A Wise Life in Captivity with the Mad Duke - Chapter 8

“Did you eat the bread I gave you yesterday?”

“Oh, yes. I ate it right after dinner.”

“Good.”

The duke smiled in satisfaction, his eyes curving softly as he looked at me.

“Make sure to eat well from now on. It’s only the beginning. It’d be a shame if you got sick already.”

Was it just me, or was there something hidden in his words?

What did he mean by “only the beginning”? What exactly did he know about me?

No matter how long I looked at his face, I couldn’t read what he was thinking. He was impossible to figure out.

After that, the duke stayed quietly in the room until about four in the afternoon, when the doors locked again, before finally returning to his own room.

Nothing had even happened, but just being in the same space with him left me tense. My neck felt stiff as a board.

Then a strange thought came to me.

Would there ever come a day when I could truly feel comfortable around that man?

***

After the day the duke demonstrated things in person, whenever I felt like choosing sleep over meals, I’d do exactly what he did—sit in that blind spot, wait for things to quiet down, and then sneak into bed.

That way, I could enjoy a peaceful nap in a silent building.

Of course, there was a downside. Nights like this one, when I couldn’t fall asleep at all.

“Let me out! I want to go outside!”

“Waaahhhh!”

“I’m hungry! Give me food!”

Sleepless nights here were their own kind of hell. With so many patients housed in this circular building, every sound echoed between the floors.

Some screamed at their doors, others pounded hard enough to break them. It was a collection of every kind of noise a human could make.

And when the commotion woke other patients, they’d start shouting back, telling them to shut up, until everything turned into chaos.

Sometimes caregivers came down to intervene, but it was rare, barely enough to count on one hand. It was better not to expect anything.

Having given up hope long ago, I pressed my hands over my ears and kept tossing and turning.

Who knows how much time passed?

The beast-like howling gradually faded into the distance, and the world went dark.

“…Wow. I finally fell asleep.”

When I opened my eyes again, the nurses and caregivers were already making their morning rounds.

Morning rounds usually started at seven, when all the room locks were released. The staff would check on each patient and report anyone showing abnormal symptoms to the director.

Click.

Soon, the door opened, and the sound of footsteps followed. I heard them approach, but still, I stubbornly kept my back turned.

“Number 44. Any discomfort?”

Did any of the caregivers have such a deep, gravelly voice?

Since arriving at the monastery, I’d never heard this one before. I peeked out from under the blanket.

‘Huh? That’s….’

The moment I met his dark brown eyes, I recognized him instantly.

He was the rough-looking caregiver who’d taken Joel away on my first day in this world, the one who had silently stared instead of speaking, which somehow made him even more terrifying.

I checked his name tag.

Scott Butler.

From what I’d observed in my few days at Modnaga, this man fell into the rare category of relatively normal caregivers.

He didn’t randomly yell at patients or use them as outlets for his temper, and when we passed by each other, he’d even give a small nod of acknowledgment.

If it were any other caregiver, I wouldn’t have bothered. But this one, he seemed like someone I could actually talk to about my concerns.

“Could I possibly get some earplugs? It’s too loud at night to sleep.”

Scott nodded without a word and brought me a pair. They were thick and sturdy, more like a headset than earplugs. It might be uncomfortable to sleep in, but it would definitely help block out the noise.

As expected, my instincts weren’t wrong. If it had been any other caregiver, they’d have acted irritated and told me to just deal with it.

“Thank—”

Scott disappeared before I could even finish my thanks. Maybe he just wasn’t the sociable type, but really, being quiet wasn’t a bad thing.

“Should I try sleeping again?”

Now that I had the equipment, I skipped breakfast and lay down to catch up on sleep.

For a while, everything was calm and peaceful, but soon the hallway started to buzz again. It seemed the people who’d finished breakfast were slowly returning to their rooms.

‘Now’s the perfect time to use them.’

As I reached beside my pillow to grab the earplugs, someone suddenly shouted from the hallway at the top of their lungs.

“I’m not crazy! I told you I’m fine!”

What the—? What’s going on out there?

I hesitated for a moment, debating whether to check, but curiosity got the better of me, and I stepped into the hall.

Leaning over the railing toward the noise, I spotted two caregivers struggling below, each gripping one of the man’s arms as he thrashed wildly.

