The First Night With the Duke webtoon still gives a ride of romance, suspense, and drama as Ripley struggles to enjoy her messed-up life as Duchess. Upon marrying Duke Zeronis, Ripley finds it hard to prevent the looming doom of the world, which she has been dreading. In The First Night With the Duke Chapter 64-72, we see her trying to balance her love for Zeronis with her knowledge of the fictional world story she believes she’s trapped in.
These chapters, explore further the relationship Ripley has with her friends. Her compulsion to protect everyone including herself and her continuous research on the cursed doll and the doom she sees ahead. As the chapters go on, danger comes closer to home as Rose becomes obsessed with revenge. Thus burning down the palace. All these dramatic moments bring out the bravery of Ripley and the loyalty of Sylvia as they struggle to survive the betrayal, fire, and danger of death. Our dear hero, Zeronis, is racing to save Ripley at the last moment.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 64: Deja-Vu Again
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 64 begins with the Duke giving Ripley a sharp, suspicious look, wondering what kind of scheme she’s cooking up now. Poor Ripley can not just scream that it is all fiction, and she is scared trying to prove to him that she is innocent. The Duke remains firm, that everybody must know her soon as the Duchess. Ripley, in return, worries about the wedding-a.k.a the Happy Ending. As she remembers the novel’s “happy ending” was followed by a terrifying apocalyptic plague.
The following day, Ripley and Etoile meet. Etoile is emotional, tears glistening as she praises Ripley and the Duke as the most beautiful couple ever. Ripley asks Etoile to catch the wedding bouquet on her wedding day. And addresses her not only as her best friend but also as her most trusted colleague. Etoile hearing this is overjoyed.
Wright’s Proposal
Wright, slightly awkward, remarks that Etoile cries too much, but he himself looks tearful. Ripley is charmed by this dramatic pair. Then, to everybody’s surprise, Wright draws out a ring and sweetly says, “Lady Etoile, will you marry me?”The room holds its breath as he slips the ring on her finger but it turns out that the ring does not fit.
A broken-hearted Etoile takes off the ring and admits that she feels unworthy of being his wife. And that she has only just learned how to sew up holes. She says with complete sadness that she will never be a marquise. Ripley is too stunned and can only stare. Those were the same words in the novel and deja vu strikes her pretty hard. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 64 ends with Ripley reeling from this eerie collision of fiction and reality.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 65: Rewrite the Stars
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 65 begins with Wright gently reassuring Etoile that the ring doesn’t matter—what matters is her. And he needs her by his side. But Etoile, composed, and determined, denies him. Ripley is shocked; in the novel, it is the Duke (not Wright) who went through the same scenario. She knows that the plot has changed. Yet Etoile is still keeping the same mindset and personality.
Then Ripley thinks to herself. If she could twist the original story, then perhaps she could change the ending as well. She goes ahead to pick up the ring and slides it onto the little finger of Etoile. She comforts her saying that being a duchess was not her dream too but she persisted through finding courage on the way. Ripley lovingly says, “Your fate isn’t decided by a ring, but by your heart.” Wright again proposes. Etoile is encouraged. She embraces Wright and accepts to marry him.
Rewriting the Ending
Later, Ripley sneaks into the library to find books about the doom and apocalyptic ending. Sylvia, confused by Ripley’s secrecy and sudden interest in such a topic, can only watch her. When the Duke comes in, Ripley immediately lies about being in search of a guide to becoming a proper lady of a respectable house. Duke can get her a book easily, soothes her not to think too much, and she can trust him. She blushes and asks him to tuck her hair behind her ear.
Meanwhile, Sylvia wonders why Ripley’s acting odd, while in another place, the strange Ripley-doll is smiling on the counter, all shiny and mischievous. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 65 ends with Ripley deciding to rewrite the ending herself.
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The First Night With the Duke Chapter 66: Have You Had a Change of Heart?
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 66 begins with Ripley lying in bed, exhausted, surrounded by books on the bed hand and the eerie doll in her hand. As she is falling asleep, her thoughts drift. Thoughts on how to alter the sad ending of the story are racing in her mind. She closes her eyes and suddenly she is in an unfamiliar, dark world with stars in the sky. She is perplexed and frightened by a strange voice calling her, “Come this way. Come here.”
