35 - I Got Engaged to the Blind Duke
“What brings you here?”
The eldest, Dia, asked bluntly with an indifferent face.
“Tomorrow is the funeral.”
“Yes. I know……”
Dia’s expressionless face momentarily crumbled. But she hardened her expression again and continued,
“……And I also remember your promise to show us Peridot tomorrow.”
Killon frowned and clicked his tongue.
This was the problem.
The youngest was gone, but the sisters thought he was hiding Peridot.
If he hadn’t deceived them like that, the sisters would have been digging around everywhere, trying to find out about their parents’ accident.
He wished Peridot had died along with them that day.
He felt a surge of anger as he recalled the unsatisfactorily concluded accident.
“Is that how you talk to your uncle!”
“What uncle! You devil! Locking us up here, and hiding Peridot somewhere!”
The second, Garnet, glared sharply.
Then Killon’s eyes flashed fiercely as he took a step towards Garnet.
“Garnet, I told you to fix that way of speaking, didn’t I?”
At his menacing atmosphere, Dia quickly stepped in front of Garnet and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sister!”
Garnet called out sharply, as if asking why she was apologizing.
“Uncle is missing.”
As Killon spoke coldly as if telling her to repeat it, Dia squeezed her eyes shut and apologized again.
“I’m sorry……. Uncle.”
“Tsk.”
Killon glared at Dia, who was bowing her head, with a dissatisfied look.
The Duke was here, so he couldn’t raise his hand carelessly.
“Unc…… le. You’re going to show us Peridot tomorrow, right?”
Dia’s fragile, trembling voice was desperate.
Killon narrowed his eyes and glared at Dia’s black hair.
Peridot also had black hair. Just like her mother.
If he couldn’t find Peridot by tomorrow, he would have to use the plan he had prepared in advance.
“Duke Vines has arrived.”
Killon ignored her question and said, grinding his teeth.
Dia’s head snapped up in an instant.
Duke Vines had arrived?
She had never met the Duke in her life.
He was always busy protecting the West, and recently, she heard he was in seclusion due to an eye injury.
So she thought he would ignore the news of her parents’ death.
“So, let’s go back to our old selves in front of the Duke. Weren’t we once on bad terms?”
Killon put on a kind smile. But his cold eyes contained a warning.
If she did something wrong, he might never show her Peridot.
Dia bit her lip and nodded obediently.
Pleased with her attitude, Killon wore a satisfied smile.
“That’s right. You’re being a good girl. You two should follow your sister and be careful what you say in front of the Duke and behave yourselves. Come down for dinner tonight, dressed as prettily as possible. The Duke is here, so we have to greet him.”
“Yes.”
As Dia answered obediently, Killon, with a satisfied smile, left the room with the door open.
The door, which had been locked except when meals were served, was finally opened after a week.
“Sister! Are you crazy? Why are you being so servile to that devil?”
Dia looked at Garnet, who was breathing heavily with a reddened face, with bitter eyes.
If she hadn’t been servile to him, Killon would have definitely hit Garnet.
Just like when she had stood up to him for the first time.
She was almost an adult, so it was okay. But she couldn’t bear to see her younger sisters getting slapped by him.
“……We have to meet our youngest.”
At those words, Garnet bit her lower lip tightly and turned her head away.
“Sister, can we meet Peridot tomorrow?”
Rubiana, who had been hiding behind Garnet, peeked out.
“Yes. We must meet.”
“Yes! I want to see her soon.”
Rubiana nodded her head greatly with an expectant expression and headed to the sofa.
On the other hand, Garnet couldn’t contain her anger and went to the bed and kicked wildly.
How did things turn out like this?
She still couldn’t believe what had happened in the past two weeks.
It was the day her parents went out to buy a birthday present for her youngest sister, Peridot.
Peridot insisted on choosing the present herself, so she accompanied her parents.
And a few hours later, when Killon came to them in tears and said that their parents had died in a Monster attack, her world collapsed.
Monsters in the South, when it should be the West or North?
She thought it was impossible.
But now, there was something more important than that.
It was finding the missing Peridot.
She went to find the retainers who had followed her father to ask for help.
But she couldn’t meet them.
Some had already died or were unable to move due to accidents, and some avoided her.
It was strange.
The surrounding environment had changed in an instant.
Dia went alone to see her uncle, Killon, the only person she could trust besides her parents.
“Uncle, no one is looking for Peridot. The retainers are all avoiding me, and some have had accidents……”
Killon, who had always been kind to them, threw away his mask that day.
“Tsk, tsk. You should have just stayed still. Why are you being so reckless? If you want to meet Peridot, stay quiet until the funeral.”
“Don’t tell me…… you planned all this, Uncle?”
Dia confronted him as if screaming at that terrible assumption.
But.
Slap. Her head turned to the other side. She was slapped for the first time in her life.
“You’re speaking carelessly, Dia. Go up to your room with your sisters.”
“If we obey, will you let us meet Peridot?”
“Yes. I promise.”
That’s how they had been locked in the room for a week.
“Dia, Sister.”
At Rubiana’s call, Dia woke up from her thoughts.
“Why, Ruby?”
“Maybe the Duke will help us?”
A small hope could be seen in Rubiana’s light green eyes.
“Hmph, how ridiculous. He’s never come to see us. He’s a complete stranger. Don’t you feel anything after seeing that devil who pretended to be friendly in front of us all our lives?”
Garnet raised her head from the bed and sneered.
At that, Rubiana looked up at Dia and opened her mouth with a face that looked like she was about to cry.
“But, Mom always said. Vines……”
“……Protects.”
Dia blankly replaced Rubiana’s words.
The Grand Duke’s family, Vines, protects.
It was a saying she had heard hundreds of times from her mother.
Her mother did not resent the Duke, who had never come to see her.
Rather, she admired him and was proud of him.
“Mom, why doesn’t the Duke ever come to see you? He’s Mom’s younger brother.”
At that, her mother smiled and stroked Dia’s hair.
“The Grand Duke’s family, Vines, protects. It refers to Mom’s family. The Vines family has that many enemies. Mom understands everything. How hard that little one is working and trying to protect it. Dia, if anything happens, just remember one thing. Vines protects. That little one will protect you.”
Dia stared blankly out the window and recalled her kind mother.
Mother, will Duke Vines really protect us?
