I Married the Mad Duke Who Killed My Husband - Chapter 61

Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of four bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 4/4 🎉)

Crack-

“…!”

It was instinctive. I ducked as soon as I made eye contact with the knights, and a longsword flew over where my head had been, embedding itself in the wardrobe.

Lorang would have surely screamed if the sword had even grazed him, so it seemed the attack had missed. But to check, and to acquire a weapon, I ran to the wardrobe and grabbed the sword, while the knights behind me sneered.

“You’re going to attack me with my own sword? Can you even lift it properly?”

As I pulled out the sword, I caught a glimpse of Lorang’s pale face through the torn gap. I gave him a sharp glare, meaning to keep his mouth shut and stay hidden, then turned back with the sword to shield Jenin again.

“It’s just heavy enough to lop off your head nicely.”

I spread my legs wide for support and gripped the sword tightly, mimicking Cassion as I had seen him do before. It was heavier than I thought, but my arms didn’t shake embarrassingly.

But could I swing it quickly?

“Look, Duchess. Let’s not make this troublesome for each other, okay? Just hand over that man you’re hiding.”

“Y-you’re doing this even though you know I’m the Duchess?!”

“That’s why, unlike her, we’re not killing you right away. We’ll kill you after we’re done, so just wait.”

Jenin, horrified by the unfolding situation, tried to stand up, but her legs gave way, and she slumped back down. The knights’ eyes looking at her were ominous, perhaps irritated that she had deceived them.

“Don’t touch Jenin.”

I gripped the sword tightly and took a few steps forward. As if to say I was the target.

“The man… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just came to meet my old friend.”

“Duchess. I said let’s not make this difficult, didn’t I? It’s commendable enough that you’ve picked up that sword, but can you actually stab with it? Have you ever seen blood?”

Idiot. Women see blood every month. I might be more familiar with blood than you are.

“Alright. I’ll give you a chance, try stabbing me.”

One of the knights who completely ignored me walked up and stood in front of me. I wasn’t angry. In this disadvantageous situation against them, this was an opportunity.

I pretended to lower the sword slightly and tremble as if I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“See? At best…”

When the man bent down to look at my expression, pretending to be a kind friend, I swung the sword with all my might. Because he was wearing armor, and because I only had one chance, my target was… his neck.

“Ugh!!”

But even with all my strength, the sword’s path was too slow. The blade barely reached the man’s neck, but before it could even cut halfway through, the blade was caught.

“You little… Hey! What are you just watching for! Ugh, give me the hemostatic!”

The man, disregarding the blood flowing from his hand, easily pushed away the blade he had caught, and tried to throw the sword away completely. But it wasn’t easy because I was clinging to the handle for dear life.

“Ha, s**t, so persistent… Just get lost!”

“Ugh!”

“Duchess!!”

Still, it seems it wasn’t entirely ineffective, as blood kept flowing from the neck where the blade had been pulled out, and the man’s face turned pale.

As I was trying to push the sword in again, the man suddenly extended his foot and kicked me in the stomach, causing me to lose my grip on the handle and fall.

“Hnngh!”

Honestly, while it might not have ruptured my internal organs, the excruciating pain that shook my entire body made me wonder if they hadn’t been crushed. But thanks to the knight being weakened by his injury, I could barely move.

Using the momentum from rolling, I sprang up like a roly-poly and picked up the clothes hanger rod I had used to hit the first man. This pulled at my kicked stomach, but the surging adrenaline soon made me forget about it.

“Ugh… You’re the persistent one! Just die already!”

I rushed at the man who was applying hemostatic clumps to his wound, aiming for his neck. But when I was blocked by another knight beside him, my teeth involuntarily gritted.

“…Isn’t it cowardly for knights to gang up 2 on 1 against a frail noble lady? No, it was three of you, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t see any frail noble lady here. Just a blonde rat and a pink-haired boar.”

“Haven’t you heard? You’re supposed to run away when you see a boar.”

“But they’re quite a delicacy when roasted.”

No matter how much strength I put into it, I couldn’t retrieve the clothes hanger rod caught by the man, so I gritted my teeth and let it go. The man snorted and threw the rod away.

Now I’m unarmed, with just my bare hands.

