The Devilish Duke Can’t Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

Misunderstanding deepens

While Kahel was originally scheduled to return three days before the New Year’s Celebration, he returned four days earlier, so the Duchy became busier for this reason.

The clothes makers who participated in Luahalla’s business presented their finished clothes in front of Kahel for the first time, and Kahel invited Gerard and Luahalla to discuss more about which nobles to approach and what topics to discuss at the New Year’s Celebration.

In the meantime, his New Year’s Celebration party outfits that he had already ordered before leaving for Sharden had arrived, and Arder and Lena were busy making accessories that fit them.

In fact, the ten days of the New Year’s ceremony were the busiest time of the year for the nobles and employees of Ardennes. Even if they didn’t have a title bit of noble blood, they could attend the New Year’s Celebration and could see the Queen from afar, the noble employees were busy preparing guest rooms and dinners for relatives.

Duchy of Luave was the same. As a family that doesn’t like noisy things, it was quieter compared to other families, but it was natural for the employees to be nervous as guests suddenly came to the mansion that usually served only one master.

To welcome the guests, the Duke’s residence was decorated with a harmonious mixture of black and silver ribbons, and white azalea flowers bloomed neatly wherever the eyes could see. The old dust in the guest’s room was wiped off and redecorated, and the huge table in the dining hall, which was almost useless because Kahel had not used it, was wiped every day. Silverware from the warehouse was taken out and cleaned, bed linen was washed daily, and the stables were swept clean to accommodate the horses soon to be brought by guests.

Other nobles’ employees must have groaned, but Duchy of Luave’s employees seemed to be energized as they thought that their meals are finally being earned

Among them, Lena, who was the least free, took the two apples she had obtained from the chef Mouchet and headed to the stable. Because she heard the news that the stable was almost cleaned.

“Sid!”

“Oh? Lena!”

As expected, Sid was brushing hay dusts from her clothes. The two, met after a long time, are sitting on a stone bench near the garden and biting apples one at a time.

“Since I’m sitting here eating apples with you, it reminds me of the time we ate apples together in Kerouac.”

“Right? Back then, I had to hide in the corner of the stable and eat.”

Even eating a small apple was persecuted, saying, “you steal food like a thieving cat.”

 

However, at the Duchy of Luave, they were able to enjoy quality food comfortably in their spare time. There were benches all over the mansion so that employees and knights could rest, and the kitchen provided plenty of snacks. Every time this happened, it was the two of them who realized that they had been saved.

“You said that you and the Duke went to the northern regions?”

While crunching a red, ripe apple, Sid asked about Lena’s recent situation, which she had not seen in a while.

“Yes. It’s called Sharden. It must also be a territory ruled by the Duchy. It snowed a lot and the fields were all white. We even rode a sled there.”

“Wow, really? What did the snow sled look like? What pulled it?”

Lena grinned at Sid’s question, who had the same thoughts as hers.

“No, the reindeer pulled it. The sled looked like a carriage without a roof and wheels, but there was no such thing as a coach seat, so the Duke himself drove the reindeer. The reindeer looked like a deer the size of a horse, but they even had large antlers, so I was a little scared.”

“I see. Amazing. But by the way…… Did the maids bully you there?”

“No! Rather, they were very kind. Even though I didn’t do anything, it was strange at first because they were so kind to me. But I guess it’s normal for them to be like that. After all, everyone here is kind.”

“But Kerouac Barony’s naughty bitches are weird! To persecute an innocent person!”

Sid clenched her teeth, remembering the maids of the Barony who were anxious because they couldn’t bully Lena when they saw Lena. Sid, too, suffered from being treated as the lowest in the castle, but the hostility of the maids to Lena was different. Of course, their hostility was caused by the Baroness and Elliot.

“I assure you, Miss Elliot, no, not a Miss anymore. Elliot, that girl, hated you because she was jealous. Because you are much prettier than her. Are you just prettier? You were much smarter, too. When the Baron died, she should have died, too!”

Contrary to Sid, who was buzzing, Lena didn’t want Elliot to die. Even now, when she thought that a girl, of the same age as her, was going to be executed, she got goosebumps. However, she was quite curious about her whereabouts.

“But where is Miss Elliot?”

“She’s not a Miss. She’s been stripped of her title! If we ever meet again, I’ll hold her hair while swearing at her. Don’t stop me. Thinking of that, I want to see her again. I’m dying to see her.”

