The Trash Lady Who Stole the Duke's First Night
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“I didn’t expect you to be curious about my love life when our relationship is purely for show.”
“I-I wasn’t curious, I was just verifying the facts.”
“Ah. Verifying. About my lover?”
Elio glared at him, unconsciously rubbing hard at her cheek and lips where his fingers had grazed.
“If you do have a lover, there are things I need to be careful about. You don’t have to hide it for no reason, so please just tell me honestly.”
“Careful about what?”
Elio hesitated. Through the bangs tousled by the wind, the man’s beast-like gaze, fixed intently on her, was deep and calm.
“…Just… if you don’t, then never mind.”
Seeing his expression darken into a frown, Elio quickly changed the subject.
“A-anyway, I know you went very easy on me, Sir.”
“…….”
“Unnie was much faster than you.”
Meeting his surprised gaze, Elio grew slightly excited and added,
“When Unnie puts her mind to it, she moves so fast she’s practically invisible. She isn’t just good at swordsmanship like knights, either—she’s great at hand-to-hand combat and can win against twenty people at once. There’s nothing she can’t do. Her self-defense skills are the absolute best. I bet she’s stronger than most knights!”
Dumbfounded by her proud, delighted manner, Carlos let out a dry chuckle and quietly asked where on earth that woman was now.
Her round eyes blinked at him before she smiled.
“Probably in heaven.”
Offering another bright smile, she stuffed her mouth full of leafy greens.
❖ ❖ ❖
“The woman Aquitaine mentioned. Who do you think she is?”
“The one with one arm missing?”
In the sitting room attached to the inn’s largest suite, heavy with damp humidity, Carlos lit a cigar.
Leon, who had been polishing magic stones spread across the center table of the sitting room, chimed in as if he had been waiting for the question.
“Maybe she’s Valentin….”
“Valentin is dead.”
Carlos cut him off coldly.
“Since there were ancient Northern Continent characters written there, she might be someone from the Kingdom of Cyprus.”
“…Well, yes. Should we look into it? It’s not like one-armed female swordsmen are common. She might be a relative of Valentin’s, or….”
Pitter. Patter.
Leon’s lingering, hopeful words tangled with the sound of rain tapping against the window.
“…But couldn’t it really be Valentin? I still can’t believe Valentin died because of the Evil Dragon. With skills like Valentin and Yunus had, together with the Lobitan knights, they easily could have won.”
“…….”
“……If that one-armed woman really is Valentin, and she’s just in hiding due to severe injuries but still alive, wouldn’t we be able to get information about dragons? We came back empty-handed from subjugating the Evil Dragon this time anyway. Damn it. We need to find a Dragon quickly. Madam will pass away before we even find one.”
Carlos took a deep drag of his cigar and loosely flicked the ash.
At the incessant whining of a puppy in the courtyard, he finally wiped a hand over his tired face and turned around. Resting his hands on the railing, he stared out into the darkening window.
❖ ❖ ❖
Elio padded along the inn corridor as if walking through a dream.
Her small, sleep-laden steps moved past the stairs and softly touched down on the first floor.
“…Calm down a bit! I’m just saying we should look for her again.”
“Damn it! Just look for her? Valentin? If we find her, we ought to tear her limb from limb! That’s why I told you not to go with that woman! If we track down that traitor now, what are we going to do with her? Kill the mother and spare the daughter? For ten whole years, we prayed for her soul every single year—just thinking about finding out she was a spy after all that makes my blood boil!”
Her round eyes hurriedly scanned the empty first-floor dining room, landing on Toby and Leon, frozen in a chilly standoff.
“…….”
“…….”
It felt like someone had just been shouting. Though their eyes met hers, neither spoke a single word. As the air grew colder and heavier, Elio gripped the stair railing and swallowed hard.
They hate me.
Even without words, the men’s needle-sharp silence pierced her skin. Her lips trembling, Elio instinctively looked up toward the second floor like a baby bird seeking its mother.
Just then, Carlos’s door opened.
The moment their eyes met, the man let out a sigh with a cold expression, making her throat tighten even further.
Sweeping back his disheveled hair, Carlos took out a gold cigar case. His tunic, loose enough to expose his collarbone, gave off a languid air.
‘Why are you shaking?’
Elio stared blankly at the shape of his lips, looking like a thug whispering a threat.
…W-what is he saying?
Just as Elio knitted her brows, Toby barked loudly.
“Leon! Pass me some rags! Damn it! The bleeding won’t stop, what a pain.”
“If you’re getting so old, why don’t you step down as vice-commander? Bleeding all over just from killing a few gargoyles after working your ass off?”
Leon casually tossed a cloth from the table.
Elio moistened her lips, glancing back and forth between the sharp-tempered wizard and Toby’s bleeding forearm.
Clenching and unclenching her sweaty hands, she stood there like an invisible ghost for a moment before hesitantly stepping up to Toby.
“Fuck. What?”
“F-fu….”
As Elio’s eyes widened at the sudden curse, Toby scratched the back of his neck and scowled.
“…I’m always like this, so don’t go expecting treatment fit for the Commander’s fiancée. If you want that kind of pampering, call off the engagement right now.”
