A Wise Life in Captivity with the Mad Duke - Chapter 5

I split a potato croquette in half and responded flatly, “You weren’t there? It was walk time for numbers 1 through 100.”

“Yeah. My stomach hurt, so I was in the bathroom. I did hear some kind of explosion outside though! At first, I thought it came from my butt!”

“Ugh, I’m eating, don’t make it gross.”

Joel clutched his stomach, giggling, then stretched with a yawn and asked casually, “He’s dead, right?”

“There was a hole in his forehead.”

I muttered a curse and set my spoon down with a sharp clack. Even thinking about it again made my stomach churn. Why’d he have to shoot him in the forehead, of all places?

“But that outsider, you know, he’s apparently someone really high up. Ever heard of Duke Eden Gray?”

“No, never.”

It had only been my third day since returning to Avelta, so every name in this language still sounded foreign to me.

Even if I had heard it before, I’d probably confuse it with the name of a character from some story in my old world.

‘So he’s a duke? Guess I didn’t recognize a noble when I saw one.’

I chewed the dry, sandy croquette like it was gravel and glanced around absentmindedly.

That’s when I noticed a man huddled awkwardly among the crowd, looking unusually tense.

Judging by the wary gleam behind his glasses, he seemed like a newcomer.

But there was something strange about the number on his name tag.

“Joel. Why are there two Number Eighteens?”

“Huh? That’s impossible. There can’t be duplicates. Why?”

“Because that guy’s tag says eighteen too.”

Joel turned to look behind him and, once he’d sized up the situation, nodded knowingly.

“Then yeah, the last one really is dead. Whenever someone dies here, they immediately fill the empty slot with someone new.”

“…Ah.”

I’d suspected as much, but hearing it confirmed still hit me harder than I thought. To the higher-ups, patients here were nothing but disposable supplies.

[Announcement.]

Feeling heavy-hearted, I was pushing through my meal when a sudden announcement made me set my spoon down and listen.

[After finishing your meal, please gather in the playground. There’s an announcement. Caregivers, please guide your groups.]

It was the same gentle voice I’d heard earlier before leaving the building. I’d been curious, so this was perfect timing.

“Joel. Who’s that voice?”

“The guy making the announcement? That’s Antonio! The second son of Viscount Mikkelsen. He’s been here about a year. He’s got a medical license, so he came in on a two-year contract for training.”

All I asked was who he was, but Joel decided to give me his whole biography. For a second, I wondered if I’d accidentally asked about a blind date.

“Why?”

“No reason. I just like his voice.”

“That guy’s super popular, you know. He’s way kinder than the other caregivers. You won’t get to keep him to yourself, Noona.”

“Did you even hear what I said? I’m not trying to get him for myself, I just asked because I like his voice.”

But Joel was already off imagining Antonio’s type.

‘Fine. There’s no way to stop that runaway mouth of yours anyway.’

After finishing our meal, we followed the caregivers out to the playground.

Patients I’d already seen before were gathered in small groups, surrounded on all sides by about a dozen caregivers and nurses.

“Is everyone here?”

A middle-aged man with a large nose stood at the center, rubbing his hands together.

He was short and slightly hunched, which made him look shabby, but judging by the way the caregivers obeyed his every word, he clearly held a high position despite appearances.

Watching the caregivers closely, I leaned toward the person beside me and whispered quietly, “Who’s the man up front?”

The woman next to me gave me a puzzled look before answering, “That’s the director.”

The director? That meant he was the head of this ward. If this place functioned as a monastery, his title would’ve originally been bishop.

At a glance, he blended in so well with the patients that you wouldn’t even notice he wasn’t one of us. People really can’t be judged by appearances.

“Did everyone eat well? The reason I gathered you all here is because I have someone to introduce.”

When the director gestured toward someone, a man stepped forward from among the caregivers.

And I recognized his face instantly.

‘Duke Gray? I heard he was an outsider, so why’s he here again?’

Standing beside the duke, the director grinned broadly and spoke in a booming voice that carried across the yard.

“Starting today, this is Caregiver Eden Gray, who’ll be living and working with us!”

What?

The ridiculous announcement made me let out a hollow laugh.

Seriously? A duke volunteering to work as a caregiver in a closed ward? He could live in luxury outside, and yet here he was?