“I was going to say I’d kill you painlessly… but you need to pay the price.”

“Let’s start by putting some sword marks on that pretty face.”

“Are you really imperial knights or just thugs?”

What’s wrong with their personalities? I retreated strategically, but they approached me as if to pressure me. Jenin, horrified, stood up to try to protect me, but one of the knights noticed and split off to approach her.

And the one who stood in front of me was the knight whose neck I had stabbed, seeming quite enraged.

But he’s injured, so it’s too early to give up.

“Ha! This is ridiculous…”

“I’m going to separate your head from your body today.”

The knight seemed even more heated seeing me take a fighting stance with bare hands. Did he think I was underestimating him?

“The War Demon Duke has found quite a fantastic match.”

But my resolve, which had been firm until then, wavered as soon as the man mentioned Cassion. What did they do to Cassion before coming here? Surely they just lost him while following me, right?

“You’re both equally insane!”

“Guh…!”

In the moment I was distracted, the man quickly reached out and grabbed my neck. Surprised, I scratched and beat at his hand, doing everything I could, but the force applied to me didn’t weaken.

“That face is quite a sight too, Duchess.”

“…Guh… you.”

How dare you insult me? I stopped trying to remove the hand choking my neck and instead used that arm as support to kick out forcefully.

My decisive kick didn’t connect, but the hand choking my neck came off.

“Huff! Hck, haa… ha… Jenin!”

As I was catching my breath and about to throw another punch, I saw a man about to swing his sword at Jenin, who had fallen backward.

“Ah!”

Forgetting about the knight I was facing in my panic, I tried to run over but was caught by my hair. Without a knife this time, I couldn’t cut it off.

“No need to worry about others, Duchess. I’ll send you together.”

“Let go!”

“Oh my, you still have strength left?”

I kicked out once more, but there was only pain in my scalp, and the hand gripping my hair didn’t let go. Instead, the man pulled me close and glared at me.

“Ill-mannered wench, we need to fix that temper first. Then you’ll tell us where he is.”

“…!”

Slash-

BANG—!!!

Just as I tightly closed my eyes, a large hand struck my face. At the same time, the sound was drowned out by a noise so loud it felt like it shook my brain, as if the house was collapsing. Despite the pain that made my ears ring, I reflexively turned my head, and what I saw was a broken door and… Cassion.

Cassion had come.

“You bastards.”

Cassion, who has a complex about being noble, rarely uses low-class swear words. But the curse he spat out in a deeply angered voice suited him terribly well.

“Get your filthy hands off Asil!”

First, he threw his sword, piercing through the body of the man who was about to slash at Jenin, then he rushed towards me like an arrow and precisely stabbed the wrist of the man still holding my hair with his dagger.

“Argh!”

Isn’t that where the tendons are? As my captured hair was instantly released, I forced strength into my legs that were about to collapse and ran to Jenin.

“Asil?!”

“Take them down, Cassion!”

I pulled out Cassion’s sword from the body of the man who had fallen dead in one blow, and ran back to stand beside him. My breath came out in harsh gasps, but I couldn’t sit down yet.

“Get back, please get back.”

“It’s okay now. I’m good at running away when I need to. I’m going to land a hit on that bastard too.”

“I’ll catch him for you…”

“The couple is insane together!”

The man, who had turned pale at Cassion’s appearance, shouted in a frightened voice unlike when he was dealing with me and Jenin. Blood was flowing again from his neck where he had applied hemostasis.

“Her Majesty the Empress will… Guh.”

Cassion moved forward at a speed so fast I couldn’t tell if he had moved, stabbing the man in the stomach. At the same time, he lightly moved the sword, cutting the tendons in both legs and the other hand.

The man collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, unable to even scream.

“Now, Asil. I avoided the vital spots, so he wouldn’t die for a few minutes. Do what you want.”

“Oh my.”

I was wondering why he was still alive despite being stabbed in the stomach like the previous man, but I guess the stabbed area was a bit different.

I smiled at Cassion’s thoughtful consideration and approached with his blood-soaked sword.

“N-no, don’t come!”

“I don’t want to.”

My shadow, with the raised sword, fell over the knight, and soon the sound of flesh being cut was heard.

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