Kidnapped By The Crazy Duke

Chapter 47

***

My lips couldn’t fall off as if I had been mute by the Queen’s suggestion.

The answer was simple, yes or no. It was one of two, but both were reluctant answers.

Noah and the Queen were looking at me at the same time, so I just looked around. While I was doing that, Noah smirked at the Queen and asked,

“Why?”

It was an arrogant and arrogantly rude way of speaking, but the Queen didn’t seem to mind Noah’s way of speaking at all.

“Just wondering. Don’t you like it, Noah?”

She called his name along with her simple answer. Oh, yes. The two of them were close.

They talked to each other like that when no one was around. Noah used a semi-respectful tone with Princess Erica as well, so it was not out of the realm of possibility.

There were no people nearby, and the longer the conversation went on, the more normal language they used.

I don’t know why Princess Erica clung to Noah so tightly, even though at first glance they seem to be dog and cat. While I was lost in other thoughts, Noah, who had been silent for a while, opened his mouth.

“Then, we’ll share a room. We can’t be separated.”

Queen Grace narrowed her eyes at Noah’s words and tilted her head slightly with a laugh.

“And if I say no?”

“Well, then it’s difficult.”

Are they fighting over me right now? I was stuck between the eyes that clashed tightly. I felt pressured.

As soon as I was agonizing over how to express “Don’t fight!” the Queen covered her mouth and smiled happily.

“I was joking. I want to hear your story. What do you think, Miss Diana?”

“It’s an honor, Your Majesty.”

Noah looked disappointed at my answer, which I couldn’t refuse. He rubbed his face and emphasized it again.

“We’re deeply in love, so we’ll use one room.”

“When did you become such a thirsty man, Noah? You will.”

The Queen gave Noah a look as if she was looking at her brother who had grown up without her knowing.

If I were to describe it in detail, it would be the pathetic expression of an older sister watching her younger brother, who brought his girlfriend over and stubbornly insisted on sleeping with her.

I shrugged my shoulders in embarrassment, thinking that the Queen must be trying to steal me away from him, and wondered how to deal with her when she tried to seduce me.

“Make sure you come to the palace tomorrow. I hope you bring a beautiful dress.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

I bowed my head, deliberately hiding my panic at the Queen’s words. She wants me to look pretty so that she can easily seduce me?

This is really troubling. The Queen was beautiful enough to take my soul, but I preferred men, or rather Noah. I just bit my lips awkwardly. Noah, perhaps feeling somewhat threatened, grabbed my hand.

“She’s mine. Don’t even think about taking her away from me.”

It was a decisive tone. The Queen, who was sitting in her chair with her cheek resting on her hand, raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Mm, take her away?”

She murmured with a grin. Noah’s words and the Queen’s reaction confirmed my hypothesis perfectly.

I did not want this kind of triangular composition. I was a person with a clear identity and it was too messy to have a love triangle. By nature, I don’t go outside the house much in my life, so meeting one was already too much for me to handle.

It was clear that I would suffer from being caught between two beautiful people going straight at each other. It won’t look like a triangle anymore because I’ll be pushed flat.

“Haha. Why is Her Majesty taking me away from you? I’m leaving now. I’ll see you tomorrow, Your Majesty.”

As I led Noah out, I turned around and smiled at the Queen. The Queen winked beautifully as she looked at me.

Oh, what is it?

I was sure. I was stuck in a swamp of lasciviousness. I felt an earthquake in my eyes. I pretended not to see it and walked on, creaking like a puppet.

Noah left the palace and sat in the driver’s seat, his forehead resting on the steering wheel, lost in thought.

“I was going to stop her from doing that. It’s not easy.”

I was just as worried as he was.

“Yes, I like men.”

Noah’s stern eyes stared at me resentfully, and he quickly lowered his eyes without effort. He murmured in a low voice, as if talking to himself.

“It’s really hard……”

“No, I like a guy named Noah.”

I hastily corrected my words, but Noah’s eyebrows could only contract as he raised his head significantly.

“You can’t meet another man. If you do, I’m going to give you two choices.”

“What are they?”

“First, I’m going to shoot the man.”

The way he spoke with a great momentum made me cringe as if he was holding a gun to my ear. It would be too powerful a retaliation for the first option. I was afraid that the second choice meant he was going to shoot me.

I gulped and listened to him about the murder threat.

“The second. One more confirmation shot, then I’ll finish the confirmation of death.”

“That’s scary.”

“So you’d better break up with him nicely and not even think about going out with another man at all, right? I’m going to make his death like an accident and get rid of it.”

“Why do you dare to kill him and make it look like an accident?”

“If the princess is sad, I will comfort her. Then she will need me and like me again.”

He was a creative and crazy man, after all. In fact, the chances of virtually anything mentioned happening were slim to none. If you only looked at the obsessive beautiful man, you won’t be interested in any other men.

In fact, even when I dated the rather good-looking Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Grenendall, he didn’t make me feel anything.

My exes? I don’t even remember their names. He was such an overwhelming unicorn of a man. Objectively speaking, yes.

“No, it won’t happen. I don’t want any unnecessary murders….. I can’t see any other man but you. You’re so beautiful.”

