Chapter 34
Time passed quickly.
Since meeting Stephanie, my physical condition has gradually improved. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke often dropped by the room to review documents or handle miscellaneous tasks.
‘He’s coming frequently again.’
When I was with the Grand Duke, it was quiet except for the scratching sound of the quill pen. I thought he would scold me like when I climbed the tree, but he didn’t.
The Grand Duke didn’t ask anything about me returning to the mansion with one shoe off, dragging one foot.
I wondered why he, who was wary of me dying for the rebellion, remained silent. I felt guilty for telling the Grand Duke earlier that I wouldn’t die.
‘I actually was about to give up on everything.’
I tried to run away because I didn’t have the courage to tell Stephanie the truth about Juno’s death.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
The Grand Duke, who was organizing documents, asked in an indifferent voice. Even though he seemed to be focusing on the documents, I could feel his attention on me.
I was thinking about how sorry I was for breaking my promise to him. Unable to honestly express my thoughts, I brought up something else.
“Grand Duke, what about Gerard?”
The Grand Duke’s usually smooth brow furrowed. The truth he revealed in an irritated voice was shocking.
“He ran off.”
“Huh?”
“Knowing the weight of what he’d done, he requested leave and disappeared.”
“You mean Gerard ran away?”
The Grand Duke’s silence was as good as an affirmation.
Seeing the Grand Duke’s face, unable to hide his displeasure, I worried about Gerard’s future. What could have happened to make Gerard flee so hastily?
‘Could it be because he secretly brought Stephanie to my room?’
I remembered his disheveled face after arranging for me to meet Stephanie outside of the gifted education program. It would be troublesome if Gerard ended up in a terrible state again because of me.
“It was my fault that Gerard came to the room with a guest when I was sick. I begged him to.”
“He brought someone when you were sick?”
Realizing from the Grand Duke’s tone that he hadn’t known about this at all, I understood I had misspoken.
I tried to cover up what I had said while sweating profusely.
“Ah, no! I must have confused it with a dream.”
The perceptive Grand Duke didn’t seem inclined to let it go at all.
“I said I’d let you meet her soon, but he couldn’t wait and brought her anyway.”
“Are you angry, Grand Duke?”
“No.”
“It seems like you are, though.”
The Grand Duke, still unable to shake off his suspicion, roughly tousled my hair.
“There’s no point in getting angry. After all, that woman left with Gerard.”
A fleeting look of relief, similar to having a troublesome tooth pulled, crossed the Grand Duke’s face. I blankly repeated what I had just heard and asked,
“The guest left?”
“She ran off with that Gerard fellow. Saying they were going to confirm something she wanted to know. It’s not even funny.”
Stephanie had disappeared.
She had been counting down the days to meet her daughter, but was suddenly left with Gerard? I thought there would be another chance to talk once I fully recovered.
“What should I do now?”
In the end, Stephanie had gone away without me saying anything. As I was making a sad face, the Grand Duke pressed my forehead, making me fall backward.
“Why did you do that!”
“Don’t think. You seem to cause trouble when you think.”
The corners of the Grand Duke’s mouth curved slightly with a hint of mischief before dropping. Whether it was my imagination or not, I stared blankly at his seemingly gentle expression.
“If you must think about something, think about what you want instead.”
“Will you buy it for me?”
“Eventually, this country and I will be yours anyway, won’t we?”
Realizing how strange his words sounded, his brow furrowed. It was somewhat amusing to see him thinking, ‘This isn’t right.’
“What I meant was, you’ll become the Emperor.”
Seeing the Grand Duke now speak of rebellion without any hesitation made my previous worries seem insignificant.
“I know.”
“What?”
“I don’t need to be Emperor. But I think I’d like to have the Grand Duke a little.”
Because it would be reassuring if the original villain became my ally.
“Does that mean you’re accepting me as your parent…?”
“That’s not it.”
When I shook my head firmly, the Grand Duke’s expression turned sulky.
It was fascinating how I could gradually read his emotions despite his seemingly unchanging expressionless face. The Grand Duke, who was said to be cold-blooded, turned out to have richer emotions than I thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
The Grand Duke turned his gaze away from me and picked up the postponed documents. There were still piles of unfinished paperwork on the desk.
I heard the sound of the pen moving again, but the speed was noticeably slower.
‘Even the Grand Duke gets distracted.’
Whenever I saw the villainous Grand Duke from the original story act so ordinarily, it gave me a strange feeling.
“It’s like you’re a real person.”
When I saw Juno, who was an extra, it didn’t feel like she was a character from a book. But the Grand Duke, the main villain of the original story, was different.
The sense of dissonance, as if encountering a being made of letters from a novel.
That was also the hidden reason why I couldn’t open my heart to the Grand Duke.
