Duke, Please Let Go of My Ankle! - Chapter 16

But no matter how much she thought about it, it wasn’t something you’d commonly hear.

Isn’t it more like a metaphorical expression that would appear in a letter?

‘……A letter? Ah, that’s right!’

Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, her whole body trembled.

Audrey finally remembered the love letter she had completely forgotten about for the past few days.

‘But, where did I put it?’

A chill began to run down her spine.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t remember where the letter was at all. Her fist, clenched in bewilderment, gradually became damp.

Audrey, feeling anxious, immediately began to search her pockets and around her desk.

‘Where is it? Why isn’t it here!’

But there was no particular result.

‘Ah! Could it be in the pocket of the clothes I wore then?’

The maids would surely have checked the pockets before doing laundry.

No one would dare touch her belongings, so it must be piled up somewhere in the room.

‘Yes. It must be in the room. In the room…..’

Audrey tried to ignore the rising anxiety and waited for the end of work. She felt she would only be at ease after checking the letter in the basket.

***

Sunday.

Derek decided he could no longer wait and would seek help from those around him.

He didn’t want to resort to this method, but he had no choice.

His closest aides, suddenly summoned, sat in the conference room with tense faces.

“There is an important matter at hand.”

“……”

Gulp.

In an instant, a tense atmosphere flowed. In that quiet silence, Derek made an abrupt bombshell declaration.

“I received a confession.”

“……Pardon?”

“I’m saying I received a confession through a love letter.”

“Who… are you referring to……”

The aides cautiously asked. They didn’t seem to imagine at all that the subject was Duke Frith.

Derek quietly pulled out something as if to support his claim.

It was a letter that he had transferred to a pure gold frame, not satisfied with just laminating it.

“I received a love letter.”

“Huh!”

Unlike his indifferent face, his ears also turned pink.

Seeing this sight, the aides covered their mouths and fell into shock. Their expressions said it was absolutely impossible.

Lucas was the most surprised.

He had only heard that there was someone His Grace liked, but to think he had already received a love letter…….

His jaw, which had dropped open, wouldn’t close.

Somehow, suspicion kept rising.

Of course, it wasn’t because he felt a petty sense of competition toward his lord who was in a similar situation.

‘Right. I’m just worried about Your Grace’s well-being.’

The aide narrowed his eyes and subtly asked again.

“Your Grace. If it’s not too presumptuous, may we examine the letter?”

“There was no drug reaction.”

“That’s not what I mean, but perhaps, um, I wonder if you might have misinterpreted something like a challenge letter……”

“You take me for a fool.”

Derek, seeming offended, pressed his lips tightly.

However, the aides who had been by his side for a long time nodded and agreed with the assistant’s opinion.

Isn’t it a fact known even to 3-year-olds on the street that Duke Frith has been alone since birth?

It was clear that this clueless lifelong bachelor had misunderstood a dunning letter or an advertisement flyer.

These days, subtle advertisements are the trend after all.

“Instead of that, how about we review it together? It can’t hurt to be cautious, can it?”

“……”

“Your Grace.”

But the person in question remained unmoved.

His stubbornly furrowed brow showed no signs of relaxing.

‘How pathetic.’

Isn’t a love letter supposed to be a very private and intimate correspondence?

It was already unpleasant to think that their memories would become a topic of conversation for everyone.

Moreover, his Dodori surely didn’t write the letter intending for it to be passed around to every stone on the street.

This wasn’t the kind of wisdom Duke Frith wanted to seek from them.

“Your Grace. We must put our heads together!”

“That’s right. There might be something Your Grace has missed.”

“This is related to the safety of the entire duchy. Please understand our concerns.”

However, the aides immediately switched to emergency response mode.

Despite knowing nothing, they were so adamant about catching and punishing whoever it was.

He couldn’t let them misunderstand his Dodori. After being pestered for a while, Derek reluctantly agreed.

“……Don’t look at it for too long. Only view it from a distance.”

“Yes!”

His face was still disgruntled.

But he thought that, as his aides said, there might be parts he had missed.

Perhaps they might find a clear answer as to why his Dodori wasn’t showing up.

However, there was one thing he overlooked:

His aides were no different from him, either blockheads or lifelong bachelors.

The letter that Derek had cherished all this time finally came out into the world.

“Step back further. You’re too close. It’s starting to feel unpleasant.”

Sure enough, Derek glared at each of his aides’ heads in turn with fire in his eyes.

To think that what they were doing with such serious faces, huddled together, was just sneaking a peek at someone else’s love letter.

From a distance, they looked like a special forces team disarming a bomb.

