CH 109

Nelia frowned at the name written on the envelope.

“Leighton Benedict.”

He said he visited the mansion once she was at the duke’s castle, and even sent a letter to her.

Especially when it was as chaotic as it was at that moment, Leighton’s attempt of contacting her was deemed to be even more unpleasant. She had always thought he was hanging around with his creative ways of thinking.

Nelia opened the letter with an unsettled feeling. The handwriting was very crooked.

[Nelia, I’m writing this letter to you because I think you might have been back at the mansion by the time you read this. To begin with, I want to formally apologize to you and His Grace. After lying in bed with a back injury thinking about it, I thought I knew that I was wrong.]

What happened to him? He was apologizing to her first.

However, Nelia, who continued to read the letter, found that the content on the top was merely an introduction, and the real main point of the letter was written afterwards.

[If you invite me to the duke’s mansion one more time, I’ll gladly visit with a gift in hand.]

Nelia mercilessly crushed the letter.

“Ton, please throw this letter away.”

“Pardon……?”

“You can throw this away. It’s from someone who couldn’t even be a merchant.”

The reason Leighton wanted to visit was clear. She was certain he still had lingering feelings for Sigrid’s heart.

He didn’t have the confidence to find it on his own, and he somehow wanted to get information from the duke.

She could see his true feelings behind the respectfully written letter. Frowning, Nelia realized she didn’t have time for this.

She had to prepare to meet Carlos again.

* * *

To Nelia’s worry, someone suspiciously hung around in front of the duke’s residence, and it was Leighton, the one who also sent the letter.

“I don’t know if she received the letter properly.”

Leighton lifted his head and tiptoed to see if he could see to the other side over the high wall, but it was impossible with his height.

‘It’s so frustrating.’

The first thing he did after his back healed was visiting the duke. This was because he’d thought a lot of things while lying motionlessly on the bed because of his injured back.

One of them was, of course, that he thought the duke was suspicious.

What did he do by secretly exchanging letters that were written in strange letters with the Magic Tower? Raising a snake was also very strange when he thought about it again.

“Perhaps, he’s plotting treason or something of that sort?”

He could have prepared to borrow the military power from the Magic Tower, and the snake could have been raised and trained for poison or secret attacks.

With the duke’s status, he would have made treason possible. He has the force, the power, and the support for that.

If his guess was correct, it was literally an excessive fact.

Of course, he didn’t plan to tell the huge truth to His Majesty. He was not interested in politics or power struggles at all.

However, if the duke really was planning out an attempt to rebel or was planning something suspicious, he could use it to threaten him and make demands.

For example, tell him all the information the duke collected related to Sigrid’s heart.

If he combined the information collected by the duke with the information he collected himself, he could possibly find Sigrid’s heart for real.

He could catch onto the duke’s suspicious circumstances, he had to enter his mansion again and somehow find evidence about it.

With that reason, he visited the duke’s residence a few days ago and knocked on the door, but the one who came out was the butler and said the duke and Nelia had gone on a business trip to another state. Unfortunately, he had to turn around that day.

A few days have gone by afterwards.

Even though he sent a letter because he thought Nelia would have returned by now, he became impatient and wandered around the duke’s residence.

Then, someone came and stood at the front gate.

When the man who walked past him to the main gate revealed his name as Marquis Clint, the door opened instantly.

“What?”

When she visited, a butler who seemed strict came out and told him to go back because there was no one.

However, he heard their conversation that was not too far away from his spot.

“Do you mean I can’t meet the duke now?”

“I apologize because you must stop by on purpose. We kindly ask for your understanding because we have to say that His Grace currently is not in good condition.”

The duke was currently in a poor condition……?

Leighton leaned his ears against the wall to properly hear the conversation he was trying to eavesdrop.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on before the day of the total lunar eclipse.”

“That’s what I think as well. It feels like it’s getting more difficult as the years go by.”

Total lunar eclipse? Come to think of it, it was the memorial of the previous Duke of Hart.

Were they talking about it?

“And…… His Grace said he wouldn’t get help from the wizard for the total lunar eclipse this time.”

Wizard? There was an image inside Leighton’s head that was drawn when the words ‘total lunar eclipse’ and ‘wizard’ combined.

It was the sight he was greeted with on the day of the total lunar eclipse last year. He couldn’t look at it closely, but there were suspicious people wearing robes in the duke’s residence.

Nelia said that they were priests who came to conduct a memorial service for the previous Duke of Hart, but it seemed to be a lie.

‘I guess the people I saw back then were wizards……’

“The total lunar eclipse is the day after tomorrow, and you said I have to cancel the wizard from coming?”

“I sincerely apologize…… I also fail to understand what the duke means by giving this order.”

“Huft, there must be a lot of complaints in the magic tower. Their pride is high.”

There was silence for a moment. Leighton focused even more, holding his breath, just in case he missed a single word they said.

“More than that, will the duke really be fine without wizards on the day of the total lunar eclipse, even though he went wild last time, and all the servants ended up evacuated from the mansion?”

“If I dare to assume the duke’s will, he must have a great faith in young Lady Nelia. Afterall, he was able to recover from his wild state last year thanks to her……”

“I heard what happened last year, but I’m still anxious about it.”

“……”

“Anyway, I will inform the wizards about the cancellation.”

Their conversation seemed to be over. When Leighton heard the footsteps approaching, he quickly hopped off the wall and pretended to be walking passerby.

