Chapter 74

Late at night, Yelena opened her eyes.

She went to the shopping district today and took a stroll in the evening.

Her body felt exhausted, but for some reason, she couldn’t fall asleep right away.

Yelena turned to her side.

Her husband’s eyes were closed, and he was breathing evenly.

‘You’re asleep.’

She caught sight of her husband sleeping quietly in the dark bedroom.

Her husband’s clothes, which were tightly buttoned up, caught her eye as they seemed too constraining for a person to sleep in.

“…….”

Before, she thought it was just because of her husband’s personality.

Of course, it did suit her husband’s personality since he was always dressed in a dignified and kempt manner.

But to care about the clothes that he was sleeping in…

‘It’s not just because of personality.’

Yelena’s blinked slowly, her eyelids growing heavy.

She felt like her chest was blocked by something.

In the future, would her husband be more comfortable in front of her?

If that day was going to come, she hoped that it would come sooner.

Yelena thought so and went back to sleep once more.

* * *

“Hiccup.”

Thomas, who enjoyed his long-awaited vacation until late at night, walked down a dark shopping alley.

“Ugh, my foot…”

He thought it was better, but perhaps because he drank alcohol, the pain in his foot returned.

‘Haa, it’s my fault.’

Thomas reflected on what happened a few days ago.

He merely spoke as he usually did, but he didn’t notice that the Duchess was present.

‘She’s not a regular person. I have to watch my mouth in front of her…’

When he remembered the memory of the sharp heel crushing the top of his foot without mercy, his hair stood on end.

Thomas, who was walking while shaking his head as if to shake off the pain of the day, soon paused.

“Huh?”

“Knight, please help me…”

A slender woman sat in the direction he was walking and was begging for help.

Thomas thought for a moment, ‘How did you know I am a knight?’

Then he recalled that he was wearing a sword around his waist.

‘Oh, that’s right.’

“What’s the matter?”

Thomas decided to approach the woman for now.

He drank alcohol, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from controlling his body properly or make his pronunciation twisted.

“I’ve sprained my ankle, so it’s hard to walk… If you don’t mind, could you just help me up to the main road?”

The woman was small and thin even at a glance.

Naturally, that itself would arouse the beholder’s protective instinct. Not to mention, she was young and pretty up close as well.

Any man who came across this scene would have felt obligated to help.

Thomas was a man, and even if he wasn’t, he often proactively helped others.

“Where are we going? If you have to ride a carriage, I can help you to the carriage house.”

“Oh, thank you. Then since the carriage house is near, I’ll stop by…”

The woman grasped Thomas’s outstretched hand with her slender hand.

He was only standing in front of a weak-looking woman, but Thomas was inwardly nervous.

‘It just occurred to me that…’

The Duchess, who ruthlessly crushed his foot, was seemingly this slender as well.

‘But she was hiding her weapon under the fluttering dress.’

She was also even stronger than she looked.

The top of his foot seemed to throb again.

Thomas wasn’t able to physically relax but continued to support the woman.

But then, the woman, who had been leaning against Thomas helplessly, suddenly changed and pulled out a weapon from her arms.

The abrupt attack was aimed at Thomas, precisely towards his solar plexus.

“…!”

He was startled by the ambush, but Thomas, fortunately, managed to avoid it by a hair’s breadth.

The woman’s movements were clumsy, but Thomas did not relax.

Amid the panic, Thomas struck the woman’s hand, forcing her to drop the weapon, and restrained her.

“…Damn it!”

Then a man who was hiding nearby watching the scene turned and ran away.

Thomas hurriedly struck the back of the woman’s neck and knocked her out.

Then, after thinking for a while, he threw his shoes and hit the back of the escaping man’s head.

“Cough!”

Having done something similar during the day, it seemed that he had a higher hit rate.

Thomas approached the fallen man.

The man’s face was revealed under the moonlight illuminating the entrance of the alley.

“You…”

“…God damn it. Yes, it’s me.”