TNMN 16

Chapter 16

Alosha threw her high heels down to the first floor, then, with the spirit of a high school girl sneaking over the school fence to get to a snack bar, she slipped her body over the terrace railing.

“Just don’t fall to your death.”

Taking a deep breath, Alosha began to move sideways, one careful step at a time. The fluttering of her dress in the occasional breeze was unsettling, but fortunately, she was about halfway there when—with perfect, infuriating timing—a loud *whoosh* announced a strong gust of wind.

“Oh, no!”

She tried to steady her swaying body by gripping a protruding ledge, but the problem was that Alosha’s weak grip strength was no match for the powerful blast. Her skirt billowed, her body lifted briefly into the air, and then she plummeted. Without even a chance to scream, she squeezed her eyes shut. She thought she was going to die, but with a crackling, crunching sound, her body landed safely in a tree.

“Whoa… I almost died.”

She was scraped up here and there, and her dress seemed a bit torn, but thanks to the tree beneath the terrace, Alosha was alive, gasping for breath.

Carefully moving her body, she slowly crept toward the thickest branch. Hearing the snap of small twigs, she tensed and looked down.

“Wouldn’t someone usually pass by with perfect timing at a moment like this?”

She was fuming, thinking that in a novel, this was exactly what should happen. But then, as if on cue, she saw a silhouette moving toward her from afar. He was very tall and broad-shouldered—likely a member of the Imperial Guard.

“Excuse me!”

“…?”

“Over here! Above you!”

Alosha called out to the man in a voice a full tone higher than usual, thrilled.

His face was obscured by the tree’s shadow, but she could see him look up in her direction.

“……”

But he only stared at her in the tree, with no reaction at all. Thinking he might not be able to see her well due to the shadows, Alosha raised her voice even more.

“I fell from the second-floor terrace and need help! Could you please get me down from this tree?”

“……”

But he remained silent, and Alosha began to feel scared. Normally, she would have dismissed him as a strange person, but writers are naturally imaginative creatures.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything? What if he’s not human? What if he’s a ghost wandering the Imperial Palace?’

Whether it was a romance fantasy or a medieval fantasy, there were monsters and demons—there was no rule saying ghosts couldn’t exist.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

She cautiously called out, but the silhouette still stood there in silence, staring intently at her. At that moment, Alosha felt a chill run down her entire body. A dark silhouette, alone in a secluded place. It was the classic cliché of horror and thriller genres.

Adopting a low, harmless posture, Alosha smiled innocently.

“Hello? I’m Alosha of the Nocturne Count’s family. May I ask your name?”

She tried to speak cheerfully, hiding her trembling voice, but the silhouette below showed no intention of moving, nor any intention of answering her question.

“Excuse me! When someone speaks to you, you should answer!”

“……”

Alosha, having lost her patience, shouted out in a burst of anger, resigning herself to whatever might happen. But he still seemed to have no intention of responding, and the silhouette turned to go elsewhere.

“Hey! Aren’t you going to answer me properly? Do you know who I am, acting like this?!”

“…You already said it yourself. Alosha of the Nocturne family.”

The moment a deep, cavernous male voice emerged from the darkness—a voice often called a ‘cave voice’—Alosha, who had been furious just moments before, blinked like a tamed cat.

‘I knew I was weak to good looks, but I just discovered I’m also weak to voices.’

If only that heavenly voice hadn’t given such a snide answer, she would have felt much better. But either way, Alosha bit her lower lip in anger at her own weakness to seduction.

‘Anyway, in this genre, being the daughter of a count’s family means nothing? A noble lady is in distress, and this is how a knight behaves?’

She was huffing about what she saw as a fantasy setting error when the man spoke again.

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be on my way…”

At the heartless words of leaving a fragile young lady stranded in a tree, Alosha hastily opened her mouth.

“St-stop! If you leave now, you’ll regret it! Do you think I only have the backing of the Nocturne family?! I, uh, I’m very close with Duke Whistler, you know!”

“…What?”

The one who had shown no reaction to the name of the Nocturne family reacted when she mentioned Duke Whistler. Realizing that in any world, no one dares to ignore the name of a powerful figure, Alosha, without thinking of the consequences, opened her mouth again.

“That’s right! So if you don’t get me down, I’ll tell Duke Whistler everything!”

“…What is your relationship with Duke Whistler?”

“What kind of relationship? Between a man and a woman, there’s only one thing, isn’t there? I’m the future wife of Duke Whistler (or someone who wants to be)!”

At Alosha’s words, the man stopped and turned around. Alosha still couldn’t see his face clearly, so she had no idea what he was thinking, but the claim of being Duke Whistler’s future wife seemed to have an effect.

“How amusing.”

“Amusing? Once our dear Duke starts disciplining you, it won’t be amusing at all. You’d better get me down from this tree right now, before that happens.”

It sounded like a VIP customer at a department store demanding proper service, but regardless, the man seemed to be buying it, as he was seen approaching the tree.

“I’ll try to get down from here somehow, so you just need to help a little. Since you’re tall, can you come closer so I can step on your shoulders?”

“…You’re going to step on my shoulders?”

Alosha frowned and looked down at the man.

“There’s nothing else for me to step on. Do you have a better idea?”

At her words, the man looked up at the tree. Obscured by the shadows, Alosha couldn’t see clearly, but she had a feeling he was smiling.

“…I have a quicker and more efficient method.”

With that, the man reached for his waist. By the time she realized what he was doing, he was already acting.

“Wait?!”

Before Alosha could say anything, the man moved first. Shortly after, with a cracking sound, the tree began to slowly tilt to the side.

“Whooooa!!!”

A raw scream, unbefitting of a noble lady, filled the garden along with the sound of the falling tree. Expecting to feel the pain of broken bones upon crashing to the ground, Alosha was surprised to feel no significant impact. She cautiously opened her eyes. As if the novel’s cliché had finally kicked in, the man who had been standing under the tree had caught her in a princess carry.

“Are you crazy?! In what world is this efficient… huh?”

As the tree’s shadow receded, the man’s handsome face was revealed.

“…Why.”

His unusually pale skin reflected the moonlight, emitting a soft glow, and his contrasting black hair rustled in the wind. His sharp eyes, the piercing blue irises that matched them, his straight nose, and the harmony of his red lips—these were features no plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam could ever create. Despite the overwhelming handsomeness that would make any dictionary of praise fall short, the aura emanating from him was like that of a wild beast, making her swallow nervously. A black jaguar? A demon that enchants people? No, such crude descriptions couldn’t capture his divinity.

This appearance could never be forgotten. Just like during the carriage accident, the owner of this face that had stolen Alosha’s very soul could never be forgotten.

“You were the one in the carriage that day…”

This was fate. Even if everyone denied it, to Alosha, this situation had to be fate.

“Northern Duke…”

Whistler, watching Alosha stare blankly at his face and muttering nonsense, frowned.

‘That name again…’

It was the same as when he first met Alosha. Everyone who knew him would avoid him like the plague the moment their eyes met, but this woman’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

‘An amusing woman.’

Thinking that, Whistler felt as if he had been struck on the back of the head by his own thought.

‘Amusing? Me? I find this woman amusing?’

Even though it was just a fleeting feeling, Whistler, who never let even a momentary emotion pass by, clenched his fist while looking at her sparkling emerald eyes.

‘This is impossible.’

Experiencing a feeling for the first time, Whistler recalled his first meeting with Alosha, like any character undergoing the denial phase of interest. In Whistler’s memory, that day had been two days after the battle with the barbarians had ended, and he had come to the Imperial Court to request troops for reorganizing the border.