Chapter 3: Dungeon

“With the addition of savory and salty cheese, the flavour enhances without adding any other seasoning! I know it’s delicious to eat freshly grilled meat, but sometimes I want to eat beef jerky. I just followed that instinct.”

The words were long, but they were still bullishit. Even Ingrid, who had now defended her, was looking away.

“How can you eat in this situation?”

The Duke, who never lost his composure anytime or anywhere, seemed to be in a state of wonder this time.

“Of course! As I said before, if you die after eating, you’ll feel good and satisfied. You can have a peaceful death without any regrets. So, would you like one?”

Luana approached and offered a piece of jerky.

If it were the usual situation, the Duke would have slit her throat right away without any hesitation.  But it was also weird. His body was craving the food. The abandoned Princess did not know that the Duke had a curse that had been passed down in his family from generation to generation. The curse grew stronger year after year, and now the Duke had almost lost his sense of taste.

‘Would it be fun to eat food even if I can’t taste it?’ The Duke only ate enough to spare his life. So, wanting food was something that the Duke was not familiar with.

The Duke accepted the jerky from the princess. On the surface, it was not different from any other jerky. However, a new world unfolded with just a bite of it.

Originally, he didn’t like beef jerky. If he couldn’t feel the taste, he wanted it to be at least chewy. So, he had no choice but to hate tough beef jerky. He ate reluctantly during the war, but did not even speak of it in his mansion. But this jerky felt different.

The jerky that the abandoned princess handed over was soft and could be chewed much easier than the others. The teeth could easily dig into the dry surface and cut it off. The meat was chewed and crushed between the teeth, and the taste of the condensed meat filled his mouth. It was exactly how she said. He could taste the savory and salty taste of the meat, and at the end, a strange sweetness remained on the tip of his tongue.

He wanted to eat more. He remembered the desire that he had forgotten‌ for a while.

The Duke, Legion, unknowingly took another bite of the jerky. 

It was… delicious.

“Isn’t it delicious?”

When the princess saw him, she asked triumphantly. Even though he didn’t answer, Legion’s actions had told her everything. The knights’ eyes widened in surprise.  

‘Our Duke is really eating! Is it really that delicious?’

The knight, who was interrogating Luana while holding the jerky, looked down at his palm with a hesitant look. Yes, he was holding a jerky now. Even though rationally he knew he shouldn’t eat, his instinct urged him.

The jerky seemed to whisper, Take a bite and then you’ll know. It’s going to be really delicious. It was the devil’s whisper.

“No!”

The knight barely managed to endure the temptation. If he had been a little more shallow, he surely would have eaten it. But he endured it. As a member of the proud Leviathan Knights, he endured it!

A strange peace came to the space where just before blood was flowing. Luana was puzzled by the changed atmosphere. She had no choice but to. Because they were the people who were threatening to kill her just now.

All this was peace made by a cheese jerky.

She thought peace would come, but she was mistaken.

“Get in.”

“Wait a minute! Why are you taking me into a dungeon?”

When Luana desperately held onto the door and asked, the Knight looked at her with a blank look on his face.

‘Huh? What? Why? The Duke also enjoyed the beef jerky!’ And as soon as she was about to say more, the knight pushed her forward and she rolled into the dungeon.

She quickly got up again, but the knight had already closed the door and was turning around.

“Wait a minute! Stop right there! Hey! Stop!”

She shouted frantically, but the knight disappeared without looking back. Drops of water dripped from the damp ceiling in a dreary atmosphere. The floor was cracked and dirty and there were some creepy dark red traces left on it. ‘Why should I be here? It’s so unfair.’

Luana stood beside the bed fixed to the wall with a sour look on her face. It was embarrassing to call it a bed, but still it was better to sleep on it than on the floor. However, it didn’t take much long for her to realise that the idea was just an illusion. Actually there were other bugs living together in the bed.

“It’s not fair!”

She tried to move her feet, but to no avail.

“This is not it.”

Luana sat down looking for a place to sit and stay as clean as possible. As she sat still and pondered, she felt goosebumps on her back. She had an ominous feeling. ‘No, no way! Are they going to torment an abandoned princess? What sort of pleasure would they get from it?’

‘I hate being sick and painful!’

Luana jumped up, grabbed the bars and shook them.

“Excuse me! Please release me! It’s not me! I think you have mistaken me!”

“Noisy.”

As she screamed loudly with whatever stamina she had acquired from all that eating, she heard another person’s voice. It was a raspy voice which echoed in the empty dungeon making it more creepy. Luana scratched her forearm without realizing it.

