When The Cruel Villain Seduces Me - Chapter 119

The duke sat on the bed after putting Nelia down. He brushed Nelia’s hair slowly.

Nelia felt that shallow guilt again at the painful look he gave her.

‘……No.’

She didn’t have to feel that way. The duke lied to her, too. Therefore, it was fine to do that to him as well for a week.

“Your Grace.”

The duke responded quickly to her small voice.

“Yes, Nelia.”

“The calf on my injured ankle is a bit stiff, could you massage it?”

The duke nodded without having a second thought.

“Of course.”

The large hand wrapped around her calf. He put his hands with very moderate force. Due to this, Nelia felt her body become limp.

“Please don’t fall ill, Nelia.”

The duke whispered in an affectionate voice.

Nelia slowly opened her closed eyes. She was suddenly worried because he told her not to fall ill.

“By the way, Your Grace. I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Now that you’ve become a dragon, do you not die or grow old like Sigrid?”

Nelia had seen Sigrid and the old Elena together in her dream before.

‘Now that I think about it, I don’t think it was a dream……’

All the dreams I had were too strange to be just dreams. The fate was twisted by the power of feelings just as Sigrid said, and she thought it might have shown the future or the past.

Anyway…… The images of Sigrid and Elena that she saw in her dream that day were ethereal, but sorrowful at the same time.

Especially Sigrid’s gaze when looking at Elena.

She wondered how it would feel to watch his wife dying on her own…… she couldn’t even imagine it.

“I will die unlike Sigrid.”

“Really?”

Duke Hart smiled lightly and brushed Nelia’s cheek.

“I finally became a dragon only when the curse Sigrid put upon me disappeared, but Shilin wasn’t a complete dragon in the first place.”

Indeed…… Technically, Shilin was a half-dragon because he had Elena’s blood.

“I will grow old and die just like you, Nelia.”

“That’s a relief.”

The duke kissed Nelia lightly on the forehead.

“Are you worried that I’ll be left alone?”

Nelia shut her mouth.

If she hadn’t known the fact that the duke pretended to have hurt his foot before, she would have honestly admitted to his question just now……

‘I would have confessed my true feelings that I like His Grace by now.’

As expected, this wasn’t the time yet.

“……I just asked out of curiosity.”

The duke smiled at Nelia’s lame answer. Nelia laid with her back turned to him as if defending herself from the way his thin curves of his eyes looked so fascinating.

“I have been feeling anxious today and so tired. I’m going to sleep.”

“I see.”

The duke continued to stroke her hair, as if putting a child to sleep.

Nelia’s eyelids were slowly closed at the affection gestures.

She fell asleep not long after.

***

When Nelia woke up again, her surroundings were dark.

She found the figure of the sleeping duke by her side when she turned her head to the cold body beside her.

‘I guess he slept here with me instead of returning to his room.’

[t/n: I mean you guys would be in one room soon, so the faster the better.]

She would have freaked out in the past, but this situation felt quite natural now.

The duke was sleeping soundly, which was a rare occasion. Staring at his peaceful expression, she felt quite relieved.

Nelia rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock on the wall. The clock was already pointing at 6.

Come to think of it, her stomach was empty. It must be time for dinner.

As soon as she was thinking if she should wake the duke up, he slowly opened his eyes. There was a hint of drowsiness in his silver eyes, but she quickly focused on Nelia.

“……When did you wake up?”

“A little while ago.”

The duke glanced at the clock just as she did. When he realized quite a while had passed, he got up.

“You must be hungry, Nelia.”

“A bit.”

“It would be difficult for you to move around, so I’ll be bringing the meal for you.”

The duke said and got out of bed. Nelia tugged at the hem of his dress.

“You don’t have to do that. Let’s go to the dining room and eat together.”

It was weird. Having to eat in the room just because of an ankle injury.

“No, you’re a patient, Nelia.”

A light smile adorned the duke’s sleepy face.

Nelia even checked if she was bleeding. The duke’s unusually defenseless appearance was highly menacing. Nelia even checked her nose in case it was bleeding.

‘I think His Grace looks even better after I realize the fact that I like him.’

His face was, of course, fascinating in the past, but it has become even more fascinating now.

Therefore, Nelia couldn’t resist any beauty and therefore couldn’t help but to obey his words. The duke exited the room with a smile.

Nelia, who was left alone in the room, noticed the bell pull belatedly.

‘He can just call the maid, why does he have to get them directly……’

The employees would have been dumbfounded as well. It would have been difficult to believe that the owner of the mansion was picking up the food for the maid by himself just because she was injured.

No…… She didn’t mind it anymore.

At first, even the blunt maids seemed perplexed by the duke’s devoted attitude, but they weren’t that disturbed anymore because he had gotten used to it.

Except the moment when the duke picked her up and took her upstairs.

Anyway, keeping the fact that the duke and Nelia’s story didn’t become gossip amongst nobles, it seemed that everyone really kept their mouth shut.

The duke appeared with a tray in his hand a while later. The tray were filled with chicken dishes, salad, and soup.

However…… She could only see food for one person on the tray. The duke explained, probably because he noticed Nelia’s confused gaze.

“I can eat later. I’m not that hungry anyway.”

