The Trash Lady Who Stole the Duke's First Night
Chapter 36
A deep furrow formed between his brows.
Choking the life out of Marquis Duran—the man who had agitated the court into punishing Aquitaine for using forbidden arts—would be child’s play. After all, the Marquis was the sort who feared losing his honor far more than losing his life.
However, while the Cyprus newspapers fairly reflected the truth under Carlos’s instructions, the Lübeck press seemed to be playing it safe, walking on eggshells around the old fogies of the House of Lords.
It made sense, considering Schuppenhardt had stayed out of external affairs for so long, but still…
Perhaps it’s time I stepped outside for a bit.
Carlos folded the newspaper and switched off the lamp. He looked quietly down at the young woman.
Watching her pale, tense face, his fingers tapped in a slow, rhythmic beat.
…Has she grown a little?
“Any—anyway-hic.”
Like a scruffy little pup, the woman coughed.
Carlos stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray and raised a brow.
“Any—anyway-hic. I already received my living expenses, so I don’t need it right away-hic. If I take it beforehand, I might lose it. I’ll take my knight’s salary when I leave.”
“…Where are you leaving to?”
“Sir. You said you’re on good terms with the Holy Knights, right?”
At her out-of-the-blue question, Carlos looked down toward his razor-sharp greatsword.
“Commander Pearlbuck… I mean… are you on good terms with His Highness the Prince, too?”
Still looking at his blade, he gave a slow nod.
“We get along.”
“You do?”
Elio furrowed her brows, recalling that Her Majesty the Empress and the Duchess were twin sisters—meaning they were technically cousins, so perhaps that was why.
Still, her aunt sent assassins after him every single day. Could he truly get along with his cousin under such circumstances? She felt dubious.
“Why do you ask about the Prince?”
Carlos tousled his hair, stood, and strode over to sit on the long bed bench right in front of her. Without hesitation, he rolled his shirt all the way up to his face, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“…Her Majesty the Empress sends assassins after you, Sir, so are you really on good terms with His Highness the Prince?”
Elio hastily tore her eyes away from his sculpted muscles. Even a fleeting glance at his stark, chiseled abdomen was embarrassing. The man acted as though he wouldn’t feel a shred of shame even if he stripped naked right in front of her; he didn’t seem to possess an ounce of decorum.
“A child has nothing to do with their parents.”
“Really?”
“The kid is sweet.”
“……His Highness the Prince is sweet?”
Elio stared back at the man who was gazing intently at her. His mother was trying to kill him, yet he thought the son was sweet…?
She tried to recall the face of the Prince who had barged into the Duke’s Castle a few days ago, but nothing came to mind except that distinctive, frivolous laughter of his.
…Well, fair enough. It wasn’t like the Prince was at fault.
After watching the man’s unreadable expression for a long moment as his eyes remained fixed on her face, Elio voiced her resolution.
“For now, the place I’m considering is the Holy Knights.”
Carlos’s eyes narrowed into slits, and the corner of his mouth hooked upward.
“…The Holy Knights? Are you saying you want to enlist under Pearlbuck?”
“No, not enlist entirely. I’m debating whether to accompany their subjugation squads as a purifier or healer, or just settle down in the Papal States. Thinking about it, knights buy the most potions, and I can cast purification on their swords and armor, right?”
Unlike the man’s heavy, quiet gaze, a bright cheer gradually seeped into her voice.
“Who knows? Maybe the knights will ask me to cast purification on flowers they want to gift to their girlfriends. Either way, earning money by the knights’ side seems the most stable and easiest path.”
Her eyes sparkling, Elio hugged her pillow tightly.
On top of that, rent in the Papal States was the cheapest, making it the most ideal territory in the Lübeck Empire.
All she needed was to gather her travel expenses and rent from Lobitan over the next three months. Her experience as a knight in Lobitan would surely carry weight on her resume, too.
She would only have to stay at the Duke’s Castle on weekday nights, and on weekends—the sabbath of God Himmel and the Archangel—she could rest in the village. As long as she carefully avoided His Grace the Duke and the Duchess, she might not even run into them…
If things went like this, everything would go smoothly. A gentle smile spread across her lowered face, when—
“Eek!”
Suddenly, Carlos lifted the woman, who was rolled up tightly in her teddy bear blanket, all at once. Carrying her in his arms, he strolled over and opened the door on the right wall.
“Wh-what are you doing? Where are we going?”
“To sleep.”
“Why are you taking me with you?!”
Carlos looked down at her flushed cheeks and pink lips with a calm gaze.
“What if an assassin breaks in?”
Holding the soft, tender weight of the woman who still carried her youthful baby fat, Carlos pulled another layer of the blanket over her, wrapping her securely.
“How am I supposed to sleep when I’m so scared?”
“I-If a Dragon Slayer is scared, then I’m even more terrified!”
Screeching and thrashing, Elio gasped for breath the moment she was forcefully laid onto the bed. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the closed eyes of the massive man lying boldly right beside her. Every breath he took, every rustle of the blanket made her body flinch.
“Are you going to keep staring?”
“I wasn’t staring!”
