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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: I don't want to disappoint
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“Thank you, Grand Duke.”
Roje hadn't expected him to offer such active assistance. She bowed her head to the Grand Duke, expressing her gratitude.
“Thanks for what? Is that all? Is there nothing else you want?”
Roje nodded at the Grand Duke's words.
‘The Grand Duke really seems to think of me as his savior. All I did was tell a plausible lie.’
She already felt shameless just for asking to borrow money, let alone asking for more. There was nothing more. Didn't excessive greed only invite trouble?
“No. I’m already so grateful that you’re granting such an unreasonable request.”
Roje shook her head, her eyes wide.
“Alright, how much do you need?”
The Grand Duke responded eagerly, as if ready to hand over the money to Roje at once.
‘It’s a considerable sum…’
It was an amount that made it hard for her to speak. So much so that Roje wondered if the Grand Duke might change his mind the moment she truly opened her mouth. As Roje pondered how to effectively convey her plan, a familiar man’s voice reached her ears.
“Damn it! What kind of trouble are you causing?!”
It was Eric’s voice, laced with fury. He was scanning his surroundings with wide, searching eyes like a predator hunting prey, looking for Roje. Roje turned her head towards the source of Eric’s voice. The sight of Eric searching for her made her frown instinctively. Something must have happened; he looked incredibly disheveled compared to earlier. His shirt buttons were askew, as if he’d fastened them incorrectly, and his neatly combed hair had fallen messily.
‘What happened?’
Had Eric also tripped and tumbled after seeing something shocking, just like her? Roje looked at Eric with a frown, then turned her head towards Grand Duke Arteum.
“It seems I must leave now, Grand Duke. Could we discuss the money you offered to lend me at a later time?”
Grand Duke Arteum nodded, his gaze fixed on Eric, who was looking around as he approached. He didn't much care for Eric appearing like an uninvited guest, but he couldn't keep Roje tied up either.
“Very well. I’ll send someone to the Count Wens’ estate.”
At the Grand Duke’s words, Roje started, shaking her head.
“No. There’s no need for that.”
She didn’t want Eric to see her interacting with the Grand Duke. In the novel, Eric was an incredibly possessive man. Even though he had no interest in Roje, he always treated her as his possession. He himself mingled with many women, yet he would disapprove if his wife merely met another man’s gaze. To such an Eric, Grand Duke Arteum would clearly be an irritating presence, someone touching what was ‘his’.
‘If he found out I was in contact with the Grand Duke… he’d torment me over some ridiculous pretext.’
There was no need to create unnecessary trouble. Roje offered Grand Duke Arteum a faint smile and spoke softly.
“I’ll contact you first, Grand Duke.”
She bowed to Grand Duke Arteum and quickly left. The Grand Duke watched Roje swiftly make her exit, then turned and departed in the opposite direction. ***
‘Then… could you lend me some money?’
Suddenly, Roje’s voice, asking to borrow money, flashed through his mind.
“She truly is… an unpredictable woman.”
Her declaration of divorce had been quite surprising, but Roje’s request to *borrow* money, rather than simply ask for it, felt rather cunning.
“Could it be that she’s trying to maintain a connection with me, somehow?”
The moment he gave her compensation, his ties with Grand Duke Arteum would be severed. However, if they became entangled in a debtor-creditor relationship, that connection could last a little longer. The Grand Duke mistakenly believed he had accurately discerned Roje’s intention in asking to borrow money.
“Though simply asking to be friends would have been enough.”
Who would easily want to be friends with someone covered in blood? Grand Duke Arteum seemed completely unaware of how terrifying his appearance objectively was. Far from inspiring friendship, he looked like someone who would make you instinctively cry out for help. Grand Duke Arteum arrived at a secluded corner of the garden and sat on an unidentified object that came up to his knees. Not long after he arrived, someone emerged from the darkness. He walked towards the Grand Duke, his eyes filled with murderous intent. In one hand, he clutched a blood-soaked knife.
The Grand Duke watched the man approaching him with a sharp gaze. The masked man soon stood right before the Grand Duke. He swiftly moved the arm holding the hilt, sheathed his knife, and bowed his head to the Grand Duke.
“It’s done.”
At the man’s low, resonant voice, the Grand Duke, who had been sitting motionlessly, slowly rose. Then, as if pushing away the spot he had just occupied, he kicked it with his foot. Something that had formed a low mound crumbled with a rush at the Grand Duke’s kick. They were five corpses. The Grand Duke’s eyes grew chillingly cold as he looked at the limp bodies.
“Duke Pliche’s subordinates, were they?”
“Yes. You can rest assured, I’ve dealt with every last one of them.”
The masked man dragged something and threw it at the Grand Duke’s feet. With a dull thud, a single corpse dropped to the ground. It was the man he hadn’t been able to deal with because Roje had appeared. Grand Duke Arteum didn’t find the situation, which had unfolded exactly as he predicted, amusing in the slightest. From the banquet hall, Duke Pliche had been sending him sly glances.
“You’ve made quite a fool of yourself, Duke Pliche.”