“Even so……”

“It’s all right.”

The duke made up his mind. Nelia felt ashamed to eat by herself, but she accepted his words.

‘Well…… He doesn’t really like eating anyway.’

She finally figured out how he maintained his big frame with that amount of meal.

Since he was a dragon, he didn’t have to get energy from food regularly like humans.

On the other hand, Sigrid liked to eat. Perhaps, it was because maintaining his human form required a lot of energy.

The duke casually plopped down on the bed, perhaps taking Nelia’s silence as a permission.

“Shall we eat the soup first?”

Nelia nodded and reached out with her hand, but it was the duke who grabbed the spoon first.

He picked up the spoon with the spoon and gave it to Nelia.

“……What are you doing?”

“I’m feeding you. Aren’t you a patient now?”

He got a point, but…… It was her ankle that got injured, not her wrist. However, it was difficult to believe that he was feeding her. Nelia was quite embarrassed by his unnecessary care.

The duke was staring at Nelia motionlessly, as if his arm that was holding the spoon didn’t hurt at all after a while.

The look on the duke’s face made her quite relieved.

‘Right…… If it’s not like this, when will I be able to pay the duke back?’

It was a bit…… No, it was very embarrassing, but he had to take this opportunity to order him around and make him reflect on his deceiving act of pretending his foot got injured, so that he knew wearing a bandage is more than that.

“All right then, please feed me, Your Grace.”

When Nelia answered so, the duke moved the spoon slightly again. The spoon, which was filled with a very moderate amount, moved gently into Nelia’s mouth.

The soup was empty in no time after repeating it several times.

When the food was completely empty, Nelia glanced at the duke. He had a content look on his face.

Nelia knew that her plan was getting to the ground after looking at him.

At least the duke had to have a ‘Huft, I’m done with this.’ kind of look on his face, but he seemed satisfied as she finished her meal.

‘I don’t think this makes sense……’

Having finished her meal, Nelia had to find a new way to order the duke around.

She wondered what kind of request she had to say that would make him troubled. Having been preoccupied with her thoughts briefly, she came up with a quite plausible idea.

Nelia tried to hide her excitement and spoke in a calm voice.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes, Nellia.”

“I can’t move freely, and I think it’s a little boring to stay in the room.”

“That can be understood.”

His voice, which was laced with a hint of amusement, bothered her more than she was supposed to, but Nelia continued on while thinking she had to put a thick-skinned expression on her face.

“So, speaking of that…… Do you have anything interesting to do in mind?”

In other words, she asked him to entertain her once in a while.

Did this one work? The duke blinked slowly. He looked like a robot that didn’t understand orders.

He brushed his chin and spoke in an awkward tone.

“I don’t know how to entertain Nellia.”

Nelia, who was about to say that the duke should think about it, spoke when an interesting idea flashed in her mind.

“Is it possible for you to turn, Your Grace?”

“……You mean doing a transformation?”

“Yes! There’s something I really want to see.”

Nelia stared at the duke with twinkling eyes. The duke tilted his head.

“Turning into what?”

“Turning into a little dragon!”

Nelia often missed the moment when Sigrid would stick to her side in the form of a little dragon.

At that time, she thought it was very annoying and troublesome, but memories are beautified to become a beautiful past in her memories.

“Little dragon……”

The duke didn’t seem to understand exactly what Nelia was asking for.

It was amazing. The sight of Sigrid when he turned into a little dragon could only be seen by her alone.

“Yes! There’s nothing difficult about it, and you can just imagine becoming a dragon as small as my face.”

Nelia’s voice was full of anticipation as she explained to him. The duke finally nodded and thought there was no way he could have broken her expectation.

“I’ll give it a try.”

The duke said and recited words she couldn’t understand.

The duke disappeared from Nelia’s sight with a whoosh.

‘Where did he go?’

When she was looking around the room, something small rose from under the bed.

A little dragon wrapped by silver scales appeared.

“Your Grace!”

The duke had turned into a very small dragon, just as Nelia asked for. Even his frantically flapping wings looked exactly like Sigrid.

‘His Grace obviously looks much prettier……’

If Sigrid had a slightly rough-looking appearance in his dragon form, the duke turned into a beautiful dragon with a much more elegant and sleek appearance.

Of course, he looked so cute, too.

Nelia reached out to him with a bright smile on her face. After that, the duke fell into Nelia’s arms.

“So cute.”

Nelia closed her eyes while hugging the duke in his little dragon form, then opened her eyes when she felt him wriggling and looked down at her arms. His clear silver eyes were staring at her.

“This must be what you wanted, Nelia.”

“Yes, this is it.”

She even wanted to raise one if it truly existed somewhere. Nelia hugged the dragon tightly with a giggle.

“…Nelia.”

His voice sounded dumbfounded as he carefully called to Nelia, but she got too carried away at the dragon’s cute appearance and didn’t hear him.

“I’m sorry……”

However, before the duke could finish his words, there was a whoosh around him.

Woosh~!

He turned into a man in a blink of an eye.

Due to it, instead of a dragon, Nelia had a human in her arms.

Nelia pulled away quickly at the feeling of his cool skin against her hand.

***