Chapter 36
Episode 36. Identity of the Culprit
2023.10.06.
Herdin removed the cigar from his mouth.
“I was so preoccupied then that I couldn’t check on the Duchess, and it’s been on my mind—”
“Priestess.”
“Yes?”
“I appreciate the concern, but this doesn’t seem like the time for casual greetings.”
Herdin gestured with his eyes toward the injured gathered from the incident. Embarrassment flickered across Miela’s face.
“Ah…… I’m sorry. I got carried away with the joy of seeing you……”
Instead of leaving immediately, Miela hesitated before bowing and adding,
“Then, until next time.”
She walked away, unable to tear her gaze from Herdin until the end.
Russ watched her retreating figure with a wistful gaze. It was a scene he had witnessed countless times as Herdin’s aide.
‘But unlike the others, it’s a bit regrettable with her because……’
She possessed divine power as a priestess.
Someone with divine power was rare, and keeping her close would be helpful.
Yet his liege hadn’t spared her a single glance despite her immense utility.
“Still, she treated you, Your Excellency. Couldn’t you have been a bit warmer?”
“That’s why I reminded her of her duties before she got dragged off for negligence.”
Russ was dumbfounded by Herdin’s nonchalant reply, but it was already done.
“Yes, yes. How very kind of you.”
Leaving Russ’s perfunctory response behind, Herdin headed toward his tethered horse.
Waiting for the situation to fully resolve would push his thirst for the woman at the mansion beyond the limits of his patience.
* * *
Returning to the bedroom from Herdin’s private study, Blair handed Mikhail’s letter to Rina.
“Rina, burn this for me.”
“Ah, yes.”
Blair approached the window as Rina lit a candle behind her. Her eyes shook unsteadily as she gazed at the scenery outside.
[We have identified the source of the phrase you asked us to investigate previously.
That phrase is engraved on the daggers that Your Ladyship’s husband, Duke Herdin, bestowed upon certain knights who survived the war with him.]
‘Then the man who killed me is one of Delmark’s knights……’
One of Herdin’s direct subordinates, no less……
Blair recalled going to the training grounds right after the wedding to check the knights’ faces.
‘But none of them had a scar across the bridge of their nose.’
Did I miss him?
Pacing the room anxiously, Blair checked the clock and promptly left, heading to the first floor of the mansion.
At this hour, the knights would be at the training grounds for lunch practice. She wasn’t the caring lady of the house who doted on them, but no one would find it odd for her to check on them.
As Blair descended the stairs and turned toward the back door leading to the grounds, a commotion arose from the entrance.
‘Has Herdin returned?’
Thinking that, she ran into Mason emerging from the first floor.
“Ah, Madam. Perfect timing.”
“Is someone here?”
“Some from the main estate have arrived. They’ll likely want to greet you. If you’re not busy, could you spare a moment?”
She wanted to rush to the grounds immediately, but ignoring them right in front of her would look suspicious.
‘A few minutes won’t change anything.’
Blair nodded slightly.
“Of course.”
Blair followed Mason to the entrance. Five mounted knights approached and dismounted before her and Mason.
They all had their faces shrouded in cloaks against the sharp winter wind.
The man in the center stepped forward with a flourish.
“Oh my. I never imagined the Madam would come out personally to greet us on our first meeting…… What an honor. If I’d known, I would’ve picked up a gift on the way.”
Blair froze upon seeing the man lowering his cloak. The eyes peering from beneath were familiar.
‘This man……’
Her pupils shook violently as she recalled whose eyes they were.
The eyes of the assassin who had killed her.
No scar on the bridge of his nose, but it was undoubtedly him.
“Pleased to meet you, Madam. Kalligo Elphrinde, knight of Delmark.”
He kissed the back of her hand with brazen ease. The touch of his lips was chillingly horrific.
‘I never considered it might be a knight from the main estate.’
Blair’s hand trembled in his grasp. She needed to say something, but her breath caught as if someone were strangling her.
At that moment, approaching hoofbeats sounded. It was Herdin, Russ, and a few knights. They had returned ahead of the others.
