Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

Leo was never going to kill the man, he was just showing the man how important life was for him (the man).  But the way Evan panicked was unexpected. Nobles did not care about the life of others, well, a few of them do but mostly noble ladies are full of themselves only. They would not plead for the servant of the girl who was trying to cover her future husband.

His eyes were burning with rage, filled with amusement and delight looking at her actions. The way she was jumping and dancing on her seat made him forget the events of night. She wanted to stop his actions but was too scared to ask directly, yet she could not let that happen.

His corners of the mouth lifted upward unconsciously, slightly looking at her hiccuping and closing her eyes, yet trying to peek from the corners of her eyes.

But when he heard her words, his lips froze and the warmth in his eyes dissipated. He became the cold blizzard again, throwing ice daggers at her from his eyes.

She blinked, it felt like it was all an illusion she had made because her life was saved so as the man's.

"I knew spring can never touch the northern pole." she muttered under her breath, and his brows knitted into a line.

"What did you say?" he asked with a cold glare but she shook her head calmly.

"Nothing, I am just repeating my geography lessons. We are going to the academy, so they might come useful."

"........." he was sure that she was cursing him once again, but looked at her. How easily she lied with a straight face and even turned to her and blinked with an innocent face.

"Why? What did you hear, my lord?" she should be the one who should be bound on the tree and being trampled by the carriage. In the whole empire, she was the only one who cussed him all the time yet sat so comfortably beside him.

Leo just fumed and looked out of the window. While Evan giggled in her heart. She had finally been even with the man who was being furious at her since morning without any rhyme or reason.

"My lord, we are here.'' Finally the carriage stopped and they both took a breath of relief as if they were prisoners that were captured for a long time and finally got free after their punishment.

Evan looked at the academy in front of her. It was bigger than the palace she was living in. It looked like a palace too with a lot of annex buildings surrounding it. It had a regal aura and three flags could be seen hoisted on its apex point. 

The entrance was large, not like a bridge in the palace but a wide door that was guarded by four knights, two on each side. It was open and many men and women were passing through it. They all would be noble as each of them wearing fine clothes and jewels. 

"Even a snail can walk faster than you." he chided and that is when she noticed that he was already standing on the door.

She nodded and walked as fast as she could in those heels without falling. When she reached closer to him. He forwarded his hand and grabbed her hand in his clutch.

Her eyes widened at the sudden intrusion and she opened her mouth to scold him but when she looked at his frosty eyes that were already warning him that if she opened her mouth, his hands would be on her neck, strangling her, she closed her mouth instantly. But she still glared at him for holding her hands.

"We are a future couple here. You have to act like a loving fiance yet a wicked and haughty woman, this is your last chance." he whispered in her ears and her brows knitted into a thin line. She understood what he wanted but why was it her last chance?

"Are we not going to meet anyone after today?" This was the only valid reason she could think of for it being the last chance.

At the same time her mind started to overwork, thinking about the ideas on how she could behave haughtily

"Hmm, because the corpse could not act." her mind shut down the instant, she heard him. The hands that felt warm at first felt like iron chains that were bound to prisoners so that they could not run away.

He was threatening to kill her if she did not succeed today. Her face turned pale as her mind started to devise hundred ways to run away from here instead of making plans for being a wicked woman. She was so lost in her fears and escape plan that she did not notice his lips that had curled up again.

He did not even realize that teasing her and scaring her was giving him a strange delight. 

"Now walk. Or others would take us as new guards." he almost dragged her when he walked with her long legs and she had to struggle to match his steps. She even forgot to look and enjoy the vast garden and high buildings of the academy.

She wanted to tell him that she could not match up but she did not want to end her last chance of living so soon. She could only cuss him in her heart once again.

Many nobles who had heard about yesterday's party and did not believe in the news, thinking that it was a rumor, stopped in their tracks. They were looking at the couple with stunned eyes.

  Hello! The iceberg who did not even give another glance to a woman, and emitted frost blizzards whenever a woman walked closer to him was holding the hands of a woman while walking. Everyone looked at his face and then at their entwined hands. This was no less than spring amidst the snow. A girl's eyes narrowed on the scene and she nudged her friend 

"Olivia, look there."