Can You Save Me Duke? - 35

‘Cold… … .’

Lina’s head was dizzy because her body kept shaking. Moreover, the biting cold made her unconsciously dig into her body to find warmth.

The fresh scent of grass and the heavy smell of flesh that she could feel through her nose. Lina slowly opened her eyes to the familiar scent.

Lina blinked her eyes, thinking it was a dream, but soon realized that the unfamiliar human skin was reality.

‘Duke?’

Why, was there a man in front of her who shouldn’t be seen? And he was holding her.

Lina’s face turned pale at the sight of herself in the duke’s arms, as if he was being held like a princess.

As Lina, startled, moved her body as if she was having a seizure, the strength in the arms holding her loosened, and he carefully put Lina down.

As soon as she stepped on the ground, Lina looked around, far away from the man. Raindrops continued to fall between the trees that towered high in the sky.

“Here… … .”

“I don’t know either. I was swept by the river and ended up here.”

Lina, who thought she would wake up alone on the unfamiliar riverbank, couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the unexpected appearance of the peacock.

“The temperature will drop even more as the day gets darker. I have to find a place to warm up before that happens.”

“Huh? Ah.”

She was bewildered by the whole situation, but the peacock’s calm attitude made her calm down without her knowing.

Plus, since they were both soaking wet right now, if they kept getting rained on like this, they would end up getting sick. Soon, Lina nodded quietly.

How long had they walked like that? The peacock, who had been leaving marks on trees as he walked ahead to avoid getting lost in the forest, seemed to have found something.

‘A hut?’

A small hut could be seen through the bushes. It looked quite worn out, as if no one was living there anymore.

‘A hut in the middle of the forest.’

However, the presence of the hut meant that there was a village not far away.

Realizing that, Lina’s face relaxed. The Duke must have been thinking the same thing, as he let out a sigh of relief and said.

“Let’s rest there for today, and let’s check out the village as soon as the sun rises.”

Lina wanted to tell him to go to the village right away, but her whole body already hurt as if she had been beaten, so she agreed.

As she entered through the door that opened with a rattling sound, old dust tickled her nose.

“Cough-. Cough-.”

Lina’s uncontrollable cough burst out. As Bellige closed the door that was so old that it was embarrassing to call it a door, a suffocating silence soon lingered.

The sudden silence was enough to create the illusion that the Duke and she were alone, cut off from the world.

Lina, who tried hard to ignore the awkward atmosphere, slowly looked around the inside of the cabin while squeezing her wet clothes.

The old bed and table, which seemed to indicate that people had lived there. And then the pieces of wood that had been used as firewood came into view.

‘It’s so cold… … .’

Lina shrank slightly, her elbows pressed against her sides.

Then, with her familiar movements, Belige picked up a few dry pieces of wood, struck the flint a few times, and lit the fireplace.

Soon, a red glow rose quietly along with a crackling sound. After a while, the cabin, which had been filled with cold, began to gradually become filled with warm air.

‘Is it because you’ve been in the battlefield for so long? it look familiar.’

Lina, who was looking at the duke with curious eyes, couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“What, what are you doing?”

She stuttered without realizing it, startled by the man’s upper body that had been revealed without warning. However, the duke silently took off his wet clothes and hung them on a chair, regardless of what Lina said.

“You should take off your clothes quickly, too. You’ll catch a cold if you stay like that.”

He was right. In this state, wearing wet clothes would only lower your body temperature.

“I’m fine.”

It was impossible for her to change clothes in front of the Duke. However, unlike what she had said, her body was trembling pitifully like an aspen tree.

Belige, who had been quietly watching Lina, searched through the cabin and found an old blanket and handed it to her.

“Stop being stubborn and at least cover yourself with this. If you catch a cold, there’s no doctor who can treat you right away.”

Lina hesitated for a moment as she looked at the blanket he had handed her, but then she made up her mind and took the blanket. Then she walked to a corner far from the Duke.

‘I can just cover myself with the blanket, so it’ll be fine.’

The air was so cold that she couldn’t be stubborn anymore. At that moment, Lina raised her arms to take off her clothes with her trembling hands.

“Ugh.”

She had no choice but to stop moving because of the pain that stabbed her shoulder.

‘Is she hurt?’

Lina examined her right arm. Looking at her swollen arm, it seemed at first glance that there was something wrong with the bone. It was probably injured from the impact of falling into the river.

‘I’m hurting my right arm again.’

It was a place that had been injured in prison not long ago. It was a place that she had thought was almost completely healed. The pain surged back again because of the impact this time.

She tried to take off her clothes with her left hand, but even that wasn’t easy.

That was because the button behind her neck made it difficult to take off her clothes with one hand, and with her left hand at that.

Lina struggled for a while, unable to take off her clothes, and the Duke, who had sensed something strange, approached her.

“What’s going on?”

“Yes? That’s… … .”

She didn’t have the confidence to ask for help since she was injured and couldn’t take off her clothes by herself.

