The Male Lead’s Fake Sister - Chapter 31

She could give many excuses at this moment.

The mansion was as quiet as a ballroom with lights off. The servants were already asleep.

Duke Leontine was not in the mansion either. Because recently he was very busy preparing for his patrol duty and often did not return home.

Today was one of those days.

It was an impulse born from the silence that enveloped the mansion.

Maybe because the coat earlier was too warm. Maybe because Herod’s betrayal hurt more than she had thought.

It could be because she was overly happy that Tidwell’s interest had moved to Leticia.

However, despite all that, there was something that couldn’t be explained with any excuses.

This was not like her.

No, it was completely different from her usual self.

Maybe Tidwell also noticed it, so he looked at her with a lukewarm smile. His unusually chilled eyes were proof of his doubt.

“…Is there a reason why you suddenly asked me to go to your room?”

“Maybe because I woke up earlier, but I don’t think I can sleep again.”

Ravia did not lose her composure at all. Her sly gaze rested insensitively on Tidwell.

“So I need to talk to someone.”

“Are you planning to make me go through my day sleepily tomorrow?”

“If you start dozing off, I’ll ring a bell for you.”

“You’re like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Sister.”

“I know. So are you going to refuse?”

“I’ll decide after listening to your reason.”

Tidwell slowly climbed the stairs. As he got closer, Ravia had to look up to see his face.

“Is there a reason why you need me, Sister?”

“You are the reason I cannot sleep.”

Ravia reached out and grabbed Tidwell’s clothes.

He didn’t shake off her hand. Rather, he climbed one step nearer. As they got closer, Ravia had to look up more to see him.

As if considering Ravia’s situation, Tidwell bowed his head to match her gaze.

His eyelids were half-lowered to look down at Ravia. But with him right in front of her nose, Ravia could tell.

The blue eyes had regarded her with suspicion until a while ago, but at one point, his gaze turned into a blue flame that took her breath away.

When their shadows overlapped, the man apparently took the bait.

“I want to hear it in detail. Please tell me more, Sister.”

A suffocating woman who pretended to be indifferent answered.

“You woke me up, didn’t you?”

Completely careless answer.

Tidwell smirked, hearing her whispered question.

“How can it be my fault that the carriage is shaking?”

“…It wasn’t because of the carriage.”

“Then?”

“Your clothes.”

I wouldn’t have this impulse if you hadn’t covered me with your coat.

The words that she wanted to spit out stuck in her throat.

“…I woke up because it smelled like you. Was it a magnolia?”

“That’s right. Are you sensitive to that?”

“Maybe, I just found out about that today.”

“Then you’ll think of me when the magnolia blooms.”

She was curious about the meaning behind his answer, but when she raised her head, she found a smiling Tidwell.
His intimidating figure was gone, replaced by a young man who seemed delighted upon seeing a cherry blossom at night.

“I’m happy.”

He smiled like a young man of his age. That smile was not unfamiliar to Ravia.

In fact, she was scared to look at it too closely.

*** 

When the bird chirping signalled that the morning had come, Ravia, whose head was half-buried in the pillow, raised her body.

She looked indifferently upon the young man who was sleeping in his formal attire next to her.

‘You barely fell asleep.’

His hair was usually swept up neatly, making him look more mature than his age, but now his disheveled silver hair flowed down, covering his forehead.

‘You usually look very mature.’

At times like this, it was somewhat fascinating to see he actually looked younger than she was, so Ravia contemplated his face for a while.

Because it was rare for her to see a peaceful Tidwell like this.

It was just a while ago that Tidwell fell asleep.

After the conversation on the stairs, Tidwell happily followed Ravia to her room as if he came to the conclusion that his suspicion was false.

No, perhaps he already decided to go right away when Ravia invited him to her room.

‘Otherwise, he wouldn’t have questioned me like that.’

He wouldn’t ask so persistently if he wanted to refuse in the first place.

In fact, Ravia had never seen Tidwell refuse her request.

Just like that, the two came into the room and talked about trivial things.

Talking about the wish you make in a sky lantern, talking about the cooking skill of the current head cook, talking about tea and what is his preference.

Ravia deliberately tried to steer the conversation so it would go toward the story of Tidwell’s family.

As one of Ravia’s best talents was leading conversation toward a subject she wanted, she began to exercise that skill by talking about books.

The topic of the book slowly drifted into fairy tales, then fairy tales would be associated with childhood memories, and in that memory, there was usually a figure who read that fairy tale for him.

“My mother often read a fairy tale to me about our founding fathers. People with special abilities defeated the dragon and built a country above its corpse. But even the young me found that story to be ridiculous.”

“Even if it was ridiculous, I heard it’ll be strangely convincing if your mother reads it. Is that the case for you?”

“I think that’s what happened. How was it for you, Sister?”

“Didn’t you know? My mother passed away early.”

And when the desired topic about ‘family’ came out naturally, she had to tell her story first to draw a response from her opponent.

“I heard my mother couldn’t withstand the pain. She wasn’t that weak at first, but her health declined when she had me, so I’ve only seen my mother’s face from portraits…but you also know, portraits are quite different from real ones. It aroused a lot of doubt within me, and I often found myself asking, ‘Does my mother look a lot like me?’”

The more tragic the story was, the better. That made it easier to garner sympathy.

The conversation must be teased to some extent so the opponent would try to match the flow. When someone brings out a tragedy, the other person has no choice but to bring out a tragedy as well.

However, there was a case where you couldn’t pull out a tragic story from your opponent that easily.

Ravia cleverly crafted her words so Tidwell had no choice but to bring up his story.

“Since I don’t look similar to my father, I must look like my mother, right? I’m so jealous of you. Your Leontine blood is not as thick as mine, but you resemble my father so much.”

“I do resemble my biological father a lot. I didn’t think I resembled Duke Leontine that much.”

“Really? I always thought you resembled my father. So you resemble your biological father a lot? Is he a good person?”

“Maybe. I don’t have many memories of him. He was such a busy person.”

“You don’t have many memories of him?”

“…He passed away, too.”

“Oh my.”

Ravia pretended to not know about it. Her face was painted with both sadness and surprise.

“I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Sister, too….it must have been hard for you to talk about your mother.”

“I’m fine. Unlike you, I don’t remember anything. But I’m glad I got to hear you talking about your family.”

The purpose of this conversation was not to extract Tidwell’s past, which she already knew, but to get him to lower his guard.

When someone who never disclosed their personal story to strangers starts talking about his past, that’s when the latch on his mind becomes the loosest.

It was the reason why Ravia invited him to her room.

If it was to quench her impulse, Ravia wouldn’t have chosen her room.

Ravia grabbed Tidwell’s clothes even after her impulse had subsided.

Just as her impulse was born due to the silence inside the mansion, she expected the dawn and her room would drive him to his impulse as well.

There will be times when the exhaustion and the dawn make him want to close his eyes. And when each word exchanged between them slowly pulled him into relaxation.

“Ah.”

Without missing the moment, Ravia purposely dropped the teacup.

A teacup rolled on the carpet with a dull sound, and the liquid cascaded down Ravia’s dress.

The cold tea water penetrated the fabric and touched her bare skin. A chilly sensation brushed past her nape.

Tidwell’s eyes opened wide in surprise as the dusky dawn light colored Ravia’s face.