Can You Save Me Duke? - 6

At the Duke’s words, Lina closed her eyes as if she had given up.

‘Yeah. It’s better. Rather than continuing to get involved with that man, it might be better to leave the mansion.’

Lina let out a low breath. Thinking positively, it wasn’t such a bad thing.

No, it might actually be a good thing.

A faint smile formed on her lips as she finished thinking.

‘Are you laughing?’

Belige’s eyebrows twitched as she stared at Lina’s face absentmindedly.

The maid’s strangely pleasant attitude stimulated Belige’s nerves.

“Wait a minute.”

And those words, spoken impulsively, stopped Lina’s ankle as she was about to leave the room.

“Come to think of it, I guess I was too harsh.”

Belige leaned back in her chair and stared at Lina.

“I almost made you falsely accused.”

“… … Yes?”

“You don’t have to leave the mansion. From now on, you’ll work in the annex.”

The maid’s face darkened suddenly, which was funny.

“Unpaid for the time being.”

* * *

“Ugh, ugh.”

In a dark room with a cool breeze.

There were repeated sounds of tossing and turning and groans of pain.

The man’s hands, lying on the bed and squeezing the sheets, were soaked with sweat.

After suffering for a while, the man raised his body as if he was going to jump out of the bed. Then, he let out a ragged breath, as if he hadn’t been able to breathe for a long time.

“Huk… … . Heuk.”

Beads of sweat ran down Bellige’s nape. His body was soaked with cold sweat, as if he had been hit by rain.

He wiped his face with his hand and blinked his eyes quickly, as if trying to figure out what he had just dreamed. But even the slightest memory or the common afterimages remained.

“Here we go again… … .”

Low curses leaked out of Bellige’s mouth as he raised his knees and bowed his head.

‘It wasn’t over.’

Bellyge had been suffering from unreasonable nightmares every night for some time.

The insomnia caused by it was hard, but what made him even more frustrated and distressed was the emptiness he felt after dreaming.

‘Why can’t anything come to mind?’

He didn’t even know what he had dreamed.

When he opened his eyes, all that remained were the pain that felt like his heart was being pierced by bars and the terrible loneliness of drifting alone on an empty sea.

At first, he thought this nightmare was some kind of trauma from fighting in the war at a young age.

The nightmares started when he participated in the war, and after returning to the empire, he went back to sleeping comfortably like before.

‘No, to be exact, it was after attending that party.’

It was a party that he had no choice but to attend, being pushed by the First Prince. Belige, who had no intention of enjoying the party in the first place, went outside to find a quiet place because of the headache that came without fail.

And there… … .

‘… … What did I do?’

I definitely felt like I met someone, but only vague afterimages remained, and nothing came to mind.

‘That day, it was definitely someone… … .’

“Ugh-!”

Belige once again covered his head with a headache that felt like it was going to burst. The tension that had been loose since the festival began to tighten up again.

“I thought… … . Is it a curse?”

The curse of the god that had been draining the blood of Permanence for hundreds of years.

His father was like that, and so was his father’s father.

A long-buried memory floated up to the surface of the deep water. Blood was leaking out of Bellige’s teeth.

“Do you think I’ll just die quietly like this?”

Since they became adults, the men of the Permanence family have suffered from headaches for unknown reasons and their health has deteriorated rapidly.

Numerous of the most renowned members of the empire have passed through the Permanence family, but none of them have been able to cure this disease of unknown causes.

In an instant, a variety of complex emotions surged in like waves.

‘This pain will definitely end in this generation.’

A throbbing emotion lingered in his chest, and soon anger surged up.

Clang-

The vase that had flown limply into his hand hit the wall.

With the sound of glass breaking, the vase shattered into pieces beyond recognition.

Was it really an illusion that the red petals scattered between the broken pieces of glass looked like blood?
As she raised her eyebrows and looked at the ruined vase and flower petals, Belige heard someone whispering in her ear.

You too will be shattered to pieces like that.

* * *

“Hello, Mr. Rick.”

Rick, the stablehand, stopped touching the hay and waved his hand to greet Lina.

“Oh, Lina, you’re here. I heard about you! Isn’t the work at the annex hard?”

“It is hard. I like the annex better. I can come see the horses like this.”

Lina answered while stroking the horse eating hay.

‘Susan was whipped and kicked out of the mansion, and I couldn’t even leave the mansion penniless… … .’

It would have been much better to have been kicked out of the mansion. Then I could start over somewhere else.

Lina felt complicated.

‘I should take care of the horses and let my spirits out.’

Lina, who had always enjoyed riding horses, would often stop by the stables after work to help Rick.

At first, the stable managers were skeptical about a young maid coming to see the horses, but they were surprised by Lina’s familiar handling of the horses, and often asked Lina for help when they were short on manpower.

“We’ve really gotten a lot of horses!”

“The number of horses has increased a lot since the knights came back with the master. You’ve come at a good time. I was already busy taking care of the horses that suddenly increased, so I’m glad you came.”

“If you have anything to ask, just let me know. I’ll help you.”