“Come to think of it, my clothes are already dry, so I don’t think it’s necessary to take them off.”

Lina answered with an awkward smile. However, it seemed that the duke was not listening to such excuses.

The man who had been looking at Lina with suspicious eyes came closer.

“That can’t be true.”

He consciously covered his right arm as he watched the duke who had come within a stone’s throw of him. However, it seemed that his actions were more annoying to him.

“Did you hurt your arm?”

“My shoulder a little… … . But I’m fine.”

The duke frowned as he watched Lina, who was speaking as if it was nothing. Then he let out a low sigh.

“Let me take a look.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go back and take this to the doctor later… … .”

“Do you know when you’ll be back? I can do basic first aid, so show me.”

“I’m really fine.”

However, as Lina continued to bow her head and refuse him, Belige mumbled in a low voice.

“Lina.”

Lina trailed off, seemingly giving up on his firm attitude.

“That’s it, the clothes… … I can’t take them off by myself. The buttons on the back… … .”

It was a small voice that almost seemed to crawl in.

The duke looked at the buttons on the back of Lina’s neck, lowering his head while trailing off.

“Is this all I need to do?”

Lina nodded her head in embarrassment, unable to answer.

She had always taken off that man’s clothes. Today, she didn’t know why she was so nervous about him helping her take off her clothes.

Before she knew it, Bellige, who had become close enough to touch her breath, stroked Lina’s hair. Then, with careful hands, he began to undo the buttons that were locked at the back one by one.

‘Why is it so hot?’

The cold she had been shivering from earlier had disappeared, and her body began to heat up.

Lina froze, forgetting even to breathe. She could feel his hot breath on her skin exposed under her clothes, and wherever his hands touched, a flower of heat bloomed and kept burning.

And when her breathing reached its limit, the duke’s plain voice was heard.

“It’s done.”

When Lina remained silent even after he said that he had unbuttoned all the buttons, the duke spoke again.

“I think I should take off my clothes to see the wound.”

“Yes? Oh, yes.”

Lina, who came to her senses at his voice, took off her clothes just enough to show the wound.

“Ugh… … .”

A dull pain surged through her arm, perhaps due to the friction of her clothes, and she groaned involuntarily.

The wound was deeper than she had expected, and her right arm was swollen more than she had expected.

‘I guess it wasn’t noticeable because it was covered by her clothes.’

The duke, who was examining her wound, clicked his tongue in amazement and muttered.

“You really endured this wound well, yes.”

If you leave the wound like this, you might not be able to use your arm later. Of course, this would be the case for ordinary people.

“It seems like you’ve hurt your bone. It would be best to keep it immobilized as much as possible.”

“… … Yes.”

“More clothes-.”

At his words, Lina quietly grabbed his clothes. Her body was so hot that it was hard to believe that she had been shivering from the cold just a moment ago.

She felt the cold hands of the Duke on her heated body.

‘This is just treatment.’

Her heart was pounding like a drum. She was worried that the Duke might hear her. Lina, who was unnecessarily nervous, began to think of something else.

‘I fell into the water, and after that… … .’

Huh?

A fragment of memory flashed through her mind.

Lina swallowed dry saliva.

‘Wait.’

A drop of hot sweat seemed to run down her forehead. She lifted her left hand and carefully ran her lips over it.

Ha.

Then she let out a short sigh that was almost a sigh.

The thing that cleared her breathing in the suffocating water. That was.

Lina’s face turned red as she remembered everything that had happened earlier.

‘Why am I thinking of it now!’

In a situation where the Duke’s touch was already embarrassing, she even remembered their lips touching. Lina quietly bit her lip.

However, the Duke, who knew Lina’s feelings or not, was busy treating her wounds.

He brought a small piece of wood and put a splint on her arm, and began wrapping her arm with an old cloth.

He firmly fixed her arm so that she couldn’t move it, and said.

“I’ve done everything I can do now. So, try not to move your arm as much as possible.”

“… … Yes. Thank you.”

As soon as he moved away, Lina quickly covered herself with a blanket.

‘I’m going crazy.’

The things that happened in the water earlier kept coming back to me more and more clearly.

It started to feel. From the touch on her lips to the breath we shared.

‘How could I have forgotten that?’

“Don’t just stay there, come here.”

The duke said, stirring the fire in the fireplace with a kindling. Lina hesitated for a moment and slowly walked up to the duke.

Tap-. Tap.

With every step she took, the water droplets falling from her hair left faint traces on the floor. And with that sound, a forgotten question came to mind.

‘Come to think of it, why did I fall into the water with the duke?’

The steps she was taking slowly slowed down.

She made eye contact with the duke as she fell, but it wasn’t a situation where he would have fallen. If that was the case, she should have fallen into the water alone, so why.

The moment she was about to take another step toward the duke, she stopped walking.

‘No way.’

At that moment, all of her thoughts stopped.

‘Did you jump into the water on purpose? To save me… …?’