CH 11.1

“We’re all set. We’d like to have a quiet time ourselves.”

Cherryl smiled kindly and replied only then.

As the ‘near-accident’ stunned him, he pointed the finger at another man with a fat face.

“This! This lady is so—- She almost hurt the important part!”

“What are you talking about? I just put down my belongings.”

Cherryl replied in a matter-of-fact as she drank the flower wine.

Her calm attitude was astonishing that even the man’s party couldn’t help but join and yell at them.

“You’re too much! What if my friend got hurt?”

“My butt! Hmmm. If I was hurt, would you have been responsible? Miss. Why don’t you buy me a drink if you’re sorry?”

“I’m not sorry, mister. Even if you got hurt, isn’t it your fault for trying to sit next to a woman who hadn’t permitted you to do so?” Cherryl retorted.

“Miss. I don’t know what you’re trying to do aside from inflicting injuries on me.”

These lame people kept implementing stupid rules they made up on the spot wherever she went.

How can these bastards exceed her expectations?

The other drunkard, reeling earlier even as he sat down, suddenly kicked his chair backwards and jumped up.

“Apologize right now!”

“What?”

When Cherryl answered, the man pointed his blunt hand at his friend’s butt.

“Apologize to his butt!”

“If I apologize, will you accept it? I’m alright with it. What’s next?”

Lucy almost burst into laughter at the moment but she put her head on the table and held it in.

The man’s friend seemed quite embarrassed at the blatant exchange.

The drunken man wriggled and shouted with his twisted tongue.

“So are you going to apologize or not? What if there was another hole in my friend’s butt? What?”

“You aren’t even using honorifics? Besides, your friend should have a butt hole from the beginning, old man.”

“Old man? How dare you call me an old man? I’m a cool twenty-two-year-old guy. I’m not that old.  Are you done talking?”

“So, your age is less than fifty, huh? Sit back and drink your beer, mister. Don’t be such a busy-body.”

Now, the whole bar was watching Cherryl and the two men.

As the uproar grew, the man who almost sat on a glass shard grabbed his drunken arm and dissuaded him, but the other man seemed to have completely lost his temper under the alcohol’s influence.

The drunkard twisted his big body around to shake off his friend’s hold and came to Cherryl with a thud.

Lucy stood up in a hurry and stamped her feet at a loss.

In any case, it was necessary to hold Cherryl’s hand and run away.

Unfortunately, the drunken man was quick to anticipate their escape.

When the drunkard approached Cherryl roughly, she closed her eyes tightly.

“I was a fool for believing in you, but why aren’t you showing up?”

Bang!

“Argh!”

As if someone had struck lightning from the drunkard’s back, his head hit the table as he dropped to the floor.

The drunkard’s body fell so mercilessly that Cherryl could easily mistake him for an old man.

“Hey! Hey! Let go of me! It hurts!”

Someone held the drunkard’s head and raised all of him with one hand as if he didn’t weigh a ton.

“Ha! I’m sorry, ladies. The boss told me to keep an eye on you in secret but I guess I screwed up.”

The man had a strange accent that was different from the aristocratic language.

Despite his youth, his threatening gaze flashed like a wild animal’s.

Cherryl already figured out who the stranger was based on the sharp-looking black suit unique to the Balkans.

He was the man who ate deer’s hind legs at dinner and the one who couldn’t resist Lucy’s absurd statement during the argument and burst into laughter.

He must be one of Cade’s closest aides.

Lecter, was it?

He was the only man who never lost his smile from the start of the original novel, which had the dark tragedy genre.

Perhaps, it was because he was the youngest among the subordinates who followed Cade closely.

“How dare you bother a woman and blow things out of proportion?” Lecter growled, crushing the rowdy drunk with all of his strength.

With his free hand, he beckoned Lucy and Cherryl to get out of the bar.

“Lucy! Come here. Let’s go outside for now.”

Cherryl took Lucy, who was shivering and broke through the buzzing crowd.

After getting a hold of the cool air outside, Lucy looked back.

“What if he’s hurt? There are three men over there.”

“It’s not a job for three people. Now, let’s sit here and wait.”

Cherryl and Lucy sat on a bench on a distant hill from the bar.

It was just right across the bar’s entrance, so they could see who was exiting the premises immediately.

“Madam, did you think he was the—-?”

“Yes, he was one of the entourage from the North with the Grand Duke. Don’t you remember seeing him at dinner that day?”

“I remember. He was sitting at the end of the table. He emptied several plates of meat and I filled them myself.”

“Lucy, he looks like he’s about your age.”

Lucy covered her mouth.

“Well, then how can he be so tall? I guess he ate a lot of meat to achieve that.”

“Cade seemed to be a picky eater, so it must have been something else. Maybe, it’s just a characteristic of people from the North. Both men and women must have been tall and well-built.”

Cherryl still can’t forget the shock when she first saw Cade.

His physique stood out even among tall and strong men and she couldn’t help but stare at his delicate appearance—-

He was an attractive man who drew her in like an unstoppable storm.

If he found out that she went back on her word  and pushed their marriage through, things would be unpleasant.

“After seeing only fat men with round faces in the central part of this region, the Grand Duke’s tall height and sharp physical features seemed to have opened my eyes for the first time,” Cheryl murmured as she painted him in a hazy vision.

“Are you Miss Cherryl, my lady?”

Cherryl and Lucy jerked in surprise when they heard the strange man’s voice behind their back.

There was no movement in front of them, so she didn’t expect anyone to show up.

“Oh, my God. You didn’t just hear me compliment Cade, did you?”

Lecter grinned awkwardly and trudged up.

“Or should I call you Cherryl?”

He seemed different from Cade, who grew up having an in-depth experience of aristocratic society.