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<Chapter 5>
“Ugh wait. Does that mean she’ll become the Grand Duchess?”
Although he had heard the former via telepathy from the mountain, the latter was news to Niche, who immediately recoiled and asked back.
“That can’t be.”
Davies, who had almost reflexively denied it, rarely showed displeasure on his cold face.
Giselle neither confirmed nor denied, just chuckling softly.
“I’ll just add that I saw a hopeful future for the first time in a long while.”
“Giselle.”
“You know it. I can’t explain it more specifically than this. It’s beyond my ability.”
At that, Davies let out a low sigh.
A hundred years since the magical energy had begun eroding his body.
He knew well that he didn’t have much time left.
The periods of sleep were becoming excessively long. If things continued like this, even if he held out, his limit would come within a year.
And yet.
‘The magical energy isn’t rampaging at all.’
Davies assessed his own condition.
His body was unprecedentedly light, and he didn’t feel the sensation of being pursued by drowsiness. The peace, the first in decades, was unfamiliar and rather uncomfortable.
The witch, reading her master’s mind, asked.
“You will accept her, right? My visions of the future have never been wrong.”
Indeed, as she said. The witch’s prophecies had never been wrong once in all these long years.
However, he would not welcome her as the Grand Duchess. The future where she becomes Belmeyer should be interpreted differently.
Because his partner is….
Davies answered, almost like a groan.
“……For now, let’s observe.”
Whatever that woman was, if she could make him live ‘much, much longer’.
There was nothing this Winter Castle could not accept.
I confess.
After the Grand Duke left, I couldn’t resist the temptation and ended up lying down on his bed and falling asleep.
If I may excuse myself.
Before climbing the mountain path, I had set the horse free into the wild, and I conserved my magic power usage as much as possible just in case.
I had made the arduous mountain trek using only my frail two legs.
Of course, I couldn’t sleep properly, the only thing I ate was hastily made jerky, and I had used magic squared as much as usual.
Left alone in front of the bed, fatigue and drowsiness rushed in, and instinctively, I burrowed into the blanket…
“I’m sorry.”
Sitting up halfway, I apologized as soon as I realized the situation.
Because, as soon as I opened my eyes, my gaze immediately met that ghostly pale man’s!
The Grand Duke was sitting on a chair by the bed, looking at me as if observing, with eyes that were utterly unreadable.
“You slept.”
“I slept.”
And I slept like a log.
In the dark gloom, the faintly flickering candlelight delicately illuminated his devastatingly handsome face.
‘It’s become night.’
Come to think of it, I was still on the bed.
Having just woken up, my judgment was slow. I belatedly tried to crawl out, but the Grand Duke stopped me with a glance.
After spending several seconds that felt like an eternity in a position where my body was comfortable but my mind was not, he finally spoke.
“How did you know my name?”
“I know the name of the Grand Duke of Belmeyer, famous as the last Master of the Magic Tower, as a matter of basic knowledge. Because I was Irene Baltres.”
Actually, it’s neither basic nor knowledge. In the Empire, he’s just called the Demon Grand Duke.
But at least for me, raised in Baltres, which had a lot of information related to the Magic Tower, it wasn’t entirely wrong.
The Tower of Mages, commonly known as the Magic Tower.
A full hundred years had passed since the Grand Duke before me had completely collapsed that Magic Tower, but to this day, the Tower had not been rebuilt.
This was because the Imperial family, which had been keeping the influential Magic Tower in check, attached various reasons and let the matter fizzle out.
Instead, the Imperial Directly Controlled Magic Department was established.
‘My father, its head, has a long-cherished desire to rebuild the Magic Tower.’
They say that in the past, just being affiliated with the Magic Tower was the greatest honor for a mage. It was also a time when magic itself flourished.
The field of magic now is much diminished compared to back then.
The culprit of this situation furrowed his handsome brow.
“You speak in the past tense.”
“I discarded my family name when I came here.”
Strike while the iron is hot, as they say. I said it refreshingly.
“I’m Irene. Although I was the princess of Baltres and the fiancee of the Hilvarcia. Crown Prince.”
From the moment I ran away, I abandoned my family name. So now, I’m just Irene.