***
For the past few days, the Grand Duke had been trying hard not to interrogate the princess who had just recovered her health. He buried in his heart the feeling of helplessness he felt when the princess collapsed before his eyes.
‘I mustn’t show my emotions.’
The doctor who examined the princess said it was something that could have happened anytime, just that it occurred late. Rather, it was strange that she had seemed fine until now.
“Isn’t she someone who experienced terrible things in the tower at a young age? She must have trauma.”
“This never happened before.”
“There’s a high possibility that her mental wounds didn’t surface due to the tension from being in an unfamiliar environment.”
The doctor emphasized that trauma can strike at any time. This meant that the child could choose death at any moment.
Always in a position to control situations, he was taken aback by the lack of a clear treatment.
“To prevent similar incidents, you must provide psychological stability. It’s a serious matter.”
The Grand Duke, having witnessed soldiers going mad on the battlefield, sympathized with the severity.
‘I need to come up with a plan.’
The doctor stressed that regular exercise was necessary to treat mental wounds.
In fact, when he first adopted the princess, the Grand Duke thought she would quickly find stability. After all, it would be better than life in the tower, regardless of the treatment.
‘Was I too indifferent?’
He now realized how naive it was to think that she would quickly open up and follow him if he treated her just a little better.
“You must never try to become close too hastily.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Gradually increase the time spent together to create the impression of being a reliable presence.”
“I’ll try that.”
By now, he had grown accustomed to being with the child, so simply being together wasn’t difficult. However, finding opportunities to converse with the child was challenging.
He pretended to focus on documents while waiting for the child to approach him first.
‘Why doesn’t she speak to me?’
The child would glance at him occasionally but rarely initiate conversation. Come to think of it, it was rare for the child to talk about herself.
So when the child asked about Gerard, he was secretly pleased, regardless of the content of the conversation.
‘What else should I say?’
Usually, in his position, there was no need to worry about topics of conversation. The previously smooth dialogue began to falter with the child’s confession.
“It was my fault that Gerard came to the room with a guest when I was sick. I begged him to.”
It wasn’t bad that Gerard had left with Stephanie. He no longer had to worry about showing the princess to her.
But to think that he had already arranged a meeting with the Grand Princess without reporting it.
‘Additional training will be necessary.’
More than that, he was curious about the child’s thoughts towards him.
The child probably knew that he had detained Stephanie, yet she didn’t ask anything about her mother. Why didn’t the princess even get angry with him?
“Does that mean you’re accepting me as your parent…?”
“That’s not it.”
Beyond the necessity of the princess, he didn’t want to feel that helpless sensation of losing someone again. At that moment, an idea to protect the princess’s safety crossed his mind.
“Samuel.”
At the Grand Duke’s call, a knight who appeared out of thin air bowed his head. As the doctor said, he should start by helping with regular exercise.
“Tell the dedicated maids that I will personally instruct the Grand Princess in swordsmanship once she’s fully recovered.”
“I will follow your orders.”
“And there’s something else I need you to do.”
Samuel, a shadow guard knight, was also the fastest among the knights. Due to this skill, he was mainly assigned intelligence-related missions.
The Grand Duke decided to use Samuel, the strongest after the knight commander, as a mere messenger.
“Summon my son.”
“Which young master are you referring to?”
“The firstborn, Lucas.”
“I will bring Young Master Lucas to the mansion as quickly as possible.”
Samuel’s figure melted into the darkness and disappeared. If the princess wouldn’t open her heart to him, why not assign another trustworthy person to her?
To treat the child’s mental wounds, someone needed to be with her frequently. It was only a matter of time before a noble like Marquis Heiders would try to take advantage of the child again.
In his opinion, his son Lucas, who was obsessed with chivalry, would be a perfect protector for the child.
‘He’s family too.’
Recently, he had notified his sons in writing about adopting the Grand Princess. It seemed appropriate to call them to the mansion and arrange an opportunity for them to get acquainted.
“That child should behave well.”
It wasn’t that he thought Lucas wouldn’t rebel against the sudden appearance of a sister.
Unlike the second son Tristan, who caused violent incidents at the academy almost daily, the firstborn Lucas, had silently devoted himself to the sword after the Grand Duchess’s death.
Seeing this behavior unusual for his age, the Grand Duke mistakenly thought Lucas was a mature child.
“Father, I will become a strong knight like Sword Master Kashian.”
“If that’s what you want, you will achieve it.”
Lucas del Astarote.
The real reason the firstborn son of the Grand Duke’s family devoted himself to swordsmanship was to gain the strength to punish the Imperial family who killed his mother.
The Grand Duke didn’t know that Lucas hated himself for not being able to protect his mother.
The price of failing to directly face his son’s wounds would come back to haunt him greatly in the future.
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.