Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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20.

Whether the story about them being clever was true, the two horses quickly untied the knots binding them to the carriage and fled to the opposite side.

Annelize stood there with her mouth agape.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

She was about to be trapped in some unknown snowy plains.

‘Stay calm. Since they received word that I was coming, someone from the Duke’s castle will come looking for me.’

To make herself easier to find, she took out dark-colored clothes from her bag and spread them on the ground around the carriage.

Where did the handkerchief she always carried go? Annelize looked around puzzled and instead dusted off her hands on other clothes.

It was when she was getting up after placing the second piece of clothing.

She felt something strange.

Annelize stared at the distant horizon.

‘That snow pile. Was it originally that close?’

Was it just her imagination that the snow pile seemed to be getting closer?

Was it even a snow pile to begin with?

‘They said magical beasts roam around the North.’

That’s not an ordinary snow pile. Annelize’s instincts screamed.

Otherwise, there was no way she would feel like someone was watching her.

The unidentified being was massive and completely surrounded by snow and ice.

She thought it would keep approaching, but somehow it stopped moving forward.

‘It’s not moving anymore. Can’t it come closer than a certain distance? It’s just standing there watching me.’

It was fortunate amid the misfortune.

She didn’t have time to observe it further.

Annelize moved to go back inside the carriage.

It wasn’t easy. As that unknown being got closer, the wind began to blow fiercely.

Just before closing the carriage door.

Through the fierce blizzard, she thought she saw a pair of flashing yellow eyes.

* * *

The Duke’s castle was unusually quiet today.

Isaiah gazed beyond the study window with worried eyes.

The blizzard was suddenly getting worse.

The Duke sleeping beside him was the cause.

‘Was it because he touched the first saint’s relic, or because he met Annelize Solariccen? Either way, it must have been quite a shock.’

The weather in the North was affected by the Duke’s psychological state.

‘This is troublesome. What if Annelize Solariccen encounters something in the blizzard?’

Besides the periodic blizzards that hit the North, sudden weather changes were usually because of their lord.

During such times, no one went outside.

Because they might see ‘that thing’ wandering through the blizzard.

“Are you asleep? It’s not time to sleep yet. Shouldn’t it be a few more months?”

A large gray-haired man paced anxiously around his lord.

It was Pamine, who handled the Duke’s castle finances.

“He’s been under a lot of stress lately. His sleep pattern must have changed.”

At Isaiah’s words, Pamine drooped his gray ears and sighed.

At times like this, there was nothing else they could do. They couldn’t wake the Duke no matter what.

They had to wait for their lord to wake up on his own.

Normally Isaiah would have leisurely waited, saying he got a vacation, but now time was of the essence.

The carriage carrying the Duchess should have arrived by now, but it hadn’t come.

He took out a handkerchief from his pants pocket and approached the Duke.

“What are you doing?”

“Wait and see. It might work.”

“What are you going to do with a handkerchief?”

Pamine crossed his arms behind his back with a skeptical expression.

“It’s not just any handkerchief. It’s the handkerchief of the companion our lord chose.”

“How do you have that?”

“I secretly snatched it to use at times like this.”

Isaiah waved the handkerchief over the Duke’s face.

So he could smell Annelize’s distinctive scent mixed with flower fragrance.

“Come now, my lord. This is not the time to be sleeping. Annelize Solariccen is coming. If that young lady freezes to death in the cold blizzard, you will once again—”

The Duke’s hand shot out and snatched the handkerchief.

His golden eyes were hazy as if he hadn’t fully regained consciousness.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“About an hour. Fortunately, you haven’t been completely captured by it yet.”

The Duke looked at the handkerchief in his hand and frowned.

“The scent is so irritating I can’t stand it.”

“Then please give it to me, my lord. I’ll keep it.”

Isaiah extended his hand. The Duke swatted his hand away.

“No need.”

Watching him carefully tuck the handkerchief into his chest, Isaiah smirked.

“Annelize Solariccen is.”

As soon as the Duke regained consciousness, he looked for Annelize first.

