Evading the Evil Duke's Love

If Laila made something, he would break what she had made, he would laugh when she was worried, and when she had recovered from her grief, he would bring it back. If Laila liked something, it was Rakiel who undoubtedly interfered with her. Nevertheless, Laila was dumb to constantly expect something from him.

But now, it seemed there was something different about her. He wasn’t sure what it was, so he was confused about whether she was actually different or not.

‘I came only because she didn’t visit all day long.’ 

He blankly stared at the sight of her ashy turbid eyes and saw them quickly go blank.

“You… What are you?!”

Rakiel suddenly snapped and turned around, quickly running towards the building.

“…” 

Today was a strange day. Laila looked at the sight of her brother running off and wondered what it was about, not realizing that she was crying. Weirdly enough, the wind felt soft on her skin. Laila sat down and cried, the words she couldn’t speak ringing in her heart.

‘I missed you, brother.’

But why was it so bad? And why was the wind so warm? It was a mysterious night.

* * * 

The next morning, Laila was summoned by the Duke of Estevan. 

“Laila Estevan.” 

As always, he seemed careless, cold, and even threatening. Normally, Laila would have talked first, but she remained quiet. She was just standing in front of him with her head lowered, not knowing what to do.

“Rakiel was talking about you, saying you were walking around in unkempt clothing.”

Narrowing his eyes while looking at Laila, the Duke opened his mouth.

“Can’t you behave yourself?” 

Laila lowered her head more.

“A human is useless if he doesn’t know his value.” 

Even without raising his volume, the Duke’s voice chafed her heart as if it was going to split it. It always did. If there was anything that changed, it was Laila. When she didn’t apologize, the Duke raised his eyebrows. Laila stood still, and only after a while, did she quietly speak.

“Sorry.”

She didn’t say that she was going to be careful from now on like she usually did, causing the Duke to slightly frown. He stared at Laila for a moment, then beckoned her to get out. Not moving quick enough for his liking, the Duke ordered his knights to remove her from the room.

After Laila stepped foot into the hallway, she barely managed to stand straight, collecting her staggering body. When she was about to take another step, she felt all the strength leaving her. In that instance, the memory of her death dawned on her.

As soon as her head hit the floor, she watched as a knight rushed towards her, after realizing what had happened, then lost her consciousness.

* * * 

As always, the knight roughly picked up Laila, who fainted easily, from the floor. He then looked towards his fellow knight and nodded, heading towards Laila’s room.

The knight intentionally sighed without saying anything to let the others know the trouble he had to go through. He then brought Laila to her room, which was inconveniently located in a corner of the mansion, and slightly pushed open the door with his foot.

“Hey.” 

‘…!’ 

Startled, the knight dropped Laila when he noticed a human figure approaching them all of a sudden. Thankfully, someone managed to catch her quickly.

“Hey!” 

“I’m sorry!” 

Rakiel Estevan, the second son of the family, sighed and glared at the knight.

“Would you take responsibility if you hurt her head? Eh? What if our beggar becomes dumber? Huh?!”

“It’s just…” 

“You gotta keep it straight!”

“I’ll…I’ll make sure.”

“Why can’t you speak up? What did you say?”

“It’s nothing!” 

After being bombarded by Rakiel’s questions, the knight, looking as if he was disciplined, quickly took his leave. Rakiel sighed as he was now left in charge of Laila and considered himself to be dumber than ever.

“Why didn’t he put her inside?” 

Rakiel had taken Laila from the knight without even realizing it, then looked at her as if she was a burden. He hesitated when he noticed that the color had drained from her face and just stared at her silently.