The Author's POV

"What did you do!?"

Kevin was met with a hysterical voice the moment he returned from his office.

"This is no laughing matter!"

'My head hurts.'

The moment he heard Emma's voice, Kevin felt his head throb. This was the last thing he'd wanted to experience after having just killed Hemlock, otherwise known as Malik Alshayatin.

"Hello? Are you listening to me?"

"Ugh."

He secretly groaned, trying his best to keep his head sane.

"Did you really defeat him, or did you photoshop the picture? No, in the first place, how did you even manage to defeat him? You're nowhere near his level of strength. It doesn't make sense. Are you hiding something from me?"

She was like a machine gun. He was unable to keep up with the rate at which the words were coming out of her mouth as she continued to speak.

At some point, Kevin started to question whether Emma was a human.

"Can you please slow down for a second?"

For his own sanity, he had to stop her. And thankfully, she stopped.

"Are you finally going to answer my questions?"

"No."

A flat out refusal.

Before she could continue speaking, he added.

"…Not now. I'll tell you later. Can you leave me alone for now? I need some time for myself."

"…"

Emma didn't say anything but just stared at him. Her eyes pierced through him. Soon sensing something, her expression changed a little.

She opened her mouth and carefully asked.

"…Are you okay?"

Looking up at her, Kevin closed his eyes before shaking his head.

"You think I would after fighting against Malik Alshayatin?"

"Right…"

Emma shook her head and took out several potions from her storage space.

"These are the highest grade potions I could find in the market. Make good use of them. They are rather expensive."

Staring at the potions, Kevin was stunned.

He recognized them immediately. How could he not? Calling them rather expensive, was an understatement.

The potions before him cost just about as much as an <S> ranked artifact, and were nothing to scoff at.

"When did yo—"

"Knowing you, I'd figure you'd end up injured at some point, so I came prepared."

Emma was already by the door when she spoke. Throwing him a glance, she opened the door and slipped past it before closing it.

In the process, she managed to utter a couple of words.

"Get well soon."

Clank—!

Silence returned to the room the moment Emma left the room.

Kevin didn't say a word the whole time he was there; he just sat there quietly and looked at the various potions that were in front of him.

His hands trembled and he covered his face with his hands.

Drip—!

A drop of the clear liquid soon made its way toward the table, where it stained one of the papers that were scattered across it.

A frail voice followed after it.

"I-if only it'd work…"

***

"I will send you back to the estate for now. I will join you later."

"Yes…"

Priscilla nodded her head absentmindedly. She was somewhat out of it.

At one point, she was persecuted by everyone, and she saw her life flash before her very eyes. She thought it was over then... and yet, for some strange reason, everything turned around, and it turned out she was the victim of Duke Ukhan's elaborate scheme.

It was a very ambitious and vicious one, but in the end, due to what was described as a 'stroke of luck', his plan had been found out.

"Duchess."

'If not for Prince Arian…"

Who knew what would've happened? The truth was that she would almost certainly have been murdered on the spot, and the Sloth house would have been destroyed.

"Duchess!"

"Uh? Ah?"

Priscilla was startled by the sudden mention of her name. When she looked around her, she found a familiar figure standing before her.

"Duchess, is everything alright?"

It was her servant. Looking around, she was surprised to see that she was back in her own estate.

She was in such a daze that she didn't really realize that her grandfather had already sent her back. From the moment that everyone turned their focus on Prince Devot, her memory turned hazy. She was in too much shock to pay attention to what happened next.

She was just glad that she wasn't dead.

"Duchess?"

"Ah, yes, everything is alright. You can go now, I need some time alone."

Waving at her servant, she dismissed him and turned toward her room.

Clank—!

"Has everything been sorted?"

She had just walked into the room and shut the door when she was startled to hear a voice whispering from behind her. It startled the living daylights out of her.

"Wh—!"

"Shhh."

A hand grasped her face before she could utter a single word. Her eyes widened in horror.

'I couldn't react at all…'

She, a Duchess, was unable to react at the hand… it instantly became clear to her that she was facing an extremely powerful individual.

one who was almost certainly stronger than she...

