Duke, Please Let Go of My Ankle! - Chapter 40
“I’m glad you could attend. I won’t speak long. Enjoy yourselves. That’s all.”
“Happy birthday!”
However, there was one thing that Derek, hosting a birthday ball for the first time, had overlooked.
The fact that the birthday person should stay in place like a decoration on a cake.
“Your Grace, where are you going? You need to receive gifts from the guests.”
“Not necessary.”
“……Is there such a party where the birthday person doesn’t receive gifts?”
“……”
“The guests are already lined up.”
In the end, Duke Frith sat down with a not-at-all pleased face to receive the gift onslaught.
However, his gaze was wandering far away, circling around Dodori.
More precisely, on the back of the heads of the lecherous men flocking around Dodori.
“Your Grace, my sincere congratulations. These books are all precious ones that have crossed distant seas-“
“Pathetic.”
“……Pardon?”
The man who was just handing over the gift looked around in confusion.
“P-Perhaps you’re referring to-“
“By the looks of it, you won’t live long.”
“……!”
The man, turning pale, retreated hastily with a scream of birthday congratulations.
However, the situation remained similar afterwards.
“I still remember when I first met Your Grace. At that time, I-“
“You must want to die.”
“I-I’ll take my leave now!”
“……”
Whenever a man entered within a 1m radius of Audrey, fire would shoot from Derek’s eyes.
Just then, a man approaching her while drinking champagne caught his eye.
To Derek’s eyes, it looked like a drunken lout was hitting on Dodori.
‘How dare, an alcoholic like that……!’
But he couldn’t rush over right away.
His aide was watching him with eyes mixed with pleading and threats, and the line stretched to the entrance showed no signs of disappearing.
“……”
Derek had to be satisfied with sending warnings with a gaze that looked like he would tear them apart right now.
Meanwhile, the man who received the gaze started coughing frantically.
“Cough! Hack, cough!”
It was because he suddenly met eyes full of killing intent.
His face had turned pale blue as if he was being strangled. Somehow, his skin seemed to sting.
“Are, are you alright?”
“Cough!”
“Why are you suddenly like this?”
“You need to drink some water!”
“H-Hack!”
The man’s gaze nervously flickered to the blood-red eyes beyond Audrey.
‘Urgh!’
And once again, he faced chilling hostility.
Duke Frith’s eyes were brimming with wariness and killing intent.
If even a single hair of Audrey’s was brushed, he looked ready to behead them right away.
Then suddenly, he would gaze endlessly at the pink back of her head with a pitiful expression.
‘W-What? What’s with that clingy ex-boyfriend-like gaze……’
Is he having some kind of love of the century all by himself?
‘This won’t do.’
The man, instinctively sensing danger, tried to leave quickly.
However, in his haste, he ended up spilling the champagne he was holding onto his chest.
─Splash.
“Ack.”
“Oh! Are you alright?”
Surprised, Audrey took out her handkerchief to help wipe it off.
However, the more times the small hand patted his chest, the more the man’s face turned ashen.
“……!”
Sure enough.
The blood-red eyes that had momentarily softened began to spark with flames.
The dumbfounded man twisted his body this way and that, avoiding Audrey’s hand like a cat refusing human touch.
“I-I-It’s fine! I’ll do it myself! Really, it’s fine!”
“But……”
“Your concern is enough!”
“Ah, then use this to wipe.”
Gasp!
The situation visible beyond the pink crown looked ominous.
The golden cup in Duke Frith’s hand was severely dented.
Would it be too much to imagine that as his skull?
It seemed to warn that the moment he took the handkerchief in front of him, he would be a dead man.
“R-Really, it’s fine.”
“But still……”
“Let’s go over there. I’ll find you a change of clothes. Audrey, could you wait here for a moment?”
“Yes, Claude Oppa.”
“Phew……”
With Claude’s help, the man barely saved his life.
Left alone, Audrey stood quietly waiting for Claude. Unaware that her kindness had almost driven someone to death.
During that time, familiar faces approached and asked her to dance several times.
‘Have you ever seen such vulgar hands……!’
Derek, who had been following each of these scenes with his eyes, was going mad.
It was because those lecherous fellows were pressing their bodies close to Dodori, using dance as an excuse for their filthy courtship.
Even though they were just holding hands and spinning around, he couldn’t stand it as his insides boiled over.
‘This won’t do.’
Duke Frith rose from his seat.
At the same time, undisguisable anxiety swirled in his aide’s eyes.
“……Your Grace?”
