97 - The Bride of the Great Lord is a Warrior from Hell
The Grand Duke's Bride is a Warrior from Hell 97
Roderick had already gotten up and was crouching before Alisha in a desperate manner.
"You must never marry me. I should be telling you to run away from me... but please, don't abandon me."
Roderick's pleading face contorted for a moment.
Alisha, worried that he might be ill, quickly reached out her hand.
His deeply bowed body trembled slightly.
Tears were streaming down Roderick's face as he looked up.
"Ray. Are you in pain?"
Alisha said, embracing the crying man.
Roderick shook his head.
"I saw someone who married Grand Duke Tessen and became a sacrifice to the punishment inflicted on the Imperial Family. That person was the one I respected and loved the most before I loved Alicia Lane."
Roderick whispered in a pained voice.
Alisha knew who he was talking about.
"I love her, but I can't bear to see Alisha become like her. I absolutely can't. So, you mustn't marry me."
Alisha understood how dangerous Roderick's confession was.
The Imperial Family would relentlessly hunt down and kill anyone who knew about the Royal Dot's punishment.
"Who is she?"
"She is the former Grand Duchess Tessen. She is currently known as the Countess of Lua Reine."
Alisha was confirming what she already knew, but the shock was still significant.
"What curse was placed on her?"
"I didn't see her until after the curse was placed, so I'm not entirely sure. I was 14 at the time, and she was only in her mid-30s. When I became Grand Duke Tessen and came here, the first time I saw her, she had the appearance of an old woman in her eighties."
Roderick spoke with a terrified expression, like a young boy.
"..."
Alisha was speechless with shock.
"She, who married the former Grand Duke Tessen, was said to have aged ten years in just one month of marriage. Within a year of the marriage, she had the appearance of an old woman. I can only guess that it's a curse that makes you age rapidly. Alisha, so you must never marry me."
Alisha wiped the tears from Roderick's eyes with her hand.
"And don't leave Ray either?"
"I can't live without Alicia Lane by my side. If you tell me to write a Title Oath that I will never marry for the rest of my life, I will do so. If you tell me to write an Title Oath that I will be loyal to you for the rest of my life, I will write it. If you tell me to become your servant, I will do it."
Such excessive promises were unrealistic.
At any other time, if he had spouted such absurd promises, she would have called it nonsense.
"Ray."
"Anything but the marriage Title Oath. Absolutely not the marriage Title Oath."
Alisha tried not to laugh as she looked at his desperately pleading face.
She felt she shouldn't laugh at the earnest confession of someone so pitiful, pathetic, and lovable.
It was okay if he didn't like her.
It was okay if he didn't love her.
She just felt sorry for his plea to simply stay by his side because he liked and loved her.
"I love you, Ray."
Roderick stopped crying at Alisha's confession.
"I love you too, Alisha."
Alisha smiled brightly at the returning confession.
"Thank you for confessing."
"I'm sorry for telling you so late."
Alisha reached out and carefully wiped his tear-filled face.
Roderick obediently offered his face to the touch that caressed him, then embraced the being who was still spreading sweetness even now.
Morning was slowly dawning.
Alisha, who was watching the sunlight from Roderick's arms, suddenly asked.
"What kind of person is she?"
"She is the one who took care of me like a son and the only one who loved me."
Alisha had been constantly thinking about the Countess of Lua Reine.
The key to Roderick's refusal to marry and the questions she vaguely had.
With the new year, Roderick was irregularly struck with pain.
She had speculated that Roderick's sudden marriage in the first timeline was because the pattern of pain had changed.
In reality, he had collapsed from the pain during an Imperial Palace banquet.
The Imperial Family would never let Grand Duke Tessen die.
In a situation where there were no candidates to become Grand Duke Tessen, if the current Grand Duke Tessen disappeared, all the Imperial Family would be dragged into the pain.
In the first timeline, Roderick married one after another after his first marriage.
Perhaps he was relieved to see that his brides were not afflicted with the curse of aging like the former Grand Duchess.
The short lives of his brides would have seemed like unfortunate accidents when he knew nothing.
Alisha suspected that Roderick's irregular pain was related to the Countess of Lua Reine.
The Countess of Lua Reine had become a sacrifice to the punishment received by the former Grand Duke Tessen.
Roderick had begun to receive the Royal Dot's punishment by making the Title Oath of Grand Duke Tessen.
Shouldn't the curse that had been inflicted on the Countess of Lua Reine have disappeared when the former Grand Duke Tessen died?
Shouldn't the Countess of Lua Reine's curse have lessened when the new Grand Duke Tessen began to receive the punishment?
"Where is she now?"
"She will be coming to Orier in the summer."
Alisha had come to the conclusion that once you received the Royal Dot's curse, you could never be freed from it.
And she suspected that Roderick's pain was spiking irregularly now because the punishment that the Countess of Lua Reine had been partially bearing was trying to go entirely to him.
It seemed that she wouldn't have much time to see the Countess of Lua Reine.
She didn't have much time left.
Even in her memories of the first timeline, the Countess of Lua Reine had briefly been involved in a scandal with Grand Duke Tessen before disappearing in an instant.
"I want to see her."
At Alisha's words, Roderick got up without a word.
"Shall we go?"
The road from Tessen to Orier was quiet.
Two horses galloped quickly down the deserted street.
The journey was sudden.
