I felt it in my bones in that very moment.

The man before me was indeed the protagonist of this tale.

There he was, here to rescue at the most desperate, theatrically dramatic timing.

He already had a radiant face, but seeing him standing there almost made it seem like there was a shining halo behind him

Gale and his gang, who were by the way mere extras in this novel, responded after a long pause.

“And who do you think you are?”

Gale approached Zahid, puffing his chest as if that were supposed to be some sort of a threat.

He must have been unaware of how awestruck he seemed when Zahid entered the alley. How pathetic.

In fact, Gale didn’t appear threatening at all anymore.

Instead, I was busy trying to figure out what to do with the protagonist.

His eyes were fixed on me, and me only.

He was waiting for me to respond to his question.

I knew how apt he was at taking lives.

The second I give my word, Zahid would take care of them for me without giving it a second thought.

But I couldn’t let the twins witness such a gruesome scene.

“Not dead, but……”

I decided to go with the most appropriate of my choices under the current circumstances.

“I want them out of my sight, please.”

“As you wish.”

He answered in the most natural manner.

His indifferent answer made Gale flare up and spew his insignificant-extra-character lines.

“How dare you……!”

What came next from Zahid was the most protagonist-like thing I’ve ever seen.

Neither did he resort to magic, nor did he call his subordinates.

Instead, he simply smoothed out his leather gloves, flashed him a quick grin, and grasped Gale’s arm.

It all happened in one gracefully flowing movement, almost like that of a dance.

The results on the other hand were not so graceful.

With a sharp crack, Gale’s arm bent in the most painful form.

Gale fell to the ground and rolled as he let out a terrible scream.

“Aaaaagh!!”

But Zahid was only getting started.

I blankly watched Zahid do his deed.

With each nimble move, cacophonous shrieks of agony filled the dark alley in the most calamitous way.

With each graceful step, bulky men fell at his feet helplessly like toy figurines.

His swift maneuvers and picturesque face were enough to make the scene of the massacre seem like a work of art.

After carefully breaking the legs of the last man standing, Zahid casually brushed his hands against one another.

Thick blood dripped from his gloves.

Zahid, slightly frowning, tossed his tainted leather gloves at one of the men on the ground.

Instead of running to Zahid to thank him, I bolted towards Ethan.

“Ethan……!”

Cheryl trailed behind me with a limp.

Ethan, who was covered in his own thin blood, wearily reached out for my trembling hands.

“A, Aerta…… Are you okay……?”

“I’m fine honey. Why did you do such a thing you……”

“I, I wanted to protect you……”

Hot tears began to fill my eyes.

Ethan - being the shy and timid child that he was – had jumped at a man twice his size for me.

Zahid came up to us and gave his orders.

“Step aside.”

I stepped aside and let him hold Ethan in his arms.

He opened Ethan’s mouth in a very adept manner.

“Thankfully his teeth seem to be okay.”

After carefully checking the insides of his mouth, Zahid went on to briefly check for any bone fractures.

“It’s possible that he has some intestinal damage. I will have him treated at the castle by our doctor.”

He flicked his hands in the air.

To his signal, his guards emerged out of what seemed like nowhere.

They took Ethan in their arms and laid him in the carriage they had brought with them.

Once I had made sure that Ethan was in safe hands, I was able to turn my eyes to the tragic sight of Gale’s men on the floor, twisted in gruesome shapes.

Watching their blood-shed bodies sent chills up my spine.

It was a deadly reminder of who this man was and what he was capable of.

He was a sword in my hands for now.

The moment I betray him, however, his sharp-edged blade will come for my throat.

Cheryl’s cautious voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Aerta……”

She held on tightly to the ends of my sleeves with eyes full of vigilance.

Who would have thought that this, out of all the different possible scenarios, would be how I’d introduce the twins to their future brother-in-law?

The circumstances weren’t ideal, but I would have to introduce Zahid sooner or later anyways.

I pleaded to Zahid as I squeezed Cheryl by her small shoulders.

“Could she get checked up by the doctor as well?”

“I’m not going anywhere!”

She sharply shouted.

I quickly whispered in her ears.

“You need to be there to protect Ethan, Cheryl.”

After assuring her over and over that I’ll be on my way as soon as I could, I was finally able to coerce her into getting in the carriage Ethan was laying in.

And then it was just Zahid and me.

His eyes were filled with amusement as if he was trying to guess my next move.

I let out a sigh as I asked the man staring at me.

“I’m going to head home. Would you like to join me?”

***

I returned to our place with Zahid.

The run-down shack was in all ways unfit to invite a Duke.

