TNDHD 30

Chapter: 30

Ben followed his master out of the study, staring intently at the back of his head, unable to guess what thoughts were hidden inside.

Was he planning to invite some special class of people for the Duchess? But Duke Kaigan Steinway, who had only recently become a duke, did not have a particularly wide network of connections. It felt as though he was favored by a small number of powerful figures, but it wasn’t as if he used that advantage to dominate high society.

He seemed naturally the type who found socializing with people bothersome, and he also appeared far removed from ambition.

Then, perhaps he intended to invite the hunters he had been acquainted with in the past? Or the residents of the Duchess’s hometown? Either way, an ominous feeling came over Ben that neither group seemed like the type of people who would make the Duchess feel at ease.

“Ah, one more thing.”

The Duke, who had been walking ahead with long strides, suddenly stopped.

“Tell the royal physician that I want to hurry with the second child plan.”

“Understood.”

“I thought I was being diligent in my own way, but it seems it will take some time.”

Listening to his master mutter, Ben kept silent this time. He was not a shameless enough bachelor to ask in detail just how diligently his master was carrying out the duty of producing an heir.

However, he did think this much to himself. They had only been married for barely two months, and the Duke had already gone on several long business trips, leaving his wife behind. It was difficult to say he had been perfectly devoted by newlywed standards. Probably.

“Then please rest well, Your Grace.”

“You should rest as well.”

Perhaps it was just Ben’s imagination, but the Duke’s broad shoulders as he headed toward his wife’s bedroom looked rather dejected. If that wild-beast-like, lively rear had also possessed a beast’s tail, then it probably would have been drooping right now as well…

When cutting off a monster’s head in a single stroke, the Duke had looked like something beyond human, with eyes that knew neither fear nor emotion.

Still, Ben was somewhat pleased to witness this new side of his master.

How would he change once a cute child was born? That was something he looked forward to even more. Whether he was liked or disliked, the Duke was still his master, and for the kind Duchess who wanted a child, Ben decided he should offer a prayer before going to sleep for the first time in a while.

May the Steinway family’s heir be granted as soon as possible.

I could understand that Kaigan had no choice but to do what he did.

It was an unavoidable accident. The Crown Prince carelessly opened the door to the monster’s cage, and the monster attacked him. And it was just about to attack me as well.

So he killed the monster. It must have been an unavoidable choice.

But I couldn’t answer whether the monster had actually intended to harm me. Did it rush at me to attack me, just as it had done to the Crown Prince? After pushing through all the many people there, did it really come only to attack me?

At that moment, the monster’s golden eyes looked frightened. Like a young beast desperately trying to escape to safety after facing fear.

And I could do nothing.

“Are you awake, Duchess?”

The moment I opened my eyes after waking from my dream, I burst into tears. Even I didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because of the nightmare caused by the cruel scene I had witnessed and the complicated thoughts mixed together.

Everyone was watching me with concern. Even though I knew Kaigan, Mila, and my personal physician were surrounding me, once the tears began, they would not easily stop.

“Ruwann.”

Kaigan pulled me into his arms, hiding my disheveled face. His low whisper beside my ear sank quietly.

“Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

While I thought it was unfair of him to apologize, I also vaguely understood why he was apologizing.

“Oh, my lady. You must have been so frightened.”

But I wasn’t crying because I was scared.

I wasn’t afraid of that grass-colored monster. Even at the moment it leapt toward me, I wasn’t afraid of it.

When it stopped moving at my feet after being cut in half, the fear that had rushed over me in that moment was vivid. But almost at the same time, it was buried beneath the pure white darkness that swallowed my consciousness, and I didn’t even have the chance to properly feel it.

I couldn’t save the young beast that depended on me…

No. That wasn’t a fair way to think. It was a “monster” that sometimes received food from me. That was all.

“I deeply regret causing such great concern to the Duke and Duchess through my foolish actions. I am also sorry for losing such a valuable specimen that was a product of the Duke’s household.”

At the slightly delayed dinner gathering, the Crown Prince offered us an apology. Kaigan and I, feeling humbled, apologized to him in return.

“Please do not concern yourself, Your Highness. I am the one who should apologize for causing you worry.”

Whatever my true feelings were, I had no choice but to smile at him.

“It was something that would have needed to be dealt with eventually anyway. I only feel guilty that our negligence in supervision caused harm to Your Highness.”

Kaigan also began saying plausible words like the greatest loyal subject in the empire. As though he had never hurriedly left the scene while holding his wife, abandoning the Crown Prince who was grieving over the monster’s death.

Fortunately, the Crown Prince seemed satisfied with our attitude.

“It was my own fault. Since it is only a bruise that will disappear within a day or two, being worried over it is embarrassing for a knight. I hope the two of you will not concern yourselves.”