“W-who asked to be treated like a fiancée? I don’t need that either!”
Standing three steps away from Toby, Elio stretched her arm out as long as a gibbon’s.
Her eyes darted around like an orphaned fledgling before drifting back up toward the second floor.
Carlos was gazing down intently at her from the stair railing.
“What’s this?”
“…It’s a Potion.”
Startled, Elio dropped her gaze back down. Her mouth went dry.
“A Potion, so what?”
“You said the bleeding wouldn’t stop.”
Up close, the wound looked quite deep. Seeing him chugging beer without even properly stopping the bleeding left her dumbfounded.
“When were you hurt… You need to stop the bleeding quickly….”
“When do you think? While you were fast asleep in the carriage, my lady.”
“Sleeping like a log is the most helpful thing she can do. Why the hell are those monster bastards crawling all the way down to the village anyway? Even with the Evil Dragon gone, it’s endless. Isn’t a real Monster War going to break out at this rate?”
Having openly rebuked her, the men began chatting noisily amongst themselves.
Did monsters attack on the way to the inn?
With a flushed face, Elio swallowed hard. Since she had truly just slept the entire time, she hadn’t caught the slightest glimpse of a Monster.
Did Carlos intentionally not wake me? No, how did I not wake up while they were fighting monsters? And why are monsters coming all the way down to the village?
Amidst all the questions, she wondered why Carlos hadn’t pushed her out of the carriage this time.
While relieved that his test of her might be over, an equal wave of anxiety washed over her. She wondered if he had simply decided there was nothing more to see now that she was proven to be a coward and an incompetent lady who couldn’t even wield a sword properly. …I don’t even have any money yet. What if he kicks me out right away?
“Why waste a potion on something like that? I’m telling you, just resign as vice-commander already.”
Leon sneered, watching Toby stare silently at the potion.
“I-it’s not ‘something like that.’ If it gets infected, it’ll become inflamed, and you could get a fever. The effect of this is….”
As soon as Elio stammered her reply, Toby furrowed his brow.
“Fuck. You think I’m some weakling like you, my lady? Keep it and slather it on yourself. Don’t go being a nuisance to us. The wizard is our offensive firepower—are you going to make him waste his mana just healing a lady’s fingernails?”
At the man’s blatant hostility and antagonism, the back of Elio’s neck stiffened. Only now did she realize that her hands, scraped raw from digging in the mud, had healed on their own, and a pang of sorrow welled up inside her.
Barely suppressing the urge to look up at Carlos on the second floor, she curled her trembling fingertips into fists.
A terribly low masculine sigh brushed against her ear.
“…I’m sorry. But I didn’t ask for it. I’ll take care of myself from now on, so you don’t need to use healing magic on me—”
“‘Please treat me as your fiancée. Are you putting on airs over a little bit of mana?’”
Elio flinched and lifted her head at the man’s voice overlapping hers.
“‘I am a fragile little rabbit. For you gentlemen to gang up on such a weak little rabbit, your consciences must be worthless scraps of cloth.’”
“Fuck… The one with no conscience is you, Commander.”
Toby grimaced fiercely at Carlos, who spoke in a drawling tone.
Elio’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly at Carlos, who was standing right behind her back. Lighting his cigar, he gave a sharp grin. Thick smoke drifted lazily through the air.
“‘I’m terrified. Please smooth out that hideous scowl. This faint-hearted little rabbit’s heart is about to stop. Even though I’m just a little rabbit…’”
“D-don’t call me a little rabbit!”
Elio yelled at him, her face burning bright red.
Carlos arched an eyebrow.
Her blush spreading down to the nape of her neck, Elio bit her lip again. She utterly ignored the man who kept teasing her with ‘little rabbit, little rabbit.’ He was the absolute most irritating sight.
“Hey, is having a loud voice all you’re good for? Stop trembling like that. Damn it, is someone trying to eat you alive?”
Toby clicked his tongue at Elio’s violently trembling hands and tapped the Potion bottle with a paw-like hand.
“I’ll open it for you.”
Even with her heart hammering as if it might burst, the thought suddenly struck Elio that this might be her chance to sell potions to the Lobitan knights.
It was only because they weren’t in the habit of using Healing Potions; once they tried one, they would surely love it.
“…This is really effective. For bruises or shallow cuts, applying it about three times will heal almost anything. Of course, you have to soak the wound thoroughly, which costs a fair bit, but it’s cheaper than summoning a wizard or a healer. And if you return home injured, your wife will be heartbroken…!”
“Wife? As if. That brown bear would be lucky to even have a girlfriend.”
As Leon shuddered in disgust, Toby scowled and parted his lips as if to shout something back.
Elio quickly cut in.
“You don’t? I was sure you would.”
“Who? That brown bear… Sir Toby?”
Didn’t he give off the vibe of a middle-aged man who definitely had children? Elio blinked rapidly and nodded.
“Because you’re the vice-commander of Lobitan, the continent’s finest knight order, so naturally you’d be popular with the ladies. Lobitan is the dream and envy of every lady—.”
Elio swallowed hard, her words trailing off.
Both Leon and Toby were staring at her with fierce, piercing eyes.
“……Even that damned sweet talk is the spitting image of a spy.”
