Can You Save Me Duke? - 29

“… … So. Are you telling me to use this room?”

“Yes. Do you not like it?”

‘I don’t like it.’

It was so overflowing that it was burdensome. When the maid led her into the room, Lina was speechless.

Gorgeous paintings on the ceiling. High-quality carpets that were said to be made only in the South. It was clearly not a room that anyone would give to a maid.

‘I thought they would give me a separate room, so at most they would give me a room in the corner.’

Most maids of nobles who visited other estates would use the leftover beds in the rooms of the existing maids or, if they were lucky, they would be assigned a separate room.

So when they told her they would show her a separate room, she was happy because she was lucky enough to have a single room. However, her feelings cooled as soon as she saw the room.

The maid’s polite attitude, as if she was treating a noble, made her feel like she was the young lady of a noble.

‘It’s clear that she thinks I’m the Duke’s mistress.’

Rumors spread from the Permanence estate to the distant capital, so it was impossible that rumors wouldn’t have spread even here.

But now she no longer had the strength to confront the Duke about the rumors.

The Duke seemed to really not care about such rumors, and instead, he only acted in a way that would cause more misunderstandings around him.

Lina was also gradually becoming free of the issue.

“You must be tired, so I’ve prepared bath water. Would you like to wash first?”

She was just about to get wet after a long carriage ride.

“Yes. Okay. Where is the bathroom?”

“Over there. If you go in first, I’ll… … .”

“No. It’s okay!”

Lina was terrified and refused, so the maid stepped back and said.

“Then I’ll just unpack your luggage while you wash and leave. If you need anything, please feel free to call me.”

“… … Ah, yes. Thank you.”

In fact, she didn’t even need to pack her bags, but she didn’t have the strength to refuse anymore, so she said okay.

Lina felt burdened by the extreme hospitality she had received for the first time in four hundred years and went into the bathroom.

“I came here with the Duke as a maid, didn’t I? What’s with that extreme attitude… … .”

Lina thought back to the Count she had seen when she arrived at the mansion. She had greeted him without thinking when she saw the Count greeting her.

It seemed that she wasn’t the Duke’s maid to them, but rather a lover he loved so much.

“Haa-. That’s enough. Think of it that way or not.”

Nothing would get better even if she thought about it for a hundred days. If she didn’t like this situation, she had no choice but to leave the Duke’s side as soon as possible.

I’ll just endure it until then. With that thought, Lina took off her clothes.

Everything was nerve-wracking, but she was mentally exhausted from forcing herself to stay right next to the duke.

“The duke went to a meeting as soon as he arrived… … .”

As soon as they arrived at the mansion, the duke and the count headed somewhere else.

It took a whole day to get here by carriage. But he went straight to work without resting.

“The duke is not an easy job after all.”

She muttered as she soaked her body a little deeper in the warm water.

The warm water seemed to loosen up her tense muscles. She must have washed for a long time, making the sound of the water splashing.

Lina, who thought it was time to leave, got up.

“You didn’t bring any clothes.”

She realized that she had come into the bathroom without any clothes to change into, flustered by the maid’s words that she would serve her.

Real noble ladies would change their clothes outside the bathroom, though.

Since maids like Lina had to change clothes in the small bathroom, the habit was ingrained in them.

Lina quickly covered her body with a large towel and went out of the bathroom.

The maid must have already left, as there was no one in the room.

Lina, who was embarrassed to show her bare skin in front of a stranger and worried about what to do if the maid was still there, let out a sigh of relief.

“More importantly, the bag… … ah.”

The luggage that had been placed on the sofa was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that the maid had already finished organizing it in the closet.

Lina looked around the room to find the closet. However, no matter how hard she searched, she could not find the closet she was thinking of.

Except for the bathroom, everything looked like walls, and she could tell that they could be opened and closed because they had handles attached to them.

The problem was that there were so many of those handles.

“They all open… … ?”

The room was so big and unfamiliar to her. Lina sighed as if she was exhausted and started opening the nearest door.

From a powder room that women would use to a small reception room where they could share tea time.

It seemed like they had put everything they could put in the room.

“They gave me a really great room, they gave me one.”

Lina, who was looking around the room with water dripping from her hair, counted the doors that were still open.

There were only two doors left.

One was the door right next to the bed. The other was the door near the entrance leading to the hallway.

Lina hesitated for a moment about which door to open and went over to open the door next to the bed.

‘Common sense dictates that there wouldn’t be a closet right next to the door, right?’

In fact, it wasn’t common to hide it like a secret room like this.

Lina, who was exhausted, grabbed the handle next to the bedroom and opened it without hesitation.

