The Devilish Duke Can't Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

“109. No, we’d better set it as 110.”

However, nothing happened. Lena soon measured Kahel’s waist and hips, and the length of his arms, step by step, and she didn’t intentionally press her body to Kahel’s.

Arder felt that moment. This maid is really special. He had never seen anyone so unshaken by Kahel. Even the people of the royal family or the Santella family, who say they are not affected by the devilish nature, would not be able to be so blunt. At last, the fact that he had a maid whom he could trust and leave Kahel to suddenly made Arder choke.

“Butler? Are you writing?”

“Ah, oh dear…… ! Will, will you say it again from the circumference of the chest?”

Kahel looked at Arder, who had regained his senses and was in a hurry.

“That’s unusual. You’re thinking about something else while you’re working.”

“Sorry.”

Arder’s apologetic face was drenched in deep emotion as if he was about to shed tears at any moment. And Kahel didn’t ask any further questions because he could understand why Arder was doing this without telling him.

Kahel also reflexively checked the position of his sword when Lena was wrapping her arm around his chest. However, none of Lena’s body touched his body intentionally. In a very brief moment, the slender arms that had stretched behind his torso quickly retreated as soon as they had finished crossing the back with a tape measure, leaving only him and Arder, who were so nervous.

But even with such oblivious behavior, Kahel felt goosebumps at Lena’s warm breath that he felt on his chest. The breath exhaled over the thin layer of his shirt was an overstimulation for Kahel, who was extremely sensitive to contact with others. But when he said he hated it terribly, it wasn’t anymore.

It felt like a wave that spread from the part where the breath touched, ran down his spine and tickled his whole body. Once he recognized that, from then on, it felt like every breath Lena exhaled was touching his body, so the goosebumps on his forearm didn’t go away easily.

Lena’s breath was different from the others. It was different from the hot breath of the knights who had finished a battle, the breath of his mother who seemed to be dying after a long illness, and the urgent breath of the mad people who rushed towards him. Rather than hot, it was somehow soft and warm. It seemed as if it had a scent. If it had a shape, it would be like a spring cloud or cotton wool, that kind of feeling…….

Anyway, thanks to Lena, the dimension is much more accurate and detailed than before. Kahel allowed a fairly large budget to make this suit so that Lena’s efforts would not be in vain, and Amandine, the tailor, accepted the long request list from socks to coats and cloaks, and returned with a smile.

This was even more so because the Duke of Luave, who had used high-quality fabrics before, but was stingy with expensive decorations, chose embroidery, high-quality buttons, and even patterned fabrics for some reason. The order for a ladies’ dress in the size of a maid at the end was a bit daunting, but whatever it was, it was a huge deal, so Amandine hummed without paying much attention to it.

“Now that you have your new clothes, how about calling a jeweler and ordering a brooch?”

“It will be matched with my clothes, so why do I think you’re more excited?”

Inflated with a dream of filling Kahel’s dressing room with a glamorous look this time, Arder continued to recommend things like jewelry brooches and satin-wrapped shoes. But Kahel didn’t want to stand out too much. It was because he was choking on the attention he was receiving now.

The new clothes this time around were just to set up Luahalla. Otherwise, he would have been ridiculed for how the fashion business sponsored by a duke, who is not good at fashion, would be like.

“It’s enough to use what you have now, whether it’s jewelry or shoes.”

As Kahel did not give in smoothly, Arder eventually turned the topic.

“What budget do you have for Lena’s dress?”

“Take it out of my personal account. No matter how she came as a country maid, she is my personal maid now. I don’t want to hear that the maid of the Duke’s lives without a proper dress.”

“Lena will be very happy. In any case, I will not call the jeweler separately.”

Giving up on the brooch, Arder muttered as if he was talking to himself as he flicked over the “jeweler” item on the paperboard he was holding.

“It would have been a pretty good spectacle for Lena, too.… Well, there is nothing I can do about it.”

It was true. As Lena, who was not a young lady from a noble family, she would have never been close to a jeweler’s shop. And the woman as he’d seen so far likes shiny things, and, thanks to that, she was often satisfied with just looking at those expensive things. Arder mumbled that with half sincerity and half a desire for Kahel to think about it, then bowed to Kahel and turned around.

But the moment he grabbed the doorknob of the office, he heard Kahel’s voice behind him.

“Come to think of it, it must have been a long time since I bought jewelry. Even though it’s a house without a mistress, if the Duke is too stingy in buying jewelry, he’ll get caught …….”

“It is a wise decision. Then I will only contact two of the most famous jewelers.”

“Annoying. Call only one. And when it comes…… Come and bring a variety of products, both for men and women.”

