Shall I Save You, Duke?

Chapter 5: The Heart of the Curse

"Duke?"

"Can you move away now?"

Lina began to grasp the situation at the man's cold voice.

'I am now...'

And she soon realized. That she was leaning her back against the Duke's chest and looking up at his face.

"I'm, I'm sorry!"

Lina almost bounced out of the Duke's arms and then bowed in front of him.

'Of all people, it had to be the Duke...'

She managed to overcome the crisis of falling down the stairs, but a greater crisis had come upon her.

Lina began to make excuses to the Duke in a flustered voice.

"I'm really sorry, Duke! My foot slipped on the stairs and- ."

'Huh?'

But the Duke, seemingly uninterested in her excuses, was already climbing the stairs before Lina even finished speaking.

'He's just leaving...?'

Lina, who clearly thought she would be scolded, watched the retreating Duke with a puzzled look.

It was a dangerous moment when the Duke could have been hurt due to her carelessness. It was clear that punishment was deserved.

But once again, the Duke seemed to be passing over it quietly.

"It's a relief, but..."

The Duke's reaction, which she thought would be angry, ended too blandly, and it felt strange.

"Why does it feel so uncomfortable...?"

Lina rubbed her neck with her hand, bothered by a feeling she couldn't explain.

"What's the big deal? It was almost a disaster. From now on, I must avoid the Duke's eyes."

Lina clenched her fist and made an unseen resolution. But that resolution was ultimately not kept.

[This is the time separator]

Thud- .

Thud- .

Thud- .

In the heavy silence, only the sound of something hard colliding was regularly repeated.

'What has happened?'

Lina, who had been preparing well in her room just a moment ago, was suddenly dragged into the Duke's office by people who rushed in.

The brown floor, which had seemed cozy a few hours ago, now felt endlessly cold and hard like the stone floor of a prison.

Lina, nearly thrown to the floor in her pajamas, began to assess the situation with confused eyes.

Cullen and Emma were looking at Lina with anxious eyes beside the Duke.

And next to them was one person who was definitely not welcome.

'...Susan?'

Why was Susan here?

Before she could think about the reason, the irritating noise that had been echoing in the room stopped abruptly, and a now familiar voice filled the void.

"So."

The Duke, crossing his legs and sitting arrogantly in his chair, muttered.

The nib of the pen he had been tapping on the desk was already broken and unusable, but his eyes were fixed on Lina.