TLFKCT 08

Chapter 8

The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess

Meanwhile, at the Duke of Ardena’s mansion.

On the third day after Rosana left with the expedition party, the Duke of Ardena returned to the mansion. During that time, the duke had surrounded himself only with people who suited him, spending his days in pleasure while drugged.

The head butler bowed his head before the Duke of Ardena, who had returned with an exhausted face.

“Your Grace, welcome back.”

After three days, the door to the duke’s study finally opened. As the butler watched the Duke of Ardena’s back, he bit his lips nervously, unable to hide his uneasiness.

“What the hell is this?!”

The duke’s roar echoed throughout the mansion. It had already been three days since the safe in the study had been horribly broken into. The time had come for the Duke’s household, which had tried to cover up the incident, to face the duke’s wrath.

“Head butler! Where are you right now?! Gather all these damn people! Find out who did this right now!!”

The head butler squeezed his eyes shut.

It was not only the safe in the study that had been robbed. The duke’s reason had also completely collapsed under the influence of drugs. His face was flushed red, his pupils were unnaturally dilated, and the smell of drugs came from his disheveled hair.

“Head butler!”

The head butler, who had been grabbed by the collar, bowed his head.

“It was you, wasn’t it?! How dare you touch my safe!”

The duke asked with burning eyes. Only the duke and the head butler knew the password to the safe in the study. In front of the terrible sight of the safe, which had been crushed and bent open, exposing everything inside, the duke completely lost his reason.

“N-No, never! Your Grace, I have served you faithfully for thirty years! Your Grace, please believe me! How could I ever dare to do such a thing!”

The butler fell to his knees.

“Call the captain of the guards immediately! Seal off the mansion and investigate every single person!”

The head butler, who had been sprawled on the floor, quickly got up and ran out. His desperate voice calling for the captain of the duke’s guards echoed throughout the mansion.

The duke widened his eyes and began checking every room. His bedroom, the reception room, and even the dressing room.

The jewels that should have been in the dressing room were all gone as well.

“Aaaaaah!”

They were things the duke had treasured and collected throughout his entire life.

The Duke of Ardena believed that only extravagant luxuries could show the dignity and status of the ducal family. Everything he had taken pride in was gone.

The Duke of Ardena could not shake off the feeling that he had been stripped naked.

“Rosana! Where is that damn girl?!”

The duke shouted after completely losing his reason. The Duke of Ardena believed that every misfortune that happened to him had originated from Rosana. He believed that the Duchess had died because of Rosana, and that darkness had fallen over the House of Ardena ever since.

“L-Lady Rosana has left, Your Grace. She joined the expedition party and……”

“Hah!”

The Duke of Ardena ground his teeth. He could feel every muscle in his body tense.

There was no one for him to vent his anger on.

Rosana, who had always endured his anger and violence, had already left for the expedition.

The Duke of Ardena asked in a sinister voice.

“Gather everyone. Don’t leave out even a single ant.”

The Duke of Ardena’s eyes were filled with murderous intent because he could not properly take his anger out on anyone.

The duke’s order spread throughout the mansion. Before long, the spacious lobby was filled with people.

The Duke of Ardena coldly looked over them.

Every one of them had terrified faces.

“Who was it? Who dared to lay a hand on Ardena’s property?”

Everyone held their breath.

But no one stepped forward.

“Fine. Search everything! Turn every room upside down! Whoever it is, they will not escape death! I will cut off the head of the person who dared to bring shame upon Ardena and put it on display!”

A massive search began.

They searched not only the servants’ rooms, but also the stables and storage rooms. They even dug through the soil in the garden.

Of course, even after all that, the culprit did not appear.

Not a single one of the stolen treasures was found either.

The Duke of Ardena sent people into the markets, and it was only another week later that they discovered what had happened to the jewels he had been desperately searching for.

They were items that had been circulated through the black market.

Those who tried to trace their source to the very end always met an unpleasant end.

And so, the Duke of Ardena lost all hope of ever getting his treasures back.

The screams of the Duke of Ardena occupied the capital for quite some time.

Of course, none of those screams reached Rosana’s ears as she traveled toward the north.

And at that time.

We diligently traveled north toward our first destination, Greystone. Every day, we marched from early dawn until sunset, set up camp, and then departed again at dawn the next day. This exhausting schedule continued repeatedly.

And now, according to our assigned groups, we were taking turns standing guard every night.

At first, even the young ladies and children who had whined that they could not walk and begged to be sent home gradually became quieter.

Their tears had dried up, and as if accepting reality, they kept their mouths shut.

The non-combat personnel and combat personnel were clearly separated.

The combat personnel were repeatedly training and preparing for the struggle to survive, while the non-combat personnel were left unattended.

In fact, I could understand Kael’s choice.

With limited time, limited manpower, and limited resources, there was a limit to how many soldiers he could train.

To fight the monsters, people with outstanding skills were needed.

It would be more likely to succeed if he focused his resources on them.

A sigh naturally escaped me.

“Tsk, tsk.”

I could understand Kael’s feelings too……

How exactly was he supposed to fight monsters while carrying people like that around?

It was amazing that he had not abandoned them yet.

The reason Kael could not leave them behind was simple.

They had also come as representatives of their respective families.

They were people who had the duty to prove and leave a record that they had remained with the expedition until it ended, or until the moment they lost their lives, representing their families.

If they were left out of the expedition party without fulfilling that duty, their families would be branded as traitors.

That was not something the representatives of those families wanted.

Most of the people among them had probably taken this position in exchange for a reward.

If they were abandoned or gave up, their precious family members or loved ones could die, or they could be forced to pay an even greater price.

Kael knew that as well, which was why he was trying to lead them somehow.

It was such an unbearably frustrating part of the novel.

Seeing it in person wasn’t any different.

And I was also one of those “useless non-combat personnel.”

I had been training little by little during the journey to recover my combat instincts, but I did not think they would completely return before I actually entered a real battle.

The good thing was that at least my physical strength was not as terrible as it had been when I first possessed Rosana’s body.

These days, I had found myself a training partner who would stay with me.

“Vanessa! Get up! We need to exercise before we leave!”

Vanessa groaned from inside her supply sleeping bag.

“Ugh…… Rosana…… Can’t I rest just for today……?”

“You said that yesterday too.”

“……I couldn’t rest yesterday either. You wouldn’t let me rest, Rosana.”

Vanessa raised her head with tears in her eyes.

This young lady, who had been crying from the very beginning of the expedition, had one serious problem.

She could not run.

Just like most noble young ladies.

They considered walking for thirty minutes a day to be a lot of exercise.

After all, their only real form of exercise had been taking small steps in tiny, uncomfortable shoes.

For people like that, marching dozens of kilometers on an expedition was unbearable.

It was no different from the condition Rosana’s body had been in when I first possessed it.

So of course, these marches felt like death to her.

There had been many times when I had practically dragged her along because she could barely walk.

“I’m really…… I feel like I’m going to die just from walking all day……. My feet are covered in blisters…….”

“That’s why you need to exercise more. Do you want to get torn apart by a monster’s teeth? You need to at least know how to run away, Vanessa.”

When I lightly pulled on the sleeping bag, Vanessa trembled and got up.

“I’m more afraid of Rosana now than I am of a monster’s teeth……”

That was only because she had never met a monster before.

Thanks to the fact that we still had not encountered any monsters, some of the group had even begun to think that the existence of monsters was nothing more than a fantasy.

It was just escapism, really.