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Chapter 9 - The Monster Duke Mistook Me for His Wife
Translated by Lianaarn
Edited by Lianaarn
***
Since that day, sometimes I can feel Dillian’s gaze at me.
His gaze was persistent, but he only looked at me and didn’t come closer than necessary.
It was like, he is exploring me.
What kind of person I am and what I am hiding.
My blood dried up at the sight of someone digging into me.
“Miss Lia, you said that you didn’t use perfume.”
While taking a big bite of meal, I put down my spoon at Dillian’s question.
“Yes. I’m not relaxed enough to wear perfume.”
“Do you use bath bombs?”
Why you don’t eat but talking about bath bombs?
“I’m an ordinary small citizen who is busy make a living, so I can’t even dream of luxury items like bath bombs.”
So, just shut up and eat, you jerk.
“Then is it the scent from the greenhouse?”
Why has he been obsessed with scent since yesterday?
“…”
Again, that gaze again. I can get indigestion looking at the eyes that tried to dig into me.
I was uncomfortable with Dillian’s interest in me.
This is when a thief’s legs go numb*. That was exactly me.
*South Korean saying means the state in which someone is automatically feeling uncomfortable if he/she has done something wrong.
If Dillian found something about me, at that rate…
‘… Let’s stop thinking.’
Having tried to shake off my thoughts, I focused on the meal. Dillian no longer talks to me, perhaps he feels silent pressure while seeing me eating combatantly.
I took a peek at Dillian’s room.
‘It’s still okay.’
The white blossom flowers brought to Dillian’s room were still clean and clear.
But I couldn’t relax.
I got nervous because of Nathan’s words that Dillian might get a runaway again soon.
‘It will not explode suddenly, but I am still anxious.’
At the time I took a big bite of the omurice made by Dillian.
Bam, bam, bam!
Someone knocked on the door roughly.
I was surprised and dropped my spoon. My eyes frowned at the ketchup and rice which stains my clothes.
“Who knocked on the door like that in the morning?”
While mumbling, Dillian blocked me from standing up.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s snowing like this, isn’t it weird for someone to come to Miss Lia’s house?”
Isn’t that right? It’s hard to move forward due to the snow pouring heavily, yet who is coming to my house near the forest.
I quickly ran to the kitchen, bringing the frying pan, afterward I stammered at the corner.
A hard, cold iron rod was caught on the fingertips.
“What is this?”
“This is a crowbar. It is a great self-defense tool.”
I took out the crowbar and handed it over to Dillian.
“If that is a bad guy, use this to hit his head. You get it?”
“… You are more aggressive than you look.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Dillian giggled at my shameless attitude, then grabbed the crowbar.
I stuck on Dillian’s back and stared at the door.
Click, Dillian opened the door.
At the same time, a white creature collapsed inside with a strange sound.
“Ia, iaa!”
“Ugh!”
“What’s that! Monster?! Is that snowman!”
“Isn’t monster couldn’t come! Snowman! It must be a snowman! Sir Dillian, hurry hit it with that! Headshot, headshot!”
Unlike me and Nathan, who were making a fuss, Dillian was frighteningly calm.
Dillian lifts the snowman’s chin with the tip of a crowbar.
“Please calm down, this is a person.”
“Person?”
“L-ia!”
When I listened closely, the strange sound was calling my name.
“… Claude?”
“Li, a!”
When his normal pronunciation was finally heard the snowman fainted.
“Do you know this person?”
“… Yes, my business partner.”
That’s right. The snowman’s identity is Claude, a herbalist.
***
“Haaa, now I can live.”
Claude, who had a sip of tea, breathed a drowsy breath. His blue lips trembled as if the cold hadn’t gone yet.
While filling the cup which was showing on the floor, I quickly asked.
“Claude, why did you come all the way here when the weather is like this?”
“There’s only one reason why I’ll come to your house. What could it be?”
Such ignorance. No matter how urgent you are, how can you be thinking of breaking through the snowstorms with your bare body?
This guy is also out of his mind.
“What is it this time?”
“Sky wild ginseng. You have it?”
“Sure, there is.”
I nodded affirmatively, Claude smiled satisfied as if he knew it.
“Sell it to me. I’ll give you 1.5 times the market price.”
“Double.”
To the point where he comes through the snowstorm means that the herbs I grew are worth it.
I tried to negotiate, showing my index finger and middle finger.
“… Sure. Sure you are Lia Delice. Good. Double!”
It was as expected.
‘It must be really a big shot.’
After finishing the deal, I raised my bent knee.
Approaching Dillian, who was leaning against the wall, I pressed down on him.
“Stop staring at him. He’s feeling pressured.”
I thought Claude might have a hole in his face because Dillian stared at him so hard.
“Even though you have a work relationship with him, you are so defenseless to let a man who is not your relative into the house.”
I blinked with a blank face at the pouring words.
Now, is he nagging at me?
“What should I do then? Should I let him freeze to death?”
“Yes, you have to.”
Hoo, what are you sayin’? Then aren’t you also going to freeze to death? Or die because of excessive bleeding.
‘Isn’t this whataboutism*?’
