CH 12

But even after a while, she didn’t feel any big pain. She only felt a little tingling, but there was no sense that she was seriously hurt somewhere. So out of curiosity, she ran her hand over what she thought was the floor. It’s hard, but it’s a bit hard for the ground… No, that’s that, but she was especially concerned about her lips. It felt like something soft on the surface of her lips. That’s right, it’s soft… Huh? Was it squishy?

When she opened her eyes, her gaze met with dark red eyes that looked like they were about to be sucked in. Unbelievably, her lips were overlaid on the lips of the Duke beneath her.

For an instant, her mind went blank. No, she couldn’t think properly. She was sure she jumped from the second floor, but what the hell was that situation… It was the moment when they were looking at each other as if they were possessed that she was raised up in an instant. Before she had time to say anything, the Duke, who was holding her tight, caught her completely.

The Duke just walked forward, holding her in his arms as if nothing had happened.

“No, wait, Duke!”

“Take care of it.”

The Duke gave orders to the knights behind him, ignoring her words. And soon, the knights scattered, except for a few.

She looked down at the Duke’s arm, which was holding her tightly.

“Can you please drop me off?”

“Do you know what you did?”

“I don’t know what else you misunderstood, but it’s not like that.”

“Fuck.”

The Duke snorted and walked steadily. Every time he walked, his body swayed softly, but there was no toil. Why the hell was he holding her and moving?

“Have they found Deliam?”

She answered the Duke’s urgent question one step faster than the knight.

“Do not worry. He is well hidden.”

The Duke stopped for a moment and looked down at her.

“…Hiding?”

“Yes. I felt something was odd, so I told him to hide just in case.”

“Where?”

“A little space inside the bottom of the bed in my room. Liam is hiding there.”

“If he is not there, you’ll have to take responsibility.”

She let out a small sigh

“Yes, yes.”

She answered without sincerity. The Duke glanced at her, saying he didn’t like it, but she just ignored him.

The Duke arrived at her room, opened the door, and went inside. Unlike before, the whole room was a mess. Evidence of a very thorough search was vivid in front of her eyes. By this point, she was getting a bit anxious. Judging from the wizard’s attitude earlier, it must have been true that he couldn’t find the child.

“…Liam?”

She carefully called for the child, but somehow the area was quiet. Could it be that he wasn’t there? She tried to ignore the growing anxiety and called louder this time.

“Liam!”

That was the moment. A clicking sound was heard from under the bed, and then a small voice leaked out.

“…Elia?”

“Liam, you’re all right!”

“Elia!”

A child crawled out from under the bed and ran towards her with a crying face. Although he was still airborne and uncomfortable, she hugged the child tightly.

“…Huh! I was very worried, Elia.”

Deliam burst into tears as he was very scared while hiding. She carefully rubbed the eyes of the teary child with her fingers.

“Baby, everything is fine now. Stop crying, huh?”

“Where, hehe… are you uninjured?”

The child was weeping and examining her body intently here and there. The little head went back and forth like crazy, but it was cute and pitiful. She was very sorry that she couldn’t come back sooner.

“Yes. Now the Duke will take care of everything. Let’s be safe. Okay?”

“Yes…”

He looked up at the Duke as she stroked the still-sniffing child’s head. Only then did the Duke drop her off and walked over to the knight.

While she was comforting the crying child she suddenly thought of something and looked back.

“Duke.”

At her call, the gaze of the Duke, who had been directed to the knight, turned to her. She swallowed her saliva as she met his gaze with the dark red eyes. She didn’t know if it’s because of the previous… fall, but somehow it was hard to look straight into his eyes.

Should she say something strangely embarrassing and breathless?

“…That, thank you for your help. Thanks to that, I was able to stay safe without getting hurt.”

“Did you almost get hurt Elia?”

The surprised child asked before he could hear the Duke’s answer. She stroked his cheek a couple of times as his eyes widened.

“Don’t worry. The Duke saved me, so as you can see, I’m fine.”

She moved her body back and forth towards Deliam as proof that she was safe. And really, she didn’t feel any particular pain when she actually moved my body.

She looked at the child who let out a sigh of relief, then turned her head away again. Anyway, was the Duke okay? She had been in a hurry before, so she couldn’t check it.

Feeling impatient for some reason, she hurriedly ran to the Duke.

“Duke, are you feeling okay? I’m not that heavy, but you catch me from a high place, so there’s no way you won’t get hurt. Arms? Legs? Is your chest okay?”

She was frantically examining the Duke’s body when she looked up. He was glaring at her with his face contorted. She slowly lowered her head. The palms of both of her hands rested exactly on the Duke’s chest. Just like a pervert.

“…Um, why are my hands here?”

“Do you consider that a question now?”

She sighed and apologized to him.

“Sorry. I checked to see if there were any injuries…”

After she smiled awkwardly, she hid her hands that looked like a water pot completely behind my back. The knights were looking at her with cold eyes as if she was a pervert.

“I never did it on purpose. It’s just that my body and the Duke’s were… of course there’s no way the Duke would be fine… No, but seriously, why are the Duke and me both fine?”

She hesitated to make excuses for the Duke, then tilted her head.

Wasn’t it really strange? Did the duke use some kind of magic? But the Duke wouldn’t be a wizard.

