I Became The Wife Of The Cursed Grand Duke – Chapter 114

Author: Dakku-san

At first, Evelyn had been suspicious that Ines knew the ins and outs of the holy relics.

‘But not anymore,’ she thought.

‘She’s an archmage, and her goal is to close the gates of the Otherworld once and for all.’

After all, she had studied Babel for so long; it was perhaps only natural that she should know where it was.’

Evelyn’s mind wandered.

‘Maybe this is my last chance to see my mom…’

Her thoughts were still racing, but she decided to focus on the situation in front of her.

“Sis, play with me!”

Evelyn wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and picked up her mom’s yarn, sitting her on her lap.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kalian, who had used tracking magic to follow Evelyn, traveled straight to the Bellatra Dungeon.

‘Who the hell had dragged her here? And why was the gate connected to the dungeon?’ he wondered.

A million questions swirled through his head, but for now, finding her was the priority.

He slashed and slaughtered every demon in sight.

“!”

The shadow that stretched across the floor like a black vein of blood, signaling Evelyn’s direction, suddenly vanished.

The puddles of blood and the demons that had been created disappeared at the same time.

“Damn!”

He fought tooth and nail with his tracking magic once more, but there was no sign of his wife.

‘The loss of the trace means that either a barrier has been created to interfere with the magic formula, or there is danger to the human who carved the formula,’ he thought.

His mind raced, and he could no longer maintain his composure.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, Kalian rushed to the doorway that connected the second floor of the dungeon to the first.

The door to the first floor was made of charred wood.

Sensing his wife’s energy in the faintest traces of her magic, he stepped into the dungeon’s first floor, still nervous.

“Evelyn! Evelyn!”

His eyes scanned the surroundings, his gaze feral.

As he searched the dungeon like a madman, his eyes caught sight of a mountain of demonic carcasses.

‘What the hell is this…?’

A breeze blew through the empty corridor and swept past him.

For a moment, the thought that he might never see her again filled him with volcanic rage.

He felt as if he had been consumed by a fireball, and he could hardly stand it.

“Your Highness?”

Kalian pointed his sword straight at the stranger’s presence.

“Who are you?”

Slowly emerging from the darkness, arms raised, was the red-haired councilman he had met in Parminion.

Kalian remembered the sickening feeling in his stomach at the sight of him so close to his wife as if it were yesterday.

“Count Bernard, I believe you said.”

“I’m honored you remember.”

Sensing nothing suspicious about Leon, Kalian sheathed his sword.

But his eyes remained the same, gleaming in the darkness.

“Why is the Count here?”

Kalian’s brow furrowed as he caught a whiff of scent on the breeze.

It was unmistakably Evelyn’s scent, lingering on the tip of his nose.

‘He must have been with her,’ he thought.

Leon must have read the displeasure on Kalian’s face, but he answered without a hint of nervousness.

“I was on a mission from the Guildmaster, protecting the Grand Duchess.”

“Protecting?”

Kalian smirked as Leon’s shoulders lifted in a smug manner.

‘He’s obviously thrilled that his mission had failed and that he’d been the one protected,’ Kalian thought.

He sighed deeply.

“When you say guildmaster, who are you talking about?”

“I belong to the Magic Guild.”

It wasn’t hard for Kalian to figure out the situation.

He wondered why Dante had contacted the guild in the first place, but assuming the man in front of him was an informant, the answer came quickly.

“I assume it was the Count who visited Lord Dante in exile and brought him news of Evelyn.”

Leon nodded, as expected.

Even during their stay in Parminion, Count Bernard had helped Evelyn with all his heart and soul.

‘If such a person was in a position to be an informant for the Magic Guild, wouldn’t he try to find her maternal grandfather somehow?’ Kalian mused.

‘By the way…’

The problem was Ines.

More precisely, the fact that she had expected Evelyn to be in danger.

‘Suspicious sorceress,’ he thought.

‘At first, I was wary that she was jealous of Evelyn’s ability to transform magic into energy, but it turns out that’s not the whole story,’ he reflected.

But he wasn’t talking about water for Leon.

