In The Basement Of Duke Ivanstein's Mansion - Chapter 3

Blink, blink.

As Mel slowly raised and lowered her eyelids, her vision gradually returned. Yet she frowned as the bright light pierced her eyes. Why was it so dazzling? Mel tried to raise her hand to cover her eyes. But something caught her wrist with a thud, and her upper body sharply leaned forward.

“…You’re awake.”

Something supported Mel’s upper body. A voice so cold it gave her goosebumps reached Mel’s ears as she blinked rapidly, not knowing what was happening. Mel knew the owner of this voice. It was the voice she had faintly heard while she was unconscious.

Duke Genoa Ivanstein.

Mel slowly raised her head to find the owner of the voice.

“Huh.”

She inhaled sharply and widened her eyes. Through the disheveled shirt, a man’s firm chest filled her vision. Mel realized that she had her head buried in the man’s upper body.

As she hurriedly tried to pull her body back, the man pushed her away even faster. With a thud, her back hit a hard wall. Mel swallowed the scream that was about to burst out. Duke Genoa Ivanstein was right in front of her eyes.

Long silver hair like holy water flowing in the moonlight. Mysterious eyes resembling purple sapphires.

When she was young, Mel had countless imaginations about the beautiful boy before her. What would the grown-up boy look like? He’s already so beautiful, later he’ll probably melt people just by looking at them, she thought.

“……”

It was like she had imagined. No, it was even more than she had imagined. His already handsome eyes had deepened, and his nose bridge and jawline had sharpened as if they would cut if touched. He was like a sacred object carefully crafted by God.

They said the true terror of Duke Ivanstein, the war hero, lay in his breathtakingly beautiful appearance. If you lose yourself for a moment, you’ll lose your life in a spray of blood, they said. If Mel had been in the middle of a battlefield, she would have fallen before the Duke’s cold blade by now.

“I recommend not moving like that. Your hands and feet are tied together.”

Mel snapped back to her senses at the icy voice flowing from Genoa’s beautiful lips. Her body began to ache and tremble.

Only then did her situation come into view. Her hands and feet were tied together with a single rope, and in this state, Mel was riding in the same carriage as Duke Ivanstein. Mel wondered why the Duke was in the same carriage as her.

Perhaps reading such a question in her gaze, the Duke spoke in his still chilling voice.

“The Emperor was impatient.”

The carriage they were riding in now was the imperial carriage that the Emperor had allowed only to Duke Ivanstein. This carriage couldn’t be ridden without the Emperor’s permission. This carriage, enchanted with ancient magic, increased the stamina and strength of the horses, allowing them to reach their destination at a constant speed without tiring even after long hours of travel.

As soon as the old Emperor heard the news that the princess had been secured, he threw a fit, demanding that she be brought to the imperial palace immediately. Seeing dozens of messenger birds arrive in less than half a day, the Duke immediately boarded the carriage with the princess.

“Then I…”

As Mel tried to speak, moving her lips, something sharp touched her neck. It was the nib of the pen the Duke had been using to sign documents until she woke up.

“It’s better not to open your mouth in front of me, princess.”

“……”

Even the princess’s voice resembled Mel’s.

He had once imagined what that slave would look like if she had grown to this age. But the princess’s appearance and voice resembled the slave girl even more than he had imagined, which instantly made him very uncomfortable.

“You have a voice I don’t want to hear.”

The princess now had a cloth tied under her eyes, covering them. It was probably Bane’s measure to prevent her face from bothering him.

‘Unnecessarily.’

He should have covered her eyes, not just below them. From the moment the princess’s vivid green eyes were revealed, Genoa was reminded of that slave girl from the past.

Genoa was responsible for that child’s death. And he harbored just as much resentment. If she hadn’t run away like that, Genoa would have promised Mel a peaceful life. Why did that child break her promise and run away then? If she were alive, he could ask, but he couldn’t get answers from a dead person.

Perhaps that’s why looking at the princess who resembled her made his insides twist. It felt as if that vain something with nowhere to go might be directed at the princess.

“How rude.”

It was the princess’s trembling voice that broke Genoa’s reverie. Though her face couldn’t hide her fear, she was gritting her teeth and meeting his eyes.

“Reibritton has not yet fallen, and I am still a princess of a country. Show some respect, Duke Ivanstein.”

Seeing the princess barely maintaining her last shred of dignity, the lingering image of the slave girl trying to fill his mind faded. The killing intent flowing from Genoa’s fingertips disappeared, and he withdrew the pen that had seemed about to pierce the princess’s neck. At the same time, the princess lowered her tensed shoulders.

“I apologize for my rudeness. If you wish, I shall do so, Princess.”

His voice became more generous. Genoa’s gaze was withdrawn from her.

For a while after, there was no conversation in the carriage except for the sound of papers being turned and the scratching of signatures.

“……”

Mel kept her mouth tightly shut, feeling cold sweat running down her back.

This person was indeed the boy she knew. If only she hadn’t been so intoxicated with the sense of superiority that she could help him then, could she have remained by Genoa’s side after he became Duke Ivanstein?

‘He said I was a slave who betrayed him.’

She had never betrayed Genoa. Of course, they weren’t even close enough for betrayal to be possible.

Mel was a slave, and slaves were a race that would do anything to survive. She took Genoa’s hand to survive, and she helped Genoa to survive.

But that didn’t mean she didn’t understand loyalty. It was clearly her mistake that she had to leave the Ivanstein family in that way that day. In the end, she tried to be satisfied with the fact that Genoa could become Duke Ivanstein thanks to her help.

Mel recalled the conversation between Bane and his subordinate before she completely lost consciousness.

“But that slave tried to escape when our lord entered the test chamber and died.”

She never thought such a misunderstanding would arise. Mel bit her lip for a moment in frustration, but there was nothing she could do here. After all, she was now wearing the shell of a princess.

Genoa seemed to believe that Mel was dead. If so, it might be better to leave it that way. But thinking of Genoa believing until the end that he had been betrayed made her heart ache.

“……”

Mel glanced at Genoa.

There was a time when she had held the fate of this noble man in her hands. At ten years old, falling completely for the first kindness she had ever received from a noble person, Mel’s naivety had created this difficult situation.

Perhaps everything went wrong from the moment she learned about what was happening in the basement of the Ivanstein family.

* * *