Chapter 144

Secret Wishes, Hidden Desires (1)

“Edmond, I don’t play with dolls anymore. Even if you pay a premium and buy me a toy, I’ll put it in the corner and won’t look at it.”

“I don’t care. That’s what Milady wanted.”

“Is it okay if I just buy things I don’t need?”

“Just because you bought it, you’ve already done your part.”

Edmond grinned and kissed the back of her nose.

“Are you aware, Milady? Regardless of whether the purchase is useful or not, the satisfaction of ‘spending money’ itself is unexpectedly considerable.”

The act of buying things by paying money. The pleasure of shopping is what to buy and how to use it, but the joy of purchasing itself is considerable. It is true that you should refrain from buying and wasting a lot of things that you won’t even use if you taste the latter.

But that’s the story of a typical assumption. The Jaxen family had wealth accumulated to the extent that thrift would cause a social disturbance, and the Ezet was too frugal compared to other ladies of the time.

Ezet needs to get into the habit of wasting the other way around. Edmond judged that way.

“Ezet, do you need anything else?”

“Uh, there isn’t…”

“Oh, my God, I asked the wrong question. Tell me what you want. Is there anything else you wanted when you were a kid that you gave up?”

He’ll buy everything she says. It will relieve the sad memories of childhood when she gave up without even asking for what you wanted. It will keep her from beating herself up any longer.

Whether it’s status and property earned for it.

If Ezet says she wants to be queen and unite the continent, she can make her wish come true even by starting a war. Edmond now had that power.

“When I was thirteen years old, my house became difficult, so ice cream and jelly, which used to be snacks, turned into biscuits.”

“If it’s ice cream and jelly. Blueberries are in season now, so it tastes better with almonds. No, should I order the chef to make them by type? I’ll let you eat it every day.”

“Then I gain weight.”

“What if I gain weight? Don’t worry, even if you’re three times as heavy as you are now, I can hug you with one arm.”

“Really, I don’t want you to say anything…”

Ezet was embarrassed to give him a scolding and turned her head from Edmond after putting his hand away. But the man’s face, which was close enough to reach his breath, did not recede.

“Ezet, Jaxen is the wealthiest family on the continent at the same time as the most prestigious family in the Empire.”

“I know. I’ve heard that a couple of times already.”

“And I am the head of the Jaxen family and the only Grand Duke of this empire.”

“Isn’t it past the time to introduce yourself?”

“Please don’t make me an incompetent man who can’t do what you want.”

“……”

Ezet, who had been avoiding attention all along, turned her head and faced Edmond. Is it embarrassment, admiration, or aspiration in the amber eyes that appear between the blinking eyelashes?

Ezet, who blinked without a word, reached out and stroked Edmond’s cheek. He tilted his head slightly and kissed her palm.

Edmond could not read people’s minds but understood their psychology by looking at their facial expressions or behaviors. He could analyze the subject individually based on the information he had investigated beforehand.

But Ezet was not able to know.

To be exact, she couldn’t figure out what to do with him.

Glamorous jewelry is admired, fancy dress is enchanted. When she eats delicious food, she feels happy, and when she hears a beautiful opera, she feels thrilled. But that’s all; there’s no telling what Ezet really wants to do.

“Ezet, what do you really want?”

“Edmond, I don’t want to be so grand. I never wanted to.”

“Even the smallest things are fine. Is there anything you wanted to do, even the smallest thing?”

Even the slightest proviso is fine. Edmond’s red eyes glowed sharply to find out her genuine desire.

“Well, running in bed.”

“What?”

“And stepping on the rug in his shoes…”

Ezet began reciting every little action she had never done before. What she wanted to do was a joke that children often do.

Ezet is a demure character, but that doesn’t mean she was anything special. When she was a kid, she was a normal kid.

A joke of hanging from a curtain in a room, climbing on a roof and looking down, or cutting a steak using a fork, not a knife. She wanted to do things that her older sister, Erit, always did and was scolded by her grandmother for.

“If I tell you not to do it, you want to do more. I also wanted to do it like my sister.”

“But why didn’t you?”

“I saw my grandmother, who was left alone in the living room after scolding her, beating her chest and shedding tears.”

If Erit and Ezet lost their parents at an early age, the grandmother left the child before they did. The grandmother taught her two granddaughters strictly not to be blamed by others, but she was affectionate and warm-hearted. Otherwise, Erit wouldn’t have been in such a hurry every time she had an accident. Perhaps she can’t even imagine how hard it would have been to make sure that her two granddaughters didn’t say, “It’s because I grew up without parents.”

She couldn’t bear to upset her grandmother. So she held it in even if she wanted to play pranks. She acted like an adult. Then her grandmother was happy to hear that she is lucky to be a good girl.