While Others Became Female Leads In Romantic Fantasy Novels, I Became A Closet Monster
Chapter 6
There was no way he should be able to sense a presence….
Is it because he’s the Grand Duke?
How very suspicious.
Though bewildered, I reached out and gave the necklace a little poke.
The magic I’d cast on it had definitely vanished; there was no reaction at all when I touched it.
Looking at the immovable Delaney, the Grand Duke swept his gaze across the room.
“Or would it satisfy you more if I searched the place myself and brought shame upon you?”
“…Bring it.”
In the end, the Grand Duchess backed down.
“No, wait, there were more keepsakes? What a piece of work\!”
I thought there was only the necklace…\!
I cursed loudly enough for the Grand Duke to hear, as he seemed to be able to see me.
“The Grand Duke is a problem, too\! You knew how much Didi missed his mother, and only now….”
Even if he only moved when presented with evidence, there were more than a few strange things about the Grand Duke.
‘In the novel, the Grand Duke was the most mysterious character.’
The Grand Duke as described was a truly peculiar man. He seemed to love Dedrick’s mother, Amelia, yet he was cold enough to lock her in the Spire and let her die in loneliness.
Furthermore, he seemed to care for Dedrick, yet he never stepped forward personally.
In the original novel, he was the most inscrutable character, but after the description of him handing over the position of family head to the male lead and leaving, he never appeared again.
None of the foreshadowing about him was ever resolved.
This man… is incredibly suspicious.
“What are you? Who is this old man?”
As I glared at him, his brow arched in displeasure.
“I-I have brought it, Your Grace.”
Gemma held out a box to the aide.
Once the aide took it, the Grand Duke placed the necklace on top of the box.
“You should have hidden it better.”
“Had it not caught my eye, I would have ignored it as I always do.”
Are you seriously bragging about that?
“Mister, being a bystander is a sin too. You know that?”
As I grumbled, his hand suddenly came down and flicked me right on the forehead before pulling away.
My eyes went wide with surprise rather than pain.
“What? You really can see me\!”
He really did see me, and that’s why he acted that way\! It wasn’t my imagination.
“Take this to Dedrick.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
The Grand Duke left the Grand Duchess’s room without a lingering thought. I hurriedly followed after him.
“Stop right there\! Let’s talk for a second…\!”
His long legs didn’t stop. Finally, I let out a shriek.
“Why are you pretending not to know me\!”
Suddenly, his legs finally stopped. Thinking this was my chance, I ran toward him with all my might, and his eyes fixed directly on me.
“Shouldn’t you go see how happy he’ll be?”
The moment the Grand Duke left those cryptic words and made a gesture, I found myself back inside my Wardrobe.
It’s quiet again….
Even though he didn’t want to, Dedrick had been unable to focus on his studies for the past few days because he kept worrying.
Just as Dedrick clutched his head, the Wardrobe door opened.
The Girl jumped down from the Wardrobe with a beaming smile, as if nothing had happened.
“Didi.”
“A gift from me is going to arrive soon.”
The Girl continued to say things that made no sense.
In the end, Dedrick had no choice but to look at her.
“You looked at me\!”
Seeing the Girl jumping for joy just because he looked at her, Dedrick felt a wave of shyness and averted his gaze.
No one had ever been happy just to meet his eyes before.
No one had ever been that delighted….
Everyone else hated even making eye contact with someone as ill-omened as him, but this Girl was different.
‘Why is she like this to me? Simply because the Wardrobe is in my room? What is the real reason she appeared before me?’
Just then, a knock broke through Dedrick’s thoughts.
Knock, knock.
“Young Master Dedrick, it is Jenkinson. May I come in?”
“…Jenkinson?”
Jenkinson was the Grand Duke’s loyal aide.
‘Why would he…’
He was a person as difficult to see as his own father. When Dedrick just stared without opening the door, the Girl urged him on.
“Hurry and open it, hurry\!”
It was rare for the aide to visit personally, no matter what happened. He rarely left the Grand Duke’s side.
He didn’t move personally unless it was for something important.
Feeling dazed, Dedrick opened the door. Jenkinson looked down at him kindly.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes… thanks to you.”
Jenkinson gave a thin smile and gestured. A servant following behind him entered and placed a box on the table.
As Dedrick watched in bewilderment, Jenkinson gave a brief explanation.
“His Grace the Grand Duke told me to deliver this to you.”
“…Father did?”
Why would a man who never stepped in before….
Jenkinson, looking at the questioning Dedrick with pity, quickly wiped the expression from his face.
