CH 70

Meanwhile, the duke, who was away, was about to finish the conversation he shared with the emperor.

“Then, that’s a good idea.”

“Hohoho, as expected of the duke. What an unexpected offer.”

The emperor burst into a happy laugh. The duke only had a knowing smile on his face.

It was then.

Zing-

It was like a blink, but the duke felt as if he just lost his mind.

When Duke Hart frowned, the emperor stopped laughing.

“What’s wrong, duke?”

“……No, it’s nothing. I must have felt dizzy for a moment.”

The duke gave a sufficient explanation, but the emperor seemed worried.

“I know you’ve been so busy working on behalf of Carlos lately. I will make it up to you later, so just hang in there for a little longer.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m just doing what I have to do.”

The duke smiled as if nothing happened, but the fact that he was facing the emperor and having to be pushed around on behalf of the d*mned crown prince was very irritating.

This was because the time he had to spend being away from Nelia has increased significantly.

‘Nothing will happen.’

The duke was anxious when thinking that the symptoms such as dizziness he felt might be related to Nelia.

“May I take my leave now? I have an appointment with Marquis Clint today.”

“Oh, I heard Marquis Clint has returned from Hatra Kingdom. He must have endured quite a lot of things there. You should at least serve him great meals.”

“I’ll make sure to do that.”

The duke smiled politely and rose from his seat to leave the audience hall.

Although he tried to make it not obvious, his body clearly showed some anxious gestures. The emperor might have wondered why, but he couldn’t risk it.

His pace was quick. According to the time he arrived at the office, he was considered faster than usual.

He finally arrived. But it was strange.

The door was left open, and there was no sign of human beings inside. As the wind blew from the open window, only the clumsy curtain fluttered back and forth.

“Nelia…….?”

The duke carefully looked inside while calling her name. He couldn’t hear any answer anywhere.

Then he found a broken teacup under the guest table and a splash of tea liquid on the floor.

The duke’s gaze slowly turned to the table. There was a roughly torn piece of paper on it.

There were scribbles on the paper.

‘I’ll be right back, Your Highness.’

He was relieved to know that at least Nelia wasn’t taken by anyone else.

Zing-

The duke felt as if her head was in a mess again.

His vision was hazy. The duke managed to plop down on the chair in front of the office desk.

He closed his eyes and opened them again, his vision moved lower.

‘Huh…….?’

Looking down, he saw a smooth silver scale. The duke closed his eyes tightly again.

He found out that the dizziness he just experienced out of nowhere a little while ago was a sign.

A sign that he would soon turn into a snake.

The Duke of Hart, who turned into a snake, made sure that the door was closed well around him. Duke Hart, whose figure turned into a snake, checked if the door was closed properly.

Fortunately, the door was firmly shut.

He had no appointment in the afternoon, and Nelia left a note saying she would return soon, so nothing could possibly go wrong.

As he figured out the situation one by one, his bewildered mind had been relieved.

She didn’t even think that this situation would ever occur in the first place.

Because there is a limit even when he chooses to rely on Nelia.

Any unexpected situation could happen like now.

‘Nelia will be worried when she returns.’

The duke curled up in his chair.

He has to catch up on a lot of things, but he couldn’t get anything done while in the snake form, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a nap for a while.

Duke Hart closed his eyes calmly and thought so.

It was until someone barged in without bothering to knock.

Jolt.

“Nelia!”

Duke Hart raised his head secretly at the strangely familiar voice. He spotted a short brown haired man looking around over the desk.

“Uh……. Where did she go? She said this is Duke Hart’s office.”

Duke Hart wanted to rub his forehead frustratingly if he got his hands.

The man who barged into his office was Nelia’s brother, Leighton.

Duke Hart slid down to hide under the table.

Then he raised his head slightly to examine Leighton’s behavior.

‘Why does he come here…….?’

Leighton plopped down on the sofa as he pleased and murmured with a pout.

“I managed to come here somehow, but it’s empty. I have to see Elena Tears today.”

Elena Tears?

He dropped the necklace that had Elena Tears in it last time, and he wanted to check it himself now?

Just as Duke Hart was thinking about the reason why Leighton was looking for Elena Tears, Leighton suddenly turned his head.

“Is that Duke Hart’s seat? Since there is no one here, I should take a look.”

Leighton got up from the sofa and walked over to the desk.

‘D*mn it.’

Duke Hart quickly jumped out of his seat and crawled under the desk.

He didn’t know why he had to play hide-and-seek like this in his own office.

“Oh, it’s really the chair that the duke uses. It’s fluffy.”

Leighton sat in the duke’s chair while shaking his hips. The duke was getting impatient waiting for the moment Nelia returned.

Then.

“Huh? What’s that?”

A shadow under the desk made an unsettling sound. When its tail whirled once, he pulled it out from under the desk.

His body was raised in the air. And soon a pair of brown eyes met his.

Leighton grabbed Duke Hart’s tail and picked him.

Leighton, who made eye contact with Duke Hart, immediately had contorted eyes.

“AKH~!”

Leighton threw the duke away in surprise.

“Why…… Why is there a snake here!”

Leighton shouted while being wary of Duke Hart’s snake form.

Duke Hart’s back hit the floor, but barely felt the pain due to the difficult situation.

‘I can’t do anything to him because he’s Nelia’s older brother.’

If it were someone he didn’t know, he would bite them or scare them away.

