Chapter 116: Chapter 116: Bitten by a Snake
The communicator...
Yu Zhizhi glanced at Louis in a daze. She reached out and tapped the edge of the communicator, and with a BEEP, the call connected.
A deathly silence.
Yu Zhizhi didn’t speak, just stared blankly as she clutched the blanket.
"Heh." A familiar laugh came from the other end of the communicator, laced with a hint of suppressed anger. "So you finally decided to answer?"
’It’s the Duke...’
Yu Zhizhi bit her lip. For some reason, she felt a little guilty. "Wh-what is it?"
’Didn’t we just exchange messages a little while ago? Why is he calling me so late?’
「In the carriage.」
The Duke toyed with two Glazed Balls in his left hand. His golden, vertical pupils gazed out the window. The estate was secluded and deep in the dead of night, with only the rustling of bamboo leaves in the wind.
"I heard you were attacked."
His Hidden Guard had been secretly protecting the little female, sending him daily reports about her.
Although the spirit letter from the Hidden Guard stated that all the heretics had been eliminated and the Rabbit Clan Lady was unharmed.
But the Duke couldn’t help but worry.
He wanted to hear it from the little rabbit herself.
"Are you hurt?" he asked in a low, husky voice.
"No..."
Yu Zhizhi rested her chin on the blanket. She could see Louis standing by the bed. The room was pitch-black, and she could only faintly make out the slight gleam of his eyes.
"I’m fine."
’That night, Yusen was by my side. Louis and the Paradise Guard Team were there, too. So many people came.’
Yu Zhizhi had been a little frightened, but she wasn’t injured.
A long silence followed from the other end.
In the carriage, the Duke had already sensed that something was off with the little female’s state. Her voice was weak, as if she were hiding something.
He sat in the carriage, his left hand gripping the Glazed Balls tightly.
"What were you doing all day? Why didn’t you answer my calls?"
Hearing this question, Yu Zhizhi’s rabbit-like eyes widened slightly, and she began to stammer uncontrollably. "D-d-during... during the day..."
’How could I possibly explain what happened during the day?’
Beside her, Louis’s expression showed he understood. He saw the little female’s porcelain-white cheeks instantly turn red.
Yu Zhizhi stammered for a while, unable to form a complete sentence.
Suddenly, she let out a low cry—
"Ah!"
From the other end of the communicator, the Duke’s voice came immediately. "What’s wrong?"
At almost the same moment, Louis took two steps forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a long, thin shape that, with a WHOOSH, slithered out through the crack under the door.
Yu Zhizhi was in so much pain that tears were about to stream from her eyes. "...I was bitten by a snake!"
She could feel it—that slick, slithering sensation. It was a very thin little snake, its color invisible in the night, and it had bitten her ankle viciously.
Now, a fiery pain seared the wound.
Yu Zhizhi sniffled pitifully. "Did you order it...?"
The other end of the line went silent for a few seconds. The Duke laughed in exasperation. "What in the world goes on in that head of yours all day?"
’My order?’
’Send a snake to bite her from thousands of miles away?’
Louis walked to the foot of the bed and saw the girl’s snow-white foot exposed outside the blanket.
On her ankle, the fang marks from the snakebite were very clear.
He crouched down, took a clean handkerchief from his coat, and gently wiped the blood from the wound.
Yu Zhizhi shivered. She tried to pull her foot back, but Louis held it fast.
The young man looked up, not speaking, but his eyes clearly said, ’The wound must be treated, or it will become a problem.’
Yu Zhizhi was still on the call with the Duke. Her throat felt a little dry, and she didn’t dare move, so she could only let Louis hold her small foot and gently wipe it.
"Th-then why else... would a little snake suddenly bite me?"
She bit her lip. "Maybe... it was a Clone."
On the Beast World Planet, there was a Spell that allowed one to have a Clone.
’Fine, just fine. It seems this little rabbit is determined to blame me for some wild snake.’
The Duke said with a half-smile, "If it were my Clone, it wouldn’t be as simple as just one bite."
’...That’s true.’
’If that little snake really had been sent by the Duke, or if it was his Clone... it would have bitten me several times. That would be more his style.’
Yu Zhizhi fell silent.
She watched as Louis set the handkerchief aside. He cupped her snow-white foot in one hand, lowered his head to the wound, and "kissed" it.
Yu Zhizhi stared at him in astonishment.
SLURP, SLURP—
He was sucking the blood from the wound.
The young man’s lips touched her ankle, his breath warming her skin, sending waves of tingling numbness through her. And on top of that, his soft lips were—
They were...
Yu Zhizhi bit down on the blanket, trying her best not to make a sound.
Despite her efforts, she couldn’t suppress a thick, muffled sound that escaped her throat.
"Mmph..."
Louis quietly continued what he was doing, seemingly finding nothing wrong with it.
After sucking out a few mouthfuls of blood, he finally managed to draw all the venom from her body.
「On the other end of the communicator.」
The Duke’s golden, vertical pupils were grim and deathly still.
The little female’s ambiguous noises vaguely hinted at the scene currently unfolding on her end.
He thought back to the call that had been hung up on him during the day, which was then busy every time he tried again.
He suddenly squeezed, crushing the Glazed Balls in his hand.
"Yu Zhizhi."
The Duke used her full name.
"Do you want to die?"
Hearing the Duke’s murderous tone, Yu Zhizhi shrank back. She wanted to hide under the blanket, but her foot was still in Louis’s hand.
"...I don’t."
The moment she spoke, something licked the wound on her foot.
She clamped the blanket tightly over her mouth, her body trembling slightly.
SOB...
Yu Zhizhi was on the verge of tears.
At first, it was because of the pain, but now...
Louis raised his eyes slightly, his dark pupils perfectly calm. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away with his thumb, his lips now stained red, making his entire face appear startlingly beautiful.
It was as if he were performing a sacred rite.
Like a devout believer attending to his god.
"W-wait until the weekend, I’ll call you back then..." Yu Zhizhi said hurriedly, quickly hanging up the communicator.
She didn’t dare stay on the line any longer, terrified of feeling the Duke’s wrath.
The communicator went dead.
In the carriage, shards of the Glazed Balls remained in the Duke’s left hand, drawing a trace of blood in his palm. He stared grimly at the floor, his heart feeling as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, the pain making his entire chest tremble.
’...How dare she.’
An expression of humiliation slowly crept onto the Duke’s face.
He thought of the girl’s soft, delicate moans from the communicator. He could almost see the strong arms holding her captive.
Small enough to be held in one hand.
She had always been like that.
’Saying she was bitten by a snake.’
’What kind of snake was it, really?’
’And how did it bite her?’
’That wretched little rabbit! She doesn’t even have the decency to behave herself while on a call with me. To think she would humiliate me like this!’
’And to think I was worried for so long, desperately trying to call her.’
’I called all day long.’
’Only for it to finally connect late at night.’
The Duke abruptly ripped the communicator from his ear and hurled it toward the front of the carriage.
BANG!
With a sharp crack, the communicator shattered into pieces.
The servant waiting outside the carriage flinched, his shoulders trembling slightly. He looked up in alarm and could vaguely see the Duke’s silhouette through the curtain.
’Wh-what’s wrong?’
’Why is he so angry?’
Meanwhile, Yu Zhizhi felt Louis’s gentle kiss land on her ankle. She said in a small voice, "That’s enough, Louis... It doesn’t hurt anymore."
As she was speaking, she caught a glimpse of a Shadow entering from the doorway and quickly pulled her foot back.
