Chapter 1.2

Audrey came upstairs to her room and immediately fell into bed, her makeup, which she had gotten up at the crack of dawn to prepare, quickly became useless.

Witnessing the scene, Hans felt unnecessarily exhilarated and his judgment twisted. I felt ashamed of myself for the care I had taken to dress so carefully in the name of politeness.

‘How can you not say a word, you naughty acorn…….’

You’d think he’d say he’d never seen a cravat before, or that the blue color suited him, or that he’d laugh at me. How could he be so unappreciative, uninterested, and ungracious?

Hans glared at the bedraggled barkeeper in vain. His grumpy hands roughly untied the cravat and threw it away. A small act of defiance on my part.

Or not. Audrey was busy flipping through the morning paper.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm. Let’s see. What news today?”

The Reichstag was the same today. On the front page was a weird survey that had no basis in reality. It was a very unconventional move, unlike other newspapers that usually published special reports.

“The Imperial Newspaper Survey

Q. Which single men are most likely to break the bed on their first night of marriage?

“……What the hell, who the hell wants to know this?”

Audrey frowned in disbelief at the provocative topic. Then she saw the names stretched out to number fifteen more clearly.

“Anyway, you have weird tastes.”

She clicked her tongue, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the paper. Her eyes, like salmon’s, were downward, deliberate, and meticulous. Her curiosity was palpable.

But then she spotted a familiar name on the list,

“No way!”

Audrey crumpled the newspaper into a ball.

“Oh, surprise!”

Hans glared at his friend in disbelief. She must have gotten sick again because she was holding on to the newspaper like it couldn’t possibly be true.

Runner-up. Count Claude Emilton

: I wonder what his desires are behind his kind face! A man who stirs the imagination of women.

“How dare you! Claude, how can your brother be in second place, how perfect he is!”

“…….”

So it is.

Hans shook his head and quickly lost interest.

Audrey, on the other hand, stared at the name on it with fire in her eyes.

Number one. Duke Derek Frit!

A man like a beast of burden that cannot be tamed. Women, beware of this dangerous man!

This is ridiculous! This poll was supposed to be about the “Prince of the Night” , but the man who came out on top was a man who could tear a bed to pieces with his bare hands. Maybe even the person lying on it. …….

‘Shouldn’t we be careful, he’s a demon of the battlefield, known for slicing people up like steak!

If Duke Frit knew, Audrey knew. He was the man who ended half a century of war in the New World, and though she’d never met him in person, she was familiar with the rumors that were always flying around.

A demon of the battlefield, a butcher from hell, a blood duke, a minion of the devil, and so on. As his nickname suggests, he was a man known more for his horror stories than his heroism.

‘Duke Frit was born with eyes as black as night, but the blood of his enemies splashed on him so many times that his eyes turned red.

‘What do you mean, his eyes were always red, so he could see everything red, and once he couldn’t tell the difference between water and blood, so he bathed in blood……?

“Whatever. It would be quicker for Duke Frit to kill a man than for me to catch a fly.’

There were other stories about him eating children’s raw livers, or going crazy during the full moon and killing anyone he could find.

There was no way to know the truth because no one would come forward. However, anyone who had ever met him was convinced that the rumors were true. His blood-red eyes, with the strange glint of life in them that only a man who has killed can give, were considered proof.

Even some of the nobles, whenever they met Audrey, always asked her gently how she was doing.

‘The Count is…… well, I hope?

“I am.

Are you feeling well?

‘I’m perfectly well.

‘I’m glad to hear it, you must always be careful, always.

Her father, Count Kevelson, her best friend, Count Emilton, and even Claude worked for the dreaded man.

But Audrey had never actually met him.

‘He must be a terrible-looking man,’ she thinks.

That’s why the reporters were so terrified that they came up with this ridiculous result. Maybe they wrote it while they were already tied up.

“……Heh.”

Audrey stubbornly clamped her mouth shut and threw the newspaper away. Part of her wanted to stuff the paper with fighters, but even for a backward woman, the Duke of Frit was as terrifying as a summer nightmare.

“What’s the matter, why are you so upset? It’s not like he’s a squirrel who stole an acorn.”

Hans looked at the girl, curious, picked up the newspaper, and then made a face.

“But you only read the Imperial Newspaper. If you hate it so much, maybe you should read something else…….”

Suddenly, Hans’s voice trailed off. His gaze was fixed on one corner of the paper. Number 15, to be exact.

After a long moment of disbelief, Hans followed his friend and crumpled up the newspaper, his face also filled with frustration.

“What the hell are all these ridiculous results?”

“My words.”

“How is it possible that I’m only ranked fifteenth, me?”

“…….”

“Dude, you can’t believe this stuff. I’m not real, I’m real, I can fit within five fingers, no matter how bad I am, but wow!”

“…….”

Audrey’s face grew salty. Her gaze was filled with extreme disgust as she glared at her friend.

“Well, then.

What kind of confidence is this? How dare she think she can match Hans and Claude in the palm of her hand? I couldn’t even understand the way she tried to make excuses to the world.

“It’s a lie.”

“Hey, you don’t know anything!”

“Oh, shut up, I don’t even want to know!”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t even show you this……. that’s all a lie anyway?”

“Don’t even think about showing it, I want you to keep it to yourself.”

“What? This is real!”

Hans acted as if he was hiding something huge.

But Audrey only snorted and didn’t give her friend the attention of an acorn.

Hans, his pride still wounded, went on a rampage. He ranted and raved about how she was three years younger than him, how she knew nothing, how she pretended to know everything, and how she had never held a man’s hand.

But when Audrey said.

“You’ve never held a girl’s hand either.”

The moment she said, “You’ve never held a woman’s hand, either,” I was at a loss for words.

“……How can you not lose once, you naughty acorn?

Hans died and woke up, unable to overcome Audrey.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

Derek stared at the man in front of him, his face was expressionless. There was no remorse in his gaze for the man who had tried and failed to kill me. Not that there was much point in feeling sorry for a man who was already dead.

Lucas, the aide, looked down at the bloodied corpse and let out a troubled sigh.

“He died suddenly, coughing up blood as soon as they brought him to the torture chamber, and they didn’t find any of the poison that the Salsu use, plus he had something in his mouth.”

“…….”

“Usually they kill themselves as soon as they’re captured, but this one is a bit unusual.”

“Any other clues?”

“Well, there was some kind of weird symbol on his chest arm, but…….”

Lucas pulled up the corpse’s top. But there was no pattern anywhere that could be considered a clue.

“They say he disappeared without a trace, not even a mouse or a bird.”

“So, you don’t know anything?”

“……Sorry.”

Derek looked down at the face, which was familiar to him unlike any other, and pondered.

“You say you’re the servant who used to work in the stables.”

“Is that all the ganja inside the castle?”

“I’m not sure.”

“…….”

Lucas bowed his head in defeat.

Derek, the lord, was a man with many enemies. From the smallest nobleman to the largest imperial family on a distant continent. He wasn’t a bad-tempered man, but he wasn’t a good one either, and with more blood on his sword came more enemies.

Even after the armistice was signed, enemies continued to send raids, as if to avenge the shame of the past. The Half-Century War ended in victory for the Kryant Empire, but the Duchy was still paying the price for its victory.