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Miguel raised his finger and came to the bed in a circle next to Herace’s head. When the small child saw Herace lying on the bed, he swept her hand out of the blanket and kicked his tongue like an old man.
“Then you should treat her like a proper Duchess. Can’t you see how shocked she was by what you said? Poor thing… …the fairy of Devone of those days would have never imagined that she would go through this in the future. How could she be a mistress in her life? Tsk!”
Ezekiel’s expression, who had been silent, cooled when the small hand touched the skin of Herace. Without a moment’s hesitation, he mumbled, slapping Miguel’s hand off of Herace.
“…she should be punished. I have to make her realise what it’s like to kick her position away.”
Ezekiel wanted Herace to know clearly at this point. What happens when he becomes cold to her. She’s a smart wife, so he was sure she would realise it soon. That if she ever left his side, his mercy would disappear completely.
Miguel shook his head when he saw the same golden eyes as him shining brutally. He looked at Herace with pitiful eyes said in a confident voice to Ezekiel.
“I sincerely advise you, Ezekiel, don’t try to hurt the woman you love.”
“…….”
“Your wife is neither a terrifying enemy captain on the battlefield nor a political rival who persistently bothers you. Even if you force her to break, you will be the only one who will eventually hit the ground and regret it, so why bother?”
“…….”
“Smart men know from experience. What you’re doing now is the stupidest thing in the world.”
“Advice…… You talk like a human being who is not even a human being. People may think you’ve been through that.”
Ezekiel, who had been listening silently, replied as if he was funny. Then Miguel’s face, which had not lost its smile from the day he was born, disappeared for a moment.
“……I know. I’ve been with humans too long. Or maybe it’s because I was born eating your blood and cutting off the belly of a human woman? I do smell like a human being. Is it natural that this body is shaped like a human being?”
Miguel lowered his eyebrows and scratched the back of his hand with his fingernails. The fingernails were not very sharp because they were trimmed in a round shape, but the place that passed was cracked and blood flowed as if it had been cut deeply with a knife.
But that’s all. The red liquid, which had fallen to the floor without being able to stop, was sucked into the flesh again like a living creature, and the skin became clean like a smooth porcelain as if it had never happened.
“Lady Herace!, Lady…… Let go of me! Argh!”
It was when Ezekiel frowned at the sound that could not seem like a human being. The woman’s high scream from outside deprived him of his concentration.
It was a closed room and far away, so those with general hearing could not even know the existence of the scream. However, the man and the child also noticed that the word “Lady” was sometimes mixed with the shrill scream as if they were being torn apart. Miguel, who recognized the owner of the voice, narrowed his eyes and sarcastically said.
“Oh, my God. The advice I gave you was the best of all. Are you still going to do more than now?”
The voice of crying and looking for Herace was Anna’s. Ezekiel unspokenly expressed his affirmation as he hardened his mouth.
In Ezekiel’s view, the woman named Anna was one of the biggest obstacles between Herace and himself. He should have cleaned her up before.
Would his wife have escaped without her? No, she would have never dared. Herace was a woman of no knowledge of the world. Without a helper, she wouldn’t have had the courage to run away.
And not only that, it was also annoying to refer to his wife as a prenuptial title of a lady. Who is a lady? Herace was a married woman. The Duchess of Serpence. the wife of Ezekiel. His woman. She should be called that by everyone.
Finally, he felt much lighter to think that he had cleared one of the big obstacles between him and Herace.
However, Ezekiel’s eyes rapidly darkened by a much larger obstacle that soon emerged. The child with the same sweet eyes resembling Herace came to mind.
The cruel heart sprang up to strangle the child. Every time he saw his wife’s son, Ezekiel was engulfed in uncontrollable madness. Especially on his body…….
‘……I want to get rid of it.’
“Tsk!”
It was Miguel who brought Ezekiel out of his mind.
When Anna’s voice completely died down as he kicked his tongue, Miguel reached out to Herace once more. The child’s little finger touched and fell slightly this time around Herace’s eyes. Herace was crying in her sleep, seemingly dreaming something terrible.
“It would be harder if she left you. Oh, poor Duchess……. My poor mother. Oh, my God.”
Miguel’s words filled Ezekiel’s face with anger. What do you mean mother? Ezekiel’s golden eyes, which were staring at Miguel’s neck as if he was going to kill him at any moment, were like that of the Devil from hell. Miguel, however, smiled and looked at Ezekiel without blinking an eye.
“Why do you look at me like that? As long as I’m your son, it’s natural that your wife is my mother, right?”
“Shut up. If you say that one more time…….”