“The carriage didn’t come, only the horses returned. It’s already several dozen minutes past the original arrival time.”

The Duke looked at the window and shot up from his seat.

“The snow is falling faster. A small human like Annelize Solariccen would already be buried. Damn it.”

The Duke’s complexion darkened as if imagining a corpse buried in snow and frozen cold.

He hurriedly headed outside.

* * *

How much time had passed?

Had that magical beast left? Or was it still outside watching?

Annelize was anxiously waiting for rescue inside the carriage.

She wanted to look outside, but snow had piled up to the height of the carriage in an instant, making it impossible to open the door.

‘It doesn’t seem to touch the carriage. Does it just watch from afar and that’s it? What a strange magical beast.’

While thinking about the strange magical beast she had encountered earlier.

The carriage door burst open.

Snow that had piled up outside the carriage poured in. Soon, two arms grabbed Annelize’s waist and lifted her up.

Annelize was lifted up like a radish being pulled from a field.

“Your Grace the Duke!”

Was it because the white snowfield acted as a natural reflector?

His handsome face looked even more pale today.

The Duke didn’t even have time to acknowledge her greeting as he examined Annelize’s body everywhere.

After placing his hand on her neck and confirming her pulse was beating, the Duke let out the breath he had been holding.

“Haah…”

Many emotions could be felt in that long sigh.

“You’re still breathing. Thank goodness. I won’t need to go looking for you in the afterlife.”

His joke was quite sharp.

“That’s right. Thank goodness. I didn’t want to end my life by freezing to death either.”

Achoo. When she sneezed, the Duke looked at her.

The moment their eyes met, he quickly turned his head away.

‘What was that just now? Did he avoid my eyes?’

“Here.”

The Duke handed her a handkerchief.

Maybe not. Maybe he just turned his head to take out the handkerchief.

“Oh, this! I thought I lost it, but Your Highness had it?”

“I picked it up.”

“I see. Thank you.”

As she lifted her face to express her gratitude, a large hand gently caught her head.

“Stay still.”

Thick, warm fabric wrapped around her body. The Duke made Annelize into a burrito with his cloak and then lifted her again.

“I feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and it’s nice.”

It was warm, but…

The Duke, having removed his cloak, was wearing only a light dress shirt.

“Aren’t you cold, Your Highness?”

“I’m fine.”

The Duke swiftly transported her to the manor wearing just his shirt.

He didn’t let out a single breath of vapor the entire time.

‘It’s so cold, yet his complexion hasn’t changed at all. My hands are all red from the cold. Well, I suppose for a Duke, cold weather is nothing.’

Her finger unconsciously poked the Duke’s cheek.

“What are you doing.”

“I was curious if it would be cold.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t cold.

The Duke clicked his tongue.

“The cold must be making you delirious. I need to get there quickly before it gets worse.”

Up to this point, it was the usual Duke. But there was one strange thing.

‘Hasn’t he been looking straight ahead the entire time we’ve been talking? As if he’s avoiding looking at my face?’

Even when I poked his cheek.

Annelize’s eyes narrowed. It was too strange to be a coincidence.

Before long, the Duke’s Castle came into view.

A pitch-black castle stood alone atop a white hill.

Sharp spires, solid walls that seemed impossible to breach carelessly. The closer they got, the more amazed she became at its enormity.

The Duke opened the large iron gate effortlessly with one hand.

Without giving her time to look around inside, he immediately took Annelize to a room.

The bedroom was filled with warm air.

The Duke set Annelize down on the sofa in front of the fireplace and stood up.

“Your Highness the Duke-“

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Before she could finish speaking, the Duke turned around.

He fled from the room as if escaping.

Annelize stared at the closed door with a bewildered expression.

He really is avoiding looking at my face!

* * *

“My lord. Did you safely bring Miss Annelize? Why are you suddenly coming out of the room?”

Isaiah encountered the Duke while bringing firewood.

“It’s urgent. Isaiah.”

His lord’s expression was quite serious.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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