CH 7.1

Lila stepped out of the carriage with a grimace. She tried to steady her trembling legs.

Even when she went to the capital, he took care of her condition and took it easy. She doesn’t know what the hell the man was thinking, but he’d been relentless on the way back.

Even when she asked for a break, he wouldn’t stop at a village, so she couldn’t sleep peacefully.

The only good thing was that the carriage was very comfortable? Or is it just a magic tool that makes the body comfortable?

Lucas, who had been instructing Vincent on a few things, suddenly picked up a staggering Lila.

“Kyaaa!”

“My lady, I’ll escort you to your room myself.”

Lucas’s freckled face lit up with mischief. Lila wiped her eyes and said.

“I can walk, can you drop me off?”

She tried to get down, sounding deliberately sassy, but it was no use.

“Haha, you’re not the only one who’s stubborn.”

The pace of their walk was very fast. When they reached the second floor, Lucas realized something was wrong.

“Hmm…”

Lucas stopped in his tracks and peered into Michael’s room, then quickened his pace.

A familiar door with a gray wolf with emerald eyes greeted her. She hadn’t been here long, but she couldn’t have been happier to see it.

Still holding her, Lucas turned and pushed the door open with his shoulder. They walked through the connecting room and into the bedroom.

Setting Lila down on the bed, Lucas spoke in a soothing voice.

“If you need anything, call Vincent. Get some rest, and we’ll talk later.”

Lila glared at Lucas as he handed over her tangled hair.

“Hmph, I don’t have anything to say!”

As she drew a line in the sand, afraid of making another unnecessary mistake, Lucas spoke in a relaxed voice.

“I know about the dressmaker thing, but don’t you think you should get an exclusive maid soon?”

“Ah…”

She thought that he was trying to pry out her secret, but Lila’s expression relaxed at his casual comment.

Lucas, who had been watching the whole thing, lightly squeezed her mauve hair and left a kiss.

“Make yourself at home, then.”

He turned his back to her and watched her walk out the door, leaving Lila sprawled on the bed.

She lay down and began to squirm out of her dress and down comforter like a caterpillar.

“Ah, I’m so tired…”

Snuggling into the fluffy bedding, Lila was soon fast asleep.

Lucas descended to the second floor with quick steps and opened Michael’s door without knocking.

“Whoa! What do you think you’re doing?”

Lucas responded in a stern voice as he met the unwelcoming face.

“Isn’t it you who’s being impolite? How dare you come into the Duke’s house in the absence of the master, and what are you doing to my nephew?”

“I’ve come to see my son, do I need your permission?”

Lucas shot a glance at the two women standing behind her as he watched the woman pull out a handkerchief and cover her mouth as if she had seen something unpleasant.

“There you are.”

Chelsea and Rose froze at the Duke’s uncharacteristically frosty demeanor.

“I left the people my son needed, but who cut them off recklessly? Aren’t the affairs inside the mansion the Duchess’ business?”

“Uncle…”

His eyes grew colder as he looked at Michael, whose face had become emaciated after he had been back in the capital for a few days.

“Michael is my nephew and my heir, I don’t think you’re the only one who has a say…”

The woman spoke up, cutting off Lucas’ coldly spoken words.

“I see you have someone else in my room, and since you are not yet formally married, it is only right that I use it.”

Lucas’s eyes grew even colder.

After his brother’s death, the woman who had abandoned her children and family for her lover, has now came and claimed the right to be a duchess.

“Impossible. A duchess has no right to dereliction of duty.”

Mint-colored eyes slowly swept across Chelsea, Rose, and Anna. The gaze was so cold, Anna found herself stuttering.

“…What happens inside the mansion is…”

“It doesn’t matter what happens inside the mansion, because in the end, I’m the one who makes the final decision. Michael.”

“Oh, Uncle.”

“I thought you were supposed to be in class, so what are you doing here?”

“I was wrong.”

Caught between his uncle and his mom, Michael hung his head. He felt bad that he was the reason they were fighting.

“You will have your lessons in the study today.”

“Okay…”

“Well, go ahead and go.”

After glancing at his mom for a moment, Michael bowed his head and left the room.

Hearing the door slam shut behind him, Lucas glared at Anna and scowled.

“How unpleasant.”

Anna secretly swallowed hard as she looked at Lucas. She hadn’t known him to be like that when she was with him, so this was completely outrageous and embarrassing.

Still, she hid her embarrassment and raised her chin more defiantly, insisting.

