/
[‘The Old Madam takes care of the Duke with her utmost sincerity and says that you might regain your consciousness if you have a wife that takes care of you…. She unilaterally forced your marriage.’
‘Hah!’]
Kaillus let out a cold sneer in disbelief.
It sounds like a decision made in consideration of him at first glance, but she was trying to have her hands and feet on him in reality. Perhaps, it was even to end the life of her stepson who was lying dead.
The Duchess will always be able to approach her husband, the Duke, without questions. What’s more, he was like being imprisoned under his wife’s hands since he was unconscious. Madam Quillian was indeed a woman who had a good head when it came to killing him.
[‘When did I get married?’
‘It hasn’t been long. It has been only two days since Little Madam came to the Duke’s house.’
‘Two days…. I’m glad I regained consciousness before it’s too late.’]
He would have died at the Duchess’ hands if a little more time had passed – the Duchess who came to become Madam Quillian’s limb.
Kaillus called the butler after thinking for a moment.
[‘Adolph.’
‘Yes, Duke.’
‘Keep it a secret for the time being that I am conscious.’
‘Yes?’]
Kaillus said calmly to the butler who didn’t quite understand the situation.
[‘The Duke is now in the hands of Madam Quillian. It must never be revealed that I have regained consciousness until I have reclaimed the vassals. Do you understand?’]
Judging by the time he woke up now, she must have had his limbs cut severed. First, he had to recover his disbanded knights and the vassals.
[‘I understand.’
‘And tell me everything you know about that woman – the woman who became the Duchess.’
‘Yes, Your Excellency.’]
So Kaillus heard from the butler about the woman who became his wife.
Then, with the dawning sky, he hurried back to his room.
“Haa, this is frustrating.”
Kaillus sighed heavily and shook his head.
He then looked around his room enveloped with darkness. His dark room was filled with anger, as if his reality had been taken hold of Madam Quillian.
But now is the time to take a step back first. He would become the scarecrow of the Duke’s family that had fallen to Madam Quillian’s hands if he moved too rashly.
“I have to find my people again.”
His aide Thesiri, and Captain David of his Black Lion Knights. He had to secretly find those two and raise the Knight Order again.
He will pull out his sword after he got what was rightfully his, and he will completely kill Madam Quillian this time. Not only that woman, but everyone who had ties to her would be killed. No one is an exception….
Kaillus paused as he continued his thoughts. Because he immediately remembered the conversation he had with the butler.
[‘The one who came in as the Duchess was Count Podoori’s eldest daughter, Alice Podoori.’
‘Count Podoori…. I am hearing about them for the first time. Is he not one of the central nobles?’
‘He’s a Count that lives in the western countryside, and he only had a title without a territory.’
‘A Count in disguise…. Madam Quillian looked for such person.’]
Madam Quillian couldn’t even choose a low-ranking family for his Duchess, so she searched for an empty Count.
A Count Podoori whose name wasn’t even known in the political world. They must have been just right for her taste. Even the Count couldn’t lose the opportunity of having the position of being the Duchess, even if it was a Duke nothing more than a living corpse – especially because they were having financial difficulties.
The following words of the butler were not very different from his expectations.
[‘Count Podoori needed money for the knighting of his eldest son, and Old Madam needed someone to follow her orders… so their transaction went smoothly. Also, rumor has it that Little Madam was nothing more than an abandoned daughter of Count Podoori.’
‘… That’s why she must’ve gotten married to the living corpse Duke.’]
Kaillus had been poisoned at that time, and he only remembered now for some reason. And it was getting on his nerves.
“An abandoned child….”
It was funny that he was empathizing with her, even though he doesn’t know her face – because she was the woman whom the Old Madam sent to kill him.
So poor sympathy is a luxury.
He heard footsteps coming from outside the door as Kaillus’ eyes turned cold. The sound was coming towards his room. Kaillus lay on the bed holding his breath and closed his eyes when the door opened.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Alice entered Kaillus’ bedroom and narrowed her forehead slightly, looking into the darkened room even in the middle of the day. She had opened the curtains when she was there, but it looks like the servants have pulled them back.
“You are still a living person no matter how much they hate you…. It’s too cheap of them to even take away sunlight from you.”
It must have been Madam Quillian who ordered the curtain to be drawn. Did she want him to sleep in the dark forever, or was she worried that he might wake up because of the sun?
Alice went straight to the window and pulled the blackout curtain. Bright sunlight poured into the bedroom. A smile appeared on her lips as the atmosphere of the bedroom, which looked like a coffin of a dead man, changed to a lively one.