The following morning Ripley wakes up. But cannot move-paralyzed by some form of sleep paralysis. She can hear the sad voice of the Duke saying,“… Abandoned me?” She struggles to hold him. But the scene quickly dissipates, and she is back again to the previous night. After waking up again, however, she now understands that it was just a dream… or was it? She sheds tears as she wonders whether that dream could be true.
Ripley is firm and concludes that she wants some clarity prior to the wedding. She takes a small bag and decides to go on a day trip. Where she tells herself that she will get her answer and then return. She removes her ring and, with a breath, walks to the door, but just then Duke comes in. His eyes fell upon her bare finger, on which the ring had been previously. His face turns darker when he questions where she is going without her ring. Then, in a cold low voice, he asks,” Unless you’ve had a change of heart… right?” The First Night With the Duke Chapter 66 ends with his piercing gaze and her stunned silence.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 67: Your Nightmare, My Truth
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 67 begins with Ripley trying to calm the furious Duke, assuring him her love hasn’t changed. She just needs time to figure things out. But in a moment of anguish the Duke, burying his face in his hands, growls, Ripley, “You are my Nightmare”. He confesses he had dreamt that she was sucked into an abyss before his very eyes and he was left utterly ruined. She cries and tells everything: she is not of this world. This is only a fictional story and as the story will finish, this world will as well.
Instead, he asks her to tell the truth about her hating his dark past and thus leaving him once again. However, she tenderly consoles him and recalls his suppressed, agonizing memories that he never told anybody. “Because I’ve read it,” she whispers in a sad voice to Zeronis. He is appalled that she is aware of these details, but he is unable to accept her crazy tale. He walks away brokenhearted, and Ripley weeps in her bed.
Later in the evening, the Duke sneaks into her room. Soft-eyed, he states, it does not make a difference whether she is Ripley or another person. He wants her by his side. He will cast away what he believes in for her. He embraces her and holds her tight and she mutters in her heart: I will find a way to save this world.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 67 ends with Ripley clinging to her determination and his embrace, vowing not to let the story—or their love—fade away.
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The First Night With the Duke Chapter 68: The Doll’s Secret
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 68 begins with Sylvia hesitating outside Ripley’s door, worried she might still be crying. However, when she knocks it is opened by the Duke himself. Who tells her Ripley is asleep, and will sleep till the afternoon. He walks back to her silently and Ripley thanks him quietly. They vow to each other to figure out how to prevent the end of the world – This time, together.
Sylvia is later elated by the fact that they have reconciled and informs Ripley that the Duke has already dispatched soldiers to seek a solution to stop the apocalypse to the extent of threatening everyone to come up with a solution within a short time. Sylvia then connects the dots and realizes it is due to Ripley that all this madness is taking place. Later, Ripley is determined, and she even reveals to the Duke the mysterious lookalike doll that was in her original world. He resolves to investigate it.
The following day Ripley is shocked when she finds heaps of dolls just like hers. The Duke had distributed fliers promising prizes and even had arranged piles of books about the end of the world. While she is still digesting this, Sylvia comes in to say that she has an informant who is aware of the doll. Heart pounding rapidly, Ripley rushes to the door…The door creaks open and she is so shocked by who she sees standing there. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 68 ends with Ripley’s eyes wide in disbelief, a new mystery about the doll—and her fate—looming before her.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 69: The Curse Revealed…or Not?
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 69 begins with Ripley opening the door only to find Isla, the enigmatic witch. She, Duke, and Isla are sitting together to discuss the mystery of the doll and the oncoming destruction. Isla calmly explains that her crystal ball was pointing at certain doom. And that the doll is indeed a voodoo doll but she is not sure exactly what kind of curse it carries.
The Duke’s patience snaps after he hears Isla sell such a dangerous thing without even knowing what kind of curse it carries. Ripley asks Isla about the origin of the doll, and Isla spins her family lineage tale, citing that she is a pure-blood witch. And that the doll was made more than 100 years ago by her great-grandmother. Isla mysteriously comments, “Every object finds its way to the one who truly needs it.”
The Duke is frustrated because nothing important was resolved at the meeting, but he still is sure that he will help Ripley. The following morning, he is ready to depart to the southern forest to find other answers, and he tells Ripley to sleep peacefully in the meantime. She kisses him on the cheek and requests him to come back soon. He smiles, says,”Of course”, kisses her cheek, and goes.
