The Trash Lady Who Stole the Duke's First Night
Chapter 6
The woman hurled the ax she had been using to chop firewood and roared.
“Damn it, did that bastard of a Count hit you again?”
“No…?”
“Bullshit! Like hell he didn’t! That rotten piece of shit, always beating on someone no bigger than a fist—what the hell is his problem?!”
Elio stared up blankly at the woman, who was as massive as the sky.
In all her nine years of life, she had never seen a woman so huge or with such a foul mouth. Even her accent was bizarre. Where on earth was she from?
“I-I’m really okay. Hehe.”
Yet somehow, she liked the way the woman spoke. So Elio never told a soul that a strange woman lived on the mountain behind the Count’s estate.
“Laughing like a half-wit.”
Though she seemed cranky, the woman was surprisingly tender-hearted. The very first time she laid eyes on Elio, she had clicked her tongue and muttered, To think a little half-wit like this is a dragon….
How had she known Elio was a descendant of dragons the instant she saw her? None of the other people knew. Even Elio herself had only found out on her ninth birthday. When a startled Elio nodded to confirm she was indeed a dragon descendant, the woman had flicked her forehead so hard it brought tears to her eyes.
She told Elio never to admit her identity to anyone, and that from now on, she had to keep deceiving humans.
She said the peaceful era where dragons and humans coexisted was over.
“Look at you. You think this is funny? Your face is all split open!”
“I’m really okay. Hehe.”
Elio glanced at the woman’s empty sleeve.
She had no right arm. Her entire body was covered in scars. When they first crossed paths, Elio had nearly fainted from fright, but she wasn’t scared anymore. The woman never hit her.
Elio’s body was suddenly scooped up and set down on a tree stump.
The woman could lift anything effortlessly, even with just one arm. She was truly an astonishing person.
“That’s a terrible habit of yours. You know that?”
“W-What is?”
The woman leaned down, fixing Elio with a fierce glare.
Why is she angry…?
Elio pressed down on her thumb and tentatively pulled up the corners of her mouth. She tried squinting her eyes into a sweet smile.
Pretty, look pretty….
“Hehe, hic!”
The woman grabbed the corners of Elio’s mouth and dragged them down. Then she pinched the slanted corners of her half-moon eyes and yanked them upward.
“Why are you always forcing yourself to smile like that?”
“I’m nawt. I’m reawwy oh-kay. It duzn’t huwt at aww.”
“All while anxiously reading everyone’s expressions, too. Huh?”
Releasing Elio’s face, the woman scowled fiercely and spoke.
“Look. Copy unnie’s expression.”
It was the face of a villainous boss.
Elio rolled her eyes and awkwardly put on a sulky, grumpy pout.
“Copy the way I talk, too. If you go around acting like a clueless pushover, people are gonna beat the crap out of you and walk all over you. Repeat after unnie.”
“What should I say…?”
The woman silently looked down at Elio, who was gazing up at her hesitantly, and patted her blonde hair, which had been torn out in patches down to her ears.
“Forget it. Unnie will do all the cursing for you until you’re an adult.”
The woman placed a smooth pebble into Elio’s hands, which had been nervously picking at her thumbnail.
Holding the pebble in a daze, Elio looked up at her. The woman cleared her throat, plopped down toward the direction of the Count’s estate, and opened her mouth.
In that instant, Elio’s eardrums nearly burst.
At the torrential outpouring of the woman’s incomprehensible rage, even the toucans shrieked and took flight all at once.
Elio covered her ears with the hands holding the pebble. Even with her ears clamped shut, the booming voice reverberated so intensely that the entire forest seemed ready to collapse.
“You goddamn son of a bitch! Waaah, it hurts like hell! Why are you hitting me, waaah! It hurts, it hurts! Sob, sob!”
Elio’s round eyes went even wider.
Now the woman was lying flat on the dirt, rolling around.
A fully grown unnie, a muscular unnie….
Throwing a tantrum like a spoiled baby….
What in the world… She looks like an ugly fool. It’s so weird.
After rolling around and screaming at the top of her lungs for quite a while, the woman locked eyes with Elio.
She stopped flailing her limbs, roughly dusted off the dirt clinging to her Holy Knight uniform, and strode over to Elio.
Brushing away the red rims around Elio’s eyes, she gathered the girl up in her single, sturdy arm.
“See? You’re not okay. Cry some more.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Elio’s shut eyelids fluttered, a flickering yellow light dancing across her blurring vision.
The crackling fire burned hot. Sultry air enveloped her body, and she could feel sweat beading along the nape of her neck and her hands.
Lifting her hand in a daze, she found it clean, devoid of mud and wounds. Her face, which she touched with trembling fingers, was the same.
“Shouldn’t we wake the lady up now?”
Flinching, she curled her fingertips inward. Beyond the campfire, she could hear the hushed whispers of knights.
There was no stench of rot, nor the smell of blood. Instead, the savory scent of something roasting tickled the tip of her nose.
The ogres… did they kill them all?
How long had she been asleep? A crimson sunset filtered through the dense canopy of leaves. She gently stroked her hair, which shimmered in the twilight glow.
It was smooth. Not a single trace of mud remained.
She blinked slowly. The low laughter of the knights drifted around her ears, and a cool mountain breeze brushed against her heated cheeks.
It felt as though she had just emerged from an endless illusion, as if everything had been a dream.
“Her Highness the Imperial Princess was head over heels for the Commander, wasn’t she? Just the sight of his hair had her blushing, completely at a loss.”
“Right you are. Whenever she looked at the Commander, Her Highness’s eyes would sparkle like jewels.”
A jolt of awareness struck her dazed mind.