“… You look more handsome when the light shines through.”
Alice approached the bed and looked at Kaillus’ quietly sleeping face. His handsomeness was shining even more under the bright sunlight. She couldn’t tell if this halo was because of the sunlight or because of his good looks.
Alice was silent for a moment, looking at his beautiful face, and suddenly came to her senses and let out a big, empty cough. She then gently greeted him as he quietly slept.
“Good afternoon, Kaillus.”
Though she knew he didn’t hear it.
Just then, the door opened and Maris entered. Maris had told her to go to the bedroom first, saying that she had something to bring.
Alice tilted her head as she looked at the wide silver basin and cloth that Maris was carrying. But that’s what I am using when I wash my face…?
“What… is this?”
Maris put down the silver basin on the table instead of answering Alice’s question. Contrary to Alice’s bewildered mood, the water in the basis glided with clarity.
“What else? This water and cloth will be used to wipe the Duke’s body.”
But why bring it to me? Perhaps, is this…?
Alice’s golden eyes trembled as she looked at the silver bowl.
“… Are you telling me to wipe the Duke’s body?”
“Yes, of course. From today on, Little Madam will attend the Duke, said the Old Madam.”
Maris emphasized the words attend and Old Madam with strength. Seeing Alice’s face stained with astonishment, Maris smiled.
Thinking that Alice must have been shocked that she was commanded to do what a servant should do, Maris was exhilarated, but Alice wasn’t shocked by such a frivolous thing. What surprised her was the fact that she had to wipe the naked man’s body. Especially wiping the sculptural body of Kaillus herself was shocking and strangely heart-pounding – because wiping his body meant that she had to take off his clothes and wipe his body.
Kaillus’ naked body without a single thread…. Above his solid upper body….
Alice trembled as if she had imagined something she shouldn’t have thought of.
Oh, God, why are you giving me such an ordeal…?
Alice closed her eyes tightly and opened them. But nothing had changed.
“What are you doing, hurry up and stop standing there to attend to the Duke.”
Rather, Maris was handing a damp cloth to her stiffened.
Alice wanted to run away, throw away the cloth, and say that she didn’t want to do it. But then, Madam Quillian’s trust to her will be broken.
I still had to do everything as she was told to do.
Think of it as cleaning a statue, not a person. Yes, a statue.
Confused, Alice grabbed the cloth and headed to the bed with Maris following behind her. Maris naturally reached out to Kaillus, like flowing water, her hands went towards Kaillus’ pajamas. Just before Maris’ hand reached him, Alice shouted while stopping Maris’ hand as if what she was doing was crazy.
“Where are you touching?!”
Alice looked at Maris with eyes that looked as if she was a criminal.
Maris stuttered, bewildered by Alice’s astonished gaze, “What do you mean where I am touching? Aren’t you supposed to take off his clothes to wash his body?!”
Maris raised her voice, feeling embarrassed. She then shook Alice’s hand. She patted her wrist, perhaps because Alice held it quite tight.
Alice came to her senses and realized that she had overreacted, but she had no regrets. She still didn’t like Maris touching Kaillus. She doesn’t understand why, but she hated that.
Even though Maris was the perfect person for Madam Quillian – even Kaillus wouldn’t like her touch.
For a very strange reason, Alice roughly convinced herself and told Maris, “I’ll do it myself, so you can go ahead.”
“Are you going to do it all by yourself?”
“Yes. It was mother who told me to do it. Since it was mother who made me do this, I don’t want anyone else’s help. So, go out and wait.”
She gestured with her chin to the door at Maris, who was looking at her with disbelief.
“… Get it done quickly. It will be dinner in a bit.”
Maris left the room while stomping her feet as if expressing her dissatisfaction.
Close –
After closing the door roughly, Alice sighed. Then ŝhe looked down at the sleeping Kaillus.
“If I lie that I wiped you for a moment… that won’t work.”
But then there is no one to clean Kaillus’ body. She was told that from now on, she couldn’t leave without washing his body. His skin will be damaged if she doesn’t properly wipe his body lying on the bed.
“Ah, I’m going crazy.”
It is something that cannot be avoided all the time by escaping this moment.
Alice ruffled her hair, then looked at Kaillus with determined eyes.
“I can do it.”
Returning to herself, she carefully untied the laces on Kaillus’ top.
Silk-like clothes slide down to the side like a wave, and finally his picturesque upper body is revealed.
(T/N: Next chapter will be more exciting and funnier lmao [bunny laughing noises])