“Yes. Continue to think I’m the only one who is beautiful, or nice, handsome, pretty, etc.”

The conversation moved to a completely different topic, but I was eager to express my heart in my own way. He persisted in asking me on the ride home.

“I’m the only one who you will love?”

“Yes.”

“What if someone prettier than me appears?”

“There has never been anyone like that in history. I don’t think he will appear in another hundred years or so.”

We passed over the Ramblin’ Bridge, which stretched over the river, and entered the new city center. The car stopped on the side of the road for a while and then he turned and looked at me.

“You seem jealous. You are behaving like a child.”

“I know.”

I looked at Noah, smiling and Noah turned his head away. The tips of his ears were red. The man who had been so fierce in exterminating all the men in the world had a vulnerable look on his face.

I said in a somewhat relaxed voice.

“You don’t have to be jealous.” (Diana)

“I do, though.” (Noah)

“I’m jealous of the pudding too. It’s unfair.” (Noah)

“I’m sorry.” (Diana)

“Yes. So I want you to like me only.” (Noah)

“That’s it. You’re my most favorite in this world.” (Diana)

At the time when I fell into an unfamiliar world, this man was the only person I could rely on, so I got myself abducted. In fact, it was safe to say that I was the one who abducted that man’s heart. Noah’s lips, which had been closed in a straight line, bent loosely like inertia.

“Most favorite in the world? That’s a nice expression to hear.”

Noah, who was humming to himself, started the engine again. He looked as pleased as a child who had found something new.

***

After Noah and Diana had gone home, Queen Grace II slowly rose and looked at Baron Mason, who was standing nearby.

“Your Majesty, you’re leaving?”

“Oh, yes. I’m tired.”

Princess Erica, who had been sipping champagne and socializing with the ladies, approached her mother and cautiously opened her mouth.

“Did you perhaps order her to stay at the palace for my sake?”

The Queen’s expression became somewhat stunned at the princess’s words.

“Have you not yet given up your unrequited love? Don’t you know very well that you can’t marry Noah?”

“There are probably other candidates for the Winter family succession. Mother, I’m not so sure.”

“Do you intend to end the era of the Spencer dynasty? This is not a seat that depends on your confidence. It is a fate that is forced upon us, a fate that we cannot avoid as long as we are born heirs to a legitimate line.”

Queen Grace’s tone was calm and cold.

Erica looked like she was going to start crying soon, and her lips twitched, but she didn’t cry. She spoke in a low voice.

“I want to marry someone I love.”

The Queen’s face, which had always been expressionless or monotonous with only a social smile, sank into a cold expression.

“For a woman to be the master of a country, you’re greedy. You can use your power to keep him close to you, but a ruler should not do so. The Queen must live her life in the expectation and gaze of all people and be respected for the rest of her life.”

“I don’t like it. It’s like bondage.”

Princess Erica shook her head sadly. The Queen moved her hand and gestured for her to come closer. As Princess Erica, looking a little frightened, approached, the Queen whispered to her in secret.

“It’s your power that they tell you they love you, not you. It was the same with me, I believed what the man* said about loving me. As it turned out, his love wasn’t me.” (*The man was the Admiral. Celine’s father)

“Noah is different.”

The Queen smiled bitterly at her words.

“Ah, your premise is wrong, my dear. He doesn’t even love you in the first place.”

“No. If it wasn’t love…..then it would be odd since he dropped everything to come to Medea.”

It was a fact that everyone knew that it was for Diana’s sake, but the Princess didn’t know. She probably didn’t want to accept it.

“No. He’s…”

The way Noah looked at Diana was different. He just wanted one thing. All the same one.

The Queen stopped speaking and closed her eyes in thought.

Her lips twitched as she thought of a young man who had shone with his mere presence in the past. He had beautiful white blond hair and sapphire blue eyes. A man who gave a sharp impression, but when he smiled, he looked somewhat pure. He was a man who always made her heart throb, giving meaning to even the smallest action.

It was a day when the sky was particularly clear and high. A nice young man in a uniform was standing against a field of wheat that was about to be harvested, looking at her. She thought he was like a prince from a fairy tale.

“The day I met the Princess was the best day of my life.”

“Did I do anything special that day? I don’t remember.”

“It was the first time we saw each other. It was the best chance I ever had.”

A moment later he confessed his love to her, the princess, as soon she felt he looked like a golden glow against the autumn field.

“I think it’s fate. I want to give my all to the Princess. Rudely, I love you with all my heart, Princess.”

She regretted that his sincere eyes were filled with the blue sky that stung her eyes.

This was a long time ago, but the past haunted her for a lifetime, and she had to face it. Sometimes it came out of nowhere in the form of unrequited love, sometimes in the form of hate.

The afterimages of memories that were no longer memories had once again been burned into the Queen’s mind in a different form. The more things you have, the more you hide behind them and the less you can truly love.

The man approached her under the guise of love. Winston Claire, now Admiral of the Belford Navy, was the Queen’s first love.

She recalled meeting Noah, who was seven years old at the time, when she was kicked out after meeting with the Admiral.