Chapter 36

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Surely, She Wasn't Kidnapped.
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Roje's skin, pressed against the Grand Duke, was incredibly hot.

“What a fever…!”

Roje's burning fever made the Grand Duke's brow furrow involuntarily. He gazed at the weakly collapsed Roje, biting his lower lip. He looked around, checking if Roje had any companions. But there was no one around her. Neither a maid nor a guard knight.

“To come out alone in this condition.”

Or rather, was she sent out alone?

‘I just got divorced.’

The Grand Duke found himself strangely bothered by Roje's murmuring with a bright smile. He picked up Roje's body and entered a secluded alleyway. People had been casting suspicious glances, finding the Grand Duke with a collapsed woman in the middle of the square rather questionable.

“Where should I take her?”

Should he take her to his mansion? No, if he did that, it might start unnecessary rumors. It wouldn't matter to him, but it would likely spread bad rumors about Roje. What about leaving her at a doctor's?

“...Lady Wence is well-known; unnecessary rumors might spread.”

People might whisper "abandoned" if they saw her collapsed like that, without her entourage. He didn't want Roje to hear such things. The Grand Duke paced anxiously, unable to decide what to do. Roje's body was still burning hot. He watched Roje gasping irregularly in his arms, biting his lower lip. A frightening thought crossed his mind: what if this frail woman suffered something terrible? Just then, people he had forgotten came to the Grand Duke's mind.

“...That's where I should go.”

He let out a self-deprecating laugh, having remembered them so late. The Grand Duke strode forward. He turned a corner, not forgetting to glance around.

In a place he thought would be empty, there was a knight of small stature. The knight couldn't take his eyes off the cloaked Grand Duke and the collapsed Roje. The Grand Duke frowned and quickly moved away.

“...Surely, the Lady?”

The person the Grand Duke encountered was Sereun, Roje's guard knight. Sereun, who had seen Roje by chance, doubted his own eyes. Just now, the Lady seemed to be collapsed in some man's arms, didn't she? Her face was buried towards the Grand Duke, so he couldn't clearly see her features. But the neatly braided light pink hair was always the Lady's style he had seen. To confirm what he had seen, he followed the Grand Duke. The man in the black cloak was utterly suspicious. To be carrying a collapsed woman and looking around like that. Sereun, unaware that the cloaked person was the Grand Duke, trailed him. Sereun didn't lose sight of the Grand Duke, who disappeared into the crowd. But the Grand Duke noticed Sereun trailing him.

‘Why is he following me?’

The Grand Duke decided he needed to shake Sereun off and quickened his pace.

‘...Was I caught!’

The Grand Duke started running at full speed to outpace Sereun. Sereun chased him fiercely, not wanting to lose him. The distance between them gradually narrowed. Just one more turn down that alley, and he might catch him. The Grand Duke turned the corner and entered the alley. Sereun quickly followed him. The moment Sereun turned the corner,

“...What?”

He froze in place.

“Where did he disappear to?”

It was a dead end. But there was no sign of the Grand Duke or Roje anywhere. Unable to hide his bewilderment, Sereun hurried back to the mansion.

‘I need to go to the mansion and check. To see if the Lady is there.’

He tried to believe that the person in that man's arms wasn't Roje, but a sense of unease kept gnawing at him.

‘If it were the Lady, she would never come out alone.’

He felt strangely anxious. What if the person that man was carrying really was the Lady? Even though he was following Cedric's orders, he was still her guard knight. Sereun ran, cutting through the wind, towards the mansion. Only ‘Roje’ was on his mind. As Sereun entered the main gate, the knights raised their hands in greeting.

“Hey, Sereun.”

When Sereun, who had run at a terrifying speed, stopped, the wind ruffled the man's face.

‘Phew, you startled me. Anyone would think Sereun ran so fast he created that wind.’

Clumsy Sereun couldn't possibly do that. The knight thought so and dismissed the incident as a coincidence. Sereun, despite having run all the way to the mansion without stopping, asked the knight without a single gasp for breath.

“Where is the Lady?”

“...The Lady? Ahahaha. Well...”

When asked about Roje, the knight looked awkward and lowered his head.

“The Lady, she divorced the Count.”

“So where is she now?”

He had already expected the divorce. Because Sereun was Cedric's man. He knew Roje would eventually be divorced.

“...Aren't you surprised?”

The knight's eyes widened at Sereun's reaction.

“The usual Sereun would be like, ‘Gasp! Really? No way! Why our Lady! No, this can't be happening!’ He should be reacting like that, shouldn't he?”

He diligently mimicked Sereun and then glared at him with suspicious eyes. I don't want to play along...

‘If I act too differently from usual, I'll be suspected.’

He acted out the ‘Sereun’ he had created, just as the man expected.

“...I was so surprised I couldn't speak. Our Lady got divorced, what on earth happened?!”

He flapped his hands dramatically and blinked his wide eyes to match the man's expectations. The knight, who had been looking at Sereun with suspicious eyes, burst into hearty laughter.

