Shall I Save You, Duke? (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14

“My lord?”

But the duke ignored Lina’s question entirely, merely staring blankly downward.

After Belige stood silently for a long while, Lina, thinking he was angry because she was late for their appointed time, lowered her head.

“I’m sorry I’m late, my lord. Something unexpected came up…”

“What on earth is that supposed to be?”

The duke cut her off, his voice sounding somehow deeper than usual.

“Huh? Oh, this is…”

Her voice trailed off awkwardly, clearly reluctant to answer, causing Belige to frown.

“Looks like you went for a swim somewhere?”

At those words, Lina flinched in surprise and waved her hands dismissively.

“No! It’s not that! I was… um. It got wet because of my own mistake.”

Lina had almost mentioned Roen’s name but didn’t want to make things worse, so she quickly covered it up as her own fault.

“And that clothing?”

His gaze settled on Lina’s shoulders.

“Oh, this? Henry took it off and lent it to me to wear.”

The duke’s eyebrows twitched as he repeated, “Henry?”

“Yes. The boy you saw at the stables yesterday.”

Was it just her imagination, or had the duke’s expression instantly turned cold?

[My lord seems to dislike me being with you…]

Suddenly, she recalled Henry’s words from the day before—that the duke seemed to dislike him.

“Ahh… surely not.”

A small doubt rose within her, but she quickly shook her head.

“So… would it be alright if I changed clothes first? In this state, I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly attend to you, my lord.”

But not a single word came from Belige’s lips. He simply gazed down at Lina with eyes as still as the sea.

No—more precisely, his eyes were fixed on the brown jacket draped over her body.

How long did that awkward silence last?

Lina stood bewildered in the doorway, locked in an inexplicable standoff with the duke.

“Why isn’t he answering?”

Unable to wait any longer, Lina called out to him in a cautious voice.

“Um… my lord?”

The duke finally withdrew his gaze from her shoulders.

“Fine. Go ahead.”

“Thank you. I’ll quickly change and come right back…”

But her brief relief at his permission vanished instantly as Belige grabbed the jacket draped over her shoulders.

“Take that off.”

The jacket tumbled to the floor from Lina’s shoulders. Caught completely off guard, she couldn’t hide her confusion.

“What…?”

Her trembling hazel eyes darted around helplessly. Yet the man merely watched her calmly, as if nothing unusual had happened.

Swallowing hard at the strange turn of events, Lina quietly bent down to pick up the jacket lying on the floor, carefully watching his reaction.

But this time, the duke moved his foot onto the jacket sprawled on the ground—his fine leather boots now standing atop the worn brown fabric.

The owner of those boots, trampling the jacket, looked almost arrogant. Unconsciously, Lina gulped.

She awkwardly tried to pull the jacket out from under his foot, gripping it tightly, but it was no use.

Looking up at Belige with a troubled expression, she asked,

“My lord…?”

“What are you still doing here?”

“…You’re standing on the jacket, my lord.”

Belige glanced down at her words.

“Oh.”

Yet, as if deliberately trying to provoke her, he deliberately shifted his foot left and right, grinding the jacket into the floor. The dirt from his shoes instantly smeared across the fabric, ruining it completely.

“…”

Lina looked up at the duke with eyes that clearly asked, “What are you doing?”

“Leave it here.”

“Why are you doing this…?”

Their eyes met just as the duke muttered, “Just because.”

“It bothers me.”

The man’s eyes, cold and indifferent, seemed filled with quiet anger.

“The dike construction is progressing smoothly. It held up perfectly against the rain we had recently. Now that we’ve worked through some initial issues, I believe it’s ready to be implemented across the entire territory.”

Count Harren pointed toward the dike erected beside the riverbank.

The Permanence territory was unusually rainy. Especially during monsoon season, nearby farmlands suffered heavy damage each year from the river overflowing its banks.

To prevent this damage in advance, they had built dikes filled with sandbags to hold back the floodwaters. The duke, who had been tapping the dike with his palm a few times, replied,

“Good. I’ll leave this entirely to you, Count. Report the progress to the castle later.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Just then, as Belige was walking toward his horse to return to the castle, his eyes caught sight of a young boy walking toward him with a girl.

“What are you staring at so intently?”

Philip turned to look where the duke’s gaze was fixed.

The girl was wearing what appeared to be the boy’s coat, their hands clasped together as they strolled along.

“Wow—what perfect timing! They’re utterly smitten with each other!”

“That? What makes you say that?”

“Don’t you see? That girl is wearing a boy’s coat!”

A man with dark gray hair pointed with his finger as he spoke.

“Jumping to conclusions just because he lent her a coat? That’s a stretch, Philip.”

“My lord, having spent your life since childhood surrounded only by men on battlefields, you wouldn’t understand. A man doesn’t show such kindness to a woman he doesn’t care for—and likewise, a woman won’t accept such kindness from a man she dislikes.”

Philip, a former mercenary and Belige’s comrade-in-arms from past wars, spoke.

