119 - I Got Engaged to the Blind Duke
I Married the Blind Duke - Episode 119
"You must be aware of how much of a concession it is that I only want 'one' of your adopted son's necks."
As his words continued, chills ran down my spine.
Edena gave a bitter smile.
This young Duke Vines was arrogant. And he possessed power to match.
However, she too had a family she needed to protect.
"Stein will not back down."
While the tense standoff between the two unfolded, the study remained quiet.
Gerald crossed his legs leisurely and tapped his fingers on his knee.
He too acknowledged the charitable acts Stein had performed for the common people until now.
There was no need to shed excessive blood due to a war between the two families.
Therefore, Gerald revealed the card he had long prepared.
"If I bring you the real Stein, not that 'adopted son,' will you offer me that neck?"
"......"
No words came from the Duchess.
When Gerald gestured to Olive, Olive placed the documents she was holding down in front of the Duchess.
Edena's hand, which had been reading the documents with an indifferent face, trembled violently.
"Duke Vines! Have you been hiding my grandchild all this time!"
Her voice, which had been consistently calm, boiled over with anger.
Duke Vines let out a stifled laugh.
"Duchess. You are mistaken."
"In what way? I...! How much have I suffered to find my daughter's child, and you hid him so perfectly all this time, and now you say what!"
Edena, having lost her reason, sprang up and let out a scream-like shout.
After her daughter ran away with a commoner knight, she thought her daughter was dead and lived trying to forget. She missed her daughter every night, but she lived believing that.
But ultimately, she couldn't bear the longing and searched for her daughter.
However, it was far too late. Her daughter and her husband were already dead, and their child was missing.
Upon the thunderbolt-like news, her husband collapsed on the spot.
In that situation, she couldn't crumble too. She endured like that and searched for her grandchild.
But the grandchild couldn't be found anywhere, as if they had never existed in the world from the beginning.
And then, after years, news of her grandchild appeared from the hands of this shameless Duke of the West.
No matter how much he was called the bulwark of the West, if she broke him endlessly, no matter how solid, he would crumble.
Edena was mentally prepared to declare war between families right then and there.
It felt like her chest was burning up.
Could my daughter's death also be connected to Duke Vines?
At that moment, Duke Vines, with a composed face, spoke to her.
"Duchess. I am Baines."
"Duke, have you truly gone mad?"
Instead of answering my question, he introduces himself? Is the Duke really mad as the rumors say?
Edena glared at the Duke with eyes blazing blue with anger.
Duke Vines remained silent and quiet.
"Who doesn't know you are Baines? Baines... protects."
In a momentary, lightning-like realization, Edena plopped back down into the chair.
Her trembling finger touched the portrait of her grandchild. It greatly resembled her daughter's kind eyes.
"Don't tell me, you've been... protecting my grandchild all this time?"
Tears poured and streamed from Edena's light blue eyes.
The Duke from that distant West was protecting her grandchild who had vanished from the world? From whom, exactly?
Edena, tightly hugging her grandchild's portrait with her trembling hand, slowly turned her head to the side.
Meron, meeting her gaze, trembled like a fish pulled out of water.
"Meron......"
"Ugh, ugh."
With the gag in his mouth, he shook his head, tears streaming down.
"Duke Vines. Did this wretch also kill my daughter and her husband?"
"That is correct."
"Ugh, ugh."
Meron, terrified, tried to back away but bumped into a knight's leg.
He was expressing his guilt with his whole body. Could there be any evidence clearer than that?
Edena, tears dripping down, let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you have evidence?"
"Olive."
Olive placed another document on the desk.
It was a report written based on the child's testimony.
Meron's subordinates broke into the daughter and son-in-law's house, pretending to be bandits.
The son-in-law cleverly hid the child, and the subordinates, unable to find the child, set the house on fire.
So that the already dead daughter and son-in-law, and the child hiding somewhere, would all die together.
The child, hiding their body in a jar buried deep in the ground, remembered only one word spat out by the bandits.
'Grand Duke.'
The young child didn't even know what 'Grand Duke' meant. And later, after meeting a nanny, they asked. What is a Grand Duke?
