Looking for a Husband to Confine Me - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
I forced myself to regain my composure and leaned back further. The pillar of the railing touched my heels, forcing me to tilt back only my upper body.
“Damian…?”
“Dangerous.”
“H-huh!”
Damian moved the hand that had been resting on the railing and wrapped it around my waist. We were practically pressed together. He must have been worried about me tilting back.
It seemed increasingly difficult to make the situation seem natural.
“I-I’m sorry. I was startled because your hand suddenly came close,” I said, forcing a strained smile.
“No, it was me who suddenly reached out.”
“Thank you for catching me. Let’s just move apart for now.”
“…Huh?”
Damian raised his left eyebrow as if he found something strange. Why was he doing this again? I was nervous at the slightest reaction from him.
Could he have possibly not heard me? My voice had been soft because I had been mumbling.
“Damian, we can move apart now….”
“Necklace.”
“What?”
Damian seemed to have not been listening to me from the start. Why did he keep focusing on the necklace…
“Did your necklace fall off?”
“….”
“….”
I realized because of his words. The fact that there was nothing around my neck.
It couldn’t have… fallen off when I bumped into Damian and our bodies intertwined! It wasn’t a necklace, it was a very thin snake, Slinky!
‘Slinky, no, no, no, no, no!’
I screamed Slinky’s name in my mind.
This little guy, shouldn’t it at least disappear after calming the situation down!
It probably moved down from my neck because it was afraid of being discovered. I hadn’t noticed Slinky’s presence because I had been focused on Damian.
Damian seemed like he would help me look for the suddenly disappeared necklace. It would be difficult to escape the balcony.
“Necklace?”
I tilted my head feigning innocence.
“Yeah, the one with the strange patterns you were wearing a while ago….”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t wearing a necklace today.”
“Hmm?”
“Maybe you saw wrong?”
I finished with a bright smile.
Damian stared at my face. I didn’t care about his questioning gaze and maintained my brazen smile. This kind of situation was won by the more brazen person.
“…Was I? Maybe I saw wrong.”
Surprisingly, Damian readily accepted it. He must be out of his mind because of the alcohol. It was a relief.
‘…Huh?’
Then, I realized that Damian didn’t smell like alcohol.
‘He was acting like he had been drinking heavily.’
Instead of the smell of alcohol, I felt a heavy, thick fragrance.
If he hadn’t been drinking, then he had been completely sober all this time? That was even harder to believe.
“Why? Do I smell?”
Oops, I must have been sniffing Damian’s shoulder unconsciously. I quickly shook my head.
“No. I, I think you smell good.”
It wasn’t a lie.
The scent coming from his body was dense, but it had a refreshing feel, and I quite liked it.
“Really?”
A smile appeared on Damian’s lips at my words.
He had dimples. I thought as I saw a slight dent in the center of his cheek. He looked quite normal, no, he looked pretty good.
“Then you can smell me more freely.”
As expected, I had to be careful about every word I said to this man. I had suddenly come to my senses.
This guy is just weird.
In any case, I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. I was about to tell him to move aside, but a part of the ballroom came into view beside Damian.
Haroon Kisha, laughing heartily, and Bashar Kisha, standing silently beside him. Bashar’s indifferent eyes were not focused on anyone. And someone approached the two princes with a glass of wine.
“H-huh!”
“Amelia?”
I gasped and reached out my arm. I pulled Damian tightly into my arms and straightened my upper body that had been tilting back. I had to stand on my tiptoes to properly see the ballroom. Because of that, I was practically clinging to Damian, but I couldn’t care less at the moment.
“Ah, never mind.”
Thankfully, the drink in the glass was something else. Moreover, Bashar shook his head and refused the drink. Moste Diqur, which Haroon loved, was the only wine Bashar drank.
“Ugh! What are you doing?”
I was about to break free, but then I realized that Damian was holding me tightly in return. I was startled and instinctively pushed his chest lightly.
“Didn’t you want a hug?”
He looked surprised and moved back with his arms still open as if he was hugging me. This time it was my fault. I had suddenly hugged him because I had been looking at the ballroom.
“I’m sorry. It’s not like that.”
“Or was there something behind me?”
Damian turned his head towards where my gaze had been fixed. Before he became interested in the Kishan princes, a couple caught my eye.
“Actually!”
“…?”
“I came here today to meet my fiancé.”
“Fiancé?”
I nodded and continued.