“Now I’m neither a princess nor a Crown Princess-in-waiting.”
“…….”
“A few days ago, I tried to stab and kill the Crown Prince…… so I’m on the run. I don’t know if he lived or died, but if I’m caught, I’ll be executed.”
There was no reaction, so I didn’t know if he was listening properly, but I didn’t stop talking.
“The Empire is practically my enemy now. But, oh my. Isn’t Belmeyer enemy also the Empire? Then, don’t you think we could be good allies?”
The Grand Duke replied with a seemingly unrelated question.
“Aren’t you afraid of Belmeyer?”
‘Afraid? I’m more afraid of the execution block.’
I observed him, mimicking his gaze.
An eerily beautiful man, unreal like a human-mimicking divine statue, cold as if embodying winter, and possessing horrifying magical energy like a demon.
According to rumors I’d picked up.
A battlefield slaughterer, a mad tyrant, a demon of the abyss, a devil, a calamity, a monster called by any name… it was said.
But the man before me was far from such rumors. For one, he was generous enough not to say much even when an uninvited guest was rudely lying in his bed.
“I only believe what I see with my own eyes. And if it’s about bad rumors, I have plenty myself, so I’m not one to talk.”
My answer came out as if already decided.
“I want to become a mage of Belmeyer.”
A mage of Belmeyer.
I liked that ticklish, awkward ring to it.
Anyway, in the Empire, I was called not so much a mage but a wicked villainess. In my family… well.
‘At least I wasn’t a daughter to be proud of.’
Baltres was a society of thorough meritocracy.
Born from the sacrifice of the Duchess, and with weak magical power to boot, from the first moment I can remember, I had to strive to prove my own worth.
Being a direct descendant of Baltres, a prestigious mage family, but having too little innate magical power.
It was a very fatal flaw, but my formula calculation ability and the recovery speed of my magic circuits were unparalleled.
If I had no talent at all, it might have been different. But as it was, I naturally clung to magic.
When I was young, I think I was more desperate, wanting something like family love.
“It’s a flower I made through magical alchemy. I wanted to give it to Father…….”
“I’ve already seen that flower. Try harder.”
……There were times like that. All in the past, though.
If I did well, it was ‘natural for a Baltres’; if I did poorly, it was ‘shameful for a Baltres’.
‘Even after a lifetime of effort, my end surely would have been…….’
“Don’t even think about returning to the capital until the political marriage.”
“Father.”
“The place where you caused a scene was the temple! It’s no different from disgracing Baltres before God!”
“They insulted me first.”
“Irene Baltres! If you have any shame!”
I remember Father’s thunderous roar that day.
The ink bottle he threw, the forehead I didn’t avoid, so it broke, his angry red eyes looking at me covered in blood and ink… and.
From a little further in the past.
Lips that had never once told me they loved me, yet in front of everyone, calling Lissie his beloved daughter—that gentle yet cruel side of him as well.
‘……Recalling only unpleasant memories for no reason.’
What I should be thinking about now is not Valtres, but Belmeyer. It’s about pleading my case well to the Grand Duke.
I touched my smooth forehead for no reason and spoke.
“Even if you, Grand Duke, suspect me and kill me right here, I won’t regret that choice.”
Within my magic circuits, formulas fit together like a puzzle.
“However, Grand Duke, I have considerable utility value, too high to just kill and dispose of.”
Whoosh!
The faint candlelight burst and vanished like a small spark, and then the chandelier, which had existed only as decoration, flashed, imbued with light as bright as day.
It was just an application of the basic magic ‘Light’, nothing extraordinary. But I smiled as proudly as if I had summoned the sun itself.
“I’ll use magic for you.”
“…….”
The Grand Duke just kept looking at me with an unwavering gaze. Perhaps he was persistently searching for something in me.
Meeting those chillingly bright ash-gray eyes, my heart beat a little faster.
Thump, thump….
After a long while, the Grand Duke parted his heavily sealed lips.
“I’m not curious about why you came, and I don’t care what you do.”
With those words, he granted me asylum.
“But remember this: the price of lies and betrayal is nothing but death.”
The all-white demon looked down at me. At that gruesome warning, I became genuinely delighted.
“What a coincidence. That’s exactly my life motto.”
