CHAPTER 77……………………………
Jack Clark woke up that morning in a very good mood. He felt, for some reason, that something delightful was going to happen.
Certain that today would be a wonderful day, he climbed out of bed.
Jack had a simple breakfast, spreading a generous amount of the currently popular peanut butter on bread. He brewed tea with his precious, expensive tea leaves and chuckled to himself while reading a magazine.
Up until that moment, Jack firmly believed his day would be fantastic. And as if to prove him right, there was a knock at the door.
Jack Clark rose from the table. He swallowed the bite of peanut-buttered bread and walked toward the door.
“Who is it?”
Since he wasn’t expecting anyone, Jack asked in a puzzled tone as he opened the door.
The moment it opened, three dark-clad men suddenly barged in. In an instant, they seized Jack and dragged him toward the window, forcing him to his knees.
Startled by the sudden assault, Jack shouted,
“Hey! Who are you people?!”
One of the men glared down at him. The fierce look made Jack quickly avert his eyes. In a shrinking voice, he stammered,
“W-what is this? What’s going on?”
As he trembled, someone approached him with elegant steps. Jack lifted his eyes to look at the man coming toward him.
“D-Duke…?”
The man approaching Jack was Duke Yuan Frektuster.
With his hands in his pockets, Yuan looked around Jack’s home with an expression full of arrogance—as if thinking, So people actually live in a place like this? Jack’s pride was instantly wounded.
Jack lived in an old, cramped apartment. It was in the cheapest district in the capital, inhabited mostly by the working class.
All his furniture was crammed into a single small room—desk, bed, table, wardrobe—leaving barely any space to move. It was worse than the servants’ quarters at the Frektuster estate.
After briefly surveying the room, Yuan turned his gaze to Jack.
“Jack Clark.”
The man who whispered love to my wife. Yuan’s lips curled into a crooked smile.
“Y-Your Grace… why are you here…?”
Jack gulped. In truth, he knew exactly why the Duke had come.
He recalled his meeting with Lydia not long ago.
Jack had been sitting in the palace tearoom, constantly marveling at the luxurious furniture and tableware. How wonderful life must be for royalty and nobles who lived surrounded by such things.
‘Jack, are you even listening?’
Lydia’s voice snapped him back to reality, and he looked at her.
With her abundant brown hair braided and draped over one shoulder, Lydia looked like a goddess of beauty straight out of myth.
When his eyes met hers, Jack realized something: the most beautiful thing in this room wasn’t the crystal ornament on the fireplace or the painting on the wall—it was Lydia.
‘Y-yeah, I’m listening.’
Jack answered while staring at Lydia with an entranced expression.
To Jack, Lydia was a tree he could never climb. Simply being able to talk casually with her was an honor. She was his muse, and his eternal unrequited love.
‘Yuan might come looking for you.’
‘I’m kind of scared of the Duke,’ Jack replied with a grimace.
Lydia had told him she had made up the story that she and Jack had exchanged love letters. She had done it without his permission, but Jack said nothing.
If it made Lydia happy, whatever it was, he would accept it gladly.
‘Yuan will probably give you money. A lot of it. He thinks solving problems with money is easiest.’
‘Money?’
Jack swallowed. To his ears, it sounded like Lydia was saying money would just fall into his lap for doing nothing.
‘He might pay you to leave Eirun. Didn’t you say you wanted to go to university in Rua? It could be a good opportunity, Jack.’
Lydia smiled brightly—an angelic smile Jack adored more than anything.
But the man standing before him now was not lovable Lydia, but Yuan—looking down at him with an icy expression.
Jack swallowed and looked up at him.
“You truly don’t know why I’m here?”
Yuan’s voice was as cold as his face.
Feeling the deadly aura rolling off the Duke, Jack trembled. Lydia had said Yuan would give him money, but this atmosphere was less paying someone off and more killing someone and burying the body where no one would find it.
“I—I don’t know.”
Deciding it was safer to play dumb, Jack avoided Yuan’s gaze.
