The Atrocious Duke'S Wife
Chapter 31: Hope

THIS WORK IS FICTION. NAMES, CHARACTERS, EVENTS, PLACES, ARE JUST A DELUSION. PLEASE READERS BE WISE IN RESPONDING.

"Si... Who are you...?" I was confused while looking at him.

He started to take down the scarf that covered half of his face just like me. And at that time, I immediately widened my eyelids so surprised.

The figure showed his smile.

I didn't think he would be here.

"P-prince... Darren?" I stammered and could not believe. Then I bowed respectfully to him. "W-what are you doing here, Your Majesty?"

"Before I answer, I want to say the same. What are you doing here, Duchess?"

"A-uhm, that...."

Shit, what do I have to answer?!

"S-i. ehm. I am lost, Your Majesty," I am definitely lying.

"If you're lost, then why are you dressed like this, Duchess?" his question is getting to corner me.

"Uh.. s-me...." I really can't make excuses anymore. "Ah... dammit," I murmured involuntarily.

"You said something, Duchess?"

"Eh! N-nothing, Your Honor. I said, lucky to meet you here, thank you for saving me, Your Majesty," I lied while praising him.

My index finger couldn't stop scratching my non-itchy jaw.

"Together, Duchess."

After he said that, the atmosphere became silent. There's nothing more we can talk about.

I also tried to find a topic to melt the atmosphere.

"Oh yes, about my question. What are you doing here, Your Majesty?"

"I'm here to serve as a spy" he said, sounding a little?

"Aha. I see," my laughter is bland. After all, I don't know how to respond if he's proud of himself like that.

"Duchess, we'd better get out of this place. Because sooner or later, we're gonna get caught" he suggested to me.

Submissively, I nodded as well. He began to hold your palm to follow her.

I'm actually quite uncomfortable, but that's okay. When else can you hold hands with the Prince?

We started running with our hands together to get out of this place.

In the middle of the journey, unfortunately we even had time to cross each other so we immediately turned back and ended up chasing with a group of soldiers.

Again.

"Your Majesty, do you know any way out other than this place?" I asked with my breath beginning to gasp.

"Yes, I know. You take it easy, "he replied and I nodded my head.

We ran back as fast as we could. But anyway, our energy remains limited.

Far enough away we were chasing with a horde of soldiers, so the prince finally realized that I had begun to run out of my energy.

The prince asked me to hide behind the wine-filled barrels that the soldiers used to drink here.

"For now, we better hide and rest first, Duchess" she said.

"All right, Your Majesty. Sorry to bother you," I said as I inhaled a lot of breath to neutralize the beating of my heart which was in a fog pumping blood throughout my body.

His lips only covered a smile, while his irises and pupils ran around and over watching the situation around us.

"Your Majesty, are you the one who was yelled as an intruder?" I'm still curious about the intruder that the soldier yelled at when I was still in the shade of a grain sack.

"Yes, it's me" he answered still faithfully with his eyes busy tracing every corner around us.

But a smile accompanied by ruckus began to be attracted from the corner of his lips. "It's a good thing I ran, otherwise I might have become a bed that was beaten earlier."

I also began to issue a small ruckus so as not to be too awkward.

"Oh yes, I heard a conversation that seemed to come from a traitor among us."

My eyes were a bit wide open, I almost forgot about it.

"What do they say, Your Majesty?" I was in a hurry and couldn't stem my curiosity.

Prince Darren seemed to remember. "If it wasn't wrong, they would have placed over a hundred thousand soldiers in their main defense."

"A hundred thousand soldiers?!" my cry was intolerable to hear the words that were lovable from his lips.

"Yes. Therefore, we must quickly save Duke Floniouse. He would not possibly be able to defeat over a hundred thousand with just twenty thousand soldiers," his orders made me even more cold sweaty.

My heartbreak now I could not control, fear and anxiety approached me suddenly and immediately controlled me.

Cold sweat began to flood in, with lips beginning to tremble.

"I understand your concern the Duchess, therefore we must-"

"No, not that," cut me off quickly. With faithful lips trembling, I said.

"I-I didn't expect, that they have that many troops in their main defense," I said in a tone that began to weaken.

"I.. turned out I was so naive.. I shouldn't have let him go with that little army...! It should be.." I still shirked with my quivering tone making Prince Darren a little worried.

"The Duchess? What was? Calm down, Duchess," persuaded Prince Darren to try to calm me down.

"Stupid.. I'm so stupid! Now what now, it's all my fault...!"

"The Duchess!" said Prince Darren with a tone of voice that began to rise, but managed to make me feel as if from the negative thoughts that began to rage.

"Calm down, Duchess. What exactly did you say?! What do you mean Duchess?!"

Prince Darren slightly shook my shoulder so I ended up looking at him with tears in my eyes.

"Arlen.. he went through the main defense of the Nephorine, with only four thousand troops.." I cite with a tone like almost drowned by the high tide.

"Four thousand troops?! That's crazy!" Prince Darren almost yelled loosely, fortunately the man still remembered our status which is currently still in hiding.

"I have to be quick to help him, the point is that I have to hurry to go to stop him" I said, wiping away tears that had flowed without excuse.

I have to save him! I must not be weak and can only cry in this position!

Crying is useless! Do what is needed now!

"Wait, Duchess. Don't hurry, I know you're worried, but it's too late for that" prevented Prince Darren from holding my hand.

Wanting me to brute aside his grasp, yet it was very disrespectful for me to do so because he was a prince.

