CH 11.1

I’m Ready, Just Give Me Your Body (1)

Before she knew it, the sun was setting.

Joshua carefully laid Ariad on the bed, looked at her for a long time, and left.

At that moment, he knew what he had to do.

When Joshua arrived at the office and lit the candle on the table, only a single orange flame glowed in the dark, and he noticed a shadow behind him.

*RUSTLE*

Branches swayed in the wind from across the window.

It can’t be just the wind.

“Did the Marquis of Bandelli ask you spy on me?”

With a loud bang, someone fell from the tree.

“Ouch.”

The man rolled onto the ground.

Joshua leaned his upper body against the window frame to look down at him.

Bandelli was stupid as always.

Even if Joshua had overlooked the Marquis for embezzling money from the royal family, the bastard still wasn’t satisfied and ordered another man to spy on him like this.

The Marquis might have prepared what Joshua needed right away to flatter him.

Still, his most important mission was to figure out Joshua’s next move because that held his weakness.

Unfortunately, Joshua had been noticing that for quite a while and today seemed to be the right time to take advantage of that stupidity.

“Come up here. I have something to tell you.”

“Yes! Yes!”

Ignoring his injuries from the fall, the masked man scrambled to climb the tree again.

Then, he quickly crossed the window and stood across from Joshua.

Joshua sat on a leather chair and turned the pen he picked from the table with his fingers.

The man couldn’t stand the cool silence, so he spoke first.

“The Marquis didn’t mean anything bad—-”

“I know.”

Joshua cut him off sharply as he plodded in front of the man.

The candlelight made Joshua’s blood-red eyes twinkle like diamonds that the other man could only avoid his gaze, look at the floor and shake his head from the pressure.

A shadow cast over his face.

“I shouldn’t have to do this in such a hurry—-”

“What?”

“—but I just can’t wait to take care of it.”

After a series of cryptic words, Joshua seized the sword standing next to the table and didn’t hesitate to stab the man’s heart with it.

“Argh!”

Blood splattered everywhere before it turned into a sea of blood.

The man had struggled from the pain before his limbs began to relax.

When Joshua pulled out the knife, the spy’s cold body fell to the floor.

Then, he got closer and plucked the man’s dagger strapped to his arm.

The dagger was engraved with a symbol of the ‘Portiers,’ which was connected to the Marquis of Bandelli.

Next, Joshua shoved the dead man’s weapon to his ribs.

When he pulled it out, the unbearable pain made him wince as he tried to regain his indifference and detachment.

Blood had soaked his white shirt and turned it red.

Joshua shook the bell on the table and it didn’t take long for the maid to come in.

“Bring me the maisonette.”

He saw the maid’s eyes go round at the red landscape before she lowered her head and exited the room.

Macon came in shortly.

“Did you call, my lord?”

As Joshua bent his bloody waist from nausea, a dismal voice rang above him.

“The Portiers’ spy tried to stab me to death.”

“Then, I will tell the court to proceed with the investigation.”

“No, tell him we’ll look into this. I will start with searching the Filtmore mansion at lunch tomorrow.”

“Do you mean Duke Deon’s mansion?”

“Yes. Select a few people we could bring and get them ready.”

“All right.”

With that answer, Macon left Joshua’s office while bringing the dead body and the dagger with him as evidence.

Soon after, another maid came in, wiped the blood on the floor, sewed, and bandaged Joshua’s torn flesh.

The work went smoothly.

As if nothing had happened, the office was clean again.

Joshua sat, leaned back against the sofa, and closed his eyes.

In the darkness, the scene where Deon brought Ariad’s body close to him while kissing her suddenly came to mind.

“How dare this m*therf*cker—-” Joshua murmured in a dispirited voice.

He couldn’t bear to see another man that wasn’t him close to her again.

* * *

When Sohee opened her eyes, she was already back in her room in Seoul, South Korea.

“Oh, I’m back.”

After getting out of Ariad’s injured body, she got out of bed and spun herself around.

She felt so happy she could fly.

“This is it! This is it!”

But soon, she found herself in tears again.

“I don’t want to return to my web novel again. It’s so hard.”

The image of two men fighting fiercely over her was depicted in her mind, reminding her of the shameful acts they had committed to own her.

Of course, their unique and insanely handsome visuals couldn’t be found anywhere in the real world.

Yet, what was the point of their stunning, statue-esque beauty if both of them were mad?

So-hee sat on a chair and buried her face in her hands.

“I’m scared to read the comments now.”

After hesitating for a long time, she entered the platform and checked her web novel.

The comment section was surprising in itself.

The number of comments were equivalent to the summation of three famous novels.

“What? Is this a dream?”

She had no dreams when she slept because she was busy moving around in a different space.

“This is amazing, really.” She mumbled as she clicked the novel and scrolled down to read the content.

As expected, Kelly’s narration was extremely small compared to last time.

If Ariad’s stake is at eight, Kelly is about two.