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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Why Were You With the Grand Duke?
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“Isn’t that the woman who used to follow Count Wens around until she finally married him?”
People seemed to be recognizing Roje, and their gazes weren't kind.
“Did you truly see everything?”
Duke Pliche, his eyes sharp, strode purposefully towards Roje. His momentum suggested he might grab Roje by the collar any second, so Roje swallowed hard and replied.
“Yes, I did.”
He bit his lower lip, surprised by Roje's unexpected presence. Just a little more pressure, and he could have arrested him. For the murder of Marquis Bled. If that had happened, the Grand Duke's execution plan could have been brought forward.
“Strange. Why are you, who should be at the banquet, with the Grand Duke? In the middle of the night, leaving your husband... with the Grand Duke. Your dress is even quite dirty, as if you’ve been rolling on the ground.”
Was he trying to divert the topic? Duke Pliche narrowed his eyes and glared at Roje. Then he scanned Roje up and down, giving her an unpleasant look.
“I came out with Count Wens and simply lost my way in the garden.”
Roje replied calmly, without a hint of panic. She didn't forget to mention Eric to emphasize that she hadn't been with the Grand Duke from the start.
“And this dress, I fell when I was startled by a monster that suddenly appeared.”
Duke Pliche, who had intended to crush the woman's spirit and manipulate the situation to his advantage, wanted nothing more than to shut Roje's mouth as she spoke clearly and directly, looking him straight in the eye.
‘What an ignorant woman, not even knowing whose side her own husband is on...!’
She should have just stayed quiet and known her place, but instead, she was spouting unnecessary words. Roje was known to be quite dull-witted, so he didn't think she was intentionally siding with Grand Duke Arteum.
“I almost lost my life too. But...”
Roje let her voice trail off and looked at the Grand Duke. She gave the Grand Duke a slight smile and spoke gently.
“Thanks to Your Grace, I survived. If it weren't for you, I would have lost my life alongside Marquis Bled.”
“Then where did that strange monster go?”
Duke Pliche shot back, giving her no room, but Roje, unfazed, continued.
“I think it ran away while I briefly stepped aside to fetch someone to treat Marquis Bled. It was a very violent creature... This is a big problem. What if it causes trouble elsewhere?”
Roje put on a terrified expression, as if she had truly seen the monster. Then she cast a glance towards Grand Duke Arteum. Roje blinked her large eyes, gazing at the Grand Duke. As if sending a signal. Grand Duke Arteum, who had been watching Roje with interest as she defended him, noticed her signal. And then, with a smile playing on his lips, he opened his mouth.
“Do not worry about that. It was on its last breath, so even if it ran, it will be found as a corpse.”
Grand Duke Arteum had already put an end to the monster.
‘So, the monster that was already dead has disappeared...’
The Grand Duke gazed at Duke Pliche. In the current situation, he was the only one suspected of having removed the corpse. As the Grand Duke had expected, it was indeed Duke Pliche who had removed the monster's corpse. Or rather, his subordinate. They had disposed of the dead monster and taken only Marquis Bled into the mansion. And then they had shouted to the people. That Marquis Bled had been ‘murdered’.
‘Damn them! Is this how they handle things?’
To manipulate the incident, Duke Pliche had previously assigned six of his knights to Grand Duke Arteum. He had explicitly instructed them to kill any witnesses, as they would only complicate matters... Yet, with the situation having come to this, the Duke's six knights were nowhere to be seen. Duke Pliche gritted his teeth, vowing to make them pay if they ever showed their faces.
‘It's my fault for entrusting everything to them.’
He had acted too complacently, believing his plan was perfect. The people listening to their conversation began to murmur. With a witness having appeared, Grand Duke Arteum was 'innocent'. Those who had been tearing into the Grand Duke like hyenas began to cast cautious glances as the situation reversed. They had followed Duke Pliche, thinking they just needed to egg him on, but now they wondered if it wasn't time to subtly withdraw. After all, the fate of those who had offended Grand Duke Arteum had never been pleasant. People, watching carefully, began to slip away one by one.
“Ahem. It seems we almost had a grave misunderstanding.”
“Indeed. Grand Duke Arteum would never do such a thing.”
The people who had swarmed like hyenas now made various excuses and left. Among them were nobles who had conspired with Duke Pliche, but they were busy abandoning the Duke and fleeing. They must have been thinking only of saving themselves.
‘Those bat-like wretches...!’
But there's a time and place for everything. The Duke knew all too well that now was not the right moment to challenge.
“It seems I almost made a grave mistake, Grand Duke Arteum.”
Duke Pliche forced a smile onto his lips as he looked at Grand Duke Arteum. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were chillingly cold.
“You too. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
He directed a chilling smile towards Roje, the main culprit who had ruined his plans. His gaze, fixed on her, was so terrifying it made her legs tremble, but she pretended to be unaffected and bowed to him.
“The pleasure was mine as well.”
Roje, who didn't quite know who he was, looked at the Duke, her words trailing off, and he introduced himself.
“I am Duke Pliche.”
Roje flinched the moment she heard his name.
‘Duke Pliche... He's the Emperor's closest confidant.’
When she received private lessons, her tutor used to praise Duke Pliche endlessly. They said he was the one who contributed the most to the current Emperor ascending the throne.
‘...And he's also the one who thoroughly uses and then discards the Wens family.’
