My Duke Won't Die!

It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it was someone else who was shocked.

But that’s not the case for Ella Lane.

It was because Ella was the one who would beat up a special zero-class monster that no one had ever met at the entrance to the village with a sullen expression on her face.

So, it was only natural that Ella would look very strange as she stared at the nobleman with her mouth covered as if she had gone crazy.

“There is no fever.”

While Moria, who looked worried, placed his hand on Ella’s forehead and prepared to have his fingers cut off, Ella was so astonished she didn’t know that his hand was on her forehead. 

“Oh, My God…”

In the last three years, Ella had given up everything.

Although she was in the same world, she had no chance to meet the Crown Prince because she transmigrated on an extra whose name had never been revealed.

And even if they had the chance to meet, it would be best to avoid it. 

While reading a book, she was like, “Oh, my God, he’s freaking out again. This madman, but he must be so pretty, you know.’ But it was a different problem to actually lose her head. 

So Ella spent three hard years crying to see her favorite, but with the contradictory feeling that she shouldn’t ever meet him. 

That’s why this situation was even more ridiculous.

It was a sudden appearance of a man who shoots at the core of her picky taste, it was so much in the bullseyes, that she even forgot her favorite face.

The man’s calm and serious face was clearly different from that of the prince on the cover of the book.

Although he had a dignified demeanor and a chiseled face, he looked rather modest compared to the Crown Prince.

Gerard Acelanus had blonde hair and red eyes, and at the same time was beautiful and more gorgeous than anyone else.

But right now, Ella’s mind had no space left to think about such a prince.

“Why are you like this, Ella? What’s the problem?”

At Moria’s question, Ella asked with a slightly blank expression.

“Problem?”

There was a problem indeed.

“That man……”

“That man? Are you talking about the noble? What’s wrong with him?”

“Too…”

“Too?”

Too freaking handsome.

Ella barely swallowed the last words and let out her breath, which she didn’t even know had stopped until now.

* * *

“……”

Instinctively, he struggled to grasp the handle of the sword, and while he put his hand on the reins to grab the hilt he thought.

What the hell is this gaze?

From a while ago, the man’s sensitive senses could feel an obsessive gaze.

In this village far from the capital, no one knew him. However, this gaze could not come out without having personal feelings mixed in it.

He turned his head to the place where he could feel the gaze, but it was very difficult to find the owner of that gaze among many people.

‘I’m not sure if it’s a threat or not.’

It was really strange to feel a gaze that followed persistently enough to give a sense of crisis but that had no killing intent. 

It was then.

“Duke, what’s the matter?”

“……It is nothing.”

Hearing the voice of the knight commander calling to him, the man eventually turned his head away without being able to find the owner of the gaze.

Nothing should happen since we’ll leave this town the moment we find a guide.

The man thought so and struggled to subdue his doubts.

However, he didn’t know.

Among those who stepped back when his gaze, filled with habitual chilling energy, hit them, there was a woman that flashed her olive-colored eyes while muttering, ‘I’ll be damned. The front looks even better……’.

Indeed, even compared to the beautifully insane crown prince, Gerard Acelanus, Ella’s eyes were more than pleased by the man who was on the same, or more, godly tier of beatuy as her favorite.

“It’s crazy, really.”

Ella sighed and muttered.

It was truly unbelievable.

In a place like this, who would have thought that she would meet a handsome man who throws a fastball down the middle of her heart in this kind of situation.

Of course, she had only seen his face once, so she couldn’t tell what his personality was like. Judging from his cold expression and dry eyes, he would not have been very kind.

But she can assure anyone that it would be a hundred times better than her former favorite the mad Crown Prince, and above all, just looking at that face would be enough reason to live in this damn world.

So Ella decided.

I’m going to change jobs. 

I saw that face right in front of my eyes, there was no reason to hesitate.

It was at that time when Ella was seriously making a decision that no one, let alone the Crown Prince, would care.

At last, a large man in silver armor walked out on the square the march arrived at. He was a man of considerable age.

The man standing on the small podium prepared by the village chief said in such a loud voice that he wouldn’t even need a magic loudspeaker. 

“I am James River, the commander of the Order of the Winter Knights. I heard that this is the village with the largest number of monster hunters. As I told the village chief in advance, I am looking for a guide to help us with the research monsters on the western border.”

The eyes of the serious knight commander reached the hunters who had gathered near the square.

“For the hunters who want to apply. We will determine the hunter to accompany after confirming your guiding ability through a hunting contest. If you pass and join the Knights, after completing your mission……”

For a moment, the knight commander stopped talking and looked at the nobleman. It looked like it was to confirm again.

As the expressionless man lightly nodded his head, the knight commander paused for a moment before continuing.

“……You will be rewarded with 500 gold for your hard work.”

At those words, a murmur erupted from among the monster hunters who stood in an orderly fashion.

It was an unbelievable amount of money.

Among the noisy monster hunters, Ella was only now able to understand the scale of what the village chief said by, ‘they give a lot of money’.

She was in a situation where she was earning about 30 gold a month, including the days when the work was in vain and the days she didn’t go hunting because she didn’t even show up for hunting.

Other hunters even said that earning only half of what she made was already a good month.

In such a situation, there was no way anyone could not help but roll their eyes at the allowance of 500 gold.

‘Well, considering it’s a price attached to life and death, that 500 gold would be cheap, but……’

Hunters who knew nothing would think it was too much to give 500 gold like this, but the real calculation was sure to be way more than that. 

Most of them were hunters without families, so there was no need for compensation payment if they died.

In addition, it was said that the monsters near the border were much more ferocious than here, so it was fortunate if half of those who went there survived.

