Shall I Save You, Duke? (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
Lina, her entire body stiff as a board, twitched her rigid lips.
“If you require assistance with your bath, I’ll quickly go fetch a male servant…”
At Lina’s offer to bring someone else, the Duke looked at her with an expression of utter incomprehension.
“What for? You’re right here.”
“…But. Unnecessary rumors might start spreading.”
“Unnecessary rumors? Of what sort?”
“Th-that is…! Something that could seriously tarnish your reputation, Your Grace…!”
He twisted one corner of his mouth as if amused.
“If my reputation can be damaged merely by a maid assisting me with my bath, then it wasn’t worth much to begin with. I fail to see what’s wrong with a servant attending to her master.”
“That’s…!”
‘That only applies when you’re a noble young lady!’
Lina clenched her skirt and swallowed words that nearly came out as a scream.
‘Could he really be unaware of what it means for a lady-in-waiting to assist him with his bath!?’
Unlike Lina, who was inwardly screaming, the Duke’s expression remained perfectly calm.
‘I’ve dug my own grave. All I wanted was to put the Duke to sleep quickly and rest… I should’ve just massaged his shoulders and left it at that!’
Since she herself had been the one to suggest the bath to the Duke in the first place, she couldn’t blame anyone else.
“Well? Hurry up and undress me.”
The Duke seemed utterly unwilling to listen to her any further. His casual demand that she undress him appeared shamelessly bold.
Lina realized there was no escape left under the Duke’s unwavering stance.
‘Sigh. He seems determined to have me assist him with his bath somehow…’
Lina finally approached him with a quiet sigh, as if resigned to everything.
“…Yes.”
Since the Duke had stayed indoors all day, his attire was light, so there weren’t many garments to remove.
Lina deliberately ignored her pounding heart and began undressing the Duke, one piece at a time.
Inside the bathroom, only soft breaths and the rustling of fabric echoed quietly.
Soon, only a thin shirt remained on the Duke’s body. Through the light cotton fabric, she could feel the firmness of his masculine frame. Lina unconsciously swallowed dryly.
Her fingertips, fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, began to tremble faintly.
‘Once I take off this shirt, then…?’
The Duke looked down at the young maid undressing him as though she were a condemned prisoner.
“Enough.”
The Duke clicked his tongue in displeasure and grasped Lina’s hand.
“If I wait for you to undress me, I won’t get into the bath until after sunrise.”
With swift motions, he began unfastening the remaining buttons of his shirt. One by one, his garments dropped to the floor with soft thuds.
Seeing the Duke now completely bare, Lina hastily lowered her gaze.
‘If I can’t even properly look at his naked body, how am I supposed to touch and wash him…!’
Whether he understood Lina’s turmoil or not, the Duke calmly settled himself into the tub.
“Stop staring at the floor and come wash me already.”
Belige gestured for Lina to come closer.
“…Yes. Understood.”
Steam rising from the hot water filled the space between them.
‘At least the steam blurs my vision, so I can’t see clearly—that’s a relief.’
Her sight grew hazy from the thick, white mist.
Gaining a bit of courage, Lina tightly gripped a sponge soaked with water and began washing the Duke.
The splashing water echoed through the bathroom like a ripple. Each time her fingertips brushed against his skin, her cheeks burned as if set aflame.
‘Come to think of it, we’ve already spent nights together—why am I so embarrassed now? We’ve done far more than this…’
Lina even found herself ridiculous for getting so flustered over merely washing his body.
‘But I’ve never washed a full-grown man before!’
Moreover, she wasn’t even in her beautiful form right now. And somehow, whenever she was like this, even her usual confidence seemed to vanish completely.
Lina steeled herself and slowly washed the Duke’s body with deliberate care.
Meanwhile, Belige watched the maid with indifferent eyes. Though obscured by hot steam, her face was as red as a ripe apple.
Seeing her look so distressed made him feel like a cruel employer tormenting a young employee. Yet—
‘Tch. Annoying.’
Belige glanced at the sponge in Lina’s hand. After all, the reason he’d asked her to assist with his bath was to have her hands touch his body, even slightly.
Her fingers holding the sponge occasionally brushed against him, but that alone…
‘Isn’t enough.’
Frowning slightly, Belige closed his eyes.
“Your Grace. I’m finished.”
Lina rose quickly, her expression that of someone who’d just completed a difficult task.
“Then… may I leave now?”
Belige slowly opened his eyes and looked at Lina, who had already moved far away.
“Finished?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Seeing the man tilt his head back to look at her, Lina began to feel uneasy.
“That’s impossible.”
“…Yes?”
Belige reached out and grabbed Lina’s hand. Startled by the Duke’s sudden action, the sponge she’d been holding slipped into the tub.
“You need to wash me more thoroughly.”
