The Devilish Duke Can’t Sleep

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‘Is there anyone who confuses E and H when writing a name?’

That’s also the very first letter.

It could have been ignored, but it was signaling to Herod, who had been a member of the investigation team for a long time, that there was something.

‘Eileen…… It could be a pseudonym.’

Maybe her real name starts with an H.
An image of a woman mistakenly writing her real name unknowingly and hastily erasing it was easily drawn in front of his eyes.

“Great.
Let’s finish the investigation by tomorrow and follow Eileen’s footsteps until she came to Kerouac the day after tomorrow.
We don’t know who the people ahead of us are, but we need to get more information than them.”

Herod was thinking of scouring this neighborhood, based on the story of the two people who remembered when she first appeared on the Kerouac.

As he descended to Kerouac and looked for traces of Eileen, he learned another shocking fact, that there were other people who had gone to find out about Eileen just before they came down.
Since they were the only investigation team dispatched by the Luave family, those who came to Kerouac before them were highly likely to be their enemies, and they did not even know that they might be the culprits that stole Eileen’s remains.

Once again, they carefully reviewed the information about Eileen and left the place.

* * *

And the information gathered by those who searched Kerouac one step ahead of Herod’s investigation team, was already in their master’s hands.

“Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s right.
It has been confirmed that the maid from last time was given the title of a Baronet, and that she accompanied him on this trip to Terra Luave.”

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After hearing about Lena’s current situation from an informant planted around the Luave family, Liddell looked at the information brought by the investigation team sent to Kerouac the day before once more.
What was more interesting than Lena was her mother.

 

‘Eileen.
She was a pretty woman with silver hair and purple eyes? It doesn’t make sense that such a woman lived without being harmed once by jealous women or by beastly men.
What the hell did she do? Did the Baron protect her?’

Eileen, who lived in the capital and then moved to Kerouac, was a beautiful widow who raised her young daughter alone without a husband.
People had heard that Lena’s father was Baron Fidelia, but the midwife who received Lena said Eileen was already showing her belly when she came to Kerouac.

‘Well, then.
There must be something special about the father, so she did not react to Kahel’s devilish powers.
Could it be that an illegitimate child of the bloodline of Luave or Santella? Or the royal family……?’

Liddell, who was quietly scanning the contents of the investigation, called for Elliot.
Elliot had grown up with Lena for eight years, so she must have had some useful information.

“Did you call me, Miss?”

Her greeting became much better thanks to the fierce etiquette teacher given to her, but Elliot’s expression was still dissatisfied.
It was getting harder and harder for Liddell to put up with Elliot, but she didn’t seem to have exhausted her use of Elliot yet, so she smiled brightly again.

“Oh my! After taking Mrs.
Discato’s class, your manner of greeting is very different from before.
Should I say you’re like a high-ranking noble? Anyone looking at you would think you are the Lady of a Count.”

“Huh? Re, really?”

Elliot’s disgruntled face brightened quickly.
When she lived in Kerouac, she was only praised for being lovely and beautiful, but Mrs.
Discato found fault about her from head to toe.
She was annoyed and resentful every day.
She was about to be angry with Liddell, who had assigned such a woman as her etiquette teacher.

But, to say that she looked like a Count’s Lady, the memories of shame she had accumulated so far seemed to melt away.

“Thank you, Miss.”

Elliot bowed her knees and gracefully grabbed her skirt to greet her, more in line with her etiquette.
She doesn’t know how much Liddell is holding back her laughter.

“What I’m calling you for is nothing much, but that maid from last time, I have a question for you.”

“The maid from last time?”

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“The maid from Kerouac Castle, whom you met at a tea party in the Luave family.”

 

“Lena? Why did Miss at Lena….?”

Elliot feared that Liddell had favored Lena, so she was wary.
But Liddell smiled softly, and she whispered what Elliot wanted to hear.

“Did you think I would let go of the child who shamed Elliot in front of everyone? I can’t see my people being humiliated.”

“Mi, Miss Liddell……!”

Elliot covered her mouth with a look more thrilled than ever.
She looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.
Still, Liddell didn’t have time to prepare for her Hildebrunn trip, and she didn’t want to see Elliot dragging around, so she hastily calmed Elliot.

“Come on, tell me about that cheeky kid.
Anything is fine.
The more you know the enemies, the more you can find corners to counterattack.”

Elliot swallowed her tears that were about to fall over, sniffled her nose once, and began to slander Lena.
Gossip was originally fun above all else, so Elliot forgot that she was just about to cry.

“When it comes to Lena, I can’t help but mention her mother.
According to my mother, she was a woman who appeared in Kerouac about a year before Lena was born, and as soon as she came to Kerouac, she was possessing all of the men in the territory including my father.
She said the woman must be a prostitute from the capital.”