"What do you mean, Your Majesty?" I was impatient with the emotions that started to ignite my mind.

Especially this? Why is time so fast passing?

The frustration and despair it felt was currently fused into one so it wanted to explode at any moment.

"In that case, however, we must stick to our original plan" I said confidently.

Want as many enemies as possible, I must remain confident. So that that belief continues with me so that I do not lose my spirit.

"I have to meet him and lead the remaining troops" I said.

"Alright, Duchess. I'll come with you, and I'll help you."

The prince's words surprised me. "But should you not protect one hundred thousand troops in one of the three protected areas? Besides, I also had time to hear the conversation of someone Prince," I said.

"Talk? Talk about what, Duchess?" asked Prince Darren while raising his dark-black eyebrows.

"I had heard that the enemy would attack our two unprotected territories."

"Two protected areas? Does the enemy know which territory?"

I smiled wryly hearing it. "Of course there's a traitor who told the enemy, Your Majesty," I said. "They want to kill him first, after which they will attack our two unprotected territories" I continued at length.

"Him? She who?" ask Prince. God, is this Prince trying to embarrass me?

"I mean, my husband. Duke Floniouse." Somehow the heat started to creep up on my cheekbone area.

"In that case, I will help you first and then I will tell the others to protect our two unprotected territories."

"I'm sorry if I'm presumptuous, Your Majesty. But how do you help us? Although you are very strong, but if you remember the army of only twenty thousand is also impossible to defeat them," as I and the Prince appear to show a slanted smile.

"You take it easy, because I'm going to bring my own troops to help you guys," he said, causing me to widen my eyes.

"You have a team?!"

"Yes, my own army. Thirty-five thousand troops," he continued.

Happiness immediately enveloped my heart, and I immediately bowed my head to her.

"Thank you. Thank you very much, Your Majesty!"

I can see a sweet smile adorning the Prince's face. "No need to thank you, Duchess. It's my job to help win this war."

"Then we don't waste much time, we have to leave right now."

I nodded in agreement. The spirit re-burned in my heart, the confidence within me as if starting to rise again.

"Wait me. I will definitely help you!"

...🥀...

The wind blew so strong that it was able to make anyone cold as if their body wanted to freeze.

The fine grains of ice that descended from the overcast sky grew busier, thus making the entire armor that was in that place enveloped by it.

The land they were on now was no longer brown nor green due to the grass growing on it.

Everything had turned white due to the ice grains that were stockpiling it, accompanied by splashes of red stains that made anyone shudder.

Even many swords had been stuck in the ground buried in the white grains, because the owner no longer had a power or life to use it and move it.

"Master, more and more enemies! We're getting desperate! If it stays like this, no matter how strong we are, the edges will definitely be outnumbered! We have to retreat!" shouted one of the soldiers at their leader.

The leader who had the blond mane was worried. Worrying between having to listen to his soldiers or someone who is not sure of his arrival.

He wants to trust someone who is not sure of his arrival, but he also cannot be selfish by allowing all his soldiers to suffer and finally defeat to be theirs.

His feelings are raging, his mind is uncontrollable. Expectations and urges are forced to become one and opposite each other.

Can't accept both, which means the man has to choose between the two.

"Master! Please give us orders!"

Urge for the sake of insistence again forced him to choose. He should not be too quick to make a decision, because it could have ended rashly.

If you make a decision too long, it could be too late.

Strong clenched palms, jaws that began to be printed clearly, became a sign that the man was in a state of bad emotions.

Rather than linger with these worries and doubts, it is better to take risks for the choices he makes today.

"Hold them for a while more! Finish them off for at least two thousand more soldiers! I will lead you from the front, you just follow me from behind! Don't give up, Erosphire's current prosperity depends on us!" he shouted loudly and firmly so that the soldier who heard him immediately obeyed his orders.

"GOOD!" reply the soldiers who became subordinates of the man who nicknamed as the leader of the army.

Ting! Klang's!

The sound of swords clashing against each other, the sound of swords hitting a shield, and sword eyes that pierced and pierced the human body parts on the battlefield, he said, it was as if deafening anyone who heard it.

Sparks of blood stains again adorn the white of the snow ice that is getting thicker and thicker the fall.

The blond-blonde-blonde man with his sky-blue words blazing sharply was unceasingly slashing at the figure blocking him and intending to injure him.

Even the originally clean and shiny armor has now been filled with a lot of red stains due to the exposed skin so that the red liquid behind it is hidden.

Among the many lifeless flesh warriors, among the many swords that had fallen, the man still faithfully tore the skin of the enemy with a sword in his right hand.

Although he was very strong, but not all of his soldiers had the same rights as him.

The longer, the more his soldiers were killed. The more lives are lost, the more the struggle must end, so that the soldiers who originally numbered four thousand, now no more than a thousand.

The enemy is endless.

"I believe you, so trust me."

Those words began to ring in his mind, and seemed to be tasked to make his spirit so as not to be extinct.

"Wait for me, I'll definitely come. When the time we have predicted has come, send your soldiers together. Lift up your shields, and protect yourself."

Ting! The srek!

After hundreds of times of slashes he lay, now the approximate time has come.

The man quickly shouted. "All the soldiers, gather together and lift up your shields to protect us all!"

Without further ado, all the remaining soldiers followed what they were told.

They all raised all their shields so as to form a round snow house that would protect them.

The man could only hope, that the figure would keep his promise. That figure will come to save him.

Even though he wasn't so sure.

^^I Become Wife of the Atrocious Duke^^^

^^^07 December 2020^^^