Chapter 31
The rumors about the Duke of Icanus were actually more of a ghost story than a rumor. He hunts everything that he sees. After that, it was said that he has a hobby of making decorative animal heads and putting it on the wall.
It was like a monster in the winter forest that my father told me when he was bored. But that’s not true…?
“The Duke of Icanus is an old woman who couldn’t even work. Her teeth are gone, and her toenails are all worn out, but she still wants others to look up to her and make everyone scared of her.”
“Because she needed that to stay in power and reign over others. No need to have it, she could just make it. Once they are afraid of her, she just has to lie flat and long.”
His last words had a strange resonance, and it was quite persuasive. There was such a power that made me believe it strangely.
“But why are you…”
“Because rumors need reality.”
He said cut her off.
“Do you think a real Duke would live in a hunter’s lodge like this?”
In his words, Ariste looked inside the hut again. It was clean and cozy in its own way, but it wasn’t much different from the huts of ordinary hunters.
It was hard to believe that a Duke of a precious status lived in such a place and hunted wild animals. But, but…
Her blue eyes that doubts did not disappear completely. This man is so beautiful. Apart from the simple aesthetic beauty, there was elegance in everything that was said. In the village of Vito, he was a person I had not seen before.
“What would the nobles be hunting themselves in this cold winter. Besides, there is a separate hunting ground for nobles. There, they can hunt anywhere. They catch wild animals and released them after.”

I’ve heard it before. For the nobles, hunting is an activity for thorough entertainment. This activity was different from the hunters who had to make a living. There were even those who just abandoned the prey they caught in the woods.
“If they could have any prey they wanted to have, what about professional hunters?”
Ariste heard and remembered the special hunters who had come to the village. They said that there was nothing they couldn’t catch, even if they asked them to catch a rare prey. Sometimes they did poaching, and even if the target was human and not an animal, they were willing to accept the offer.
“Like me.”
She looks deep in his eyes and sees her reflection within.
Ariste couldn’t make eye contact with him and quickly bowed down. This man and the hunters chasing her were the same. Wild humans with nothing to do but want money. If this person finds out why she has run away…
She was certain that the village chief paid a large sum to avenge his son’s death, since they wouldn’t have moved with just a fair amount of money. I don’t know how much, but for the time being, it was enough to stop them from hunting.
I don’t know whether I could ever be safe.
“Hey, that…”
My mouth freezes and the words stop coming out.
“Rasiel. It’s my name…”
As if asking for a call, he hurried with his eyes. She can afford to refuse. “Rashi…el”
Finally, as his name flowed out of my open lips.
Even if he was just another horror for Ariste, she still saw Rasiel’s eyes gleamed with joy.