“Can’t anyone receive the gifts?”
“What do you mean-“
“Just because it’s my birthday doesn’t mean I have to receive them personally.”
Derek, stepping aside from the chair, signaled to his aide.
“What are you doing?”
“Pardon?”
“Hurry up and sit down.”
“……!”
Lucas was almost forcibly made to take Duke Frith’s place.
And he was urged to greet the guests with a kind smile.
“We must not tarnish the Duke’s family’s reputation.”
“Your, Your Grace! Your Grace!”
The aide’s face looked like a child forcibly left at their grandparents’ house for the holidays.
Thus, he could only stare blankly as his lord walked away.
The cautious gaze as he approached his target with even his footsteps muted.
That appearance was like the image of a lion eyeing the throne.
***
Audrey clicked her tongue as she saw Hans being led around by Countess Emilton to greet various people.
‘Tsk tsk, how pitiful.’
At the same time, she felt relieved it wasn’t Claude.
Wasn’t it almost Claude who would have been there, exchanging greetings and conversations with unmarried young ladies?
‘Phew. I’m glad I rushed in back then.’
Audrey let out a sigh of relief.
New people were swarming around.
Those who had entered as temporary workers at the same time, people from the finance department, and her father’s acquaintances.
“Wow. So the famous ‘Lokt’ is run by you, my lady?”
“I just lent my name to it. Strictly speaking, it’s my friend’s shop! Hans Emilton.”
“I’m a regular there! I bought the new communication device as soon as it came out.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And my younger sibling loves ‘Bath Time’ so much. They say there’s nothing better when crawling home drunk on all fours.”
“You know exactly how to use it! It’s perfect for when you’re too lazy to wash up before bed.”
“I’m a bit worried about becoming a sloth though. Haha.”
Audrey happily conversed with this unexpected regular customer.
The business that started playfully, true to its name ‘Lokt’, had brought significant changes to people’s lives.
Audrey found it fascinating no matter how she thought about it.
‘It’s just a single magic tool, and yet……’
Wasn’t it surreal that her modest talent could change the world, even if just a little?
Meanwhile, Duke Frith’s expression darkened as he overheard the conversation from afar.
‘How dare they know things even I don’t!’
Derek had no idea until now that Dodori was related to Lokt.
That wasn’t all. There was still much he didn’t know about Dodori.
And here was some random nobody persistently digging into her private life.
The intention seemed quite suspicious.
‘I can’t leave this be.’
Derek pondered how to push them away from Dodori’s side.
The method he came up with was to emphasize his intimacy with Dodori.
‘I’m different from you lot.’
With the 14 romance novels he had devoured so far.
He was confident he could easily defeat these uneducated fools.
《Love Skill 29. Shower her with compliments!》
Compliments will melt even her hardened heart.
Her beauty, confidence, ability, personality – any of these are good.
Try expressing her unique characteristics by comparing them to something ‘spe/ci/al’.
Her heart will soon be yours!
Derek blurted out compliments exactly as he had read and learned.
“Your eyes remind me of the hilt of a treasured sword.”
“…Pardon?”
For Audrey, it was like being suddenly provoked by the birthday host who appeared out of nowhere.
However, Derek looked around at his competitors with a very triumphant face.
‘Dodori and I are close enough to casually give compliments like this.’
It was an extremely smug gaze.
“It was a beautiful sword granted by His Majesty before the war. As soon as a fly landed on it, it would have been split in two. “
“……!”
Sword! Split in two!
Sensing an ominous aura, the people around started to slowly distance themselves.
Meanwhile, Derek belatedly realized his mistake.
Why bring up the story of dirty flies here!
It was an amateur mistake unworthy of a love honor student.
Duke Frith gathered his thoughts again and racked his brain to make up for his mistake.
‘Dodori’s eyes. Sword hilt. Dodori’s eyes. Sword hilt……’
Wait, what happened to that sword again?
It had a beautiful green hilt but it turned red as it was stained with blood.
Ah, that’s right.
It became such a mess that you couldn’t even guess its original color. Just like his eyes.
“No matter how much you wipe it, human blood doesn’t come off.”
War is truly a wretched thing.
Wait, how did we get from compliments to war stories…
“Eek!”
“……”
By then, all the people around had already disappeared.
Derek smiled with a satisfied face. He had succeeded in having Dodori all to himself as planned.
‘Indeed, effort never betrays.’
It was certainly a thought that would make Lucas shake his head and say, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day,” if he saw it.
Translator
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