The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 67

“Isn’t that already too much, my lord?”

“Why? Until now, I’ve always returned after completing every mission I set out to do.”

“But it never really ends, does it?”

Kyler and Dylan raised their voices as they walked through the entrance of the Duke’s estate. It was rare to see them argue this openly. Startled by the sound, Rose and Pavon stepped out, but when they realized it was a heated conversation, they kept a respectful distance and bowed.

Neither man stopped walking. Their voices remained tense and sharp as they headed directly toward Kyler’s office.

“This time, I need to put an end to it. We can’t keep letting it continue like this.”

“If this could be resolved with determination alone, it wouldn’t have lasted so long. Why are you doing this, my lord?”

“Rose, what’s going on?”

Sasha appeared at the top of the stairs. She had just opened her door to come down when their voices echoed up to her.

“Lady Sasha, Lord Kyler has returned. It seems he and Lord Dylan are having a serious disagreement.”

Even Rose looked uncertain. That alone was enough to make Sasha feel uneasy. She had never seen Kyler this angry. She had never imagined he could even raise his voice like that.

“Is he alright?”

“Maybe.”

The two women stood quietly in the hall, watching as the two men disappeared down the corridor.

“Until now, I only focused on whether I could handle the noise. I never allowed myself to go beyond that.”

Just before reaching the office door, Kyler suddenly stopped. He pressed a hand against his temple and cried out in pain.

Sasha, who had been slowly approaching, froze in shock.

“This time, where is it?”

Dylan asked calmly. Sasha instinctively took a step forward, but Rose gently reached out and held her back.

Sasha had been more surprised by Kyler’s anger than afraid. But now, seeing him cover his ears and groan in pain, something inside her turned cold.

“How long do I have to keep living like this?”

Dylan couldn’t respond. His earlier confidence faded into silence.

Kyler lowered his hands and stood straight. His blue eyes locked onto Dylan with an intensity that felt sharp as a blade. Even Sasha, who didn’t know what real killing intent looked like, felt her knees weaken under his gaze. It was terrifying.

“Kyler.”

Her voice trembled. She stood frozen as Kyler opened the office door and went inside. Dylan followed without hesitation. The door closed firmly behind them.

Sasha let out the breath she had been holding. Her legs gave out, and she nearly collapsed.

“Lady Sasha.”

Sasha exhaled deeply as if the weight pressing down on her chest had finally lifted. She grabbed Rose’s hand and held it tightly.

“There’s so much I didn’t know.”

“Lady Sasha.”

It wasn’t Kyler’s anger that scared her. People argue. People shout when emotions run high. That part she could understand.

What left her frozen was what had happened just before he entered the office.

The way he had clutched his ears and cried out in pain. It had to be the noise he once told her about. But she had never imagined it would be that intense.

“It wasn’t just noise. That pain wasn’t something small.”

Rose looked at her with concern as Sasha whispered to herself.

Kyler had looked like he was suffering deeply. The pain had twisted his face. And when he looked up, his eyes were no longer the same. There was something sharp and frightening in them that Sasha had never seen before.

She had never felt anything like that in her life. His eyes had burned with something close to fury. It was the kind of look that would stay in her memory, even in her sleep. It was that terrifying.

“Lady Sasha, come this way. I’ll bring you some warm tea.”

Rose gently patted her shoulder and guided her away from the office. Her voice was calm and steady, and just hearing it allowed Sasha to take a real breath for the first time in minutes.

As she followed Rose, they walked toward a quiet corner of the first floor. A small terrace waited at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t a place Sasha often visited, and the space looked slightly neglected. She sat down carefully. The afternoon sun still hung in the sky, and the warm scent of grass floated through the air with the breeze.

She inhaled deeply. The fresh scent reached her nose, and for a moment, her mind cleared.

Now that she could finally breathe again, embarrassment began to creep in. Why had she reacted like that? Why did she freeze up? She wasn’t the one in pain. He hadn’t even looked at her with those eyes.