Instead, Kalian asked the question he was most curious about right now.

“So where is my wife, the one you are supposed to protect, now?”

Kalian’s grip tightened on the scabbard.

‘If I detect even a hint of a lie, I’ll slit his throat,’ he thought.

“She… suddenly disappeared before my eyes. Like she evaporated.”

The change was so noticeable that Kalian’s face contorted in horror.

Leon hurriedly began to describe the bizarre scene before them, before the mood turned more sinister.

From saving her from drowning in her own blood to getting rid of the dolls and heading to the first floor, Evelyn had used her powerful skills to annihilate the mummies that came at her from all directions.

“Then, like a lie, a stone altar appeared before her, with a small coffer.”

On it was a red artifact in the shape of a dazzling pyramid.

“What, is this a fake?”

Evelyn had picked it up, and with a terminal scream, she suddenly disappeared before his eyes.

‘Someone must have cast an illusionary spell on something she could have gotten her hands on,’ Kalian thought.

He pondered, then spoke up.

“Was Evelyn looking for something?”

“Yes, she said someone must have placed some sort of substance or spell inside the dungeon that caused the gate to open.”

His head spun.

‘Had Evelyn found something in the coffer, an artifact that supposedly connected the gate to the dungeon?’ he wondered.

“She couldn’t have gotten far.”

His hunch was that Evelyn was most likely still inside the dungeon.

It would have been easy to use the gate to draw her into the dungeon, but it’s impossible to physically move an opponent anywhere with an illusion.

‘The problem is, the deeper you go underground, the harder it is to get out on your own,’ he thought.

“We need to find her before it’s too late.”

Kalian nodded as if he had a hunch, then muttered his falcon call and looked at Leon.

“Go to the dungeon entrance, and there will be a hawk with a golden jewel on its forehead waiting for you. Write down the coordinates of this place and send it on its way.”

“You’re going alone?”

Kalian looked at him with displeasure. Leon’s blue eyes flashed with intensity.

“I’m coming with you!”

The need to see for himself that Evelyn was safe radiated from his body.

‘But I can’t allow myself to keep running into a man who’s showing her favor,’ Kalian thought.

“I have a new assignment for you. You’re to lurk nearby and alert me as soon as you sense anything suspicious. How’s that?”

Leon couldn’t say no to this.

“Otherwise, Evelyn might be in danger.”

Kalian didn’t make a decision right away and left Leon pondering, heading deeper underground.

* * *

Time passed steadily.

The entrance to the cave, which had been covered in pure white snow, was now bathed in a marmalade hue.

Evelyn looked anxiously at Marcella, who was fast asleep against her thigh.

‘I should probably get her home before it gets darker…’ she thought.

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.

‘I wonder if I can go back to the real world with my mom?’

But how could she…?

‘What’s more, if I’m right, everything around me is an illusion.’

‘Even if we’re lucky enough to return to the real world together, my mom would most likely vanish like smoke,’ she reflected.

Evelyn stroked Marcella’s plump cheek.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice if this was another world?’

Another world with no dangers, just ordinary, literally another dimension.

‘Here, you would grow up with nothing but love, and you would marry a very ordinary man. He’s not very handsome, but he’s loyal, honest, and loves his wife. They’ll have a happy marriage and maybe a couple of children. And she’ll name her daughter Evelyn, in honor of the woman she met as a child.’

Evelyn smiled and wiped away her tears, knowing full well that it was a vain fantasy.

“Mmm…”

That was it. Evelyn’s tears woke Marcella up, rubbing her eyes.

Through her sleepy eyes, worry crept in.

“Why are you crying? My dad says grown-ups cry from their hearts.”

The tip of Evelyn’s nose flushed.

‘That was something my mom used to say in the past, with a pale face,’ she thought.

Tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes as she remembered how her mother always tried to smile despite her illness.

Marcella stood up as if to comfort her and hugged her without a word.

Her mother’s cozy scent enveloped her lungs.

‘You’re the only one who’s always been there for me,’ she thought.

She stretched out her arms and hugged her mother tightly.