The Ruthless Circumstances of the Monstrous Duke - Chapter 29

“Trying to guilt-trip me first thing in the morning?”

“If you want to torment me, go ahead. I was prepared for that much when dealing with a nobleman. The life of a common woman with no education or possessions is generally like that, isn’t it? Working as a maid in some house, getting pregnant with the master’s illegitimate child and being abandoned, or if unlucky, becoming a woman of the streets. Isn’t it better to be by your side than that?”

“What’s the point of what you’re trying to say?”

“You told me to be angry because I was treated like an animal… but it was my first experience, so I didn’t know anything. Thanks to you, I finally realized. That your night skills are terrible.”

Nigel lowered his arm from his forehead and raised his upper body. Then he glared fiercely at Marienne Rose.

“What?”

“I thought about it carefully. A man who deliberately tries to make a woman angry in bed, isn’t that the worst? Of course, you must have intended it. If so, you succeeded properly.”

Marienne, speaking in a monotone, stood up from her seat. Though her waist was collapsing and her thighs were trembling, she endured with stubbornness.

“If ruining me is the meaning of your life, then do so. I don’t care as long as you pay the price on time as per our contract. As I said, I’m not in a position to be picky. But you know what?”

Nigel widened his fierce eyes.

“Those words, they sounded just like a confession. To say that the meaning of your life is all about me, could anything be more passionate than that?”

“Shut up!”

Marienne smiled slightly and put on her soaking dress.

“Excuse me, but I’ll be leaving first. Take your time coming out.”

In her disheveled state, Marienne gave a polite knee curtsy.

As she left the cabin, Nigel’s shout of ‘Marienne!’ echoed loudly behind her, but she neither looked back nor stopped walking.

* * *

At the training ground in Louer, under the direction of Vice Commander Benwick, the knights’ sword training was in full swing.

Watching the training of apprentice knights who had just shed their boyhood, Hector and Theo exchanged idle chatter.

About their lord’s bella, Marienne Rose, a topic of conversation everywhere.

“She’s no ordinary woman. I had a feeling from the moment she came running to the training ground with her skirt hitched up. I’m telling you, this is a serious problem.”

Hector, known for his exaggeration and love of gossip, shook his head with his arms crossed.

Theo rolled his stiff neck at the nonsensical talk that had been going on since dawn.

“Here we go again. That mouth of yours is bound to cause trouble eventually.”

“You should have seen that woman in the dining hall. She appeared like a dazzling goddess, I tell you. The atmosphere then was, how should I say… shala-la?”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“As a knight of the Lion Knights and as the closest vassal who has served the commander for years, I, Hector, will take responsibility and keep an eye on that woman. My intuition tells me. That she’s very suspicious.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

“If the commander suffers from misguided love, it will bring misfortune to both the knighthood and House Bernac. Besides, she’s a commoner, right? We can’t say this isn’t her purpose, can we?”

Hector made a money sign by joining his thumb and index finger in a circle.

“Spew your evil words.”

“How could someone like you understand my boundless loyalty… Oh! Who’s that?”

Hector spotted a woman coming out of the Bernac Forest.

It was he who had once rivaled the commander in archery.

With the eyesight that used to aim at apple-sized targets from a great distance, Hector was certain that she was his lord’s bella.

“Who?”

Hector grabbed Theo’s chest as he narrowed his eyes.

“Didn’t I say she was suspicious? Early in the morning, and after last night’s terrible rainstorm, a woman alone coming out of the forbidden forest?”

Hector pulled Theo closer and rolled his eyes.

“Is she a witch from Heath? Are those beggar-like bastards trying to seduce and ruin an innocent man?”

Theo’s eyes, which had been closely watching the woman, grew wider and wider.

He grabbed and twisted Hector’s ear, which was squawking. Towards their lord, who was striding out of the Bernac Forest.

“Commander?”

Their lord, whose angry demeanor was evident even from afar, walked quickly and snatched the woman’s arm. The two seemed to be having a heated argument.

Hector and Theo pricked up their ears to hear their conversation.

But they could only catch incomprehensible phrases like ‘Say it again’, ‘Terrible night’, ‘I’ll show you properly’, ‘Don’t need’.