“As you all know, there have been more and more unfortunate incidents lately, and we’re short-staffed. Just yesterday, Caregiver Gray asked if he could volunteer for about a month.”

Ah. Now it made sense.

Nobles often volunteered at facilities that needed extra hands to gain the trust of their people or improve their image. Most chose orphanages, but I’d heard higher-ranking nobles preferred monasteries to strengthen ties with the church. Apparently, the duke was one of them.

Still, there were monasteries everywhere. Why pick Modnaga, buried on a remote island like this?

No matter how I looked at it, he didn’t seem like a normal person.

“So I said yes right away. You all know it, don’t you? One Caregiver Gray is worth ten ordinary caregivers.”

As the director’s voice dripped with flattery, sarcastic murmurs spread quietly through the crowd behind me.

“Since when do they call everyone out just to welcome a new worker? That’s a first.”

“Didn’t you hear? He’s from House Gray, the ducal family. The director’s just showing off, trying to look like he’s personally involved.”

Whoever said that was sharp, sharper than I’d expected anyone here to be. It proved that not everyone in this place had lost their wits.

After hearing that, it was obvious this meeting wasn’t just about introducing a new volunteer.

“In any case, that’s how it is, so let’s give him a round of applause to welcome him!”

The director began clapping enthusiastically, and after a moment of hesitation, the patients followed suit.

Duke Gray smiled faintly as he accepted their applause. Over that gentle expression, the image of the man who had pulled the trigger without hesitation overlapped vividly in my mind.

‘Which one’s the real him?’

The moment I began to wonder what kind of face lay behind that smiling mask, the duke’s gaze, which had been sweeping over the crowd, stopped squarely on me as if by fate.

I frowned slightly when our eyes met. After fainting yesterday because of him, there was no way my feelings toward him could be pleasant.

But the more my expression twisted, the brighter the duke’s smile became.

That unknowable smile should’ve been unpleasant to look at, yet somehow, his beauty was so striking that I couldn’t quite bring myself to feel disgusted. It was irritatingly contradictory.

Even after the applause died down, the director’s flattery toward the duke didn’t stop. Soon, the patients, who had lost interest, began fidgeting or whining, their attention clearly wandering.

Sensing the situation, the director hurriedly wrapped up his speech and gave the duke a meaningful glance. Maintaining that friendly smile of his, the duke turned toward the patients and greeted them warmly.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Eden Gray, and as of today, I’ll be serving here as a caregiver at Modnaga. Since fate brought us together, let’s get along, shall we?”

At the sound of his smooth, gentle voice that tickled the ears, sighs of admiration escaped from all around. His tone was warm and soft, almost as pleasing as Caregiver Antonio’s voice. Maybe it was his tender way of speaking that made it sound even more velvety.

But no matter how pleasant his voice or gentle his demeanor, I had no intention of getting close to a man who looked that dangerous.

He was the kind of person who could pull a trigger at another human being without hesitation. Who knew what might happen if I stayed near him?

So whenever our eyes met, I deliberately looked elsewhere, pretending not to notice.

I must’ve done that a few times when, all of a sudden, a rush of hot air brushed against my face and vanished just as quickly.

‘…What was that just now?’

Startled, I rubbed the spot where I’d felt the heat and cautiously looked ahead.

Sure enough, Duke Gray was staring straight at me, a faint, playful smile curving his lips.

“Focus on me. I’ve got a disease that makes my insides twist if I don’t get enough attention.”

‘What kind of disease is that supposed to be….’

I was too dumbfounded to even respond, and then it hit me.

That man. He was a mutant.

There was no other way to explain what had just happened.

Now I understood why the director had said Caregiver Gray was worth ten ordinary ones.

Ha. I’d thought it was just flattery.

‘Damn it. Of course. He’s got everything. The world really is unfair. Status, wealth, looks, and now powers on top of it all.’

Fine, but why did he have to be a fire-type mutant, of all things?

Ever since I was little, I’d had the worst luck with fire. Fires always followed me wherever I went.

Even after losing my parents early and being passed around from one relative’s house to another, flames always found me, as if they had legs of their own.

In the end, I became known as a cursed child, one who inevitably brought disaster, and was sent back to the orphanage again and again.

I’d worried that they might kick me out there too, but fortunately, nothing ever happened while I stayed at the orphanage.

Because of all that, my feelings toward fire had never been good.

‘Great. Now I’ve got one more reason to stay the hell away from him.’