Duke, Please Let Go of My Ankle! - Chapter 12

Derek frowned, glaring at the letter for a long time, and finally placed it on the desk within his sight.

In case anything unusual was discovered, he needed to respond immediately.

“……It’s probably just another ridiculous letter.”

He pathologically disliked the letters that came to him.

Invitations were piled up in one corner without even being opened.

That was due to a certain memory from the past.

At twenty-three, just after returning from the war. Despite his fierce appearance, he had a naive side.

Naive enough to believe invitations were sent out of mere courtesy.

When the sender earnestly pleaded “Please come,” he decided to attend out of consideration for their sincerity.

He even adjusted his busy schedule to make time.

However, the faces turning pale at the moment his arrival was announced were still vivid in his memory.

“Y-Your Grace, the Duke.”

They had invited him themselves, yet they looked so surprised.

They had invited him themselves, yet they looked so surprised.

The whispers among the greetings grated on his ears like mosquito buzzing.

The party they had meticulously prepared instantly turned into a funeral.

He felt unnecessarily uncomfortable.

He had attended because he was invited, yet he felt like an uninvited guest.

Since that day, invitations delivered to the Duke’s mansion were sorted to one side without even being opened.

Derek never opened those letters, not even by mistake.

“Ridiculous people.”

That pink letter would probably be the same.

It’s obvious they would have written insincere words in detail.

However, he is no longer the naive nobleman from two years ago.

Although he doesn’t know how a letter that should have been sorted out by Lucas made it this far……

“It’s annoying.”

A mere letter was gnawing at his nerves.

Frowning, Derek finally picked up a paper-knife and neatly opened the envelope.

He intended to read it and then discard it since it had come this far.

However, as soon as he opened the envelope, a familiar smell wafted out.

“What, such a strong smell of alcohol……”

His face wrinkled involuntarily.

Is it fashionable these days to spray alcohol instead of perfume on letter paper? The smell alone was enough to make one feel drunk.

“This won’t do.”

Derek wrapped his hand with a handkerchief as if touching something unclean.

Then, as he unfolded the paper, crooked handwriting that didn’t match the pretty stationery at all appeared.

Somehow, even the crawling handwriting reeked of alcohol.

“……Did a dog write this?”

It wasn’t even human drunk handwriting.

He had received letters full of empty words before, but never a letter like this.

Derek interpreted the contents with displeased eyes.

[To my you…

I have a person I love…

That person… looks strong but… is more delicate than anyone.

That person… is someone I… love… with my life.

That person… is a fool… who doesn’t understand my feelings.

That person… is… you.

You don’t even know… my feelings…

But… I like you so much… what should I do…

You are… worse than… germs…

Why do you keep… overcoming antibodies…

And take a place… inside me…

You make me hurt…

Bad person… but a person I like so much it drives me crazy…

Every moment… I open and close my eyes

If I could… face your face… how nice would that be…

My heart… can’t beat without you anymore…

Because… you are… my electricity…

May you,

Will you become… the electricity of my kidney?

If… we could love each other…

Please place… a red flower… like my heart… by the window…

From… your acorn…]

“……!”

After deciphering the entire letter, Derek froze like ice.

Despite the overpowering smell of alcohol, this letter was…….

“Is this saying, they like me?”

It was clearly a love letter.

He read and re-read the letter with cold eyes. The handkerchief he had wrapped around like armor had long since disappeared.

However, after reading it all, he had to ponder for a long time who exactly “your acorn” was.

“……They must be out of their mind.”

Well, why should it matter who it is anyway?

It must be a woman who is not in her right mind.

But contrary to his indifferent words, his exposed ears on both sides were flushed red as if about to burst.

His heated earlobes seemed to be pulsating.

This was the first confession he had ever received in his 25 years of life.

“……”

Duke Frith had to struggle for a long time to calm his pounding heart.

***

“Ugh……”

“Miss! Are you feeling a bit better?”

“Wa, water.”

“Ah! Here you go!”

Audrey moistened her shriveled lips with water. Even after drinking a whole bottle, her thirst didn’t subside.

She thought the sky would fall this morning…….

But in front of the smell of alcohol rising up her throat, the pain of unrequited love couldn’t even compare.

“Ugh, cold.”

“You need to stay in bed today. How could you drink to the point of getting sick?”

“I had my reasons.”

“Your face is so…… Oh my, what to do? This pretty face!”

“……”

She couldn’t tell if this was an insult or concern.

“Young Master Hans carried you on his back yesterday. Do you know how surprised everyone was?”

“He did?”

“You didn’t know? Whenever you get drunk, the young master always carries you back. Despite all the bickering, he’s surprisingly caring, you know?”

“Caring? Hah. Even a passing dog would laugh at that.”