No Rest for the Wicked
Later that night, a tired Ripley is in bed when she sees and hears a ghostly figure. That of Rose, whose eyes are filled with malice and she is sneering at her saying: “Enjoying all the things that should have been mine as if they’re your own…” The First Night With the Duke Chapter 69 ends with Ripley frozen in fear as Rose’s eerie words echo through the room.
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The First Night With the Duke Chapter 70: Burn It All
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 70 begins with Rose pressing a cold sword to Ripley’s face. Hissing at her to stay still. The revelation leaves Ripley shocked as Rose mocks her by saying that she paid the guards with money. And knows the royal soldiers are scattered elsewhere because of Ripley. Ripley tells her that, Duke Zeronis will never forgive her when he learns about it. But Rose answers bitterly–she does not care about anyone anymore.
Rose spits, “I will burn them all,” and with wild eyes says she is prepared to step directly into hell. Just as she lifts her sword a knock comes at the door and they startle. Sylvia enters, and pauses, horrified at the sight, and runs toward Ripley.
Rose turns to attack Sylvia, but Ripley picks up a lamp and crashes it on Rose’s head, grabbing Sylvia and running away. However, Rose soon gets back on her feet and leaps on Ripley choking her behind with the words, “Die, Ripley! DIE!!”
Trembling, but fierce, Sylvia takes a sword and threatens Rose, shouting at her to step back. Rose pauses, but the flame of the broken lamp starts to spread, and smoke and flames crawl up the walls everywhere. Coughing, Ripley warns Sylvia about the oncoming strike from behind her when a Sharp Stab Noise is heard. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 70 ends with Sylvia gasping, the fire crackling around them as Rose stands, sword in hand, breathing hard over her fallen enemy
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 71: In the Flames
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 71 begins with chaos and fire consuming the room. With a maniacal grin Rose suddenly stabs Ripley as she leaps in front of Sylvia to protect her. Ripley, in pain, and bleeding heavily, begs Sylvia to run. But Sylvia, furious and desperate, will not be moved. And cries out to Rose saying that Duke Zeronis will show Rose no mercy for what she is doing.
Rose just smiles and brings the jagged tip of the broken lamp near to the neck of Ripley, taunting her. Ripley begs Sylvia to escape once more. But Sylvia jumps, snatching the sword out of the hands of Rose with her bare hands, telling Ripley to run, while she is holding Rose back.
Rose pushes Sylvia and this causes Sylvia to fall to the floor unconscious. Ripley, crying, begs Rose continuously to stop, as the flames roar around them. The air is filled with smoke. Meanwhile, the Ripley lookalike lies untouched on the floor.
Rose raises her sword high for the final strike. When she suddenly collapses out of nowhere. Struck down, suddenly her body hit the ground. Battered yet awake Sylvia holds Ripley and drags her out of the burning palace as the fire is about to engulf them all. Duke Zeronis stands afar and looks at the inferno. With his eyes wide with bewilderment and horror at the scene in front of him. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 71 ends with Sylvia clutching Ripley tightly, both trying to run out of the flames into the cool night air as the palace blazes behind them.
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 72: Through Fire and Moonlight
The First Night With the Duke Chapter 72 begins with the palace engulfed in flames, guards and servants shouting desperately for Ripley. Chaos fills the air as buckets of water are thrown, but the fire rages on quite relentlessly.
Duke Zeronis goes through the burning palace with blazing eyes, and all he seeks is her. When the fire gets too high around her chambers, he sees the black cat doll lying stuck behind a cupboard seemingly untouched. He orders a man to safeguard the doll while he rushes toward the west forest to lead a search party.
In the meantime, Ripley and Sylvia, bruised and bleeding, stagger through the identical dark secret passage. Ripley recalls that Zeronis explained to her about it, and now it is their salvation. While Sylvia, despite her pain, silently admits that she loves serving Ripley even more now that she is a changed person, and this earns Ripley a teary smile.
Finally, they come out into the cool night under the full moon. Exhausted, they collapse on the grass, catching their breath. Ripley’s vision gets blurred as she sees Zeronis running towards them. His face and uniform were covered in soot and ash but with so much visible concern on that beautiful face. He holds her face in his hands, as a wave of relief washes his eyes. But the smile he gets in response is barely a smile before she collapses in his arms.
Behind them, in the ruins of the palace, the wrecked Ripley lookalike doll continues to lay amid the ruins, its creepy smile unburnt by the fire. The First Night With the Duke Chapter 72 ends with Ripley safe in Zeronis’s arms as the moonlight shines on them.
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