What’s Wrong with You, Duke?!

Chapter 6

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Noël had claimed a small greenhouse in the deepest part of the castle for herself, making sure that everyone knew it was her space and that entry to others was forbidden. Knowing that the illusion she’d attained with magic could shatter at any moment, she generally tried not to leave even a single trace of herself. For this, however, she had no choice—what she was doing couldn’t be discovered. She’d even placed tall plants around the walls of the greenhouse to keep the inside hidden from view.

She searched deep within her memory for the pattern of the sigil and after two months of trial and error, she finally had a complete picture. However, when she checked her magic books, she couldn’t find anything that looked like the unique sigil she had drawn. She knew there was no way every type of sigil could be in a slapdash magic book but finding nothing close to what she’d drawn had brought her back to the starting line—she had to think.

From what point should she start reenacting it? No, what if she did and some strange random magic started? She was deep in thought when suddenly she heard a voice say, “Should I help you?”

“Argh!” She yelped and lost her balance from her crouched position on the ground where she was drawing.

“Are you all right?” The duke rushed over and grabbed her hand to pull her up. She quickly swished her skirt over the drawing and looked up at her husband.

“Oh… What are you doing here?” Noël asked.

“I went to your room, but they said you were in the greenhouse.”

“You looked for me? Really?” Her eyes widened in disbelief, shocked that he—who forgot about her whenever she wasn’t in his line of sight—went looking for her. Because she’d been working in the greenhouse for the past few months, she’d hardly spent any time with the duke… except for at night. She was a little embarrassed to see him somewhere so unexpected, but for the most part, she was just happy he sought her out.

“Um… I…” the duke trailed off awkwardly. “I thought I had something to say to you…”

“It must not have been something urgent. Tell me when you remember,” Noël said.

“This has never happened before,” Dreux muttered.

This was the first time she saw him forget something other than the fact that he was enchanted, but Noël just smiled and led him out of the greenhouse. It would be problematic if he saw the pattern.

“I’m so happy you looked for me. Would you like to join me for a glass of iced tea?”

“Ah.”

As she engaged him brightly, Noël heard him make a sound which caused her to turn back in shock—the duke was standing there, staring inside. She quickly tried to close the door when she realized his eyes were fixed on the little corner of the sigil that was visible on the ground, but he reached out an arm and stopped her.

“I remembered what I had to say,” he whispered, his voice low and gravelly.

She glanced up at him, her eyes meeting his icy glare, and instinctively felt threatened. She tried to take a step back, but the door was right behind her and the duke was blocking her way.

“What are you up to, holed up in there?” Dreux questioned harshly.

It seemed that the duke was no longer under the magic’s hold—now his eyes carried a frightening hostility that was previously missing. Even as her mouth dried up, Noël was desperate to pretend that nothing was wrong.

“W-What do you mean, what am I up to? I’m just taking care of my plants.”

“Plants? All I can see are weeds.”

“Weeds? Don’t talk about my lovely flowers like—”

“You will not talk to me like that. I know you’re aware I’m not your ‘Ru’ right now.”

The duke lazily reached a hand out and wrapped it around her slim neck. She bit her lip, feeling suffocated by her fear even though he only held her tight enough to stop her from moving. Despite being prepared for the worst, she was still scared of his overwhelming hostility.

“I don’t know either.” Noël avoided his glare and she started to babble. “There’s no point in asking me what I did. I don’t know either! I really don’t know!”

Dreux scoffed and tightened his grip. “And you want me to believe that?”

The gradual compression on her neck felt glacial. The unfamiliar chill made her shiver, but Noël plucked up the courage to look him in the eye. She felt like he would hurt her if she did nothing. She croaked, “If I knew, would I be doing this?”

“This?”

“Would I just let the magic that’s cast on you disappear like this?!”

“Magic?”

“Do you have no memory of it? Do you have no memory of what happened the moment you tried to kill me in Saboulin?” wheezed Noël.

The duke’s eyes narrowed, and he paused his attempt to strangle her for a moment. His expression changed just then as if he were trying to remember their first meeting.

Noël looked up at his face painfully, taking in his eyebrow—the one marked with a scar at the end—which was normally hidden from view and only added to his already fierce appearance. It was then that she realized that a simple change in expression could alter a person’s look entirely. This man had the same deep, beautiful eyes as Ru, but because his gaze was different, they looked cold and heartless. The same red, sensual lips of her husband now appeared cruel and jeering.

After another moment, Dreux spat out, “Ha, magic?”

“What do you remember?”

“Everything,” he answered curtly before shoving her against the door.

The force of the fall pushed the door open, and Noël landed flat on the ground. She could only watch as the duke stepped inside the greenhouse and drew his sword from his waist.

“Well, it’s all because of you anyway, so killing you should fix it.”