They interpreted the letter line by line more carefully than ever before. They looked like squad members debating whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire.

“It seems like quite a dangerous letter. Am I the only one who thinks so?”

“I see it that way too. Judging by the inconsistent size and spacing of the letters, it’s clear it was written in a psychologically unstable state.”

“This is indeed typical of a blackmailer’s method. It appears they intentionally distorted the handwriting to confuse any analysis.”

“Such a vicious person shouldn’t be left alive!”

Lucas, who had been observing the aides’ reactions, cautiously spoke up.

“Your Grace. It seems this isn’t a matter we can resolve easily. We need to hold an internal meeting. Please grant us permission.”

“……Is it so suspicious that I received a love letter?”

“Nothing is more important to us than Your Grace’s safety.”

“……”

The veins on Duke Frith’s fist bulged.

If he could, he wanted to sweep away all these aides and everything else.

‘How dare they……’

Had they ever seen such irreverent people, sullying someone else’s precious memories?

Derek snorted as if he hadn’t expected anything from the beginning and immediately ordered them out.

“Enough. It’s my fault for asking you ignorant fools. Get out of my sight immediately.”

“But Your Grace!”

“Let me ask one thing. Has anyone here ever received a love letter even once?”

“……”

The audience instantly became mute as if they had swallowed honey.

Derek chuckled dryly.

His crooked smile oozed arrogance as if saying ‘I thought as much’.

To think that among 20 people, not one had ever received a love letter.

Well, weren’t all his aides either single or victims of arranged marriages?

And what? A blackmailer’s method? A vicious person?

How dare they insult my Dodori…….

“How can you possibly review something when you’ve never even received a single love letter? It’s truly astounding.”

“B-but we know what a love letter is!”

“You’ve probably only seen them in dreams. How could such blockheads understand romance or metaphors? That’s enough, you may leave now.”

You don’t know either, Your Grace!

Lucas swallowed these irreverent words and tried his best to persuade him.

“Who on earth sent the letter that you’re acting like this?”

“There is someone. Called Dodori.”

“What? What kind of name is that…… Anyway, who is this person? Which family do they belong to?”

“I don’t know either.”

At that moment, a look of pity bloomed on the aides’ faces.

Oh, look at this innocent lord. He doesn’t even know the sender. Doesn’t it reek of suspicion?

They’ve heard of anonymous threat letters, but never an anonymous love letter.

“Then have you seen their face? They must have delivered the letter to you somehow.”

“……I don’t know that either. It was just lying on the floor of my office.”

“……”

The aides sighed.

Everything from the delivery method to the location where it was found was suspicious.

Even Derek, who had been confident throughout, seemed to be losing his initial certainty. Come to think of it, there were indeed some questionable points.

“We should proceed with the meeting after all.”

“……”

Even for Duke Frith, it was too much to resist any further.

In the end, a meeting was held in his office all night long.

Lucas took the lead, persistently questioning every single line.

“This letter implies several dangers. First, look at this expression. ‘Worse than germs.’ Is this really a phrase used without any meaning?”

“Germs to a loved one? Such an unpleasant expression is forbidden. If I wrote that to my wife, she’d be in tears for a week.”

“Exactly. This…… I hate to even imagine it, but I believe it’s declaring germ warfare against the duchy.”

“Germ warfare! Shouldn’t we close the castle gates immediately?”

“It’s too early to be alarmed. The most definitive proof that this is not a love letter is here, look. The expression about wanting to see Your Grace’s face every moment from waking to sleeping.”

“Huh? But isn’t that…?”

“Think about it. How many women would want to see His Grace’s grim face before and after sleep? They’d be lucky if their heart didn’t stop!”

“That’s right. No one in their right mind would say such a thing.”

“He has a point!”

“Therefore, this is clearly a threat letter disguised as a love letter. That scoundrel deserves to be torn apart!”

Lucas clenched his fist and snorted angrily.

The aides also slammed the table in agreement.

“Did they think we’d fall for it so easily? Not a chance!”

“Your Grace! We must catch those bastards immediately and show them hell!”

“Those insolent fools! They’re no different from Satan in their wickedness. A new method indeed…… Your Grace almost fell for it too!”

A commotion broke out in the office. Meanwhile, Derek silently held his forehead.

‘……These utterly useless fools.’

Of course, it would be a lie to say there was nothing suspicious about the letter. However, it was impossible for it to be a threat letter as these dullards were speculating.

Think about it. Who would send a threat letter on such pretty pink stationery?

‘I’ve been listening to their earnest nonsense all night long.’

He should have just read the letter 100 more times instead.

Duke Frith suddenly felt like being alone.