18. The Oath of A Well-Fed Beast
“But it would have been better if you had stayed inside.”
I thought it would be over like this, but that was a mistake.
At some point, Bianca hesitated and headed to the bedroom at the words of Jillian, who had come closer to her.
To be exact, I was trying to go in.
If only I hadn’t forgotten that the door was closed.
Along with the feeling of my slippers being slammed in the door, my entire field of vision was filled with dark-colored light.
“Careful.”
She almost hit the door, but Jillian held her back as he covered her head, so she didn’t get hurt. However, pitifully, Bianca was frozen in a position that was worse than being held, unable to breathe.
An extremely refreshing scent passed by the tip of her nose.
It looked like he was holding her lightly with one hand, but he was supporting her entire body while standing awkwardly.
Bianca’s lips fell as they looked back and forth between each other.
“Thank you.”
Sorry.
Apology was what crossed my mind for a moment, but what really flowed through my mind was gratitude.
“It’s nothing.”
The door opened wide with the sound of a lock being released behind my back, accompanied by Jillian’s laughing voice.
It was then that the hand that was supporting the back of my head fell off.
I stumbled for a moment and reflexively took a couple of steps to regain my balance, and before I knew it, I was inside the bedroom.
Jillian held the bedroom door with both hands and didn’t move.
“Madam, don’t do that again.”
“I won’t break my word.”
“No.”
He laughed briefly, almost out of breath.
He slightly tilted his head and smiled, his expression incomparably more intense than before.
He looked strange, looking both confident and a little impatient.
“This is your house.”
The long fingers holding the door drew closer to each other and the gap in the wide open door narrowed little by little.
“Your house.”
Jillian whispered in a voice that seemed to melt.
“There’s no way I’m locking you up.”
“Jillian.”
I knew you wouldn’t locke me just like this!
Bianca’s face lit up for a moment at the thought that she had seen through a trivial lie.
“If I were to imprison you, I would give you a world so huge that you would not even think of it as a cage. Do not worry.”
“……!”
Jillian was making a very elegant expression as he said out the sweet threat.
Looking at Bianca, who was shocked, he let out a short laugh.
“Anyway, there’s no way I’m handing something like this to you as a cage. I will give you a birdcage that is more colorful and beautiful than anyone else’s, and that you will never get tired of.”
A well-fed beast.
Exactly, if I were to visualize him, wouldn’t he look something like that?
Tuk.
He came out as if he was trapping her in and the door closed in front of him.
But strangely, Bianca did not feel trapped at all.
It was because that bright smile was so intense.
“I guess it’s time for Hailey to retire, what did she mean hiring someone as shabby as you as her dedicated maid?”
Jillian quickly wiped her smile and looked down at Julie with a cold expression.
His appearance was so ferocious that it made her stomach tingle, but Julie accepted his gaze without batting an eye.
“It’s not that I am sloppy, but didn’t I appear so because I am so good at deceiving people in the first place?”
“Are you saying you’re not a slouch for not being able to hold on to the duchess for even a few hours?”
Jillian grabbed the cravat tied around his neck and undid it as if tearing it open.
He originally hated strangling things like Cravat.
In the duke’s castle, people enjoy wearing comfortable shirts and pants, but they still had no choice but to dress formally.
“What on earth crawled in that made a tear in the Duke’s clothes?”
At Julie’s startled words, Jillian lowered his gaze and looked at his chest, his shirt fluttering open.
The shirt, cut into dozens of thin strands and shaking, was definitely a mess.
Even though the mansion was surrounded the seven castles, they weren’t all-powerful, so there were things that crawled in from time to time, but there was no one that could tear Jillian’s clothes.
It was natural for Julie to be surprised.
“If you give me the order, I will return to my headquarters immediately.”
“It’s already been sorted out.”
It was Hailey’s calm voice that stopped Julie, who was ready to run.
“Duke, please change your clothes.”
“What about downstairs?”
“Everything you brought has been put away.”
Aha.
Julie nodded slightly at Hailey’s words, ‘I caused it.’
Today was the day when giant rabbit skins were laid out in the main castle.
The by-products of monsters attract monsters, so the Giant Rabbit skins must have what caused the commotion.
Monsters that had no restrictions on their eating would eat even their own kind without hesitation.
Because they are larger than ordinary animals or people, they need to obtain more energy, so eating their own kind becomes more frequent as winter approaches.
It was a survival instinct, so to speak.
Therefore, caught monsters must be disposed of outside, and the monsters should be set on fire to remove their smell.
“How did…?”
“I brought in the leather.”
It was a an answer said with a refreshing expression.
No matter how well he prepared it, the fact that it is a by-product does not change.
Perhaps something had crawled in due to the smell of leather.
But she still didn’t understand.
Giant Rabbits were fierce but slow.
But the Duke could only fight to the degree of making his shirt appear like that?
What on earth have the knights protecting the mansion been doing all this time?
She didn’t think it was obvious, but perhaps it showed on her face, as Hailey, who was handing the shirt to the Duke, quickly added,
“The knights had to leave their seats because the maids were doing the work of laying the floor with the furr and sewing.”
So what?
Hailey sighed when she saw Julie’s eyes still wide open.
“That….”
“It popped out from between the leather.”
Knock, knock.
Jillian began to unbutton his torn shirt, as if he wanted to change it.