*a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless.
Even in my absurd gaze, Dillian did not hide his displeasure.
This is ridiculous, you’re not even a beast that protects its territory.
“Claude. Follow me when you’re done warming up. I’ll prepare it right away.”
There’s nothing I can do. I have no choice but to send out Claude quickly.
Claude suddenly screamed as he started to move to the greenhouse.
“Tha, isn’t that white blossom flower? Lia, sell that to me. I’ll double, no, triple the market price.”
“No.”
“Sure, I see. Four times. How is it?”
“I won’t sell it. I won’t sell it even for ten times.”
That is the same as my life.
But Claude, who doesn’t know my situation, kept bothering me.
“Lia, once again…”
Then Dillian blocked Claude’s way.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Stop bothering Miss Lia.”
“What?”
Dillian pointed to white blossom flower behind me with his chin.
“That’s mine, stop bothering.”
“What, what?”
“Don’t you get it? I said that’s mine.”
Shocked, Claude’s eyes grew bigger as if they were going to roll down.
“Li, Lia. You sure?”
“Yup. It’s right.”
Since I gave white blossom flower to Dillian as a gift.
“I can’t believe it…”
Claude couldn’t get out of the shock, it’s still hard to believe for him that I gave that precious thing to others.
Seeing Dillian bothered about Claude might be stealing his white blossom flower, I shook my head inside.
‘Wow, his obsession is no joke.’
Unlike ordinary villains, Dillian was strangely not greedy.
It could be because he has everything or because he is not interested in the world.
Instead, he never missed what he thought was him.
Whether it’s an object or a person.
“Stop whining and hurry up, come here.”
I dragged Claude, who was out of spirit, and headed to the greenhouse.
Dillian’s disapproving gaze stung his back.
***
Claude, who was dying of shock, survived like a person who drank Elixir when he entered the greenhouse.
“Wow, look at these herbs. I’ve never seen a person who can grow herbs as well as you in this field.”
As usual, Claude burst into admiration by looking at the greenhouse.
“How in the world can you grow it like this?”
It will become big if you use divine power.
I muttered inside and shrugged.
“It’s a secret.”
Even though he was rejected every time, as he felt disappointed, he smacked his lips.
“Everything you grew is particularly effective.”
Because it’s filled with divine power.
The divine power ooze from my big child*, so it couldn’t be bad for body.
*The herbs she grew.
Thus, there are customers that only looked for herbs I grew.
‘Thanks to that, my income is good.’
I couldn’t become a healer priest, but I can use divine power to make plants grow faster and healthier.
‘This is the cheat key.’
I moved the herbs into a specially made basket.
“But Lia, are you sure about that guy’s identity?
“Yeah.”
“Not a dangerous person?”
“Why are you doubting a random person? Is there a criminal who crawled into Wilhelm?”
I shook the seedling shovel and spoke plainly.
There are always many criminals. Wilhelm is a village adjacent to the border.
It was like a transfer station for criminals who gathered to run across the border.
“How did I know? I don’t know if he is a criminal but I saw it attached and the reward at stake is enormous.”
Claude looked around to make sure there was no one then whispered to my ear.
‘Crazy.’
It was a jaw-dropping amount.
“Really?”
“It is.”
“Tell me the information. What’s that man doing? The description?”
If only the snow stopped. I will quit becoming a ginseng digger and go looking for that man.
If I have that money, I…!
“It’s said he was a man with black hair, red eyes, and black tattoo on his neck.”
“…”
“It’s too much for a coincidence. Let’s put aside the tattoo. But aren’t red eyes are not common?”
Claude suspecting Dillian. No, it was clear that he was convinced.
“Lia. Are you sure that man is okay?”
Claude asked me something about Dillian, but his words couldn’t get through my ears.
I don’t believe it. Who dares to mess up with the Duke Sinaize?
At that moment, I remembered Dillian, who was injured and fell in the forest.
‘They are the one who hurt Dillian.’
Because they couldn’t kill Dillian, it was clear that they were looking for him to kill him again.
I’m sure to never tell Dillian’s whereabouts, but I was shaken.
‘Isn’t this an opportunity?’
Sure, the reward is reward, but it was a great opportunity to send out Dillian.
And if I wash out my identity with that money and hide, even Dillian won’t be able to find me.
‘Dillian is strong, isn’t there no way he’d be killed by assassins?’
So…
It was then. My mouth was blocked by the black shadow seen outside the greenhouse.
‘Wake up. The one who is strong is the Duke Sinaize, not Dillian who lost his memory.’
I didn’t hide my bursting sigh.
“Claude. Pretend you don’t know.”
“What? What would you do if that man is dangerous? He also might be a murder!”
“Claude, he is not such a person.”
“You, tell me the truth. Were you threatened? That’s why you live together.”
“It’s not.”
I grabbed Claude’s shoulder as soon as possible before he ran out.
“I know what you’re worried about. But he is not that person. He’s a good person. And did you ever see me bring a weirdo into my house?”
Claude, who was wondering and realized that I was usually wary of my surroundings like a thorn, then closed his mouth.
“Claude, today you see no one but me. Okay?”