The Duchess and the Devil - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

TRANSLATOR: Matindi
PROOFREADER: ThatSilverSky
QUALITY CHECKER: Akane

Before she could protest and ask him to put her down, Derrick approached the carriage with big strides. The horseman, who was on stand-by, spotted the two and hurriedly opened the door, without a pause to breathe. She quietly looked up at Derrick, who was carefully putting her down on the chair.

Judith was confident that she was someone who had far more than Silvia Wirell. Her beauty that immediately captivated high society and her family that no one could look down on, they made her into someone with a commanding presence. She was a person who could have anything she liked if she wanted it.

However, she always felt a deep sense of defeat only just because her husband’s love was taken away from her. It was an odd sense of defeat that even she couldn’t comprehend. What could she name this emotion that had been toying with her feelings? She, who had it all, felt annoyed that she would think about what made her inferior to Silvia. She felt even more so as she didn’t love her husband.

It was probably why she felt strange today. Although she knew that the Derrick before her was a different person from her dead husband, perhaps because their appearance was exactly the same, he, who disregarded Silvia Wirell and instead approached her, was unfamiliar.

Perhaps, if he had been her dead husband and not the devil, Judith would have been casted aside earlier, and that would have been gossiped about. They might have caused an even bigger scene of them arguing and of her succumbing to her disgust towards him, where she would end up with a throbbing headache.

Either way, Judith would have felt unpleasant.

“…Thank you, for supporting me out there.”

Although she said those words to him, she was, in truth, grateful that he did not make her seem like some character in a tragic love. She would usually become worthless to her husband in front of Silvia, but at least today, it wasn’t like that. Derrick would have never understood her hidden sentiments.

At the moment the door closed after the two mounted onto the carriage, Judith was suddenly reminded of what she wanted to ask him.

“By the way, what did you talk about with His Majesty? What did His Majesty ask you?”

Judith rapidly fired the questions that had lingered in her mind while waiting outside the audience chamber. Derrick, who had taken a seat beside her, answered, holding her hand that held his collar.

“I also. Don’t know.”

“Huh? You don’t know?”

“He was just saying things I couldn’t catch. He was talking about a certain woman and other things.”

“Woman?”

What he didn’t understand, Judith didn’t as well. As she wasn’t there when they spoke, she was unable to make heads nor tails of the conversation between the two. Numerous questions floated in Judith’s mind.

“I didn’t understand what he was talking about, so I said nothing at all, and then not long after checking that I had really lost my memories, he told me to leave.”

“Then… nothing extraordinary besides that? No suspicions or some other considerations.”

“None at all.”

To tell the truth, Judith, who was living with him, also noticed something suspicious about him after observing him for several days. No matter how sharp and quick-witted Killiton, the Emperor, was, it would have been difficult to detect something strange about Derrick in just a few minutes.

Finally, she could put her mind at ease. Of course, there would still be circumstances in the future where they would have to face Killiton every now and then, but even so, she let herself feel relieved that they had overcome this crisis.

Suddenly, Judith’s shoulders flinched, quivering as she felt the fingers that had been caught in his grasp being bitten.

“Be glad. Because I barely held myself from immediately storming out when I thought of my wife.”

A thrilling current flowed through her fingertips that were stuck in between his teeth. It was a sensation similar to being scared out of her wits as if she was being bitten by a beast. Judith noticed his irises were now suddenly dyed in red. He had once said that when he would feel an unbearably intense impulse, his eyes would change color, so right now he…

“That bastard, I think he had something on his conscience.”

He suddenly said, after sucking on Judith’s thumb.

“What?”

“That Emperor guy.”

Emperor guy. It was an honorific so impertinent that if someone else had heard that, they would have been frightened of the consequences the other person would face in the future. Astounded by it, Judith was planning on correcting his appellation, but she was more bothered about his previous words and instead asked.

“What do you mean, by that?”

“He reeks of such a terrible smell that I got nauseous.”

“…From His Majesty the Emperor?”

“Yes.”

She knew very well that he, as a devil, could ‘smell’ certain scents from humans. Day in and day out, he would mention that she gave off a delicious smell. However, she didn’t think he would notice a scent from the Emperor as well, and what’s more, it was to a point that the smell was nauseating. Naturally, she was curious.

“You said terrible, what kind of smell is that?”

“I just told you. I think he has something on his conscience. Delicious smells come off from pure humans like you, but a stench so disgusting it feels nasty comes from the opposite.”

Even with his explanation, she didn’t understand.

Through that thought process, if the higher the purity, the more delicious the smell was, would the fact that he had been reeking of a smell so disgusting mean that Killiton had been leading a reckless life here and there?

‘There’s no way that’s…’

From the time he was the Crown Prince before he became the Emperor, not one scandal common in high society was attached to Killiton. Although his position as Crown Prince, in which he had to watch his words and could not speak rashly, also played a part, he kept an appropriate distance from the noble ladies and spared no effort in trying to leave no room for rumors by being considerate. Even without considering that, his manners in public were on the extremely respectable side. Because of that, pulverulent scandals were never associated with him.