But.

“What is this… … hey… … .”

She was disappointed for a moment that it wasn’t a closet. A completely new room appeared. And the moment she found a familiar face there.

She couldn’t continue her words.

‘What… …?’

A short groan escaped her mouth that opened on its own.

The moment she saw the man standing in a place he shouldn’t be, her head turned as white as a sheet of paper.

The man also stiffened, perhaps surprised by Lina’s sudden appearance. He seemed to be frozen in the same way as he was unbuttoning his shirt, perhaps because he was trying to wash.

The water dripping from Lina’s hair made a regular noise like the second hand of a clock, filling the silence between them.

“… … Duke?”

Why was the Duke in his room? No, was the place where that man was really his room?

She then turned her stiffly stiff head and looked around. The room was bigger and more luxurious than her room. And the large bed behind the man.

They showed that the place he was in was definitely not the space attached to the room where Lina was staying.

‘What is this?’

Count Harren must have gone crazy. Giving a room that would be suitable for newlyweds to the duke and himself.

I had heard that there was a room where couples could spend secret time without being noticed by the servants. Was it about 50 years ago?

I remember that it was very popular as a room for newlyweds. Later, it quickly disappeared because they said that it caused a lot of fights between couples.

Lina bit her lip to hold back the harsh curses that almost came out of her mouth.

But giving me that room.

She decided to shave off Count Harren’s half-bald head.

And as if he was realizing the situation, the duke also began to glance at the room she was standing in. He must have been surprised too.

Being assigned a room connected to the maid. She wished that he would at least curse at the Count instead of her.

The Duke and Lina’s gazes met as they looked around. And the man’s gaze gradually moved down from Lina’s face. And then his expression suddenly crumpled.

‘Why are you suddenly looking at me like that… …!!!’

As if lightning struck his head, he remembered something he had overlooked.

‘How did I forget?’

Lina lowered her stiff head and examined her attire. Her body was soaking wet, covered only with a towel.

Anyone could tell that she had just finished bathing.

‘Oh my… … .’

And before she could take any action.

Kwaang-!

Bellege slammed the open door shut faster than her.

“Huh… …?”

Lina stood there in shock for a moment. Normally, in a situation like this, she would be the one to scream first.

“What was that face just now?”

The man’s brow furrowed as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have. His gaze was filled with discomfort.

Isn’t that the exact expression of someone who has encountered a pervert who only appears in the capital?

Belige’s last face seemed to linger before Lina’s eyes like an afterimage.

* * *

The capital of the Regnator Empire. Nyvern.

A man with short hair was drinking in a tavern.

“I think it’s all in vain.”

A week had already passed since Philip had come to the capital on the Duke’s orders. The Duke had ordered him to investigate whether or not the maid named Lina was the Empress’s spy.

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s strange.”

His animalistic intuition was telling him. The maid was suspicious. However, no trace of the Empress sending a spy to the Permanence territory was found.

“She doesn’t seem to be a spy… … .”

At Lawrence’s request to find out the maid’s identity, he looked into the maid’s identity.

However, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find any trace of the maid. He had heard the general information from Lawrence, but

How could there be so little information about one person?

Philip gulped down his alcohol in frustration.

He had told him to find out everything he could about the maid, but it seemed like he would probably return empty-handed.

‘I’m going to hear this one thing.’

He was dizzy at the thought of getting scolded by Lawrence, but staying here any longer was a waste of time.

Just as Philip was about to return to the estate, he heard a middle-aged man’s voice from the table behind him.

“I think it was 20 years ago? I met a woman so pretty that my eyes popped out.”

“Oh! So what was she like?!”

It was a common topic among men. At the moment when he was about to ignore it because it seemed like nothing special, the words that followed piqued Philip’s interest.

“I think that woman is a witch.

I thought it was.”

“Witch?”

The man looked around and lowered his voice.

“She was definitely a beautiful woman until the night before, but when I opened my eyes the next day, there was an ugly girl! I was so surprised that I ran out of the room! I thought I was possessed by a ghost!”

The other man, who must have expected something from the man who was talking in a very atmospheric way, spoke in a scolding tone.

“You little punk! Didn’t you get it wrong because you drank too much?”

“I didn’t even touch a drop of alcohol the night before!”

“That’s right. It’s the way a drunk person says he’s not drunk. Hahaha-!”

Philip, who had been listening intently because he thought it was some kind of big story, shook his head and drank the rest of his beer.

“Sir! Leave the money here!”

Philip left the tavern after putting a few coins on the table. Behind him, two hooded men followed him.