I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 16

Chapter 8.2

‘….!’

I recoiled away from the door, startled by the gaze staring right at me through the gap in the door.

‘Did he know I was there? How long did he know?’

All of a sudden, there was the sound of clothes brushing from inside, like someone got up and moved. As I tried to peer inside the door again, I heard the Duke’s voice above my head. Suddenly, he was standing in front of me with the door in between us.

“I want to meet Miss Rowaine in person.”

“She isn’t feeling well because she used the magic circle twice to teleport in a short period of time.”

Even as Count Larscel lied brazenly, the Duke opened the parlor door as if he had nothing to wait for.

“There you are.”

“Rowaine!”

The Count looked at me with widened eyes as if he couldn’t believe that I was out of my room right now.

I shrugged and approached Duke Blois.

“Here so soon?”

When I spoke with a smile to provoke the Duke, Count Rowaine’s expression distorted as badly as a crumpled piece of paper.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Not even pretending to listen to his words, Count Larscel ran up to me, looking despicable, and tried to grab me.

“Why are you so being so rude…!”

It was then.

“Excuse me, Miss Rowaine.”

The Duke grabbed me by the waist and pulled me closer to him. Count Larscel’s hand, which had been trying to nab me, clutched at the air instead.

“That looks dangerous.”

In a split second, the Duke had me in his arms, and then he laid me down on the sofa where he had been sitting. He stared down at Count Larscel, who was much shorter than him. The Duke’s shadow covered Count Larscel’s face completely.

“I wish for you to move away a little bit, Count. I hate touching other people.”

…Didn’t you just touch me?

Count Larscel took a step back without knowing the Duke’s intentions.

“I just needed to talk, but that’s too much of an excessive response, isn’t it?”

The Count’s eyes twitched.

“Keep it short, Duke.”

Duke Blois then turned towards me. Though the look on his face as he stared at me was strange. Then, he suddenly reached out and held my chin as he observed my face from side to side.

“Why is your face like this?”

“Oh, this…”

While I was wondering how I should explain it, I could see his pupils dilating a little.

‘Why is he angry?’

The cat’s pupils would dilate when they focused on their prey in front of them and when they were scared or angry. If he weren’t treating me like a game, it would be correct to assume that he was angry. He couldn’t have possibly been frightened here.

Still, I had a hard time getting a read on his sudden mood swings.

Seeming like he wasn’t angry with me, his eyes flitted to Count Larscel with malice in his gaze.

“You raised your hand against her?”

“It has nothing to do with the Duke.”

Count Larscel drew a line, meaning for him not to meddle in other people’s family affairs. However, Duke Blois didn’t seem to mind it at all.

“I didn’t know that such parents treat their child this badly. I can see why she wanted to run away.”

He slowly circled around Count Larscel. Very slowly. His gaze stayed fixed on the middle-aged man.

Because of that, Count Larscel felt a sense of tension in the air and swallowed dryly. I, too, felt as though the air had sharpened. It felt like something was about to happen at any moment.

Far from being an obedient son-in-law, the Duke’s low voice was enough of a threat.

“I wish to get my wife back.”

“What…?”

Believing that he heard it wrong, the Count tilted his head.

Duke Blois stared down at him and smiled arrogantly. I watched him take a piece of paper out of his inner pocket and handed it to me.

Seeing this, Count Larscel widened his eyes.

“A marriage certificate…?”

“I happened to have it in my pocket, Miss Rowaine.”

It didn’t seem like a coincidence that the oath had already been signed by the Duke. Anyway, I realized his intentions and hurriedly picked up the pen on the table.

“No!”

Count Larscel, with a sense of foreboding, threw himself to stop me, but the Duke blocked him.

I quickly took off the pen cap with my mouth and wrote Rowaine’s name next to the Duke’s signature. At that moment, to my surprise, our signatures flew out of the paper and floated in the air, forming a black ring before sinking onto the ring finger of both the Duke’s and my left hand.

“Wow…”

The wonderful handwriting of the Duke of Blois became a ring and was engraved on my finger. While my signature was engraved on the Duke’s.

“W-what the hell—! Noooo!”

As I heard Count Larscel’s screams, I had only one thought.

‘If I knew there’s a contract feature like this, I would have made my handwriting slightly prettier…’

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