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Chapter 88
“Thirteen Breads. The Tower Built on the Swamp (10)”:
After Morris withdrew, Duke McClure spoke.
“Stop hiding like a rat and come out.”
“…Who are you calling a rat?”
“Who else? The pig who supposedly carries my blood—”
The Duke suddenly froze mid-sentence, his expression twisting in shock.
He looked as if he had seen a ghost.
Ellie frowned, irritated by his fixed stare.
“What are you staring at?”
“…Even that insolent mouth—you really do take after your mother.”
“How should I know? I’ve never even seen her.”
How could she know how much she resembled someone she’d never met?
Ellie had never even seen a portrait of her mother.
The Duke had obsessively erased every trace of his wife’s existence.
Even the servants and maids who had come with her were all dismissed.
When Ellie looked back at him, the Duke’s face contorted again.
Something about him was off—but that wasn’t unusual.
This man had always hurled insults and violence at the young Ellie without hesitation.
In front of Iraine, he became the kindest father in the world;
before others, he was a cold, calculating nobleman.
But with Ellie, he showed his truest self.
Because she was someone who didn’t need protection—
someone he was allowed to hate without consequence.
No one would ever object to how he treated her.
That was precisely why he was so disgusting.
“So,”
The Duke took a deep breath before speaking again.
Ellie had half-expected him to start cursing immediately,
and when he didn’t, she quietly exhaled.
A small, nervous breath.
Her palms were damp with sweat.
She was scared—
but she refused to admit it.
It hurt her pride.
It’s nothing, she told herself.
And yet, she wanted to run away.
“Why did you come looking for me,” he asked,
“when that fool of a man who thinks he can save you is running around like a dog with its tail on fire?”
Ellie stayed silent for a moment.
So, even the Duke knew that Morris was working frantically behind the scenes—
in ways Ellie herself didn’t know.
And yet, despite that, he had still come to her—
still comforted her—
even while ruining everything he had built his whole life.
When Ellie came to her senses, she clenched her teeth and said:
“You’re not seriously asking because you don’t know, are you?”
“Ah, back to formal speech. Realized your place, have you?”
“…”
“I’m asking because I don’t know. This is the first time you’ve ever come to me on your own.”
Ellie gave a short, hollow laugh.
Of course, she had no reason to ever seek him out.
And yet, this was the man who used to come looking for her just to hurl abuse or strike her whenever he was bored.
In truth, it had always been like this—
Ellie only ever wanted to be left alone, to be forgotten.
But they—Duke McClure and Iraine—never let her disappear.
She’d been wrong to think that running away would be the end of it.
“Stop it already.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop tormenting me and the people around me.”
Something caught in her throat.
A hot, choking lump rose from her chest, and Ellie bit her lip hard to hold it down.
The Duke’s lips curled into a sneer.
It was the look of someone saying: See? That’s your limit. You can never escape my hand.
It stung her pride.
She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
But her eyes were already red.
“Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do that was so wrong?”
She couldn’t think of a single thing she’d done wrong.
“What did I do that was bad enough to deserve this?”
“You sure had a lot more spirit when you had a man backing you.”
There was satisfaction in his tone.
His breath came heavy between his grinning lips,
as though he’d just achieved something great.
“Now that you’re alone, you’re crying and begging.”
Ellie suddenly realized:
the Duke was finally saying what he’d wanted to say that night—
the night he’d held his tongue not out of self-control,
but because Morris, Ban, Edmund, and even Damian had been there, watching.
Even then, he hadn’t respected her—he’d merely restrained himself.
“What happened to that proud girl who dared to look me in the eye and talk back, huh?”
The Duke smirked, lifting his chin.
Ellie replied coldly,
“So you’ve been holding that in all this time. You’ve wanted to say it since that day?”
“Yes—that day! The day Iraine got hurt because of you!”
“It wasn’t like that. God, I must have lost my mind back then…”
Why had she ever saved Iraine?
“That day, I learned how to make you scream. No matter how much I hit or cursed, you never flinched or even blinked. But when that little knight of yours, Ban Michel Cronin, got slapped in your place—oh, your face changed then.”
So he’d been watching her that closely.
“No matter how I starved or beat you, you were fine.
But one slap to another man’s face, and suddenly you were spitting fire.
It was hilarious.”
Ellie glared at him with utter loathing.
“Does it hurt you to see the men who tried to protect you suffer? Huh?”
“…What do you want? What do I have to do?”
“Hmm. Start by getting on your knees and begging.”
“…”
“Too proud for that? Figures.”
Ellie bit her lip.
She could kneel—what did it matter? Knees didn’t wear out.