Belige pulled Lina’s arm closer. The Duke’s breath lightly brushed against her ear.
“There’s still more to wash.”
The sponge, slipping from her hand, created a small ripple on the water’s surface.
“There’s no way it’s finished.”
Belige didn’t care at all about the feelings of the maid before him. He mattered more than she did.
‘I can’t let her go like this.’
His grip tightened on her slender wrist.
‘Not yet.’
In a dim bedroom where curtains occasionally fluttered, a man lay quietly.
And a woman sat beside his bedside.
‘Sigh. What on earth am I doing here right now?’
Lina stared blankly down at the Duke lying in bed. It had already been a month since she’d started working as his personal maid.
‘It feels like just yesterday I blushed while attending to him…’
That day, Lina ultimately couldn’t leave the bathroom until the Duke was satisfied. And since then, she’d had to assist him with several more baths. But perhaps humans truly are creatures of adaptation.
Now, she no longer blushed at the sight or touch of the Duke’s bare body.
‘I hate that I’m getting used to this…’
Lina felt a slight sense of self-disgust at how skillfully she was handling something she’d once thought she’d never grow accustomed to.
‘But why do my expectations keep growing day by day?’
Just a few days ago, the Duke had even stopped her as she was tidying the bedding and preparing to leave, saying:
[Don’t go back to your room. Stay here.]The moment she heard those words, she felt all the blood drain from her body.
During that brief pause while waiting for his next words, her imagination had run wild—only for him to say merely:
[Stay by my side until I fall asleep.]‘He just wants me to put him to sleep?’
Not only was she bathing a robust twenty-five-year-old man, but now she had to tuck him in as well…
Lina shook her head.
‘More importantly, what should I do going forward?’
Lately, Lina had developed a secret problem she couldn’t speak of. Once a month, she transformed back into her original form—that was the issue.
‘Last time, I managed to get through it by pretending to be ill… What will I do next time?’
Lina could only worry about the approaching full moon.
Before meeting the Duke, May had been the only person close to her.
Thus, whenever she needed to hide or make excuses to cover herself, no one would come looking for her, allowing her to slip by unnoticed.
But this time was different.
With the Duke summoning her at all hours, there was no way she could quietly disappear.
“Huff. I’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
Lina sighed and stared blankly at the Duke. Then, she waved her hand a few times over his face.
‘He must be asleep by now?’
Convinced he was sleeping, Lina stood from her chair to leave the room.
‘I’m exhausted… I should hurry and get some sleep myself.’
Thud.
But before Lina could even take a single step away from the bed, a large hand seized her wrist.
“Where are you going?”
When she turned around, the Duke—who she’d thought was asleep—spoke in a drowsy voice.
“…You’re not asleep yet, I see? Haha…”
“I told you to stay by my side until I fall asleep.”
“Oh, right… But I need to use the restroom for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry back.”
“Yes.”
Only after she mentioned the restroom did the Duke release her. Lina gave an awkward smile and quickly stepped out the door.
Click.
“Phew.”
The moment she carefully opened the door and stepped out, Lina let out a long, held-back sigh.
“Oh! You startled me—I thought you were asleep…! Why won’t you sleep? I’m dead tired.”
Pouting slightly at the realization her duties weren’t over yet,
“How long must I keep doing this…? Tch.”
Repeating this routine—putting the Duke to sleep every night and waking again at dawn—had left her utterly exhausted.
On top of that, she couldn’t move freely for fear of waking him, leaving all her muscles stiff and knotted.
Lina massaged her shoulders to stay awake and loosened her tense muscles. Then, she quietly reentered the room and carefully sat beside the bed once more.
How much time had passed like this?
In this narrow, silent space, only faint moonlight seeped through the thin curtain gaps.
Lina cautiously checked on the Duke once again. With his eyes closed and no movement at all, he truly seemed to be in deep slumber.
‘This time, he really does seem asleep… Still, just in case, maybe I’ll wait ten more minutes before leaving?’
Perhaps due to what had happened earlier, Lina had grown more cautious.
“Yaaawn.”
Apparently relaxed, Lina yawned without realizing it.
‘Ah, I’m so sleepy… I need to… quickly go wash and sleep… I can’t… sleep… here…’
Having guarded the Duke’s bedside every night, she hadn’t slept soundly in a long time. Unable to fight off drowsiness any longer, Lina’s head began swaying unsteadily.
And despite her will, her body and consciousness slowly sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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MANGA DISCUSSION
2 Comments
Chapter Comments (48)
He’s jealous hahaha he can’t remember her but his body and heart into her
i like him being jealous means he cares at some point now
I wait for him to scold hans but this scene kinda unnecessary
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debban23
the duke is totally a baby, eventhough he wants to be close to lina all the time
Blairwoods
I feel bad for her. ML didn’t even think of her health ckckckc