Chapter 25
Chapter 24
===
The moment he opened the door, he felt the refreshing forest. The thick scent of blood and stench seemed to disappear for a moment in the face of the refreshing fragrance that surged in like a tide.
Grace turned her head towards him, who stood still after closing the door. With the reddish light of the fireplace haloing her, she gazed at him with transparent green eyes imbued with warm light.
“Your Grace.”
A call so affectionate it made his fingertips tingle.
Walter leaned against the door and let out a sighing laugh.
Why are there so many things shaking me up?
He roughly swept his face down. Eliza's figure, like a fragment of a ruined nation, stirred up past memories and stripped off his mask. Once removed, the mask did not return easily.
The soldiers guarding the Wall of Death secretly called Walter the 'Iron-Blooded Duke'. A rampant, untamed bloodlust, contrasted by an indifferent expression. Where he passed, the corpses of Magical beasts piled up like mountains, and their blood flowed like rivers.
After unleashing the madness within him like that, the Duke would lock himself in his room for days. Only then would he put on the mask of reason and appear in a neat appearance.
Walter hated anyone coming near him until his reason returned. So even now, he was planning not to let even Joseph into the room until at least tomorrow morning.
“I came because I have something to tell you.”
Grace calmly explained her business. Walter let out a sigh that was barely audible, then suddenly threw the door open.
“Y-Your Grace!”
The spy, who had just been grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Joseph, called out to him with a desperate face. He seemed to think that the Duke would be less scary than the brutish Joseph Rexton. But that shallow expectation was shattered the moment the devilish face was thrust forward.
Walter, slowly gripping the spy's neck, said quietly.
“Don’t open your mouth, just listen.”
“……”
“Three in the right corridor, two in the left corridor, and you, a total of six.”
“!!”
“If I see you again, I will hang you.”
“Your Gra…….”
“Didn’t I tell you not to open your mouth?”
“Keu, keuk.”
Walter, who had gripped the spy's neck tightly, felt the light behind him and released his grip.
The spy, barely freed from Walter's grasp, retreated with a pale face, only to be blocked by Joseph's leg.
“I will gag him once more.”
Walter did not answer and returned to his room, closing the door.
Grace was standing straight, gazing at him silently. Unlike him, who had turned into a monster to survive, she remained extremely calm even after seeing this side of him.
Her eyes, like green grapes, were clear. Those clear eyes touched something within him in a strange way. Walter asked in a distorted voice.
“You, how can you be so calm?”
Walter unbuttoned the shirt that was constricting his neck, and approached her menacingly. Nevertheless, Grace did not step back. It was a completely different side of him from the rational image he had shown so far, but her face showed no agitation.
Walter, who barely stopped with only one step between them, trapped Grace with eyes that seemed to devour her.
“Tell me, Grace. How can you be so calm?”
“Do I look calm?”
“……”
“Or do you want to ask how I’ve managed to endure without going crazy until now?”
When Walter remained silent, Grace stared straight at him and whispered as if glaring at him.
“You were alive.”
At Grace's whisper, Walter stopped breathing without realizing it.
“There were as many moments when I wanted to collapse as there were moments when I wanted to set fire to the beds of those who were shaking Taylor, including you. Even back then. When I, even for a moment, stood in the chapel with the emperor's nephew who killed my parents. When I wore the gift necklace they sent around my neck.”
No, from the moment they brought up Jack Sachsen as a marriage partner, the seething anger felt like it was melting her insides.
“I endured back then, repeating those words.”
“……”
“You are alive.”
A person she had never properly seen, a person she had never properly spoken to.
Nevertheless, Grace could always feel his presence. Just knowing that someone was out there, hiding himself and struggling for the same goal as her, was comforting.
The day she met him, she had to be a reliable person to fight this battle together. She couldn't be a useless, just pitiful existence.
“You have been my landmark and anchor since long ago.”
“……”
“I was able to endure because you were there.”
