Try Begging

He scolded himself as he erased the imagination that had flowed to the wrong place from his head.

He only wanted the body.

The next moment, he was reminded of a secret message the woman, whose body was with him but her heart was elsewhere, had left for his fiance a few days ago.

[ Jimmy, my heart is always with you. ]

It was unpleasant just to look back on the time he discovered it. Still, even now, having regained his reason, just thinking about that message made him feel miserable. Leon couldn’t have not known why.

It was because he wanted to have her heart.

However, he wasn’t so brainy that he wanted to bully her and came to like her. Her head wasn’t bad, but her heart must have been a mess.

Suddenly, her face, which had been preparing for death and holding the muzzle, flashed before his eyes.

He knew he was cheating. Even though he knew that he was risking her life to test her, the moment he put his index finger on the trigger, he couldn’t pull the trigger because of the overwhelming emotion.
He was afraid of that woman.

She was the daughter of the woman who killed his father. She was the target that he wanted to kill and take revenge on someday.

However…

He was afraid of that woman dying.

…Crazy idiot.

Leon blamed himself without hesitation. Even though he was always insensitive to anything other than seeing blood, he felt that all the emotions known in the world were coming to him at once.

She was not Daisy. She was not Sally Bristol.

He repeated the same words, wanting to brainwash himself.

Hatred… All he could feel for Grace Riddle was hatred.

The restaurant, the dinner location, was located on the upper floors of a skyscraper overlooking downtown Winsford. Leon, who arrived first, smoked a cigar at the window and looked down at the brilliantly lit theater district.

His head, unable to shake off the thought from a moment ago, was white like cigar smoke.

Hearing a polite knock on the door behind him, Leon approached the table with a brief reply. As soon as he put the cigar on the ashtray, the door opened, and he followed the waiter into the private room.

“Your Grace.”

It wasn’t until about an hour after he sat down to share a meal with Grand Duke Aldrich that the Grand Duke began to bring up a business that demanded a private meeting with him.

“Do you know that the bidding will start soon?”

The prediction that it would be an investment story about the Bria Diamond Mine seemed correct though it was only half right. The expectation that the purpose was to encourage him to invest again was wrong.

“Before the bidding, the competition was quite fierce. Thanks to Sinclair for stepping in.”

The Sinclairs were a prominent capitalist family.

As a family that practices the philosophy of fulfilling its responsibilities and obligations to society, as much as it had wealth, power, and reputation, it had earned the people’s respect. In addition, they were a commoner family that was in extreme poverty a few decades ago, so it instilled hope or fantasy that the common people could become wealthy.

“Sinclair wants to get to know people closely… There is no one more qualified for this job than Captain.”

It was to ask Leon to investigate the background of their rival family.

‘…To entrust a soldier with a job that should have been left to the Secret Service.’

Leon was offended by the attitude of treating him as a handyman.

“If Sinclair had stepped in, it would be more correct to say that the competition was not fierce, but that it was already tilted.”

The Grand Duke, who correctly read the euphemistic refusal, emptied the amber liquid in the crystal glass at once and lowered himself onto the table. The secret that had to be carefully conveyed even in a private room with only two people was actually pressure.

“The honored guest has started having stomach pains again.”

He couldn’t say no to that one word anymore. The actual client of this background investigation was the king.

“Actually, this isn’t the first time Sinclair has been an obstacle to our business.”

The king was pushed by a commoner family and was frantic to find weaknesses or dirty secrets… it was obvious what they were trying to find out.

‘A king is no different from a gangster.’

Corruption and tyranny were the causes, and it was impossible for the dynasty, which was expelled by the people and barely restored, to have absolute power. That was why he was trying to write some insidious tricks under the surface.

‘What is the purpose of entrusting the background investigation into a private businessman to the military, whose main task is to wipe out the rebels, instead of having the tax department or his closest aides do it?’

He continued to deal with the Grand Duke with a displeased heart.

Even after delivering all of his business, the Grand Duke did not leave the place and continued to drink. As Leon listened to the gossip of other noble families, he glanced at the watch on his wrist and saw that it was well past nine.

“I have a prior appointment at 10, so I think I should stand up around this time.”

