CH 7

When all the princesses are gathered, where would be the abandoned princess?

‘Of course I would be on the floor! This isn’t the type of floor that was in Korea! This floor was made with hard stones.’ Luana sadly muttered and curled on the floor.

Ingrid, who was watching her curling, called Luana.

“Come up here.”

Of course, Luana went up excitedly. ‘It’s a bed! A bed!’

“Sister, I love you!”

Bang!

Suddenly the door opened violently. Surprised at the sound, I jumped up and found the Duke standing at the door with his one foot raised.

‘Why do you open the door with your feet when you have your hands?’

She swallowed the words she wanted to say. Surprised by the noise, the princesses woke up and looked at the door. Among them was Ingrid, who was lying comfortably.

“You!”

As soon as she looked at the Duke, Ingrid asked,

“What kind of disrespect is this?”

The sight of her holding the hem of her disheveled dress with her hands and asking the Duke was a wonderful feast for Luana’s eyes. ‘Oh, my God. Even the messed up blonde hair is as pretty as if it’s intentional.’ The Duke came inside while Luana admired Ingrid.

He ignored Ingrid’s question. Every time his gaze scanned the room, the princesses turned their gazes. Of course, no princess did the opposite. They wanted to survive somehow.

“What are you doing?”

Ingrid interrupted and asked again. And once more, the Duke ignored her question.

As Luana observed, there was a shadow covering her. ‘How many times a day does this guy have an ominous hunch!’.

Luana clasped her hands together and slowly raised her head. The man standing right in front of her curved his lips and smiled.

“There you are.”

“H-here I am!”

“Follow me.”

“Me?”

I asked if he had mistaken me for another princess, but the only answer was in the Duke’s fierce eyes. As she stood up, Ingrid caught Luana.

“Why do you keep bothering my sister? Why don’t you just take me away instead of her?!”

‘It was worth giving her the half rice ball! She shared her bed with me, and now she tried to stop the Duke!’. Luana looked at Ingrid with sparkling eyes.

‘As expected, you are a good person.’ The Duke narrowed his eyes at Ingrid. The corners of his mouth and eyes curved, making him look like he was smiling. But good things don’t happen when he smiles! Because he had a bad personality!

“If you want to.”

The Duke called the knight who was standing outside the door.

“Put her in a dungeon.”

The knight naturally tried to catch Luana, but the Duke stopped him.

“Not this one, that one.”

Just now, Ingrid’s expression, who was calling her sister and shouting that she would rather be imprisoned instead of her sister, became confused. ‘Is it really me?’ That was her expression.

The knight carefully grabbed Ingrid and dragged her outside. ‘The knight treated her carefully while the Duke treated me like a sack of wheat!’

Luana was angry, but it was all in the past. The other princesses remained silent as the knight took Ingrid to the dungeon. Only then did the Duke, who looked satisfied, signal to Luana.

“Lead the way.”

“Where?”

“Kitchen.”

‘Why going to the kitchen late at night?’ Luana cracked her stiff body and walked toward the kitchen. The dark hallway felt eerie, with no one passing around. There were so many deaths this afternoon, and there was nothing strange about it.

“We are here.”

“Open the door.”

“Yes, yes!”

Luana opened the kitchen door, went in, and turned on the lamp. When she lit all the lamps hanging here and there, the room became quite bright.

“Now make it.”

“What?”

“That one you made for my precious subordinate.”

“If that’s the case, do you mean rice balls?”

“Yes, that one.”

“This late at night?”

“You don’t want to?”

Luana shook her head because she thought it would be a big problem if she said no.

“I don’t hate it! I love cooking late at night!”

She immediately poured the rice into a pot, cooked it, and chopped the vegetables. Behind her, there was a fierce gaze that continued to be felt. She couldn’t understand why he made her do this.

‘I did give Lugard rice balls, but what does that have to do with having to cook it now? His subordinate ate it, but does he want to eat it, too?’

She cut too many vegetables to avoid the awkward atmosphere. However, if she stopped working even for a moment, Legion seemed to ask why.

When the rice was ready, Luana seasoned it and mixed in the vegetables. The smell of the rice pierced the tip of her nose.

‘Yes, eat a lot!’ Luana shaped the rice into balls, put it on a plate, and gave the dish to the Duke.

The Duke was sitting on a chair and looking at Luana, then he looked down at the rice ball and looked up again. It was a look that demanded something.

