The Unlucky Villainess Small Fief

Chapter 11

"I am very sorry, Duke Suvvell... it is cramped in here..." Glen said as he placed a wooden chair to the side of the door of the barn. Rudevich sat down and enjoyed the quiet solace of the white world. Dialton was sitting on the opposite side and Glen was busy putting a table in front of them. Glen then went back to boil water and make coffee.

The silence was awkward. Glen glared at Dialton- telling him to start a conversation with the Duke.

"....um.Duke Suvvell." Dialton started talking.

"Yes?" Rudevich sighed of content as he remained looking at the scenery without even batting an eye on Dialton. Soon after, the aroma of coffee wafted in the air.

"Oh? What is that?" Duke Suvvell turned his head towards the direction of the smell. Dialton smiled. "It is coffee." "Coffee?" Rudevich asked. He had never heard of this 'coffee' that Sir Dialton was talking about. Glen put three mugs on the table and put a jar of sugar cubes in the middle, jar of milk, tongs and saucers with teaspoons too. Rudevich looked at how the two make their own version of coffee. He then copied them too. He added four sugar cubes and a pint of milk and sipped. His eyes widened.

"It is good." Duke Suvvell said. Dialton and Glen smirked. They remembered the phrase: 'Nothing can beats coffee!' by Lady Ortezca. 

"So, what brings you here?" Dialton asked straight to the point. Suvvell sipped once again before answering.

"I heard that Lady Holminne is in danger, so I am here to aid her." Duke Suvvell said.

"...she is always in danger though..." Glen murmured which Suvvell almost did not catch.

"What? What do you mean? And where is she?" Suvvell asked, looking worried. The two glanced at each other and then Dialton sighed. He stood up, followed by Glen who walked first away from them, bringing the two empty mugs. Suvvell was about to stand too, but Dialton stopped him. "Finish your coffee first, we must not leave excess food now do we?" He smiled.

Once the coffee was finished, sir Dialton accompanied Suvvell to the house where Lady Ortezca lives. Suvvell was shocked at how modest the house was. It was not even big. It was not a mansion. It was a typical wooden house, the only wooden house in the village. It does not even have an appropriate roof. It looked like a box. The three went inside and the Suvvell saw a sala connected to a kitchen. He then followed the two towards a door and he prepared himself before going in.

"Whatever you see inside, it will remain here and you will never speak of it once you return in the kingdom," glen said. Suvvell nodded. When he went inside, he saw so many books, stacks of papers in the table and coffee table. It was as if the bedroom and study room where connected as one. There, he saw Melody surprised at his sudden visit.

"Duke..duke Suvvell!! You..why..ah..greetings..my lord! This lowly servant will now get out!" Melody said and she grabbed the two men outside the lady's room. 

Rudevich walks beside the sleeping Ortezca. What he saw was not the lady in the portrait sent to him when he was in his office- he saw a lady who had been fighting on her own life for all this time- and now is in the edge of life and death. She was pale in the portrait but now she was even paler that she could almost camouflage with the sheets of the bed, albeit the flush on her cheeks indicating that she has a fever. She had long eyelashes, long hair, and had shadows under her eyes. Her once red lips were now chapped, cuts littering around it, and had a blue tinge. If any emotion would Duke Suvvell would have right now- it is look of pity.