A crowd of patients had already gathered to watch the scene unfold.

“They’re framing me! If you let me out, I’ll prove it within a day! I swear, please!”

The man’s sunken eyes were hollow, drained of life. He clearly hadn’t been here long.

‘I get that he’s desperate, but what’s the point? They’re not going to let him out. He’d be better off figuring out how to escape instead of wasting energy.’

Watching him only made me feel heavier inside, so I turned to head back into my room.

But then—

“They threw me in here after I caught them committing fraud! They’re all in on it together!”

I froze and turned back.

Someone deliberately got him locked up here?

It might’ve been just a hunch, but it didn’t sound impossible.

In a world where money could buy almost anything, bribing a doctor to falsify a mental evaluation wasn’t out of the question.

“As long as I’m trapped here, those bastards will keep living comfortably outside! I’m not letting that happen!”

Whether it was because the man was fueled by rage or because the caregivers were too thin to hold him back, the struggle dragged on endlessly with no sign of resolution.

That was when someone suddenly shouted, pushing through the crowd.

It was Eric Duris, the caregiver who practically lived with a baton in his hand.

“Move!”

Duris wasted no time. He struck the man squarely on the back with his baton. The man, who’d been fighting like a wild animal, screamed and collapsed forward.

“Idiots like this only learn from pain. Words don’t work on them.”

Duris didn’t stop. He swung the baton wildly, the sound of it cutting through the air echoing down the hall.

He didn’t stop there either. Clenching his teeth, he kicked the man’s stomach and thighs hard. The man curled into a ball, his movements growing sluggish.

It was brutal enough to make anyone grimace, yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. Somehow, I felt like I had to witness that man’s end with my own eyes.

If that man really was someone unjustly locked up here, then my fate wouldn’t be much different from his.

“Urgh!”

Coughing violently, the man clutched his stomach and tried to crawl away from Duris.

Duris, laughing as if it were all a joke, roughly grabbed the man by the hair.

At that moment, the elevator arrived. Through the opening doors appeared Duke Gray and Scott, one after the other.

‘They must be here to sort this out.’

No one told me, but somehow I knew. Those two didn’t seem like the type to treat patients as violently as Duris.

The duke slipped his hands into his pockets and calmly observed the scene as if gauging the situation.

Meanwhile, Scott strode forward and grabbed Duris’s arm from behind, stopping the assault.

“Enough.”

Duris turned irritably, but when he saw the tall caregiver standing before him, he flinched and stepped back. Only after noticing the duke behind Scott did he finally release the man, backing away with a dazed look.

The patients, who had been trembling in fear, let out sighs of relief. I crossed my arms and exhaled quietly.

Instead of coming up with silly sweet code words like ‘cotton candy,’ shouldn’t they focus on stopping caregivers’ violent behavior first? Scenes like this were far more effective at spreading anxiety among patients.

“Caregiver.”

The duke approached, rubbing his brow, and spoke with clear displeasure.

“…What was that?”

The patients’ murmuring drowned out his words, but it was obvious from his expression that he found this situation troublesome.

“This bastard, he’s the one who—”

Duris tried to defend himself, but the duke cut him off with a sharp gesture, pointing his chin toward the man lying crumpled on the floor.

Inside the ward, titles or ranks from the outside world meant nothing. So even though the duke addressed everyone politely, the arrogance in his eyes—the way he was used to commanding people—couldn’t be hidden.

‘See? It’s written all over his face.’

Duris scratched his head in frustration, clearly unhappy with how things were turning out. But in the end, as if reluctantly giving in, he pulled out a syringe and injected it into the man’s arm.

Moments later, the man’s body went limp as he lost consciousness completely.

With Scott’s help, Duris hoisted the limp man over his shoulder, gave a curt nod to the two men, and disappeared. Just like that, the incident seemed to come to an end.

That night, I sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard, and went over everything that still didn’t make sense.

Was Cheon Go-eun really insane when she was brought here? And if she was, then who signed the admission consent form on my behalf when I had no guardian?

“Haa….”

I knew I wouldn’t find any answers just by thinking about it.

But still, a wave of fear washed over me.

If I kept witnessing violence like today’s incident, or seeing people die one after another, would I eventually go mad too?

What if one day, I forgot who I even was?