 

At that, Lena burst into laughter, and she shrugged her shoulders for the first time in a long time and laughed. She was a little frustrated because she couldn’t laugh so heartily around Kahel, but this is why she liked her old friend.

“Oh! What about Mr. Abbert? Is it going well?”

Lena brought up a topic she had almost forgotten about. It was also the main reason she came to meet Sid.

After Sid came to the Duchy, she worked to the best of her ability, as she had promised to Kahel. However, since the work of the huge Duchy’s stable was divided, it took some time to adapt no matter how well Sid worked.

The person who helped Theo and Sid a lot at that time was the young stable keeper Abbert. He also worked in the Duchy’s stable from an early age, so he already had the skills to be called a veteran at the age of 25. Thanks to this, Sid, who was called ‘the best horse stable keeper in Kerouac’, felt strangely competitive and jealous of him.

So, it seems that during the first month she overworked herself to do a lot better than she was told. Sid, who was not able to eat properly in Kerouac and suffered from overwork, and was a little shocked when she came up to Ardennes, eventually fell ill with a severe fever within a month.

It was Abbert who took care of her, who was unable to speak and groaned for fear that she might infect Lena, too. However, like Lena, Sid, who was wary of this Duchy and other people, could not accept his favor as it was.

“Don’t look down on people! It’s not a big deal, this is nothing, it’ll get better soon. Really! I’ll be sure to clean the stable floor tomorrow!”

Sid was arguing with Abbert, who was changing her cold towel. But instead of getting angry, he comforted her with a sad smile.

“Everyone in the Duchy and I know that you are a good stable keeper. So, for now, just think about getting better. You should eat well and rest well until the day after tomorrow.”

“You want me to rest until the day after tomorrow? Then, you want to see my back explode?”

“Why would your back burst?”

“If you lie down for three days because you have a little bit of body aches, it’s natural to be beaten!”

At those words, Abbert’s soft expression hardened in an instant.

“Then you, in Kerouac…… You mean you were beaten when you were sick?”

“If you do something wrong, you will be slapped and kicked for no reason, and if you are unlucky, you will be whipped. Why are you pretending not to know?”

“Whipped…… ?”

Astonished by Sid’s answer, Abbert looked at her for a long time without saying a word, before Sid said, ‘Was I too much?’, in which he answered, ‘it was the butler’s order to rest’.

After that, Abbert began to take care of Sid more, and Sid fell in love with him when she first met a man who was so kind to her.

Sid, who had been compared to Lena from a young age and heard only the words, ‘You look like a boy,’ for the first time in her life, paid attention to her clothes and hairstyle to look good, and Lena who was like her sister, could not have not noticed the change. So, after begging Sid for a long time, she heard of Abbert’s story.

But it was about the time she was leaving for Sharden, so Lena had made an appointment with Sid that she would tell her in detail when Lena got back from Sharden.

“No, what…… Is there anything good or bad to do? Just…… Sometimes we have lunch and eat together in the backyard, or we talk while brushing the horses mane together…… Come to think of it, I heard that he was going to tell me about a delicious restaurant in town this holiday, and he asked me to go together…….”

“Wow! It’s a date, a date!”

Sid’s face quickly turned bright red at the word date.

“What, what date! Just…… since we’re colleagues, it could be……. I don’t know anything about Ardennes, so I guess he was just trying to teach me.”

“Do you want me to lend you a dress for going out?”

“No! Wh, what dress! Why would I wear a dress when I’m going out to eat with Abbert? It’s not a date!”

“Well, Sid is really pretty even in a shirt and pants! Well…… Ah! Then, I will lend you my hairpin!”

Lena swept Sid’s pale blonde hair lightly, then pulled out the amethyst hairpin she always carried in her sleeve and secured it.

“Pretty, Sid!”

“No…… way…….”

“Really! Sid has no idea how pretty you are! If you only pin your bangs like this, won’t your beauty come alive? Abbert will fall in love at first sight!”

“It can’t be.”

While saying that, Sid carefully fumbled and touched the hairpin that held her hair. She always liked it short because it seemed to open her eyes when she removed the bangs that used to cover her eyes.

“Make sure to go like this. Understand?”

“Ah okay…… thank you.”

Lena laughed out loud with a proud heart. She was completely unaware that Kahel, who was passing through the hallway on the second floor, was looking down at the two of them.