Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

The knock on the door was expected, so the knights let Gabriella in without even asking Leo, if the guest was invited or not.

Gabriella raised a brow but did not say a word as she entered. When she had returned to her room, she was not expecting that Leo would ask her to come into his room.

In the past, even if he wanted to talk to her, he was the one who had always come to her room rather than summoning her. Though it was a small matter, Gabriella still felt that she was getting insulted again.

Leo was still in his armchair with his legs crossed over each other. A mysterious light was flashing in his eyes. He was toying with the same gold coin that has been found in the jewels box of Evan.

  His eyes were stilled on the face of his grandfather that was smirking proudly on the glitzing metal that was looking splendid. 

His mind was filled with the words of Gabriella, "the coin was rare and demonetized long ago with only a few of them left to the noble families who were loyal to the Thawyne family." if the coin was so important and had vanished with time, how did she have it!

He closed his eyes and remembered how he had spent all his day investigating her house rather than going to the training area.

He wanted to be sure about her before taking her side in front of her aunt.

When he entered the house, it was a simple and warm house. But it lacked portraits, he did not think much about it as making portraits was expensive.

The ground floor had a small kitchen, a hall and two bedrooms. They were designed simple and have minimal furniture like in any commoner house. But if looked closely and used, all of them were made out of the finest quality of wood and comparable to their palace when it comes to softness. But it was worn out. As if it was brought a long ago but never changed since then.

When he walked to the kitchen, it was a simple one too but when he looked at the containers, it had all types of dry fruits, sugar, fine flour and many other ingredients that could only be found in the house of nobles. 

The staple food for commoners was wheat flour, coarse flour and corn with some wild and common vegetables that could be easily grown in the garden. Sugar was only for rich and nobles and so did the dry fruits.

Yet they had all the rare food available and that also kept this shabbily as if it cost only a few copper coins.

He walked towards the stairs that lead him to the attic. The room was filled with musical instruments of all types. There was a harp, piano, violin, cello and much more. 

He was sure each one of them would cost thousands of gold coins. It would be enough for a single person to live leisurely for a century.

He moved closer and his fingers played with the keys of the piano. As he had expected, it was the finest quality one. Though looking old and dusty, worn out, it was still able to handle the test of time and was working fine.

A lean figure, dressed beautifully and playing the piano flashed in front of his eyes and his eyes darkened. That breathtaking figure was hidden in the fog of mysteries that even he was not able to solve.

He walked back to the two bedrooms. One of them had a large bed with a big wardrobe and a soft rug and other necessary things neatly organised too. When he opened the closet there, it had the fine clothes of a man and some other utilities.

He gave a last gaze and walked to the other room which was much smaller as if a store room was changed into the room. It had a small bed and a small cabinet with a small study table that was neatly arranged.

He walked leisurely as if the whole place belonged to him and sat on the bed. It was good but when he compared it with the other furniture of the house it was the most rough and worn out. 

"Hmmm" then he stood up and walked to the cabinet. It only has 4 dresses that were neatly arranged in the cabinet. He did not know much about the clothes of the girls yet he knew that the clothes were made of cotton and much worn out. It was the only cloth that looked like the clothes of a commoner.

His face turned sour when he realised that though the family used to live like rich, Evan still had the worst things given in the house, while she was the only child the couple had.

His eyes darkened. And he decided to take another round of the house before leaving when he saw the one wood of the house was new among all the old wood blocks.

It could have been common that repairs had been done and the old block of wood had been broken and changed, yet he did not know why, he was being so suspicious that he crouched down there and checked the wood.

He traced the corners of the wood and then tapped on it. It sounded hollow. His eyes narrowed and he tapped on the other blocks of woods surrounding it, but none of the sound hollow.

A mocking smile formed on his lips as he walked back to the kitchen and took the sharpest knife. Putting all his pressure on it, he broke the wood with the help of a knife only to find there was soil in it like other woods. Yet he was sure that the sound was much different. 

He placed his hands on the soil only to feel it solid. He dug a bit of soil and saw a golden tip shining in the dark room.

"You called me!"