I Became The Wife Of The Cursed Grand Duke Chapter 109

“That’s…”

 

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the betrayal she must have felt.

 

But it pained him as much as it pained her.

 

Kalian’s brow furrowed as he remembered the days he’d spent trying to remove the trace of her that had been stuck like a stake deep in his chest.

 

“Daphne, do you remember, you always said… that it pleased you to see me happy because of you.”

 

Daphne stopped in her tracks, and he stopped, too.

 

“I think I understand what you mean now,” he said, “and I know it sounds cruel to you, but… Evelyn, it makes me happy to know that my wife, now my wife, is standing firmly by my side.”

 

It was then.

 

[Hmph.]

 

A muffled sob began to fill the foggy streets.

 

The sobs were so heartbreaking that even he, who was listening, felt his heart sink.

 

After sobbing for a long time, Daphne suddenly stopped.

 

Then, in an emotionless tone, she said, [Happiness?] 

 

[Happiness? I make you happy? Then why don’t you recognize me, Kyle?]

 

Kalian froze in place.

 

He couldn’t understand her words.

 

“Why don’t you recognize me?”

 

‘Why does she say things like that, as if she were Evelyn?’

 

But somehow, fear clamped down on the tip of his tongue, preventing his words from falling.

 

Then at last Daphne turned slowly to face him.

 

[Don’t lie to me, Kyle, I’m still alone, by your side… waiting lonely for you to regain your memory!]

 

“Eve… lyn?”

 

The breath he’d been holding came out in a ragged gasp. A vague sense of unease, like a fog, was becoming clearer and clearer.

 

No, no, no, it can’t be, it can’t be.

 

He muttered to himself, but it was definitely Evelyn standing in front of him.

 

His senses were not so dulled as to confuse the face he had held in his arms and held in his eyes until this morning with the woman of his past.

 

“This can’t be. This can’t be happening.”

 

He had assumed so many times.

 

Maybe Evelyn was “her”.

 

Maybe she’s Daphne, the one who was accused of being a witch and burned alive before his eyes hundreds of years ago.

 

But it was so ridiculous, so impossible, he kept telling himself.

 

He couldn’t help it.

 

‘If it’s true…’

 

All the words he’d said to Evelyn, all the days he’d acted so heartlessly to deny his feelings for her.

 

He’d never forgive himself for his arrogance, for thinking he could keep it all together.

 

“It means I could do this to you every day and never find myself desiring you.”

 

Kalian shook his head vigorously, denying the reality of the situation, as if to shake off the images before him.

 

“You clearly died before my eyes, and I failed to bring you back to life, even with the help of an evil god, so how can you… be Evelyn?”

 

‘Moreover, Daphne, if you were really Evelyn, you wouldn’t recognize me.’

 

So this is not real.

 

“Stop it, please stop it now!”

 

‘Don’t confuse me anymore.’

 

With an agonized cry, Evelyn-no, something in the shape of Evelyn-faded and disappeared.

 

And then his vision changed again.

 

.

.

.

 

When he came to, he found himself in the graveyard of the House of Orpheus.

 

It was indoors, still foggy, and he could see himself huddled against a large headstone.

 

It wasn’t Daphne’s funeral.

 

It wasn’t his father’s funeral, and it certainly wasn’t his twin brother’s.

 

So whose funeral was he crying so bitterly at?

 

His gaze fixed on the tombstone, his pace slowly slowed. An uneasy feeling crept into his mind.

 

“1104-1124, Grand Duchess Evelyn van Orpheus, laid to rest here.”

 

Kalian’s brow furrowed as he finally caught sight of the inscription on the tombstone.

 

[Stupid.]

 

Kalian turned his head at the sound of a familiar voice.

 

He looked up to see Aether standing a step away from him, clicking his tongue.

 

Black-haired and red-eyed, he matched Evelyn’s description.

 

It was the first time he’d seen her since he’d contacted her consciousness in the Veil.

 

Kalian glared at him, unusually agitated.

 

“What’s going on, where am I, and why are you here?”

 

The hand that gripped the tombstone tensed. The corner crunched, sending a cloud of stone dust flying.

 

Aether smirked, apparently satisfied with the sight of Kalian.

 

[Do you want me to answer the question, is Daphne really reincarnated as your wife now, and if it’s true that she’s been waiting for you, why doesn’t Evelyn remember the past?]

 

“Tell me the truth, and tell it without a shred of falsehood.”

 

Kalian glared at Aether with bloodshot eyes.

