If I Disobey the Duke - Chapter 119

Sore Finger (4)

A towering circular tower connected the corners of a grayish-white stone wall without a single window.

Cadis Prison on the western cliff, protruding out of the western wall.

The dark red vines that had dried up and died were like threads of blood dripping from the building. Even that was obscured by a gloomy mist.

It looked like it was going to rain.

“This is a prison that holds death-row inmates who have committed heinous crimes in the territory. I mean, it’s not a place you’d like to set foot in!” Valks stood with his back to the iron gate, growling like a gatekeeping dog.

A woman in a wine-colored cloak over a cream-colored dress. It was true that she shouldn’t be at the stone drawbridge with the iron railings.

“Then where should we meet? There are serfs here who allegedly assaulted my younger brother.”

Valks placed his hand in the gauntlet on his waist, draped in his black armor. “It would be outrageous to face such vicious criminals. They’re going to jail. Don’t you know that it’s a completely different thing from Cadis?”

Dark clouds roared like an answer. A gentle breeze brushed the leaves against each other like waves.

Lily bit her lower lip.

Did Dandelion really frame the weak citizens? I definitely need to check.

Even though she was a lady who had no power to turn the minds of her vassals if they made up their mind to stop her, she was the duchess.

If people suffered unfairly due to her family, Vlad’s reputation was going to be tainted.

A man despised all over the world. He regarded loneliness as a companion.

She couldn’t let him be hated even in his home.

Lily crumpled the letter while pressing down on her longing. A person whom she wanted to protect even while doubting her younger brother, whom she thought she had raised.

“I have this.” She lowered her cloak and raised her head straight toward Valks.

Valks frowned again. “Even if it were…”

“I will not move even one step from here until you let me in. After entering, I will be escorted by the Holy Lord.”

Drops of water fall from the cloudy sky. They fell at Lily’s feet, forming small puddles on the ground.

It seemed that the sky was on Lily’s side. A few minutes later, a drop of rain the size of her thumb fell.

Her burgundy cloak darkened with moisture and water dripped down from her long eyelashes.

Lily did not even move.

“M-madam. If it rains like this….” Hans, of course.

Even the eyes of the soldiers standing between the Valks and the iron gate wandered in nervousness.

She was the most noble woman in the whole of Arcadia.

Moreover, her bones were so thin that it was hard to believe that she was standing under the rain like a servant. Her tall stature also emphasized her slender physique.

Why did the lord take someone like Madam?

Their honest doubts about her disappeared the day the lady visited Cadis.

She was such a precious and beautiful woman. She was standing on the cold drawbridge and getting wet from the pouring rain.

Valks curled his toes. The closest place to escape from the rain was the prison behind him.

In the end, he let out a nervous sigh. “Open the door!”

Green eyes brightened.

Valks, who turned around as if he was about to die, waved his hand. “Come in…  I will escort you.”

Hans, who had struggled to cover Lily with hjs hand on the top of her head, suddenly lit up. “Come in, madam!”

The iron gate between the stone walls opened, and the heavy iron cage that had locked the building in made a rusty sound.

Even in broad daylight, full of dim torches.  Cadis Prison had finally opened up.

Lily followed Valks at a slow pace.

As soon as she passed the ground floor and entered the eerie space of stone coffins, she knew everything.

If it had been late winter, the air would have been cooler. It was a square space between the interrogation room and the dungeon.

From the outside, the gloomy stone chamber was soaked because of the rain.

In the middle of the dark space like a huge sarcophagus, a grid-shaped iron grate split open like an axe.

Lily leaned on the flickering torch and stared through the cage.

The passion that raged within her narrow chest turned into a cold conviction and something sank into her stomach.

“These people…  Are you saying they made my brother like that?”

Two wretched serfs.

Beyond the iron bars, two men in bulky clothes were trembling with their foreheads on the floor.

Jagged spines in tunics. The dirt stuck between their broken nails proved their hard life.

The dwarf fell on his stomach and raised his arms.

– F-forgive me…

Lily closed her eyes for a moment as she was not in the mood to brush her hair away. She looked as if she had been in a sudden accident.