“I overreacted.”

Now that her breathing had calmed, her earlier panic felt foolish. Kyler was the one hurting. He was the one who had to bear the pain. So why had she been the one so afraid?

“Lady Sasha, please try a sip of this tea. It will help you feel better.”

Rose approached quickly, carrying the tea. A soft and familiar scent rose from the cup. It was chamomile, a tea known for calming the nerves. Sasha took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily as she took a sip.

“I must have looked ridiculous. Kyler’s the one in pain, and I’m the one who panicked like that.”

Her voice held a trace of guilt. Rose looked down at her with a hint of sympathy.

“If only everyone could see it the way you do, Lady Sasha.”

There was a sigh in Rose’s voice, something rare from someone usually composed. Sasha, who had been calming herself with the tea’s warmth and scent, lifted her gaze to Rose.

A shadow had settled across the older woman’s gentle face. She had worked in the Duke’s household for many years, and she surely knew everything that had happened before Sasha’s arrival.

That painful moment Sasha had just witnessed probably wasn’t the first of its kind.

“What do you mean by ‘everyone’? How did other people see it?”

She wasn’t sure what answer she expected. Was reacting with worry and fear somehow not the normal thing to do? She held the teacup to her lips, letting the warmth and scent settle her nerves, and waited for Rose to reply.

“To be honest, what you saw today was a much calmer version. In the past, it was far worse.”

Rose’s voice was quiet, her expression soft with sadness. The memories seemed heavy. Even just recalling them was enough to bring pain to her face.

Sasha gently pulled out the chair across from her. Rose gave a faint smile and furrowed her brows slightly as she sat down.

“It’s a terrible thing. It comes without warning, and there’s no way to calm it down or push it away.”

Sasha didn’t know all the details, but based on what she had heard, she could guess it had to do with the strange noise Kyler heard.

Whether it was a soft sound or a loud one, either could be unbearable. And if it caused actual pain, then it wasn’t just distracting—it was torment.

Anyone else might have collapsed under the stress. Most people wouldn’t even be able to function.

“The previous Duke and Duchess always protected him. What he suffers from was known to appear occasionally within the Ignote family, but only very rarely.”

It wasn’t unique to Kyler, but in their generation, he was the only one known to carry the ability. For all the pain it caused, the gift gave him very little in return.

“Before, the sounds were more like background noise, manageable. But everything changed after the previous Duke and Duchess passed away.”

Sasha felt her heart sink. Maybe it had been the grief. Rose explained that the strange power became stronger after their deaths.

“There were many days like today. Of course he screamed. Anyone would if they were in that kind of pain. If a sound like that rang in your ears constantly, how could you not become sensitive? How could you not be on edge? That’s human nature.”

The words poured out of Rose as if she had held them in for a long time. Sasha pressed her hand to her chest, feeling the weight of that sorrow as if it were her own.

“But people judged him. They turned on him. They treated him like a stranger, like something inhuman. They said he heard things that weren’t there, that he was unstable, and that one day he might even hurt someone.”

“That’s awful.”

Sasha clenched her teeth. She couldn’t understand how people could blame him so easily, without knowing anything about what he was going through.

“Thank you for saying that. Hearing it out loud helps a little. I can’t tell you how many times I cursed those people in my head.”

Rose smiled gently. She had seen many people freeze up after witnessing one of Kyler’s episodes. And once they snapped out of it, most of them turned their fear into cruelty, accusing him of being dangerous or unstable.

But Sasha had reacted differently. Even though she had been startled, she hadn’t rejected him. She had tried to understand. She had chosen compassion. As Rose thought of it, her eyes welled up with tears.

“It must have hurt so much. He must have been so tired. Anything unusual or different is always lonely. Even if you’re just missing one thing that others have, or even if you have one thing they don’t, people treat you like you don’t belong.”

Sasha felt her throat tighten. Her nose burned as she held back the sting of tears.

More than anything, she wanted to run into that office and wrap her arms around him.

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