Beast of the Frozen Night

Anne, who got up in a panic, looked around quickly.
Even with her eyes open, it took a while for the objects around her to get clear.
She was alone in the desolate room.

The dark cloud-covered sky was engulfed in pitch-black darkness.
Seeing a crescent moon hanging over the sky alone like her, she couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
She seemed to have fallen asleep when she closed her eyes for a moment.

“Library .
.
.”

After looking around the books captured by her vision, the sense of reality returned to where this place was.
She also slowly remembered why she had come here late.

The soft velvet sofa cloth touched her fingertips as she groped around in the dark.
However, it was moist, not dry.

Then that’s .
.
.

Anne’s hand hurriedly turned downward.
The moment she thought the dream was too vivid, and this familiar feeling on the lower part of her body was clearly a trace of someone’s hand.

When she grabbed her skirt and pulled it, the bare white legs that were exposed were clean.
It was dry, but the bottom was puffy.
She slipped her hand inside her and gently touched the sticky arousal liquid.

“Ha .
.
.”

It was so dark that her eyes clouded over.
Nothing came to mind, but she was sure someone had been to this place while she was sleeping.
Someone who dared to humiliate a sleeping woman like a beast.

Her two hands trembled.
She was humiliated at the thought of giving her body to the man and not noticing it.

Him .
.
.

Anne’s head returned to the Grand Duke’s office, which she had passed before coming to the library.
There was only one person here who would do such a thing.
Her eyebrows were wrinkled at the pity for herself, who fell asleep without knowing anything.

She wanted to go to his office right away and ask him, but as every night the very same man lusted for her, it would be no different in the day.
Rather, she would be ridiculed and called a woman who did not behave properly.

Eventually, Anne left the library only after swallowing her wrath.

* * *

Like a capital city, the light of the sun shone wonderfully into the room.
The blizzard stopped and for some reason bright sunlight appeared.

Last night, the Grand Duke did not come to Anne’s room, and the chief handmaid said he had suddenly left.
Thanks to this, Anne had a leisurely dinner and was able to rest without feeling nervous.
She tried to get enough sleep during this time, but she couldn’t fall asleep because she had taken a long nap.

After she ate soft bread and warm soup made from mashed goat meat, which was only available in the North, for breakfast, she pulled the rope.
The maid, who was waiting outside, came in.
Anne, wiping her lips gracefully in front of the tableware, asked the maid.

“You still haven’t found it?”

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t been able to find it yet.”

The maid shook her head and answered politely.

“Keep looking and let me know if you find it.”

Even though she asked several times, only the same answer came back.

The day after her first night, the necklace she was wearing around her neck was gone.
It must have been caught in the Grand Duke’s hand who tore her dress and it might have flown away somewhere, but none of the maids cleaning her room saw it.

Did it fall into a gap?

It’ll be in this room and it’ll come out one day, but she hasn’t been able to find it all month and she’s frustrated.
It was brought in against the Grand Duke’s order, and it would be futile to lose it like this.

As soon as the maid left, Marie came to greet her in the morning and she entered the room.
She usually only showed her face after lunch, but now as she thought they were getting closer, Marie came early in the morning.

“Madame, the weather is nice today, so I’ll show you around the castle.”

“No, I’m going to go outside today.
Get ready to go out.”

“.
.
.
Out of the castle?”

When Marie heard that Anne was leaving the castle, her eyes widened.
The lively face hardened all at once, as if she had heard something she couldn’t hear.

“I have a book I want to buy, so I think I should stop by the bookstore.”

Anne, who glanced back at Marie, went to the dressing room.
The book she was looking for wasn’t in the library, so she decided to go outside and get it.
It was okay to have Marie run an errand, but she wanted to see the downtown area with her own eyes as the bad weather had cleared for the first time in a long time.

Marie, following Anne, murmured a little.

“Madame, His Grace will be back soon .
.
.”

“I will be back soon too.”

She didn’t have to wait for the Grand Duke to return to get permission to leave.
The Grand Duke apparently granted her the powers and freedoms as Grand Duchess, and Anne was not a prisoner of this Grand Duke’s castle.
There was no reason why she couldn’t even go to the nearby town.

“Still .
.
.”