“Heh heh, heh, I see- The barbarian girl rejected it from above, so she was elated without knowing that the duke forcibly took her.”
‘Rejected it from above? The Duke took her? What does this all mean?’
On the other hand, Paul’s lips twitched, noticing how she did not understand what he said about her as he looked into the eyes of the duchess.
“Oh, my. I guess you didn’t know. Four years is supposed to be-”
“Are you done talking?”
There was silence in the low and rough voice that made his spine cold.
Paul forgot to breathe in and slowly looked away.
In front of him stood Leonhart, the Duke of Esbaden, radiating a vicious force.
***
“I asked if you had finished talking.”
Leonhart was clad in blood-stained silver armor and was looking at Paul with an expressionless face.
Dooha raised one eyebrow as she looked at his back blocking her sight in front of him.
Judging by the messy armor worn by the knights from a distance, it looked like he had just come back from reconnaissance.
‘Are you here to talk?’
But, was it necessary for a man equal with the status of a duke to come to the stable to entrust his horses?
While Dooha was questioning her husband’s sudden appearance, Paul, who suddenly got up from her floor, deliberately grabbed the part of him that had been beaten by her and put on the most pitiful expression on his face.
“Hey, Duke! Listen to me! The Duchess hit me for no reason…”
“It’s so shabby.”
“…What?”
Leonhart glared at Paul with a bloody gaze.
“I definitely remember you taking a lot of the budget last year for the maintenance of the stables’ facilities. The stables look like a mess.”
Paul had a terrified look on his face, but internally he ground his teeth in annoyance.
He couldn’t believe that a human who would usually order his subordinates to put his horse away in the stables would come by himself in person. What kind of wind was blowing today?
“Is this the price I paid for trusting you?”
“Oh, no! This is a misunderstanding! Another year has passed since then, and the facility just broke…”
“And you even touched the Duchess.”
Paul looked at Leonhart, who stood in front of the Duchess.
In front of his bloody blue eyes that seemed like he was about to tear him apart at any moment, he realized that the rumor was really wrong.
Now, he had no choice but to force himself to submit in order to live.
“Duke, I have sinned to death! But I couldn’t help it! Madam beat me for no reason, so I wasn’t even aware that I did so…!”
Everyone except the duke frowned at his words.
‘You have to say something that makes sense. Someone started this first.’
“Why do you ask for forgiveness after committing a sin?”
However, contrary to Paul’s expectations, the Duke only threw around brutal words.
“What?”
Leonhart quietly drew his sword.
The silver blade, which was smelted by the best craftsman, reflected its owner under the sunlight.
“You should have known better about what would happen if you dared touch the body of a married noblewoman.”
“Uh, uh!”
As Paul saw the blade of the sword approaching him, he lost his reason and took out his last resort.
“If you touch me, Sir Nate won’t let this pass! I don’t want the Duke to be in trouble with him either…!”
“You don’t have many thoughts. You also don’t have a good tongue either.”
Of course, those words fueled the fire.
“How could that old foxy man bother me for a guy like you?”
“Ahhhh~!”
With Paul’s scream, blood quickly pooled on the floor like a puddle.
Leonhart, who had severed away one of Paul’s arms in an instant, put his sword away as if nothing had happened.
His gaze suddenly turned to Dooha, who was standing behind him.
He stared at the strangling marks on her, at the collar’s horribly stretched neckline.
To Dooha, it was an unexplainable gaze.
Leonhart looked at her neck without saying a word for a long time, and then came closer to her.
He looked down at her with a somewhat displeased face.
“Don’t you know that you don’t fight when you can’t win?”
She wondered if he thought she wouldn’t have won against that b*stard if he hadn’t come forward.
“…It was a fight that I could win. You didn’t have to cut his arm.”
“I know your kicking skills are great.”
He glanced at her puffy sleeves, lifting his lip at an angle and placing his hand over the handle of his sword.
“If I hadn’t cut it, I think you would have cut it.”
Dooha hid her sleeve behind her back when the Duke pointed it out.
He would have noticed that she was hiding a dagger in her sleeve.
“It’s enough for the duchess to walk around in underwear in front of the lower ranking ones, but it’ll become more difficult if there’s a rumor that she’s been stabbing the lower ranking ones.”
“…”
“Please, I hope that in the future, you will not do anything that makes you lose your face as a Duchess. Then, I will go first.”
Leonhart moved to the place where the knights were standing as if there was nothing more to do.
As soon as he turned around, his gaze touched and fell on the crumpled collar of Dooha.
It resembled the vigilant gaze of a beast whose territory had been invaded.