If You Wish For A Married Couple’s Duties - Chapter 86

“If you’re a hostage, remain here quietly like a hostage. If you want to live a little longer.”

The man slammed his fist on the door, but that didn’t even work on Dooha.

She shouted at the man in a shrill voice.

“Hmph, I’ll starve to death before you guys kill me. If you’re taking someone as a hostage, you shouldn’t starve them!”

“You madwoman, do you think you’re my master? If you’re hungry, shut up and lie down!”

“You’re such a narrow-minded person. A woman wouldn’t be as narrow-minded as you are.”

“What? What do you know?”

“How can a man be so narrow-minded? According to my handmaiden, the thing dangling between the legs of all narrow-minded men is so small that it can’t even be seen. Is that true?”

“You madwoman, then why don’t you check it for yourself!”

When his pride as a man was attacked, the man opened the warehouse door furiously.

Dooha stood right in front of him, as he opened the door with his hand on the waistband of his pants.

The man’s eyes widened.

Even though it was dark at night, the duchess’s golden eyes shone brightly like that of an animal.

“It’s so obvious without looking at it. Is there any need to check it out?”

As soon as Dooha made eye contact with the man, she smiled and punched him in the stomach.

“Keugh.”

She raised her knee towards the falling man’s head.

He lay on the dirt floor powerlessly.

“Th—there!”

“What the, how did you come out?”

Just then, Paul and his subordinates, who were a distance away, ran over as soon as they spotted Dooha escaping from the warehouse.

“Get her!”

“Don’t let her escape!”

Instead of avoiding those that were dashing towards her, Dooha jumped in their direction.

In her hand was the long sword that she’d taken from the man that was guarding the warehouse.

“Uwahhh!”

The duchess’s sword killed two men in an instant.

“Call, call for Paul!”

“Gee! Die!”

They jumped towards Dooha madly.

While Dooha attracted all of their attention, a small silhouette quickly sneaked away through the gap in the warehouse door like a badger.

His movements were stealthy and quick that no one had noticed.

* * *

Dooha let out a sigh of relief as she felt Jan’s presence getting farther and farther away.

First of all, the kid managed to leave safely, so she’d pretty much achieved her first goal.

‘The problem starts now.’

Dooha nodded her head as she watched Paul and his subordinates rushing out from the abandoned house beside the warehouse.

Around twenty men rushed towards her.

‘Well, I should be able to do it somehow. After all, they aren’t monsters.’

After facing off with monsters once, it was rather cute to see a human being rushing at her with all he’s got.

Dooha swung her sword and nimbly avoided the blows that flew toward all sorts of vital points.

However, these people also had a wealth of experience in these kinds of battles.

They realised that Dooha’s attacks weren’t strong and pressed closer.

‘As expected, a longsword is inconvenient.’

Dooha frowned at the longsword she was holding.

As she was trying to use a weapon she’s unfamiliar with, it was natural for her attacks to weaken.

Eventually, she gave up on the longsword and faced them with just her body.

The easiest weapon to use was one’s own body.

“Keugh!”

Dooha avoided all the attacks flying towards her vital points.

The gang was disconcerted by her movements, which were lighter and more agile than they’d expected.

‘No, isn’t she said to be a duchess!’

What kind of noblewoman beats up people with her fists?

No, even if she could do so, didn’t the aristocracy value their honour and dignity?

However, the woman in a simple dress flew around like she didn’t care about such things.

“Keugh, kegh!”

It was rather maddening, really.

The strange situation where they were beaten up one-sidedly when they attacked the duchess one-on-one, and they’d attack each other when they rushed in as a group.

“What the hell are you doing!”

Just as the group was completely under Dooha’s control.

Paul appeared with some of his men from beyond the bushes.

He frowned at Dooha, who was standing in the front yard of the hideout.

“…Why is that lass out there?”

In any case, that lass was someone that he couldn’t drop his guard against.

Paul gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Catch her and bring her to me right this instant! If you let her slip today, all of you are dead meat!”

Sometimes, rather than encouragement, fear had an even greater boost to morale.

The gang’s eyes turned even fiercer than before, and their movements became faster.

‘Oh dear.’

Dooha stumbled on someone’s foot as she tried to avoid the shield flying for her head.

When she managed to regain her balance, a shin belonging to the one that tripped her flew towards her face.

“Ugh.”

Dooha managed to lift her arms and block it, but the impact was considerably large.

“Who said they didn’t have anyone with great physical strength?”

As she mumbled to herself in Bashal language, she grinned at the sight of the bow that a member of the gang was wearing.

“Even so, there’s no way that they’ll die.”

“What are you talking about, you madwoman!”

“You don’t need to know, you lunatic!”

