Was she expected to believe that?

She felt that even if she met this man in the duke’s manor, he would say, “Yes, we look the same and have the same name and live in the same place. I get that a lot.” On top of that, there were the thousand rieds he had tossed at her, and the fact that he was a sorcerer. However she looked at it, this man was obviously Grand Duke Christopher. His manner of speaking certainly wasn’t aristocratic, but sorcerers were known to be odd characters.

Why was the grand duke interested in her house? Catherine wondered if she should start addressing him formally, but one look at his handsome yet smug face made her forget that thought in an instant.

“Why did you change your mind?” he asked. He hadn’t touched the money lying on the table.

“I only said I would think about it. I never said I would leave,” she replied.

“Miss Panya, you can tell what a person is thinking simply by looking into their eyes.”

His eyes, as blue as the sea, stared into hers. Catherine felt as though he was peering straight into her mind, which made her uneasy. It honestly didn’t matter whether this man was a grand duke or not. There was a bigger problem at hand. This man was one of them. His eyes may be a clear, vivid blue now, but Catherine had clearly seen them become violet when he used magic.

Just the thought sent a shiver through her. She sat in the farthest seat from him.

“Why do you bring up my eyes?” she asked. “Well, you can try looking all you want.”

Sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed, Chezare slowly blinked. “Do you remember our conversation a few days ago? Back then, you looked like you were afraid of something.”

“Did I?”

Did Chezare know that he was the source of her fear?

“But you don’t look scared now,” he continued. “I don’t know what happened in the past five days, but I do know that you really don’t plan to leave. I don’t suppose you developed some life goal that you refuse to give up on in that time?”

Catherine watched him without speaking. She wasn’t looking at his eyes, but rather his nose and cheeks. It was very—no, extremely difficult for Catherine to face this man. She hadn’t realized it before, but she could feel it now.

Chezare was unlike anyone she had met before. This was only natural, as he was a grand duke. Though he was lying about his identity, he wasn’t putting on an act or pretending to know things he didn’t. She couldn’t immediately tell what kind of person he was, and this made her uneasy.

“Since you’ve figured that out, you should leave now and refrain from visiting my house again,” she said. “How many times do I have to repeat myself?”

Chezare closed his eyes and smiled his familiar, soulless smile. “You seem to have forgotten who saved your house from destruction a few days ago,” he said.

Catherine glared at him. That was hardly a good reason for his intrusions. “You seem to have forgotten who saved you from freezing to death last night,” she shot back.

The man closed his mouth, his smile disappearing as quickly as if he’d taken off a mask. As elegant and finely chiseled as his face was, he looked like a completely different person. Yet oddly, he looked more natural and less frightening that way. Catherine realized that this could be Chezare’s real face.

“See here,” he began.

Catherine glared at him, daring him to speak.

Chezare looked conflicted. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but another look at Catherine seemed to change his mind. He finally let out a sigh and said, “Never mind.”

“Never mind? Well, I mind. I went out in the pouring rain and caught a cold because of you.” Catherine had never actually been sick a day in her life. She had inherited her hardiness from her mother. “Aren’t you going to thank me?”

After saying this, she immediately felt like she was whining for his gratitude. Why did she constantly feel so immature around this man?

Chezare scratched the back of his neck with his long fingers. “You don’t look sick to me,” he said.

He knew she was lying.

“Well, if you want me to repay you, I suppose I could. You did show me great kindness.” He rose to his feet with the elegance of a noble. “All right. Then I’ll stay with you until you recover from your cold,” he said. He crossed over to the hearth and resumed the cooking that was waiting there.

Wait.

He knows how to cook? Catherine gaped at his back. Beneath his shirt, not too thick and not too thin, perfect for the autumn season, she could see his muscles moving. She couldn’t help but notice his firm forearms visible from his rolled-up sleeves. His strong body stood in contrast with his long, pale hands.

She hadn’t realized when he was sitting down, but Chezare was actually quite tall. Because of this, Catherine couldn’t see what he was cooking. She couldn’t believe that this man, who was a sorcerer and one of them, was standing in her kitchen and cooking for her.

He’s not going to kill me, is he? She began to grow nervous. What if he was brewing up poison? Or perhaps he wanted to force her to eat something so vile it would make her ill.

Chezare did seem to know what he was doing, but she simply couldn’t see a grand duke being a good cook. Did he really have a secret twin? But no matter how hard Catherine thought about it, he had to be Grand Duke Christopher. She thought her head would explode.

“Oh my!” Rose had returned because of the noise, and she quickly rushed up to Chezare. However, he merely smiled kindly and asked her to sit and wait.

“It’s all right, Rose. Come here,” Catherine said.