“What do you think would happen if there were no knights and only maids on site?”
“How many died?”
The fact that Giant Rabbits were ‘annoying’ was only based on the knights level
Was there any way that ordinary people, especially the ladies who are just maids, could deal with monsters?
When Julie expected their death, Jillian raised her hand and pointed to his long torn shirt.
“One knight was bitten.”
“Didn’t you have a meeting today?”
“So what?”
Unlike Jillian, who responded indifferently, Julie could not hide her shocked expression.
The meeting was held on the second floor where the office was, and the maids gathered on the first floor.
Although it was said that a knight had been bitten, the outer wall of the first floor was crowded with knights standing guard.
But it wasn’t them, but the Duke from another floor who came running to protect them?
“Ha…”
She knew it was a disrespectful attitude, but Julie couldn’t hide the shock that was leaking from her teeth.
She knew he had abilities that were not human-like, but she never thought they would be like this.
“I didn’t hear the maids screaming.”
“It would have been too late by the time they screamed.”
If there was not a sound……
“That’s strang.”
“If there wasn’t a sign…”
“Dirty aura, normally I would have noticed it right away, but maybe because the amount of leather was quite large, I didn’t notice it until it moved.”
Jillian chuckled as he recalled the moment his shirt was torn by the Giant Rabbit’s teeth.
“It was close.”
Jillian shrugged his shoulders and furrowed his brows as he looked at the shirt that wasn’t even half unfastened.
There are so many buttons that it was really annoying.
“You, too.”
The words flowed as if complaining about the buttons, but Hailey immediately grabbed Julie and hid her behind her in response to Jillian’s soft words.
“You are smart.”
Hailey knew what Jillian meant when he said it was a close call, so she was desperate to protect Julie.
There was an order to keep the duchess in the room.
But Julie not only disobeyed orders, she almost put the person she was protecting in danger.
If the case was mild, she would be dismissed, and if it was sever, it would be a serious crime that could not be protested even if she was executed.
“She is still young,”
“Did you forget? She’s already seventeen, which means it’s been two years since she came of age in the North. Where on earth is there a young person here, Sir Armor?”
“You’re right. I am the one who appointed her, so I will take responsibility for my mistakes.”
Before Hailey could say anything more, Julie spoke up behind her.
“Responsibility? For a knight who can’t even carry out orders?”
Julie’s cheeks hardened at the cold words.
Whatever the reason, there was no excuse for failing to carry out the order.
Julie bowed deeply.
“Sorry.”
“I will educate her on that part in a way that is easier to understand. If you give her a chance…”
Hailey came forward, but Jillian only narrowed his eyes and gave no answer.
“Didn’t I tell you to use any means possible?”
“That..”
Hailey was just about to open her mouth to Jillian’s question, which she had no idea who it was directed at.
Jillian turned around and spoke in a thin voice to Julie who was looking at her.
“The Duke told me to keep it a secret from her.”
“Oh my god.”
Even Hailey sighed at the short sentence.
“No matter how bad the situation was, was it wise to provoke my command?”
“I was wrong.”
For the first time, guilt appeared on Julie’s face.
“Do not place your convictions above orders.”
“Yes, Duke. I will keep that in mind.”
“I will educate her.”
Jillian nodded dryly as he watched Julie and Hailey answer in turn.
That was enough of a warning.
Hailey was a better knight than anyone else, so she will know how to correct the young knight’s mistakes.
“If my wife feels frustrated, open the third floor for her.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Just as Jillian was about to walk into the office…
Suddenly, Bianca’s voice, as if making excuses as soon as he saw himself, came to mind.
‘I came out because it was hot. It was too hot… Julie tried to stop me,’
At first glance, the sound of her blaming herself seemed desperate.
Jillian’s gaze slowly turned and focused on Julie.
‘You can just give her up.’
‘She is not young.’
Did that become a weakness?
Bianca is trying to protect who was put up to protect Bianca?
Jillian’s head tilted awkwardly.
“Julie.”
“Yes, Duke.”
“What if you are held hostage?”
“Yes?”
“What should I do if they threaten the Duchess with you as a hostage?”
“What would you do?”
As expected, he had a merciless feeling.
“It’s good if nothing happened, but sometimes idiots do things like that.”
Julie blinked for a long time as if lost in thought, then nodded slowly.
“I’m sure it might work if I do it like this.”
“Answer.”
Julie responded without hesitation to the urging.
“If I become a hostage, I must die.”
“Do you want to die leaving behind someone you need to protect?”
“If they take me as a hostage, it means she have something they want.”
“But if you die, who will protect the Duchess?”
If someone like you is taken as a hostage, it means there are no troops left.
Julie made a sad expression at Jillian’s soft words.
“If we had waited that long, I think the duke would have arrived?”
After hearing her raw sincerity, he thought he might understand why Bianca was so attached to her.
Cute kids should be rewarded.
“good. If something like that happens, I swear I’ll get there before you die.”
At that moment, his voice rang strangely as if it were two.
Unlike usual, neither Hailey nor Julie were able to see Jillian’s elongated, slitted pupils as they were preoccupied with the sound ringing in their heads instead of their ears.1Alright, if that happened at night, even if it was my mother, I won’t hesitate to shout on top of my lungs from fright.⊙﹏⊙
***
TL:
There are still 4 chappies…
I am getting there I think…
