Grand Duke, I Like You, But Please Die! - Chapter 28

It was when Delia, who had been walking for a while, stepped into a slightly more secluded alley. The footsteps that had been following her, matching her pace, suddenly stopped.

‘What’s this?’

Delia continued walking, paying no mind.

This alley was a bit threatening, after all. There were rows of people lying face down on the ground or barely standing leaning against walls, possibly drug addicts.

Also, due to the building structure that casted shadows, the alley was very dark, damp, and cool.

‘This place is a bit creepy.’

It was the moment Delia was about to go deeper into the alley.

The footsteps that had stopped behind her suddenly approached her back in an instant. The sound was very threatening and rough, as if he was deliberately making loud footsteps.

Soon after, a large hand appeared from behind and firmly covered her nose and mouth, pulling her back forcefully.

Not knowing what was happening, Delia just remained still during this series of actions.

There must be a reason for Kaiel to do this.

As Delia was obediently dragged along, a low voice soon resonated heavily behind her.

“Why aren’t you running away?”

The hand that had covered her face was removed. The fresh scent of dawn that had been faintly spreading from his hand also faded away.

Delia turned around with a light step, exhaling deeply.

A face that looked angry but still handsome was looking down at her.

She put on a rather surprised expression.

“Oh, Kaiel! Why are you here, Kaiel?”

“I asked why you were just standing still.”

Despite Delia smiling brightly as if nothing was wrong, Kaiel continued to glare at her with a cold face.

“If someone follows or attacks you, you should fight back or run away.”

Delia nodded a couple of times half-heartedly.

Anger flashed in Kaiel’s eyes.

“You……!”

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the alley.

“Why do you deliberately enter such dangerous places? Are you determined to die?”

Delia calmly replied.

“I won’t die.”

Then she felt pressure on her wrist.

Delia shifted her gaze to the large hand firmly gripping her wrist.

It seemed like if he applied any more force, her wrist would snap like a chocolate bar.

Even in this situation, Delia didn’t miss the chance to examine his hand in detail.

Noticing her gaze, Kaiel hurriedly let go of her hand. Where he had gripped, red marks began to spread.

“Kaiel…… You weren’t planning to break my wrist, were you?”

Kaiel stared at the red marks left on her wrist, then quickly averted his gaze.

“My killing intent is weak, that’s why. I didn’t grip hard.”

“Well, I’m fine with anything! You can treat me roughly.”

Delia showed a secretive smile.

Even at this moment, Delia was thinking about removing his virgin label before killing him.

“Sometimes gently, sometimes roughly! You know what I mean, right?”

Kaiel glared at her. Delia said playfully.

“Ah, alright, don’t glare at me. Is it because I asked you to be gentle? Actually, I like you even if you’re not gentle, Kaiel. Cold is sexy in its own way……”

“Delia……!”

Regardless of time and place, she now started to blurt out anything at any time. From her perspective, it wasn’t a big deal, but from his standpoint, it was quite unpleasant and shameless talk.

Ding.

[The villain ‘Kaiel’ felt discomfort.]
[Plausibility score increases by 1 point.]

The plausibility score rose for the first time in a while.

Delia smiled slyly.

“Sorry, I’m just joking. If you don’t like hearing it, why did you follow me here? It’s not like this is the first time I’ve acted like this.”

Kaiel just looked at her without saying anything. At some point, when he had nothing to say or didn’t feel like it, he would just silently stare at her without saying a word.

Their gazes met in the air for a few seconds like that.

“Boss!”

They both turned their heads at the sound coming from afar.

In the distance, a child was running towards them, waving their hand. As they got closer, the figures of other scattered children became clearer behind them.

How did she end up with the title of boss?

Delia smiled awkwardly. Kaiel asked.

“Boss?”

“I don’t know either. Those kids gave me quite a fancy nickname.”

“So you couldn’t resist and became a gang leader this time.”

