“Sergeant, can’t I be exempt from the night watch duty just for a week?”

Lakan, who was the youngest among the Lugards in the entire division, paused his busy hands that were organizing the documents to listen to the desperate request.

He’s the youngest soldier, but he has a bright mind and is quick to act, finding work to do even when not ordered. He’s a good fellow.

Lately, he’s fallen in love and there’s a woman to whom he’s devoting all his attention, even his supplies.

Fortunately, she’s not the one they sometimes call “bouquet” from another division, but one of the nurses. That’s fortunate indeed.

“Why?”

“No, it’s the gloves you gave me last time. I gave them to the nurse, and she said it caused some trouble, so…….”

Lakan, watching Lugard scratching his head, snorted and laughed.

“How did you get in trouble to get out of night watch duty? To comfort her all night?”

“No! How could I dare to do that to her!”

Innocent boy. Watching Lugard’s face turn bright red as he flailed his hands, Lakan laughed out loud.

“That wicked nurse made you clean the medicine warehouse alone at night. Isn’t that too much…….”

“Watch your mouth. You were specially warned by the Admiral not to criticize the nurses working in the field hospital.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll be careful!”

“But what do you know about medicines to help? You’ll just get in the way, won’t you?”

“I may not know about medicines… but I thought I might be able to help by carrying boxes or something.”

Well, being alone in the warehouse carrying such things, he’ll be able to do this and that… but that boy probably won’t dare touch even a fingertip of a scheming woman. He’s just too shy.

Lakan grinned while wrinkling his nose and shaking his head vehemently.

“You’re easy to take advantage of, boy. Be careful. These days, women are more dangerous.”

“Really? No, I’m not being used…! I do it because I like to!”

That’s exactly the reaction of those who are being taken advantage of, Lakan mumbled, and answered by giving the youngest soldier some more odd jobs and exempting him from night watch duty.

“Why are you here?” the Duke demanded, and when Skaha did not reply, he roughly snatched Skaha’s arm from the madam.

“Let go of this, let it go!”

The Admiral’s sudden action was as shocking to Lakan as it was to Skaha. Only then did he recognize the woman’s face.

He knew the woman’s face.

She had unforgettable beauty, and he had felt a moral responsibility to her, having become the Duke’s concubine in order to clear her name of murder.

Could it be that His Grace… is taking her back as his concubine…?

It’s not unheard of for a beautiful common woman who has been abandoned by the nobility to fall so far. But why His Grace was so angry was incomprehensible.

And for the Admiral to take back a body that had been rolling around in the gutter with lowerranking men was unthinkable.

“Admiral, Your Grace! There’s a meeting scheduled soon.”

“Postpone it.”

“YYes? Oh, yes…!”

A raw emotion was lurking in the Admiral’s red eyes, which had been filled with ennui. It was a look he had not seen in nearly three years.

“Let go…!”

Dragged by an unyielding force, Skaha cried out, mixing pleas with her cries.

But he showed no intention of letting go. His face was flushed with confusion and anger.

“Just, please!”

Yanked into a private room by the Duke, Skaha felt the heat from his large hand, even through her thick dress.

Despite the faint desire in his red eyes, his expression was frighteningly cold.

“Why run away if you’re going to do this.”

Skaha glared back at the man, her body trembling under his fierce pressure, her large eyes filled with resentment.

“…Why are you doing this to me?”

“If you were going to sell your body anyway, I would have paid more for you.”

“Ha…”

Only then did Skaha realize the Duke’s misunderstanding and turn her head away with a hollow laugh.

Whether that annoyed the Duke further, his large hand gripped Skaha’s chin and forced her to look at him.
“Doing something like this to prolong your life, you…….”

“Let…… let go. Even if I really have to sell my body…… I won’t sell it to the Duke.”

At Skaha’s sharp retort, one corner of his mouth twisted crookedly. In the meantime, his eyes were utterly cold, even containing a light of contempt.

“Do you, a woman like you, have a choice?”

At the Duke’s words, ‘a woman like you’, memories of a forgotten past conversation surfaced. No, maybe she never forgot it even for a moment.

But now, it was filled with even more contempt than before.

“A commoner woman like me? Or a woman who sells her body? Either way, you wouldn’t want to create a headache.”

“Ha.”

Whether he remembered the words I spat out, he chuckled briefly at Skaha’s words.

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Why is this nonsense…….?”

“Was I significant enough to you that you would remember the words I said?”

Cassard asked the question and then laughed at himself as if it was ridiculous.