Time Limit

Chapter 6 ( I Fell In Love At First Sight)

Contrary to the outward appearance of Lariette smiling confidently, the inside was not. It must be so, because Asrazan’s cold eyes were facing her.

‘It’s scary… It’s really scary….’

Lariette tried to pretend to be relaxed, but a drop of cold sweat that could not be wiped ran down her neck.

She was confident that as long as she looked at his handsome face, she wasn’t too scared. So, when I faced him in front of me, I was terrified of the dark and distant energy that was spreading.

But now that shivering was out of shape, she looked straight into his emotionless blue eyes.

“… Can you take responsibility for your words?”

Asrazan, who had been standing for so long, took a step closer to her, asking a question in a heavy voice. This time, Lariette bit herself without realizing it.

“If it’s a silly joke… It will be difficult to see the sun tomorrow morning.”

If what she said was a lie, it meant that he would kill her immediately.

This was sincere, no joke. Asrazan was not one who touched civilians easily, but those who fearlessly mocked his curse were out of the question.

The behavior is unfamiliar to her, and she has been pretty cute so far, but she has already said something irreversible.

Lariette let out a shallow moan without realizing that the gloomy energy that weighed on her was so heavy. He took only one step closer, and his energy alone completely overwhelms her.

“If you doubt me, you should check it out.”

Lariette struggled to counter his energy by raising her mana. If it came out properly, it would have been clear that she wouldn’t even be an opponent, but now she was barely able to stand it.

In fact, it was only her guess that she was the number one purification wizard in the empire. It was only taken from what the wizards of the family said and praised when she was young.

Because she had not been educated for a long time, her skills at that time may have rusted. None of that was certain.

‘I’m going to die anyway, what’s there to be afraid of!’

In other words, the situation was like gambling, but Lariette burned the fighting spirit. One word, time limit, was what made her braver than anyone else.

She moved her body back to the front again. Then she closed her eyes and gently reached out to him. Lariette’s small hand and Asrazan large hand wrapped in bandages quickly met.

Hwaahak-

A dazzling white light burst out and surrounded Lariette and Asrazan.

Lariette’s long pink eyelashes trembled. It was because there was too much mana required than expected.

But she couldn’t succumb. If she gives up here, the only thing waiting for her is Asrazan’s sharp blade.

When the power of white purification and his black energy collided and collided, it seemed to be a small spark. The intelligence guild’s staff moaned and frightened, hiding under the table.

After a few minutes passed, it was Lariette’s white energy that seized the victory.

“……!”

Asrazan opened his sharp eyes wide and watched the pure white power seep into his hands. A warm aura tickled his hand and then disappeared.

Lariette slowly opened her closed eyes and stared at his hand. Suddenly, cold sweat was forming on her face.

The power of purification is said to consume a lot of mana, but it was still too severe. Her mana disappeared to the extent that it was difficult to control the body, and her stamina was exhausted.

Lariette knew that her mana was never on the low side. However, what was unexpected was that the power of the curse he possessed was also formidably strong.

“See, You can release it.”

She took a deep breath and hastened his action. Asrazan looked at the intermittent trembling of her slender body for a moment, then began to untie the bandages tied to his hands.

‘You will see the tattered flesh. The smell of rotting corpses will soon fill the room.’

The staff sticking out their heads under the table would be impressed by the bad smell, and the woman who looked at him confidently was sure to be bitten by the miserable appearance.

This has always been the case since Asrazan was cursed as a child.

Because of that, he tried to crush his pounding heart with bitter memories with strange anticipation. Because there is nothing more terrifying than facing a shattered hope.

Asrazan removed the bandage with a careful hand. Then, a smooth skin appeared underneath it.

It was the flesh of a living human.

Thud. Asrazan’s heart fell to the very bottom. His tightly closed mouth trembled, and his unbandaged hand trembled.

As he faced the moment he had always longed for, his body hardened as if covered in cold water. And the sound of clear laughter pierced through the coldness.

“Hehe, will you make a contract now?”

Lariette smiled brightly and cutely curved her rabbit-like eyes.

The scene, with her hair that resembles cherry blossoms fluttering and her lips red like a rose, was so bright as to see a flower garden in full bloom, and it was clearly etched in his mind.

Asrazan had an unknown intuition that he would never forget this appearance for a moment. It was an intuition that he couldn’t even understand himself.

He slowly pulled a thin pen out of the pocket of his coat. Then, after looking through the contract, he began to draw a signature under Lariette’s small letters.

succeeded. Lariette thought with a dizzy spirit.