I tried to ignore that fact and sat him in the fanciest chair that we had.

I then looked around our kitchen in hopes to find something to serve him.

Of course, we didn’t have any lavish tea sets.

I filled a chipped teacup with tap water and served it.

“I see you’re quite the hostess.”

Ignoring his mocking, I sat across the table from him.

“I have something to discuss with you, sir.”

Though the biggest reason I sent Cheryl with Ethan was so that she could get treated, that wasn’t everything.

I had to ask him to cooperate.

“I told my siblings that I am getting married to you because we fell in love at first sight.”

From our first encounter till now, not once had I hesitated to say what I needed to say.

But this request was a bit embarrassing, even for me.

My face turned a bright shade of poppy as I let the cat out of the bag.

“So, I’m going to have to ask you to treat me like your lover in front of others.”

Zahid put on a sheepish, yet not innocent, smile.

“There’s really no need for you to ask. I was coming up with excuses for this marriage on my end, anyways.”

With an enticing voice, he added on.

“Then should we go with the love-at-first-sight trope? Just think about it: destined to fall in love, disregarding the discrepancies between our social statuses!”

He smiled like a siren, luring me into his deep purple eyes as he broke down my guard with his beautiful looks.

For a moment, I lost myself in his eyes.

I kept putting my guards down in the presence of his beautiful exterior, though I knew how wretched of a person he was on the inside.

Firmly locking my heart up once more, I nodded.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Zahid lifted his cup with a grin on his face.

To my surprise, he brought it to his lips.

I was lost for a moment watching him sipping from the cup as if it were the finest of black tea when a question came across my mind.

“How did you find me?”

“I think you’d know, don’t you?”

“...... I do.”

Now that I think about it, he was in fact the owner of an information guild. Such a stupid question.

They’ve probably been stalking my every move since last night.

“Still, thank you for coming.”

It would have been much easier for him to simply send one of his guards to help us out.

I really appreciated him doing it himself.

Zahid’s expression swirled into a mixture of complicated emotions as I thanked him dearly.

He put his cup down.

“Go pack the necessities. We’ll be heading to the castle right afterward.”

I really didn’t have anything to pack.

Anything I’d bring would end up in the castle dump, anyways.

Though I wasn’t planning on bringing anything with me, I still pretended to look around the house.

“We can just head out if you don’t have anything.”

“......”

I don’t know if it was because he was the protagonist, but he surely had sharp eyes.

We headed out of the house, and I was escorted onto his carriage by none other than the Duke of Carnoire himself.

The inside of the carriage was much softer and bigger than our three beds combined.

I slid into the comfortable seat and took a peek outside the window.

The slums that I thought I’d never be able to escape were now behind me.

I saw the worn-down shacks blend into solid brick houses, and the rough dirt road turned into smooth stone streets.

And finally, here we were, at the Carnoire castle.

The castle, which was located in the most expensive part of the city, gleamed with a majestic aura.

The edifices were built with white marble and blue bricks, and the garden was full of well-groomed hedges and rare flowers.

Just being in its presence made me feel small.

On the other hand, this was to become the house for the twins and I.

While I was busy watching out the window, the carriage came to a halt.

As Zahid escorted me out of the carriage, I was a bit disconcerted.

An enormous crowd of servants had been waiting for us by the entrance.

Dymon, who was the only one of his men that I was familiar with, was nowhere to be found.

One of the servants, after scanning me with confused eyes, carefully opened his mouth.

“And who are we in the presence of, if I may ask……?”

They were told that he was to take a bride, but they seemed to be completely unaware that the bride was me.

I tried to picture what I looked like.

Face dry from malnourishment, arms thin as a scarecrow, and a dress patched up into a mosaic.

To top it all off, I hadn’t cleaned up from stumbling on the dirt floor earlier.

I probably should have at least brushed off the dirt from my skirt.

Zahid took a glance at my scuffed-up face, and slowly lifted a corner of his lip.

He then made it official in front of everybody.

“My wife.”

The poor servants instantly froze up upon hearing the shocking news.

They’d probably thought that he picked up some beggar from the streets.

But a future duchess?

If I were one of them, I would have thought that the Duke finally lost his mind.

Zahid raised his voice to address the wide-eyed crowd.

“She will be the new Duchess of Carnoire. Treat her with the utmost respect.”

I felt the door of the carriage close behind my back.

The deep thud of the heavy door sounded almost like a death sentence to my ears.

Zahid slightly lifted his chin, caressing my face with his gaze.

Rendering me speechless with his sleek eyes, he whispered sensually.

“Pamper her with all we’ve got so she doesn’t ever want to leave.”