Chapter 21

Chapter 21

“Stop nagging!”

[ T/N: The author used the word, ‘두말하면’ which is an expression meaning something said earlier is so certain that there is no need to say it again. ]

The Duke still looked dissatisfied but nodded as if he understood. As he snapped his fingers, something like black smoke rose from beneath his feet.

‘Is that the devil that bound me last time…?’

As the day dawned, I wondered if I could see the devil better than the last time, though to my eyes, it was nothing more than just a whitish smoke.

The smoke hovered near Coco’s shackles, then sucked into the shackles. The shackles finely vibrated into small pieces–Tiing! It made a clear sound before falling into three pieces.

“Oh, this is cool! How long has it been since I’ve had freedom?”

Coco rejoiced as it smashed its hind feet, scratching it. Then, it jumped off the sofa, and Coco’s body began to grow in an instant as he landed.

In the blink of an eye, in the place where Coco was standing was a boy with a smiley face who resembled the image of Eros, the God of love in Greek and Roman mythology. He was a pretty boy with curly wheat-colored hair, light blue eyes, and a playful and cheerful expression.

I think he looked around to be about sixteen years old, young and white.

That wasn’t it… Body…body… naked body—

“Are you insane?”

At the same time as the rough words came out of the elegant Duke of Blois, his large hands covered my eyes.

I tried to soothe myself with a smile.

‘All I saw was cat peanuts. Let’s not think otherwise… Cat Peanut, big Cat Peanut.’

It sounded like the Duke was yelling at Coco, though I couldn’t hear it well because I was too busy trying to erase the picture of the big cat peanut from my mind.

“Please close your eyes, Madam.”

“Of course.”

As I nodded obediently and sat quietly, I could feel something like the wind blowing from the Duke’s body.

‘Is it the devil from earlier?’

He ordered low.

“Shedim, grab it.”

The next moment, there was the noise of Coco running and screaming.

“Spare me! it’s been a while…! It’s been a while, so I didn’t know!”

Coco seemed to run away pretty well.

I shut my eyes and imagined the cat running around, playing catch. Of course, the Duke of Blois was by my side, so it was his demon that was running instead.

‘Cat runs fast…’

Eventually, the sound of Coco’s bare feet, who had probably run around the office three times naked, suddenly headed towards me. Then, I could feel the Duke stretching out his arms, trying to block him.

However, Coco avoided his hand and came closer to me.

“Thank you for your help, my angel.”

His fresh voice and warm breath seemed to land on the tip of my nose. His soft lips briefly touched my forehead before falling off quickly.

“See you later!”

When I opened my eyes, Coco, who had turned into a cat again, was jumping out the window.

“….!”

The Duke of Blois came up to me and rubbed my forehead with his hand as he murmured slowly. “How dare he put such an awful pheromone in my realm…”

I mustered up the courage to tell him, who was still muttering in anger.

“It hurts, Duke.”

“….!”

“And, it’s my forehead, not yours.”

It was then that he seemed to have realized that it was my forehead that he was rubbing, and he stepped back in surprise.

“Excuse me, Madam.”

He coughed and sat down gracefully on the sofa.

“….”

“….”

There was an awkward atmosphere for a moment.

“The Coco problem has been resolved. It’s an ending that we can all be satisfied with, isn’t it?”

“If you want me to be part of that ‘us,’ wash away that remark right now.”

I laughed awkwardly at his blunt reply.

“All right…”

To be honest, I was a little sad that Coco left so suddenly, although I was also happy that this happened for the sake of the Duke.

‘He said he doesn’t like cats. He hates it that much…’

Of course, it wasn’t obvious that he didn’t hate it from the beginning, but he said he would allow me to keep Coco so I thought it would be okay if we slowly improved their relationship.

‘I didn’t know Coco would be a jester like that.’

I wonder if that’s how the relationship improved. Regardless, it was already in the past. So, I decided to change the topic of conversation.

“Duke, there is one more thing I want to discuss while I’m here.”

Hearing my words, the Duke of Blois stood with his arms crossed and raised his head before answering.

“Tell me.”

“It’s about the personnel management of the employees I talked about last time.”

I brought up the topic that there were a lot of Mrs. Elbas’s people who still remained in the mansion right now.

And, looking at his reaction, it seemed that he knew it, too.

‘Did he not have enough money to deal with the personnel issues of the employees because he was in a hurry to protect his position from the elders…?’