She wanted to make sure he was signing his autograph to the very end, even with a dim view, but she couldn’t. It was because her body was as heavy as cotton soaked in water, and she had no energy left to stand.

Whoosh.

As she barely opened her eyes, she lost consciousness and collapsed. Asrazan moved his body and caught her lightly.

“Ugh….”

Lariette groaned a little with her face buried in his chest. The whimper looked like a rabbit. 

Asrazan held her small and thin waist tightly. And without hesitation, he held her with one hand.

“Felix.”

“Yes, yes, sir.”

Felix, an employee of the Information Guild, who was looking at Lariette and Asrazan with interest, responded hastily.

“Heal this purifying wizard.”

I found the right person. Asrazan added briefly. Then, as he recalled the details of the contract, he gently rolled up his lips and smiled.

<In return for purging the curse, the promisee provides the promisor with room and board for 3 months.>

3 months. If it was short, it was short, if it was long, it was long.

But Asrazan had no intention of letting her go forever. At least until the curse on him is completely gone.

* * *

A gentle vibration shook Lariette’s body. In particular, the upper body intermittently bumped into something hard, causing subtle pain.

Rumble!

When there was a particularly loud vibration, she gently lifted her heavy eyelids. The first thing she saw was the hem of his black coat that covered someone’s chin.

Black coat? It was unfamiliar and unfamiliar. Lariette, who was not awake, just stared blankly at it.

“Are you awake?”

It was the blunt bass that woke her mind, which was still moving back and forth from her dream. Lariette slowly raised her gaze with anxiety.

And in front of me, I found Asrazan’s blue eyes.

“Hiccup!”

“… You’re still same.”

Hiccups when startled were characteristic of Lariette. Although they had only met for a while, Asrazan seemed to have already grasped her characteristics.

Lariette felt ashamed and hurriedly lifted her head, which rested on his broad shoulders. Judging by the fact that the corners of her mouth were not wet, she seemed to have shed no saliva, fortunately.

‘Why am I sleeping on Asrazan sholder?!’

Lariette covered her mouth with both hands to stop the hiccups, desperately recalling her last memory.

She cast a purifying magic on his hand, and after only succeeding, she lost consciousness due to lack of mana. 

Asrazan signed the contract without even seeing it until the end!

As if noticing her injustice, Asrazan put his hand inside his coat and then pulled out a contract that was folded flatly.

“I will keep one.”

“Huh, then the autograph… Hiccup! … Did you?”

“Yes. You are the first to break the curse, even if it’s a little bit.”

Lariette glanced at his hand as he handed the contract. A large, pretty hand with bulging veins. The curse was nowhere to be found.

After confirming that, she quickly looked around. The inside of the large and colorful carriage was captured in sight.

The sound of horseshoes was constantly heard, and a dark forest road passed through the window. Lariette opened her eyes wide and looked up at Asrazan.

“Then where are we going…!”

“To the Duke of Kandel.”

Asrazan answered by looking out the window instead of facing Lariette. He don’t know why, but it was a little burdensome to make eye contact.

Meanwhile, she quickly smiled with a bright face. It was to the point that she thought it was really hard to laugh.

“Asrazan! Good luck in the future! I’ll take good care of you!”

Lariette grabbed Asrazan’s hands and shook them. The way she held his hand without hesitation even if the curse had not yet been lifted made him bewildered. I felt a soft touch through the glove.

Asrazan hurriedly removed both of her hands from him. However, ot was very careful in his actions in case that little woman would get hurt.

“I think you are misunderstanding something. You and I are nothing more than an employer-employee relationship.”

“Anyway! We do things we don’t know about the future and now we’re living together, how about a handshake or something?”

Lariette continued to speak fluently, regardless of the fact that she was rejected for touching him.

“Come to think of it, Asrazan never calls my name. shamefully. I called you a lot!  do it say my name!”

“Then don’t call me either.”

“No, I’ve already given you permission….”

Lariette muttered and turned her gaze away. It was completely dissatisfying that a person who seemed to have had a lot of dating experience hit an iron wall against her.

He will never allow it. Asrazan, who was about to reply briefly, swallowed his words. Because it wasn’t a bad name after a long time.

“… The conversation ends here. It seems we have arrived.”

He spoke in a blunt voice and fixed a bandage up to his chin. She glanced out the window.

“Hah…”

Lariette let out a sigh without realizing it.

At first glance, the appearance of the Duke of Kandel’s residence was huge and beautiful, incomparable to that of the Duchess of Blanche, despite being a residence of the same Duke’s family.

As it was a little further away from the city, the site was much larger, and the tall and splendid building looked just like a castle in a fairy tale book.