Currently, the only people in the position of Grand Duke were the Northern Grand Duke and the Eastern Grand Duke.
Would the young Northern Grand Duke suddenly try to kill the daughter and son-in-law of the Eastern Duke, whom he had never even met, and even try to kill the child? It was an absurd idea.
"Hah, so that wretch has been blinding and deafening Stein all this time."
A voice like a lament flowed from Edena's mouth after she finished reading the report.
She leaned on the desk and forced herself to stand up. Her old body, shocked, trembled weakly, but she moved forward.
"Remove the gag."
The knight looked at Duke Vines.
Feeling the gaze, Duke Vines nodded in permission.
As the knight roughly removed the gag, Meron hurriedly spat out words.
"That's not true. None of it is true, Mother."
"How dare you call me Mother."
Edena's voice was as cold as ice.
"It's all a story fabricated by that Duke Vines."
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why would Duke Vines covet something from the East to kill my daughter and son-in-law and even hide my grandchild? Why?"
"Th-that is... he coveted the East's public favor......"
Slap. His words couldn't continue. Edena had fiercely slapped Meron's cheek.
"Mother......"
"Although I want to cut your neck right this instant, I must repay the favor to Duke Vines, who protected my grandchild. Duke Vines!"
"Yes."
"Take him away immediately."
"Mother, no! You can't abandon me!"
Meron, trembling like an aspen tree, clung to Edena's feet.
"Why? Why shouldn't I abandon you?"
Edena's voice, filled with resentment, was even hazy.
"I've worked for the East all this time......"
"Not for the East, but for yourself, I'm sure. Duke Vines. He is no longer anyone related to Stein."
As Duke Vines gestured, the knight gagged Meron's mouth again.
Meron struggled for his life, but he couldn't overcome the knight's grip.
"Ugh, ugh."
The knight covered Meron's face again with the cloth and dragged him outside.
Olive followed them out.
Only Edena and Duke Vines remained in the study.
"I will send your grandchild to you first thing tomorrow."
"Thank you."
Edena approached Duke Vines and bowed deeply at the waist.
It was a greeting she had never given to anyone except the Emperor and Empress.
All transactions were complete.
In the study from which Duke Vines had departed, Edena hugged her grandchild's portrait and wept incessantly.
\ \ \
A new wind blew through the capital.
Instead of Meron, who had long been the heir of the East, a new Eastern Grand Duke was announced.
The protagonist was none other than the grandchild born to the Eastern Duke's daughter.
Upon finding the lost grandchild, the Eastern Duke, who had long been bedridden due to illness, rose.
It was a joyous event, but then, where had the former Eastern Grand Duke disappeared to?
All the nobles were curious, but like someone suddenly erased from the world, no one could find his whereabouts.
The Emperor retrieved the imperial heirloom he had given to the Duke of the West.
He looked down at the jewel in his hand for a long time with eyes mixed with fear and envy.
And then, news that would overturn that news broke out consecutively.
The news was that the marriage proposal letter for the Crown Prince, sent by the Emperor, had been delivered to the Duke of the West.
\ \ \
Dia, who had come to the office, observed the Duke's somewhat gaunt face for some reason.
She had heard the rumors too.
The Duke brought a Monster and threatened the Emperor. The Eastern Grand Duke suddenly disappeared. A new Eastern Grand Duke appeared.
To what extent was the Duke involved in all these events?
"You called for me?"
The Duke held out the golden, gleaming marriage proposal letter to her.
Dia looked down at the marriage proposal letter stamped with the Emperor's seal and handed it back to him.
"Do you truly wish for this?"
"Yes."
"The Imperial Palace is no easy place."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
The Duke's expression darkened.
"After my parents passed away, I felt lost. Having lived protected within my parents' embrace, there was nothing I could do. Not even protecting my younger siblings. That fact pained me. So I want to try."
"Sigh... Why do both you and Garnet only try to take the thorny path? You both resemble your sister too much."
At the Duke's words that were half permission, Dia gave a bright smile.
"That's the highest praise."
"Very well."
"Yes."
There was no further business, but as the Duke seemed to have something more to say, she waited quietly.
"...I took revenge."
Heavy words fell from the Duke's lips.
