The Duke Stole Everything (1 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 10
Sharti lowered her head deeply for a moment.
“Not the face!”
They were far too close.
But immediately, a large, hard hand seized Sharti’s chin, hidden beneath her hood.
Swish—. The thick hood was pulled back by the man’s rough touch.
“……!”
Her carefully concealed hair and face were helplessly exposed.
Just as Sharti frantically turned her head, the man’s eyes widened upon meeting her crimson gaze.
Seizing the brief moment of his hesitation, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
“No!”
Sharti bit down hard on her lips.
Thud! She drove her knee upward with all her strength.
“……Agh, urgh……!”
The man’s upper body muscles twitched and convulsed violently.
Because he had been leaning over her, even that fleeting instant allowed her attack to land.
“What the—, you little—……!”
The moment the man ducked his head, Sharti twisted the end of her staff and pressed it firmly against his shoulder.
“……Ugh!”
With a low groan, the man clutched his shoulder and staggered momentarily. Sharti hastily sat up and quickly covered her head and face again with her hood.
Hearing her heart pound fiercely, Sharti exhaled a ragged breath.
“He was startled just now when he saw me. He might… he might be someone who knows me.”
In that split second, seeing the man freeze in shock upon glimpsing her face, Sharti became certain.
He might be connected to the Kingdom of Krianet, which had vanished five years ago.
“I was foolish!”
Sharti frantically rummaged through her pockets.
Whether or not he had resistance, this was the moment for overwhelming numbers.
“……Ugh, the wound…….”
Sharti, about to pull out a pouch of powder, flinched and lifted her head abruptly.
The man’s face had turned deathly pale, and he was clutching his abdomen. His trembling groans sounded deeply ominous.
“Did I… did I strike his abdomen instead of a vital spot?”
If so, perhaps the wound that had only just begun to heal had reopened.
A reflexive pang of guilt struck her.
“……It might… have torn open again…….”
Hearing the man mutter through his groans, Sharti’s eyes wavered.
He suddenly lifted his head. When their eyes met—his sea-green gaze locking onto hers—an inexplicable ache brushed across her chest.
Sharti shrank back, unable to move closer, and the man raised both hands.
“I won’t….”
“……?”
“Do anything. Could you just check if my wound has reopened?”
Reflexively, Sharti’s eyes darted toward his abdomen.
“I can’t see well.”
Because the cave wasn’t very bright, she’d have to move closer.
“But if I get too close, I won’t be able to react quickly enough to a counterattack.”
Wearing the hood narrowed her field of vision, making it harder to anticipate his moves.
After steeling herself, Sharti gripped her staff tightly again and stared fiercely at the man.
“If you try anything foolish, it won’t just be your wound that bursts open.”
Feeling this threat should suffice, Sharti slowly crawled forward on her knees across the bed.
For an instant, the corner of the man’s mouth twitched.
“……Alright.”
Fortunately, the man voluntarily placed his hands behind his back, assuming a restrained posture. Kneeling on the bed like that, he looked exactly like someone accepting punishment.
“There doesn’t seem to be much blood.”
Still wary, Sharti leaned her upper body forward.
As she inspected the wound on his abdomen and then the one on his thigh, the distance between them grew shorter.
All this while, the man’s gaze remained fixed on Sharti.
“…….”
He wanted to see her face hidden beneath the hood again.
Her face, glimpsed only for an instant before being quickly covered once more, kept flickering before his eyes.
“—Ugh.”
Suddenly, the man hastily leaned his upper body backward.
Slap! But Sharti immediately glared at him and struck his thick arm with her hand.
“If you move, I can’t examine it properly.”
Reluctantly, the man awkwardly resumed his position.
Each time Sharti’s slender fingers pressed firmly around the bandaged area of his abdomen, the man shuddered. Each time, Sharti frowned deeply and looked up at him.
For a fleeting moment, her crimson eyes were visible through the hood.
“If you move again, I’ll knock you out and check anyway.”
Her crimson eyes narrowed sharply with warning, but the man found it absurd. It was sheer torment to have someone so boldly prod and press at his body while he was wide awake.
Helplessly, he finally spoke.
“……It hasn’t torn open.”
“……?”
Sharti blinked, looking up at him in surprise at his words.
“If it had torn open, it would’ve been the spot you struck earlier that burst.”
“……!”
Sharti’s face flushed crimson as she followed the man’s gaze downward to the area he indicated.
He’d been acting again.
Just as Sharti moved to punish him immediately, the man calmly spoke.
“But the pain is real.”
His gaze looked slightly sorrowful.
“Here.”
With the arm opposite the shoulder paralyzed by the poisoned staff, the man tapped his own head lightly.
Sharti looked up at him with a puzzled expression.
‘His head wounds have already healed, haven’t they?’
There were some scrapes and bruises from collisions, but nothing serious.
“That’s not what I meant…….”
The man took a deep breath. His chest rose and fell heavily.
His hesitant demeanor seemed oddly out of place for him.
“I can’t remember anything. Nothing at all.”
For a moment, Sharti, failing to grasp his meaning, blinked slowly.
Tsk. The man turned his head slightly and clicked his tongue quietly.
“Not my name, my age, my home—nothing comes back. Not even why I ended up like this.”
Sharti’s mouth slowly fell open.
‘So… he truly remembers nothing?’