“Really? She must have been quite a beauty.”

“Her face is…… I remember she was pretty okay.
I’ve seen her a couple of times.
She used to weave the castle’s tapestries, and occasionally brought the finished tapestry to the workshop as a representative.
She must have come for a secret meeting with my father.”

Elliot thinks again, and she is upset that she grinds her teeth.
How sad her mother was whenever she heard that her father drove his horse towards the woman’s house.
She said her father wasn’t looking at other women before she showed up, so it was clear that Lena’s mother was actively seducing her father.

“What kind of woman was she?”

“Ummm…… She had a slender body with clean silver hair, which is rare.
I haven’t looked closely, but her eyes are purple, similar to Lena’s.
She pretended to be very docile on the outside.”

“Does that kid named Lena look like her mother?”

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“People say they are quite similar, but I don’t know.
I don’t know if there’s a resemblance to her lustful look.
She must have lied with the butler of the Luave family.
So she became a maid, otherwise how could she have secured such a place as a commoner?”

Elliot was bold and recounted unconfirmed stories as if they were real, but Liddell, who knew just how thorough the Luave butler, Arder, was, completely ignored such stories.

“Is there something special about her?”

“Something special? Well…… Her stamina was good.
She was beaten hard, but she hadn’t never crawl around the next day.”

“Really?”

“Oh, that’s because she was the beating kid for me.
She came into my class and stood there and was beaten every time I got a question wrong.
What would a girl eavesdropping in class pretend to know? So I used to get the problem wrong on purpose.”

Liddell recalled the abilities of the Duchy’s bloodline.
If their magical power was strong, self-healing was possible.
But if her magic was that strong, there could be no way she would have left the Barony Fidelia abusing her.
Liddell thought that the expression ‘she was beaten hard’ was a little exaggerated.

“Okay.
Could it be that she used some kind of magic or did she ever live in a temple?”

“What? How could it be! If that girl is a wizard, what kind of queen am I? And she was born in Kerouac and never left the territory.
Until she was captured by the Luave.”

“Really…… ? So, what does the child love?”

“The stable family.
Theo and Sid, anyway, things that alike get along.
I think they may still be in the Baron’s Castle in Kerouac.”

“Did that kid, Lena, have a complicated relationship with men?”

“It wasn’t like that.
There were some naughty guys, but she didn’t have a body that men would like.
Of course, if she had acted like her mother, I would have been more careful.
But that Sid kid, even though she was a woman, pretended to be a man and worked in a stable, but I don’t know if the two of them were together strangely.”

Words that would have made Mrs.
Discato grabbed the back of her neck if she had heard it, popped out.
But Liddell still had a bright face and organized her information.

‘Hmm.
For a pretty face, she seems to be well behaved, and she seems to have a better brain than Elliot.
If she’s well-groomed, she’ll make Kahel look her in the eye.
Sure…… I shouldn’t have left it like that.’

It was very welcome for the Santella family that Kahel had a hard time accepting a wife because of his devilish curse.
It was a bit of a problem that even Lian, who was impatient, was delayed.

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“It must have been a difficult memory to recall, but thank you for calmly telling me, Elliot.
I will investigate this matter a little more and take revenge for sure.”

“Really? Thank you, Miss! Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome.”

As Liddell recalled the chest of gold coins she had received from Viscount Lucenwein, she said sincerely, ‘You’re welcome.’

After she sent Elliot back, Liddell called Maria and ordered her to send the men back to Kerouac.

“If there are people named Theo and Sid in Baron Jenkins’ stable, bring them.
Even by kidnapping.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Although she was given an unusual order, Maria walked away silently, smiling softly, without showing any sign of embarrassment.

* * *

The smell of the air has changed.
Rather than the smell of gloomy darkness, the air with the bright and warm scent of the sun was carefully flowing through the room.
Evelyn, who had spent time lying still, could guess the change of time just by smelling it.

‘Is it morning….?’

The new morning wasn’t very pleasing for her, even as she regained consciousness.
Today, the same day as yesterday is just beginning, repeating the cycle of waking up drunk on medicine.
She only endured each day like this for the sake of Damien and Kahel, but even that seemed to be running out of time.

Sometimes when she lost her consciousness as if her whole body was going to fall to the ground, it seemed like it would be her last.
But Damien did everything he could to bring her consciousness back to the surface as if he would never let her go.
She was grateful for that, but sometimes, really, sometimes she resented it.

‘No.
I should be sorry…… Someone who gave up too much because of me…….’

Evelyn struggled to lift her puffy eyelids as she reworked her thoughts.
On days when her energy was very low, opening her eyes was a struggle.

‘Huh……?’