The front door opened shortly after, and the man who had just gone inside walked out. Fortunately, the man didn’t seem to see him.

Leighton walked away from the duke’s residence and arranged what he had heard as he walked down the street.

‘I mean…… Something went wild during the total lunar eclipse, and they must have called the wizards to calm it down.’

The duke’s mansion was huge, but what could have happened inside?

Leighton, who was preoccupied with the information he just got, recalled that Nelia was also mentioned during their conversation.

‘Something recovered its consciousness because of Nelia last year, and he said as if the duke had a genuine trust in her.’

However, he couldn’t complete the blank part in the story on his own at all. If he figured out what the thing they were talking about, he might be able to catch onto the duke’s weakness.

Leighton, who suddenly stopped in his spot with both eyebrows bent, opened his eyes wide.

‘Right! On the day of the total lunar eclipse, I can go to the duke’s residence and see what happens myself.’

Why didn’t he think of that before?

However, he soon realized there was a huge wall in front of his plan. He couldn’t enter this high and strong main gate of the mansion.

Even though there were people inside during the total lunar eclipse last year, they pretended to be invisible and didn’t open the door to anyone.

‘How do I get inside on that day?’

Leighton, who was walking down the street aimlessly, found a sign with a crow on it in the dark alley.

Right, Crow Store. There were a lot of strange things there. For example, a cloak that could make a person transparent.

His parents have given him a lot of pocket money to their son who has been bedridden for a while. He didn’t know how much a transparent cloak cost, but with this much money, he might be able to rent it.

A hint of a smile crept up to Leighton’s lips.

***

Nelia stared at the duke’s bedroom door, tightly closed in the dark hallway.

Nelia, who had once again organized the talk about the door of dimension in her head, carefully knocked on the duke’s door.

“Your Grace.”

There was no voice coming from inside.

“Why is he not answering?”

He might be sleeping, but she somehow had a bad feeling about it.

Nelia eventually put her hand on the doorknob. When she carefully dragged down the doorknob, the door creaked open.

The room was eerily quiet, but a faint sound of groaning could be heard from inside. Nelia hurriedly walked to the bed.

The duke was groaning with his eyes closed tightly and holding tightly onto the blanket.

“Your Grace……!”

Nellia shook the duke’s body.

The duke didn’t open his eyes. As if he was experiencing a horrible nightmare. She was worried at how hard he was closing his mouth and thought his teeth might be injured.

Nelia shook his body even harder.

“Your Grace! Wake up……”

His eyelids twitched.

“Your Grace, this is me, Nelia!”

It wasn’t long before the silver eyes that she had been waiting to open were slowly revealed. However, there was something weird in them.

The duke’s eyes lack focus.

Nelia was distracted by the strange sight of the duke, and didn’t notice his hand moving.

The duke’s hand moved like a snake and grabbed Nelia’s neck. Nelia’s mouth opened helplessly due to the strong force that held her throat with strong force.

The duke threw Nelia to the floor. Nelia, who fell to the floor, groaned painfully.

“Ugh……”

The duke got off the bed with his eyes still lacking focus and stood in front of Nelia.

Nelia realized that the one moving the duke’s body at that moment was Shilin that Zenuit has been talking about. The duke she knew could never attack her.

Nelia reached out first before the duke pulled out an attempt to attack her again. And she hugged the duke tightly. As if she couldn’t be any further from him.

“Your Grace…… This is me, Nelia.”

The duke struggled to get Nelia off him.

“Argh!”

The monstrous sound resounded through the room.

The more she did, the more she hugged him. The more he did so, she hugged him even tighter.

“You will never lose against him, Your Grace.”

The duke ended up seizing Nelia by the arm when he struggled to get her off him but she didn’t give up easily.

Nelia, who had a hunch that the duke would somehow get her off him this time, pulled out the last strength she had and whispered with her face close to the duke’s ear.

“Just a bit more…… Please keep up with this a bit more. After the total lunar eclipse, everything will be over without mishap.”

As soon as Nelia closed her eyes tightly whilst expecting to be thrown away soon, the duke’s hand fell off her arms.

Not only his hand, but along with his gesture of trying to get Nelia off him somehow stopped.

“……Nelia.”

She finally heard the pleasant voice that made her cry. It was the tone she knew to be used by the duke.

Nelia slowly dropped her body. The focus has returned to the duke’s eyes.

However, his eyes were distorted in a painful manner again.

Was Shilin’s voice bothering the duke again? Nelia asked while drawing her face closer.

“Your Grace……?”

The duke looked at his trembling hands.

“How could I-I…… do that to Nelia……?”

The duke’s soul has returned, but he seemed to be shocked by what his body did a moment ago.

He said as he kept looking at his palm, ‘How can I……’.

Nelia pulled the duke’s hand and guided him back to the back. Then she hugged his head and patted his back slowly.

Despite her tender touch, the duke couldn’t stop shaking.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Nelia.”

The duke’s voice was wry as it was stained with guilt.

It hurt even more seeing him overwhelmed by guilt than the pain on her back after falling on the floor.

Nelia caressed his broad back, holding the duke in her arms for a while without saying anything. Until he stopped shaking.

“It’s all right, Your Grace.”

Nelia spoke quietly, holding the duke in her arms.

“Everything will be fine.”

The duke didn’t say anything about blaming himself anymore or saying sorry to her.

He just hugged Nelia with all his remaining strength.