The Devilish Duke Can't Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

As a gleaming, spotless knife cut through the chunks of meat, red blood dripped with the gravy and wet the bottom of the plate. Leonard, who put the minced meat piece into his mouth and chewed it silently, asked Liddell, who was sitting next to him, vaguely,

“Did you make sure that Nadia’s on board?”

“What is there to talk about? She knows she will be the first to die if she uses her mouth wrong.”

“Is it true that Nadia had been an abandoned child in a temple since she was a child?”

“Yeah. In fact, many of the priests in the temple are orphans. Nothing special.”

“But…….”

Leonard drank the wine with a bland reply.

“As you say, Kahel doesn’t seem too dissatisfied with Nadia becoming the Queen’s successor. We changed her powers a little with black magic, and he seemed to believe it was a sign of a weakened power.”

“I guess he really fell in love with the maid. What a fool of a Duke.”

“It’s good for us. It’s Kahel’s weakness, so I can’t be happier.”

“That’s true.”

Liddell smiled happily and tapped the black grapes with the tip of a fork. Liddell, who had been pressing until all the grapes were crushed, suddenly raised her head and asked,

“By the way, did Brother have any interest in the heir position?”

“Lian? How could he be; that lazy bastard?”

“But last time, one of the maids said something strange.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lian was overhearing my conversation with Father. He clings to the door.”

“Yes? That’s weird. Or maybe that guy was just joking around?”

“Really?”

To them, Lian was always out of the question. Although he was a candidate for the successor, who inherited powerful magical powers of the Santella family, he was not too greedy, unlike Santella. However, since he was contributing to the image of the Santella family in his own way, Leonard and Liddell also looked at him in a cute way.

Even if he suddenly overheard the story, they didn’t think there was anything great in it. They lightly assumed that at best he had overheard them out of curiosity about what they were talking about excluding him.

But at the same time, Lian was running on horseback through the dark forest.

‘It must be around here. Where?’

The victim of the kidnapping, planned by Liddell and actively participated in by Alice Rosenheim, must have been detained in this area. He managed to pinpoint the approximate location of the place where Lena was imprisoned by stalking a man on the way back after receiving a reward for kidnapping Lena, but as he entered the forest, he couldn’t quite tell where it was.

His mind was hurried, his sense of direction was blurred, and time kept passing by, and Lian searched the area impatiently. It was then that a woman’s scream was heard from somewhere. Lian straightened his back, judging the direction of the voice.

I heard something again.

‘It’s over there!’

Lian spurred the horse. As he ran along the sound, a small hut began to appear, and a carriage stood in front of the hut. Seeing that there was no coachman, it seemed that the purpose of those who had brought the carriage up to here was the woman trapped in the hut.

Lian jumped off his horse and then he swung the hut door open. The woman’s voice seemed to come from the basement.

‘It’s a hut with even a basement, why did you make this?’

Lian found his father and sister horrifying. He didn’t want to believe that his family, whom he was so proud of, was doing such a mean thing behind his back. To protect the honor of the family, he would have to stop their atrocities.

“Stop!”

Lian shouted as he ran down the stairs to the basement. At the sound of his voice, the three people who were dragging a small woman out froze.

“How, how do you…….”

“It was you, Elliot Lucenwein.”

Elliot turned white. She thought she had come in secret, but she didn’t know there was a Santella tail on her. The quick-witted Mrs. Marvin secretly released Lena’s arm, and the coachman also sensed that the man opposite him was unusual, so he took a step back from Elliot.

“Please, please pretend you didn’t see me! I do not want to be the wife of Viscount Lucenwein!”

Elliot knelt to her knees on the floor and begged Lian.

“The wife of Viscount Lucenwein? You’re going to be the man’s wife?”

“Yes! Miss Liddell sold me, sniff, as the old man’s wife!”

Elliot cried out in unfairness. At that moment, Lian could barely guess what Liddell had done. But in Lian’s eyes, he couldn’t say Elliot was a victim.

“That’s the price of exaggerated greed. Hey, take that girl and get out of here. Otherwise, I will hold Viscount Lucenwein to blame as well.”

As the purple magic flashed behind Lian’s back, the coachman took a deep breath and grabbed Elliot’s forearm.

“Hey, let this go! You were supposed to take that b*tch with you!”

“Are you crazy? What happens to you when you touch the Duchy! Get, get on the carriage!”

Lian looked at Mrs. Marvin, who was only looking at him.

“What are you doing? Take your master immediately.”

“Oh, yes, yes. Come, come with me, Miss!”

Mrs. Marvin hurriedly grabbed Elliot’s remaining forearm and dragged her away. Lian was following them, so they couldn’t get out the other way, and the two had no choice but to get into the Lucenwein wagon.

“Go to the Lucenwein estate without resting. If you lose those two, your neck won’t be safe either.”