“I tell you, I don’t know anything about it!”

The children who had rushed over in a group approached, raising a cloud of dust. Kaiel slowly took a step forward to block in front of Delia.

“They’re not scary kids.”

“I know.”

The children who were running up to their noses suddenly applied the brakes when they saw the cold-looking man who had appeared.

As the ones in front suddenly stopped, the children behind bumped into the ones in front and fell over like dominoes.

“Ouch……”

Delia frowned.

“It’s because of you, Kaiel!”

“……”

Delia stretched out both hands and pushed his broad back.

“Go! Go and apologize.”

Although he didn’t actually move, Kaiel allowed himself to be pushed forward by the hands pushing hard from behind. Then he muttered towards the children, almost like a sigh.

“I’m…… sorry.”

It seemed to have created even more fear, but Delia smiled satisfactorily and stepped up beside him.

“Well done.”

Then she stretched out her arms and helped the children up herself.

The children stood up, dusted off their clothes, and immediately started chattering together.

“We found it! What the boss mentioned!”

They all seemed to want to speak first.

One boy pointed to the road and said,

“If you go straight from here and turn left, there’s a flower shop when you enter the alley!”

“Speak politely.”

Kaiel interjected.

“……sir.”

The child carefully changed his words at the end.

Seeing the children who had somehow become more submissive, Delia shook her head.

“Kaiel, step aside for a bit. Did you check the sign well?”

“Yes…… yes.”

Delia smiled kindly and patted each child’s head in turn. Some children blushed and fidgeted shyly.

“Thank you, everyone. Good job! You can go now.”

The children slowly moved away from the two. Delia waved her hand until the end.

At that moment, one of the children who was leaving suddenly ran back and held out their hand towards Delia.

In the outstretched hand was a small yellow flower.

“A gift!”

“Is this for me?”

The child nodded vigorously.

“Thank you, I’ll gladly take it!”

While Delia smiled with her eyes and saw off the last child, Kaiel stood beside her, silently watching.

“Did you see?”

Delia had a secretly proud expression.

“They say children’s eyes can’t be deceived, they recognize a beauty.”

Then she turned her head sharply towards Kaiel.

“Even if Kaiel thinks I’m ugly, I’m quite pret……”

Delia’s words were cut off midway by Kaiel.

“You’re not ugly.”

Seeing Kaiel’s serious expression, Delia turned her head again with a wry face.

If you’re ugly, you’re ugly, and if you’re pretty, you’re pretty. What does ‘not ugly’ even mean?

Still, considering that Kaiel was a virgin character who showed no interest in women at all, even that was something to be grateful for.

It might even be thanks to her high charm stat.

Delia gave him her prettiest smile.

“Thank you.”

Delia, who put the flower in her pocket, started walking in the direction the children had told her. Kaiel followed her silently, one step behind.

“By the way, Kaiel.”

Delia suddenly became curious about how he found her.

“How did you know I was here?”

Kaiel answered indifferently.

“I found traces of your research. There were plenty of herbs, but the lapocia samples were already used up. You’d need more to continue the research, right?”

In fact, the research was already finished, and she was looking for drugs to experiment on herself, but Delia didn’t bother to explain.

Delia spoke as if she didn’t understand.

“Even so, not many people would come all the way here to look for someone.”

Kaiel said.

“It’s you.”

Delia stopped in her tracks.

‘It feels like there’s a lot of meaning implied in that?’

Delia turned around and asked again.

“Me? What about me? Huh?”

“……You don’t listen.”

Hearing his words that seemed to imply it was obvious, Delia opened her mouth to probe further.

But before the question could come out, Kaiel had already started walking.

It seemed he was now able to predict even the timing of when she would pester him with questions.

Since when had he started understanding her so well? Delia smiled softly, feeling oddly warm inside.

“Hey, let’s go together!”

She trotted to catch up with him.

Just as the children had told them, a flower shop indeed appeared.