The Trash Lady Who Stole the Duke's First Night
Chapter 7
“My body…!”
The moment she parted her lips in shock, the knights who had been eating potatoes froze all at once.
As if they had been eavesdropping the entire time.
Elio sprang to her feet and strode away at a near sprint, gripping Carlos’s wrist with all her might as she bolted.
Though his wrist was so thick and solid that, rather than seizing it, her fingers barely managed to rest against it.
She couldn’t even bring herself to say, ‘Let’s talk over there for a moment,’ so she simply dragged him along without a word.
There were so many things she wanted to demand—just what on earth was he doing to her?—but everything tangled together in her mind, leaving her at a loss for words.
“Ah…!”
Suddenly, her wrist was yanked back, and her back bumped right against a firm chest.
A solid forearm crossed over the nape of her neck, wrapping around her slender shoulder. Enfolded by his warm body heat, she stiffened involuntarily.
“You should watch where you’re going.”
A tree trunk loomed right in front of her eyes. They had already walked deep enough into the woods that heavy shadows cast over everything around them.
“Just how far in are you planning to go?”
A low, quiet voice resonated by her ear.
Elio shrank back, turning around and taking a step away.
“My body, m-my body… I mean, what, what are we to each other anyway? We’re practically strangers. So why did you go and change my clothes without my permission?”
Her cheeks flushed hot with no sign of cooling down. Her entire body burned as though she had been plunged into a scalding bath. Looking down at her clothes only made another wave of shame rush over her, setting her chin to trembling.
Instead of the mud-splattered gray dress, she was wearing a clean, ivory-colored dress.
Did he take her lightly just because she had shown him her bruised body first? Had he stripped off even her undergarments as if handling rotting mold?
The thought of her bruised, naked body was so humiliating that tears threatened to spill.
“E-Even if it couldn’t be helped given the situation… talking so casually about changing my clothes in front of the other knights wasn’t right. You should have given at least a little thought to how h-humiliating it would be for me.”
Her bruised emotions surged up in choked waves.
“I… I didn’t roll around in the mud for fun. When everyone—when all of you were just standing by watching. And you, you’ve treated this as a j-joke from start to finish…”
Elio lowered her gaze, following the man’s eyes that weren’t looking at her face.
At the end of his gaze, her hands were trembling violently.
She hastily hid both hands behind her back. Feeling suddenly stripped bare, the rims of her eyes stung with heat.
“Then should I say it again, with proper weight and gravity?”
His tone was calm and dry.
“About how I stripped off your clothes.”
“That’s not what I’m asking for!!”
“Then what do you want?”
…An apology?
Would she dare tell the Young Duke to apologize?
After all, it was true that he had crossed the Ogre Mountain Range with her and saved her. Was she going to demand an apology for changing her clothes?
Elio bit her lip, watching the dense thicket sway in the wind.
She had no idea what she even wanted from this man. She didn’t know what the point of a conversation like this was, either. It felt like she was the only one flustered and pacing around… and she hated it so much…
“Lobitan has plenty of female knights. Though I only brought one along this time.”
He said, brushing past her. Elio furrowed her brow. In her entire life, she had never seen a female knight—except for unnie, who had always worn a holy knight’s uniform while throwing a fit that she wasn’t a knight.
“She changed you, so don’t worry.”
His voice drifted back from a few paces away.
“It’s best to wash off the mud quickly. If mud soaked with ogre blood stays on your skin for too long, the toxins might cause a skin infection.”
When she turned around, he had already pulled ahead. His strides were so long that he was already disappearing behind the thick bushes.
The moment he vanished from sight completely, she hurried after him.
“Were you teasing me again? You are truly no gentleman, Sir!”
“Oh. It seems you were expecting a gentleman.”
Elio couldn’t even reply as she braced herself against the muddy ground. While he walked with total ease, taking even a single step was a struggle for her.
Why were there so many vines on the path? Thick tree roots jutted out like rugged serpents, carpeting the ground. One wrong step and she would trip and fall.
Knowing full well that she was chasing after him, the man didn’t slow his pace in the slightest.
…Seriously. What is his problem?
Chivalry? Not a shred of it. None at all.
She had no reason to follow him—in fact, she found it absurd that she was chasing after him at all—yet with him walking off and leaving her all alone in the deep woods, her feet moved on their own.
“Then what about killing the ogre so late?”
The question she had been holding back burst out.
“To see how strong you were.”
Elio stopped in her tracks just as she was about to step over a tree root thicker than her torso. The excuse was utterly bizarre.
“Why would you test how strong I am?”
“Because I like strong things.”
W-What absolute nonsense.
“Then you must be sorely disappointed! Since I’m not strong in the least.”
“Why? I quite liked the pterosaur and the mud doll.”
He stopped. Turning around with a relaxed smile playing on his lips, he extended a hand.
Elio stared blankly for a moment at his face, bathed in the sunset filtering through the dense canopy of leaves, before puffing out her cheeks.
What? It’s not like he’s helping me walk. What am I supposed to do with a hand reached out from that far away?
“Come here.”
Am I a puppy?
Glaring at the man beckoning her as if calling a stray mutt, she scurried forward.
“…Just where are we going anyway?”
Pursing her lips, Elio grasped the tree root once more.