 

“Why did you dare to enter my wife’s consciousness, and what is this bastardized vision I see before me?”

 

[Ask me one thing at a time, how many questions do you have?]

 

Aether said playfully, then sighed heavily as if he’d gotten the mood.

 

[First, about the graveyard in front of you, that’s Evelyn’s grave].

 

“That doesn’t sound right.”

 

According to the date on her tombstone, she was supposed to have died in her twentieth year.

 

It can’t be, Kalian’s voice sank to a low murmur.

 

“You’re not trying to tell me this is her future, are you?”

 

[Geez, when are you going to stop dismissing her as nothing more than a cure?]

 

Aether snorted, as if at a loss for words.

 

[Listen to me, this is Evelyn’s past, or to be more precise, the past of the two of you, before she regressed].

 

“Regression, what kind of nonsense is that?”

 

[Evelyn’s past life was ended by her stepmother’s curse, and I was the one who sent her back in time at your request.]

 

‘I even asked for a regression?’

 

Kalian’s head felt like it was going to explode from the incomprehensible words.

 

Aether clicked his tongue at the confusion.

 

[Didn’t you ever think it was strange, how she knows the order of the gates, how she knows the secrets of Husa, how she’s already set up people who can help you].

 

It’s just weird.

 

Her struggle, risking her life for something that had no benefit to her, was something his common sense couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

 

‘Was it because it was a future she had already experienced?’

 

The hairs on his body stood on end at the undeniable conclusion. Kalian cleared his throat, trying to shake off the anxiety that was coursing through him.

 

“Evelyn said she definitely has… precognitive dreams, and if what you say is true, why can’t I remember my past life as a married couple with Evelyn?”

 

This could not have happened except by divine intervention.

 

Aether stroked Evelyn’s gravestone as if to give him an answer.

 

Then he plucked a violet orb from his heart that glowed with an oscillating light and floated it into the air.

 

Then the past unfolded before him like a painting.

 

 

“Your Highness, I beg you to become my guardian.”

 

 

Kalian doubted his eyes.

 

The woman pleading with him with tear-stained eyes was clearly Evelyn.

 

 

“I have the healing power to purify the magick, and I can stop your highness from running wild, so please…!”

 

 

His heart sank as he realized she was willing to do anything he asked, even if it meant grabbing his crotch.

 

Pot!

 

At the same time, fragments of memories poured out of the sphere and began to stab into his brain like poisonous needles.

 

“Ha.”

 

Kalian pressed his throbbing temples, trying to recall the memories of Evelyn that had been completely erased from his mind.

 

“Damn…”

 

The blurry image suddenly became clear. It seemed to make sense now.

 

In his past life, he had recognized Evelyn as Daphne’s reincarnation at a glance.

 

He wanted to run to her and embrace her, but the image of her dying as a witch kept him from doing so.

 

He knew it was right to stay out of her life, to not put her in danger.

 

But it wasn’t easy to let go of the love he’d missed for hundreds of years.

 

Even now, she’s begging him to keep her alive.

 

Kalian reached out to her like a man possessed by something, offering her a saving hand.

 

“You must fight with me to control the rampage. Then you should ask me to be your husband, not your guardian.”

 

So they were married, and their days were filled with renewed love.

 

It made him happy just to look at her face, and it seemed like a dream that they were breathing under the same sky.

 

The Lawrence family made unreasonable demands of him, but he was happy to oblige.

 

He would do anything for her.

 

Kalian, oblivious to Evelyn’s true feelings, complied with everything her family demanded.

 

“He was so caught up in the happiness in front of him that he didn’t care what danger she was in or what she wanted.”

 

And not long after she married him, Evelyn was poisoned by a curse that took her life.

 

The unspeakable guilt weighed on Kalian’s mind like a rock.

 

“I remember now… what I did after Evelyn’s funeral.”

 

When he learned the full extent of what had happened, he had destroyed the Lawrence family with a single blow.

 

The hired hands who had helped to torment her had their tongues cut out and were banished from the empire, and the family members were dismembered and paraded before the imperial court.

 

Even the nobles who defended them could not escape his wrath.

 

In his last life, after Evelyn’s death, Kalian was a tyrant in his own right.

 

And now, bereft of his beloved wife once again, he gave up the life of a protector and took his own life.

 

It feels like his heart is being ripped out of his chest. Kalian asked with a look of regret.

 

“But why is it that I, who remember all of my many reincarnations, have erased from my memory only the one in which I was reunited with Daphne?”