CH 72

“Yes, yes!”

Anyway, from the beginning, Elysia had no choice. It was not worth weighing against her life. Perhaps he was aiming for this, to let her choose for herself.

“You will have to come to my office every time?”

‘…Do I have to come back to this scary office again?’

She paused for a moment. The way back was scary though the scariest thing was having to come back to Damon on her own feet. In the outer castle, far away from the main castle, no matter what happened, no one would know.

It was only then that Elysia realized why Damon had an office in the outer castle far from the main castle.

Because no one would have known what was going on here.

“It’s, it’s okay.”

Even though she knew this answer was what he most wanted, she couldn’t help but say it. She had fallen into a well-designed trap. When she came to her senses, Elysia was already immobilized, with her whole body caught.

“Okay, let’s do that.”

As soon as she replied that it was fine, the lines at the corners of his mouth got more vivid. Elysia couldn’t stop her resentment as he couldn’t hold back his satisfied smile. She had said it herself that she would come to his office with her own mouth.

“Did you read your brother’s letter?”

“No, not yet…”

“I see.”

Although she wanted to ask if he checked all the contents while checking for safety, Elysia held back. It was because she knew that her situation was not good enough to even argue about such things.

“You look very curious.”

“Yes?”

She hurriedly touched her face at Damon’s words, but she wasn’t making a particularly different expression. First of all, she tried desperately to show as little emotion as possible in front of him. Still, she couldn’t hide her fear… it was a feeling that could not be hidden.

“I did not read the contents.”

“What do you mean you don’t read?”

“The contents of the letter to the wife.”

Could he tell if a letter or gift was dangerous without opening it? That seemed impossible…

“While I have no choice but to open presents, I do not open letters and inspect them.”

Was that possible…?

Then, indeed, Edward’s letter was brand new, unopened. Despite that, she naturally assumed that he had already found out the contents. It was surprising.

“Of course… It only checks for magic and toxic substances, so it’s not perfect.”

Elysia did not know how far to be perfect. To be honest, it was amazing that he would go this far for her sake. Was she worth that much? She was surprised that he cared about her enough to go through such a hassle.

“If it’s okay with the wife, I think we’d better check the letter together. How is it?”

“Yes, that would be great.”

There may be dangers that couldn’t be discovered without opening the letter.

After all, she was too weak to accept that. Elysia had no immunity to magic, and neither was to poison, so she didn’t want to die without making a sound while reading letters on her own. She’d rather have someone to stop it, so might as well open the letter.

“Then, let’s do that.”

Elysia had to clench her fists to bring her back to her senses as his lips curved even more.

It seemed that if she were a little careless, she would quickly lose her mind and become hazy. Even when he was still, she couldn’t stop her gaze at him, but he was smiling openly, so it was more of a problem.

There was the illusion that a halo shone every time he smiled, and her eyes were blinded. She kept rubbing her eyes at the perfect figure so hard to believe it was real.

He was too godly.

How could she have given such a beautiful appearance to such a worst killer? At least no creature with eyes could deny Damon.

* * *

Elysia couldn’t understand how this situation had come about. Why was she in his arms? It happened naturally, without even giving her a chance to deny it.

“I…”

“What’s going on?”

…Not next to him, but on top of Damon’s thigh. It was clear that she was dreaming. Otherwise, this couldn’t have happened. Nonetheless, the heat and touch behind her back felt real.

Elysia tensed her neck at the body, which drew closer with each exhalation.

“Uh, uh…”

Couldn’t even breathe, she only made weird noises like an idiot. Could it be that he cast strange magic on her this time, too? It was probably clear that her head had become a mess. The limbs that creaked and moved like a broken doll were unfamiliar.

Even though she wanted to go down, she couldn’t as his arms, that was tightly wrapped around her waist, showed no sign of loosening. Elysia didn’t know why he was holding her or what kind of situation she was in now.

Her overloaded head made it difficult to make good judgments.

“We decided to open the letter together.”

She was at a loss for words at Damon’s way of saying. That seemed to be the problem. His tone was as if nothing was wrong.

“I didn’t mean to look at it like this…”

“Is that so?”