He didn’t even try to make an excuse for what the prior appointment was, but as he folded the napkin on the table, the Grand Duke shook his hand, holding the cigar.

“No, no. Not yet. The desserts here are great, so try them before you go.”

While he had no intention of eating dessert, it wasn’t bad to quickly get it done and go if it was possible to leave the place.

Leon raised his dessert fork as soon as the waiter brought a plate of swan-shaped profiterole on a lake of chocolate. Just as he was cutting off the swan’s wings and putting them in his mouth, someone knocked on the door to the private room.

“Grand Duke, Captain. Were you satisfied with the meal?”

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It was the manager of the restaurant. Leon, who always passed the manager’s request for anything more necessary as a formal greeting, couldn’t resist the urge and did something he wouldn’t normally do.

The Grand Duke, who watched with interest as Leon ordered the profiterole to be packaged, burst into laughter as soon as the manager left.

“Ordering another one before finishing it. Did you like it that much?”

Leon only laughed as he scooped the dessert without any enthusiasm as if he was eating low-grade combat rations.

“It is very unexpected. The Captain didn’t seem to enjoy sweets.”

Then, he answered after wiping his mouth with a napkin after he finished off the dessert, which was just as annoying as the Grand Duke.

“Everyone has their own secret taste.”

The Grand Duke would never have known that the taste Leon was talking about actually meant women, not desserts.

“Then, I will wait for your call.”

The Grand Duke did not forget to remind him of the purpose of tonight’s dinner even as he got into the car. As soon as the Grand Duke’s car left, Leon climbed into his car as well. Placing a box of luxuriously packaged dessert as dog food in the seat next to him, he checked his watch and urged the driver.

“Go the fastest way.”

After leaving the driveway of the building and entering the main street, the car stopped shortly thereafter. Late at night, the theater was crowded with cars, carriages and passers-by.

“Was there a fight between the coachmen…”

The driver looked out the window and murmured. Leon glanced at the crowd passing in front of the theater with dry eyes and chewed on the King’s undesirable order.

‘You’re giving instructions to me…’

When he was agonizing over whether he would be imprinted as an incompetent person by the King or whether he should get involved in something that would leave a bad aftertaste, a man and a woman passing by the car side by side became familiar to him.

‘Jerome?’

And the woman who smiled at his brother…

‘…The Grand Lady?’

The two people who entered the theater with arms folded affectionately were clearly lovers.

‘How amazing.’

Staring at the entrance of the theater where his brother and his prospective fiance had disappeared, Leon opened the car door.

“Wait a minute.”

The two were not seen in the theater lobby.

As he bought a ticket and went into the theater for the movie that was about to start, there was the answer. Standing on the stairs leading down, the two people were conversing, pointing to various seats as they decided where to sit.

Leon, who was hiding behind a pillar at the entrance, blended in with the others as the two began to descend the stairs.

“Rosie can go in first.”

Rosie?

Leon laughed.

Had they already become close enough to call each other by nicknames?

He remembered it was about a fortnight ago. While having a meal with Jerome, who had been to the royal capital for the first time in a while, refused the wine the butler poured out and made a sudden declaration.

“I have decided not to drink alcohol from now on.”

“Really? That’s a good idea.”

While his mother was delighted, Leon quietly snorted.

The things he did and the things he said were like monks. Was he really trying to become a monk now?

However, it wasn’t until Jerome gave him a series of reasons that he didn’t actually ask that he realized that his brother wasn’t turning his back on the world. Rather, it was the outpouring of worldly desire.

“Alcohol interferes with people’s judgment. They say it makes you forget the pain in life, but it only seems to create more trouble. In particular, it is easy to lose self-control and become impersonal when socializing with people.”

It was no different from the speech given by the Grand Lady on a date.

‘Look at this….’

He noticed from then on that Jerome had his own brother’s wife-to-be in mind.

‘That old-fashioned bookworm does some pretty funny things. The reason he has no conscience is that he’s also a Winston.’

However, it was the first time he realized that the two sides had an unrequited love.

For the quiet and conservative Grand Lady to commit immoral acts… it was the biggest surprise of the year after Sally Bristol was Daisy and Grace Riddle.

Sitting in a corner seat and staring at the backs of the two, Leon pondered.