Then, the duke said.

“I only caught you because I had the ability todo it in the first place.”

“Yes? What skills do you have?”

“It’s okay, don’t do things like that anymore. I know you like that.”

“It’s really a misunderstanding.”

Even at her words, the Duke still didn’t seem to believe it. Well, that’s because it’s not like that. She coughed for no reason and took a step backwards, then clung to Deliam’s side. As she was standing there holding hands tightly with the child, the Duke approached them.

“Deliam.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Ugh, no.”

“Stay here with the knights. You don’t have to tidy up.”

The Duke’s demeanor was unusually calm for a situation in which the child could have been kidnapped again. It was as if he was sure there’s nothing wrong with it… She looked at the Duke with a puzzled feeling and caught his clenched fist shaking slightly.

‘Oh, I see.’

The Duke did not want to show his nervous side in front of the child. He couldn’t control his emotions and if he showed them as they were, Deliam would be embarrassed.

She nodded her head in satisfaction, then paused momentarily. No, why was she satisfied now? As a Duke’s son, Deliam was a precious being, so protecting him must have been a natural thing to do.

“Huh?”

She lowered her gaze at the sudden feeling of her body floating. Didn’t he put her body on his shoulder and move on? It was so sudden, she could only blink her eyes slowly in bewilderment.

“Hey, Duke?”

Deliam looked at them with surprised eyes and followed them.

“Put me down. Can you hear me? Hey, Duke?”

As she shook her body around, she heard a small clicking sound.

“Just keep quiet.”

“Where the hell are you going? No, can’t you drop me off first?”

“I’m on my way to a good place, so be quiet.”

“You don’t intend to interrogate me, do you? I firmly believe that the Duke is not such a moth.”

“Your liver is very overboard, yes.”

She started to get worried about the cold voice that she heard. Surely this situation was not misunderstood?

“As I said beforehand, this case has nothing to do with me.”

“Then tell me what happened.”

“…yes?”

“What is your excuse? I will listen.”

“In a state where I’m lifted like this, like baggage?”

“Yes.”

She was dissatisfied, but her mouth began to steadily explain.

“I was about to go to sleep, but suddenly Anne knocked on the door. Then she said the Duke called for me, but I didn’t understand.”

The Duke asked in the blink of an eye.

“Why?”

“…yes?”

“Why did you think I wouldn’t call for you?”

She blinked for a moment and then said.

“…Well, it was only natural that you would be ashamed of being caught making those cookies. The Duke wouldn’t bother calling me.”

The Duke, who had been walking briskly, stopped in place. For some reason, the back of her head was tingling, but she pretended not to know.

“But in the kitchen earlier. You made cookies to lighten Liam’s mood, right? If you’d told me, I’d have helped you…”

“If you want to be put in prison, just say it.”

She quickly changed topics at the duke’s advice.

“…Anyway, I went out and there was no knight, no attendant, no one. Feeling odd for some reason, I went into the room with an excuse and told Liam to hide. I was following the lady-in-waiting, but I felt a threat, so I beat her and ran away, but I met the man. A sorcerer, a kidnapper.”

Instead of answering, the Duke just dropped her to the floor. She raised her head to something and opened her eyes wide. There, the kidnappers who were arrested by the knights were all gathered in one place. At that time, one of the knights approached the Duke and reported.

“That handmaid was also a conspirator with the wizard. I confirmed that the woman’s left ankle had something similar to the sheep on the back of the wizard’s neck engraved.”

At that moment, the Duke stared at her with strange eyes. Probably because he realized she was right. So she shrugged at the Duke and he, who soon lost his gaze, walked over to the tightly restrained wizard.

Next to the wizard, a white-haired man was lying face down in restraints. It seemed that the person who was chasing from behind was that person. As the Duke approached completely, the knight untied the gag from the wizard’s mouth. At the same time, he shouted while glaring at his own work.

“Do you think that you can stop it?”

“Even though the chains were broken, the restraints couldn’t be broken.” g

“How long are you going to stay so lofty, huh?

She was stunned by the sudden sight and covered her eyes with her hand. The Duke helplessly trampled the wizard’s face on the floor with his foot. As proof of that, the bottom of the man’s head was deeply hollowed out.

The previous time he had squeezed her shoulder, she had seen the bruises and assumed that his grip was strong, but she didn’t expect it to be that bad.

The voice of the great mage, who had been screaming out loud, suddenly stopped. As soon as she lowered her hand that was blocking her vision, she saw that he passed out. 

“Stand him up.”

At the Duke’s command, the knights stood the mounted wizard up, and the crying wizard barely opened his eyes.

The Duke held out something in front of him. What was that? She came closer out of curiosity.

“It is a contract proving that the Marquis of Dior completed a commissioned tower.”

The wizard’s eyes widened at the Duke’s words. She didn’t know what the situation was, but she wondered if that was the reason the Duke had been away for the past few days.

“This, how can I do this….”

“I offered the Mage Tower owner the condition of increasing the mining rights for 3 more, and he readily handed it over.”

The Duke pulled out another piece of paper this time from his bosom and said,

“And this is a promise to completely renounce the protection of your identity that belonged to the Mage Tower.”

“…Ah, no. Arthur, such a false certificate…!”

She was from a very close range so she could see everything.