Even at her words, he seemed unwilling to change their position. Rather, he put more strength into the arms that held her. How could he understand that the words ‘we should check the letter together’ meant this?

“Could you loosen your arm?”

Elysia couldn’t even meet Damon’s eyes in this embarrassing position. Goosebumps came when his hot breath touched the nape of her neck.

Unable to do this or that, she froze.

“Your Grace… please…”

Not only were Elysia’s earlobes, but her collarbones were already dyed red. It wouldn’t be strange if steam gushed out of her hot body as if it would explode if touched.

While his breathing against the nape of her neck was also a problem, the rising and falling of his chest was the greatest pain. Elysia even had the illusion that her eyes were spinning in front of Damon’s chest, which was tightly pressed against her.

“Wife? Is there any problem?”

There were a lot of problems…

Pheromones emanate even from a distance, so it was dangerous to stick together like this. It wasn’t magic. It was purely because of Damon Raphael’s looks. Every action of his was stimulating, even his exhaled breath.

“Please… Please let go.”

Elysia couldn’t stand it any longer. The low voice in her ear was so good that it gave her goosebumps. Her whole body was trembling. It was really unfair. He made it impossible to reject the one she should be most afraid of.

“Didn’t you just want to check the letter together?”

There was no sexual connotation in the overly calm voice. However, unlike his plain tone, the hand holding her was strange, and so was his breath. He didn’t have to exhale into the nape of her neck like this…

“We don’t have to be in this position to check the mail.”

“This way, we can check both. Isn’t it good?”

It was absurd nonsense. Elysia never intended to check the letter with him this way. Besides, there was a way to sit next to her and check it out together. There was no reason to be held in his arms like this.

“Even if it’s not necessarily this way…”

Even though Elysia tried to free his arm, it wouldn’t budge since she couldn’t defeat Damon by force in the first place. If he put his mind to it, he could easily break her neck, too…

“It doesn’t matter if I check it after Your Grace sees it.”

Even the letter he was holding was not Edward’s letter. As long as it wasn’t Edward’s letter, she wasn’t interested in anything.

“Among the letters that have come to the wife, these are all the normal letters.”

“There are many… weird stuff coming?”

There were only a few letters on the table. No gifts were brought, but the amount of letters was remarkably small. It was an amount that was overshadowed by the words that there was a lot of contacts.

“I didn’t bring any letters to be handled within the Grand Duke’s castle.”

“Handled?”

“The recipient is the wife, but the Grand Duchy handles the letters.”

Was it a request or something like that? Elysia was surprised that such letters were also coming. She had only been the Grand Duchess for less than a week. She wondered what power she had and why they sent such a letter.

“What do you want to read first?”

Damon, who casually changed the topic of conversation, almost made her pass it over. It was so good that she forgot that she was still being held.

“Oh, please let me down first.”

“…All right.”

Elysia let out a sigh as his arms went away with lingering gestures. He was holding her by the waist, making it difficult for her to breathe.

“….”

As she quickly moved as far away from him as she could to soothe her startled heart, Elysia was worried about what she would do in the future if reading one letter was so hard.

“What do you want to read first?”

“Huh… The most important letter?”

Fortunately, the County’s seal was nowhere to be seen in the letter. If they had a conscience, they wouldn’t contact her right away.

“There has been no contact from the County yet.”

Perhaps knowing her feelings, Damon said so. Conceivably, he knew that she was an illegitimate child, so he felt a sense of kinship.

“Personal contact has only come from brother.”

“Then, everything came for me, the Grand Duchess…”

After Elysia examined the letter on the table, she found a familiar seal. That was the only seal she was familiar with… a seal that even she could know, even if it was originally not in the noble society.

“Imperial family.”

“Oh, it looks like the letter was mixed up.”

The moment she was about to pick up the letter from the Imperial Family, Damon snatched it up. A lie, obviously, since it had her name written on the addressee.

“I think it came to me.”

“It came to the Grand Duchy.”

“I am also a member of the Grand Duchy.”

As she replied so, Damon swallowed his breath. It was impossible to say no to her because if he said no, he meant that he would not recognize her as the Grand Duchess.