The Devilish Duke Can’t Sleep

I’ll Apologize

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Gerard was a Count, and was the center of the young black faction nobles, and he must have been a very capable man, but he was not a man famous for his beautiful appearance or popularity among women.
And all the men who approached Lena were jealous of Gerard, who was better than them.
As a result, they were ignoring Gerard, who acts as the partner.

“No, well, the combination of Sir Langtail and Miss Belrose was obviously nothing more than a businesslike relation…….”

“Isn’t Duke Luave worried about his close maid who had just debuted in the social world and entrusted her to Count Langtail? But Miss Belrose isn’t even a little girl, so why should you do this? I think Miss Belrose would also like to have a conversation with a wonderful man.”

“Isn’t that right, Miss Belrose? How about sending Sir Langtail, who is busy, to the elders over there, and having a friendly conversation with us?”

However, Lena, who was quite offended by their rude attitude toward Gerard, said with a broad smile.

“Yes.
I also want to have a friendly conversation with a wonderful man.
So, Count Langtail, shall we move over there? This place looks absolutely inappropriate for a conversation.”

At that, Gerard smiled and extended one of his arms to Lena.
Lena grabbed his arm, bent over to greet the men with a bewildered expression on their faces, and then moved away.

“You’re already learning how to toll the nobles, you really are a close maid of Lord Kahel.”

“It was they who were rude in the first place.
What’s wonderful about wonderful men like them.”

 

“Thanks to you, I felt like all my old congestion was going down.
Hahaha!”

“Isn’t Count Langtail higher than them? Why did they ignore you?”

“Because what they want is for me to get angry.
Prior to this, those men were also known as playboys in the social world.
Should I say they do things without thinking? After all, they are the bad apple of their family too, so they are arguing with me and trying to bring me down to their level.”

“Then you’re saying that Count Langtail, the closest aide, must put up with all such rude remarks?”

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“I don’t deal with trivial ones like that.
I will demand an apology from the person in charge.
They probably won’t be able to get out of their house for a while.”

Gerard looked okay, but Lena was very concerned that Gerard, who was Kahel’s best friend, was ridiculed.

“Still, I feel bad toward people who are rude to Count Langtail.
I think they were mocking His Excellency Duke Luave.”

Seeing Lena’s angry look, Gerard laughed happily again.

“I bet Lord Kahel will be pleased with Miss Belrose’s loyalty.”

At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind Gerard and Lena.

“You two look happy.”

“Oh, Lord Kahel.”

Kahel’s expression was obviously close to ‘bad mood’.
And Gerard seemed to know why it was so.
From a distance, Lena and himself must have seemed very close.

“Lord Kahel seems to have taken a good close maid.”

“Hmm? What does that mean?”

“I asked her why she felt bad toward the people who treated me rudely, and she said it was because they seemed rude to Lord Kahel who was behind me.”

“Ah, hey, Count Langtail!”

Lena, her face blushing, timidly tugged at the edge of Gerard’s jacket to stop him.

“Lena is a child who, unlike you, is a rewarding child to teach.”

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Kahel smiled and gently removed Lena’s hand from Gerard’s jacket.
Even through the clothes, he didn’t want to see Lena connected with other men.
And Gerard, who saw his innermost feelings, also picked up the words, ‘Huh, oh, I’m not stupid.’

“If you go around like that, Lena won’t be able to make a single friend in the social world.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“If you were only going to tie her up next to yourself, Lord Kahel, you shouldn’t have given her the title, or at least you shouldn’t have taken her out to the Banquet.
Everyone is curious about Miss Lena, who is already Lord Kahel’s close maid, but it seems that Miss Lena has no interaction with the outside world.
Will there be any strange rumors circulating soon?”

Kahel clicked his tongue as if he didn’t like it.
To Kahel, Gerard waved his hand as if to shoo him away.

“When Lord Kahel is here, Miss Lena gets more attention.
Go over there now.”

“You look kind of happy, am I mistaken?”

“Yes.
You are mistaken.
Go quickly.”

Kahel shot Gerard with a cold glance, but Gerard pushed him away without being affected at all.
Still, Duke Santella’s family had just joined the Banquet, so it was definitely not good for Kahel to be with Lena.

“See you later.”

Leaving the last greeting that might have had the meaning of ‘let’s see’, Kahel headed to the group of black faction nobles.
Looking at his back, Gerard had a cool expression on his face, and Lena was also nagging at Gerard with her eyes.
Gerard confirmed that he was the only one to pity.

As the concert began in earnest, people flocked to the piano placed near one wall of the hall made of only glass.
The first to sit on the piano chair was an elegant Madam who looked close to the Queen’s age.
She played bright piano pieces with great skill, and when she played the second piece, a boy that was her son played a violin with her.