“Why are you giving orders when you say I want to claim my rights? I’m still the mistress of the Duke of Montefeltra.”

“And I am the master of this duchy.”

Lucas crossed his arms and tilted his head at an angle.

Anna frowned, remembering her husband’s freckled face. Seeing Lucas, who looked so much like him, made her feel even worse.

“Yuck, I swear, the blood in this house is the worst.”

She swept a hand through her golden locks, her pink eyes, identical to Michael’s, glaring at Lucas in disgust.

Lucas looked completely unperturbed.

“If you look back, just say that you entered the Duchess’s room. I’ll show you how I look.”

He turned his gaze to Chelsea and Rose and warned them in a stern voice.

“They have already been dismissed from the ducal service, and even if this woman, who is still a duchess in name only, brought them here, there is no room for them here.”

“Your Grace, we are..”

“Vincent! Owen!”

Lucas called out, cutting off Chelsea’s plea, and the two men who had been waiting outside quickly entered the room.

“Yes, Duke!”

“Yes, Duke.”

Lucas pointed his finger at Chelsea and Rose and ordered Owen.

“Get them out of here at once, and Vincent, you are to attend to this woman who is here for the time being as a duchess in name only. You will serve her very well and without inconvenience.”

“Very well, my duke.”

Owen fished in the inside pocket of his jacket for the magic bell and pressed it. A few moments later, the duke’s knight commander and his knights came up to the room.

Chelsea and Rose, surprised to see the knights, clung to Anna.

“My lady!”

“This is not fair, Duke!”

Lucas coldly warned Anna as she screamed in tears.

“Don’t you ever call me young master again. A woman like you isn’t even my sister-in-law anymore.”

Turning his back, Lucas walked out of the room, Anna watching him uneasily, as if she were seeing something unfamiliar.

Leaving Michael’s room, Lucas watched Chelsea and Rose for a moment as they were dragged away, then headed for his office.

The servants he passed gave him a stilted greeting and moved quickly past him.

The familiarity of their demeanor was sometimes unbearably suffocating. The same was true of the woman he had just met.

The woman who had disrespected him and his brother at their first meeting, and the way she looked at him like she was looking at something dirty.

He hadn’t liked her from the start. His brother had his eye on a woman of his own, but that was the customs of nobility.

Still, Lucas had blessed his brother’s marriage, hoping that parenthood would be different for his children.

But neither he nor Anna were any different, Lucas thought as he watched them walk the same path as his parents.

It must be the curse of the Wolf God.

A curse on their family for not having someone they truly loved as a mate, like Lupus.

Lucas didn’t want to love.

He couldn’t understand his brother, who drank to the point of disrupting his daily routine because their correspondence had stopped, and he couldn’t understand his sister-in-law, who ran to her lover when her husband died, as if it wasn’t her business.

Why can’t a noble marry the person he loves? Could it be that he couldn’t handle the maintenance of his property or family on his own?

Lucas, who had always tried to maintain a level head, turned away from his chambers, the heat boiling up inside him for the first time in a long time. He needed something to take the edge off.

He rushed down the stairs, intending to go to the knight’s training grounds to warm up, but stopped short.

Suddenly, a scent caught this sense of smell.

Wouldn’t it be nice to bury his nose in the nape of her neck and breathe deeply of that sweet scent…?”

She would understand him.

A fleeting thought took over his mind. The servants were busy scrambling to get out of the way as Lucas stood alone, staring into space.

Lucas’s mint-colored eyes sharpened as he sensed the chaos.

“I, Duke.”

Lucas gave the young butler who had called him a slow glance. Seeing the uncomfortable expression on the butler’s face, he gave him a cold stare.

“What.”

The young butler, who had never seen Lucas in such a state of mind before, spoke hastily.

“The butler had asked me to assist the duke for the time being…”

Lucas was briefly annoyed at the butler’s inability to communicate properly, but he didn’t add anything, since it was Vincent who had given him another job.

“Yes. And have my lady select a personal maid to take with her. You don’t need to cover for me today, so take care of that.”

“…Yes, I understand.”

Lucas raised one eyebrow at the young butler, who made no attempt to hide his displeasure.

“What’s your name?”

The young butler, Connor, answered and gave him name with a poor attitude.

“Connor, sir.”

“Very well, do not go to the lady now, but come and wake her in the afternoon with something to eat.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lucas let him pass without commenting on his demeanor. If he pointed it out, he’d probably lose his temper and fall over himself first.

He felt that whatever energy his brief time in the capital had given him had already been used up.