Dooha used the chest of a man that was running towards her as a springboard and jumped into the air.

“Uwahh!”

“Ugh!”

“What the?”

She used the faces of the gang members as stepping stones and ran around.

After safely landing at the opposite side, Dooha approached the man with the bow.

“Let me borrow that for a second.”

“W—what?”

The man that was the most cowardly and weakest amongst Paul’s subordinates could only hand her the bow without putting up any resistance.

“Thank you.”

Dooha drew the bow with a refreshed smile.

In an instant, three arrows hit each of their targets accurately.

When the three of their allies fell to the floor without so much as a scream, there was a stir amongst them.

“Don’t let her shoot any arrows! Get her now!”

Paul shouted desperately, but she’d already climbed up the roof of the warehouse.

The darkness of the night had yet to clear, so they began to panic when Dooha suddenly disappeared from their view.

Swooshhhh, thunk.

An arrow that was shot from an undetectable place was enough to arouse fear.

“Where are you? Where are you?”

“Uwargh!”

There were a few that swung their swords recklessly in the air, and there were a number of people that abandoned their weapons and ran away.

No matter how scary their captain was, they thought that nothing was more important than their lives.

This was the limit of marketplace hooligans that didn’t know what loyalty and missions were.

“Let’s end this now.”

Dooha nocked the last arrow on the bow.

She was aiming for the place where Paul once stood.

“What?”

Dooha uttered an exclamation unknowingly.

Paul, who had been there a while ago, had disappeared.

Her eyes roved around busily.

‘Where did he go?’

Just as Dooha was diligently scanning the surroundings for Paul, who had disappeared.

Crack—

Along with the sound of wood splitting, her foothold sank with a loud thud.

As she fell, she spotted a smiling Paul with the mace in his hand.

“Oh, so that’s why.”

She’d wondered why the building collapsed all of a sudden, but he’d broken it on purpose.

Dooha swallowed down the curses that rose up her throat and curled into a ball.

Her figure disappeared into the dust that was kicked up above the rubble of the building.

* * *

Thud, thud, thud.

Dooha forced her eyelids open at the sound of footsteps drawing closer.

However, she was unable to see clearly due to the dust that has yet to settle.

Dooha endured the urge to cough continuously and got up.

She reflexively reached out to pick up a weapon, but nothing entered her grasp.

She seemed to have lost the bow earlier as she fell.

“I mean, it’s odd.”

Then, a familiar voice cut through the thick dust.

“If you’ve managed to escape from the warehouse, you should have ran away immediately, but why did you have to fight with us?”

Dooha’s eyes widened.

Before she knew it, a mace with a huge iron ball-shaped stopped right before touching the tip of her nose.

Paul bared his teeth as he looked down at her, who was lying amidst the wreckage.

“Why are you trying to save a kid that you don’t even know, hm?”

“…Do I have to tell you everything?”

“You’d better spit it out.”

Paul tightened his grip like he was about to swing the mace at any moment.

“If you don’t want your head to be smashed into pieces.”

“If you smash your head into pieces, you’ll never hear the answer that you want.”

“…You’d better not provoke my temper any further.”

Paul had a displeased expression at the sight of her still looking at him directly, even when she might die.

“I don’t have the mood to joke around with you right now.”

Dooha couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the sight of his red face, which seemed like it was about to explode at any moment.

“From the looks of your face, it seems like another problem has cropped up with the transaction.”

“What?”

“Did Countess Jive say that it would be hard to close the deal the day after tomorrow? Or did she say that she was going to cancel the order altogether?”

“You…”

“By the way, your new master doesn’t seem to be that fond of you. By calling a dangerous task like this as an important mission, and entrusting it to you.”

Dooha made an expression of heartfelt pity.

“You know the fact that you’ll be beheaded if you’re caught trafficking the Devil’s Nap, right?”

Her words made Paul’s eyes widen so much that it wouldn’t be strange if it actually tore.

“You, how did you…….”

“Isn’t that right? How did I know about that?”

Dooha confidently ignored the mace, which was right in front of her, and got up from her position slowly.

Her ankle was throbbing a little, but now wasn’t the time for her to care about it.

“But does it matter how I found out? What’s important is that there’s no way the Duke is unaware of something that even I know about.”

Unknowingly, the dawning sky gave her hair a blue tint.

“Perhaps by now, the Duke will follow your tracks and chase you to this place.”

“D—don’t make me laugh! How would the Duke know about this place?”

“It seems like you still haven’t realised why I’d save a child that I didn’t even know.”

“…Don’t tell me.”

Come to think of it, when the warehouse collapsed, he didn’t even hear a scream from within.

Paul’s face turned pale.

* * *