Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

"You mean to say that the ring is yours? Then the royal palace is mine!" came the snarky comment of the old man who was looking pissed now.

He waved his hands and the ruffians that were holding Ethan before moved forwards to hold him again.

"Let me go! Didn't I say that it is mine? What proof do you need? Why are you making things difficult for me!" He struggled again but all in vain, he was already lean without any exercise to make his body strong, and he had drunk while waiting for his luck to shine.

He did not have strength to retaliate at all. All he could do was swear and glare at the muscular men who held him like he was a sack with no weight.

"Throw him out and do not let him come in until he pays the old debts and then has sufficient money to play here!" remarked the old man who was the owner of the place and turned to leave when he saw his guards running in and frowned.

"Who asked you to come in during the working hours? Who is guarding the door when you eat here? Huh?" He glared at the workers but then frowned when he noticed something was amiss.

"What happened?" instead of glaring and scaling, his voice turned much calmer.

Though he often shouted at his workers, that was to keep them disciplined. He understood when there was a need to talk.

"Master, there are two men looking for Ethan. They have black cloaks over their body but their presence is looking like onions and is dangerous.

When one of the clients told them that Ethan is in here, they barged in and when I tried to stop them, the man held my neck and raised me high in the air.

I did not think that the man was to be trifled with.`` Only then the eyes of the boss narrowed at the neck of the guard.

There were still three finger marks on his neck and he was looking pale. The men must be too strong to deal with.

Could it be this fool is doing under dealings that was why he had that ring and now he was caught!

"Ethan, I have already told you. If you are going to die then die! Do not drag me in your affairs or I will beat you to a pulp.

Go and handle the man that is looking for you. If not I will make sure that you would not be seen in the city anymore." he threatened again but with much force this time as he signaled his men who had heard the whole matter.

They nodded and dragged Ethan out of the gambling house and bar, just in front of the men in black cloak.

"Here is Ethan you were looking for. Do not create trouble for our bar or there would be a brawl without a reason." without showing an ounce of fear, they faced the man with confidence who exchanged glances and nodded their heads.

They bent to hold Ethan tightly who was trying to run away when their eyes fell on the fallon ring and their eyes narrowed.

One of them ran and picked up the ring and placed it in his pocket instead of returning it to Ethan who frowned.

No matter how scared he was, he could not let them steal what was his!

"That is my ring. And I did not know who you were. Why are you searching for me?

We can discuss that later, first return my ring to me!" he shouted as he tried to snatch the ring from the man in the cloak.

But others held him tightly in his arms.

"Your questions will be answered soon. You have to follow us and we promise that we would return the ring with interest.'' The rough sound was dangerous. It had a hint of gruffness and stern look that demanded obedience but it only scared Ethan.

He was still in a public place. Who knew where they might take him and if he would even be able to ask help there.

He would have run away but he did not want to lose the ring.

"Help help! These men are stealing my ring. Whoever would help me in taking it back, I will pay him 10 silver coins as reward!" he started shouting loudly and a few of the muscular men stopped in their tracks.

The bar was in the downtrodden area where most of the bars and gambling houses, fish markets and jobless people reside.

There were many who were tempted with the offer and came forward to handle the cloak man.

A few of them were stronger and could create trouble if they meddled in their affairs.

Both of them frowned and one of them moved to cover Ethan's mouth with his hands while another took out more than 50 gold coins and threw it on the ground.

Those who were coming closer were stunned to see gold and it was only the privilege of nobles and rich people to have gold coins.

Most of them only have bronze with a few of them having silver but gold was rarest.

They forgot about the reward of silver cons and each of them ran to pick up a gold coin for themselves.

Soon they started fighting for the coins and trying to take them with force and a crowd was collected to claim the rare treasure.

The men in cloak took the benefit of the chaos and dragged the struggling young man out from there and took a black alley to change their paths.

After changing two more lanes they stopped in front of a carriage which opened as soon as they reached and the man was thrown in without giving any time to understand what was happening around him.

He looked around with fear in his face as he realized he was kidnapped when his eyes widened

"Mistress, you were the one who kidnapped me?"