Duke, Please Let Go of My Ankle! - Chapter 9

This was an emergency.

Audrey realized she desperately needed someone else’s help.

She couldn’t possibly give something like that to the person she had cherished in her heart for so long.

So, after work, Audrey’s feet led her to ‘Charlotte’s Library’, the largest bookstore in the capital.

“Welcome, Drey?”

“It’s been a while, Charlotte.”

“You look… like you’re on your last legs. Have you caught some terminal illness?”

“Well, love is an incurable disease too. Anyway, I’m in big trouble.”

“What is it?”

Audrey made Charlotte promise not to laugh, repeatedly. Then, hesitantly, she spilled her situation.

By the time Charlotte finished reading the clumsy love letter, her face was puffed up like a poisoned blowfish.

“Pfft, ahem. So you want help writing a love letter?”

“Yes, please, I’m begging you.”

“As it happens, I have just the book for someone like you.”

Charlotte disappeared like the wind and instantly reappeared with a book in hand.

It was titled, “Write Love Letters: Become Casanova in Just a Week”.

It was a dusty book that looked like it hadn’t been sold in ages.

However, Audrey, with her eyes wide open, had a different concern.

“But it’s tomorrow, a week is a bit…”

“Who am I? The bookstore owner will give you the key points, so don’t worry.”

“Thank you!”

The two sat with their heads together, underlining passages for quite some time.

The reliable Charlotte didn’t forget to give some precious advice as well.

“Make sure to write the letter in the deep of night. That’s when your sensitivity is at its peak. You’re someone who needs a lot of help with emotions.”

“Thank you so much!”

“You can do it, right?”

“Of course. It’s just a matter of referring to this and copying. I can definitely do that much!”

“…Why do I feel so worried about this?”

Charlotte seemed quite doubtful of her friend’s overly enthusiastic attitude.

She suddenly felt anxious that this might result in a terrible hybrid of neither reason nor emotion.

***

《Third Case: Long-standing Relationships》

“In a familiar relationship, you need something new between the two of you. The easiest way is to change how you address each other. Instead of your usual nickname or title, choose one that might feel unfamiliar to the other person… For example, ‘my dear’, ‘baby’, ‘my star’, ‘sweetie’, ‘cutie’, and ‘princess’ are all good?”

Audrey unknowingly crumpled her hands. She wanted to believe she had read it wrong.

‘…Should I give up?’

But then she remembered Charlotte’s fierce face saying, ‘This is what love is all about!’

Right, she couldn’t betray her friend’s trust.

Audrey barely managed to hold back her nausea.

“If it’s too hard, she told me to just pick a few sentences, right? Let’s see, ‘The room in my heart is only one…’ Ugh!”

Suddenly, goosebumps ran from her head to her toes.

Audrey couldn’t bear it anymore and rolled around, hitting her pillow and blanket.

‘I should have listened to Charlotte!’

This must be why she said to write it in the deep of night.

It was an unbearable storm of emotions for a science student with no immunity to such ticklish expressions.

“No, why is there only one room in the heart? You’d die if the heart only had one chamber!”

Maybe… this was a very dangerous book that should never have seen the light of day?

As her aversion grew stronger, Audrey’s face became more distressed.

Her overwhelmingly large reason kept trying to push out the tiny bit of emotion hiding like a bean.

Is writing a love letter always this difficult when sober?

‘This won’t do.’

Audrey resorted to drastic measures.

─Pop.

It seems she needs to have a drink.

***

From Friday morning, Audrey was lying in the underground archive with a half-dead face.

Looking like a good-for-nothing, sprawled out with a hangover during work hours.

“I did it……”

Still, thinking about the letter in her pocket made her grin.

Despite having such a low alcohol tolerance that she’d give up on being human after two drinks, she managed to write a love letter after downing three glasses.

Honestly, she didn’t have the courage to look at it again while sober.

For that reason, as soon as morning broke, she immediately sealed it with melted wax.

She was a bit worried that instead of the faint scent of perfume that should be emanating from the letter paper, it might give off the smell of a drunkard…

‘It’s alcohol, so it should evaporate quickly, right?’

Audrey fell into a deep sleep, still holding her aching stomach.

It was much later when an uninvited guest barged in.

─Slide.

“Eek! Y-Y-Your Grace!”

The aide turned to look at his master without a shred of doubt.

His eyes were full of reproach as if asking, ‘Did you kill someone again?’

“…I don’t remember killing such a person.”

“Could it be that you’ve killed so many you can’t remember them all?”

“How rude.”

My, your hearing is sharp too.

While Lucas was playing dumb, the most likely suspect quickly surveyed the crime scene.

Cherry blossom-colored hair disheveled wildly and a black dress like a tree trunk.

Judging by the pale, bloodless face, it seemed they had been dead for quite some time.