But it was a little strange. 

‘Then why are you checking our skills? Just take all the people in here, and use some as meat shields.….’

Ella’s curious gaze reached the man.

The man sat on the horse with an upright posture and looked at the knight commander explaining the conditions without moving. His eyes were so straight and decisive that the expression ‘meat shield’ seemed offensive.

“Then the hunters who want to participate should give their names to the knights in front of them.” 

While Ella stared blankly at such a man, the knight commander came down from the platform.

In front of the podium was a young knight sitting at a small desk and holding a pen. And from the hunter in the front seat, they lined up in front of the knight. Only hunters with families were hesitant.

Among the passing hunters, Moria asked.

“Ella, aren’t you going to write your name down? If you go, I’m sure you will be chosen.”

At that question, the monster hunters standing around looked at Ella as if they were wary.

But Ella only frowned, not paying any attention to those eyes. 

She was thinking about the perks of refusing to participate.

Rob’s suggestion of getting rid of the annoying rules and raising the cost of labor came to mind. That was definitely a tempting offer.

There was nothing else I needed more than this, considering that I had to continue living here.

If the nobleman’s offer was only 500 gold, Ella would have coldly turned back. It was because she preferred the long-term profit when accepting Rob’s offer to the 500 gold she could get right now.

There was only one thing that Ella and Rob had never thought of in the deal, and that was the existence of the nobleman that came here.

Ella truly didn’t want to miss anything from this freaking handsome, no, from the little chance that came after three years. 

The thing that bothers her the most is……

“Hell, if you go to the border, there’s a high chance you’ll die.”

“No way. You are the only one who can come back alive, what are you worried about?”

“It’s not about me.”

“……Then are you talking about me?” 

When Ella, who lightly ignored Moria’s eyes moved by emotion, was agonizing between Rob’s earnest gaze and the list of participants, she heard the conversations of the hunters passing by pure coincidence.

“So what’s the name?”

“It was something with winter……I think they said something like that. I happened to hear that when they came into the village…….”

The hunter shrugged his shoulders and before he could finish his words, Ella, who moved crazily fast, grabbed the hunter’s arm and asked.

“What did you say!”

The hunter was horrified by her thunderous voice, but Ella questioned regardless.

“Winter what?!”

“I-I don’t remember well…argh, I think my arm is going to fall off…”

“Remember!”

When their lives were at stake, people tended to display unexpected abilities, and now the hunter realized that his life was in danger.

“Wi-winterlock! It’s Winterlock!”

Paying tribute to his memory, the hunter hurriedly shouted the correct answer. Then pulling his arm out of Ella’s grasp, who had was dazed in an instant, the man screamed.

“Lane! Are you out of your mind? What the hell is….”

“Wait, I really think she is crazy right now.”

“What?”

Their eyes turned to Ella, who was covering her mouth. The olive-colored eyes, which were normally terrifying, grew as if they were about to pop out.

Winterlock.

It was a name I will never forget.

It was because it was the surname of the Female Lead, with whom the Crown Prince was obsessed in <End of the Abyss>.

“It’s Winterlock……?”

At that moment, the contents of the book that came to mind filled Ella’s head.

It was almost at the beginning.

The Crown Prince, Gerard Acelanus, was trying to win the love of the protagonist, Ophelia Winterlock, and Ophelia’s brother, Duke Winterlock, let alone helping him, was only hindering the Crown Prince’s efforts.

The Duke of Winter, Clive Winterlock, was a man who loved her sister very much.

He was famous for serving the imperial family faithfully and valuing honor and etiquette, but to some extent, he politely refused even the Crown Prince’s order to dine if his sister was involved.

Then one day, when the Duke’s best friend died of a mysterious disease, the Crown Prince arranged for him to attend the funeral of his friend instead of the cabinet meeting.

Clive didn’t know.

At a cabinet meeting without him, the Crown Prince would be able to speak of the ‘Writing of the Monster Encyclopedia’, which had been delayed.

The Crown Prince only mentioned it, but the work was done in a flash.

The other nobles, who had always been displeased with the inflexible and upright Duke of Winterlock, came together to create a ‘plausible cause for the Duke of Winterlock to write the Monster Encyclopedia’.

From a young age, he was a talented person who graduated from the academy with honors and the head of a great family of knights who even went to the northern border to help subdue monsters. The existence of a safety line that could help the others in case an unavoidable incident occurred and Winterlock fell was also added to the list of justification.

As such, the scapegoat was decided on a whim, and no matter how Duke he was, he could not reject a unanimous decision officiated at the cabinet meeting without justification.

And so, the Duke eventually went to the western border and was killed by a monster……

“Wait, are you going to die?”

Retrieving her memory with a serious expression, Ella finally realized why she hadn’t remembered this episode until now.

It was because Clive Winterlock died from the very beginning of <End of the Abyss>.

That death was the beginning of the prince’s schemes to wipe out all the people around the Female Lead and to take her into his grasp.

Ella hurriedly raised her head and looked at the man, and she could find a dark shade hanging in the middle of the man’s indifferent expression.

The man died in the Naipol Canyon.

That meant that the only virtuous object of glee in her life, which was barely found after three years of a boring routine, would die.

“Oh, my God.”

While Ella was covering her mouth in dizziness, Moria, who had just added his name to the list, looked at her and let out a worried sigh.

“Lane, are you sure it’s okay? The deadline for participating is end-”

“Shit!”

There was no room for hesitation now.

Before Moria’s words could be finished, Ella ran out with a vicious shout.

“Here, one more! Ella Lane!”

And looking at it, the village chief, Rob Gleason, screamed.

“Nooooo!”