Breaking Up Was the Plan, the Duke Falling For the Villainess Was Not! Vol.1 by Kotoko

Author:Kotoko [Kotoko]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cross Infinite World
Published: 2025-12-31T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5: Lie and Truth

THREE months had passed since Zane and I began our little arrangement. By now, we were well into the timeline covered by Holy Maiden, Fated Knight. Though it was a completely different kind of relationship that had evolved in the novel, our relationship was, in fact…relationshipping.

Still, things could be better. Charlotte’s grand entrance was less than nine months away. Nine months to raise Zane’s affection as high as possible.

So, to that end, here I was on this day, with Zane once more, seated across from him at a shop famed for its divine sweets, on another one of our clockwork dates. Every ten days, without fail, he carved time out of what I could only imagine was an impossibly packed schedule just for me.

I took a bite of the apple tart before me. “Mmm! This is delicious. So delicious!”

“I’m glad,” Zane said with a small nod.

“Yes! It really is so, so delicious!” I went on.

“I can see that,” he replied evenly.

Yes, yes, you don’t have to tell me. My sense of vocabulary had abandoned me. But what could I do? The dessert in front of me was so good that it knocked the last functioning brain cell right out of my head. Zane, of course, gentleman that he is, didn’t comment. Just nodded and smiled, pleasant as ever.

Oh, he was so kind. Almost too kind. As much as it warmed me to be treated this way, I sometimes wondered if he wasn’t forcing himself.

“Um, My Lord Duke,” I began cautiously. “You know I’m happy to meet you like this every time, but you don’t have to keep squeezing me into your schedule.”

“I do not squeeze you into my schedule, Grace. I sweep it clear for you.”

“O-Oh, is that so?”

Indeed, Zane had started saying very sugary things to me more and more often over the past three months. His fake-lover game was improving at an alarming rate.

This was a problem. I was supposed to be the one making him fall for me. At this rate, if I wasn’t careful, I’d be the one falling. The only thing keeping me from tripping headfirst was the small matter of my life-or-death mission.

I mean, this was the Zane we were talking about. Handsome, beautiful, powerful, honorable, kind… There was no woman alive who could be treated in a special way by this perfect specimen and not feel some type of way.

“But I hear you’ve been quite busy yourself lately,” Zane said, drawing me from my thoughts.

“I suppose so.” I tilted my head, adopting a thoughtful pose. “Between Evan teaching me magic, my own projects, and studying for what lies ahead, I’ve had my hands full.”

“What lies ahead?” His brow lifted.

“Yes. My plans, my future. The life I want to live, and all that comes with it.”

That life, of course, was my cafeteria. In the time since, I’d secured a spot right in the heart of Myriel before the land prices spiked, and I’d been swept up in preparations ever since.

Fortunately,

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