Having grown up in rough circumstances, his speech was coarse and his manners lacking, yet his exceptional skill had earned Belige’s full trust.

At Philip’s words, the duke’s eyebrows twitched.

“Hmph. I had those days too, you know. But since you’ve never properly experienced romance, my lord, you wouldn’t understand…”

Ignoring Philip’s tactless chatter, Belige mounted his horse and called out to Count Harren.

“Count.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“As a token of appreciation for your hard work, I’m giving you that horse.”

The duke pointed toward Philip’s horse.

“…Yes?”

“What?! My lord! Then what am I supposed to ride?!”

Philip, who had just been proudly boasting about his prime days, rushed over in shock at the duke’s unexpected words. But the duke merely shot him an irritated glance and muttered,

“Walk.”

Though the distance from the riverbank to the manor was only thirty minutes by horse, it took over two hours on foot. Philip, suddenly forced into an unplanned walk, stood gaping stupidly before blurting out,

“But… my lord!”

Regardless, the duke kicked his horse’s flank and rode off briskly.

“Hey! My lord!”

Leaving Philip’s frantic shout behind, the duke swiftly galloped back to the manor.

He then headed straight to his study to catch up on pending work. Opening the door, he found the brown jacket still lying exactly where it had been dropped on the floor.

Whether it was from being stepped on so hard or simply because it was already worn out, the jacket now lay in tatters, its threads unraveled and looking utterly pitiful.

“What’s the point of all this?”

Why had he been so unnaturally sensitive about something so trivial? Even he couldn’t understand it himself.

Belige moved his left leg and pushed the jacket into the corner of the room—as if he never wanted to see it again.

Feeling suffocated by the heavy air around him, the duke unfastened the topmost button of his collar.

“Hoo…”

After exhaling deeply, Belige recalled Lina’s appearance just moments ago. The sight of his maid, drenched like a drowned mouse, had made his brow furrow.

Her clothes clinging tightly to her small frame. Her hair dripping wet. Everything about the maid had irritated his nerves.

But more than anything else, what truly bothered him was:

[This is the coat Henry took off and lent me to wear.]

Hearing Philip’s words just now had only added fuel to his simmering frustration.

Knock knock.

“My lord. It’s Cullen.”

“Come in.”

Seeing Cullen enter alone, he asked,

“Where’s Lina?”

“She said she didn’t need to come out.”

Surprised by the unexpected reply, Belige looked at Cullen.

“Why?”

“She has something she wishes to tell you privately.”

At Cullen’s deliberately serious expression, the duke sat down.

“Go ahead.”

“Do you truly intend to impose no punishment on Lina at all?”

“What are you talking about?”

Cullen swallowed hard at the duke’s puzzled expression.

The teapot Lina had broken yesterday wasn’t just any ordinary ceramic pot.

It was part of a tea set passed down through generations of heads of the Permanence family—nearly three hundred years old.

How many dukes had brewed tea in that very pot? And yet, to impose no punishment whatsoever on a maid who shattered such an heirloom made no sense.

[And then there are the rumors circulating in the manor…]

Moreover, gossip about Lina and the duke was already spreading like wildfire.

If word got out that such an incident had been overlooked without any consequences, the rumors would spiral completely out of control.

“This can’t just be ignored. She needs at least a light punishment.”

Yet the duke seemed as though he wouldn’t care even if Lina had smashed the entire tea set, not just the teapot.

Determined to act for both the duke’s and Lina’s sake, Cullen continued,

“The teapot Lina broke yesterday was part of the ancestral tea set used by the heads of the Permanence family for generations. If a maid accidentally breaks such a precious item and receives no punishment at all, it could lead to damaging rumors. Given that there are already whispers about you favoring Lina, overlooking this incident would not be good for her either.”

The duke listened quietly to Cullen’s words without speaking for a long while.

“Right. That’s true.”

The teapot Lina had broken yesterday had been one of the few items holding memories of his late father—the previous duke—and his mother from his childhood.

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

“I mentioned it yesterday, my lord. Don’t you remember?”

The duke tried to recall but couldn’t remember Cullen saying anything of the sort. Still, that wasn’t the important issue. At least he knew now.

To think he’d let such a precious item be broken and simply let it go—it felt as though he’d finally uncovered the source of that inexplicable irritation.

“Well, at least I know now.”

A faint smile appeared on Belige’s lips as he flicked his fingers against the desk.

“Yes?”

“Cullen. You’re absolutely right.”

The duke, now even looking somewhat relieved, gave Cullen an order.

“You will assign Lina an appropriate punishment.”

At the duke’s words, the tension on Cullen’s face visibly eased.

“Yes, understood.”

When Cullen then suggested making Lina clean the gallery hall, the duke simply waved him off, signaling he could handle it as he saw fit.

“My lord, but what should I do about this jacket on the floor?”

Looking at the old jacket in Cullen’s hands, the duke murmured,

“Throw it away.”

Yet that worn jacket still irritated his eyes.