ONE NIGHT STAND WITH HOT DUKE-Chapter 173: Not choosing how to die, just waiting for when

Chapter 173: Not choosing how to die, just waiting for when

Valerie’s name was not spoken, yet it hung in the air like a death sentence.

Sean stood not far away, his face pale, cold sweat tracing his temples. His hands trembled as he finally stepped forward.

"Gordon," he said hoarsely. "This has gone on too long."

Gordon turned sharply. "What are you implying?"

Sean swallowed hard. "We should inform the Duke. Now."

The room fell instantly silent.

Some soldiers exchanged glances. Some turned their faces away. Others clenched their fists.

"Are you insane?" Gordon hissed softly, the threat unmistakable. "If the Duke knows now—"

"I know!" Sean cut in, his voice suddenly rising, almost desperate. "I know he could kill us all. But I also know if we delay telling him, that death will come even faster."

He scrubbed his face with both hands. "Valerie is not an ordinary servant. She’s not someone who can simply... disappear."

The name was finally spoken.

Gordon fell silent. His jaw tightened, his gaze dropping to the stone floor as if searching for answers there.

"If the Duke returns," Sean continued quietly, "and discovers we hid this from him... none of us will survive."

Silence descended once more.

Then Gordon drew a long breath the breath of a soldier who knew he was standing at the edge of a cliff.

"Search until dawn," he said at last. "Use anything. Anyone."

Sean looked at him. "And if she isn’t found?"

Gordon lifted his head. His gaze was dark.

"Then we no longer choose how we die," he said quietly. "We only wait for when."

In the distance, the night bell rang once.

And in two different castles, two kinds of fear took root one born from a loss not yet fully realized, and the other from a truth that could no longer remain hidden.

Valerie was still not found.

Dawn arrived without answers. Morning mist hovered over the castle courtyard like a thin shroud, and the faces of those who had stood guard through the night now looked paler than the stone walls they leaned against. There were no footprints. No torn fabric. No message. No one who could say where she had gone or how she had vanished.

Gordon stood alone in the center of the inner courtyard.

His war helm rested in his hand, unused. For the first time since he had sworn his service to Demian, his shoulders felt heavy not from armor but from reality.

Two days.

Two days a woman had vanished from the Duke’s castle, and not one of them had dared to report it.

He let out a long breath and made the decision that should have been made from the beginning.

"I will tell him," he said quietly.

No one stopped him.

No one tried.

Because everyone knew this was no longer about punishment. It was about consequences.

The journey to Castle Kosler felt both too fast and unbearably slow.

By the time Gordon arrived, the sun was already high. The guards parted without question; the general’s expression was answer enough.

Demian was in the small audience chamber the same room where he had spent the last two days with Ivanka. Ivanka was not there when Gordon entered, only the lingering scent of medicine and a silence that had not yet fully dissipated.

Demian stood near the window.

"Your Grace," Gordon said, dropping to one knee. His voice was restrained, rigid.

Demian did not turn at once. "What is it?"

One sentence. Flat. Too calm.

And that was how Gordon knew he stood before a storm.

"Valerie," he said at last. The word felt like stone on his tongue. "...has disappeared."

Silence.

Complete silence.

Demian turned slowly.

"What do you mean," he asked quietly, "disappeared?"

Gordon lowered his head further. "She cannot be found anywhere in the castle. We searched,"

"Since when."

Demian’s voice changed. It did not rise. It did not explode. It narrowed like a blade sliding free of its sheath.

Gordon swallowed. "Two days ago."

Two.

Days.

The air seemed to be sucked out of the room.

"What?" Demian took one step forward. "Repeat that."

"It has been two days, Your Grace," Gordon repeated, almost whispering. "And... no one reported it to you."

The explosion did not come as a shout.

Demian laughed.

Once.

Short. Cold. Without a trace of humor.

"Two days," he repeated, his voice now trembling. "And none of you thought that mattered?"

His hand clenched.

The windowpanes rattled when his fist slammed into the stone table beside him.

"TWO DAYS?!" His voice finally erupted, filling the chamber. "You allowed a woman to vanish for two days and only now you come to me?!"

Gordon remained kneeling. "Your Grace—"

"I am asking you, Gordon!" Demian roared. "Was Valerie’s life not valuable enough to inconvenience you?! Or did you think I was too busy playing the new husband to deserve knowing?!"

He turned away, pacing like a caged beast.

"Sean. Noel. The guards. The servants." Each name fell from his mouth like a death sentence. "You all chose silence."

Demian stopped directly in front of Gordon.

His eyes were dark. Sharp. And now filled with guilt twisted into pure fury.

"If something has happened to her," he said quietly, almost whispering, "I swear... none of you will be able to hide behind rank, oath, or excuse."

Gordon bowed his head lower. "I am prepared to accept any punishment, Your Grace."

Demian laughed again this time bitter.

"Punishment?" He shook his head slowly. "This is not about punishment."

He lifted his face, staring emptily ahead, as if seeing something far beyond the castle walls.

"This is about the fact that I was not there," he said softly. "And you knew that."

The room was too small to contain Demian’s rage.

The air grew heavy, as though the stone walls themselves were holding their breath. Gordon remained kneeling, head lowered, awaiting a sentence he knew would not be light yet even he was unprepared for what came next.

Demian stopped directly in front of him.

For several seconds, there was no sound.No shouting.No command.

Only a stare.

A stare that made Gordon’s blood run cold.

"Do you know," Demian said at last, his voice low and shaking, "what makes me want to kill you the most right now?"

Gordon did not answer. He did not dare.

"You came to me too late," Demian continued. "And you came as though I still had a choice."

Demian’s hand clenched.

And before anyone could move— 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

CRACK.

The blow struck Gordon so fast the impact echoed through the chamber. His body was hurled aside, crashing hard against the stone floor, the air knocked from his lungs.

The guards at the door stepped forward instinctively.

"Asher—!" someone shouted.

"SILENCE!"