“Really, making such a fuss over nothing.”

“I’m truly sorry, Your Grace. This place isn’t usually this noisy……”

The town’s influential figures and gathered people had just started to relax and complain about showing the Duke an unsightly scene when—

“That… the young master of Viscount Benson is trapped under it, my lord!”

“…What?”

“It seems the young master was the one who made the house collapse!”

What nonsense was this now. Viscount Benson, who had been standing in the corner, ran out with a pale face. Others also looked at each other with bewildered expressions. The person with medical qualifications in the tavern hurriedly stood up and headed outside.

Elroy still stood quietly, watching his surroundings with tired eyes. Why should he care if such a person gets hurt or not? He wanted to exchange proper greetings and go to Annelie’s house, but attention had become scattered like this.

‘Should I just quietly leave?’

Just when he was thinking that and half pulling his body away,

“My lord! We need more workers!”

“What? Why on earth……”

“There’s someone else trapped! They say someone was inside when the house collapsed!”

“Why would anyone be in a house under demolition!”

“We-well, the young master of Benson……”

It seemed that troublemaker had threatened someone right after leaving the tavern. People sighed at the situation that wasn’t even surprising.

“So who else is trapped?”

The lord called for workers with deeply furrowed brows.

“Well… you know the daughter from the printing house in the lower town. The Heich family……”

Bang!

The sound of a chair violently rolling across the floor after being knocked over rang out. The nobles who turned their heads in surprise at the noise swallowed hard when they met ice-cold eyes. Several people belatedly remembered one fact.

‘Come to think of it……’

‘The Duke refused the lodging we offered and went to that house……’

Before people could react, Elroy kicked his chair back and came out to the small country street. Far away, the collapsed house raising dust was dimly visible under the street lamps that still used candles.

The gathered passersby were pulling out someone with something stuck in their head. Just looking at the size of the person being pulled out and the bewildered expression of the Viscount nearby made it clear it wasn’t Annelie.

Then where was Annelie. Where was Annelie Heich.

“Your Grace!”

“Your Grace, it’s dangerous!”

“Let go!”

Ignoring the pale-faced people shouting and pulling from behind, Elroy ran toward the debris.

While desperately scanning the surroundings, something caught his eye. There was a passage where the beam hadn’t collapsed yet, allowing entry inside. But that wouldn’t last long. Once the remaining parts collapsed, there would be no way to get inside.

“Your Grace!”

“Duke Tevant!”

“Go call all the young men! Hurry!”

Elroy finally shook off those trying to stop him with superhuman strength and ran toward the still open space. He felt the passage collapse behind him right after he jumped in, but he didn’t think about anything else. While roughly clearing away the debris that kept blocking his view, Elroy desperately called for Annelie.

“Annelie!”

His gloves tore and his hands burned. Thorns pierced his delicate and beautiful knuckles and his nails broke. But he had no time to care about that. Whether his body got dirty or injured, Elroy frantically dug deeper inside. Though anyone who saw him wouldn’t recognize him as the Duke of Tevant, it didn’t matter.

“Answer me!”

While plaster kept falling from the ceiling, there was no sign of Annelie. Elroy’s trembling gaze scanning the interior turned toward a corner inside, where the wall had already collapsed.

“Annelie! Annelie Heich!”

Elroy shook with rage when only his panting voice echoed emptily. His voice continued to flow desperately.

“Where are you, Annelie!”

No. Annelie, no.

He felt like he would truly go mad. He couldn’t breathe properly. His hands clearing away obstacles became more and more of a mess as they tore and burst, but the pain of broken nails was nothing compared to the pain of not being able to see Annelie. Among the dust smell piercing his lungs, Elroy called for her again with renewed strength.

“Annelie!”

Nelie, who had been lying face down on the floor, woke up to someone’s voice calling her.

“Gasp.”

Her lungs that suddenly filled with air ached softly. Only when she saw herself collapsed on the floor did she remember what the current situation was.

‘The house… collapsed.’

