The Devilish Duke Can’t Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

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​​How dare these garbage-like things

Even though she made a scary assumption, something didn’t feel real.
However, the monster standing in front of Lena at that time noticed that Lena had woken up, so it lowered its body and put its face in front of Lena’s.

“Kyaaaaaaa!”

At that moment, she couldn’t help but scream, even though her mind was not clear.
The swollen eyes with a yellow glow, and the large mouth that couldn’t hide all the sharp teeth were all terrifying.

Lena raised her torso and pressed it against the damp, cold stone wall.
Then her body began to tremble.
The appearance of the monster, confirmed by her awakened mind, was even more ghastly.
The jagged horns protruding from the top of the head along the back, as well as the purplish, rough skin that looked like bruises was disgusting.

And with her screams the whole group of Sevcheks knew she had woken up.
They looked curiously around Lena, who trembled against the wall, and then murmured strangely amongst themselves.
The herd was a total of four.
But among them, the one wearing a necklace with a lump of purple jewels seemed to be the leader.
It was quite foreign to see a beast-like monster wearing a necklace.

“You, you…… what are you?”

Lena knew it was useless, but she asked them.
It was as if she was just raising her voice to try to overcome this terrifying situation somehow.
But contrary to what she thought that the Sevcheks would not understand, the leader, who had been staring at her quietly, slowly began to approach her.
Lena regretted that she spoke to them.

“Don’t come! Don’t come!”

Her voice trembled.
She pushed herself closer to the wall of the cave, but there was no place to retreat.
The head of Sevchek made an interested expression and tapped Lena’s forehead with the tip of its long fingernails.
From the part where the nail touched her, it felt like she was getting goosebumps all over her body.
Lena trembled and shrugged her body even more, the leader’s mouth gaped open, and someone’s voice came out of its mouth.

[You’ve come to your senses, bait.
Then, shout as much as you can and call the Duke.]

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That was a really grotesque look.
Because it was the smooth voice of a middle-aged woman that flowed out through the ghastly Sevchek’s motionless mouth.

“Who are you? Hey! Can you hear me?”

But the leader no longer had a human voice.
Then, it gripped her arm violently and dragged her to the entrance of the cave, shoving her over the white snow.
The Sevcheks gathered around her and then stared at her.
As if telling her to scream out loud.

But when told to scream, her voice doesn’t come out, so Lena just trembles on the snow, and she ponders how to get out of this situation.
The woman’s voice earlier told her she was a ‘bait’, and urged her to call the Duke quickly.
So, it was clear that if Kahel came this way now, he would be in danger.

 

It would be nice if she could escape from here without calling Kahel, but it was nearly impossible to escape on her own.
It didn’t seem like she was hit anywhere, but seeing that she was stunned earlier, she didn’t even know if they were a race capable of using magic.

“Uh, uhhh…….”

As Lena let out a groan as she was not sure what to do, it seems the hearts of the impatient Sevcheks were not satisfied.

“Kyaaaak! Ahhk……!”

This time, she couldn’t help but scream.
It felt like a burning pain radiating down her back and all over her body.
It was clear that her thick woolen dress had been torn, and even the flesh inside had been cut.

Tears flowed out.
She was suffocating because she was in pain and scared.
But worried that she might endanger Kahel, she couldn’t scream anymore.
Of course, the Sevcheks did not take into account Lena’s circumstances.

The leader kicked Lena, who didn’t scream anymore, with its foot.
She doesn’t know if it was a slight slap from the Sevchek’s point of view, but for Lena, who had already been injured at her back, it was a lot of pain.
In particular, the claws of the Sevcheks were long, so it seemed that she would be pierced if she got hit wrong.

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‘What to do …… Mom, what should I do? I’m so scared.’

Lena, with tears dripping down her eyes, desperately sought her mother.

But then, the Sevcheks suddenly made a strange chirping ‘kiik, kiik’ sound, and grabbed Lena’s forearm, who couldn’t even get up, and dragged her back into the cave.
The leader ran into the cave and mumbled something in the middle-aged woman’s voice in front of the blocked cave wall.
Then, a purple magic circle began to slowly rise above the dark cave wall.

The rest of the Sevcheks jumped as if there was something so exciting, and the not-so-deep cave rumbled.
Lena knew nothing about magic, but she could instinctively sense that something very bad was going on with her.

“That, that, what is that…… !”

Unsurprisingly, from the middle of the magic circle that had been dyed purple, an arm suddenly came out.
Just looking at the size of the forearm, she guessed that it was several times the size of a Sevchek.
It was then that she seemed to know the plans of these monsters.
After they lure the Duke with Lena’s scream, they will try to attack him with a huge monster.

