CH 3.2

Knights from the ‘Knights of St. Black of Rubella’ looked at Duke Kyar’s sword that had been thrown in the air in his annoyance while they had practiced swordsmanship.

They collectively thought it was happening again.

“I miss you so much that I’m annoyed.”

The knights swallowed an overwhelming sigh in their chest when Archduke Kyar spoke to himself.

In Rubella Castle, rumors had spread far and wide that the great Kyar had lost his mind after taking a strange medicine made by a woman named Isabella.

At first, nobody believed the rumor.

However, they couldn’t help but agree that there was a grain of truth in it when they witnessed  Archduke Kyar’s irritation from missing Isabella every hour for the past few days.

The terrible rumor about the beautiful silver-haired woman being a witch grew as time passed.

Naturally, those who heard it avoided her as much as possible, even if the reason wasn’t because of Archduke Kyar’s orders to never call her name and make eye contact with her.

“I’ll be out for a while, so continue the training. Don’t think about being lazy.”

The knights bowed their heads and answered him in a loud and powerful voice in contrast to the glacier-like tone of Archduke Kyar.

After wiping his sweat off with a towel, Archduke Kyar walked out without hesitation.

He was also aware that rumors about him losing his mind had circulated.

He never made attempts to extinguish them because the rumor was, indeed, true.

While he was practicing swordsmanship, eating, working, walking on the streets, sleeping, thoughts of Isabella never left his mind.

All of this happened because of that bloody love potion!

He refused to believe that his feelings for Isabella were real, and he assumed it would end with just an antidote.

He was usually a logical and cool-headed person. However, his mind did not listen.

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He couldn’t control his desire to see her even though he knew he had felt this way because of the love potion.

He had no idea that he could be such a weak-willed human being in the past. But whenever he thought about missing her, he just couldn’t concentrate on anything.

He had to see her, even just for a moment, but at the same time, he felt relieved somehow.

This feeling was too confusing because he had never loved in his life.

If love was like this, he didn’t want to be bothered with it again even after drinking the antidote.

He never understood people who talked about love, and he even found them pathetic.

It was ridiculous to be swayed by love and make him act like crazy.

He thought it would be easier to kill Isabella, but as soon as he felt about her death, he got more frustrated that tears began to fill his vision.

He swept his raven hair nervously to the side and turned the knob to  Isabella’s bedroom door.

As he glanced around at the herbs in her room, she, who was currently jotting something down in her notebook, frowned at him.

As soon as she dared to meet his gaze, frown lines marred her forehead.

They should look normal to him, but for some reason, they appeared so pretty that they dazzled him and made him nervous.

“You’re here again?”

His teeth clenched when he saw her eyes return to her herbs, completely ignoring him.

She should have given him attention, at least.

“Don’t be mistaken. It’s not because I miss you so much. It’s all because of the weird medicine you made.”

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry.”

Her placating tone annoyed him even more, treating him as if he was a grumpy, spoiled child who needed soothing.

He hated how insensitive she was of him!

He desired to grab that small head who was busy examining the herb and turn her face toward him.

He also wanted to give those pink lips—that mouth who dared spit out such careless words– a punishing kiss.

As soon as he thought of that, his fists clenched, and his gaze lowered at his front, just below his firm waist.

At this point, his fingernails had curled unto his calloused palms from how hard he clenched his fists, but the thing in his groin showed no signs of calming down.

“This is driving me crazy.” Mumbling quietly to himself, he hurried back.

She didn’t look at him until the end, even after he roughly opened the door and went out.

He stopped the urge to freeze all the herbs in her bedroom because that would only interfere with her producing the antidote.

He wanted to drink the antidote as soon as possible and get out of this terrible feeling.

He hated that he couldn’t control his feelings for her with just his sheer will.

He was just angry with himself for being swayed by these false emotions the love potion had created.

It wasn’t the real thing.