Chapter 44
44. Yes, It's Because of the Bet
Liana couldn't answer Eclaus's question.
She just wanted to escape from all the gazes.
"I'm sorry. I'll be going now..."
Liana bowed her head deeply.
And went straight to her room and locked the door.
Eclaus tried to follow Liana, but his gaze shifted back to the Duke's bedroom.
A serious problem he had been worried about must have occurred.
Eclaus clenched his fist once and headed to the Duke's bedroom.
"Duke Lester!"
Thump, thump, thump, he knocked roughly on the closed door.
No answer came from inside.
Eclaus broke the silence and burst into the room.
As soon as he opened the door, a thick musk scent and hot air rushed out.
'This scent, could it be...?'
Just as Eclaus flinched at the pungent scent, a large hand grabbed the back of his neck.
"Cough!"
Bang, as Eclaus's back hit the wall, a picture hanging on the wall fell to the floor.
Eclaus, his neck being strangled, met the fierce eyes glaring at him.
"You deceived me well."
"D-Duke Lester...!"
"Giving me fake Sedative, were you planning to put me in a difficult situation?"
Shed growled like a beast and pressed down on his neck again.
Thick veins stood out on Eclaus's neck, and Eclaus, unable to breathe, shook his head, his mouth agape.
"W-What...!"
As he gasped for breath as if he were about to die, Shed threw him onto the messy floor.
Crash! He stumbled roughly, gasping for the barely opened air, and curled up.
Scratched by shards of porcelain scattered on the floor, a red line was drawn on his white cheek. A heavy pain spread through his back where he had hit.
Shed crushed the shards of porcelain on the floor and approached Eclaus again.
The tip of a black shoe lifted Eclaus's head, which was stuck to the floor.
"Why did you give me fake medicine?"
Shed asked him threateningly.
The quick-witted merchant realized that the 'medicine' he was talking about meant Sedative.
"Fake medicine, I clearly gave you the highest grade of Sedative..."
"Is this damn medicine the highest grade Sedative?"
Along with the impatient voice, a medicine bottle rolled and fell in front of Eclaus.
Only one or two pills remained in the medicine bottle, rolling around.
"...Did you perhaps take all of this?"
Eclaus picked up the medicine bottle and asked.
Shed didn't bother to answer, but Eclaus realized that his silence was affirmative.
"And yet you're still like this..."
Eclaus forgot the situation he was in and looked back and forth between the medicine bottle and Shed.
There should have been thirty pills in it.
One or two pills were enough for a normal Lupus, and three or four pills would make them too drowsy to function in daily life.
Five pills would weaken them to the point where they couldn't control their body, which was dangerous.
Ten pills could make even a Demon Beast lethargic enough to be caught, but what is this man...
"Are you out of your mind, eating all of this?"
Eclaus staggered and stood up.
To be standing on two feet perfectly fine after taking that much Sedative.
"Damn it, no matter how much I eat, it doesn't work!"
Bang! Shed raised his voice and got angry.
"Shh...! Lower your voice! Are you going to spread the rumor that you're in heat?"
Eclaus frowned and calmed the agitated Shed.
If it becomes known that he is in heat, and moreover, that he is in such a strong heat that even Sedative doesn't work, many things will go wrong.
Eclaus regained his composure and checked Shed's condition.
He had taken all the Sedative, but it seemed that excitement that hadn't completely subsided remained in his body.
He could even see the veins bulging in his neck throbbing.
He could see scratches all over his body. Judging by the size of the wounds, they didn't seem to be from Liana. It seemed like traces of self-harm to try to suppress his desires alone.
"There is definitely no problem with the Sedative."
Eclaus was confident that he could give the remaining Sedative to another Lupus to check.
If rumors about Shed's heat spread, the Vittel family would suffer enormous losses. There were more than one or two businesses being prepared in partnership with the Lester family.
There was no way he would have prepared fake Sedative.
At Eclaus's innocence, Shed gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.
"Then why the hell...!"
He recalled the lust that had dominated him.
He was horrified and disgusted by himself for being unable to control it no matter what he did.
The image of Liana crying wouldn't leave his mind.
"Your Excellency knows more about Lupus than I do, right? You must have talked a lot about heat problems too..."
Rather, it was Eclaus who was frustrated.
But Shed didn't know anything about this situation either.
