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The Lady and the Beast – Chapter : 09
“Am I dreaming?”
“No…… If you’re talking about that, then I think I can see it too.”
The gardeners stopped mowing the lawn and spoke in dazed voices.
They stared at each other with foolish expressions, then even went so far as to pinch one another in turn.
It wasn’t a dream, but they couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The two men gazed blankly at the figure walking ahead in the distance. What they saw was quite literally a beauty and a beast.
The Grand Duchess, who had become famous overnight, was dressed beautifully in a bright-colored dress and carried a parasol.
She strolled through the garden with elegant steps. Something that looked like metal glimmered in the hand covered by her white lace glove.
It was a chain.
The fearsome-looking object was connected to Theriod’s neck.
As Astina slowly walked forward, the monstrous Grand Duke followed behind her, matching her pace. Astina’s expression looked impossibly peaceful.
The two gardeners exchanged glances again. Their sleepy, blinking eyes soon widened.
The previous night, the people of the Grand Duke’s residence had spent the entire night awake.
They had been worried sick about Her Highness the Grand Duchess’s safety and the future of Atalenta.
But when morning came, astonishing news reached them.
[Her Highness the Grand Duchess did not die!]
Most of the servants had believed there was no way they would ever see the Grand Duchess’s face alive again.
A small number of them had predicted that, at the very least, she might lose a leg or an arm and, with some luck, survive as a cripple.
Ridiculously enough, Astina becoming disabled had been the most hopeful outcome they could imagine.
Yet the Grand Duchess, whom they had been certain would die, had returned alive. What was more, they heard that she hadn’t suffered a single injury.
Had the beauty and the beast miraculously fallen in love, just like in an old fairy tale? At least the beast in that story had possessed some reason. This was simply unbelievable.
Those who had stood guard outside the Grand Duke’s bedroom and personally heard the beast’s cries felt the same way. Even after seeing it with their own eyes, they couldn’t believe it.
When Astina walked out of the room, they had almost mistaken her for a ghost.
“He’s not functioning.”
A perfect silence fell, so complete that not even a breath could be heard.
The Grand Duke Astina had dragged out was unconscious and completely motionless, but his appearance was fearsome enough.
His enormous body radiated such an intimidating presence that it was difficult to look at him with the naked eye.
Several fainthearted servants fainted, unable to overcome their fear.
The first to regain his composure was the butler, who at least had the most life experience among them.
Oliver stammered as he asked,
“G-Grand Duchess, Your Highness, what exactly is that……?”
“Ah.”
Astina lowered Theriod’s foot.
Thud!
With the heavy sound of something hitting the ground, the monstrous Grand Duke’s body convulsed violently.
Astina rubbed her aching left wrist and said,
“His Highness the Grand Duke.”
“N-No. Why, why is His Grace……?”
Oliver struggled to finish his sentence.
Even that was impressive. Everyone else was frozen in place, unable to say a single word.
Astina realized that they were wondering why Theriod was lying there in such a state.
She lowered her gaze thoughtfully. Perhaps he had suffered a concussion, because the monstrous Grand Duke showed no signs of regaining consciousness.
She decided to conceal the fact that she had injured him by dragging him out and making him collide with the cage. After all, one should always hide anything that might work against oneself.
“I struck a vital point and knocked him unconscious. It’s not a serious injury, so he’ll regain consciousness soon.”
“Y-You knocked him unconscious?”
Confusion appeared on the servants’ faces. In truth, this was a very troublesome matter for Astina as well.
Despite his notorious reputation, the Grand Duke was extremely, terribly, unbelievably weak.
It was an important matter to Astina, although everyone else would have been horrified by such a thought.
Seeing the beast lying there in surrender made her feel uneasy. If Astina killed Theriod, it would be no different from bullying someone weaker than herself.
Furthermore, the original condition for repaying the debt had been to give birth to the Grand Duke’s child.
If they demanded repayment on the grounds that she had failed to fulfill the contractual conditions, she would have no other choice.
Above all, he seemed somewhat capable of being tamed, making it a waste to simply kill him.
Although it was uncommon, there were people who tamed and raised wild beasts.
There would be no significant problem in comparing the relationship between a trainer and an animal to the relationship between the Grand Duke and herself.
Since he was already completely cowed by her, she thought that with some effort, she might still be able to achieve her original goal.
In the end, Astina decided to leave bloodshed as a last resort.
“Is there a problem?”
Astina asked casually. Oliver closed his mouth. He wondered whether this was all a dream.
He pinched his sagging skin hard. It hurt.
It hurt.
