The Devilish Duke Can’t Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

Sponsored Content

Poor thing

“How the hell did this happen?”

A bewildered question erupted from the mouths of those who watched.
It’s unknown how that little voice got into Liddell’s ears, but she felt extreme anger and fear.
It was a stage where she was the perfect protagonist, and an intruder who suddenly broke in ruined everything.
The day she had dreamed of was not to end this way.

Liddell clenched her fists and lowered her body in the distance, looking at the horde of monsters waiting for her command.
Her blue eyes shone and she chanted a spell full of malice.

“Kill them all.
Destroy everything you see.”

At that low and gloomy command, the helpless horde of monsters arose again.
The roar of monsters began to resound over the land that had even been somewhat quiet, and only then did people realize that they had approached the defense line too easily.

“Run, run away!”

“The monster is alive again!”

“Where is the angel? Angel!”

However, despite their mourning calls, Liddell did not defeat the monster.
Rather, she smiled as she looked back at the people of Ardennes with cold eyes.

“Trash.”

She could have staged a play that made her attack only Kahel and Lena and made herself an angel, but even that bothered Liddell, who was deeply angered by interruption of what she had planned for so long.
Why did she have to look into the eyes of the bugs? Everyone knelt in front of Fabian, who had no power left.
So, she would be in a position to look down on everyone without having to play around.

The earth rumbled as the horde of monsters was running.
But Lena did not let go of Kahel.

Liddell was going to throw them all as food for the hordes of monsters.
It seemed like she would let the horde of monsters eat Lena and the commoners, and then push it into the Royal Palace.
Being revered as an angel and ascending to the Queen’s position would be difficult now, but at least she would not be deprived of the Queen’s position.

Sponsored Content

But in an instant, a huge light burst out from behind that made the whole world seem white.

“Gasp!”

Even Liddell could not escape and fell into a sudden surge of power.
As soon as she fell into the light, all the noise around her disappeared, time seemed to pass slowly, and deep emotions soared from the depths of her heart.

No one could have guessed how long they had been wrapped in the light.
They were just dumbfounded, and when they woke up, everyone was on their knees on the floor.

The cold air seemed to seep into the warm light, but the light suddenly disappeared.
It wasn’t just the light that disappeared.

“The horde of monsters…….”

“How could this be…….”

People couldn’t talk properly.
The horde of monsters, that approached as if they were going to trample on everyone, turned to ashes without a single one left.
It was the same with the dead monster’s corpse.
They all turned to black ashes, making them question whether their existence was really real.

Liddell could not believe this.
No, not everyone here would believe it, but no one would have been as perplexed as Liddell.

“No…… no…… This can’t be…….”

But Liddell’s denial did not change the situation.
Lena, who had poured out tremendous strength, took a deep breath, wiping the sweat from the tip of her chin.

Liddell, who was startled, quickly raised her sword again.
No matter how strong the power of the Queen, she will not be able to use the same power again after she has spent such a great power.
During this time, she had to summon the third attack squad.
She doesn’t know if this might be an opportunity.
Liddell sent a signal to Margella by shooting a light high in the sky.

However, the borders of the capital were quiet.
Where the roar of monsters should be heard, it was so quiet that it was unsettling.

“Margella, what are you doing!”

Liddell was annoyed and signaled once more.

However, the hordes of monsters that Liddell firmly believed in had already lost their power.
This was because Dashar, who received Kahel’s request, took the Sages and Luahalla’s personal troops to completely destroy Revanas’ monster summoning magic circle.
Thanks to this, Margella was squeezing her own magical powers, but Liddell, unaware of this fact, sent the signals to Margella anxiously over and over again.

Meanwhile, Lena quietly turned her head and called Damien.
Damien, who was watching all this while frozen, came to his senses.
In front of Lena was Kahel, who had almost returned to his original form, and there was nothing to cover his body as all his clothes were torn from his mutated body.
Damien took the robe that Tejian had taken off and gave it to him and ran to Kahel.

Sponsored Content

The two hands, where the first body transformation started, were still black, but they were also slowly fading.
Damien wrapped Kahel’s weary body in a robe and slowly turned his head to look at Lena.

The calm purple eyes weren’t that of a maid, who was shy and restless.

“Thank you, Queen…….”

This little woman in front of him was their new master.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

A shrill voice broke the silence.
It was Liddell whose magical powers overflowed dangerously.
A long spear made of magical power sprang up in her hand, who had given up calling the hordes of monsters.

“Damien.
Isn’t that funny? Why should we, who far surpass humans, become powerless before the blood of the Queen? This is unfair.”

Damien looked at Liddell, who was smiling because she couldn’t cry.
A huge mass of narcissism created over several generations by Duchy Santella, the essence of unstable magical power.
But to Damien, she too was a young girl, only twenty-one years old.
If the Santella ancestors had been wiser, they would not have entrusted such a painful role to their beloved descendants.