Duke Pliche was at the heart of the Wens family's downfall. He would use the Wens family to his heart's content, then eventually cast them aside, claiming they knew too much. The saying, 'a dog that chased a chicken looks up at the roof' (implying futile effort and disappointment), perfectly suited the Wens family, who would eventually be discarded.
“Yes, Duke Pliche.”
Realizing that the person she had been dealing with was an enormous figure, Roje felt a chill run down her spine.
‘It's a good thing I didn't know. If I had, I might not have been able to look him in the eye and speak like that.’
Ignorance is bliss. She had grumbled about there being no cameras in this world, but she never dreamed that would actually benefit her. Roje, who was about to bid Duke Pliche farewell and leave, stopped when she heard his voice calling her.
“Wait.”
Roje glanced back, and Duke Pliche looked at her with a meaningful expression as he spoke.
“Please convey my regards to Count Wens.”
To ask her to convey his regards to her husband in this situation. Roje immediately understood Duke Pliche's intention behind those words.
‘It seems he's firmly marked us.’
That he was expressing his anger towards the Wens family.
“Yes, I understand, Duke Pliche.”
Roje, feigning ignorance of the Duke's true intentions, flashed a bright smile and turned her back on him. It didn't really matter, as his arrow seemed aimed at Eric, not her. Roje straightened her back and leisurely walked away. How far had she walked? Roje walked until she thought she was out of their sight, and only then did she let out a deep breath.
“Haa...”
Roje's heart pounded rapidly. She couldn't describe how scared she'd been when the Duke kept pressing her. Afraid of being caught in her lie.
“...I thought I was going to die.”
Roje sank down onto the ground and muttered to herself. Her palms were soaked with sweat. Then, cutting through the silence, Grand Duke Arteum's voice rang out.
“If you were so afraid, why did you step forward?”
“Kyaak!”
Roje, who thought she was alone, was startled out of her wits by his voice.
‘You startled me...! How long have you been here?’
She hadn't even heard his footsteps.
“...How long have you been here?”
As Roje looked at him with an expression as if she'd seen a ghost, Grand Duke Arteum shrugged and said.
“I've been standing behind you the whole time.”
Roje glanced behind him, wondering if there were other people standing there as well.
“Don't worry. It's just you and me here.”
Roje let out a sigh of relief at Grand Duke Arteum's words. She didn't want to face Duke Pliche's chilling expression again.
‘To stand up to someone even more sinister than Grand Duke Arteum...’
“I'll ask again. Why did you defend me?”
The Grand Duke asked Roje, an expression of considerable curiosity on his face.
“...Because Your Grace said you didn't kill him.”
“So, you said you saw something you didn't, for my sake?”
Roje slowly nodded at the Grand Duke's words.
“It seems you believed my words. That I didn't kill Marquis Bled.”
“...Yes.”
Of course, she'd initially thought he was the killer... At Roje's answer, Grand Duke Arteum's eyes curved slightly.
“You must know what rumors follow me.”
“The rumors say one thing, but... I thought you seemed kinder than I expected.”
At Roje's words, the Grand Duke gazed at her with a surprised expression. Of course, her first encounter with the Grand Duke had been terrifying enough to make her legs give out, but having experienced him today, he seemed no different from anyone else. Moreover, he had caught her when she fell from the carriage and helped her escape from her husband's grasp.
“I'm so sorry for misunderstanding you at first. I didn't realize you were trying to save Marquis Bled and that's why things happened...”
Roje felt too ashamed to look the Grand Duke in the face. She had treated a perfectly innocent person as a murderer. The Grand Duke quietly watched Roje, who was hanging her head low, looking at a loss. Would Roje know that there was a strange glint of madness in the Grand Duke's eyes as he stared at her silently? She probably wouldn't. Because Roje had her head bowed. The Grand Duke slowly approached Roje.
“It's alright. You are no less than my savior.”
Then he bent down towards Roje, who was sitting on the ground, and whispered.
“I wish to repay you, who saved me.”
The Grand Duke gently brushed back Roje's tangled, messy hair as he spoke. Her hair, which had come undone because of Eric, had become quite disheveled after all the tumultuous events. As Roje, with her hair in disarray, looked up at him with wide eyes, her image overlapped with that of his pet dog.
‘...They resemble each other.’
Unconsciously, the Grand Duke's hand reached out to stroke Roje's head, then paused mid-air. He had almost treated Roje as he would his pet. No matter how similar they were, it was improper to stroke a lady's head as one would a dog, so he immediately lowered his hand.
“Repay me? It's fine. I didn't do it expecting anything...”
The moment she started to say she didn't need any repayment, a thought popped into her head.
‘Wait... this could be a good opportunity?’
Roje, who had stopped mid-sentence, parted her lips. And then, with difficulty, she spoke to the Grand Duke.
“Um... Your Grace.”
“It seems you have something you wish for?”
At the Grand Duke's words, Roje slowly nodded and said.
“I...”
What was she trying to say, taking so long? Grand Duke Arteum didn't rush her, waiting patiently for her to speak at her own comfort. After much deliberation, Roje finally seemed to make up her mind and got to the point.
“Please help me. I need to go through divorce proceedings, but I don't know anything about them.”
At Roje's unexpected words, the Grand Duke's eyes wavered.
“Divorce? You?”
It was unbelievable that the word 'divorce' had come from the mouth of the woman who had always clung to Eric.