“Hurry up and sleep. You have to wake up early tomorrow.”
He spoke in a low, husky voice. Contemplating whether she should make a run for it right now, Elio whispered softly:
“Y-You told me to protect you.”
“If someone attacks. For now, sleep.”
…How does he know I’m looking when his eyes are closed?
Elio pulled the lavender blanket all the way up to just beneath her eyelashes and blinked rapidly.
The thick chest of the man, clad only in a thin robe without a single blanket over him, rose and fell slowly with his quiet breathing.
Why is he wearing just a robe? It gets cold at night!
Of course, Elio wasn’t cold in the slightest right now. The night in the mountain-encircled Duke’s Castle was undeniably chilly, yet her back was slick with sweat.
His quiet breathing filtered into the space between her frantic heartbeats.
She gazed blankly at his massive, thick chest muscles, the broad nape of his neck, his prominent Adam’s apple, and the firm expanse of his chest glistening with faint beads of sweat.
Her gaze drifted slowly higher.
His sharp jawline. His slightly parted red lips…
Frowning at how a man could have such long eyelashes, her eyes stretched wide in utter shock.
Her gaze had collided with his pitch-black eyes.
With a quiet look, he let out a deep sigh.
Just as the blushing Elio opened her mouth, her body was flipped around in an instant. By the time she stopped squirming and grasped the situation, he had already settled directly behind her back.
“Y-You scared the life out of me! Why did you switch positions all of a sudden?”
“Because you keep staring at me instead of sleeping. Stop looking and go to sleep. I’ll let you look all you want when you wake up tomorrow.”
“I told you I wasn’t staring!”
“Right.”
He chuckled softly once more.
“…This is making it even harder to sleep! Please don’t stick so close to me.”
“Why? You had no problem marching into my tent before. Shameless.”
Pressed against Elio’s back as she lay cocooned in the blanket, he rested a heavy arm over her body and drawled lazily.
“That was then! We had separate sleeping bags, and a bed and a tent are entirely different concepts! Lying close together in a bed is only for officially married cou—couples, or…”
“You’re lying here right now as my guard knight.”
Could he harbor even a fingernail’s worth of ulterior motives toward me? Elio, who had spent the last six years as an avid romance novel reader, bit her nails while trying to deduce the man’s inner thoughts before letting out an incredulous laugh.
“If you sleep in the same bed with every new knight who joins, isn’t this just a shameless harem? Did Sir Grita sleep in your bed when she joined too? Did you do that back in the Military Academy dorms, too?”
“You’re the first.”
“……I’m the first?”
“Yeah. You’re also the first knight so unproven and weak.”
Awakening every single one of his senses so he could detect even the slightest rustle outside the castle, Carlos drew her waist closer.
“I’ve become quite fearful lately. I wonder why the Empress hasn’t sent any assassins after me.”
He enveloped her wriggling body with his massive frame, as if shielding her from sight.
“…Could she be aiming for my tender weakness?”
Startled by the solid forearm locked around her waist, Elio froze stiff as a statue. She couldn’t even bring herself to shake off the man who was murmuring in such an exhausted voice about becoming fearful.
“Th-That’s why I’m saying, I don’t think any assassins will come tonight at all.”
The man did not answer, and Elio’s face burned crimson.
“Besides, do we really have to share a bed to protect each other? I think this is actually far more inefficient. Both of us could die at the same ti—… Sir?”
Only the chirping of night insects and the steady rhythm of his breathing reached her ears.
“Are you asleep?”
Her jaw dropped in disbelief. How could he fall asleep so quickly while sharing a bed with a lady?
With all her senses hyper-focused on the thick forearm clamped around her waist, her nerves felt as taut as walking on a razor’s edge even while lying completely still.
He offered no answer, only his quiet breath brushing the nape of her neck.
With trembling eyes, Elio stared intently at the dagger resting on the nightstand beside the bed. While the ticking second hand of the clock completed dozens of rotations, he didn’t twitch an inch, his breathing remaining entirely serene.
…He really is fast asleep!
Frowning, she curled her back even more like a caterpillar.
He played me for a fool again…
“…So annoying. You’re no gentleman at all.”
“Is that so?”
Elio thrashed like a fish tossed onto dry land, startled out of her skin.
Her slender nape was exposed through the rumpled blankets. Carlos quietly pulled the teddy bear blanket back up, tucking it all the way to the tip of her ear.
“So you’re running off to Pearlbuck because he’s a gentleman?”
Elio pressed both clutched fists over her heart, gasping for air. Only after catching her ragged breath did she manage to speak.
“You startled me! Why didn’t you answer before?”
Unbothered, he continued slowly.
“Don’t go to Pearlbuck.”
“Why? That’s my choice.”
“Because he isn’t a gentleman.”
“…And you think you are, Sir? You’re like a rock-hard, bitter radish of a man.”
Truly, this man lacked all sense of chivalry and wasn’t a gentleman in the least. He was just a man who teased her morning, noon, and night.
“I’m a gentleman at night.”
With a body as blazing as a wild beast, he spoke as calm as a tranquil sea.