Chapter 3 (1/2)
Mini Things to Note:
* * – Sound effects
” ” – Dialog
‘ ‘ – Thoughts
Italics – Flashbacks/ A memory of the past
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Chapter 3
– – –
A quavering voice leaked out.
It was sad.
It was sad and depressing.
I feel like I’m alone in the world.
The Duke’s cold voice came above my head.
“You’re full of energy.”
Hic.
“It’s Dad!” I shouted and raised my head.
To be honest, when the Duke appeared, you couldn’t tell he was my father right away. So perhaps it was due to how the child looked that it was abandoned by it’s real father.
“Heug…”
I tried not to cry, but it seemed that tears came out of my eyes anyways.
The Duke’s face quickly became blurred.
Soon, I was courageous again, because I couldn’t see his cold and hardened face with the blurry vision.
“It’s my dad!”
Just as Clatier has the Marquis, I have you.
“I want to go home!”
Thick tears continued dripping down endlessly without fail. My nose became sour again.
I clenched my two small fists and hugged the Duke’s legs tightly.
I won’t miss this opportunity to leave.
“Dad, take me away—!”
【???? • ???? • ????】
“…”
“…”
It was too quiet. At first glance, it seemed that I could even hear the sound of swallowing around me.
I quietly opened my eyes.
At the same time as the tears that had formed fell, the face of Duke Paeraton was seen.
It was a terrifying face.
It wasn’t that he had a harsh expression or distorted his eyes. Rather, he had a face that was infinitely close to expressionless.
Still, I felt his blood colored eyes on me.
*Hiccup.*
Hiccups came out without realizing.
The Duke reached his hand out to me.
‘No! I won’t let go!’
I was desperately hanging on to his leg.
Although I was clutching his leg with all my might, Duke Paeraton easily grabbed me with one hand.
Contrary to expectations, he didn’t throw me away or yell at me to get lost at all. Instead, he raised me to his eye level and stared.
His red eyes and my eyes met at a distance.
At first, it was a look that I didn’t like.
Oh, what do you even like about me?
If I live continued to here, I would die, so I can’t help it!
*Hiccup.*
Unlike the bold (inwardly) shout, small hiccups kept leaking out.
The Duke raised one eyebrow at me before beginning to move, with me still picked up.
“Your Excellency.” The aide who was guarding his back like a shadow, called the Duke of Paeraton as if he was under a lot of pressure.
“Go back.”
However, the Duke left only those words and continued to step forward.
I wondered in the Duke’s arms every time he took another step.
‘If I really go back with him like this… will they take me in?’
My heart was pounding.
Finally, finally I escaped from this terrible place!
It was when I was looking at the door that was getting closer, step by step, without blinking my eyes.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, the Duke of Paeraton stood tall.
‘Why did you stop?’
I glanced up at him, but I couldn’t read anything from his expressionless face. Somehow, smoldering anxiety clawed up my insides.
With the exit close at hand, he turned around.
I, who was lifted up in the Duke’s arms, had no choice but to turn my back at the door as well.
‘Well, no way…’
My heart dropped all the way to the floor. I held the Duke as if I was holding my lifeline.
‘No! Don’t throw me away!’
That was the moment.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
A loud, terrifying scream rang through the hall.
‘What…?’
I held onto the Duke’s chest and stared at the source of the sound.
“It, it’s Tie!”
“Miss!”
“Oh what the hell is going on…”
The shape of Clatier was seen through the crowds of people.
Even without a dress, the cost of embroidered diamonds alone would cost billions.
“My, my dress! My dress is…….!”
Clatier sat down and gripped the tattered dress.
“Duke Paeraton!”
The Marquis covered Clatier’s shoulders and called the Duke with a deep blue face.
‘There’s no way that’s what the Duke did?’
The Duke didn’t even pull his sword out, and he wasn’t close enough to Clatier. But when I looked at the timing and the attitude of the Marquis, it seemed he did.
“Is your discernment lost? You shouldn’t be this greedy to point fingers.”
At the cold words of Duke Paeraton, the Marquis was bewildered.
I was amazed at his action of ignoring the Marquis, as if turning away without being punished immediately was completely normal.
The Marquis, who was so big that I couldn’t rebel, lowered his posture so easily now, but–.
‘He seemed like a person who had been stabbed.’
That was the most amazing thing.
“Oh, Dad!”
Clatier called the Marquis with a crying face, but the Marquis was currently overwhelmed by the Duke and could not pay attention to her.
The Duke turned around as if there was nothing else left to see.
I sighed with relief, still hanging on to his chest.
‘It’s a good thing, because you’re not leaving me.’
By the way, what was the Marquis stabbed by?
Leaving that question behind, I left this hellish place owned by the Marquis and headed for the home of the Duke of Paeraton.
【???? • ???? • ????】
‘The ceiling of the bed is so beautiful.’
I had seen it every day during my ten days or so at the mansion of the Duke of Paeraton, but I still haven’t gotten used to it.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I was surprised again, and I stretched out.
Ahhhh…
Even though I slept so comfortably like that, my eyeslids still felt quite heavy.
‘What time is it?’
The people here don’t wake me up no matter how much I oversleep. Thanks to this, I was able to sleep as much as I wanted.
When I wake up, I’m not unnoticed like a ghost, and people often enter the room like this.
“Did you just cough, young miss?”
“Yes, good morning.”
At my words, the maids and the other servants became silent.
I dipped my hands in the water and glanced at the maids and servants who stood like interior decorations.
‘They still have no expressions today.’