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Chapter 03
People watched the father and daughter with great interest. The distance made it hard to hear the conversation, but with the Duke of Lloyd’s sudden appearance and the apparent discord between father and daughter, it wasn’t hard to guess something significant was unfolding.
“If you had just endured a little longer, everything would’ve worked out. Even without you, the Marquis wouldn’t have lasted long. But you ruined everything, Eliana.”
He tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear and spoke in a gentle tone, but the words were closer to a threat.
“……”
“He may be just a concubine, but he’s the emperor. You know that, don’t you? Even after two years of marriage, the empress has yet to conceive.”
“……”
“If you just bear the emperor’s child, no one in the empire could ever look down on you. Eliana.”
“It’s not me—it’s you who wants that.”
At Eliana’s retort, Baron Hoffman’s face turned cold. He arrogantly raised his chin, looking down at his daughter as if she were a servant, then murmured quietly.
“Rodin… that boy is in bad shape.”
“……”
“After what happened to the Marquis and your sudden disappearance, Rodin suffered greatly. You made him go through all that because you killed the Marquis.”
The gentleness from earlier vanished without a trace. Hoffman now stared down at Eliana with a cold and stern gaze. Eliana’s eyes twisted with fear.
“Are you still not going to tell me where you’ve been?”
Oddly enough, Hoffman’s voice turned sweet again as he coaxed her.
Eliana felt dizzy from the constant shift between coldness and warmth in his tone. Like a hallucination, the blood-covered face of the Marquis from that day flickered in and out of her mind.
“……”
“Rodin did his best, Eliana. He was the busiest one during the funeral, trying to clean up your mess.”
“Stop!”
Clutching her chest as her breathing grew ragged, Eliana finally shouted at Hoffman.
But he didn’t stop. He pushed her even harder, smiling faintly as if he enjoyed watching her in pain.
“If you won’t talk, then there’s nothing else to do. Rodin is a strong young man. Losing one arm won’t kill him.”
“Father!”
“Eliana. My good daughter. I don’t understand what the problem is. You always listened to me so well. I was proud of that about you.”
“Please, just stop already!”
Eliana bit her trembling lips. Blood trickled from the cracked skin.
‘If only I hadn’t insisted on bringing Rodin along that day, I might be living a much happier life now.’
Eliana closed her eyes.
Hoffman looked at her with a sigh, brushing back her hair and wearing a disappointed expression.
Then it happened.
“Could it be…?”
It started as a small murmur. The distant murmuring quickly swept over them like a wave, reaching Eliana and Baron Hoffman in no time.
“Good heavens, why is he here?”
A woman in mourning clothes flushed red and covered her mouth. Her reaction seemed completely out of place at a funeral.
As the murmuring crowd surged like a tide, everyone instinctively stepped back, parting to make way, leaving the center clear.
“This must be the place.”
Ignoring the line of mourners, Gredy stepped straight to the front, as if mocking their solemnity. Without hesitation, Baron Hoffman bent low.
“Your Grace, Grand Duke Cryber!”
At Hoffman’s cry, the man lowered his gaze and came to stand before the father and daughter.
Wearing a large black poncho-style cloak, the man scanned the surroundings with languid eyes. At his glance, the murmuring crowd immediately bowed their heads.
“To think the Grand Duke Cryber would come in person… The deceased must be honored.”
The same face that had just been stiff with displeasure now bloomed with excitement. But despite Hoffman’s enthusiasm, Gredy Cryber’s gaze was fixed elsewhere.
“Hah! What is this now?”
Through the dark storm clouds and heavy rain, his black eyes settled on Eliana. The murmuring about the widow of the Marquis instantly fell silent upon his arrival.
“Did Baron Hoffman even manage to form ties with Duke Cryber?”
People whispered in shock, and Hoffman’s shoulders rose proudly.
Even before this, Hoffman had been criticized for gaining his title by selling off his daughter. He was a half-noble—unworthy of facing high-ranking aristocrats. That had always been his place in the empire.
His inferiority complex was what drove him to push Eliana into becoming the emperor’s concubine.
“Ah! This is my daughter. Eliana, greet the Duke.”
Following Gredy’s gaze, Hoffman turned and prompted Eliana.
But strangely, neither Eliana nor Gredy said a word. They just stared at each other.
‘Grand Duke Gredy Cryber?’
There was something oddly familiar about his face. Eliana’s face stiffened. Her heart dropped with a thud and then raced furiously.