“What are they saying? A surprise night attack or something?”

“Is that what lovers would say?”

“Gasp!”

Their lord threw the woman who was trying to shake him off over his shoulder and headed towards the castle.

Irreverently, the woman kicked her feet and pounded their lord’s back like a drum with her cotton fists. The Imperial Commander-in-Chief, whose mere gaze could make knights’ knees weak.

“Well…”

The two knights, grabbing each other’s collars and ears, dropped their jaws with a dumbfounded sound.

* * *

“Your Highness, the painting has arrived.”

“Bring it in.”

Two attendants brought in a large frame and set it down in front of Princess Elizabeth.

The Countess of Herbert pulled the cloth covering the painting.

Exclamations burst from the watching maids’ lips.

The princess could not hide her satisfied smile.

Inside the frame decorated with a gold border was a painting of Nigel Bernac, Commander of the Imperial Knights.

The man in the painting, wearing plate armor and a black cloak, was looking to the side with his helmet removed.

In his gauntleted hand, he held an ornate longsword enhanced by the painter’s imagination.

The princess conveyed the promised amount to the painter through her maid, who was anxiously waiting for a reaction.

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

The Countess of Herbert, a close friend of the princess, fluttered her fan and asked the painter.

“Isn’t Duke Bernac known to detest portraits? He avoids social circles and even the imperial palace, only frequenting battlefields. How did you manage to paint him? You must have risked your life if discovered.”

Recalling his hardships, the painter sighed exaggeratedly.

It was a famous anecdote that the Duke disliked leaving traces of himself and never commissioned portraits.

That’s why all the painters who received the princess’s request had refused.

They feared the Duke, who held Grencia’s military power, more than the princess backed by the Emperor.

The painter nervously rolled his eyes. He was on edge, fearing discovery by House Bernac’s spy in the palace. That’s why he hadn’t even signed the painting.

“I snuck into the recent battle against the Heath clan. I memorized His Grace’s face and sketched in between. I worked at home, recalling it from memory.”

The Countess widened her eyes, looking at the princess.

“So that’s why the work was delayed. It was truly a life-risking painting. Your Highness, are you pleased with it?”

The princess nodded contentedly.

It felt like she possessed not just a painting no one else had, but the man in it as well.

“You’ve worked hard. You may leave now.”

At the Countess’s dismissal, the painter left the room, satisfied with the hefty reward.

Four young maids gathered around the sofa where the Countess and princess sat.

The women’s sparkling gazes focused on Nigel Bernac.

“How can he be so gallant and handsome? He matches Your Highness perfectly.”

“You think so?”

“Of course. You two must be a match made in heaven.”

The princess smiled at the corners of her mouth and looked up at the painting haughtily.

Nigel’s strong side profile on the battlefield was enough to captivate their hearts.

A frontal view would have been better, but the life-risking painter apparently lacked such courage.

“Ladies, come to your senses. He may look decent, but isn’t he a bloodthirsty war maniac? And that monk-like gaze. Tsk, he’s clearly the type to make you yawn in bed.”

A man was lying on the long velvet sofa.

He rested his head on his bent arm and swung his crossed legs.

But the ladies neither scolded nor chased away the indecorous man. Instead, they giggled and smiled with their eyes.

“Your Lordship does give quite the opposite impression.”

Lester Godwin snorted at the maid’s words.

The eldest son of Count Godwin, the Emperor’s confidant.

Lester Godwin was the princess’s longtime friend and bella.

Lester had no interest in the estate he would inherit from his father or in advancing his career. He simply enjoyed staying at the palace, spending time merrily with beautiful women.

Once, the princess had warned him that if he fell out of favor with the ambitious Count, he might lose his inheritance rights to his younger brother.

But Lester had whispered slyly, wrapping his arm around the princess’s waist.

‘Why worry when Your Highness, my true love, will take me in?’

Though she didn’t seem to dislike the handsome man’s advances, the princess had put a stop to the man clinging to her like a snake.

‘Unfortunately, I am Duke Bernac’s woman.’

The haughty princess who teased him, almost within reach. Lester sighed heavily as he gazed at her.