The Duke’s Obsession Leads to a Death Flag

As soon as the butler left, I slung the bag I had packed the night before over my shoulder and quietly slipped out of the room. I didn’t forget to check my surroundings as I exited through the side door and headed into the western forest.

Walking along the winding path, I looked up at the dense leaves blocking out the sky. Just as my breathing grew labored, I spotted the storage shed in the distance where the child was.

“What the…”

I took a wire out of my pocket to pick the lock, but something felt off. Why was the lock so loosely undone? This had never happened before.

“Did I not lock it properly last night?”

Even as I tried to recall, nothing specific came to mind, so I pushed my doubts aside for the moment. I put the wire back in my pocket, easily unfastened the loose lock, and stepped into the shed.

“You’re a bit late today, huh?”

The child, curled up in the darkness, glanced at me before completely ignoring me. I hadn’t expected a warm welcome, but I couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed.

Here I was, running all the way out here just to keep my promise to come back.

‘Calm down, just let it go. I’m going to send him away soon anyway.’

I set down the bag weighing on my shoulders and pulled out food to win his favor. At the rustling sound, the child lifted his face from where it had been buried between his knees.

He hadn’t even acknowledged me when I greeted him, but of course, he was quick to react to food.

“I brought all sorts of things for you again today.”

The child’s eyes sparkled at the sight of the endless stream of rice cakes and snacks coming out of my bag. Slowly, he stretched his curled-up body and moved toward me. Just then, a loud growl rumbled from his stomach.

“You’re really hungry, huh?”

At last, the child gave an honest nod.

Even as he moved closer to the food, he licked his lips but couldn’t bring himself to reach out first. Hesitating, fidgeting, and stealing glances at me, he looked just like a puppy waiting for its owner to tell him he could eat.

Yesterday, he was like a wary stray cat with his guard up. But today, he was a patient little puppy waiting for his master.

“Go ahead and eat.”

“……”

“I brought it for you.”

The moment I gave permission, the child reached out and grabbed the food. He tore off the packaging so roughly that some of the rice cakes and snacks fell onto the dirt floor, but he didn’t care and simply picked them up to eat.

Watching him devour the food, he looked less like a human child and more like a beast that knew nothing of civilization, stuffing whatever it could find into its mouth. It was exactly like the animals I’d seen on nature documentaries.

“Uugh.”

The child, who had been stuffing food into his mouth in a hurry, gagged and pounded on his chest. I knew this would happen. Letting out a deep sigh, I pulled a bottle of water from my bag.

“Don’t eat so fast. Drink some water too. If you eat rice cakes the wrong way, they’ll get stuck in your throat.”

No matter what I said, the child refused to listen and, as if to spite me, shoved the remaining rice cake into his mouth. His puffed-up cheeks made him look exactly like a chipmunk stuffing its food pouches.

What was the point of talking? I might as well think differently. This kid isn’t human. A wolf boy. Yeah, a wolf boy—one that doesn’t understand human speech. Only after convincing myself of that did I finally feel at ease.

“Here, drink this.”

I pulled a water bottle from my bag and handed it to him. The child, still wary, reached out with hands covered in crumbs and took the bottle.

Chewing and swallowing the rice cake in his mouth as fast as he could, he then tilted the bottle—without even opening the cap.

Of course, not a single drop of water came out.

“You don’t know how to open the cap?”

Struggling with the bottle, the child gave me an honest nod. Looking into those innocent, sparkling eyes, I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Give it to me. I’ll open it for you.”

He obediently handed the bottle over. I unscrewed the cap, which was now smeared with crumbs, and gave it back to him. Without hesitation, he tilted the bottle and poured it into his mouth.

Half of it went down his throat, while the other half spilled all over him, soaking his clothes completely. He froze with a blank expression, as if surprised himself, before hastily drinking the last few drops left in the bottle.

“Hey, you can’t drink like that.”

I snatched the empty bottle from his hands. He blinked his large eyes slowly. Telling him to stay still, I pulled a fresh towel from my bag and began wiping down his wet clothes and skin. His body stiffened under my touch.

“I can’t tell if you’re a person or a puppy. You can’t even open a cap, you don’t listen, and you don’t talk either.”

Muttering to myself, I continued drying him off when I suddenly felt an intense gaze. I paused and looked at the child, only for him to quickly shift his eyes elsewhere, pretending he hadn’t been staring.

‘As if he actually has something to say.’

I pursed my lips and fell silent too. His eyes, which had wandered away, slowly returned to me, but I ignored them and continued what I was doing.

After setting the damp towel on the floor, I took out a fresh set of clothes from my bag. The rags he had been wearing bothered me, so I had brought my own clothes. Fortunately, since we were about the same size, they should fit him well enough.

“Put this on.”