After finishing breakfast, Roderick announced his visit to Orier.
Alisha told Daisy to follow slowly and that she would be going on horseback.
Daisy and Juan looked as if the world was collapsing when they heard Alisha's words that she wouldn't be riding in the carriage.
Roderick immediately prepared the guards.
Alisha and Roderick got on the horses that Henrik had brought and left without delay.
The two of them left everyone behind.
When the outer walls of the castle came into view, Alisha slowed down her horse.
Roderick, who had been running beside her, also slowed down.
"We're almost there."
Roderick said to Alisha, looking back at the empty space behind them.
Alisha slowed down her horse's pace even more leisurely.
"Ray, I have something to confess too."
The sound of the horse snorting echoed through the deserted street.
With a soft rumble, Alisha and Roderick patted their respective horses.
"Tell me."
Roderick said readily.
"I came from the future."
Alisha tried to speak while sending a straight gaze into his golden eyes.
Roderick was silent for a while.
The sound of the horse snorting continued.
"...Do you mean you have future sight that allows you to see what will happen in the future?"
A look of bewilderment flowed across his face as he spoke after a long time.
"No, I literally came from the future."
Alisha nonchalantly spat out words that no one would believe.
She tried to act like it was nothing.
Roderick stared intently at Alisha.
He looked utterly dumbfounded.
His golden eyes, sparkling like melted honey under the sunlight, couldn't tear themselves away from Alisha.
"You don't believe me?"
Alisha said with a confident attitude.
"I believe you."
Roderick answered immediately.
But he didn't look like he believed her at all.
"I might not even be 20 years old."
"Yes."
Roderick replied again immediately to Alisha's words.
He definitely didn't believe her.
"That means my mental age is higher than Ray's."
"Yes, that's possible."
She resented the face that pretended to believe her when he didn't.
Alisha slowed down her horse's pace to almost the speed of a person walking slowly.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I believe you. Did I get married in the future?"
Roderick said with a faint smile.
"Yes. I married you."
Alisha replied quickly.
She said it with the intention of surprising him.
As expected, Roderick turned to look at Alisha with a slightly flustered expression.
"That can't be. There's no way I'd marry someone I like."
"Yes, you didn't like me back then."
Alisha said tremendous things with a light attitude.
"..."
Roderick reflexively moved his horse to match Alisha's pace and stared intently at her side.
She could understand his bewildered face.
From Roderick's point of view, he was being questioned for actions he hadn't done.
"Ray, even if you marry me, I won't become like her. I guess that the curse according to the marriage Title Oath is different for each Grand Duke Tessen. Ray's brides didn't suddenly age or disappear like the former Grand Duchess. They died young due to accidents or misfortune."
Alisha continued to say amazing things lightly.
Roderick was relieved, then surprised, then paused with a puzzled expression.
"Brides?"
He remembered the first letter Alisha had sent him.
'I congratulate Your Grace on your first marriage.'
That sentence had particularly caught his eye.
So he had personally set out to see the face of the person who had sent such a mischievous message.
"Yes, brides."
Alisha spread a thick smile across her face.
"..."
Roderick was silent for a moment.
Brides who died young due to accidents or misfortune.
Alisha's earlier words came to mind.
"Your Grace has been married several times. There were many senior brides before me."
Alisha said kindly.
At the same time, she thought this behavior was unfair.
But it seemed somehow unfair that the shock of the past would be something only she knew.
She also felt a little resentful.
Roderick's eyes shook with confusion.
"That..."
He wanted to say something.
His lips parted slightly, but soon closed tightly.
She couldn't know what kind of person he was in the time Alisha knew.
"And I not only came from the future, but I also went to hell."
Alisha said with the momentum of telling everything on this occasion.
Her tone was still light.
But the words she spat out were by no means light.
Roderick's words stopped.
Alisha's horse slowly went ahead.
"...Hell?"
Roderick said with a bewildered face when Alisha was about twenty steps ahead.
His face was devoid of any expression, like someone who had heard words he shouldn't have heard.
Alisha turned her horse around and approached Roderick.
"Yes, hell."
Roderick stopped moving and moved his lips.
"What does that..."
"What is the reason why the Imperial Family with the Royal Dot receives punishment?"
Roderick frowned at Alisha's words.
Alisha rode her horse in circles around the stationary Roderick.
"Because the Celestial Being, the ancestor of the Imperial Family, did not fulfill his duty. The monsters that poured out of Ist Noah in Tessen are the demons of hell... It is impossible to defeat them alone."
Now Roderick seemed to know what the duty of the Celestial Being, the ancestor of the Imperial Family, was.
He could also guess why the Grand Duke Tessen had special abilities.
Because he had to seal hell.
But it was an impossible duty.
Numerous former Grand Dukes had tried to eliminate and purify the monsters in Tessen, but had failed.
They protected the border, fulfilled the duties of the Imperial Family, were caught up in political strife, and endured the severe pain inflicted on the Grand Duke Tessen.
As long as the Grand Duke Tessen was there, the monster did not leave Tessen.
To the Grand Duke Tessen, the monster was just an inconvenient and difficult uninvited guest that came from time to time.
"It seems that duty has passed on to me."
Alisha said calmly as she circled around Roderick.
'Seeker.'
Alisha had not forgotten the title she had heard in Ist Noah.
The power of the Magic Stone that came out of Ist Noah was probably sucked into her because of that.