“What if it’s a joke? Are you trying to get rid of me too? With the junk you’ve been looking for? Is there anything that works like that on me?”
Ezekiel’s eyes grew in a moment. He squinted his eyes as if he were wary of Miguel. The fact that he (Miguel) knew that he (Ezekiel) had wandered around looking for a holy weapon to destroy him (Miguel) surprised him (Ezekiel). He didn’t mean to hide it, but when he thought it was discovered, his body hardened with tension.
“Don’t look like that. You didn’t even think about hiding it anyway. A father trying to kill his son. It’s so cruel. Humans usually call this a tragic life, right?”
Ezekiel scanned his young son’s face as if he were measuring something. Miguel was clearly enjoying the situation by saying it was a tragedy but grinning all the while.
The sight of the enemy shrugging nonchalantly made him cool down. Ezekiel, who cooled his head, said slowly.
“Yes. I’m going to put you back in hell.”
“That’s really scary.”
“So wait a little longer. I’ll soon push you back into your original pit. Even if you try, you won’t be able to climb up from that hell.”
It was something he could never say to the son that followed his blood, but it wasn’t a terrible thing to say to his lifelong enemy. However, Miguel looked fine, listening to his threat. The young three-year-old rather smiled and bowed deeply to his father as if he was sincerely looking forward to it.
“Do as you please, Father. This insolent son is looking forward to it.”
****
Herace knelt on the floor and grabbed the man’s pants who was looking down at her. As soon as she woke up, she cried out in pain. But even if it hurt, she had to hang on. Because she had to change the man’s mind.
“I won’t insist on having Anna next to me anymore. So stop the punishment and cure Anna. If she were beaten and kicked out like that, she will, she will…… Hah…… I promise I won’t speak of her ever.”
After waking up in the annex, the first thing Herace faced was Anna, who was groaning before she could see the unfamiliar environment. Anna’s clean back was covered with blood, and the wound was seen through the torn clothes.
Herace got out of bed screaming at Anna’s disastrous appearance, but she couldn’t put a finger on her beloved maid. It was because Ezekiel caught her and let someone drag Anna out of the room. He grabbed Herace, who was struggling to get to Anna, and whispered.
“Herace, do you know what will happen to your maid?”
Ezekiel said he would not kill Anna because of her loyalty, but that didn’t mean she would be forgiven for encouraging Herace to flee, and that she would be chased away without treatment immediately after hitting her 100 times with a whip. Herace cried and begged for forgiveness, saying, ‘Don’t’. Then Ezekiel added these words to Herace, who cried pitifully.
“……they said they are only halfway there. There’s another 50s left.”
Herace knew the moment she heard it. That Ezekiel had no intention of keeping Anna alive. She could tell just by looking at his eyes. That Anna’s life was hanging on the end of the rope.
She did the only thing she could because she couldn’t let Anna die like this.
“It’s not a big deal. You may feel angry for the child. It’s my fault. Why…… Why are you being so cruel to her?”
With servility and humility, Herace bowed at the feet of Ezekiel as a slave would do to his master. She yielded to him and begged for mercy.
“I, I will never meet Anna again. Just let her live. Please…… I beg you so. Please…”
The spirit that had become a little stronger over the past three years had been shattered in just a few hours. Herace had become more of a dog than before.
Ezekiel’s eyes became friendly when he saw his wife who finally showed weakness. He thought he would just raise Herace up, who was crying and clinging on to him, but instead, he hugged her and took her to the soft bed and sat her down. Standing in front of her, he bent down and kissed her white forehead, put her hand on his lips, and opened his mouth.
“Herace, your voice is very nice.”
Herace looked embarrassed at the answer that was far from what she hoped. Ezekiel pointed his finger at the cage in the indoor garden beyond the room. There was something blue sitting in a beautifully curved cage.
“It’s comparable to that bird over there. But it’s just a flying animal and can’t make a human noise. So you have to call my name slowly instead of that bluebird. Every time you call me, I’ll reduce the beating that your maidservant would get.”
She was compared to a bird in a cage, but Herace was just grateful for the way to save Anna. She sniffed and breathed before calling for Ezekiel.
“……Ezekiel.”
“I don’t like it. It’s hard to hear because it’s mixed with tears. It won’t do.”
Somehow she thought it wouldn’t be too easy to save Anna’s life. Herace sensed that the process of achieving her goal would be rough with Ezekiel’s stern eyes and the hand that grabbed her chin.
“Eze, Ezekiel.”
“Again. Don’t stutter and do it properly.”
As expected, he was too picky. Herace had to not cry, stutter, or avoid his eyes. In the end, it took 17 attempts to call his name properly for the first time.
***