If You Tell a Pickpocket to Save the Male Lead

The tabloid in Estribal’s hand was very lightly crumpled. The servant who brought the magazine bowed deeply.

“I apologize. It may be distressing, but I think I should deliver it…”

Estribal said, placing the magazine on the desk with a movement that felt more unnatural because it was overly calm.

“If there are more related magazines, bring them all.”

“Understood.”

After they left, another servant entered the office. It was the servant who had been ordered to bring Ciello.

“Why did you come back alone?”

At the cold question of the Duke, the servant lowered their body and answered.

“Well, because…I have a headache and need to sleep more…”

“Did she say that even though it was my order?”

“Yes…”

“I wonder who really should have a headache.”

He muttered lowly, gritting his teeth. The servant’s shoulders shrank.

“So. When exactly did she come in?”

“She came in around ten o’clock.”

“…Ten o’clock?”

He looked at the gossip magazine with a strange expression for a moment. The time the photo was taken seemed to be well past ten o’clock in the early morning.

“It was a false rumor.”

A slight relief crossed his lips. However, the servant cautiously opened their mouth.

“I’m sorry, but it was…at ten in the morning.”

“What did you say?”

The Duke’s brow furrowed.

“So now…are you saying that she came in the day after staying out all night?”

The servant couldn’t answer and bowed their head. The Duke touched his forehead. He was gritting his teeth so hard that blue veins popped out on his temples.

“Where and what was she doing?”

“Well, she was at a bar with a young man. We’re still verifying who exactly he is.”

“And then?”

“She disappeared into an alley around dawn…”

The servant trailed off. Estribal glared at the paper once again. In the black and white photo, a young man, only the back of his head visible, was almost leaning on Ciello.

“Ha…”

Estribal sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling.

It wasn’t bad that Ciello was causing a ruckus in this way. Because Duke Trepe could wrap up all the reasons for flirting with a maid in lust.

But he was extremely uncomfortable with this situation. No, more than uncomfortable, it felt like his insides were twisting and his head was burning. The fact that Ciello met a man he didn’t know, the fact that she came in after staying out all night, and the back of the man’s head leaning on her as if to prove it.

‘Why?’

Although a very clear single reason was shouting in his ear, he forced himself to shake his head. He couldn’t admit it. He didn’t want to admit it either.

‘Maybe…because an uncontrollable event happened.’

The rationalization was instant. He was more accustomed to controlling things clearly than dealing flexibly with situations. So it must be because of that.

“I will go myself.”

Estribal quickly moved to the front of Ciello’s room and stopped with his hand poised to knock.

“I said I’m still sleeping…”

“I’m coming in.”

He immediately turned the knob and opened the door. Ciello, who had been lying on the bed with half her body exposed, stared at him with a blank expression.

“Ah….”

Her face was flushed and her hair was a bird’s nest. She looked like a mess.

Even so, Estribal felt a surge of emotions. It was as if he was being hit by the intense red color in his eyes after a long time.

But that wasn’t all. The sensations he had felt since meeting Ciello came back to him. The scent of the flower garden that enveloped his senses and the taste that tickled his tongue were tempting him, as if to say, “If you choose this woman now, you can enjoy that pleasure at any time.”

It wasn’t until he felt the pain in his side from being stabbed with a knife that he woke up from the delusion. And it took him a while to regain his composure and open his mouth.

“…Explain.”

“I spent money because you said I could. Do I have to tell you where I spent it?”

Ciello rubbed her eyes with her fist and asked grumpily. Every single one of her sullen expressions dug into his eyes, choked his throat, and settled in his chest like a stone.

He wanted to ask her to explain everything from one to ten, and he also wanted to cover his ears and pretend it never happened.

And Estribal was always the type to choose the latter.

“…I’m not interested in your personal life.”

At his words, Ciello’s face twisted.

“So what are you curious about?”

“I want you to…”

Estribal’s words were cut off. There were many things he wanted to ask.

What she was trying to do when she reached out to him drunk. How upset she was to leave him alone that night. How trivial the things she gave him instead were. And so, she, with another man…

“Do you know how foolish you are right now?”

But again, twisted words sprang from his mouth. Because he had lived only for his plan, it was too hard for him to talk about other things.