The Duchess of Schumann quietly came to see me when I was alone.

“It was my fault, Duchess.”

Was it because she wanted to show the face she had hidden from the Crown Prince?

“I should have kept a tighter hold on His Highness’s reins. I never thought he would cause another accident in that brief moment…”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the way she treated the future ruler of the empire like a troublesome young colt. Her emphasis on the word “another” seemed to release all the tension in my body.

No wonder everyone had been worried. I had thought things might pass without incident, but…

Anyway, the two guests left Elrauno Castle in the evening as scheduled. The castle became briefly busy, then sank into the red twilight and regained its silence.

It was time for me to return to my daily life as well.

I picked up a book from the small sitting room and brought it to the bedroom. I had chosen it to change my mood: “Advanced Lovely Waltz Steps.” Despite its almost joking subject, it was a unique book filled with elegant illustrations and grand quotations.

But I could only focus for a moment.

[…The technique used by monster hunters traveling through the frozen Noska to walk across the ice…]

Monster.

[…If you have a large physique, imagine yourself like the Hilberos, who gracefully flaps its wings as if forgetting its massive body, then lands lightly…]

Wings.

Every time I saw even the slightest related word, almost to the point of being ridiculous, I thought of “it.” I was repeatedly captured by the vivid golden eyes that appeared clearly above the letters.

Just like I had seen it moments ago, it kept coming back to me.

The grass-colored body curled up in the corner of the dark storage room. The way it waddled toward the bars on its short four legs. The ugly wings that trembled from time to time while eating, like a puppy wagging its tail.

I was seeing the monster as clearly as if it had been carved into my eyes.

I suddenly opened my eyes at the sound of someone entering the room. The intense sunlight made me squint. It was the moment when I groaned while trying to lift my heavy body, as if I were wearing a dress soaked completely through with water.

A large, warm hand reached out and touched my forehead.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Kaigan…”

“I’ll have the meal brought to the room.”

He looked like he had already finished preparing to go out.

When had I fallen asleep? Did Kaigan sleep here too? It seemed he probably had. I faintly remembered him quietly lying beside me after I fell asleep without even reading more than a few lines last night, holding me and gently stroking my back.

“Are you going out?”

I asked him while blowing on the hot soup before taking a sip. The savory and sweet corn kernels popped softly in my mouth. Mila disliked it, saying it was a staple food eaten when people had little to eat in Noska, but I had inherited my father’s childhood habit of enjoying it, so I still liked the dish.

The salmon salad with its vivid orange color, the toasted bread with fig jam, the custard pudding. They were all the foods I looked for whenever I was tired.

“I’ll be going out briefly in the afternoon.”

After a few spoonfuls of soup, warmth seemed to return to my chest. Simply eating warm and delicious food could make a person much happier.

“Can you have dinner with me?”

“Yes. I’ll try to do so.”

Of course, one also eats to preserve life.

‘It says it doesn’t eat, Mila. Why do you think that is?’

There couldn’t be any animal that didn’t know it would die if it didn’t eat.

‘Judy says it seems to distrust food given by humans. The knights say monsters give up on life by themselves.’

The fact that the monster, which had refused food as if it wanted to die, began eating could have been proof that it had decided to live.

The gentle monster attacked the Crown Prince because its place where it ate and slept had been invaded.

Then why did it run toward me at the final moment?

Did it even know that its life was about to be taken away?

“What happened to the monster’s corpse?”

I tried to ask calmly. In truth, one of the possible answers was an ending I didn’t particularly want to hear, but I couldn’t avoid asking.

Kaigan looked at me for a moment as if trying to understand my thoughts, then opened his mouth.

“The dead monsters are either burned or buried in the Mist Forest.”

Of course. Some monsters were probably processed into weapons.

“But right now, the timing is not suitable for burning a monster at the castle, so I ordered them to collect the body and bury it in the Mist Forest.”

It was buried in the Mist Forest. In the monster’s forest.

I lifted my gaze from the half-empty pudding bowl and smiled.

“I see. Our knights must have worked hard.”

I swallowed the words that I was just glad it wasn’t treated harshly even after death.

How could I not know the feelings of my husband, who had spent so much time in my room since yesterday watching over me? I simply tried to show him a smile that would reassure him.

“Ruwann.”

But Kaigan did not brighten at all as he sat beside me.

“I wondered whether I should tell you this…”

My lips went dry at his hesitant words and the gloomy look in his eyes.

What did he mean? My mind raced. I thought back over the mistakes I might have made as the hostess who was supposed to properly entertain the Crown Prince.

Kaigan reached out and gently covered the back of my hand with his.

“…That thing was not trying to hurt you.”