Kalligo brightened upon seeing Herdin and released Blair’s hand.
“Wow, even Your Excellency to greet us like this.”
But Herdin dismounted and strode past Kalligo straight to Blair.
Even with his arrival, Blair couldn’t tear her gaze from Kalligo.
Noticing that, Herdin dismissed Kalligo.
“That’s greetings enough. Kalligo, you must be tired from the long journey. Rest up.”
“Yes, sir. Until next time, Madam.”
Kalligo saluted good-naturedly and departed with his accompanying knights.
Blair stared blankly at his retreating figure. She somehow looked precarious.
Herdin instinctively moved to embrace her but paused upon noticing the dirt on his clothes. He removed his leather gloves and took her hand bare-handed.
Feeling that warmth, Blair finally lifted her frozen gaze to him.
“Are you unwell?”
Her hand was warm as always, yet his warmth terrified her.
Fearing he might suddenly turn and throttle her.
Blair gently withdrew her hand from his as she replied.
“……I’m fine.”
Herdin narrowed his brows. Contrary to her words, her expression looked anything but fine.
He ordered Rina beside them.
“Escort the Madam to her room.”
Supported by Rina as she ascended to her room, Blair glanced back. Herdin was speaking with Mason.
Words she couldn’t ask or hear clawed painfully at her throat.
* * *
Back in her room, Blair sat blankly on her bed.
As her emotions settled and her mind cooled, questions and hypotheses surfaced one by one.
‘Why did that man kill me?’
With no major connection between us, it wasn’t personal grudge, nor likely for personal gain. A mere knight had nothing to profit from killing me.
Then Herdin……
Blair halted her thoughts there.
‘……No, not necessarily. Perhaps Knight Kalligo thought I was an obstacle to Delmark.’
He had approached her amiably upon their first meeting today, but with such deep loyalty to Herdin, he might have acted independently to eliminate her.
Yet that hypothesis had its flaws.
‘I’m an imperial princess before I’m the duchess. Harm to me would spark conflict with the imperial family. Would he go that far?’
Hitting a dead end, another possibility arose.
‘Perhaps he’s a spy planted by a third party hoping for strife between the imperial family and Delmark.’
Thus, her and Herdin’s deaths might be unrelated. But……
‘……No. I can’t trust anyone.’
She couldn’t completely rule out Herdin as the mastermind.
Upon reflection, Herdin had plenty of reasons to dislike her.
She was a wife foisted upon him half-forcibly by his enemy’s family, with no memories to clear Esmeralda’s false accusation, and she loved another.
Blinded by love, useless, and obstructive—he might have wanted her dead.
She found it foolish to have briefly thought him innocent of her death.
Blair rubbed her anxious hands as she pondered her next steps.
‘Simply fleeing without knowing anything solves nothing.’
If it stemmed from Kalligo’s personal feelings or loyalty, abdicating as duchess or escaping would resolve it. But if a separate mastermind existed, it changed everything.
With someone who gained clear purpose from her death, they might keep trying to kill her.
To evade death, she first needed to uncover why she had to die—and to do that, she had to investigate Kalligo.
‘Who he’s colluding with, and why he killed me.’
Resolved to commission Mikhail to investigate Kalligo, Blair pulled out paper to write a letter.
At that moment, a presence stirred behind her.
“I knocked, but you didn’t hear, so I thought you might have dozed off.”
Startled by Herdin’s sudden appearance, Blair covered the letter and turned to him.
Herdin appeared freshly bathed in a robe. His gaze fell on the letter.
Only then realizing her actions might seem suspicious, Blair was relieved when he merely glanced without questioning.
He scooped her up lightly and sat in a chair, then undid the straps of her dress. The motion was utterly natural.
As the dress loosened, her white, rounded shoulder emerged. Herdin buried his lips there and asked,
“How’s your body?”
His hot breath accompanied his low, languid baritone, tickling her shoulder. Despite growing accustomed to his unabashed touches, Blair still found them novel.
Realizing he was asking due to her poor complexion earlier, she replied a beat late.
“……I’m fine.”
As if taking that as permission, the hand around her waist rose to cup her soft mound.