“Thank you. Oh, but you shouldn’t get close to the black horse at the end. It has a very sensitive personality, so if you’re not careful, you might get hit in the back leg.”

Lina looked at the horse in the stall that was twice as big as the other horses. It was a rare horse with a moderate amount of fat and shiny black fur.

“It seems like a very precious horse.”

“Oh my, don’t talk nonsense! I’m dying because of that horse these days. It’s so fussy and dirty-tempered that it’s hard to manage. It looks like it’s going to charge at anyone who comes near it. It’s not a horse, it’s a bull!”

The black horse pointed to by Uncle Rick’s fingertip kept snorting, as if it wasn’t adapting to the suddenly changed environment.

“It makes a fuss even when a stranger touches it, so I’ve barely been able to feed it, let alone exercise it since I came here! If it keeps gaining weight and getting sick, it’ll be a big deal… … . I told the butler, but… … Ugh.”

The amount of feed given to a horse in a day is about 0.2 percent of its body weight.

However, feeding it this much feed and not exercising it was fatal to the health of a horse that had evolved to be a running animal.

“What’s its name?”

“I heard it’s called Thunder.”

Lina made eye contact with Thunder and approached him cautiously.

“Thunder.”

“Lina! Be careful… … .”

Rick reached out his hand to stop Lina, who was trying to get closer to Thunder. However, he closed his mouth when Lina gestured with her finger to his mouth, telling him to be quiet.

“Thunder, are you good?”

Lina lightly gestured her hand toward Thunder. Thunder, who had been snorting excitedly, began to breathe more slowly and quietly accept Lina’s touch.

“That’s right, you’re good.”

Rick clicked his tongue at Thunder, who was quietly accepting Lina’s touch like a gentle lamb.

He seemed to kick with his hind legs whenever they approached, but when Lina’s touch came, he didn’t reject it, but rather seemed to like it.

“What the hell, Lina. What on earth did you do? How could such a rough horse become so gentle! More importantly, how can a young girl handle horses so well?”

“I told you last time. It’s because I grew up with horses under my father who was a groom.”

“I’m a groom too… … . Huh… … . Really.”

Listening to Rick’s words, Lina just smiled faintly. In fact, since she was the daughter of a groom, this was just a joke.

It was obvious that if a commoner girl who didn’t even have a chance to touch a horse handled it well, it would arouse unnecessary suspicion.

Lina gently cast a calming spell on her fingertips while making her smell familiar.

‘Maybe it’s because it hasn’t adapted to the unfamiliar environment and has become sensitive.’

“I want to take it for a walk. Is that okay?”

“If you do, I’ll be grateful! This guy’s probably going to be itchy too! Hurry up and come back!”

Lina grabbed Thunder’s reins and led him to the open space behind the stables.

The sound of the horse’s hooves following Lina was quite cheerful, as if she was in a good mood after coming out of the narrow stables after a long time.

When Lina let go of the reins, Thunder started to run around here and there as if he was excited.

‘You’re going to be so excited.’

Thunder, who had been running around like crazy, approached Lina, who was smiling.

He circled around her and pulled the hem of her clothes with his mouth. Then he bent his knees in front of her and lowered his body.

“What? Are you telling me to ride?”

“Purrrrrr.”

It seemed as if he was answering Lina’s words. It was okay to take the horse for a walk, but it was not right for a commoner to ride a horse that was ridden by a noble.

“No. Thunder. “I can’t ride.”

However, as Thunder grumbled again and grabbed her hem, her heart, which had originally loved riding horses, began to waver a little.

“What should I do? I want to ride… … .”

After thinking for a moment, Lina looked around to see if there was anyone nearby.

“There aren’t any other horses out for a walk right now, and we’re a little far from the stable… … . It’ll be okay for a while, right?”

She hesitated for a moment, then moved her body onto Thunder’s back as if she had made up her mind.

“Then, shall we go?”

Lina mounted the horse with a simple movement, carefully kicking the horse’s side.

She started to run smoothly.

The cool wind that passed by her face pleasantly tousled her hair.

She felt good as the vibration of her body rose along with the movement of the horse and the smell of the earth gently seeped into her nose, so she started to increase her speed little by little.

‘I feel good… … .’

When she rode a horse, it felt like all the worries and distracting thoughts in her head were shaken off. It was truly a freedom she had not felt in a long time.

Even among the noble ladies, only a few could ride a horse, so riding a horse was not common for women.

That’s why Lina, a commoner, riding a horse was a perfect way to stand out.

Lina had been on her guard for the past few days. In the end, she couldn’t resist the temptation and rode a horse, but there was nothing good about being caught like this.

She quickly came to her senses and slowly slowed down her horse and got off.

“Thank you, Thunder. “Thank you, it was so much fun.”

Lina smiled faintly and stroked Thunder, saying thank you. Thunder closed his eyes and rubbed his face against her hand.

She soon led the horse to the stables. Her steps were as light as Thunder’s, as she felt the freedom she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“I guess the walk is over?”

Until a voice like frost in the middle of winter was heard from beside her.