The child took the black pants and white shirt with unexpected obedience. But then, with a deep frown, he suddenly grabbed at the shirt buttons as if he were about to rip them off.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I quickly stopped him. I had no idea why he was trying to ruin a perfectly good shirt, but when I followed his gaze, I understood immediately.

“You don’t know how to button it?”

Just in case, I asked, and once again, he nodded without hesitation. Well, yeah. A kid who couldn’t even open a bottle cap probably wouldn’t know how to fasten buttons either. Buttoning was a delicate task, after all.

Yeah, at this point, I could understand anything.

“The pants… You can’t wear them.”

Because of the shackles, changing into pants was impossible. As I looked at the metal binding tightly around his ankles with a sense of pity, the child deliberately rattled the chains, making noise.

I put the pants back into my bag and gestured to the child, who was now engrossed in shaking his foot to produce sound.

“Come closer.”

I needed him nearby to put the shirt on him. But he still kept his distance, maintaining a safe gap. He still didn’t trust me, huh?

Since he wouldn’t come on his own, I grabbed his arm and pulled him in with all my strength. Caught off guard, the child stumbled forward a step, his eyes widening in shock. Beneath his still-swollen eyelids, his red irises wavered violently.

“I’m just putting your clothes on, so stay still.”

As I peeled the ragged fabric off his stiff body, the hidden wounds underneath were revealed without restraint. There was no way they could have healed in just a few days, so his body was still a complete mess.

I’ve been applying medicine, but the scars probably won’t disappear.

I carefully helped him into the shirt, making sure the fabric wouldn’t rub against his wounds. While fastening the buttons, I glanced at him and noticed his eyes were fixated on my hands with a curious gaze.

“You’ve never worn clothes with buttons before?”

The child nodded. Looking at the tattered garment sprawled on the floor, it was obvious—it was the type you just pulled over your head and slipped your arms through. If he’d only worn simple clothes like that, it made sense he wouldn’t know how buttons worked.

Once I straightened the shirt’s collar, I realized how different he looked. Unlike when he was wrapped in rags, the neatly dressed child now carried an air of elegance. The only thing that felt a little off was his hair. If it were tidier, he would look even better.

“Hold still for a second.”

As I reached out to fix his messy hair, the child flinched, his shoulders trembling slightly. Startled myself, I hesitated in the middle of my motion.

In the brief moment of tension, we stared at each other. In the past, he would’ve run far away, but this time, he stayed put. He was still within reach.

‘Just a little more…’

I extended my hand again, finally letting my fingertips brush against his red hair. Soon, my entire palm rested atop his head. His head was just as small as my hand.

‘Did he wash his hair?’

His hair was slightly damp. There was a small sink in the corner of the storage shed—had he washed it there? Now that I thought about it, his clothes had seemed a little wet even before he spilled water on himself earlier.

“Your hair is really soft.”

I found myself murmuring absentmindedly, enchanted by the silky strands slipping through my fingers. Caught up in the moment, I kept stroking his hair until I suddenly realized what I was doing. Embarrassed, I quickly disguised it by pretending to fix his hair.

“All done.”

I took a step back and looked at him. Dressed in clean clothes with his hair neatly arranged, the child looked like a beautifully crafted doll. Maybe it was his fair skin, or perhaps his striking red hair, but either way, he seemed unreal.

“You’re pretty.”

It was a compliment filled with pure sincerity. The unhealed wounds were a bit distracting, but even so, this child was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.

Even knowing he was a boy, if someone asked me to name the most beautiful person in the world, I wouldn’t hesitate to point to him.

‘That bruise… I hope it fades soon.’

Now that he no longer flinched from my touch, I gently rubbed his cheek, lost in thought, when I suddenly remembered the medicine I had brought. Just as I lowered my hand to grab it from my bag, the child abruptly grabbed my wrist.

“W-Whoa, what the—?!”

His grip was stronger than I expected, startling me. As I stood there, caught off guard, he tilted his head slightly, staring intently at my hand. The moment I felt something warm and wet against my fingers, my eyes widened in disbelief.

“W-What the hell are you doing?!”

The child had stuck out his red tongue and was diligently licking my hand.

He carefully licked each of my fingers, as if savoring them, before glancing up at me. His gaze was calm, as if he didn’t see anything strange about this at all, leaving me utterly speechless.

Then I realized—the crumbs.

Earlier, when I had brushed off the bits of food stuck to his lips, some of it must have transferred onto my hand. And now, he was making sure to eat every last speck.

Only after he had thoroughly licked off even the tiniest crumbs did he finally release me. I lowered my now damp, saliva-coated hand and stared at him in stunned silence.

He looked completely satisfied, as if he had just accomplished something important.

A breathless chuckle escaped me, half in disbelief.

“Seriously… are you a person or a beast?”