“Don’t do dangerous things. You…”

If you make a mistake, I–. Estribal swallowed the words that were about to come out of his throat forcibly.

“Don’t you know that all the money you’re going to get is going to turn into bubbles?”

“Can’t you stop talking about money? I’m really sick of it!”

Ha. Estribal twisted his face. Now he couldn’t control Ciello with money either.

“You were shaking at three thousand, but now your stomach is full. So what do you want to talk about?”

“Do you really not know why I’m doing this? Until the day before, you were definitely to me…”

Ciello’s eyes turned red. Estribal realized.

What Ciello wanted was not money, but something else. That something that was in his dry heart.

Feeling this, he shivered eerily. But the shiver made him afraid like lightning, and that fear made Estribal colder.

“Foolish thing.”

Estribal cut off Ciello’s words coldly.

“Yes, that’s why. You were swept away by your impulse and almost ruined the plan.”

Ciello bit her trembling lips tightly.

“Didn’t I tell you? When the last mission is over, you can straighten out your life. You can live as a different person than now, as you used to be. So until then…”

“Duke. What does that have to do with this?”

“What?”

“So, what does your plan have to do with our relationship? After all, I promised to help you with that too.”

Ciello grabbed his sleeve.

“I’m fine as I am now.”

Estribal blankly looked down at Ciello’s hand clutching his sleeve. ‘Now.’ There was no more enticing word for Estribal. But because of that, he had no choice but to shake his head.

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t even think about it. I have to finish this job. Everything after that…”

“Why does it have to be like that? I want to be with you now.”

“Now…you say.”

Ciello nodded quickly. Estribal looked at Ciello like that and lifted the corners of his mouth weakly.

“To me, ‘now’ is as good as nothing. Ciello.”

“I don’t understand. Why? You have to explain so I can understand!”

Ciello shook her head, bracing herself for his raised voice. But contrary to expectations, he was calm.

“Don’t try to understand. My life is not worth it.”

Estribal’s voice lost its anger and was tired. Ciello’s hand lost its strength and dropped.

Estribal looked down at that hand for a long time. It was a hand that he could not shake off first. So he said harsh words to make her give up on her own, and then he excused himself to leave, saying that she let go of him first. He was cowardly and despicable.

“Rest. You look tired.”

He smiled a self-mocking smile and turned his body to leave Ciello’s room and return to his office. He didn’t see the tears that had been held back in Ciello’s eyes flowing down.

“Just like me now…..well.”

Estribal muttered Ciello’s words as he threw himself into the office chair, looking tired. The corners of his mouth twisted.

To him, life was not about living, but enduring. Just to end ‘now.’

He devoted his present to the emperor’s feet to correct the past, and his future was mortgaged. That was his only way.

“How…how can you speak so easily?”

But Ciello was telling him to live now. Daringly, she said she wanted to be with him now. Even though she didn’t know what kind of monster he was now.

It was nonsense that had to be harshly rejected. But what is the reason why my heart is racing now? It’s as if I’ve become human.

Estribal covered his face with both hands and clenched them. Then, the servant’s voice was heard.

“Duke, I will enter.”

The servant spoke in a serious voice.

“As you said, I checked about the man…”

He cautiously handed over a montage. Estribal’s expression froze as he unfolded the scroll.

Dark skin, light-colored hair. Estribal knew this face. The young man whose neck he had clutched.

“Ha. Haha…”

The scroll fell from Estribal’s hand.

He thought it would be a one-night fling at best. But if the other party was a key figure in the Peregrine Liberation Army, the problem was different. It was a disgrace to him.

They knew the existence of Serpiente, and therefore could directly influence Estribal’s plan.

Above all, there was one thing that Estribal, a nobleman of the empire, had to hide.

Estribal clenched his face in shock and pressed his forehead. A hollow smile spread across his lips. His heart, which was about to melt, froze coldly.

“…I’m good enough now.”

Estribal muttered gloomily. The confused servant opened his mouth.

“Duke?”

“No. I just had a useless thought.”

Estribal spoke softly and slowly raised his head. His eyes were cloudy and dull.

“…Close the mansion’s door. Lock the windows and break the latch.”