How Can You Pay Back The Kindness I Raised With Obsession?

‘Ooh, smirk. I hate you.’

It was a moment of pouting her lips when the Grand Duke, who had been looking down at her, suddenly frowned and averted his eyes. But after a while he looked at her again…

“Oh!”

He pressed both sides of her cheek gently. Immediately she became a crucian carp without wind.

“Huzumsheyo.”

He immediately removed his hand when she told him not to and grabbed her waist again.

“When you dance, you smile. No matter how bad your partner is.”

Was that why the Grand Duke was smiling all the time? After that, he focused on dancing without speaking. Then how much time passed? It was the moment when she turned round and round with one hand held, and then faced the Grand Duke with her waist held back. As if a light switch had been turned off, the place went dark. Even the last candle had burned out.

She couldn’t even see the Grand Duke’s face right in front of her, and she could only hear the sound of his breathing. It was when her mind went blank for some reason and she couldn’t say anything. A ray of moonlight leaked in through a crack in the curtains on the window. The moonlight fell between the Grand Duke and her. Because of his height, she could not see his eyes. She could only see his lips breathing like a sigh and his neck shaking loudly. Would this man see her eyes?

Now that the footsteps have stopped, she wondered if he could hear her pounding heart.

It was the time when she thought she wanted to run away like last time. His face came into the moonlight. He bowed his head to her. Did he want to kiss?

As her heart raced, his lips touched… on the back of her hand. As soon as his soft lips touched, the hairs all over her body, starting from the back of her hand, stood up. His eyes, which had been pointing to her hand, turned to her. The Grand Duke kissed the back of her hand and stared at her through the disheveled silver hair.

At that moment, her heart stopped for a moment. Time also seemed to have stopped. It wasn’t until the old clock rang that she came to her senses. It was time to wake up from the magic. She saluted the Grand Duke as she removed her hand.

“Today, I learned a lot. I will be careful not to step on your feet at the ball.”

The Grand Duke offered to take her to the bedroom. It was also funny to refuse because it was a room on the same hallway. As she walked through the hallway, enduring an awkward silence, the Grand Duke asked her out of the blue.

“Am I better than Victor?”

She didn’t know what to say, so she looked up and he smiled.

“As a dance teacher.”

“Ah…”

If she said he was better… it’s something she couldn’t say to Sir Victor. However, saying that they were similar was a lie, and it is disrespectful to the Grand Duke who took the time to teach her. While she was contemplating, the Grand Duke stood leaning sideways next to her door.

“I’ve never been in a relationship with Victor, so he’s incomparable as a lover.”

“…Yes. I wish you had no one to compare to forever.”

…What was that? She opened her eyes wide and looked up, but the Grand Duke smiled and turned away.

“Good night.”

That night she couldn’t sleep at all.

* * *

“Get it now!”

The Emperor’s dining hall became a mess.

“Put that guy on my dinner table tonight!”

When the Emperor shouted, the bird that flew up to the ceiling gave out a squealing scream. What the hell kind of lark was talking like that? It wasn’t just the crying sound that was strange. The bird that flew in through the window did not dare to steal the Emperor’s meal and tugged at the Emperor’s hair at random.

“Kyaaaagh!”

“Get it now!”

As the ladies-in-waiting ran away in surprise, a guard was eventually dispatched to a bird. The bird, which had been skilfully avoiding cooking, suddenly rushed to the table.

Clink.

The wine glass was knocked over. The bird dipped its dirty feet in the spilled wine and did something strange. He started walking on the white carpet hanging from the wall.

“That expensive thing!”

The Emperor, furious to the point of anger, snatched the bow from the guardsmen and was about to shoot them.

“Regina?”

Unbeknownst to him, he only realized the identity of the bird when he read the writing on the carpet.

“Bring the Archmage right now!”

As soon as she pecked the antidote with her beak and drank it, the skinny lark turned into a ragged princess. The three months of suffering was finally over. Her last three months were enough time to forget her dignity as a princess. Regina dropped to her floor and caught her breath.

She did it, she finally did it! She returned to her original body safely without becoming a bite of anyone. As she recalled her hardships up to this moment, her tears welled up. She went first to her nearest papal court, but her courtiers and her escort, of course, did not recognize her. Because she was high in the mountains, she was almost hunted. Until she returned to the imperial palace, she encountered countless hunters and beasts. Plus how much rain and how cold it was. She thought that if she wasn’t eaten, she would freeze to death.