She’d occasionally seen books Tain read that described a condition called amnesia.
But “Sha,” who held neither an academy diploma nor any qualifications, couldn’t possibly understand symptoms affecting the brain—an organ as complex and intricate as it was.
When Sharti cast a suspicious glance at the man with his history of deception, he swiftly countered as if reading her mind.
“……It’s true.”
He deliberately put on a look of wounded innocence.
“That’s why, even after regaining consciousness, I couldn’t speak for a long while.”
“…….”
“Every time I opened my eyes, you either knocked me out again or were fully ready to attack. It was frightening.”
The man shrugged his uninjured shoulder slightly.
His pointed remark made “Sha” wince guiltily.
“I’m not blaming you.”
Glancing subtly at Sharti’s expression, the man relaxed his posture. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he lowered his gaze with a forlorn look.
‘The atmosphere really has changed.’
The man before her now was utterly different in expression and demeanor from the one who’d first met her with a drawn sword, radiating bloodlust and menace.
‘At first, he truly seemed like a massive, ferocious beast.’
Now, he looked languid—like a large, gentle herbivore.
Of course, right now, the man was doing his absolute best to act reassuringly for Sharti’s sake.
Though his acting was clumsy, Sharti’s wariness had visibly lessened.
‘No. It could still be a lie about losing his memory.’
Though she felt pity for him, her distrust of people didn’t fade so easily.
Sharti glared at him as fiercely as she could. Sensing her defensive stance through the hood, the man calmly took a measured breath.
Indeed, she was no pushover.
“I have no one else to communicate with except you, since I remember nothing.”
The man looked up, confessing honestly. He made no attempt to feign friendliness or close the distance, and his behavior clearly showed he had no intention to attack.
His calm sea-green eyes held Sharti steadily.
“So, I’d like you to talk with me. Peacefully, this time.”
“…….”
An injured, pitiful, helpless patient.
The man knew precisely which image—dangerous or pitiable—he needed to project.
“My attitude probably displeases you.”
Muttering to himself, the man suddenly sat upright.
Sharti flinched.
‘What’s he doing?’
Was he planning to fight after securing higher ground?
Contrary to Sharti’s expectation, the man stepped firmly off the bed and moved two paces away. Then, he dropped flat onto the cold cave floor right in front of the bed.
“……!”
The well-defined muscles of his back came into her view.
Sharti blinked in astonishment.
With his forehead pressed against the cold ground, the man spoke.
“Help me.”
His soft, low voice traveled along the floor, echoing through the cave.
Sharti stared down at the man’s head bowed at her feet.
“I don’t want to be alone here. With nothing coming back to me, I feel suffocated, scared, and lonely.”
“…….”
“A few days ago, I tried going outside the cave. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I wanted to meet someone who might know me, yet I gave up the moment I saw my own state. Right now, I can’t even distinguish between hostility and kindness. This cave is all I have—the only place where I can keep myself safe.”
The man’s earnest, heartfelt plea shook Sharti deeply.
The anxiety and fear he must be feeling were terrors she herself had once endured.
‘But at least I had Grandmother Bireta, Birena, and Tain with me.’
Five years ago, she’d closed her eyes, convinced she would die in the fire. But when she’d lifted her heavy eyelids, Sharti found herself not in searing flames, but wrapped snugly in thick blankets.
At first, she’d thought everything that happened in the Krianet royal palace was just a dream.
Until she discovered the indelible marks and disabilities etched onto her body—a permanent reminder not to forget that day.
Far from feeling relief at being alive, she was tormented daily by the fear that someone might drag her away again.
Back then, she’d been utterly broken.
‘My voice is gone, and his memory is lost—we can’t really compare, but…’
A sense of shared suffering beneath her pity.
That was why Sharti couldn’t help but waver.
“Right now, you’re the only person I can ask for help.”
The man kept his head pressed to the ground as he spoke.
“Just help me a little longer. Please.”
The man had found the perfect, most effective way to slip through Sharti’s defenses.
Sharti was weakest when someone pleaded, “Help me.”
Slowly, the man lifted his head to gauge Sharti’s reaction.
“Wild beasts could appear here at any moment, the temperature drops sharply at night, and if a heavy storm hits, this place might even collapse.”
Every word he spoke was perfectly reasonable.
The man gave her no time to steady her wavering resolve.
“If I seem threatening, you can bind my arms or legs. You can even blindfold me.”
Meeting Sharti’s gaze, the man gave a pitiful smile.
“Take me with you. Please.”
“…….”
Sharti admitted it to herself.
‘I want to help him.’
Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to reach out her hand to him so readily.
‘Is it even feasible in my situation?’
She herself was hiding in the mountains.
In her current state—hardly able to take care of herself—how could she possibly shelter and help someone else?
Perhaps it would be better to go down to the village and entrust him to someone there.
‘Wouldn’t it be best for both of us to ask Grandmother Bireta to protect his identity?’
Watching Sharti’s internal conflict intensify, the man’s expression subtly shifted. Even pleading emotionally from the floor, Sharti still hesitated.
Then, he needed to change tactics.
The man wiped away his previously pitiful act.
“It would be better—for both our safety—if you kept me hidden, or at least stayed with me until I recover my memory.”
The man’s low, cool voice rang with a matter-of-fact urgency, instilling a sense of danger.
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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