She must have briefly lost consciousness from something that suddenly struck her moments ago. The inside of the house still creaked precariously, ready to collapse. Powder falling from above and wooden pieces from the splitting beams showered down on her body.

‘I need to get out.’

Nelie tried to get up by pushing against the ground with effort. However, for some reason her body wouldn’t move as she wanted. Above all, she had no feeling in her legs.

Nelie looked down at her legs with trembling eyes.

“Ah.”

The beam that had struck Nelie and made her lose consciousness when it collapsed was crushing her legs. That wasn’t all. She must have hit something wrong when she fell because dizziness overwhelmed her. Far from exerting strength, she couldn’t even raise her upper body.

‘What should I do.’

Would she die so futilely like this? Would she leave before her father, without doing anything she wanted to do, without having the conversations she wanted to have?

In that moment, the faces of her father, Tina, and Jerome flashed through her mind one by one. But there was one face she thought of more than anyone else.

‘…Duke.’

Duke Elroy Tevant. The most beautiful and cruel person she had ever met. The person who had stolen her whole heart.

She wanted to shout to him in the tavern that she was here. Please come, let her see his face one last time. At least tell her in person that she was his lover.

Tears flowed from Nelie’s frightened eyes. The next moment, she heard a completely unexpected voice.

“Annelie!”

“…Your Grace?”

Footsteps approached the sound of her voice, which had escaped without her realizing it. As panting breaths reached her side, Nelie suddenly cried out.

“Your Grace! I, I’m here……”

“Wait!”

The Duke had found Nelie and rushed over in one breath. While the world seemed to creak and shake ready to collapse, only each other’s presence felt distinctly real.

“Ah……”

He shone alone even in this situation, just like always. Though his expensive clothes and gloves were all torn from breaking through the debris, his combed hair had fallen loose, and his delicate hands were dirty and bleeding.

“Wait just a little. I’ll get you out soon……”

As the Duke, who had rushed over urgently, carefully pulled Nelie’s legs out from under the beam, Nelie stared into his eyes in a surreal daze. While lifting the pillar, the Duke also met her gaze. Just as the words she had wanted to say began to rise in her throat—

Rumble.

Ominous sounds followed one after another.

The moment Nelie’s legs came free, the roof right above them collapsed helplessly. The commotion outside only grew louder.

* * *

“…Your Grace.”

In the deep darkness.

Unable to move an inch in the gap, Nelie called out to him while tightly wrapped in the Duke’s embrace. The smell of bloody dirt and damp mold from broken wood was vividly tangible.

The spot where the two lay was, miraculously, an empty space between the collapsed debris. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, the beam that had fallen on Nelie earlier had blocked most of the debris from falling on top of them.

Nelie examined her body. Except for her legs that had been trapped under the beam earlier, she had no injuries. Thanks to the Duke embracing her and taking the debris that the beam couldn’t block instead.

However, the space was so narrow she couldn’t turn her head. The most she could do was bury her face in the Duke’s embrace. She couldn’t see his face. With the dusty taste in her mouth and the ringing in her ears, she could barely hear the Duke’s heartbeat. She suddenly felt scared that he might be dead, that she might be left alone in this debris.

“Your Grace, Your Grace.”

“Be quiet Annelie, my head is ringing.”

Fortunately seeming to have regained consciousness, the Duke held her tighter and kissed her forehead. Only when she heard his voice did the ringing subside. A sob unconsciously mixed into Annelie’s voice.

“I thought you were dead.”

What came back was a frivolous response.

“Were you worried?”

“How could I not be?”

“Why. Aren’t we nothing to each other now?”

She hated that he would say such things even in this situation. But she loved him at the same time. The Duke who held her alive, who came in to save her despite seeing the building collapse. She couldn’t bear how much she loved him equal to how much she hated him.

“…But are we really nothing to each other?”

Hearing him ask this now, all the words she had wanted to say tangled in her mouth. His voice sounded afraid she might acknowledge that they were nothing, even though he had been the one to draw that line first.

“Your Grace.”

“If we really are nothing to each other.”

A silence followed like he was contemplating. The sound of opening and closing his mouth came from right above her head, then a very small whisper.