Rose breathed a sigh of relief, though she seemed unnerved by the idea of letting a guest cook. Not long after, Catherine and Rose found a decent meal laid out on the table consisting of a fragrant shrimp stew with sides of vegetables, bacon, and bread.

“My word!” Rose gasped. “I thought you were an aristocrat at first, but you’re quite the cook.”

It seemed she had already fallen for him. Well, maybe she hadn’t truly fallen for him yet, but she was on her way down.

“What does cooking have to do with taking care of me?” Catherine asked Chezare.

Sitting across from her, Chezare simply smirked. “It has everything to do with it,” he replied. “Good health starts with eating well. Go on, eat up.”

Chezare started on the bread, and thus, their strange lunch began. The food was actually rather decent. In fact, it was so good that Catherine questioned whether he had really cooked it himself. What kind of grand duke was not only comfortable in a kitchen but even a good cook? Catherine decided that he was simply an oddball, and coming to this conclusion put her a little more at ease.

After the meal, Rose sprung to her feet, insisted on doing the dishes, and chased Catherine and Chezare out of the kitchen.

“This way,” Chezare called to her, walking through the rooms with familiarity. Feeling a bit odd, Catherine followed him into the drawing room. It almost felt as though this was his home and Catherine was the one visiting.

He motioned for her to sit on the sofa.

“Now that you’ve eaten, you should sit quietly and read or something of the sort,” he instructed her.

A book and blanket seemed to appear in his hands from nowhere. He set these down next to her. With another flick of his hand, the fireplace began to blaze. Though she was surprised at the sight, Catherine still began to spread out the blanket. The man had always appeared and disappeared as he wished, so he would likely leave again once bored. With this hope, Catherine obeyed and sat quietly to read.

Time ticked by as the rain poured outside. The sky had steadily grown darker and the rain steadily heavier. Now the occasional flash of lightning illuminated the room. Feeling her eyes growing fatigued, Catherine closed her book and stretched out. It was strangely quiet, and she began to wonder if Chezare had left, when she heard the sound of chessmen being moved.

Where did he get that from? She hadn’t seen a single chess set in this old house of antiques. Yet Chezare was playing with an exquisite and polished set that gleamed atop an expensive-looking wooden table.

“Do you know how to play?” he asked, his eyes never leaving the board. Catherine looked away from his disheveled silver hair and shook her head. It was silly of her, but she felt Chezare could see her moving even without looking at her.

She said, “You should go.”

Chezare silently moved the pieces.

“I never asked you to take care of me,” she continued. “I’m fine, so you should go.”

What in the world did this man want? Catherine never would have expected that she would one day be looked after by a home invader. Besides, he didn’t seem like the type of person to fall for her lie about being sick, yet he had pretended to believe her and went along with it.

“Are you going to kick me out in this stormy weather?”

Just as he spoke, an ear-splitting peal of thunder crashed down around them. A flash of lightning lit his serious face, as he studied the chessboard.

“You’re not too hard to look after,” he continued. “I’ll leave when the rain lets up, so don’t worry too much.”

“Fine,” Catherine said after a long pause. “I’ll give you a room to stay in tonight.”

If he hated rain so much, why had he been outside last night? It was definitely odd. Catherine couldn’t understand him at all.

***

Firewood crackled pleasantly in the fireplace. Catherine opened her eyes at the peaceful sound to find herself still in the warm and comfortable drawing room.

When did I fall asleep? The clock showed it was the middle of the night.

Catherine could remember the three of them eating lunch together, but after that, her memory grew dim. She must have fallen asleep while reading. Chezare wasn’t in the room, and his chessboard was gone too.

“He really does come and go as he pleases.”

After steadying herself against the sofa for a moment, Catherine put out the fire and left the drawing room. She slowly made her way up the stairs, which were lit only intermittently by lamps. As soon as she left the warm drawing room, the chill set into her while she traversed the long hallway. There, she saw Chezare leaning against a window with the curtains drawn back.

He noticed Catherine and raised a finger to his lips. His expression was difficult to describe, but Catherine felt as though she was seeing an entirely different person. Blinking awkwardly, Catherine followed his gaze outside the window and started in surprise. Someone had intruded on her land, two large men in raincoats, to be exact. She could make out the silver glint of armor under their cloaks and the large, unconcealed swords they wore at their sides.

“Who are they?” Catherine wondered aloud.

She had always had very good eyesight, so if she focused hard, she could make out the shape of their armor. Judging by how impressive it appeared, she recognized it as the imperial knights’ armor. Catherine looked at Chezare in confusion. Leaning against the window with a calm expression, he said, “Didn’t I tell you? Only danger will come to you in this house.”

The men were approaching the manor. Catherine had no idea how they had gotten through the locked gate, but they boldly strode onto the trespassed grounds.

Chezare asked her quietly, “Do you still have no intention of leaving?”