The Duchess and the Devil - Chapter 31.1

TRANSLATOR: Matindi
PROOFREADER: ThatSilverSky
QUALITY CHECKER: Akane

It was late at night, but the news of Derrick’s return didn’t reach her ears. Judith, who had been reading a book in the living room where the fireplace was blazing, slowly felt sleepy and shut the book. At that time, somebody knocked on the door of the living room.

“Madame. It seems that you will have to come out for a moment. Master is…”

The owner of the unexpected voice was the faithful butler of the ducal residence. It looked like Derrick had finally returned home. Judith took a good look at her pocket watch. It was already past midnight. She didn’t know how in the world she should deal with him when he was arriving home so late as though it was a natural thing for him to do. She, who frowned, noticed the butler’s clomping footsteps and followed him out the door.

“Master has returned just now, but his condition is a little peculiar.”

It didn’t take long to get to the hall from the first-floor living room. Within just a few steps of arriving, the loud noise of bustling around the hall was vivid. Shortly after reaching the hall, the escort knight, Sir Horton, was seen aiding in carrying Derrick. Derrick, who was leaning on the knight, was sagging like a person who had no strength at all.

‘He looks seriously drunk.’

Judith let out a faint sigh and got closer to Derrick. The sound of her shoes resonating in the hall was quite frigid. At the moment she neared Derrick, Judith hesitated. Her husband didn’t reek of alcohol at all.

It wasn’t the first time Derrick returned home being carried into the mansion like this. And whenever it happened, he would always give off an awful smell of alcohol. That was usually why he was unconscious, as his body couldn’t recover due to all the alcohol he had guzzled down. Yet today, she could not smell even a bit of alcohol from him. Only when Judith perceived this strangeness did she look at Sir Horton.

“Why is my husband like this?”

“We also do not know. Even when he boarded the carriage earlier, he was not intoxicated, but after arriving at the mansion, he suddenly…”

Sir Horton replied, perspiring profusely at the thought of not being able to fulfill his duty as the Duke’s escort. Judith grabbed her husband’s upper arm that was sagging to the floor. In that instance, she flinched in surprise at the cold penetrating her palms. At that moment, his touch was so cold, the thought that she was touching a corpse spread through her mind.

“…Dear, are you alright?”

Even at the question she cautiously asked, Derrick did not have any response. It seemed that they would have to move him into the bedroom for the time being, so Judith gave the knights her orders without delay. She didn’t forget her order of summoning the family doctor as quickly as possible to the butler, as well.

Only after he was laid down on the bed was she able to check his complexion properly. It was a face as serene as a person sleeping. However, for them to say that he simply fell asleep, it wasn’t just one or two aspects that was odd.

After a little while, the other side of the door became uproarious, perhaps because the doctor had arrived.

“Madame. It has been a long time.”

After the doctor spotted Judith and courteously bowed in greeting, he went closer to the bed right away. While he did his check-up, she shared a conversation with Sir Horton. To be exact, she was told of his schedule until her husband came back to the mansion. It was a day that had nothing that particular. The usual daily life, where he spent his personal time doing his own thing, upon finishing his official work.

They didn’t have a conversation about Silvia Wirell, but they knew enough about Derrick and how he spent his personal time with her. Just by looking at Sir Horton, who was walking on eggshells as he conveyed his report to her, it was a self-explanatory fact of where he spent his time today.

Briefly, Judith looked at the bed. Her husband’s face was turning very pale like the cold air, which had been enveloping her body. The condition of the master that even the escort knights didn’t know. What in the world happened to him?

“Upon having him examined, I was not able to detect anything particularly peculiar.”

“Then why is he like that? Is he just sleeping?”

“Presently, I think that is the case. However…”

The family doctor answered, fiddling with his one-eye glasses. While he examined him, he noticed there really was no abnormality in Duke Vaisil. There wasn’t even a trace of suffering from a fatal wound he couldn’t regain consciousness from, and above all, the sound of his breathing as he inhaled and exhaled was regular. This regular rhythm meant that the Duke had no particular sickness.

“He is just asleep, but why…”

‘Why does he not have warmth like those dead bodies?’

The doctor titled his head as if he also did not know the reason for it, and then got out of the bedroom after requesting to, ‘Raise the temperature of the room enough in order for the Duke’s body to become warm.’ At a later hour, the knights also went out the door after giving their farewells to her, and the maids made the fire at the fireplace according to the doctor’s request.

While each of them moved, Judith stayed perched on the bed and was looking at her husband. He had such a gentle face, which she came face-to-face with for the first time since they were married.

“Madame. If that is all, then we will also take our leave now.”

In the bedroom where even the maids, who had been moving diligently, were out of her sight, there was only the sound of embers blazing.

Though she was with her husband, she was never accustomed to his kind of silence, as the two of them, at some point, only fought as if preying on each other the moment they saw the other’s face. It was clear Judith did not hate this stillness. When she argued with him, headaches surged in her with no end, as if being pierced with a gimlet, but now, she was alright.

Only after spending a little more time with him did she get up. Even so, she thought she had displayed enough sincerity to others since she stayed in the room until the end.

Judith looked down at her palm as she returned to her bedroom. The touch that had been as cold as ice when she grabbed his upper arm a little while ago still clearly lingered. It was his body that was freezing, but it felt exactly like she was the one deserted in a frigid winter.

‘…No, it was always like that, too.’

Because Judith was always a back burner to him.

A wife who couldn’t receive the love from her husband was no different from being deserted on the road in the bitter cold. While she wasn’t wishing for love, there was no affection between them and she also didn’t want to be making an appearance with a pitiful look to others as it was not a good thing. Judith merely wanted to have the distinguished honor of being the Duchess, and very much along with it, show herself living without being envious of others.

However, as long as her husband was alive, it was absolutely impossible. To be precise, because her husband had been behaving so absurdly, as they said…

‘Rather, I wish he would disappear.’

At this rate, it seemed Judith would die first of suffocation. Living together with him felt like darting off into a maze that didn’t have an exit. Because of their destructive relationship, where the two of them would only breathe a sigh of relief once they ruined each other, she only felt that she would be able to live once he died. From the start, this marriage was one that would fail. However, once she realized this, it was already too late.

If nothing would be of help to her, him disappearing would be better.

Judith came to an abrupt stop at the cruel imagery she had in that instance. Her shadow swayed in the completely quiet hallway.

‘If Derrick dies…’

She gazed out of the window silently. The sky where the moon hung was illuminating exceptionally bright on her.