It was a humiliation that the princess became a bird, and she ate rotten apples or green onions and rummaged through the trash in her private house. How disgusting were the male larks who dared to attack the princess.

“How the hell did this happen?”

Her father asked, and Regina came to her senses. If she were caught trying to kill the Grand Duke’s children and tried to escape and became a lark, if she did say that, her father’s favor would disappear like a mirage.

“I got hit. Sobbing…”

Regina started acting out her tears.

“I was praying in my room at the Vatican when someone suddenly came in through the window and forcibly gave me a potion…”

Someone should drive her to the Empress. However, the story she thought was plausible was distorted the moment the Empress intervened.

“Is there such a coincidence? Rumor has it that on the day the princess disappeared, a young woman tried to kill the Grand Duke’s children by turning them into larks in a village not far from the Holy See, and she was caught. A lark, after all.”

The moment the Emperor’s eyes grew as cold as when he looked at the crown prince, the Empress smiled condescendingly from behind her fan.

* * *

Winter was gone and spring had arrived. The prom, which seemed far away, also came only four days later. She sat on the rocking wagon and strained her back.

As the carriage going up the mountain road was shaking again, she grabbed the armrest, and the Grand Duke sitting next to her muttered with a sidelong glance.

“There is no rule against physical contact anymore…”

But if she let go of the armrest, she would be hugged by the Grand Duke. Wouldn’t that be awkward for him too? It was the first time the two of them had been on a carriage for a long time without children. There were seats in both the front and back, so it would be nice to take one seat at a time, but the Grand Duke sat next to her.

‘I don’t hate it, but it’s awkward.’

“I wish you had no one to compare to forever.”

After the Grand Duke had said such a meaningful thing, she didn’t know how to treat him. 

For what purpose did he say that? She hoped he liked her… no, that’s nonsense

“Luna, the Grand Duke will not marry a witch. Of course, not even with a nanny.”

Because he said this. He knew, wasn’t he a flirt? Was he trying to play with her for a while while they were already dating? No, the Grand Duke was not such a person. He’s a bit smirk and playful, but deep inside he was gentle.

At that moment, as if to back up her words, the Grand Duke put the hood of a cloak on her head.

“The temperature is getting lower and lower.”

The Grand Duke’s breath froze white. Hobart’s barony was to the south, but to get from the Duchy you had to cross a rugged mountain range. As they climbed the mountain, the scenery outside the window and the temperature moved away from spring. It was when the hand holding the stone the size of a Go stone was wriggling under the Grand Duke’s fur cloak, large enough to be used as a blanket. The carriage stopped. Immediately the window leading to the driver’s seat opened.

“What is going on?”

“They say a tree fell and blocked the road, Your Highness.”

Could it have been belatedly swept away by a winter storm? The mountain road in front of them was in a pitiful state with broken trees and fallen trees. A huge tree thicker than a drum was blocking the only mountain road. While the soldiers cleared the road by clearing fallen trees, the rest headed for the village they had passed earlier. Shr decided to take a break and get some help and equipment. She did…

“There is no one living in the village.”

There were only dead people. According to the search party, they all seemed to be frozen to death. Why was there a pile of firewood on the wall?

“Suspicious, but not dangerous.”

The Grand Duke looked around the village and gave instructions.

“I’ll send a scorpion to the lord in the next town. First, secure a place to rest and drink water, and let the horse rest. It’s a bit early for us too, but let’s have lunch.”

But in a town full of dead people, she didn’t feel like her meal would go down her throat.

“I’ll go back and help clear the tree.”

She picked up an ax and went out of town, but for some reason the Grand Duke followed and took the axe away.

“Why?”

“Why are you walking alone without a guard?”

“Aren’t the royal guards soldiers who protect the Grand Duke’s family?”

“…”

The Grand Duke looked down at her coldly, she didn’t know why. That’s right, right?

“And I know how to use that basic self-defense magic.”

“Putting a pine cone into a monster’s nose?”

“Yes.”

The moment she replied with a confident smile, the Grand Duke’s stiff face loosened and there was a sound of air escaping.

“The more hands, the better.”

It seemed that the Grand Duke did not intend to sit still and have lunch. He gave instructions to his men to gather and bring their equipment, and he and she set out on their way.

“I didn’t know it was this far from the carriage.”

“I’m half way there now.”

Climbing a snow-covered mountain in the winter was a lot of stamina. It was the time when she had no choice but to hold the Grand Duke’s hand and climb the slope.

Thud!

The earth’s axis shook. An eardrum-shattering roar echoed over her head.

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Translator Note:

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