Chapter 4
Kidnapped by a Fan (4)
“Miss, if it’s Duke Abelheim…”
Mary looked at me with trembling eyes. It seemed she had heard the rumors about him too.
Without thinking, I pulled Mary behind me and looked up at the duke.
He stared at me as though Mary’s words had amused him.
“Miss? So you’re a noble too, Author?”
The moment he asked, an idea came to me.
If I revealed that I was a noble, then surely even he wouldn’t dare keep me here.
It was worth a try.
Suppressing my anxiety, I forced a small smile.
“T-That’s right. I’m a noble. This girl is my personal maid who serves me. Right now, Your Grace has kidnapped a noble.”
So hurry up and send us home!
I desperately held back the urge to shout those words and spoke as calmly as I could.
Kidnapping a noble was a serious crime.
Whether the kidnapper was a bandit or another noble, it didn’t matter.
So even if he was the famous Duke Abelheim, he would have no choice but to let us go.
Perhaps he noticed the threat hidden in my words, because the duke narrowed his eyes.
He was smiling, but somehow his expression felt cold.
“Author, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“Huh? W-What do you mean…?”
“I didn’t kidnap you. I simply brought you here to take care of you.”
His words struck the back of my head like a hammer.
Was it me who misunderstood the definition of “taking care of someone?”
Completely unaware of my thoughts, the duke continued with a bright smile.
“I can erase any noble family from the map if I want. I can even change how people remember them. But I’m not doing that, am I?”
It felt as if all the blood drained from my face.
The threat hidden in his words pierced straight into my ears.
Meanwhile, the duke smiled proudly, like a child asking for praise.
“So what happened today wasn’t kidnapping. I simply brought you here.”
“…Why did you bring me here?”
I tried not to, but my voice trembled.
Only then did the duke smile as if we were finally understanding each other.
“I’m going to make you write.”
“…What?”
“That novel you’re currently on hiatus from. I want to read the next chapter.”
I was speechless.
He kidnapped me over something like that?
I had no idea what to say.
I couldn’t agree.
But I couldn’t refuse either.
While I was struggling to answer, Mary, who had quietly watched everything from behind me, suddenly stepped forward and shouted,
“T-That’s impossible!”
“Impossible?”
The duke tilted his head.
Startled, I grabbed Mary’s arm, but she spoke faster than I could stop her.
“Miss is suffering from writer’s block!”
I covered my face with my hand.
Mary was probably trying to create an excuse for us to escape, but from where I stood, this wasn’t helping at all.
Silence filled the room.
Only Mary continued staring nervously at the duke.
The duke blinked with wide eyes before suddenly beaming.
“That’s perfect! You can write the next chapter and overcome your writer’s block at the same time.”
Mary’s eyes shook in disbelief.
I stared at him with the same dumbfounded expression.
What kind of lunatic is this?
The dazzling first impression I had of him was long gone.
To me now, the duke was simply insane.
Unaware of my thoughts, he continued smiling happily.
“Come to think of it, writers only write when a deadline is right in front of them, don’t they?”
“T-That’s…”
“Then I’ll become your deadline.”
At those words, both Mary and I froze.
The duke simply smiled with the face of an angel.
“If the deadline is right in front of you, won’t you be able to write even with writer’s block?”
There were countless things I wanted to say.
But none of them came out.
Mary also seemed to have lost the ability to speak.
The duke drove the final nail into the coffin.
“Until you finish the next chapter, you won’t be leaving my mansion. Not even one step.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m so sorry, Miss… I shouldn’t have said that…”
“It’s not your fault, Mary. You saw him. The duke is completely crazy.”
Mary let out a long sigh.
Maybe it was contagious, because I sighed as well.
After making that one-sided declaration, the duke ordered a knight to escort Mary and me to our room.
The knight politely told us to rest before leaving, but there was no way I could relax.
Not after what the duke had said before we parted.
“By tomorrow, your personal study will be finished. That’s where you’ll write from now on. You can look forward to it.”
Look forward to it? My foot.
Inside my head, I did everything I couldn’t do in reality.
I punched his handsome face.
I grabbed his hair and pulled with all my strength.
He called it my personal study, but in reality it was nothing more than a prison where he’d lock me up until I produced chapters.
The thought alone made my blood boil and sent chills down my spine.
After imagining myself beating him countless times, I eventually gave up and sighed.
What was the point?
I couldn’t even talk back to him in real life.
“Miss, are you alright?”
Mary looked worried after seeing me sigh.
I forced a smile and nodded.
“I’m fine. No… I have to be fine if we’re going to escape from here.”
“Miss…”
“At the very least, I’ll make sure you get out of here, Mary. Once you escape, go straight to my father and mother and tell them what’s happened to me…”
“But even if we tell the Baron and Madam… do you really think they can get you out of here?”
Her uncertain question left me speechless.
Because I wasn’t confident either.
I searched my memory for everything I knew about the duke.
Even if I hadn’t wanted to know, the countless rumors I’d heard over the years had stayed with me.
Duke Abelheim.
His full name was Van Cloud Abelheim.
He was the young duke of House Abelheim, the most influential noble family in the Empire after the Imperial Family.
