo exceptionally loud. And finally, Bliss stepped into the bathroom.