“Liddell…… Why do we obey the Queen, something that no one taught us?”

“…….”

“Legends describe the never-ending battle between a white-winged beast and a black-winged beast in one short line, but what a catastrophe it must have been for humans.”

Even though Kahel’s magical powers were exceptional, he annihilated the multitude of monsters with his own strength, long ago, their ancestors would have been stronger.
So to the powerless human, they would have been a literal horror.

“Humans, devastated by the clash of two forces that they cannot control, earnestly prayed to the sky.
Please save us…… Lana, who loved humans, sent an agent to slay the two beasts that fought wildly on the ground.
That agent is the Queen.”

“Slay…… ?”

“Yes.
Originally, the Queen intended to slay the two beasts and return them to where they were supposed to be.
We have the power to destroy the world.”

Damien looked carefully around the ruins and then turned his gaze back to Liddell.

Sponsored Content

“We are not divided into angels and monsters, we are both monsters from the beginning.
Otherwise, how would you use your magical powers? From the beginning, we are closer to monsters than humans.
Just because we’re covered in beautiful leather doesn’t change its essence.”

“Don’t lie.
I’m not like that monster!”

Liddell’s trembling fingers point to Kahel.
Damien smiled in vain.

“Perhaps, Kahel is closer to the monster, especially among us.
That doesn’t mean you’re not a monster.
However, we wished to live on this earth as humans, and voluntarily obeyed the Queen to become a controlled force.
We chose to live with the power to save the world, not the power to destroy.
That is the essence of the two Duchies.
We are not beings superior to humanity, but sinners living by making atonement for humanity.”

However, despite Damien’s calm words, the amount of magical power that flowed over Liddell’s body did not decrease, but rather grew.
Perhaps, there was something missing, Liddell reached out towards Leonard and absorbed his magical power.
It was a black magic that had been hung on the bloodline just in case.

“Li, Li…… Dell…… !”

Leonard grunted in pain, but Liddell didn’t even look at him.

“I don’t want to hear it.
If it can’t be mine…… I will not give it to anyone.”

The place where Liddell’s magic was directed was not on Lena’s side, but on the commoners who were kneeling from a distance.

“Everyone will die!”

The magical energy that spread out into the air as if it had spread from Liddell’s body quickly split into numerous branches and was transformed into a sharp arrow.

“Oh, ooh…… !”

“Angel…… ?”

But they were already realizing that it wasn’t an angel who was shooting something at them with a venomous face.
The purple arrows falling overhead were simply unbelievable.

Until an angry voice stopped it all.

“Stop!”

Sponsored Content

The rain of purple magic arrows stopped in the air by a low, resonant word.

Lena, who caused the miracle, got up slowly and approached Liddell.
Liddell’s wide-open eyes shook with intense fear at that moment.
Liddell had never felt this way since she was born.
She felt as if she had become a small beast in front of a natural enemy.

“Poor thing, the curse of greed has become a chain, entwining you.”

Lena could see the curse that bound Liddell’s body.
It was a curse that made the afflicted feel only endless longing.
Perhaps, even Liddell would not have known that she had been cursed, and even if she did, she would not have been able to escape herself.
It was a curse that could be called a ghost, rather stained with old and dirty greed.

“Yes, someone has to cut it off.”

It was as if the metal sound became audible for a moment.
The plain sword that had cut off Liddell’s dress appeared again in Lena’s hand, slowly shining.

“Go, go away.
Don’t come!”

Liddell staggered away from her, but the sword approaching her did not hesitate and cut Liddell’s body diagonally.
There was supposed to be a murmur, but there was no sound.
It was just the white light that cut through Liddell’s body.

The people who backed away clamoring in surprise at the arrow Liddell had fired, as well as the knights guarding the line, took their breath and became still.

For they had clearly seen the sword cut through the body of the white angel lady whom they admired and worshiped.

“Liddell…… !”

Damien raised his hand without realizing it.
No matter how much he hated her, the death of someone his son’s age and acquaintance could not be fine.
Rather than Liddell’s sin, it must have been the sin of the greedy ancestors, but it was regrettable that Liddell had to bear the punishment.

However, blood did not ooze out where the sword had passed.
She wasn’t cut anywhere.
However, waves of intense emotions flowed through Liddell’s face like a low tide, and her slender body slowly crumbled and fell to the ground.

The curse that had wrapped around Liddell’s body had just been broken.
It was unknown how much damage it would cause to her soul due to the curse she had been carrying since birth, but now she had no choice but to believe in Liddell.
But the original soul must have rejoiced to have escaped from the apparently long affair.
It seemed as if the sound of a bright child’s laughter could be heard from somewhere.

Lena looked down at the fallen Liddell and Kahel, and then she slowly turned her head toward the sky.

“Now…… Let’s go back to the Palace.”

Damien and everyone nearby knelt down and obeyed the command.