The faint hope she had harbored—that it might merely be an emotionless political marriage—crumbled away. That bleak, creeping dread began to rise once more. Strangled by the grim realization that she had become the wretched homewrecker who stole the Imperial Princess’s beloved, she couldn’t even swallow her dry saliva.
“Still, aren’t you surprised by Lady Aquitaine?”
She heard her own name. Her body, curled up in feigned sleep, went rigid.
“I was stunned, truly. A lady who looks so frail and delicate….”
“You can’t judge by appearances. I’m telling you, she’s harboring a pterodactyl inside! I’ve never seen a noble lady that fierce.”
“Her rolling in the mud was even wilder.”
“Looked pretty cool to me, honestly. Better than some lady who just faints, isn’t it?”
A sharp, stinging heat rose behind Elio’s eyelids. Her jaw dropped in disbelief at the knights who had watched her struggle without lifting a finger.
“Running your mouths like that, I suppose you’re all craving more of my affection.”
At the low voice cutting through the air, Elio sprang upright like a startled chicken.
Carlos strode soundlessly out from the thicket. Watching him wring the water from his black robe looked so much like someone snapping a neck that her heart shrank in terror.
Even so, her eyes blazed fiercely as she glared at him.
When he tilted his head toward the knights while holding his scabbard, the younger knights shook their heads vigorously with all their might.
“Why don’t you eat something?”
Carlos remarked, tossing his scabbard down with a thud. The squires all glanced at her now that she was awake, only to awkwardly look away.
…Vile Carlos. Mean Carlos. Rotten-to-the-core Carlos.
Elio bit her lip, already raw and red from nervous chewing, and was about to snap her head away when her chin was caught in his grasp.
Down on one knee before her, the man’s pitch-black eyes reflected her stiffened face. His cool, dripping-wet face was suddenly right in front of hers.
“You’ve been asleep for seven hours. Aren’t you hungry?”
“…….”
“Or starve, then.”
As Carlos turned to leave, Elio instinctively reached out and clutched his cloak as if clinging for dear life.
Carlos poked through the campfire, fishing out round objects one by one. Then, he piled charred potatoes and jerky in front of her like swill for a pig.
Waiting for the potatoes to cool a little, Elio chewed deliberately on the jerky. The savory, salty meat melted softly in her mouth.
Carlos snatched up a piping-hot potato, gave it the barest attempt at peeling, and bit right into it.
Steam billowed from the fluffy white flesh. The way it mashed so tenderly made it look perfectly cooked. Saliva pooled in her mouth.
He let out a faint chuckle and turned his head.
“Want me to peel it for you?”
“……N-No thanks.”
Rolling the hot potato across the blanket, Elio mumbled under her breath, barely loud enough to be heard.
“…Didn’t even bother killing the ogre, but now he’s offering to peel potatoes….”
“That’s unfair. I did kill it for you.”
“After taking your sweet time? You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
…What a jerk. He doesn’t even deny it.
He really seems insane. I have no idea what’s going on in that head of his. Did you enjoy watching me roll around in the dirt?
Carlos’s black hair fluttered softly in the wind. As he took another bite of his potato, he looked entirely unbothered, without a shred of remorse.
Elio kept glaring at him before sharply looking away.
“Well, fine. I understand.”
She plucked a green leaf that had drifted over on the breeze and spoke nonchalantly.
“I suppose… Sir Knight’s skills were just a tiiiiny, tiiiiny bit lacking to finish off the ogre and rush over to save me. I’ll just assume your body couldn’t keep up.”
She scratched the ground with a pebble, then flicked it aside.
Chirp, chirp.
Only the cries of summer insects echoed from the grass. He continued to eat his potato, saying nothing.
As his silence stretched on, her mouth grew parched with the sudden worry that she might have been too insolent.
……Losing your damn mind and acting all sassy. Why are you getting so emotional? What if he just dumps you in the mountains and leaves?
I should apologize right away… take it back….
“While you were asleep, the horses spent quite a while throwing up.”
Carlos brushed off his hands and spoke calmly.
Taken aback by the unexpected reply, Elio nervously watched his expression.
“Because we covered an eight-hour distance in five.”
Carlos moved over to sit across from her. Lifting her downcast chin, he met her gaze.
“This was the only place with clean water to wash off the mud. We rode hard without resting. That’s why my whole body is stiff.”
The moment he finished speaking, the knights, who had been eating silently until then, began murmuring among themselves.
“The ones who rode like mad were us and the horses… Why is the Commander taking credit when he was riding in the carriage?”
“Hey, shut up and just eat your potato.”
Completely ignoring the knights’ chatter, Carlos tugged at the tip of her hair.
“I personally washed away the clumps of mud tangled in here, too.”
A lazy smile curved on his lips.
“Ah. In case you caught a summer cold—which even dogs avoid—I used water heated with a Warming Stone.”
The knights muttered loudly enough for Leon to hear.
“Isn’t that Sir Leon’s Warming Stone?”
“The Commander truly has thick skin.”
Elio blinked rapidly. Preoccupied with eating, she hadn’t given a single thought to how she had ended up so clean. Her swallow sounded loud in the quiet air.
So right now, my body—no, my hair…. Wait, he deliberately took his time rescuing me, and now he’s bragging about cleaning up after me? Is he fishing for credit? Is he feeling guilty…? It feels like he’s just bragging… Is he telling me to be grateful…?
“Th… Thank you.”
“Ah. One more thing.”
As she looked away, he leaned in close to her ear.
“I changed you out of your muddy clothes, too.”
His low whisper seeped excruciatingly slowly into her mind.
Elio, whose mouth had started to fall open, clamped her teeth shut.
His calm gaze, staring at her as if seeing right through her soul, made her mind go entirely blank.
Did he… see my body?