“If I get on my knees and beg, will you stop?”
“Depends on whether I feel like it.”
“…So it was you, then?”
“Maybe. I wanted you to be miserable, sure.
But all I did was drop a few hints.
Told the Council and the Cronin family your name.
Gave Seth Hastings a bit of advice—told him bragging about his little experience with you might get him attention.
The rest just… worked itself out.”
He chuckled, childishly proud of himself.
Ellie said nothing.
She just listened—
the same way she had until she was nineteen.
Seeing her blank expression, the Duke’s eyes darkened.
He stood abruptly, pointing a trembling finger at her.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes!”
“I wasn’t even looking, for fuck’s sake…”
“It’s all your fault! You disgusting, wretched creature!”
“Ha… Here we go again.”
She knew this routine too well.
When his eyes went bloodshot like that,
he would lose himself to delusions—
shouting not at her, but at a phantom beyond her.
“Everything went wrong because of you.”
“…”
“If not for you, Ban Cronin wouldn’t have had to marry against his will.
The Tower Master wouldn’t be a puppet of the Council.
Morris Herzog could have succeeded in Rosso.
You ruined their lives—just like your mother ruined mine!”
The Duke shouted, his fists trembling.
Ellie thought this would be about the time Iraine should step in—
but there was no sign of her.
“If your mother hadn’t gotten pregnant, Christy would never have left me!
If only you’d died in the womb, Iraine wouldn’t have had to hide!
Hell, it was a mistake from the moment she conceived you!
You can’t even be mine—it makes no sense!
I only lay with her on our wedding night, once, but she had you…
with these same blue eyes I inherited from my father—!”
“…”
“Yeah. My father loved Gaia—all of it.”
His eyes gleamed with a sick light.
Ranting like a madman, the Duke suddenly fell silent when he looked at Ellie.
A long pause. Then, a low murmur:
“Gaia…”
The way he said it sent chills crawling up Ellie’s spine.
She instinctively stepped back.
He had always been unhinged, but today he was truly deranged.
“Gaia—you said I’d be miserable forever, didn’t you?
You were right. I’ve spent my life doubting—
doubting what you were to my father, what you left behind!
Damn it, because of you, I lost the woman I loved—
and you just laughed and walked away with him!”
Oh, great. He’s completely insane.
This bastard’s out of his mind!
Ellie had never tried to understand what went on in the mind of a man who could beat his own child—
and maybe that’s why she’d never realized just how insane he really was.
Most of the time, he seemed almost normal.
But that was the dangerous part—
because madmen could switch at any moment.
And for Duke McClure, that switch was Gaia—and Ellie.
“You took everything from me! And now, only you—!”
“Wait… I’m not Gaia—!”
He grabbed her shoulders.
Real terror flooded Ellie’s veins.
What the hell—why was he doing this?
His eyes were bloodshot, wild—
he looked like a beast on drugs.
Ellie pushed at him, but he didn’t budge.
Where the hell is Iraine?
“I only have Iraine left. She’s the only one that’s truly mine.
I won’t forgive you for making her miserable.
Gaia—
you were mine once, too. How dare you—”
“Wait! Let me go!”
“You have to be miserable too.
I’ll take everything from you.
Whatever it takes—
I won’t let you crawl into another man’s bed again!”
“Stop defiling the dead, you delusional bastard!”
Ellie’s shout and the Duke’s hand on her throat happened almost simultaneously.
Air stopped in her lungs.
He looked down at her with a sneer.
“Pathetic. You come crying to me because you can’t even handle a bit of gossip?
You’re worthless.”
“Kh…!”
“And those boys who swore themselves your knights? They were nothing.
So easy to break.
This—this is all you’ve achieved.”
“Hhhh… l-let go…”
He had never strangled her before.
Usually, the Duke slapped or kicked her—hurt her, yes, but never tried to kill her.
Now, though, he didn’t seem to see Ellie at all—
only Gaia.
“It’s your fault, Gaia—this is what you left behind!”
“Hhh!”
“Iraine left me because of you!
She was all I had, and you made her abandon me!
Every time she opened her mouth, it was Ellie, Ellie!
‘Why did you hurt Ellie?’ she’d say.
‘I can’t take her place,’ she’d say!
Even though she was the rightful one—she refused me!
She accused me—me—of hurting some worthless girl and looked at me like a stranger!”
“Khh—”
“I should have done this long ago.
Then she never would have left me.
Gaia’s curse, your wretched shadow—it should have been—”
Ellie managed to rasp out, barely breathing:
“Ira… ine…”
And then—
“Dad. Stop.”