Thankfully, he nodded eagerly when he said that I wanted to solve the problem.

“Could the wife take over the matter?”

“I think I can try.”

Since there was already a list that Coco wrote for me, I thought I could start by organizing it little by little.

As I was quite enthusiastic about this, the Duke stared at me, a little puzzled.

“I thought that you would be indifferent to this kind of thing because he said you’d stay quiet, but it is surprising.”

“It’s good to have privacy, isn’t it?”

Only then will I be able to comfortably prepare for my independence and our divorce.

Besides, in a contract marriage contemplating divorce, fighting with the mother-in-law is rather unnecessary and cumbersome.

Having been fully entrusted with the personnel rights of the employees from the Duke of Blois, I set out with Agwen.

First of all, the priority was to check whether the list Coco gave was correct. So, I spent the day carefully observing the maids who could be on my side from Coco’s list.

“Coco is right.”

It seemed that with that small body, he was running here and there, picking up people’s stories. I was glad that Coco’s research was pretty reliable.

“It would be a good idea to sort out a few people who will be on my side to make it look natural first, and then set a date before Mrs. Elbas notices and gets things done at once.”

Holding up my pen until late at night, I grunted to myself as I tried to devise a plan. However, suddenly, in the quiet room, there was a sound of something scratching.

“What?”

The sound was coming from outside the window.

I approached the window where the sound was coming from, put my hand on the window, and glanced out. Although it was quite dark outside and bright inside, so I couldn’t see out the window very well.

While looking for the source of the sound of doubling over with my forehead on the window, I found something and opened the window in amazement.

“Coco…?”

Apparently, Coco, who had said goodbye like a storm during the day and disappeared, was there.

Also…

“Are you hurt?”

Like the first time I saw him, he was severely injured.

It was a wound reminiscent of a déjà vu. As soon as I opened the window, Coco stumbled into the room and fell down in front of me.

“Angel, help me…”

Coco’s tiny body was completely in disarray.

“Coco—! Wake up, Coco! What’s going on?”

I hurriedly grabbed Coco and laid him on the bed, readying my powers. As my power seeped into Coco’s wounds, his fainting face gradually relaxed.

At that moment.

“Ah—”

I hurriedly set my gaze elsewhere, pulled out the blanket and wrapped it around Coco’s body. It was because Coco abruptly turned into a human.

“Greung…”

Coco growled a little as he slept, making me wonder if the soft duvet felt good.

“…Where did you get hurt like this?”

My heart was heavy with worry.

“Are you being chased by someone?”

Thinking I should ask when he wakes up, I stroked Coco’s wavy, wheat-colored hair.

If I hadn’t known that Coco was a cat, I would have never done this. No matter how young he looks, sixteen years old is quite an old age already. Because of my disgusting father and older brother, I originally hated any man—despite how young a boy is.

Nevertheless, Coco was just a cute cat, even though he looked like a boy this way.

‘Is the Duke feeling comfortable because of his cat-like behavior?’

I had never seen the Duke of Blois as a cat, though I always felt like he was a great cat because he was good at whatever he does, even in human form.

Well, he was the man I talked to the most in my life. I had more conversations with the Duke of Blois than my father and brother, who lived together until school.

Thinking about it up to that point, I felt strange.

‘What happened with him raging about the smell and acting annoyed? Somehow, did he lose his vigilance all of a sudden?’

It was such a strange thing.

I peered carefully at Coco’s small, smooth face and pondered.

‘Anyway, I should tell him, right?’

When he found out that Coco, who had decided to leave, had returned, he might be displeased, but…

‘If I say he came back injured, he won’t be kicked out right away.’

Last time, he was the one who came to my room after smelling Coco so he’ll find out, anyway. It would be better than keeping it a secret and getting caught later.

I was going to ask Agwen to tell the Duke of Blois the truth, although I decided to go directly to him instead.

‘If he gets angry, Agwen won’t last.’

I left the room and headed to the main building.

However, as I entered the spacious hall on the first floor of the main building, I could hear a commotion from the front door.

‘What’s going on…?’

Hearing the sound, I sifted through the servants, and soon saw the knights lined up, the Duke of Blois, and some unfamiliar men.

“Please release the Shapeshifter slave who is hiding in the mansion!”

At that moment, I was startled by the shouts of one of the unfamiliar men.

‘If it’s a Shapeshifter slave… Coco?’