Next, the twin girls, who were thought to be seven years old, sat side by side on the piano chair and played the four-hand performance with fern-like hands.
It was so cute that Lena forgot her nervousness and she clapped generously with others.

When the cute girls finished playing, this time a young man played the piano, and his fiance, a Lady, sang in a beautiful voice.
How beautiful and high her voice was, people looked at her with ecstatic, unable to keep their mouths shut.
It was the same for Lena and Gerard.

Then, someone tapped Lena on the shoulder.
Lena shrugged her body and looked back, wondering if she might block the view of the person behind her.
But there was a dazzlingly beautiful woman, her forefinger in front of her lips, her bright smile at Lena.

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‘Ah! This person then……!’

It was a familiar face.
She was the one who had brought Elliot to the tea party in the greenhouse.
Did she say her name was Liddell Santella?

Lena glanced at Gerard, who listened in silence, as if possessed by the sound of the singing, and then she quietly leaned back.
She didn’t want to disturb Gerard for nothing.

“Hello, Lady Santella.”

She tried to greet Liddell as naturally as possible, but it was not known whether she was able to completely hide her hostility towards her, Kahel’s opponent.
But Liddell smiled brightly as if she didn’t feel that way at all.
It seemed to twinkle around her.

“I’ve met you once before, but I’ll greet you formally.
My name is Liddell Santella.
Lady is definitely…… The close maid of the Luave family…….”

“My name is Lena Belrose, who works as a close maid to Duke Luave.
As a vassal of the Luaves, I was given the rank of a Baronet.”

“Ah…… ! As expected.
Kahel’s close maid.”

“I have received a great grace from His Excellency.”

“Hmm, Kahel probably thinks the exact opposite.
He would be indebted to Miss Lena.”

“Oh, that can’t be!”

“Really.
Haven’t you seen anyone possessed by the devilish curse yet? That’s really…… It’s terrible.
Miss Lena saved Kahel from that nightmare.”

Lena wasn’t sure how to react to Liddell’s words.
She had only seen the Baron Fidelia couple that were possessed by Kahel’s devilish power, and her memories of the bizarre day were fading in the meantime, so Liddell’s words, ‘It’s terrible,’ didn’t seem true.
In the end, Lena shook her head with only a perplexed smile.

In fact this lady named Liddell was the one whom everyone looked up to with eyes of admiration, but Lena was strangely uncomfortable with this lady.
She’s as tall as Kahel, so it’s only natural that she could feel her blue eyes staring at her in every nook and cranny, and she didn’t feel well.

“Oh my! I apologize for what happened in the past.
Was Elliot rude? Miss Lena probably knows, but Elliot has a rough personality.
She did a lot of corrections with an etiquette teacher.
Elliot should have apologized to Miss Lena herself, but I think it would be right for me to apologize first as the one who brought her.”

“Oh, no.
The Lady did nothing wrong? Even the Lady would not have known that Lady Lucenwein would be like that.”

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Liddell thought that Lena was tougher than she thought.
There is nothing wrong with her words, but her implications were never so.
Maybe she was taught by Kahel in case she ever met Liddell.

“Thank you for thinking so, Miss Lena.
By the way, your necklace suits you very well.
You have a great eye?”

“Ah, this is His Excellency…… That doesn’t mean it’s strange at all, I don’t have fancy accessories to come out to a banquet like this…….”

 

“Yes, that’s possible.
Anyway, it suits Miss Lena very well.”

Liddell smiled broadly, as if it had meant nothing.
But on the inside, she was thinking differently.

‘Is this Miss naive, is she stupid? How could she take that as a mere favor?’

Even for herself, if her close maid made a debut in the social world, she could have given her a small accessory.
But that necklace was too precious to be given by such a favor.
It was an ambitious design presented by jeweler Zairdelle last year, and the price was not cheap.

Oddly enough, it seems that Kahel bought the design monopoly when they said they didn’t make similar designs after that.
Even if they thought she was a lover or mistress, it was too much for him to even buy a design monopoly, so he could not have just gifted it as a favor to his close maid.

With this, Liddell smiled, reaffirming once again that Kahel’s feelings for this maid were not light.

“I will invite you to my banquet sometime.”

“Thank you for your words.”

“Then, see you next time.”

Liddell bowed her knees deeply to greet her, smiled again at Lena, and then slowly left the place.
Lena stared at her gorgeous back, and found Gerard coughing ‘Hmmmm’ behind her.
Gerard was looking at Liddell’s back, but his eyes were clearly wary.