“Eliana?”
Sensing something strange in the air, Hoffman tilted his head and looked between the two.
“You vanished at dawn before the bed even cooled. I thought something urgent must’ve come up—but I didn’t expect it to be your husband’s funeral.”
Gredy gave a dry chuckle and held out his hand to Eliana. His crooked smirk showed just how little he liked this situation.
“……”
Eliana looked at the hand extended toward her.
It lingered in the air for a long moment before retreating. Gredy’s mocking expression only grew colder, and Eliana’s face hardened.
“If you’d given me a heads-up, I wouldn’t have been wandering the streets like a madman, clinging to a cold bed.”
At those words, Hoffman’s face turned ghostly pale.
Gredy Cryber—infamous now as the empire’s most scandalous noble—had once been a celebrated war hero. A man of imperial blood, albeit a bastard, bearing the title of Grand Duke.
Hoffman’s eyes flared. He instinctively knew he had to stop whatever was forming between Eliana and Gredy. But this was the Grand Duke.
“……”
“To think the Marquis’s wife would be found at a brothel before even taking off her mourning clothes. The rumors were true.”
At Gredy’s biting remark, Eliana lowered her gaze. Gredy clicked his tongue, as if disappointed that she didn’t deny it.
But Eliana was more shocked than anyone.
‘Maybe… this is my chance.’
She couldn’t understand why he would say such things, prompting misunderstanding. But when she saw her reflection in his dark, consuming eyes, she instinctively knew.
A scandal with him could prevent her from becoming the emperor’s concubine.
If that was the case, then she would play along—create a lie if she had to—to escape this situation.
“It must’ve been a memorable night for you, Duke. Coming here in person and all.”
Gredy’s eyes flashed dangerously. Though her reply wasn’t meant to be answered, he let out a small laugh.
“My god! Eliana!”
Hoffman cried out, clutching his forehead in horror at the words spilling from his daughter’s mouth.
His face flushed red with embarrassment, but he had no time to be angry.
He had already made a deal with Duke Lloyd. Eliana was to bear the emperor’s child.
And now she was ruining everything.
Gredy chuckled at Eliana’s boldness. The rain-soaked black hair only made him look more like a wild beast.
“You made it impossible not to come searching for you.”
“Your Grace! The funeral isn’t even over yet. Please stop insulting my daughter!”
Hoffman finally regained his senses and jumped between them. He was already on the edge from Eliana’s sudden defiance—realizing her partner in rebellion was Gredy Cryber pushed him into despair.
People’s eyes widened at Hoffman’s outburst. Known for his ever-smiling, composed demeanor, his rare loss of control startled many.
Eliana clenched her fists as she watched her panicked father.
The image of the Marquis’s blood-soaked body flickered before her eyes, clouding her thoughts.
‘I can’t go on like this, Father.’
Hoffman could never reveal that she had killed the Marquis—it would drag him down too. He would never risk the fall of House Hoffman for anything.
Eliana finished thinking. She looked up at Gredy, fragments of lost memories faintly returning.
Trying to ground herself, she bit the inside of her cheek, digging her nails into her palm. The pain helped sharpen her fading thoughts.
Gredy stared at her slowly. She stood tall, chin lifted, but the black mourning dress clutched in her white hand was crumpled beyond repair.
Her legs, hidden beneath the gown, trembled and looked fragile—too weak to hold her weight.
“The woman who stole my night turns out to be the Marquis’s widow who hasn’t even buried her husband.”
Murmurs erupted again. Everyone watched the three—Gredy, Eliana, and Hoffman—with fascinated eyes.
“I’m relieved. If you came all the way here, that night must’ve meant something to you.”
At her soft words, Gredy leaned closer. Eliana stiffened, glaring at the sudden shadow looming over her.
He brought his lips to her ear and whispered,
“You left so many clues behind—how could I not find you?”
Though it was a whisper, everyone heard it. Gasps were stifled across the crowd.
Eliana, overwhelmed by the remark, closed her eyes.
Collapsing into Gredy’s arms, she lost consciousness. He caught her and stared down at her fragile body, disliking how easily she fit in his arms.
Gredy twitched his brow, then without hesitation, slung her over his shoulder.
“Lead the way.”
“W-where to, Your Grace?”
Hoffman stammered, overwhelmed by Gredy’s presence.
“To the bedroom.”