There wasn’t a single citizen in the Empire who didn’t know his name.
Not only because he possessed the beauty of an angel, but because despite his young age, he had already proven himself exceptionally capable.
Shortly after inheriting the title, there had been a massive criminal organization causing chaos throughout the Empire.
The Imperial Family desperately wanted to destroy them.
But it wasn’t easy.
The criminals were incredibly cunning.
They erased every piece of evidence linking them to their crimes.
Without proof, even the Imperial Family couldn’t arrest them based on suspicion alone.
Just as everyone was reaching their limit…
Duke Abelheim suddenly marched straight into the organization’s hideout with his knights.
Not long afterward…
He walked back out while dragging the leader by his hair.
Behind him, the organization’s members lay unconscious in pools of blood.
Destroying the organization deserved praise.
The problem was that there was still no evidence.
Everyone believed the duke would be punished for acting without authorization.
Then something unexpected happened.
The captured leader confessed.
He admitted every crime the organization had ever committed.
Thanks to that confession, instead of being punished, the duke received a reward from the Emperor.
Up to this point, he sounded like an extraordinary hero.
But that wasn’t why he was famous.
He was famous because of his utterly insane personality.
The nobles wanted to be close to Duke Abelheim.
At the same time, they desperately avoided him.
No one knew when they might fall out of his favor and have their family destroyed.
There was even a rumor explaining why he’d attacked that criminal organization in the first place.
People said he had never cared about them.
The only reason he stormed their headquarters was because the leader had damaged something precious to him and earned his wrath.
Another rumor claimed that whatever the duke did afterward terrified the leader so badly that he confessed everything out of pure fear.
Whether those stories are true or not… he’s definitely someone you should never get close to.
Back when I’d first heard those rumors at my family’s estate, I’d wondered if anyone could really be that crazy.
Now that I’d met him in person…
He was even worse than the rumors.
At this point, there was only one thing I could do.
Stay here for now.
Wait patiently for an opportunity to escape.
“Miss, it’s already very late. Perhaps you should try to get some sleep first?”
At Mary’s words, I looked at the clock.
Before I knew it, it was already dawn.
I let out a long sigh.
“I wonder if I’ll even be able to sleep in such an unfamiliar place…”
✦ ✦ ✦
As it turned out, that worry was completely unnecessary.
What did I mean I couldn’t sleep?
The bed was softer than anything I’d ever experienced.
I fell asleep almost immediately.
After such a chaotic day, my body must have been completely exhausted.
“You really have no sense, body. You’ve been kidnapped, and yet you slept like a baby.”
Embarrassed, I blushed.
Mary smiled awkwardly.
Judging from her face, she’d slept just as well as I had.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
I wondered who could possibly be visiting this early in the morning.
I looked at Mary, but she seemed just as confused.
Before either of us could answer, a woman’s voice came from outside.
“Miss, are you awake? We’ve come to help you prepare. May we come in?”
It sounded like one of the duke’s maids.
Relieved that it wasn’t the duke himself, I replied,
“Ah… yes, you may come in.”
“Excuse us.”
I expected maybe two or three maids.
Instead…
They poured into the room in a large group.
Every one of them carried something.
Warm steaming water.
Rolling racks filled with gorgeous dresses.
An enormous collection of cosmetics.
Whether I was shocked or not didn’t seem to matter.
They split into several groups and immediately began preparing everything.
One group approached me and bowed.
“Miss, we’ll help you bathe. Please come to the bathroom.”
“Ah… o-okay.”
As I followed them, I glanced back at Mary, who was still standing there in a daze.
Only after noticing my look did she snap out of it and hurriedly follow behind me.
The bathroom was connected directly to the bedroom.
The maids were already pouring fragrant bath oils into the tub.
A sweet floral scent filled the air.
With their help, I changed out of my clothes and slowly stepped into the bath.
The water wasn’t too hot or too cold.
It was the perfect temperature, gently relaxing my entire body.
“How do you like the fragrance?”
“I love it. It’s perfect.”
I answered honestly.
The maids all smiled warmly.
At that moment, all I wanted was to melt away in the warm water.
Unfortunately, they insisted that staying in hot water too long wasn’t healthy.
Reluctantly, I climbed out of the bath.
After putting on a robe, I returned to the bedroom.
Immediately, the entire dress team turned to look at me.
Caught off guard by all the attention, I instinctively took a step backward.
They calmly approached me.
Actually…
They seemed strangely excited.
Completely confused, I stood in front of the rolling rack.
The maids on both sides held up dresses one after another.
“How about this one?”
“It’s pretty, but it doesn’t suit the young lady.”
“Then what about this?”
“Too ordinary.”
Only after trying nearly every dress on the rack did they finally find one that satisfied everyone.
Once the decision was made, I took off my robe.
With the maids’ help, I changed into the dress.
It was a bright yellow dress that perfectly matched the spring season.
The neckline curved gently down to my collarbones without looking revealing, thanks to the white frills decorating the chest.
After they tied a deep yellow ribbon into a bow behind my back, the dressing was finally complete.
At last… it’s over.
I quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately…
One final challenge still awaited me.
Makeup.