When Duke Hart and Leighton were facing each other in the quiet room, the door burst open.

***

Nelia took Marquis Clint to the clinic and couldn’t return to the office until she made sure by hearing them saying he would be fine.

‘I suddenly went downtown so he must have turned into a snake…….’

She couldn’t imagine how bewildered he must have been. She was running while breathing heavily, but she couldn’t stop walking because she was worried.

When Nelia arrived at the office, she hurriedly opened the door.

“I’m sorry, Your Grace……. His Lord the Marquis Clint suddenly became unconscious and……. Why are you here?”

Nelia, who was entering while apologizing, immediately had a stiff face when she spotted Leighton.

Leighton also had a stiff expression on his face.

“Yes, Nelia…….! Stop right there. There’s something very dangerous in here!”

“What is something dangerous in the duke’s office……..”

Nelia spotted the duke in his snake form and shut up almost immediately.

“See, Nelia? There’s a snake here! I don’t think it’s the aggressive type…… but just in case, you know.”

“……”

Nelia met the duke’s eyes, which somehow appeared sorrowful.

‘I’m sorry, Your Grace.’

She went away, and this problem occurred……. This was all because of Marquis Clint.

But right now, this wasn’t the time to blame anyone. She had to get out of this critical situation.

“…….That snake, His Grace is raising it.”

“What?”

“His Grace is raising it…….”

Leighton had an absurd look on his face.

“What kind of nonsense are you saying? No one in the world has a snake as a pet.”

Ugh, that’s nasty. Leighton quivered as he looked at the duke.

‘…….Oh, right.’

Nelia just remembered that people in the Andrian Empire despised snakes.

When they make eye contact with it, it’s said they would be cursed. A lot of people talk about it.

Nelia looked down at the duke with a bitter feeling in mind. The duke met her eyes.

It was as if he was telling her not to worry about him because he was going to be fine.

Nelia said again, with a firm heart. Nelia spoke again with a determined mind.

“It’s not a pet, it’s a snake he raised for the sake of experiment. It’s locked up in a cage, but it must have escaped while he wasn’t around.”

“…….Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Nevertheless, the suspicious glint in Leighton’s eyes didn’t disappear.

“Is that really a snake? It’s weird that the color and its length are short to be called a snake. I’ve never seen such a snake before.”

“I told you it was for experiments. Why would he bring it over for an experiment if it’s the normal type?”

Nelia wanted to give a full score to her response.

With that being said, Leighton wouldn’t freak out anymore.

However, Leighton didn’t take his eyes off Duke Hart. Leighton slowly opened his mouth while still looking at the snake.

“Nelia.”

“What?”

“But that snake…… doesn’t it somehow look like the duke?”

Nelia blinked quickly.

Leighton sometimes was too sharp, so she failed to figure out what’s in her mind.

His sharpness became a problem that left Nelia baffled.

‘Don’t be sharp in this situation……..!’

Nelia said as she regained control of her expression after screaming silently inwardly.

“How the h*ll can they look alike?”

“Its scale color is similar to Duke Hart’s hair. The same goes for their eyes.”

“…….. It’s called albino, you know? Being born with a lack of skin pigment.”

Lleighton rubbed his chin with a murmur, ‘Albino…….?’

“That’s how it looks, but strangely, its appearance is similar to the duke.”

“How can you say they’re similar…… Leighton, rather than that. How the h*ll did you get in here?”

Nelia tried to change the subject while hiding her surprised mind.

Leighton finally took his eyes off Duke Hart.

“Oh, right. Nelia, I told you last time that I wanted to see Elena Tears again.”

Nelia crumpled her brows almost immediately.

“Is that why you came here?”

“Yeah, do you know how hard it was for me to find a hole in the Imperial Palace?”

Oh, this guy really.

Nelia wondered for a moment whether she should call the guards immediately and ask them to kick him out of here, regardless of his identity as her brother.

“That’s not important anyway, I went near the place where Elena Tears originally was and peeped in through the window, but it didn’t seem to be there.”

Because Carlos brought Elena Tears with him.

But there was no need to tell Leighton about this.

Apparently, he got his eyes on Elena Tears, but if he knew Carlos had it, he would have visited him directly.

“I don’t know. I’m just in the duke’s office, so how do I know the location of Elena Tears?”

Leighton seemed gloomy after that.

“You don’t know as well……..”

“Go back as soon as possible. If you get caught trespassing, you’ll be charged a hefty fine.”

She didn’t know if he would be charged a fine, but Leighton knew that their father could send him to the monastery again if he caused another accident.

Leighton nodded with drooping shoulders.

“All right, I will just greet the duke and leave. When is the duke coming?”

Nelia opened and closed her mouth.

“Why do you want to greet the duke?”

“Because I’m your brother, so I should at least speak out about my gratitude for letting you work with him.”

Since when did he care about his sister?

“You’re trespassing. Why do you even bother greeting him? Hurry up and go back…….!”

Nellia pushed Leighton from the back.

“The duke is known for having a good personality, so he will understand if I tell him that I came over because I missed my sister.”

“Don’t say anything ridiculous and go!”

Nelia forced Leighton out of the door.

“Hey, hey……..!”

Slam-!

The door closed perfectly and Nelia quickly locked it.

Nelia sighed while leaning against the door.

Then a white object wriggling on the floor in her view caught her eyes.

Oh right, the duke!