The Substitute Bride is adored by the clumsy Margrave - Chapter 6

“I have brought Lady Farenheit.”

At the butler’s words, the man sitting at the large table in the back of the room stood up with a quick, light gesture.. The butler held the door open and gestured for Clarisse to enter. She stepped into the room without looking at him in order not to offend the Margrave.

She picked up the hem of her skirt with both hands, bent her waist and knees, and bowed her head deeply.

Marius also entered the room, and the butler closed the door softly behind him.

“A pleasure to meet you Margrave Gutenberg, I am Clarisse Farenheit.”

The sound of the Margrave’s footsteps echoed in the quiet room, and a pair of large black leather shoes came into view as Clarisse lowered her gaze to the floor.

“Raise your head, Clarisse.”

“…”

It was the first time she had seen a man of such wild beauty in front of her. His face was undoubtedly attractive, but it was overshadowed by his overwhelming masculinity. Above all, his broad physique indicates that he works out often.

‘How beautiful… with his golden eyes and silver hair …… I can see why they refer to him as a tiger or a wolf…’

Clarisse was fascinated by his beautiful eyes and short hair, as if under a spell. His eyes glowed with unwavering intelligence, and she knew instantly that he was definitely not some sort of cannibalistic Margrave.

Most of the aristocratic men Clarisse had met in the past had been fashionable, with a liking to poetry and the piano, neatly styled hair, and a taste for cravats and trendy clothes, so this was the first time she had met a man with such a unique style: overwhelming anyone who saw him.

The Margrave, on the other hand, had a somewhat blank look on his face. His eyebrows wrinkled faintly as he stared at Clarisse in silence.  When she noticed the wrinkles between his eyebrows, Clarisse realized.

‘I wonder if he’s disappointed because I’m not Matilda, but he did call me by my first name, right?’

Clarisse’s father told her that he had once sent a letter to the Margrave to acknowledge his approval of the engagement; he did not write “the jewel of Farenheit,” but only that he was sending his second daughter, Clarisse Farenheit, to be his fiancée.

Anyone who lived in the capital knew that Clarisse was not the “Jewel of Fahrenheit”. Therefore, she assumed that the Margrave had accepted the possibility that it was Clarisse.

However, suppose the Margrave had never greeted Matilda and passed by her at a ball and asked someone for her name. In that case, it is quite possible that he had been told that she was the ‘Jewel of Farenheit’ and not by her name.

..That’s how famous the nickname “Jewel of Farenheit” was. When Clarisse came to that conclusion, she suddenly turned pale.

At that moment, the Margrave reached out and gently held Clarisse’s thin arm.

“Are you alright? Your complexion is pale.”

His face still showed the same stern expression, but his gesture and voice were gentle.

‘He’s not angry at me, is he?’

He did not move once he had grabbed Clarisse’s arm, but instead kept staring at her violet eyes. At the same time, she also gazed at her own reflection in his golden eyes as if bewitched.

“..Buh-ha!”

Laughter echoed from the back of the room, and the Margrave released his grip on Clarisse’s arm.

“Jean, Clarisse must be tired after her long journey; maybe you should let her rest on the sofa?”

At the back of the room stood a young man with a face resembling Marius’s, but with a cocky smile that made him appear younger and a little more devious. Marius sighed in response to the young man’s blunt words.

“Sid, you are being rude. You really shouldn’t talk like that.”

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“Why? Why? The two of them just froze there like dolls, isn’t it unbearable to watch?”

Marius sighed.

“First of all, you shouldn’t call her by her name -”

And then he looked at Clarisse and continued, “Miss Clarisse, I apologize for the rudeness on his behalf. He is my cousin–“

“The third son of Viscount Hansen, Sid Hansen, Clarisse, at your service.”

Of the three men in the room, Clarisse thought of Sid as the most similar to the aristocratic men she had previously encountered. Marius was too kind and polite, and the Margrave was …. not much of a talker.

“Third son of Viscount Hansen, it is a pleasure to meet you as well.”

Sid waved his hand lightly.

“You can call me Sid, Clarisse. By the way, Jean and I are milk brothers. You really don’t have to be so nervous about him.”

“Do you want to sit down? Clarisse.”

Suddenly, a smooth baritone voice interrupted, and Clarisse shuddered involuntarily. She looked up to see the Margrave looking down at her from a close distance, his brow wrinkled once again.

She felt as if her mind would go blank, and she wouldn’t be able to think straight if she stared into those golden eyes, so she replied in a panic, forcing out the words.

“Um, excuse me, but I’ve been riding in the carriage all day, and I’m covered with dust… I’m worried that I might stain the sofa…”

“What the …, Jean, did you make Clarisse come here before she even had a chance to change her clothes?”

“Shut up, Sid,” Marius warned Sid.

Sid then took out a handkerchief from his pocket and laid it on the sofa.

“Now the sofa will be clean, okay?”

‘I wonder how it came to this…’

Clarisse sat down on the sofa, unable to refuse after having a handkerchief laid out for her; the Margrave sat next to her as a matter of course, Marius and Sid sat on the sofa across the table.

“Have you eaten dinner?”

The Margrave suddenly spoke up, and Clarisse hurriedly nodded.

“Yes, I had it before we arrived here.”

“That’s good then.”

The Margrave’s expression was still stern, but his voice was unexpectedly gentle. Clarisse concluded that this was probably a standard facial feature of his.

If you were to close your eyes and just listen to his voice, no one would think that the Margrave was wearing this sort of expression…

The Margrave’s entire demeanour towards Clarisse since her arrival had been one of concern and care.

“By the way, Clarisse, can you tell me about the ‘Farenheit Jewel’?”

When the Margrave asked her that, Clarisse turned pale once again.