Chapter 10 – It’s Impossible To Handle Anymore
***
It was around dinnertime when the sky was fading into night. Inside a darkening hallway, bright brown-colored eyes seemed to shine with young vitality. Jack remembered the gentle smile that carried feelings of indifference towards him, making him more anxious than before.
‘Leticia. He’s just like her.’
Suddenly, Jack saw the image of Leticia being layered over Zed. Did they stay around each other for so long that even their likenesses became similar?
A petty anger rose up in Jack, and he quickly turned his heel and marched away with a slight aggressiveness.
However, that anger inside him slowly dissipated as he got closer to Leticia’s bedroom. If he used this opportunity well, then soon he would be the one making fun of all the annoying servants Leticia had.
As soon as he arrived at the bedroom door, he checked the area to see if anyone else was around. After confirming that it was safe, he entered the room. Inside he found Leticia sitting alone at a table and eating a slice of cake.
At Jack’s sudden appearance, Leticia turned her clear eyes towards him in suspicion. She didn’t seem to know what his intentions were.
As cold as Leticia was, her eyes reflected her true thoughts. However, instead of seeing numerous snakes coiling inside her eyes, Jack only saw a clean lake instead. A small piece of cream smudged on her cheek made her look a bit funny.
Jack couldn’t help but smirk at the sight. Like this, she could be perfectly coerced into following his will. The best thing to do right now was to make her believe that he was her only true ally, and that the rest were enemies. Then, when the chance came…perhaps he could slowly seduce her into his bed as well.
Jack leered at Leticia’s body as if he were licking his tongue all over it. Her curvaceous figure was enough to make any man’s lust start to flow inside. She looked so tempting even when she was wearing all those clothes—how much more without them? A thrill ran down his spine at the thought of taking his woman who looked down on everyone, including himself, and crushing her beneath his feet.
‘She’s just a bitch with nothing left now. I have no need to treat her like a princess anymore.’
Jack smiled at her, the same practiced smile he used to flatter the royal knights in the past. However, his eyes were thick with greed and shadowy intentions.
“My Lady, I have something that I must talk to you about.”
He had already dealt with several nobles with his schemes, so a child would be even easier. Jack snickered inwardly, and slowly began to draw out his plans.
First…he needed to get rid of that damned peasant knight.
***
“Damn it, he really did send it.”
Zed grasped his hair in frustration as he looked at the letter on the dissolution of the engagement. This wasn’t just a letter made out by the Duke’s own dogmatism. It was a dissolution carrying the full official agreement of the Senate. Zed’s eyes ran down the list of signed names and he spit out curses and swear words.
The problem didn’t stop there. This damned Duke had actually let out to the public that Leticia mentally reverted back to childhood age, meaning that the public were hotly discussing her condition. The rumor spread like a flood bursting through a dam, no longer contained and spreading out to all corners of the country.
“It’s impossible to handle it anymore…”
Zed dropped his face to his desk. How could a simple bodyguard servant control this situation himself? Without exaggeration, the right choice may be to try to give up on doing so and simply resign.
Zed traced his fingers on the paragraph communicating that the Duke would be visiting in two days to continue the dissolution process of the engagement. He was probably excited about this. He probably thought that this would be a walk in the park for him. The smug Duke didn’t summon Leticia to his abode; no, he was going to give her the honor of visiting her himself.
Honor? Yeah right, as if.
“That no good son of a bitch, just go drop DEAD! Did he really need to do all this at this moment!? Damn it aaaaaaall!”
Zed could no longer restrain his anger, and the letter crumpled in his fist.
A few moments later, however, he smoothed out the paper again and tried his best to restore it to its original state. He needed to show it to Marchioness Laimi after all.
Despite the rage bubbling up inside him, he grudgingly had to treat the dissolution letter with significant respect. He still had a mountain of documents to deal with as well.
Zed stared vacantly at the stack of reports and budget documents. Even though he completed his guard shift and worked all through the night, he still had a considerable workload to face.
In the past, Leticia would usually force him to take care of a portion of documents piled up, so he knew that she always had a lot of work that needed to be done. Now that he was responsible for the whole pile instead of a portion, he felt ready to keel over and die. He inwardly admired Leticia’s ability to take on this daily psychological assault without too many problems.
He seriously considered giving everything up and walking away now. Even if his mistress was brought to ruins, what did it matter to him? His only job was to be her bodyguard after all.
However…their relationship had been built over seven years together, even if much of it was filled with hate and servitude. Even as he kept repeating to himself ‘I’m not going to do it, I’m not going to do it’, he still found himself rummaging through the documents.
“I’m truly an idiot. The biggest idiot.”
Zed let out repeated sighs as he went through the documents.
Knock knock knock.
A knocking interrupted him, and Zed opened a drawer and hid the dissolution letter before speaking.
“Come in.”
Click.
As soon as the permission was given, the door opened and Jack cautiously stepped inside with a pale expression. Upon seeing him, Zed’s expression soured.
That guy is supposed to be working right now. He’s supposed to be firmly guarding Her Lady’s side, so why is he visiting this here?
Zed swallowed back the rebuke that threatened to rise from his throat, and gave a gentle smile to Jack.
“What’s the problem? For you to visit at this late hour must mean you have something to report?”
Zed spoke indirectly, but he was basically asking Jack why he was playing truant to his post.
Just a few days ago when Jack received his new duty of protecting the mistress at night, Jack had been giving Zed smug stares as if Zed was below him. However, just a day later, Jack’s complexion became very pale and unhealthy. It only kept getting worse as days went by.
‘Even when I asked Anna if there was something up with him, she said there was nothing.’
Zed suspected that Jack must have some kind of plot up his sleeve, so he had Anna secretly keep an eye on him since the first day. If Jack had any ill intent towards Leticia in any way at all, Zed planned to immediately catch him in the act and take him down…
But these last few days had been quiet, and Jack actually became shyer and more reticent as the days went by.
Something felt strange, but since Zed had so many things to attend to, he simply let it pass without worrying too much. At least Jack hadn’t done anything malicious towards Leticia yet. Zed was just too busy to even think about the mental stability of his co-workers in the mansion.
But…
“Here is my letter of resignation.”
He didn’t think that it would come back to him in a form like this.
Zed stared disbelievingly at the letter of resignation handed in front of him. He blinked his eyes multiple times, but the man who stood in front of him didn’t disappear like a hallucination. Zed pinched himself on his thighs underneath the table to check if this was a dream, but all he got back was a sting of pain.