At that answer, Yuan glanced at one of the men restraining Jack. The man gave a small nod and drove his fist into Jack’s stomach.
“Ugh!”
Jack groaned in pain.
“I’ll ask again. Why do you think I’m here?”
Yuan’s eerie voice made Jack break out in goosebumps. He’d known the Duke was not someone to be trifled with, but he hadn’t known he could instill this level of fear.
“B-B-because of the Duchess…?”
Jack’s voice shook uncontrollably.
At his answer, Yuan’s lips curved upward slightly. Even Jack, another man, couldn’t help but be struck by how mesmerizing the smile was.
Yuan bent down to meet Jack’s eyes. Grabbing Jack’s chin roughly, he spoke coldly.
“Did you have fun with my wife?”
Though he was smiling, the pale gray eyes behind it were sharp as a blade.
The gaze stabbed into Jack’s heart like needles. A wave of fear washed over him, and for a moment he wondered if he should blurt out that this was all Lydia’s doing.
But a man doesn’t sell out his muse—he had his pride. The Duke wouldn’t really kill me… right? He wouldn’t do something that insane.
To get the money… I have to endure this fear. I’ll go live in Rua for a few years and then come back. I can escape this damn poverty and live surrounded by nice things, for once.
Once he organized his thoughts, Jack lowered his head.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace. I never intended for things to turn out this way.”
“…”
“The Duchess was very fond of me, so I couldn’t help it. But I had no deep feelings. I never even held her hand.”
Jack cautiously lifted his head to see Yuan’s reaction.
The instant their eyes met, Jack held his breath. The Duke’s gaze was so murderous he looked like he could kill someone with his eyes alone.
A wave of doubt crashed over Jack. Maybe I made the wrong choice… That’s not a face that’s going to let me live… damn it.
“Did you love my wife?”
“L-love? Absolutely not! Not at all!”
Jack flinched violently. The Duke’s expression was so frightening that Jack felt he might actually strangle him on the spot if he said he loved her.
“You didn’t love her?”
Yuan let out a bitter laugh and stood. So Sereret had loved this worm of a man all on her own, while he had only been toying with her.
The smile vanished from Yuan’s face as it hardened. He kicked Jack’s shoulder.
Jack toppled to the floor with a groan. Yuan placed his boot firmly on Jack’s chest.
Looking down at the choking Jack, Yuan warned,
“It would be best if you leave, Jack Clark.”
He lifted his foot, turned away, and walked out of the apartment.
Once the Duke left, Jack gasped for breath. The men roughly pulled him to his feet.
Derrick, the Duke’s secretary, handed Jack a small bag. Then he looked to the two men flanking Jack.
“Handle him properly.”
“Yes, sir!”
After hearing their reply, Derrick also left.
Once the Duke and secretary were gone, Jack hurriedly opened the bag Derrick had given him. Inside was a small amount of money—far less than he expected.
“Um, this seems… too little.”
The men snickered.
“Pack your things lightly. If you want to make it to Muka Port by three, we need to hurry.”
“Muka Port? Today? Right now?”
The realization that he was leaving immediately—with no time to prepare—made Jack’s vision go dark. Something felt very wrong. The money the Duke had given him was absurdly low too.
“Don’t ask questions. Move!”
One of the men barked.
Jack flinched and quickly nodded, scrambling to pack. He had no idea—none at all—that the place he was headed was the abandoned island of Bartlau.
Nor did he know he would not live as a poet, but as a farmer in harsh, impoverished conditions.
It was, indeed, Jack’s “fantastic, wonderful day.”
In his office, Yuan slammed his pen down and sighed.
He had received a report that Jack had boarded the ship to Bartlau. The connection between Sereret and Jack was now completely severed—because he had made it so.
Yuan felt no guilt whatsoever for crushing his wife’s love. He believed it was only natural.
The only person Sereret Frektuster should look at was Yuan Frektuster.
Checking his watch, Yuan stood. It was time to fetch his wife—who was surely waiting for a man who would never again return.