And somewhere in the distance, she heard a voice that seemed nostalgic.

“Lena!”

 

The voice that was carried by the wind and whirled through the cave was definitely Kahel’s.
And inside this cave, a monster bigger than a bear was coming out of the magic circle.
She doesn’t know how skilled Kahel is, but it was impossible, in the world that Lena knew, to fight such a large monster as a single human.

As she imagined Kahel being torn to pieces by the monster in front of her, the throbbing pain in her heart was greater than the burning pain in the wound on her back.

“Do, don’t! Run away, Your Excellency!”

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Lena shouted at Kahel, louder than her previous screams.
The Sevcheks were also quite surprised, so the Sevcheks were jumping around and looked at Lena.
But Lena didn’t see it anymore.
The appearance of these hideous monsters was no longer scary.
What Lena fears most right now is that Kahel loses his life because of her being held hostage like a fool.

Lena began to scream against the magic circle where the monster was coming out, ignoring the fearful gazes of the Sevcheks.

“Go back, you monster! Go back!”

Perhaps because of the atmosphere, it seemed that the huge monster could not get out of the magic circle while she was screaming.
The Sevchek leader showed a look of surprise.
A middle-aged woman’s voice came out of the leader’s mouth again.

[You…… What are you doing? What is your identity?]

“Shut up, you bastards! Go back to where you were! Lana will not forgive you!”

Seeing Lena’s face turning red while shedding tears, the Sevcheks standing next to her froze, but the Sevchek leader seemed to be terribly angry.
It raised its nails again and threw its hand towards Lena’s face.
Lena reflexively closed her eyes and receded her head.

But those sharp claws didn’t cut Lena’s face.

“Kiiiieeekk!!”

A few drops of warm liquid seemed to splash on Lena’s face, and soon the inside of the cave filled with the screams of the Sevchek leader.

When Lena, who had curled, slowly opened her eyes, an amazing sight unfolded.
The leader’s arm flew away, and the Sevchek leader was rolling on the floor in agony, and black smoke, perhaps the weapon that cut off its arm, swirled and disappeared inside the cave.

However, the rest of the Sevcheks quickly came to their senses and shouted at someone standing at the entrance to the cave.
And one of them quickly grabbed Lena and put its claws in front of Lena’s neck as if it was going to pierce her neck.

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“How dare these garbage-like things……!”

Kahel’s anger had already risen to the top of his head.
If it was a Sevchek, it was originally a low-level monster that could be eliminated with only the sword he wielded.
It’s smarter than a giant ogre, and its anomalous movements are bothersome, but if they’re gathered in a cave like they are now, he could annihilate them in an instant.

But those filthy bastards were touching Lena’s body.

“Your, Your Excellency! A bigger monster……!”

Lena tried to warn Kahel about the monster being summoned by the magic circle, but because of the Sevchek’s grasp on her neck, she was unable to continue speaking.
Seeing that, Kahel hesitated.

The Sevcheks were indeed smart monsters.
Unlike giant monsters that just rush at people, they can hold hostages like humans and threaten them.
What’s more, this may be a coincidence, but they were holding the hostage that was most effective against Kahel.

When the leader, who had survived the excruciating pain of having his arm cut off, shouted something, the other two Sevcheks rushed towards Kahel.
One was holding Lena’s neck.
And in the meantime, a large monster was withdrawing from the magic circle again.

If the opponent was a normal human, the Sevcheks’ plan could be said to be very good.
However, the enemy they encountered was not an ordinary human, but Kahel Luave.
A monster, whose magical power was so strong that it ate away his mother’s vitality from the womb, and if it were not for the devilish curse, it would have been enough to overthrow the Duchy of Santella by force.

“Die.”

As soon as the Sevcheks rushed in, a low, gloomy voice seemed to resonate in the cave, and then suddenly black smoke enveloped Kahel’s body and began to spread in all directions.
The black energy that fluttered like smoke soon became the form of four pointed spears and pierced the hearts of the four Sevcheks at once.
It was a short and precise attack that happened really quickly.

And the black smoke that killed the Sevcheks immediately gathered together and cut the monster that was trying to escape.
They couldn’t hear it from this side because the monster’s head had not yet come out, but on the other side beyond the magic circle, it must have been quite noisy with the screams of the monster.

Either way, Kahel headed straight for Lena, who had fallen to the floor.

“Lena! Le…… !”

He thought it was the blood of a monster that soaked Lena’s clothes.
He wished for it.
However, it was Lena’s blood that stained Lena’s torn dress.
The three deep cut marks on Lena’s back must have been from the Sevchek’s fingernails.