She clambered over a root as thick as an ogre’s leg, pushed aside a tangle of creeping vines, and hopped across.
When she hesitantly reached out near his feet, Carlos caught her wrist and hoisted her up in a single motion.
The moment Elio stood atop the colossal root, she looked around with wide, startled eyes. As she wobbled, he gave her shoulder a gentle nudge to steady her.
“A… A lake?”
Elio’s jaw dropped at the pool of water, which was vastly larger than the count’s manor.
“Go wash up. They couldn’t wipe down the rest of your body properly.”
“…With you right beside me, Sir?”
“Why? Afraid I’ll peek at a child taking a bath?”
Elio knitted her brow and parted her lips to speak, then clamped her mouth shut.
She studied the man, who was smiling as lightly as dawn air. Imitating the curve of his mouth, she subtly curled the corner of her own lips upward.
“It seems you’ve forgotten, Sir, but I had my coming-of-age ceremony this year. Which means I am a full-fledged, adult lady.”
“Right. An adult lady. Then I’ll be off ahead.”
He let out a dry chuckle and turned away without fanfare.
Elio shot a glare at his broad back and walked closer to the lake.
“Stick to the right side when you wash. The left side is brown bear territory.”
Elio froze in her tracks.
“Well, the bears are probably full and resting right now, so you should be fine.”
Elio shouted hurriedly toward Carlos’s retreating figure.
“Is it really bear territory?”
“Yeah.”
“W-What if the bear is hungry? It might be starving! W-What if it comes down for a drink instead of resting?”
“Put up a good fight. Want me to bring you a sword?”
Is this crazy bastard for real?!
❖ ❖ ❖
“Your eyes are closed, right? You mustn’t turn around…!”
“Ask me one more time, and I just might turn around and look.”
The man’s languid voice from behind the bushes drifted softly through the night air. A faint smile spread across Elio’s tense face.
Just how long had it been since she last bathed in water so clear and unpolluted?
She swished her hands through the crystal-clear water.
“……Um, Sir, I don’t know why you agreed to a fake first night and why you’re trying to get engaged to me. Seeing how you keep refusing to explain anything, I suppose it’s a secret. I’m not begging you to tell me, but…”
Elio was certain that the man was using her for some hidden reason.
The best-case scenario she could imagine was that he was using her to avoid a marriage with the Imperial Princess. She didn’t want to entertain any darker possibilities. The more she imagined all kinds of bloody motives, the more her blood seemed to run dry.
“…Once you achieve your goal, Sir. We’ll part ways then, won’t we?”
Looking down at the Warming Stone he had placed in the water for her, Elio felt both hope and anxiety stirring in a corner of her heart.
“I mean, of course we’ll part ways, but I need to know how long I have to live like this.”
Along with her sigh, the rustling of leaves swaying in the breeze and the distant cries of birds grew louder. Her fingers stopped tugging at the edge of his cloak, which she had draped around herself like a robe.
“Sir…? Are you listening to me?”
“I paid a fitting bride price for you. Why don’t you start by thinking about what duties a wife must fulfill?”
“I-I never asked for a bride price from you, Sir! In fact, I refused it outright! I never even saw a single coin of that money, and that was strictly between you and Father!”
“A wife’s duties generally consist of the bedchamber.”
Elio, who had been trying to sound composed despite her fluster, widened her eyes in shock.
“Managing the inner castle, commanding the emergency forces when the husband is away, educating the servants, overseeing the affairs of the vassals, hosting banquets for prominent merchant leaders up for contract renewal, inspecting food reserves for the winter freezes and rainy seasons, surveying local specialty production, patronizing artists to elevate the estate’s cultural refinement, and looking into the grievances of the estate’s people.”
Elio’s mouth hung open in a daze. She was utterly dumbfounded by the endless recitation tumbling from his lips.
“Is there even a single thing among these that you can do?”
Carlos muttered, sounding genuinely curious.
“Are you saying I have to do all of that?”
“It is only natural for a wife.”
Flabbergasted, Elio fumbled over her words. She couldn’t tell whether he truly intended to marry her or if he was simply teasing her.
And above all else—the bedchamber?
“You’re expecting an awful lot. Though you’ve left out the most important prerequisite.”
Determined not to let this shameless man push her around and to retort with even greater audacity, Elio steadied her voice, which was trembling like a bleating goat.
A countryside lady—no, a half-baked dragon discarded in the human realm without inheriting a single power—there was no way he would take her as his wife.
“Which is?”
“Love between a married couple. We aren’t in love, are we? We’re merely a couple in name, so what do you mean, the bedchamber?”
At the woman’s utterly naive retort, Carlos let out a dry smirk.
“Does one marry for love?”
“Yes. I intend to marry for love. Am I supposed to pretend to love you, too, when there’s not a shred of sincerity in it?”
Carlos chuckled softly and closed his tired eyes.
“I hardly know what use I’d have for your pretend love.”
“L-Leon-nim told me to act like we have a normal relationship in front of others! Of course, I don’t want to pretend to love you either, and you wouldn’t need it anyway, Sir. Plenty of cold couples sleep in separate bedrooms the moment they marry. Let’s just stay cold toward each other.”
Carlos, who had been scanning for traces of wild animals with his eyes closed, slowly turned his head.
“Ah. So you’re saying you’ll pretend in the bedroom?”
