The Devilish Duke Can't Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

‘Were there any residents who haven’t been able to evacuate yet?’

Kahel glanced at the direction the voice was heard. There was a man crouching on the floor, pointing his finger at Kahel, trembling. Yes. He was pointing at Kahel, not the monster.

“Father. There are residents who have not been able to evacuate.”

Kahel said while grabbing the neck of a wild boar-shaped monster that was running towards him. Damien, who was slashing the head of another monster with a sword infused with magical power, grabbed the man’s forearm and dragged the man back that was unable to even think of escaping, looking only at Kahel.

No matter how grotesquely mutated his body was, the human who pointed out his finger and called his son a ‘monster’, when he had generously thrown himself down for the people of Logos, could not look pretty.

“That, that, that is a monster, a monster…….”

“Shut up.”

Damien’s eyes, who had always been gentle, were glowing red enough to tell the anger he harbored in the dark. The man was surprised by Damien’s appearance, so he let out a strange moan and ran away.

He thought that a day like this might come one day, but it was not something that he came up with a countermeasure or preparation in mind. As Damien used his magical power, he felt like his insides were falling apart as he looked at Kahel’s back, whose body was getting more and more black.

Leonard, who had run to the gap between monsters a long time ago, was no longer visible. Damien really wondered if this might have been caused by Duchy Santella.

It was then.

One of the monsters with a purple magic stone on its left shoulder approached Kahel and whispered something and then flew away. And at the same time, Kahel started running rampant.

“Ka, Kahel!”

Damien rushed towards him, but Kahel seemed to have lost his mind for some reason.

Kahel’s body mutation accelerated as his magic power ran wild. His clothes were ripped to pieces by his growing body, and his legs turned into those of a giant wolf. The horns along his spine grew larger, his back covered with hard scales, and his wings began to sprout, similar to those of a bat. His ears were pointed, his red eyes gleamed, and his fangs grew elongated. There were hardly any traces of human beings to be found.

Instead of transforming just his body, his fighting power increased dramatically. He was able to tear a small monster apart with both his hands and feet, and he stabbed and killed the monster with horns that sprouted all over his body. He even had wings, which allowed him to soar into the air and unleash his magical powers. It was a formidable power indeed.

However, while Damien was lost in his terrifying appearance, there was something that the monster whispered earlier that dominated Kahel’s mind.

“Your little bird is trapped somewhere around here. If you don’t get to her quickly, she will become food for the monsters.”

It was the voice of a relaxed middle-aged woman, as if seducing and teasing. The moment he heard it, he immediately remembered what happened in Sharden. Lena said she heard a woman’s voice from the Sevcheks. And those Sevcheks mercilessly scratched Lena’s back. He couldn’t keep his reasoning at all, thinking that she might still be struggling somewhere with the same wounded body as she was back then.

“Santelaaaa!”

Kahel chewed Santella’s name as if roaring and tore the monsters apart.

* * *

“Huu…… it hurts…….”

Lena was completely distracted by the white particles of light and picturesque texts that shimmered before her eyes, and the severe headaches and constant ringing that she could not even think of. So, she wasn’t even aware that she had just heard the sound of something breaking and that the surroundings that had been shaking around had calmed down. All Lena could do was just crouching on the ground.

“Oh dear, Miss Lena! There you are.”

But strangely enough, that voice could be heard well as if it was stuck in her ear. And Lena intuitively remembered who the owner of this voice was.

‘Lady Santella…….’

However, she could not understand why she was so moved by the voice that had nothing to do with her personally.

“Are you very sick? Poor thing…….”

With the pitiful yet somewhat joyous and anticipatory voice, Lena instinctively crawled towards the corner. Liddell’s laughter was heard. After that, she didn’t see the man carrying her out. The appearance of the person who fell over there bleeding is strangely familiar, but…….

“Come with me, Lena. I’ll let you meet Kahel.”

Lena, who was shaking in a cold sweat, raised her face and looked at Liddell the moment the name ‘Kahel’ came up. There, Liddell laughed more as if it was really funny.

“It seems that Lena really likes Kahel, right? But what to do? Kahel, he may be dying by now.”

“What? That…… What are you talking about?”

“Wow, I thought you were going to die soon, but you are more scared to hear that Kahel might die than that you are sick?”

“His Excellency…… Why…… is he dying…… ?”

“A horde of monsters attacked the capital. He’ll be fighting to stop it. But he will never be able to stop it alone.”

“No…… !”

“So, if you want to see Kahel, hurry up. Wouldn’t it be better to see his face before he dies?”

As Liddell said, her painful headache was forgotten as if they had just stopped. Thinking that Kahel might die, her body aches were gone.