“You’re supposed to eat rice balls with your hands.”

“That’s barbaric.”

The Duke said so, but he casually picked up the rice ball. He had eaten more on the battlefield, so he didn’t have much resistance. 

Snap-

The shocking taste stimulated his tongue again when he bit the rice ball and chewed it. The taste that he had never tasted so far dominated his whole body.

The Duke gobbled the rice balls without saying a word. He finished a whole pot of nabe alone during the day, but it was still not enough. ‘I guess he eats a lot because he wields a sword. It must be hard to maintain muscles.’

As she recalled the contents of the novel she had read, Luana kept shaping the rice balls. ‘But this time, why didn’t he tell me to eat it in advance to see if it’s poisonous?’

Once the rice balls were made and placed on the plate, they disappeared like magic.

“Excuse me.”

The Duke, who was chewing rice balls, looked at Luana.

“You chewed it first then you swallowed it, right? Food is not good for the body if you just immediately swallow.”

“I chewed it enough.”

‘But how do you eat that fast?’ Luana looked a little tired. All the cooked rice in the pot was gone. She was exhausted from making too many rice balls. The Duke, who ate it all, looked like a total beast. Somehow, he seemed more relaxed and gentler than usual.

“From now on, cook only for me.”

“What?”

“I don’t have a hobby of throwing my things out. So from now on, just do what I tell you.”

“That’s a little odd.”

“What’s odd?”

‘No, I think this is probably an illusion. I must be mistaken!’

The way he said his words just now sounds like a proposal.

Thinking so, Luana hit her forehead on the pillar next to her. ‘What am I thinking? Is the Duke proposing me? When we first met today, the only thing we did together was eat. It was nonsense.’

‘As long as I don’t think about it that way, I would be fine.’

The Duke didn’t look like someone who had just finished a pot of rice. He stood up and left the kitchen. Luana followed him hesitantly.

‘How come this person has a good back of the head?’

It’s not easy to have such a nice back of the head. While admiring the excellent back of the head, they arrived at the fork of the road. Luana had to go a separate way to the princesses’ residence.

“Excuse me, Duke!”

The Duke turned around when Luana called.

“I have to go this way to go to my room.”

At Luana’s word, the Duke’s gaze reached the other side of the dark hallway. In a place where the light was swaying faintly, knights guarded the entrance.

“No. You go to the room where I stay.”

“What?”

The Duke looked down at Luana, irritated.

“Although you don’t seem capable of running away alone, I think I should put you in my sight.”

It wasn’t exactly wrong. Luana was not the type to actively run away alone.

“I can’t run away anyway. Can’t I just go to the room over there?”

She was distraught earlier, but the princesses seemed more foolish than she thought. She thought the other room would be comfortable.

“No, don’t make me say it twice.”

“All right!”

‘The Duke already said so, what do I have to say?’ 

Luana answered him quickly and followed him. The Duke entered one of the empty guest rooms. After he entered, the knight standing at the door stared at her when Luana was about to enter.

“Why?! The Duke told me to come in!”

When she shouted out of frustration, the knight snorted.

“I’m serious!”

“Don’t lie.” said the knight sternly.

‘The Duke with someone like you?’ That was the look on his face. Compared to the other princesses, she was relatively not as beautiful as them, but she hadn’t heard someone call her ugly anywhere. As she stomped her feet in anger, she heard a voice from inside.

“Come in.”

With that said, the knight went inside.

‘He called for me, not you!’

The knight, who soon returned, looked as if he had seen a ghost.

“Please… come inside.”

The knight who had been speaking informally, fixed his way of talking. But even in the midst of it, there was something suspicious about his expression.

‘Hah, that’s right. I can guess what the knight is thinking.’

Luana wasn’t going inside to flirt with the Duke. She was just a subject of a lookout.

Luana lifted the hem of her old dress, stuck her tongue out to the knight, and went inside the room. ‘I can see your dissatisfied look. But what can you do?’ She felt refreshed. But as soon as she came in, she wanted to go out again.

Luana dragged her feet and ambled. She felt as if she was a sacrifice being taken to the temple of evil. The knight standing outside closed the door with a blank look. She wanted to turn around and bang the door right away.

‘Help me!’ screamed Luana inside of her heart.

The Duke took off his coat as soon as she entered the room. Then after he took off his coat, his body shape was revealed. The sight of his body made her feel a little sad. He was tall, but his body was thin. At least he looked better when he was wearing a coat.