The Lupus he had met so far would take Sedative and rest or go about their usual lives when they showed signs of heat.
He thought it was a simple problem that could be solved with just medicine.
Eclaus frowned as he looked at Shed, who was in confusion.
"So... what did you do to Liana?"
At the name Liana, which popped out, Shed looked at him, surprised like someone who had been pricked by a thorn.
"Did you... see Liana?"
"Did you force yourself on her...?"
Eclaus asked instead of answering.
He felt like he could understand those who hated Lupus for the first time.
Why they were called beasts, why they couldn't escape the slave class for so long.
And that was the same for Shed himself.
Eclaus's jaw tightened as Shed turned his head without answering.
"Answer me."
"Don't worry... nothing you're worried about happened."
Shed looked at Eclaus with a cynical sneer.
Self-hatred was reflected in the faintly twisted corners of his lips.
"Don't worry? After making Liana like that...?"
Shed reacted sensitively again to Liana's name.
Shed couldn't make any excuses in front of him.
He had nothing to say with the beastly mouth that had craved her lips.
Even Shed's silence felt hateful to Eclaus.
"Let Liana go."
At Eclaus's cold advice, Shed raised his eyelids with a seemingly brutal light.
"Let her go?"
"Then are you going to keep her with you? Even after this?"
Eclaus didn't even blink an eye in front of Shed's murderous intent.
He wasn't afraid of the Duke's threats. What he feared was not such irrational and foolish threats, but the failures and destruction caused by them.
"She will only be harmful to Your Excellency."
Shed's eyes trembled.
Liana is harmful to me?
That can't be. Harmful, she is to me... to me...
Shed narrowed his eyes and frowned, as if he couldn't remember something.
What exactly is she to me?
"Send her to München or kick her out to a place where she can't be seen, deal with her somehow."
"That won't do."
Shed shook his head as if he was confused.
"Then are you going to do this again when the next heat comes? Are you going to keep seeing Liana after making her like that? Are you out of your mind?"
Eclaus's voice, which had been questioning one by one, became increasingly agitated.
Shed clenched his fist tightly.
What Eclaus was saying was all correct.
But for some reason, he couldn't agree.
"I'll give you one more piece of advice. Get Liana out of here right now. Before the tower you've built up collapses further."
Eclaus stood firm and didn't give in.
Shed looked at him, who was stubborn.
It was advice given out of genuine concern, but Eclaus's voice somehow felt like it had another intention.
"...Strange."
Eclaus had never been so direct and involved in this way while they had been together.
Rather than fighting head-on to get what he wanted, he was the type of person who cleverly obtained it by creating situations.
But... the current Eclaus is different from usual.
He seems to be emotionally excited rather than cleverly using his head.
"Why are you so desperate to get Liana out?"
As Shed asked sharply, his red eyes unpleasantly wavered.
Shed's eyes narrowed as he witnessed the ripples spreading in his red eyes.
"...Is it because of that bet?"
The bet that the maids had made.
That day, Eclaus said that Liana's escape would be faster, and Shed naturally bet on the side that putting her on the bed would be faster.
Shed believed that the bet would be an unanswerable, eternal parallel line.
Liana would never be able to get out of here, and he had no intention of sleeping with Liana.
That's what it was supposed to be...
"Do you think I'm doing this just because of a bet?"
Eclaus's brow furrowed deeply.
"Isn't it? It's a matter of a million Della for you."
As far as Shed knew, Ecless Vittel was a man who weighed and calculated everything.
Even if he seemed to act without thinking, all his smiles, gestures, decisions, and considerations were all calculated actions.
So Shed thought that his unusually distorted expression was the same.
But the cunning merchant blamed him, getting angry in defiance of justice.
"Is the bet important to Duke Lester, even after making Liana like that?"
"The bet is important to you."
Shed was displeased with Eclaus's rebellious eyes, which were different from usual.
Something, a dangerous scheme beyond what he thought, seemed to be hidden in his eyes.
An unknown anxiety touched his sharp intuition.
Then Eclaus was silent for a moment and then opened his mouth again.
"...Yes. It's because of the bet."
Eclaus said, wiping the blood flowing from the wound on his cheek with the back of his hand.
Shed saw his red eyes flashing calculatingly.
As if he had forgotten to calculate until now and acted, as if he had just realized his duty, Eclaus's eyes changed.