“Yes. All right.”

Arder quietly obeyed the orders without asking any further questions with the attitude of a skilled butler, but he was in a state of shock inside. He can’t believe that ‘Lena’ was a factor that could change Kahel’s opinion, no, of course he had such expectations and that’s why provoked it for a long time…….

‘His Excellency is more pleased with Lena’s existence than I think. Well…… He couldn’t keep any person for 16 years, so it must have been very frustrating.’

Arder swept away his grimacing chest and made his steps busily. Thanks to Lena, he’s been able to fill even Kahel’s flimsy jewelry box, but an opportunity like this will never come around often. With a design that can be used in many ways this time, he was planning to have an assortment that at least matches the dignity and face of the family head.

It was the next evening that the Duke’s request for a visit from Zairdelle, a famous jeweler in the city, was submitted. They had never set foot in the Duke’s residence since the previous head left the estate to pass the title to his still young son in order to care for his ailing wife.

“What the hell is that kind of wind blowing…… Maybe the former Duchess is coming to Ardennes?”

“I don’t think it is. Yesterday, Geraldine’s dressing room sent a tailor to the Duke.”

“The Geraldine Dressing Room mainly makes men’s wear. So, has the former Duke returned?”

“It might be. When you see that both men’s and women’s items are to be brought together, wouldn’t they want to purchase the Duchess’ jewels in the estate as well?”

Everyone’s curiosity was gradually inflated thanks to the Duke who didn’t shed any clues, but Kahel had no idea. But when he saw that Arder had put quite a bit of money on the jewelry purchases, he gave him a suspicious look.

“What the hell are you trying to buy?”

“I’m not looking to buy anything fancy. Two brooches, two cloak pins, two coat chains, and three pairs of shoe jewels.”

“What? No, what are you buying so much for?”

“Your Excellency. Baron Fidelia alone had more ornaments than that. Even the counts of Ardennes had a room full of clothes and ornaments. Do you know how sad Lena was because she didn’t have anything to decorate you? Would she have used her sleeping time and embroidered it on your vest?”

“Is ….. it?

When Kahel, who looked down at the budget book with a confused expression, finally signed the approval, Arder was convinced that Lena was the best excuse to coax Kahel.

* * *

Now, in the morning and evening, there was a pretty cool breeze. Lena sat down on the nearby stone steps as she looked up at the red-tinted sky as the sun was setting. There was no one around. At this time, all the employees will be spread out in the dining room or in their room, having dinner and relieving the fatigue of the day.

Lena looked around once more and pulled out one of the little hairpins from her arms. A bit smaller than her forefinger, this hairpin, studded with amethyst grains delicately crafted on a silver pinstripe, wasn’t something Lena would ever own.

‘Can I take this?’

There were no colored objects or new objects in Lena’s life until she prepared for the marriage to Viscount Delroins.

A shirt with some yellow color in the cuffs and corners of the collar even after being washed, a brown bodice and gray skirt whose original color is uncertain, an apron stained with stains, black shoes with a hole in the toe and worn heels, from Uncle Theo. The dark strap that she used as a hair tie…….

Those were only aspects of the possessions allowed to Lena. Even though she lived like that, she never thought she was lacking, and though she looked into Elliot’s dressing room and glared at it, she never coveted them.

As she prepares for her marriage to Viscount Delroins, she receives her new dress and shoes from the Baron Fidelia couple, but she does not consider it hers, as it is merely a preparation for ‘disguise’.

However, for the first time in her life, she was holding an expensive amethyst hairpin that was fully recognized as hers. Lena recalled the jeweler came today and unfolded the dazzling items.

* * *

“Your Excellency. A man came from Zairdelle.”

“Well. I’ll be there soon.”

Busily scanning the papers and signing them, Kahel put the quill on the stand and nodded his head to get up and follow Lena. He told her not to go out in front of other people, but she wondered what happened today. And on the table in the parlor that followed, there were ten jaw-dropping jewels on red-brown velvet.

“It is an honor to meet you, Your Excellency the Duke of Luave. Benas Zairdelle, the owner of the jewelry shop Zairdelle.”

“You’re a noble?”

“I am too embarrassed to introduce myself to you as a nobleman. My great-grandfather was lucky enough to receive the title of baron, but since then I have never been to the royal family.….”

A man in his 40s, with a finely trimmed brown beard and mustache, humbled himself. Perhaps he liked the look, Kahel softened his sharply forged anticipation a little. Then he looked carefully at the jewels laid out on the table one by one. However, his face didn’t seem particularly interested, so Arder and Lena, who were standing next to him, couldn’t hide their nervousness.