The carriage that passed the gate soon stopped in front of the entrance of the mansion. Asrazan got off the carriage with the hem of his coat fluttering, and he slowly turned around and looked at her.

“… Won’t you give me your hand?”

When he just stared and did nothing while standing there, Lariette asked in a gentle voice.

Originally, it was polite for the gentleman who came down first to hold the lady’s hand, but he didn’t even want to hold her hand and he didn’t even call her name.

After hearing her words, Asrazan cautiously reached out.

In fact, it was something he had never done before. Because no woman wanted to touch the curse. That’s why the hand reaching her was just awkward for him.

Unable to know this, Lariette pursed her lips and took his hand without hesitation and lowered it. I just wondered if his charm was so lacking.

“Are you here, Master? … Who is the Lady next to you?”

“She is the person who will be staying at the Duke’s residence from today. Please feel free to call him.”

An elderly butler met the Duke’s master. He looked quite startled when he saw Lariette, but soon skillfully captured it.

“Ah, hello. I’m Lariette.”

“Hello, Miss Lariette. This is Halstein, the butler of the Duke of Kandel. Please take good care of me.”

“Please take good care of me, I’m Halstein.”

To the greeting by bowing her head politely, Lariette elegantly answered. Then she secretly glanced at Asrazan.

‘Even the butler I just met calls my name!’

It was a very intentional gaze, but he calmly ignored it.

“It is late tonight, so please rest for a while. More details tomorrow.”

Asrazan, who entered the mansion, opened his mouth, handed over my belongings to the maids. Thinking she couldn’t lose to his coldness, she deliberately answered more brightly.

“Yes, Asrazan is also resting well. See you tomorrow-!”

“… Yes.”

Where do you go if you speak a little longer? Lariette barely resisted the urge to ask questions.

Meanwhile, the servants of the Duke of Kandel were quite surprised. The Duke is bringing a woman? Besides, is it a woman who calls the Duke’s name casually? 

There wasn’t a single thing that wasn’t disappointing.

The room Lariette was assigned to was much larger, more luxurious, and more luxurious than her room in the Duke of Blanche.

A bed that four people can sleep in, a chandelier studded with jewels, a tapestry embroidered with gold… It was a scene where his reputation as the richest Duke would not be in vain.

Seeing the shiny things, Lariette wanted to praise her a week ago when she decided to date him.

‘Ah. But where did my luggage go?’

Lariette looked around in the absence, but her luggage was nowhere to be seen.

The luggay I bought in town a week ago wasn’t expensive and nothing special, but the notebook and magic pouch in it were very important. It was because her bucket list was written in the notebook, and all her fortune was in her pocket.

I wanted to call the maid to come, but unfortunately the maid only showed me the room and left. Lariette, thinking that she couldn’t go far, opened the door and left the room.

After walking down the beautiful hallway for a few minutes, she soon met the voice of the maid she was looking for.

But it was something she hadn’t thought of.

“What are her thoughts on coming here? Looking at her clothes, she doesn’t seem like a nobleman.”

“She didn’t have a last name, she must be a commoner. What’s her name? Lira?”

The maids laughed loudly as if they had heard a very funny joke. Lariette, who heard her behind a wall behind a wall, looked at them with cold eyes.

“Didn’t she come in to flirt with the Duke and raise her status?”

“Ah, please. Does it make sense? No matter how much money you need, That monster Duke?”

Referring to the ‘Monster Duke’, the maid kept her voice as low as possible. 

Although they did not often chat around in the mansion, it was because they were afraid that the butler might find out.

“Ah, but it would be nice to have that Lira. For what crime do we have to serve commoners?”

It was comfortable and nice to have only one Duke. The maid grunted and added. 

And Lariette couldn’t listen any more, so she took a step forward.

“Not Lira, but Lariette.”

“Uh! Oh, Miss!”

At the sudden appearance of Lariette, the maids were startled and shrugged. She continued speaking with Lady Blanche’s face, not Lariette’s face in front of her.

“Did you ask for my name? Lariette Blanche. Well, how are you? Since I’m not a commoner, do you feel like you can serve me now?”

“That… me, lady, that, it’s not….”

“And there’s something you misunderstood.”

Lariette stretched out her fingers and lifted the head of the maid who was frozen. It was a woman who said the Duke is a monster.

Contrary to what they expected that I’m naive, Lariette’s face went cold. She continued with a wry smile.

“There is no need to raise my status, and it is true that I came in to seduce the Duke. I fell in love at first sight.”

Isn’t he so handsome? The maids only trembled at the added words.

And behind another wall invisible to them. Someone personally came to deliver the luggage Lariette had left behind, standing quietly and then leaving.