“Is there any discomfort in your daily life?”
“The food\! Tell him the meals are a total mess\! You have to say it now, Didi\!”
The Girl shrieked as if she had been waiting for this. After a moment of hesitation, Dedrick cautiously opened his mouth.
“The food is….”
But in the end, he couldn’t finish and clamped his lips shut. Jenkinson nodded as if he understood.
“It is insufficient. I will take measures. I apologize for not paying enough attention to your meals. Is there anything else?”
“It’s fine.”
“No, what do you mean it’s fine\! There’s more\! You have to tell him about Somerset and Axel’s misdeeds too\!”
Dedrick pretended not to hear the Girl, who was squawking at him to say everything while he had the chance, and approached the box.
‘There’s no proof they’re bullying me anyway.’
Dedrick knew all too well that the Grand Duke would not act without clear evidence.
Jenkinson looked at Dedrick, who kept his lips tightly shut, with sorrow. But there was nothing he could do of his own accord.
Now that the errand the Grand Duke ordered was finished, there was nothing left but to leave.
“Then, I shall take my leave.”
After Jenkinson and the servant left, Dedrick ran his hand over the box in wonder.
“Hurry and open it. I went through so much trouble to get this.”
The Girl’s mood swung wildly. She had been frustrated a moment ago, but now she was looking at him with a face full of anticipation.
“I’m sure you’ll like it. So I hope you’ll open your heart to me too, Dedrick.”
“Ah, my inner thoughts slipped out.”
“Pfft.”
Dedrick finally let out a small laugh at the mischievous Girl.
She was a girl who strangely made his heart feel at ease. Everything that came out of her mouth was for his sake.
Seeing the confident Girl, he felt a sense of anticipation about what might be inside the box.
Click.
Dedrick carefully opened the box.
Inside were familiar items.
This is….
“Mother….”
There were things his mother had used during her life, such as the necklace and bracelet she had always worn.
“Ta-da\! They’re your mother’s keepsakes. I extorted… no, I brought them back through fair and square means. Of course, it was Jenkinson who actually brought them, but I provided the cause.”
Looking back and forth between the keepsakes and the Girl, who was looking at him as if asking for praise, Dedrick silently bit his lower lip.
At the unexpected items, the tip of his nose stung, and he felt as if he might burst into tears.
He thought he would never find them. He thought that even if he did, he would only be able to get them back after he became an adult.
He was infinitely weak, and the Grand Duchess was not someone he could do anything about.
Dedrick found the Grand Duchess even more terrifying than the Grand Duke. He couldn’t bear it.
She was the one who had ruthlessly taken his mother’s life right before his eyes.
So, even when he missed his mother, he endured. His mother had told him to survive, but the Grand Duchess did not want that, so he always held his breath.
Promising himself that someday… in the future, he would get his mother’s things back.
Dedrick was moved by the unexpected gift, his heart trembling.
‘It was so hard to hold on without a single trace of Mother….’
Dedrick couldn’t take his eyes off Amelia’s belongings.
“With this, you can carry your mother’s keepsakes with pride, and no one will be able to say anything.”
The Girl continued to chatter beside him.
“They won’t even be able to lay a finger on them. Because the Grand Duke himself ordered them to be delivered\!”
Yes, that would be the case.
Now he wouldn’t spend sleepless nights longing for his mother’s keepsakes.
“If you hide them in the Wardrobe, I’ll watch over them every day. So no one can steal them.”
He even had a monster who would reliably protect the keepsakes now.
Dedrick looked at the Girl.
Her golden eyes, sparkling as if asking for immediate praise, were dazzling.
Reaching out to fiddle with her slightly singed ashen hair, Dedrick took a step closer to her.
He now understood why she had been injured.
Dedrick knew that an anti-theft spell had been placed on his mother’s keepsakes.
Delaney would occasionally call him and display that necklace in front of him as if to taunt him.
Delaney enjoyed watching him suffer, unable to touch it, as if she were watching a play.
That was one of Delaney’s sick hobbies.
Among the many forms of bullying, that was the one Dedrick found hardest to endure.
Even though his mother’s things were right before his eyes, he hadn’t been able to take them.
‘So I had to be satisfied with just looking at them….’
Now, nothing happened even when he touched them.
Finally, Dedrick met the Girl’s eyes with his own, which had turned bright red.
She was the first person besides his mother who had cared for him to this extent.
“…Thank you.”
“You’re welcome\!”
The Girl smiled more beautifully than ever before.