“Where is His Excellency?”

“Don’t worry. Maria will take you.”

At Liddell’s call, her handmaiden, standing beside her, grinned, and then she approached Lena and lifted her up. With a seemingly indistinguishable physique, she was amazed at how she easily lifted Lena up. But she didn’t have time to worry about it for long.

When she looked around, holding onto the handmaiden’s body, she realized that the entire building she was in had been demolished. There was also a foul smell of blood. But neither the handmaiden holding her nor Liddell walking in front of her seemed to have any interest in it.

“Li…… dell…….”

A voice that seemed to be cut off from somewhere called out to Liddell.

“Lian! You truly are a member of the Santella family. You’re still conscious……”

The clothes of the man she called were familiar. It was Lian.

‘That person must be Lady Santella’s older brother, so why…… ?’

It was also due to her headache, but even if she was fine, it was difficult to understand. She knew that Lian and Liddell had a very good relationship, but why is Liddell smiling even though Lian was in that shape?

“You’ll…… regret it…… please…… wake up…….”

“I am awake. It would be better for you to calm down for a while.”

Liddell threw a purple magic ball towards Lian as if tossing a light ball. There was the sound of something banging, and Lian’s voice was no longer heard.

“I don’t know when Lian became so cocky.”

“Isn’t it the influence of the friends he goes with?”

“I know. It could be. When I’m done, I’m afraid I’ll have to pick Lian’s friends again.”

Liddell walked away without even thinking of healing Lian, who had fallen bleeding. It was partly because she knew he wasn’t going to die anyway, but it was too cold for brother and sister, who had always been friendly.

In front of the building was a white carriage that Liddell rode in. It was not the knights of the Santella family that guarded the carriage, but the members of the ‘Parax’, an organization that Liddell personally raised.

They looked at Liddell’s beckoning, and they put Liddell and Lena in the carriage. In the meantime, the terrifying screams of monsters were resounding incessantly from afar.

“Doesn’t Kahel seem to be holding up pretty well?”

“He’ll be with Damien Luave, it looks like he was barely holding on. But it is a matter of time.”

Liddell smiled brightly at one member’s explanation.

Their defeat from Kahel in the Sage’s Village yielded very useful information. If it hadn’t been for the defeat at that time, today’s plan could have ended in absurd failure. Due to the failure of that day, the number of monsters to be released today was greatly increased.

Kahel may have thought that all the monsters he’s fighting against was everything, but that was just the first attack. Even if all of them were blocked, if the same number of monsters attacked again, Kahel had no ability to stop it. And the only ones who could make that horde retreat were Margella, her father, and herself.

“What about his body mutations?”

“There are very few parts that are still human. Now, if you don’t look closely, you can’t even tell which is Duke Luave and which is the monster.”

“He must have drank Margella’s medicine, didn’t he ? It is evident here that the sky is on our side.”

“Of course, Miss.”

On the street where everyone had evacuated and only the sound of howling monsters remained, Liddell’s white carriage was very different. They reached a place where she could see Kahel fighting the monsters and looked at his condition.

“Ah…… He’s strong. If that magic was mine, it would have been more useful…….”

Beyond the endless corpses of monsters, Kahel, whose body had turned black, was still emitting black magic, killing the monsters that rushed to him. But Liddell noticed that Kahel was already exhausted. Perhaps, thanks to what Margella had told in advance, he was taking care not only of the monsters that attacked him, but also the monsters that tried to destroy the buildings of the commoners. He wouldn’t know where Lena was hiding, so he had to minimize the crumbling buildings. If his nerves were stretched like that, his stamina would be cut further.

“Where are the evacuated residents?”

“The first camp is established not far from here.”

“Good. We should get started.”

Liddell’s heart pounded. The curtain of the play that had been prepared for many years was finally coming up. Of course, she was the main lead of the play.

Liddell did her trick of scattering white light and approached the first line, where people were stomping their feet. Those who were worried that their house and shop would be destroyed by the monsters, soon realized whose beautiful white carriage belonged to.

“It’s Lady Santella!”

“Angel! Angel!”

“The angel has come to defeat the devil!”

Even in this dark situation, the children jumped saying that the angel had come. Liddell got off the carriage and gave blessings to those who were looking at her anxiously.

“Everyone was terrified. Don’t worry. Soon the monsters will go away.”

With a smile like the warm sunlight, people shed tears as if all the monsters had already disappeared. And they followed Liddell’s carriage from a distance. It was the same with the knights. For some reason, Liddell regarded this great emergency very lightly. With a sense of relief that absolute power was on their side, people calmed their anxious minds and looked forward to the miracle that Liddell would do.