Flames flickered in Grace's eyes. If he knew with what heart she had waited for him for so long, he would not be able to ask this way.
“So you endure too.”
After conveying the words she had carefully suppressed, his raging energy seemed to subside. Grace lowered her voice and continued.
“What I want is not just to kill the enemy. It is to reclaim the cornerstone of the empire, Taylor of the Golden Wheat Field. It is to inherit the achievements of my ancestors. To do that, Your Grace must be a lord worthy of my loyalty.”
Walter understood what Grace was trying to say.
‘I have believed in you and endured until now. Don’t disappoint me.’
The two gazes met in the depths.
Grace slowly realized that black could be much more diverse than she thought. The eyes, which had been blazing so fiercely that they looked reddish, gradually calmed down and soon felt as black and hard as obsidian.
Watching the change, she didn't know why, or perhaps it was just out of habit, a light laugh escaped like a leaking wind. Then he widened his eyes as if he was dumbfounded, and smiled similarly.
“Heo.”
A sound close to a sigh came from his twisted lips.
In any case, the atmosphere had changed, so Grace pulled her shawl a little tighter and brought up the reason for her visit.
“The Marquis and Marchioness Linko seem likely to take the bait that is me soon.”
Walter approached the fireplace where the embers were about to die out and threw in firewood.
“Today, Marchioness Linko and Flora Lewen came to see me. I only mentioned your name when they probed about your personal details.”
Grace told him about the arrogant maids and how she had Jessie follow them. At that moment, a small knock sounded, and Jessie's voice was heard from beyond the door.
“Lady, it’s Jessie.”
Grace immediately sought Walter's consent.
“May I tell her to come in?”
Instead of answering Grace, Walter spoke towards the door.
“Come in.”
A moment later, Jessie, who opened the door and entered, had an unknown unpleasantness on her face. She looked back and forth between Grace and Walter, then opened her mouth.
“I barely managed to catch up and watch them, but there were others secretly watching the maids besides me.”
“And then?”
“When the maids were passing through a deserted corridor, they revealed themselves from behind and dragged them into a room.”
Grace and Walter's eyes narrowed at the same time.
“Dragged them into a room?”
“There were people watching outside, so I couldn't approach. It's not certain, but…….”
Jessie, who was slurring her words with a tilt of her head, quickly added when she saw Walter's impatient gaze.
“I was wondering if they were being assaulted…, I heard a very small scream for a moment.”
Silence fell over the three of them.
＊ ＊ ＊
Sometimes I had such imaginations.
If I could see the future, or if not, if I could return to the past.
But imagination was just imagination, and such things did not happen. All I could do was set goals, gather information, predict, and act.
Grace, who had returned to the Chandelier Room, sat at her desk as if it were a habit.
“The maids who served me dinner were imprisoned and assaulted inside the castle, huh…….”
Marquis and Marchioness Linko must be plotting something. But with this amount of information, it was not easy to predict.
Grace pondered more deeply. She reviewed the big plan again, retraced the order, and predicted the timing. Then, when she suddenly raised her head, she saw her reflection in the mirror placed on the corner of the desk. As she stared at it, his words came to mind.
“I looked calm……?”
Grace slowly stroked her face with her hand and smiled once. A smile that was habitually elegant but unknowable was formed. Grace, who blinked quietly, tried to make a sad expression this time.
“……”
But she couldn't make a sad expression at all. She tried to make an angry face, but that was the same. She looked in the mirror for a long time and tried to make various expressions, but all were in vain.
Only then did she realize that she had forgotten everything other than a gentle and calm expression.
Grace, who had been looking in the mirror for a while, shook her head slightly and muttered.
“It’s a good thing, rather.”
Emotional agitation becomes a fatal weakness. Since I have to shake the opponent's heart with a relaxed and calm face, there is no more powerful weapon than this. Nevertheless, she was uncomfortable with the mirror reflecting her face, which was as emotionless as a doll, so she turned it to the side.
