TGDLBF 19

Chapter 19

The Duke Must Be Saved

There are always those people so deeply narcissistic that no matter what others say, it doesn’t even register—and it seemed Ramel was one of them.

Maybe he was the type who comforted himself through delusion, like Sienna. Anyway, they were not the kind of people I wanted to associate with again.

While Ramel and I were bickering, Leo approached me.

“Take care, my lady.”

“Farewell, Crown Prince Leo.”

I bowed politely to Leo, even lowering my head. Ramel glanced at me with a crooked stare but didn’t say anything.

As he turned around, his shoulders looked somehow slumped. Well, that’s what you get for trying to mess with someone who’s already taken.

After the emperor’s party left, I headed straight to Rikael’s room. Since he had gone to the training grounds, the room was empty.

The wooden sword was placed next to the display cabinet by the window, and it was about as tall as I was. Lisa helped me lift it.

I’ll find a good moment later to give it to Jake. That way, I might get closer to him.

For some reason, it felt like everything was going to go well, it was a pleasantly hopeful night. But there was one thing that still kept me worried.

The duke.

Even in front of the emperor, the duke showed no expression. He barely reacted during meals, showed no interest in the conversation, and only gave short replies when spoken to.

What worried me most was that he drank wine instead of eating proper meals. If he was doing that even around people, I couldn’t imagine how much worse it was when no one was watching.

Darkness fell, and moonlight seeped in through the window.

Even on such a peaceful night, my thoughts were filled with the duke.

I, too, had lost my mother, so I understood just how painful it is to lose someone you love.

But that pain shouldn’t be allowed to consume one’s entire life.

There were still four years left, but I couldn’t just sit and wait, not with the duke’s health in mind. Firm in my resolve, I went straight to the duke’s quarters the next morning after breakfast. The main residence in the center was where he always stayed.

“My lady, let me go with you.”

This time, Casey tagged along. The two maids took turns sticking to me, which was really annoying.

“I can go alone…”

“Wherever you go, we have to accompany you. Didn’t they say the duke instructed not to leave you alone?”

“So annoying.”

“Even if it is, there’s nothing to be done. Where exactly are you going, anyway?”

Without answering, I headed toward the central garden.

Just looking up at the clear spring sky made me feel so much better. If only the duke could see this sunlight more often, maybe his depression would ease even a little…

“My lady, weren’t you going to look at flowers in the garden? Why are we still heading toward the building?”

“I’m going to see the duke.”

“My lady, the duke isn’t someone you can just meet on a whim.”

“I know that, so it’s fine.”

In the original story, he dies the day after the sixth anniversary of his wife’s death. It was as if he had resolved to live only until that day.

If things go on like this, the duke will die just like in the original, from depression and alcoholism.

Drinking every single day in darkness—how could his body have endured it?

Lasting even seven years was perhaps a miracle in itself, but the tragedy didn’t end there.

Afterward, his second son, Jake, died in battle in the North at the age of sixteen.

Even reading it was heartbreaking.

There are still four years left until the duke’s death. The best scenario would be for me to adjust well here, save the duke, and also save Jake.

Before it’s too late, I have to pull him out of that pit. Winning over the Grand Duke and making sure I don’t get dumped by Rikael are important, but the most important thing is making sure the duke doesn’t die.

“Okay, I’ll go with you. But don’t be too disappointed if the duke doesn’t agree to see you.”

“I won’t.”

Despite my confidence, we were blocked at the third-floor bedroom. We passed through the first floor easily enough, but the duke’s bedroom door was quite hard to breach.

When I said I came to see the duke, the two knights standing guard looked flustered.

The knight on the right glanced between me and the closed door before awkwardly opening his mouth.

“I don’t think it’s a good time right now.”

“Is the duke not here?”

“No, he stayed up until dawn and is currently sleeping.”

In other words, he had been drinking until morning.

“But Ludia wants to see him…”

“I’m sorry. He’s still asleep.”

“Then can I wait here until he wakes up?”

I couldn’t exactly barge in and wake him just because I wanted to see him. But if I waited, he’d have to wake up eventually.

“Well…”

The knight scratched his head with a troubled expression.

I gave them wide, teary eyes. The two knights, now clearly seeing me as adorable, started fidgeting awkwardly.

“What should we do?”

“You decide.”

Just as the two knights were trying to pass the decision onto each other, a bell rang from inside the room.

Did the Duke ring the bell himself?

The knight on the right hurriedly opened the door and went in.

Soon after, he came back out, a faint smile on his face.

“The Duke says you may enter.”

He must have heard the commotion outside. I walked toward the open door, nervous.

When I entered, the Duke was wearing a robe, and a man who appeared to be his aide was lighting the lamp.

Even so, the bedroom was dim, cold and desolate, as though a shadow of death loomed over it.

The Duke, with a robe draped loosely around him, sat in the rocking chair beside the bed.

His long, disheveled hair looked brittle like straw, and his lifeless violet eyes were steeped in gloom. Through the strands of unkempt hair, his vacant yet piercing gaze landed on me.

Meeting those heavy eyes, I bowed deeply.

“Hello.”

“Are you alright? Should you really be walking around like this?”

“I’m fine. I came to show you that I’m fine.”

I clenched both fists and lifted them into the air as if I were lifting dumbbells. That should clearly show I was okay, right?

The Duke gazed at me quietly. But instead of being happy, his expression darkened even further.

“Why did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you do something so dangerous?”

His voice was low and tinged with reproach. But I could tell that behind the scolding was genuine concern.

“It wasn’t dangerous at all.”

“You were caught by a snake—and not just any snake, a large one.”

“But its tongue was split, so I thought it had to be reported.”

“Even so, don’t step forward like that again. Taking risks is an adult’s job. For a five-year-old like you, it was far too dangerous.”

His concern weighed heavily on my heart.

I looked up at him with the desperation of someone caught in a storm.

After my mother passed away, for a whole year, it felt like I was reliving the same day over and over.

No matter how hard I tried to forget, the painful memories wouldn’t let go, always dragging me back to the past.

In that illusion of frozen time, I stood there like a lost child, crying.

The more I felt that way, the harder I trained.

So I wouldn’t be left behind.

So I could become the great soldier I once dreamed of as a child.

But I died and fell into this strange world—once again a lost child.

And now, a man who lives in his own frozen time had reached out to me with sincerity. That stirred something deep inside me.

I know.

Even if it’s just a few words, those words were his very best, his greatest effort.

A man so lost in darkness that he no longer even looked at his own children had reached out a hand to me. That, in itself, was a miracle.

Fighting the rush of emotion, I clenched my teeth and held back tears. Even if I was a child now, I couldn’t cry whenever I wanted.

“Thank you… for worrying about me.”

I bowed deeply in gratitude.

It was heartbreaking that someone so kind was destined to die early. If the Duke lives, Jake can be saved, and Rikael will be safer from many dangers.

If the Duke is alive, even the Grand Duke’s nephews won’t dare grow greedy. In fact, in the original story, it was said that they weren’t even capable, but the Duke’s death blinded them with ambition.

So if he lives, many conflicts and dangers can be avoided before they even begin.

When I raised my head after bowing, I saw a faint smile on the Duke’s lips.

“Alright. Be more careful from now on.”

Was it just my imagination?

His smile had already disappeared, and his face was once again hardened.

Even so, I was glad I got to see his face like this.

But I didn’t want to leave just yet.