“Haha, you startled me, Sereun. I thought you'd become a completely different person.”

Sereun glared at the knight who wasn't getting to the point about Roje's whereabouts.

“Hey, you rascal. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Me? Did I?”

Sereun looked at the knight with innocent eyes, as if he had never done anything of the sort.

“Hmm. You're a bit annoying today.”

“Oh, brother. When have I ever annoyed you?”

Sereun went behind the knight, who was looking at him with a sulky expression, and massaged his shoulders.

“Where is the Lady now? Surely she wouldn't have left without saying goodbye to me...”

Sereun massaged the man's shoulder, his eyes narrowed, a contrast to his gentle voice.

‘I've gone this far, so just tell me.’

Social life was truly difficult. He wanted to just ignore him, but this knight was incredibly persistent. He would always pick fights over trivial matters. To comfortably carry out Cedric's orders, it was better to maintain friendly relations with the other knights.

‘Lord Gwen has left too. I need to do better.’

Sereun had just sent a telegram to Cedric. That Eric had driven Gwen out. The knight sighed and suddenly began rummaging through his trouser pocket. He quietly handed Sereun a folded note.

“The Lady has already left. She said she couldn't say goodbye to you... and asked me to be sure to give you this.”

“The Lady... has left?”

At the knight's words, Sereun's mind went blank. If the Lady wasn't at the mansion... Surely, the woman he had just seen might actually be Roje? To Sereun's eyes, the woman in the Grand Duke's arms looked precisely as if she were being kidnapped.

‘...She's a woman who has nothing to do with me. I just approached the Lady on Lord Cedric's orders.’

Sereun tried hard to calm his mind and took the note Roje had given him. Thinking that while he was indeed her guard knight, she was now a woman who had nothing to do with him. He slowly unfolded the note, which was folded in half.

To Sir Sereun. Sir Sereun, thank you for being my guard knight all this time. While I was here, I can't tell you how much comfort your presence brought me. It's such a pity to leave without seeing your face one last time. I hope you won't be too sad that I'm leaving this note to express my regret. Let's have a meal together sometime. When we do, let's meet not as knight and lady, but as older sister and younger brother. I'll look forward to our next meeting. P.S. Did you and Jane fight? Make up quickly. Then the three of us can have a meal together.

It must have been delivered a long time ago, yet why did the note feel warm? Sereun gazed endlessly at the note she had left.

***

An old mansion nestled in a quiet place. It was a dilapidated house, hardly looking like a noble's residence. A woman with long, straight pink hair flowing down to her waist was tending the garden. It wasn't large, but it was a cozy garden where she could plant her favorite flowers. The garden was full of various flowers.

“Summer is already ending. Shall I start planting autumn flowers soon?”

The woman, intoxicated by the sweet scent of flowers, was remarkably beautiful for her middle age. Her clear skin, delicate features, and slender figure. She was a graceful woman befitting the image of a 'first love.' A woman who, at a glance, strongly resembled Roje. It was Ribera, Roje's mother. She began watering the flowerbed, gazing at the brightly blooming flowers.

“Countess Serviat.”

Just then, Grand Duke Arteum's voice came from behind Ribera, without a sound of approach.

“Gah!”

Startled by the sudden voice, Countess Serviat clutched her heart. Then she took a deep breath and slowly turned around.

“Grand Duke? What brings you here...?”

Countess Serviat, facing the Grand Duke, let out another gasp. Because Grand Duke Arteum wasn't alone. A woman, collapsed like a corpse, was with him in his arms. The woman, with her limbs hanging limply, looked just like a cadaver. Countess Serviat swallowed hard, then felt something strange. Because the person in his arms felt incredibly familiar. She calmed her pounding heart and gazed at the woman with wide eyes. Her small stature, and even her pink hair.

“Roje!”

Her long-missed daughter, Roje. She was in Grand Duke Arteum's arms.

“W-what on earth is happening!”

Tears began to well up in her eyes when she realized the person collapsed in the Grand Duke's arms was her own daughter.

“My child, my child! Please wake up!”

Ribera's eyes welled with tears as she looked at Roje, who was breathing heavily.

“Grand Duke, our Roje. What on earth happened?”

A tearful Ribera looked at the Grand Duke with desperate eyes. She looked extremely anxious, her eyes pleading that nothing terrible had happened to her daughter.

“She has a high fever. Let's get her inside first.”

At the Grand Duke's words, Ribera nodded vigorously. She hastily wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks and hurried forward. Rather than the joy of seeing her daughter after three years, fear that something terrible might happen to her overwhelmed her. Ribera stretched out a trembling hand towards the door. But before her hand could reach it, the door creaked open.

“What's all this commotion?”

“H-honey! Something terrible has happened! Our, our Roje!”

The person who came out was Demon de Serviat, Roje's father. Ribera burst into tears she had been holding back upon seeing her husband's face. He embraced Ribera and comforted her. Then he cast a cold look at the Grand Duke. More precisely, at Roje in his arms. Demon's expression as he looked at Roje was utterly cold.