However, the crime scene was strangely clean without a single trace of blood.

The aide who had quietly stepped forward to examine this, tactlessly exclaimed in admiration.

“As expected of Your Grace. You’ve handled this very neatly.”

“……”

“I’ve always been curious, but can a Sword Master really kill someone without spilling a single drop of blood-“

“Are you curious?”

“……!”

But even a thousand years of curiosity wilts before such a fierce gaze.

“Ahem! N-No, not at all. But pink hair, that doesn’t look like an assassin at all.”

“Is there a specific look for assassins?”

“……”

“The most poisonous mushrooms are often the most colorful.”

The aide glanced behind him surreptitiously.

His expression suggested he was itching to ask if that was why he had killed her.

“What are you looking at?”

“Well, Your Grace-“

─Rustle.

At that moment, a strange presence was felt from behind where there had only been a corpse.

Lucas, who had turned his head reflexively, stumbled backward with a startled face.

“Aaah! Wh-wh-what a shock!”

“……”

The woman they thought was dead was sitting up perfectly fine.

“H-how can you just sit up without any warning! Huh?”

Lucas raised his voice unnecessarily.

He seemed quite embarrassed about having run away like a newborn giraffe stumbling on its legs.

It was understandable, given that the other party was calmly sitting there, just fluttering her eyelashes.

“……Who are you?”

“That’s what I want to ask! Oh my, my heart……”

While Lucas was preciously clutching his left chest and catching his breath, Audrey stood up unsteadily.

Her face was still drunk with sleep.

But then, an unfamiliar voice chimed in from behind the man she thought was alone.

“What are you doing here?”

“……!”

A low, cool voice, like cold water poured over the crown of her head.

In an instant, she became wide awake.

‘Right, this is the Duke’s mansion!’

Audrey, belatedly grasping the situation, stood with her feet together like a freshly enlisted soldier and shouted loudly.

“Te-Temporary employee Audrey Kevelson from the Finance Department, reporting vigorously!”

“……”

She remembered being warned to be careful not to cause any misunderstandings due to frequent surprise inspections in the Duke’s mansion.

The basics of identifying friend or foe: name and rank.

Her tensed shoulders and eyes burning with fighting spirit were surely trustworthy.

However, the man before her looked as if he was facing something utterly bizarre.

‘Is, is this not right?’

As she awkwardly rolled her eyes around, a questioning voice flew in from behind once again.

“I asked what you’re doing here.”

“Ah, I was organizing the archives! But I finished earlier than expected, so I just- Eek!”

Good heavens!

Her head, which was turning towards the owner of the voice, stopped unnaturally.

“Ju-just, just……”

No, what on earth was that fearsome appearance?

Even though their eyes had only met over the shoulder, Audrey’s tiny heart instantly tightened.

Those blood-red eyes overflowing with killing intent were certainly not of this world.

Moreover, this man exuded an aura of darkness.

The strange chill one might feel when entering an abandoned house alone at midnight, an inexplicable anxiety creeping up the spine.

‘Co-could it be, the Grim Reaper?’

Audrey rubbed her eyes with trembling hands. It seemed she had witnessed an existence she shouldn’t have seen.

Then… is death all that remains?

For the first time in her 20 years of life, she experienced a fear that paralyzed her reason.

“Look.”

The Grim Reaper drew closer.

Simultaneously, a massive darkness loomed behind the man who had seemed timid.

“He says he doesn’t remember killing.”

“……!”

“I never forget the faces of those whose necks I’ve cut.”

Whispering from behind the man’s shoulder, he was the very embodiment of a demon seducing humans.

But those eyes, flickering with hellfire, were fixed not on the man in front but on Audrey.

As if searching for the next sacrifice.

The moment she was caught in that trap, Audrey belatedly sensed the other’s identity.

‘Du-Duke Frith!’

The devil’s henchman, the Blood Sea of Criant, a ghost story of midsummer nights.

He was… the master of this mansion who was said to slice people like steaks.

***

To Audrey, who had been waiting for the end of the workday with a sickly face, came news like a bolt from the blue.

“The Duke has specially prepared a dinner banquet. Let’s wrap up our work here and everyone head to the eastern banquet hall.”

“Wow! How long has it been since we had one of these?”

“You’re telling me. The last welcome party was over half a year ago, wasn’t it?”

“Ah, what’s the big deal about that? Today, I’m going to drink until my nose bends!”

A sudden company dinner?

Amidst the excited people, only Audrey’s face looked troubled.

It was because a major hitch had occurred in her plan to deliver the letter just before leaving work and then quickly escape.

Her flustered fingertips kept fiddling with the corner of the letter in her pocket.

‘I’ll have to find a chance to secretly deliver it.’

As she was about to head to the banquet hall, swept along with the Finance Department people, she suddenly felt a familiar gaze.

It was Hans.