The Duke's Daughter's Third Life

Chapter 58

"Eli, you haven't been hanging out with us.." Darius muttered, a downward expression written across his face.

It was after breakfast when Darius grabbed Aeliana by the hand and brought her to his room. Aeliana stared at her brother before patting him on the back.

"I'm sorry brother, our guest has been...a handful."

Aeliana was not lying when she said their guest had been a handful. Every day for the past few days, Zeru had been sticking to her like sticky glutinous rice. When she had etiquette or magic class he would sit around, waiting for her until she was done before sticking to her side once again. Even when she tried to hide or run away, he would somehow manage to find her with a smug grin on his face.

Darius' expression didn't change and he played with her fingers, touching and pinching the skin around her fingertips.

"I don't like him. He keeps bothering you."

Aelieana shrugged, "Well he isn't bothering me—"

"You seem annoyed whenever he follows you."

'That's because I can't have my alone time, but I can't be mad at Zeru since it is nice to have someone your age regardless.'

She shook her head, "I'm not brother. Do you want to play card games? We can invite Brother Marius."

He nodded and smiled, "Yeah! Let's go get Marius to play with us."

***

The twins stared at Zeru with a displeased expression plastered on their faces. They were sitting in the gazebo in the garden and just as they were about to play a game, Zeru popped out of nowhere and sat next to Aeliana.

Oblivious to the stares he was receiving from the twins, he turned to Aeliana and asked her to teach him the game. Aeliana nodded and went with the flow, teaching him from A to Z about the card game.

Once he understood the whole game, the four of them began playing; however after three rounds, Marius began yelling in anger.

"This game sucks! Why on earth is he winning in every game!?" Marius yelled, pointing directly at Zeru who had a calm look on his face, clearly unfazed by the yelling.

"You cheated! I know you did!"

Zeru smiled and shook his head, "Lord Marius, I have never once cheated."

"Brother he's right. There's no sort of tinkering when we were playing." Aeliana defended.

She did have to admit, that Zeru was really good at the game despite it being his first time but there was no sign of cheating. Marius puffed his cheeks and sat back down, glaring at him intensely.

Zeru simply ignored it and turned to Aeliana, his eyes shining brightly.

"Aeliana, let's play another round."

"You shouldn't be calling her so informally," Darius commented bluntly.

Zeru turned to Aeliana and smiled, "But we're friends right?"

"You're friends with him!?" the twins exclaimed.

"..."

Aeliana prayed the week was soon to be over.

***

Aeliana was sitting outside the balcony, drinking a cup of tea that Flora had prepared for her and flipping through her book that Madam D' Aramitz had requested her to read for her class. Across her was Zeru who was flipping through a book he had brought from the Tower. It was the last day Zeru was staying at the duchy before he had to return back to the Tower.