‘No, there weren’t any. But if you think about those who were on intimate terms with my husband…”

However, Judith thought that there was certainly a good reason he was close with her womanizer husband when she recalled their friendship. Perhaps that reason had a connection with what Derrick was mentioning just now. Still, these points were clearly inconclusive as these were only her speculations.

Once Killiton came to mind, her thoughts wandered to Silvia Wirell, whom she just so happened to bump into in the hallway of the main building.

Come to think of it, why was Silvia Wirell there?

Dozens of people would come and go through the Imperial Palace per day, but the main building was an area unique to the Emperor alone, which no one could easily enter. Therefore, it was highly possible that Silvia, who visited the main building, came to meet the emperor, Killiton.

“She was there… The woman earlier, did you see her?”

Judith carefully raised the topic regarding their three-party encounter, when they all happened to meet with each other a little while ago.

Derrick, who nibbled on her fingertips as if chewing a fruit of some sort, raised his gaze. His irises, still showing a vivid colour of red, strangely emitted a glow inside the dark carriage. Instead of affirming, he continued looking at her eyes.

“Don’t tell me, you didn’t expect that you would end up coming across that woman today in the Imperial Palace.”

“Who?”

“Uhm… The woman whom my husband loved.”

The woman whom my husband loved.

(P/R: Did you have to repeat it twice? Hit me where it hurts I be crying out here now TT.TT)

Were there any other words that would sound as unreasonable as these? At least it wasn’t a sentence that could calmly come out of the wife’s mouth. The fact that Judith was able to mention it with composure was only possible because she didn’t truly love Derrick.

“It feels funny. I knew about that woman to some extent, but until now, I’ve never run into her, ever.”

Judith calmly lowered her eyes.

The expression of Silvia Wirell, who spotted Derrick, was still lingering in her mind. Seeing her so surprised to the point she turned deathly pale, it seemed like she didn’t know the fact that Derrick had been revived.

They were both aristocrats of the Empire, but there was an enormous gap between a Viscount Family and a Ducal Family to the point where they couldn’t be regarded in the same rank. Moreover, the Viscomital House of Wirell was a newer family that just came to the capital and was still struggling to expand their connections. Any news would be slower to reach them than the other nobles who had already rooted themselves in the capital.

She supposed that was probably why Silvia Wirell didn’t even know. The fact that Derrick Vaisil, the man who gave so much of his love to her during his lifetime, was revived.

“Did your husband cheat with that woman you came across earlier?”

Hhhmm, Derrick, who took a deep breath, suddenly held her slender chin.

“No matter how I think about it, I can’t understand.”

With a perplexed gaze, Judith looked at him, who stared at her while holding her face still.

“How did he think of having a wife like you and doing something absurd?”

Derrick asked, with a serious face that showed no mischief at all.

Judith’s cheeks flushed feverishly once again at his attitude of treating her like she was the only beautiful woman in the world. Those persistent eyes shone with his primitive desire of wanting to indulge in her beauty.

Judith grew up hearing praises about her beauty that dominated the high society, but nevertheless, his question bluntly showed his intentions and was filled with such confidence that it made her bashful.

Before marrying her husband, there were a lot of young noblemen who approached her first as they had fallen madly in love with her. But, all of them hesitated, just like the people naively in love, didn’t they? They never acted as boldly and cheeky as Derrick.

Plus, even when Derrick always showed a mischievous attitude with everything, he would become more earnest only when talking about this. She felt even more embarrassed since it felt like a plea for her to know about this so-called truth.

“…I suppose you wouldn’t understand that. Since I give off your favorite scent.”

Occasionally, he would rub the ridge of his nose against her smooth skin and take a deep breath off of it. As though he was trying to capture as much of that ‘smell’, which he always talked about, in his lungs. There was no beast who could resist a herbivore approaching them and nicely giving off a delicious smell. Derrick must have a short-lived favorable impression towards her because of a reason like this.

As soon as Judith coyly complained, Derrick chuckled as if he had heard something amusing.

“No matter how good I mention someone gives off the smell I like, if it’s not to my taste, then I won’t eat it.”

“…”

“Do you understand? You, you’re to my taste.”

Judith felt a deep place in her heart tremble and flinch, as his words didn’t sound as though it was a pretense at all. Judith slowly blinked her eyes as her heart rate began to accelerate at those tremors. It was a strange and out-of-place feeling, as if someone was surely grabbing her heart at will and controlling it as much as they liked.

While Judith seemed to be unfamiliar with her heart leaping against her will, Derrick, who was watching her, suddenly mischievously laughed.

“My wife’s heart, it’s pounding really fast.”

The fact that she kept forgetting he was not human but a devil, would surge in like a tidal wave whenever she awakened those animal instincts. Because, if he were a normal person, it would have been impossible for him to detect her heartbeat thumping as if it was about to burst.

“Do you know? Whenever my wife’s emotions escalate…”

Derrick’s tone gradually dropped. Throb, throb ― Even though the sound of the wobbling carriage was strong, oddly, his voice surpassed her sense of hearing and fully embedded itself in her mind.

“Her scent becomes stronger.”

Derrick lifted her wrist and calmly licked the tender skin on it.