Lian threatened and sent the coachman one last time. And as soon as he saw the carriage moving away, he turned around and went downstairs. Lena was tied to a rope and gagged as she sat trembling on the floor.

“I told you before, right? I am not a bad person.”

Lian untied Lena’s rope and gag and smiled.

“Do you know…… me?”

“I know you. I wanted to talk to you, but you didn’t even open the carriage door.”

Lena then remembered that he was the blonde man she had seen on Rivella Street.

“Thank you. Thank you, really…….”

“It is still too early to say thank you. I have no intention of sending you to Duke Luave.”

“Yes…… ?”

“Sorry. But I can’t betray my family. Instead, I will guarantee your safety as much as possible.”

Although Lian had a complicated face, he had no choice but to draw such a conclusion. No matter how incomprehensible it was, he couldn’t betray his father and Liddell.

“I don’t know why they kidnapped you, but I’ll try to convince Liddell as soon as possible. I also want to get you back quickly. Until then, just be patient.”

Lian places Lena on his horse and once again apologizes. And the hut in the Ayur forest soon became quiet.

* * *

Even though it was midnight, the hall of the Luave mansion was brightly lit. Leslie was still sniffling in the parlor, and Arder was trying to soothe her.

“Huuu, then, at that time, it was wrong that I called Miss Lena. I thought it was kind of weird…….”

Even though Leslie had told the story of the tea party at Viscounty Rosenheim from start to finish, Kahel did not tell her what he had called Leslie for. He was a breathtakingly beautiful man, but Leslie thought she would die of being crushed by his murderous energy rather than his devilish power.

However, when Arder explained the whole story, Leslie couldn’t contain her surprise. Lady Rosenheim’s sudden intrusion became explainable, and it seemed like it was her fault that a white faction noble had reached out to Lena.

“The fact that he twisted Lena while acting like her father…… It’s so cruel…….”

They now knew that Viscount Albert Ruban was a fake. Because he was found dead near the border of Ardennes.

“Ha…… Miss Lena wasn’t stupid, so of course she had doubted. But even though she doubted, she couldn’t deny it. She always wanted a family.”

Arder answered with a confused feeling.

He knew from Kahel that Lena had made a wish at the fountain, ‘I want to have my own family.’ How happy would it have been to see the ‘father’ suddenly appearing in front of the child who wanted family or blood ties? He doesn’t know what he had said to get Lena’s trust, but it was very disturbing.

“I wonder if Duchy, Duchy Santella was involved?”

“I don’t know, but the probability is high.”

Arder said sincerely. The motive behind the kidnapping was still unknown. As Lena appeared in social circles as ‘the only close maid of Duke Kahel Luave’, they could not tell whether it was the work of a white faction noble overly loyal to Duchy Santella or the conspiracy of the ladies who admired Kahel.

Of course, it was more likely that this was a crime involving Duchy Santella. A heinous crime that was planned by Duchy Santella, moved by Lady Viscount Rosenheim, and Lena was caught in it.

If this was a kidnapping planned by Duke Santella, it meant that they realized how important Lena was to Kahel. Otherwise, they wouldn’t dare kidnap his maid at the expense of Kahel’s wrath. So, when they kidnapped Lena, it meant that the price they would ask Kahel for Lena’s ransom was not usual.

‘Still, to even kidnap her…….’

He did not know if anyone other than the two Duchies in Logos could use such a mean trick. In particular, the two Duchies were not only competitors, but also cooperating to support this Logos.

‘If not…… Are they going to ask His Excellency to do something so absurd that they have to do something like this?’

It was rather possible. But Kahel had heard that the Santella had found the Queen’s successor and even brought her to the Royal Family, but he did not know what they were aiming for if she had relinquished her position as queen. And that was the question Kahel had.

“Sorry…… I’m really sorry…….”

It was Leslie, who apologized in a voice wet with tears, to awaken Arder, who was lost in thought.

In the fight between the two Duchies, Leslie, who was powerless and innocent, was caught in the middle of the night. At first, Arder, like Kahel, was suspicious of Leslie, but Leslie, who responded with trembling and sincerity, seemed to have known nothing of this result in advance and invited Lena. Kahel didn’t really blame Leslie. Although he added the threat of destroying the family itself if it was revealed later that she had participated in it.

“It’s not Miss Leslie’s fault.”

Arder appeased Leslie, hoping that Kahel, who had stormed Viscounty Rosenheim would not cause too much trouble.

However, contrary to Arder’s wish that nothing bad happened, Alice Rosenheim was rather arousing Kahel’s anger. Alice, who laid down on her comfy bed, was summoned by Kahel and cried out with a frown on her forehead,

“Are you committing violence in this way because only one maid is gone!”

“Only…… one maid?”

There seemed to be sparks from Kahel’s red eyes, but she didn’t notice.