The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 71

“Then, would you like to rest for today?”

At the main gate of the Ignote Estate, after returning from the Imperial Palace, Dylan paused and asked, just to be sure. Kyler, who had been about to walk straight inside, turned to him and gave a brief nod.

“Then, please rest,” Dylan said politely with a bow before stepping away. Kyler walked back into the mansion without another word.

As if naturally taking over, Pavon and Rose appeared and stopped at the place where Dylan had just been.

“Welcome back. There were no incidents at the estate,” Pavon reported calmly.

“Duke, shall I prepare a meal?” Rose asked right after.

Kyler shook his head in response.

“Would you like a bath?”

“Later tonight.”

His reply was short and firm. Pavon and Rose understood that and said nothing more. They quickly stepped back, knowing well to keep their distance when he was in this state. They were careful not to linger when Kyler returned home like this, when his mood was at its most unpredictable.

Kyler quietly moved deeper into the mansion. His footsteps echoed softly as he climbed the stairs.

He no longer looked like the man who had shouted the day before or the one who had confidently spoken about exterminating monsters in front of the Emperor. Now he moved with the weight of exhaustion, as if whatever kept him going had been drained from him entirely.

At the top of the stairs, Kyler stopped in front of a familiar door. His eyes stayed on the doorknob.

When he had taken care of her injuries, all he could think about was helping her recover. There had been no room for any other thoughts. For someone like him, who had led countless battles, a fractured arm was nothing. He had seen worse. He had experienced worse.

But her injuries were different. He could not just brush them off. He had looked at them again and again, even though he knew that looking would not help. Still, he looked because he could not help himself.

And then he remembered the mistake he had made.

The guilt rose again, twisting in his chest and bringing a sharp pain to his head.

Sasha had not come to his room at night. Not once since that day.

That night, the noise in his ears had been unbearable. It had hurt so much that even his eardrums felt like they were going to burst.

Maybe it was because Sasha had been with him more recently. Her presence had given him a break from the constant noise. Now, without her, the noise was even more cruel. Maybe he was more sensitive too, overwhelmed by everything that had happened.

“Monster extermination? Why are you doing something so reckless now?”

“Reckless? Isn’t that what we always do? Why wait? I am going to destroy them all.”

“That is not how it works. That is why we only deal with them when they appear. That is why we wait.”

“Not how it works? If that is true, then I will burn the whole mountain range to the ground.”

He had completely lost control of his emotions. He shouted about killing every last monster. Dylan understood his rage and shouted back, not to argue but to help him release his anger and stop him from running out recklessly.

The others around him believed his anger was a good sign. They feared the silence more. They had seen what happened when he shut everything inside. Only Dylan knew how to handle him when he was like this.

He had not seen Sasha since then.

The noise had taken over again. But this time, he had also shown her a much rougher side of himself. At that moment, he had not been thinking clearly. The noise was sharp, and it sounded just like the presence of a monster. He could not separate that sound from the image of Sasha standing alone in front of the monster that day.

He had nearly failed to save her.

That moment haunted him. The memory of almost losing her felt like it was carved into his mind.

He wanted to go to her, the one person who could calm the noise inside him. But the guilt of putting her in danger that day weighed heavier than anything else. He could not face her. That guilt kept him talking with Dylan late into the night, going in circles, never finding a solution. In the end, he had returned to his room alone.

He remembered hesitating like this at her door before. The pain had been strong, but the guilt had been stronger.

And Sasha had not come to him either.

Even though his body felt heavy with hesitation, Kyler gathered himself and walked into his room.

No one blamed him. No one knew what had really happened. But he knew. And that was enough.

He knew he had put her in danger.

“Monster? D, darling”

“Take Kyler and hide”

His thoughts drifted to the memory he had tried so hard to bury.

Her voice, full of panic, blended with the awful, unnatural noise in his ears.

It was different from when he was a child.

Back then, his parents had died while trying to protect him. They had fought and fled until the end. They had died because he had been too weak to protect himself.