“With all due respect, the one closer to a dog last night was you, Miss-“

“What?”

“Ahem. I’ll take my leave now. Please call if you need anything!”

“……Okay.”

Left alone, Audrey curled up like a shrimp, wrapped tightly in her blanket.

Her mind was in turmoil.

While she had considered the possibility that Claude might not like her, she never thought he might have another woman.

That’s why it was even more shocking.

‘Who could it be?’

She thought she had figured out all the women around Claude. Was there someone she missed?

No, Audrey’s information was accurate.

Except for the time he suddenly left for his academy studies abroad without notice.

She thought it might be a woman he met then.

“……”

Audrey quickly became gloomy.

The woman he likes must be someone who shines in everyone’s eyes.

She felt upset wondering just how amazing this woman must be to have captured his heart completely.

“Sob……”

At the same time, she felt ashamed for harboring vain hopes.

Audrey decided never to trust her instincts again.

Hadn’t she foolishly mistaken his kindness, reserved only for her, as love, and ended up in this ridiculous situation?

“One mistake is enough.”

Audrey, who had been quietly soaking her pillowcase, got up with puffy eyes.

The moment she had been trying so hard to avoid had finally come. The moment to cleanly sort out her feelings of the past 5 years.

Audrey took out a mobile magic stone she had hidden by her bedside and grasped it tightly.

─Whoosh.

When she closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again, she was standing in the middle of a vault full of gold bars.

The vault, which had been moved 10 times already, was the largest in the empire, a space specially created for the fictional person ‘Claudia Obell’.

“I’ve collected so much. Though it’s useless now……”

The accumulated gold bars vaguely resembled a golden mansion.

Audrey walked around it as if taking a stroll, stroking each precious gold bar.

Then her gaze stopped at one spot.

“What’s this?”

It was a gold bar placed like a cornerstone in one corner.

“……This was the day Oppa first patted my head.”

She recalled the moment when she, at fifteen, first fell for the 20-year-old Claude.

Back then, not even understanding her own feelings, she spent a sleepless night feeling strangely restless.

Half amazed by the money she had earned herself, half troubled by Claude’s face constantly appearing in her mind.

How much she had fiddled with that innocent gold bar throughout the night.

The gold bar she had hidden under her bed and secretly taken out several times a day became the first cornerstone of the golden mansion.

Audrey’s gaze turned to another spot.

“I was trembling from the night before, thinking about holding Oppa’s hand at my debutante ball……”

The gold bar that came in the day before her debutante ball was also unforgettable.

To think that her once-in-a-lifetime debutante partner would be none other than Claude!

Eighteen-year-old Audrey ran around the entire room out of sheer joy.

The flowers he gifted that day had been decorating her window for two years.

How grateful she had been for being a magician, planting preservation magic stones in the soil to keep the flowers from wilting.

“…Sob…”

As she reminisced about the memories contained in each gold bar, tears welled up again.

The golden mansion held Audrey’s entire 5 years. And inevitably, all memories led back to Claude.

“No. I can’t do this……”

Her body, which had been standing firm, collapsed helplessly.

The enormous golden mansion was the embodiment of Audrey’s feelings for Claude. Facing it, she realized clearly.

These weren’t feelings that could be sorted out so easily.

“When did I, sob, like Oppa because he liked me? I was the only one who liked him.”

Right. She couldn’t give up on him without doing anything. After all, Claude wasn’t officially dating that person yet, was he?

Audrey still had a chance.

People’s hearts are like reeds, swaying this way and that when the wind blows.

If her efforts so far had been a gentle breeze, now she would become a gale to shake him.

Audrey was ready to do anything.

***

‘Why on earth is he acting like this?’

On a pleasant weekend, Lucas was busy watching Duke Frith’s mood.

He was especially strange today.

The chilling atmosphere was clearly the same as yesterday, but with that icy face, he kept making mistakes in everything he did.

He would sign in the wrong place despite having a clearly drawn line, or mix up documents that needed review with those already checked.

“……”

Finally, Derek put down his pen.

It seemed like a sigh could be heard from his absent-minded face.

“That’s enough for today. You may go.”

“Yes. ……Pardon?”

“Did you not hear me?”

“No, that’s, I understand.”

“Wait.”

The dismissal was immediately retracted as soon as it was given. It was an uncharacteristic whim.

‘That’s more like it.’

Lucas awkwardly halted in the position he was about to leave.

Of course, there was no way he would finish work so early on this beautiful weekend.

But he couldn’t understand why someone who never went back on his word was acting so strangely today.

“Your Grace? Should I just leave?”

“No.”

“Do you have something to say?”

“You.”

“Yes.”

“……Have you ever received a confession?”