How laughable Duke Pliche’s dumbfounded expression had been the moment Roje gave her testimony. By now, he was probably unable to control his rage and was taking it out on some innocent person. He gazed at Duke Pliche’s subordinates lying at his feet. His blue eyes, visible through his long eyelashes, were chillingly sinister. As Grand Duke Arteum slowly lifted his eyelids, his eyes held an indescribable fury. After the former Emperor and Empress passed away, he had been forced to leave the imperial palace, almost like a fugitive. He had then settled in the North, where he had no ties. His own life barely preserved, at the cost of countless nobles who had followed him… He was merely thirteen years old. He had been far too weak to contend with his uncle, who had seized imperial power.
“How dare they point a blade at me.”
In their eyes, the Grand Duke still seemed like a powerless child. Just a weak, good-for-nothing scoundrel who only caused trouble. Grand Duke Arteum’s gaze fixed on the chillingly still bodies.
“Deal with the rest as you see fit.”
As his dry command, devoid of any emotion, echoed, the masked man silently nodded. The Grand Duke left, entrusting the aftermath to his subordinate. He then slowly made his way to the lake behind the mansion. His reflection rippled gently on the tranquil water. He plunged his blood-soaked hands into the lake. The cold seeped into his skin. The red blood spread out like swirling smoke. His hands, previously obscured by the murky red, now emerged pristine white. As Grand Duke Arteum washed his hands, he paused, seeing his reflection in the lake. The splashing ripples quietly subsided.
“…It is a sight that could be misunderstood.”
His reflection, stained crimson with blood, shimmered with an unsettling murderous aura.
‘I’m so sorry I misunderstood you at first. I didn’t know you got like that from saving Marquis Bled…’
Grand Duke Arteum recalled Roje, who he had just been with. Her face, with her flushed, peach-colored cheeks, looking at him with a bewildered expression. The Grand Duke stared at his reflection in the lake, his lips tightly sealed. The dark crimson blood clung to him as if binding him. His hollow eyes gleamed with an unusual intensity, like a beast starved for days. He had lied to Roje, telling her the blood was from examining Marquis Bled’s body. In truth, it was the bloodstains of Duke Pliche’s subordinates, who had tried to frame him… Though he hadn’t killed Marquis Bled, he hadn’t left his hands unstained either. Even if it was to protect his own life.
‘The rumors say otherwise, but… I think you’re gentler than I imagined.’
Gentle, huh… The Grand Duke was, in truth, far from gentle. Rather, he was a man consumed by savage vengeance. If she knew his true nature, she would never show him a smile like the one she had today. The Grand Duke recalled Roje’s face, looking at him with a gentle smile, as if holding the warm sunlight. Her softly curved eyes and deep dimples were quite clear. It was something he didn’t particularly welcome for her gaze to return to being filled with fear as it had been at first.
“What should I do? I don’t want to disappoint her.”
His husky voice resonated softly. A faint smile lingered on his face as he uttered those strange, inscrutable words. *** Three days had already passed since the banquet. Since that day, the Grand Duke had started acting strangely.
“Neruan, have any letters arrived for me?”
At the Grand Duke’s words, Neruan, the butler, flinched and stared at him.
‘Why on earth is he like this…?’
He looked at Grand Duke Arteum with a bewildered expression. Since the day after the banquet, the Grand Duke had been asking him to check for letters every single day, as if waiting for someone. And not just once, but every hour. As a butler, it was incredibly inconvenient to be asked this all day long when he had so many other duties.
Still, he had to answer the Grand Duke’s questions, so Neruan reluctantly began to check the letters.
“Yes. A letter from the Imperial Family…”
“Not that.”
At the mention of the Imperial Family, Grand Duke Arteum frowned and cut Neruan off.
“If not that, then there’s nothing in particular.”
“…Have any visitors come for me?”
“Didn’t Your Grace instruct me to turn away anyone who came to visit?”
Grand Duke Arteum, who had been impatiently tapping his fingers on the desk, paused, then glared at Neruan with chilling eyes.
“When did I? You didn’t turn them away, did you?”
A blue venomous gleam resided in his dark eyes. It was a fierce glare that seemed ready to devour the butler at any moment.
“No, not even an ant has come near.”
‘And ‘when did I’… You always told me to turn everyone away!’
Neruan, who wanted to blurt out these words, couldn’t say anything under the Grand Duke’s glaring gaze.
‘She said she’d contact me first, but there’s been no word for three days.’
Grand Duke Arteum was quite sensitive from waiting for Roje’s contact. Though, of course, he didn’t seem to realize it himself. Could something have happened to her? He frowned, recalling Eric’s rough treatment of Roje, as if she were an object. Neruan wondered about the Grand Duke’s somewhat anxious appearance.
‘Why is he suddenly acting like this? As if he’s waiting for someone’s call…’
The Grand Duke was known for ordering even his friends and cousins to be driven away, so his current demeanor was quite unfamiliar. Just then,
“They’ve arrived.”
Grand Duke Arteum, who had been looking out the window, suddenly sprang to his feet. Had the person he was waiting for finally come? His expression seemed strangely excited.
