My Dear Grand Duke on a Leash - Chapter 31

Chapter 16.1 — How to create a child (1)

The smell of explosives fluttered in the air.

The acrid odor alerted Riette’s sense of smell first, and at once, a cough came out in the thick air pouring into his lungs.

Blood drained from the top of her head to the ends of her limbs.

‘Beyond the closed door, he’s still…’

“Grand Duke!”

Bang!

As she approached the door, a second explosion sound could be heard as the door flew open with a scream in the aftermath.

Riette and Bea slumped to the floor.

“Kkyaak!”

“Princess!”

“Bea!”

Their ears were filled with deafening tinnitus after being hit by a bang twice.

As the knights rushed over and picked Bea up from the floor, Riette raised her head frantically and saw that all the box seat doors were flung open as panicked aristocrats poured out. Her mother, who had come running suddenly, came into my confused vision. Shoving aside the knights who tried to escort her away, Ceres held Bea with a terror-stricken face.

“Bea, my daughter! What are you doing, protect her! Hurry!”

“Your Majesty, you must escape!”

“Beatrice!”

Dozens of knights quickly surrounded Ceres and Bea, with Bea’s Bea’s finacé, Saint-Cyr, who was protruding out like a bullet, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up. In the meanwhile, Riette, who wasn’t supported by anyone, staggered to get her body up from the floor and looked back at the box seats where gray smoke was pouring out.

‘The Grand Duke is…!’

Unexpectedly, a giant silhouette emerged through the thick smoke.

“….!”

It was him.

Not only that his hair was disheveled and he had a bloodied forehead, but red blood was running down his cheeks, which were filled with black gunpowder, and his uniform top was torn to shreds. He came running up to her, pale and exhausted, resembling a soldier caught in a bombing raid.

As he lowered his body down, Cain gently cupped both Riette’s cheeks with his large hands.

“Princess, look at me. Do you have any injuries? We need to evacuate quickly now. I’ll help you up, just try to stay strong.”

The hand on her cheek trembled slightly like her own breath.

The whole scene was strange and slowed as if time had been distorted—the screams and footsteps of people evacuating, the voices of her mother and knights shouting her sister’s name, the pungent smell of gunpowder, the vibrations of the floor as it shook with the chaos, and Saint-Cyr holding his fiancée, Bea, as Ceres clinging to her and the knights surrounding the three…

…With so many eyes on her sister, there was only one who saw her.

His gaze, unable to even recognize that he had been covered in blood himself, and the way he breathed…

Time rushed by, and her body suddenly flew up into the air. Riette let out a short scream, but it wasn’t until a beat later that she realized that he had picked her up.

It was a simple gesture, like lifting a stuffed animal.

As soon as her feet floated in the air, her reasons, which had run out like aftereffects, quickly rolled back into their place.

“Put me down, Grand Duke! You can’t do this when you’re hurt more than me.”

“There’s a risk of additional explosions, so we have to get out of here quickly. Please don’t move, I will take care of the treatment.”

“I’ll go on my own, but the Grand Duke needs to be treated first…! No, I’m really fine. I’d rather have my sister…”

“Do it in moderation!”

Riette’s mouth was closed because of the unfamiliar shouting voice. To be honest, it was more because of the expression on his than a passionate shout.

Cain’s stony mask had disappeared.

Without his shield, his face was surprisingly hot and fierce as blue eyes examined her thoroughly as if to tear her apart.

“Princess, do you only know how to care about others?”

Her breath caught in her throat at the deep, low-pitched voice.

At that moment, the silence that only the two of them could understand gripped the nape of each other’s necks. As his beautiful brow contorted, Cain pursed his lips as if he was about to speak before he bit his mouth tightly again.

“….”

As if unharmed, he swiftly exited the opera house with her in his arms.

Thump, thump.

Riette’s heart pounded in her chest as if someone was beating on the outside of her chest as the pulse rang in the lobe of her ear, the nape of her neck, and her forehead. Perhaps it was because she was taken aback by the unexpected shock. Or maybe it was because of the feel of the thick arms and hands holding her tightly, fearing that she might fall.

Her head was fluttering in confusion.

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