The 3cm Grand Duke’s Secret Deal with a Witch - Chapter 9

“Um, I’m sorry. I don’t really know about that… My master took me in when I was an orphan with no one in the world, and I’ve lived in hiding ever since. So I don’t hear much about what goes on outside. I only happened to learn what the Warden Duke looked like by chance, really, purely by chance…”

“I see. I was cursed by a dragon when I was young.”

This time, the witch’s shoulders shot up.

“It was a black dragon.”

“……!”

“One I met in this forest.”

“I-I-I, I s-see…!”

The witch began to bounce her knees even more violently. She was sweating so profusely that it seemed she might melt away like candle wax. For some reason, she also looked frightened, like someone who had committed a crime. It didn’t matter. She had looked strange without a single second’s exception from the moment they met.

Max roughly pulled his chair away from the table. He was tired of explaining any further. When he abruptly spread his thighs wide enough for her to see clearly, the witch recoiled in horror.

“Look properly.”

“No, I swear. I didn’t peek. I really didn’t have any strange thoughts, I didn’t…!”

“What are you talking about? The curse is right here. My d**k stopped growing.”

“……!”

“It’s incredibly inconvenient. I’m in urgent need of marriage and producing an heir, but all the women keep running away because they’re afraid sleeping with me won’t be enjoyable. What do you think?”

“W-What do you mean, what do I think…?!”

The witch jumped.

It was truly impossible to keep a conversation going with her. Max let out a sigh and tapped the space between his legs again.

“I’m asking if you can fix it, Witch.”

“……!”

“Even temporarily is fine. Illusion magic is fine too. Can you make it larger?”

“Eek…”

“Why do you keep making strange noises?”

“S-Sorry.”

“Enough. I heard you’re highly skilled. You changed a wanted criminal’s face to look like a child’s and got them through a city checkpoint, didn’t you? I also heard you once disguised a warehouse full of smuggled goods as an empty barn and fooled a tax collector.”

“Ack.”

“You’ve committed some rather brazen acts. In my territory, no less.”

“Aaaack.”

“Choose, Witch. Will you try to fix my d**k, or would you rather rot in an underground prison for about fifty years?”

It was an utterly unreasonable choice forced upon her.

Crushed beneath the overbearing pressure of a ruler said to serve even the Emperor only halfheartedly, Elizia opened and closed her lips like a goldfish for a long while before hesitantly nodding. Y-Yes, she still looked servile, as though she were a criminal.

“You were cursed, or rather, struck by magic when you were a child. I-It seems the dragon you met had a violent temper…?”

Well, he could hardly remember meeting it, so he knew nothing about its personality, but that was surely the case. It had been a black dragon, which was said to be the foulest-tempered of all dragonkind. With no dragon present to hear him, Maximilian shamelessly continued fabricating the story.

“That’s right. It was a bastard with a rotten temper.”

“…I’m sorry on its behalf…”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“A-Anyway.”

For some reason, the witch flinched and waved both hands. The witch’s eyes darted here and there anxiously, looking once at the floor and once to gauge the Warden Duke’s mood. At last, as though she had made some momentous decision, she tightly gripped the hem of her skirt.

For the first time, Elizia looked straight at Maximilian.

But that gaze was so fervent that he had no idea what to make of it. The Warden Duke instinctively realized it. That was, without a doubt, the expression of someone who wanted something. The witch was a novice who had no idea how to hide her ulterior motives. Strangely enough, however, it did not feel unpleasant. Maybe it was because her eyes were still wet with tears.

“The power of spirits partially shares a common nature with a dragon’s authority. Bypassing the curse might mean that I, I can help treat you. Though it would be difficult. Of course, it would be hard to cure it completely all at once….”

“You’re saying you can restore my d**k size to its original state?”

“If there’s a size to restore, then I guess…?”

Even though he had pressured her, he had not expected a genuinely positive answer.

Maximilian drew in a deep breath. This was clearly not something just any witch could do. Who would have thought such a remarkable witch had wandered into his principality? Unexpected hope surged inside him. Had a way out finally appeared? Max unconsciously clenched his fist and lowered his voice ominously.

“So what’s the price. How much do you want?”

The negotiation had begun in the most blatant manner possible. Witches were greedy. There was no chance she would accept such an enormous commission for a paltry sum.

When the Warden Duke asked her outright, Elizia quickly shook her head. Meanwhile, some unknown, intense desire dripped plainly from her gaze.

“I don’t need money!”

“Ah, a small sum won’t cut it? You want more money?”

“That’s not it… I, I, I want you, Grand Duke…!”

“Me?”

At that moment, Max imagined a witch drilling holes into human bones, placing candles inside them, and grinning in some dark back room.

The fact that this was all he could imagine when a woman said she wanted a man was enough to reveal the bleakness of his youth. Indeed, he had spent his entire life consumed by war, visiting graves, or desperately making money.

Had he ever experienced romance, or at least held a woman’s hand once, he would have realized that Elizia’s confession was extraordinarily passionate.

“You want my head?”

On the battlefield, when people hurled filthy curses while seeking each other out, it usually meant they intended to tear off the other person’s head. And so, Maximilian responded viciously as though he had received a challenge to a duel.