Opening her mouth, she managed to utter a few words.

"Wha..t do y—"

"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"

But the man immediately silenced her. His voice powerfully reverberated inside her ear, and shortly thereafter, a white glow materialized in his hand and traveled directly into her. It all happened so fast that she could only watch as her world turned white.

"Yo..u"

Her eyes widened in horror at that moment. She wanted to struggle, but for some reason, she found herself unable to do so.

'Not like this… fucking…'

Desperation soon started to surface within her mind, and her vision soon turned black. The last thing she caught sight of before darkness overtook her vision was a pair of deep blue eyes.

…They seemed familiar.

***

Thump—!

The Duchess's body limply fell to the ground before my very eyes.

Staring at her body, I stretched my body and yawned.

"What perfect timing…"

By the time I was done sleeping, she was already back. What convenient timing.

As I looked around her room, I quickly located a chair and made myself comfortable there. It wasn't going to be long before she came to her senses again.

'Judging from the fact that she's still here, it seems like everything worked out perfectly.'

Sitting down on the chair, I made myself comfortable while crossing my legs together and leaning my cheek over my fist.

"Umh."

Hearing the Duchess moan, I smiled.

'I wonder what kind of reaction she'll give me?'

From initially believing she was about to be duped by another person's scheme to eventually realizing there was never any such scheme in the first place.

She would, for sure, show a nice reaction, right?

"Uh? W..what's going on?"

Hearing her voice, I smiled.

"Welcome back, Duchess."

"!"£$%^&*() *&^%$ £$%^& (*&^%"

'Ah, it's best if I bleep that out of my mind.'

There were far too many colorful words floating around for me to take note of all of them, some that I'd never heard of before, but at the very least, I was able to get the response that I was looking for.

"*&^%$ (*&^%$£—"

"Are you done?"

As much as I wanted to continue hearing her curses, I decided to stop her.

…My feelings were starting to hurt.

"Y-ou!"

Heavily gasping for air, she repeatedly pointed at me with a red face.

I shook my head when I looked at her.

"Is this how you thank me for all I've done for you?"

Setting everything up was not easy. Just a little bit of carelessness, and everything would've failed.

It took several minutes, but eventually, the Duchess was able to calm down. She stared at me for a good minute, seemingly unsure of what to say.

When I saw how she was reacting, I decided to break the silence.

"Do you want me to explain what I did?"

"No."

She shook her head.

"…I already understand what you did."

"That's good."

I smiled. This saved me quite a bit of time. Removing my cheek from my fist and sitting up, I took one of the seats beside me and pushed it out.

"Have a seat."

"…"

Throwing me a glare that seemed to say 'why are you acting like that when this is my room?', the Duchess eventually resigned herself and took a seat.

I waited for her to collect herself before speaking.

"I've held my end of the deal; shouldn't it be your turn to do so as well?"

"…"

She still didn't say anything. She just quietly stared at me for a good minute. Thankfully, it didn't last long enough for me to feel uncomfortable, as she soon nodded her head.

"Very well."

A look of resignation crossed her face. She looked like she wanted to say a lot of things but eventually gave up.

She stood up from her seat.

"I'll have someone deliver your end of the deal."

"About that."

I stopped her from leaving.

"If possible, I'd like for you to give it to me personally. It's best that fewer people know about me."

"Very well."

She didn't seem to be that annoyed by my sudden request as she nodded her head.

"…You're very cautious."

"I have to be."

While I was indeed a lot stronger than her, and most other Dukes with the aid of the demonic blood inside of me, I was still far from being strong enough to match up against the Patriarchs of the houses.

I wasn't that delusional.

In the first place, I wouldn't have resorted to such schemes had I been strong enough.

'I'd probably just have killed them on the spot or threatened them if that was the case...'

Sadly, I was still not in the same realm as them and could only opt for such action.

"Is there anything else you need from me?"

The Duchess's crisp voice brought me out of my thoughts. Raising my head to look at her, I nodded my head.

"Yes, actually."