That pain had lasted a long time.

But when he grew older, he started to wonder. Would they have survived if he had not been there?

Only when he was old enough to think through that painful question did the guilt finally start to ease.

He had been living on the fringes of the world, stepping into it only because of the people around him. They were the reason he had received the title of Duke of Ignote. And it was only then that he truly realized he had become someone capable of protecting others with the strength he had built, with what he had inherited from his parents.

This ability, or rather the lack of it, was something he had once promised to use to protect someone.

Kyler finally turned his eyes away from Sasha’s doorknob. Letting her come close to him had been a mistake. It had been wrong to abandon the most important weapon he had, after making that promise to protect her.

Without making a sound, not even with his steps or breath, Kyler turned and returned to his own room.

The long hallway remained silent, without a trace of anyone passing through.

“When will he come…”

Sasha sat on the sofa near the door, listening carefully. He had left with Dylan that morning. According to Pavon, he had gone to the Imperial Palace to speak with His Majesty the Emperor.

Still, even knowing he could not have returned yet, Sasha had been sitting on the sofa, listening to the outside since long before it was possible for him to come home.

She thought that if she waited by the door, someone like Rose or Pavon might see her and start to worry. She didn’t want to add to the concerns of those who were already anxious about their master.

So Sasha sat quietly, with her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She made sure not to make any noise, hoping to hear his footsteps the moment they arrived.

She lowered her gaze to her feet resting on the sofa. Small marks and calluses remained here and there on her pale skin.

She had learned that people here took care of their skin using an oil called fragrance. It was expensive, and Rose in particular used it generously on Sasha’s hands and feet.

Because of that, some scars were unavoidable, but the rest of her skin had returned to a softer, paler shade. The calluses had faded as well.

These marks showed how this body had lived. Sasha herself did not remember that life in detail since she had only known this world recently. But when she looked at her hands and feet, she felt as if she could see traces of the life that came before her.

“My hands and feet were a mess before too.”

Even as a child, she had done whatever work she could, and her hands and feet had never been in good shape. It was impossible to compare the lives of the real Sasha and her own side by side to say who had suffered more, but if she had to decide, she thought they were similar.

And thinking that way, living this new life now truly felt like a dream.

Kyler had made that dream possible.

“Come quickly…”

She whispered her words quietly, barely loud enough for even herself to hear, and listened once more.

Then she thought she heard something. She stopped moving. She even stopped breathing.

A short whinny of a horse rang out. Sasha jumped up from the sofa.

Had Kyler come back? Or was it someone else? Unsure, she hesitated for a moment, then hurried to the window.

She opened it and stepped out onto the terrace, gripping the railing and leaning forward to see. But no matter how far she leaned, she could not see the main gate. It was around the corner, out of her line of sight.

She saw two horses pass by at the edge of the mansion. A man walked calmly between them. His boots, wrapped in brown leather straps, did not belong to Kyler.

“I was too hopeful. Should I go outside anyway?”

Disheartened, Sasha walked slowly back to the sofa near the door.

For some reason, she did not want to face Kyler if others were around. She was afraid Rose might try to stop her again, and she was worried about what kind of reaction he would show. She was also unsure about how the others would respond if they saw it.

She had become afraid.

Rose had stopped her from going to his room, and he had not come looking for her either. Even though he had been at the mansion yesterday and tonight as well, no one had said he had asked about her.

So she had left her room to find him, heard he had gone to the Imperial Palace, and had been waiting like this. She needed to talk to him. She did not even know what to say or how to begin, but the only thing she knew for sure was that she had to see him.

But no matter how long she waited, she could not hear any footsteps.

To reach his room, Kyler would have to pass right in front of Sasha’s door. But there had been no sound at all.

Sasha hugged her knees again on the sofa and rested her forehead on them. It was the kind of position that might make someone fall asleep, but her nerves kept her wide awake, waiting for any sound.

Time passed quietly. The sunlight that had reached her feet slowly faded. Twilight came, and the room began to grow dark.

It was so silent.

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