“You probably know this, Grand Duke Hector Asid. He’s my fiancé.”
“I see.”
He must have not known. Judging from the look he gave me, I wondered why I had come to the ball just to talk to my fiancé.
“He’s going to be my ‘ex’ fiancé now. He asked for annulment. So I wanted to talk to him before that.”
I glanced at the couple. Damian turned his head to check. Unlike before, I didn’t stop him.
His black eyes landed on the pair of lovers, Hector and Vivian.
“I ran away from there because I was surprised to see him with another woman. But a moment ago, I saw them hugging, and I don’t know…”
“So you hugged me instead.”
What a strange way to put it.
I gritted my teeth and forced a smile, making it as tragic and sorrowful as possible. After explaining myself in such detail, I wished he would just leave.
“Anyway, I’m sorry for the sudden outburst.”
I also tried to send out Slinky while I was separated from him. But before Slinky could move, Damian grabbed my wrist and started walking.
“Damian?”
“You were going to talk. They’re here now, so you should.”
“But, but…”
“It’s fine. I’ll be here with you.”
No, I don’t need that!
I felt a little tap on my ankle. Slinky, who had made his way down to my ankle, was sending a signal.
Had it contacted another one of its kind on the balcony just now? This signal meant that someone had approached the wine in the back room and knocked someone unconscious.
‘At least the culprit is knocked out.’
Yes, that’s good. The culprit wouldn’t be able to give the wine to Bashar. Bashar wouldn’t drink it and be poisoned, no, he wouldn’t.
‘Then what’s that?’
Even as I was being dragged away by Damian, I watched Haroon’s servant approaching the two princes. The servant was carrying Moste Diqur, the wine Haroon loved.
Could the culprit be the servant?
To be precise, it would be Haroon’s servant and an accomplice from the palace. If the servant delivered the prepared wine to the princes while the accomplice took the wine from the back room, they could deceive everyone by making it seem like the Empire was at fault for not being able to discern the poison.
If I were alone, I could have used Slinky to stop the servant. But now that I was walking with Damian, I didn’t have a chance to touch Slinky’s fangs.
‘Damn it, what do I do?’
The servant poured the wine into a glass and offered it to Bashar first. It seemed like he was being considerate of Prince Bashar, who hadn’t taken a single sip yet, but in reality, it was a plan to poison him for sure.
My heart raced as I saw the wine glass in Bashar’s hand. Before he drank it.
“…Amelia?”
We stopped near the Kishan princes. Damian looked back in confusion.
He had been following me obediently, so he was confused about why I had suddenly stopped.
I stared at the man’s hand, with its knobby knuckles, gripping my wrist. Then, I grabbed his wrist.
“…?”
Aware of Damian’s gaze, filled with even more confusion, I gritted my teeth and pulled his hand. Fortunately, Damian followed me slowly, as I wished.
‘Sorry, Damian.’
I confirmed my target, pushed Damian’s chest, and tripped him. I slightly turned my head to avoid seeing his genuinely surprised eyes.
Crash!
The sound of someone falling and colliding, the sound of a glass breaking and the wine inside spilling onto the floor, and a short groan, all could be heard.
At the same time, I felt the banquet hall fall silent. Even the musicians who were playing instruments stopped, seemingly observing the situation. The gazes of other nobles would also be directed here.
I subtly turned my head. Damian had fallen backward, bumping into Bashar and collapsing onto the floor. His clothes were soaked with wine.
“Wh, what’s this! Pr, Prince Bashar, are you alright!”
The first to regain their senses was Haroon’s servant, who had handed over the wine glass. As soon as I heard his voice, I approached Damian.
“Sir Damian! Are you drunk?”
I deliberately called out his name in a louder voice. Damian looked at me with bewildered eyes, his face full of audacity.
His eyes seemed to ask, ‘What are you thinking?’
I saw the servant, whose face had turned pale and then flushed red, biting his lip. He seemed to be concerned about Bashar Kisha’s well-being, but in reality, he must have been anxious about his failed plan.
“What are you doing!”
The servant soon shouted at Damian and me.
I had prevented Bashar Kisha from drinking the poisoned wine, but unfortunately, the wine bottle was still in the servant’s hand.
“I’m sorry. I lost my grip on Sir Damian…”
I pretended to be flustered, crumpling the wet hem of Damian’s clothes in my hand, as if I were bewildered by the sudden incident.