The Duke looked at her with contempt. ‘But why is your face like that?’ Luana, who was struggling, inwardly shouted while scratching her forearm. 

“No!”

She tried to explain it in a hurry, but it didn’t seem to make sense.

“Really, well..want… wash myself.. really!”

“Shut up!”

The knight next to him made Luana shut up instead of the Duke. It was the Knight named Rugard who first brought Luana. She was a little relieved that she at least knew him a little.

“You’re mistaken! This is not my place!”

“Yes, you’re at the right place.”

“That’s not true!”

“Yes it is.”

“No!”

“Yes, it is!”

As Rugard and Luana were fighting on who was right or wrong, the Duke became annoyed and intervened.

“What are you doing now?”

Rugard, who had come to his senses too late, quickly shut his mouth. But Luana kept on talking.

“You’re not right at all. Why should I be stuck here?”

“That’s because you’re a witch.”

The answer was given by the Duke instead of Rugard.

“What?”

Luana looked at the Duke with a sympathetic look on her face. No, there were no witches in the world these days. It had been a while since their families had been wiped out. 

[T/N: In the raws, the korean idiom dry off seeds was used. It means to remove all of something leaving nothing. It just sounded weird here, that’s why we edited it out.]

“You look upset.”

The Duke expressed his displeasure.

“No, well, do you still have witches these days?”

“Here you are.”

“Not me. I don’t have a broom and I can’t fly.”

“Why does a witch need to fly?”

“Oh, don’t they fly?”

“No matter how much power they get from the devil’s contract, their essence is still human. They can’t fly.”

How do you know so much about them in such details? Luana endured what she wanted to shout out and swallowed up her grievances.

“I have been searching for a witch for a very long time, but this is the first time I have found one. There are so many things I want to ask you.”

As he said so, the corners of his mouth rose up but the appearance was a bit scary. ‘This is it! This is the expression of intention to harass someone. You look like you’re trying to bully me!’ Luana took a step back from the bars that were glued together.

“Well, I am not a witch!”

“There’s no way a witch would confess she’s a witch.”

“Why on earth do you think I’m a witch!”

“You know curses come down from generation to generation, don’t you?”

I know, I know! Because I read the novel! But she didn’t want him to know. So she decided to go with the setting that she is an abandoned princess and doesn’t know anything about the outside world.

“The curse slowed my senses and I have almost lost my sense of taste. As a result, I can hardly eat food. I never felt the taste so I didn’t want to eat it. But the jerky you made tasted good. It’s a curse that can’t be solved by any means. It can’t be possible without a witch.”

When the Duke beckoned, Rugard brought a bag and opened it. Inside, there were various tools that she didn’t know what they were used for. ‘Wait, I know that.’ Luana broke out in a cold sweat. ‘It’s a torture tool! You crazy bastard!’

“That’s not true. I’m really not a witch.”

“I’ll judge that.”

‘Who are you to judge when I said that I’m not?’ The door of the prison opened and the Duke entered. Luana quickly ran to the other side and stood opposite to the Duke.

“No, absolutely not!”

“Then how would you describe the jerky? I can’t really taste the food.”

The Duke’s face briefly turned ecstatic. He seemed to be thinking about the taste of the beef jerky.

“The beef jerky you gave me was delicious. Is there any more solid evidence than this?”

Luana shook her arms helplessly.

“Well, that’s just because I made a good jerky!”

“Even the imperial cook couldn’t satisfy my tongue.”

“I guess I’m better off!”

“An abandoned princess of a little kingdom?”

“I’m prejudiced! I could do better!”

“Okay, come here quietly.”

The Duke strode forward. As he approached her, Luana stuck close to the wall to avoid him. However, there weren’t many things that could be done as long as the entrance was blocked.

“Come here.”

The Duke called out to Luana. ‘Would you like to go?’ Luana shook her head in fear.

“If you behave nicely, I’ll go easy on you.”

‘I’m not saying I will!’ She shook her head like a crazed person and tried to run away from him. ‘How long has it been?’ Her legs trembled because she was so nervous. Still, she moved with the will to not get painful and sick, but eventually she was caught by the Duke.

“Oh huh..huh..huh!”

Luana, while crying, held the Duke’s feet and said.

“Ah..I’ll tell you the truth!”

The Duke, who was just taking out some strange-looking tongs from his bag, stopped what he was doing and looked at Luana. Now that it had come to this, there was only one way before her.

“Yes, I am actually a witch! But it’s like an apprentice witch, so there’s very little I can do! I can’t get you rid of your curse!”

That is, to admit to being a witch.