Noël pushed herself up off the ground and stared in disbelief at the sword pointed at her. She couldn’t believe it. Why was the magic suddenly gone? No, more important than that, was she going to die such a futile death? By his hand? Various thoughts flew through her brain in a flash as the point of the sword swooped through the air in front of her.

Noël clenched her eyes shut in terror and stopped breathing, waiting to feel some sort of pain. Instead, his voice rang out clearly in her ear.

“So you truly are unaware.”

Noël’s eyes fluttered open and she saw the duke wave his sword in the air like he was trying to see where to strike her. His face was expressionless. His eyes, which were full of hostility and nothing else, were looking her up and down like she was garbage. This expression from the man who usually looked at her with love in his eyes was enough to send her into a feeling of sorrow that was stronger than her fear.

When the magic was good, would all of his feelings for her disappear completely, as if they never existed? Would things go back to how they were in the beginning? Would he even remember any of their time together? And Ru? What would her Ru do?

Distraught, Noël screamed, “Don’t you do this to me with that face!”

“What...?”

“I don’t care if you kill me or torture me! Just blind me first!” She swiped at the tears streaming down her face as she shrieked at him.

The duke’s sword suddenly paused in midair, his face twisted strangely as she glared up at him. He seemed angry, but he also seemed dumbfounded. Either way, Noël didn’t care. She quaked in extreme despair and stumbled to her feet. When the duke warily aimed the sword right at her throat, Noël was determined this would be her last chance and desperately called out, “Ru.”

The duke met her eyes, which were brimming with tears, and he snarled, “Stop.”

“Ru! I love you!” She cried out imploringly and shut her eyes tightly.

If she was going to die now, that was all she wanted to say. Those would be her last words—a proclamation that she’d never regretted her time with him. Her tears burned a trail down her cheeks as her plaintive cry rang throughout the greenhouse and dissipated like the wind. Silence as heavy as death itself fell around.

“Noël...?”

She couldn’t believe her ears when a soft, careful voice broke the silence and called her name. Never before had one small word sounded so much like a lifeline, something to save her from her despair. She slowly opened her eyes to find the duke looking at her, his sword still held aloft. His face was full of worry and confusion—not iciness and hostility—as his eyes darted back and forth between her and the sword in his hand.

Noël blinked blankly as the duke quickly stepped back, so the sword wouldn’t touch her, and sheathed it.

“R-Ru...?” Noël called his name cautiously.

He nodded, asking, “You look so pale. Are you all right?”

It looked like the magic was back. He quickly scanned her over with concern and frowned.

“Why was I holding my sword?”

“What?”

Noël barely managed to gather herself with the waves of relief washing over her but remembered that the duke didn’t remember how he threatened her before either. She took a few deep breaths and tried to answer as if nothing was wrong.

“I-I said I thought I saw s-something scary, so y-you drew your sword, my lord. T-though it’s no longer here...” Despite her attempt, her voice ended up wavering in fear. Noël reached out a hand as a test and he immediately took it. His hand was still firm and powerful, but unlike before, now she didn’t feel scared. She was finally able to calm down.

“Why are you trembling so? Were you very scared, my skylark?”

Yes, scared of you. For some reason, Noël felt this was unfair, and looked into Ru’s eyes as she remembered what the duke was like just moments before. Now that she thought about it, his eyes now seemed deeper and bluer. She tucked herself into the duke’s arms and brought up their interlaced hands to her face. And she bit down onto the back of his hand with spite.

“Ouch!” exclaimed the duke. But when Noël bit harder, he simply left his hand there.

“I want to hurt you, my lord, but it just makes me hurt inside.”

When she could feel his bones with her teeth, Noël couldn’t bite any harder. So she let his hand go and pouted.

The duke disregarded his teeth-marked hand and brushed his fingers around her lips first. He chuckled, and said, “No, my hand hurts, too. I don’t know what’s going on, but do you want me to pretend it hurts more? Then will you feel better?”

“No. I never wanted you to hurt, Ru.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have something to ask of you. I want to call you Ru, my lord, even when we’re in front of others. Would that be all right?”

“Of course, that would make me so happy. If you’re happy, it makes me happy.”

The smile on the duke’s face was blinding. Noël rubbed the tooth marks on his hand, and they walked side by side. Her throat did feel dry with regret, but she pretended it was fine.

It was clear the magic over him was breaking. Was it because the duke was like an extremely cold glass, and he was filled with Ru’s heated love? Was the difference in temperature causing the cracks to widen and reveal the original duke?

She was sure that this was only the beginning. Noël felt a foreboding premonition that these incidents would happen more and more, but she couldn’t run away. There was nowhere on Earth she could live while ignoring her feelings for him. She chose him with everything on the line, and the results were her responsibility to carry. Even more so if it was the price to pay for a love she did not put in any effort for.