Only then did Oliver experience an enormous shock. His mouth fell open.
Seeing Oliver’s horrified expression, Astina briefly wondered whether he was having a heart attack. The elderly butler was certainly old enough for such a thing to happen.
When no answer to her question came, even after waiting for some time, Astina spoke again.
“More importantly.”
“Y-Yes?”
Oliver finally managed to collect himself and responded. Astina kindly repeated her explanation.
“His Highness the Grand Duke is impotent.”
The head maid, Hamilton, suddenly burst into a violent coughing fit. As though something had gone down the wrong way, she spent quite some time clearing her throat roughly.
Astina patiently waited until Hamilton’s ragged breathing had settled.
Hamilton’s eyes trembled uneasily. She was already deeply shocked by the fact that Astina had knocked Theriod unconscious and dragged him out. But what Astina said afterward only confused them even more.
Oliver muttered without even realizing what he was saying.
“But we definitely gave him the medicine……”
“Oh dear. It seems His Highness the Grand Duke’s condition is more serious than I thought. And yet, even the medicine had no effect.”
Astina clicked her tongue.
“Anyway, this isn’t my fault.”
She had hit him rather hard, but she hadn’t broken any bones or severed any body parts.
Didn’t people say that men could perform their marital duties as long as they had enough strength to lift a spoon? This was undoubtedly the Grand Duke’s problem.
Astina, who had been lost in thought for a while, suddenly raised her head.
“There is always a reason when a man cannot fulfill his role.”
If she could identify the cause, she might be able to solve the problem.
Astina examined the Grand Duke’s condition once more. Now that she was looking at Theriod with a sense of concern, she realized that his living environment was full of things that needed improvement.
His diet consisted entirely of meat, which seemed nutritionally unbalanced, and the room where Theriod stayed was far too dark. Even people needed sunlight to maintain good health.
Above all, Theriod lacked exercise.
His cage was relatively spacious, but that was only in comparison to other cages. It was entirely different from moving around outdoors.
Astina came to her own diagnosis regarding the cause of the Grand Duke’s impotence.
“Could it be that his severe reclusive lifestyle has lowered his self-esteem?”
And so, it happened.
The strange walk began.
First, Astina requested a leash that would allow her to control Theriod. She couldn’t risk taking a wild beast outside among people and causing trouble.
A sturdy metal chain was soon brought to her, and Astina took the opportunity to begin a trial run the very next morning.
Perhaps Theriod had missed the sunlight as well, because the moment he stepped outside, he seemed eager to dash off in every direction. Whenever that happened, Astina had to pull on the leash to keep him under control.
After having his neck choked several times, he seemed to realize that he couldn’t escape. From then on, he became relatively docile.
Of course, he was only docile compared to how he had behaved when she first dragged him outside. Theriod still threw a fit whenever he felt bored.
Whenever Theriod bared his teeth at someone, Astina disciplined him. After all, a stubborn beast needed a good beating to learn its lesson.
“I suppose I’m still dreaming……”
“Yes, meeting you in a dream is certainly strange……”
The gardeners came to their own conclusion and returned to pulling weeds. They decided to forget the pain they had felt so vividly. There was no way the scene before their eyes could possibly be real.
After making many of the servants at the Grand Duke’s residence confuse dreams with reality, Astina, the very cause of it all, leisurely returned to the mansion.
Butler Oliver, whose face had turned deathly pale, was waiting for her in the Grand Duke’s bedroom.
Every three seconds, he glanced nervously at Theriod, as though expecting him to suddenly leap out and tear someone to pieces at any moment.
Astina took the key from Oliver and locked the Grand Duke back inside his cage.
Walking a large dog required a great deal of physical stamina.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Astina glanced around.
Even without looking carefully, it was obvious that the room was still terribly filthy. Astina clicked her tongue and said,
“The room is far too dark and musty. I’ll take care of the Grand Duke myself, so please use tomorrow’s walking time to carry out the cleaning you’ve been putting off.”
Theriod and Astina were now husband and wife.
Although their marriage had been arranged in a rather underhanded manner while Theriod was unconscious, that was the reality of the situation. Officially, Astina was supposed to share a room with him.
However, Astina had not the slightest desire to lie down beside Theriod in that dusty room.
They might not be able to undertake extensive renovations, but a thorough cleaning could be completed quickly if they brought in enough people.
After leaving detailed instructions regarding the interior design of the newlywed bedroom, Astina returned to her own room.
That day, Oliver went to check inside the cage, wondering whether his master’s sanity might have returned.
But the moment he heard the monstrous Grand Duke barking, he promptly fainted.
