I Became The Wife Of The Cursed Grand Duke – Chapter 124

Author: Dakku-san

Shreds of colorful paper flew across the blue sky. It was the return of the Grand Duchess, Evelyn, who had disappeared through the gate shortly after her wedding.

The manors, anxious for her well-being, cheered her name as she lined the paths they had swept since morning.

“Wow!”

“Welcome back, Grand Duchess!”

But no matter how anxiously they called, the carriage windows remained shut, and this fact only deepened their worry.

After cheering enthusiastically, they began to murmur among themselves as they watched the carriage’s rear disappear into the distance.

“I hope she is not ill,” said one of them, “for she would not pass by so cavalierly after all her kindness.”

“Eh, don’t be so blasphemous! She’s traveled a long way. She must have fallen asleep, so please don’t be offended. Let’s go home!”

As they feared, Evelyn was fast asleep—or, to be more precise, she was in a state of confusion, unable to stay awake.

When she opened her eyes, she felt nauseous and in pain, as if she were on a carved boat in a storm.

The pain was unbearable, shaking her to the core.

The symptoms had begun two days after she left Florian.

She woke up vomiting, unable to keep food or water down.

Even the saliva that pooled in her mouth disgusted her, and she spat it out.

She couldn’t figure out why.

It wasn’t as if she had eaten something wrong, so she could only assume she was truly unwell.

It wasn’t until long after the carriage had stopped that her eyes finally opened from their lethargic slits.

“Ugh…”

She let out a pained sound. Every part of her body ached from lying on the hard carriage for so long.

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’ she thought weakly.

At the same time, a bitter breeze hit the tip of her nose.

The air was cool and dry—she was in the North.

That alone brought a faint smile to her face.

Though she barely had the strength to lift a hand, she pushed the carriage door open, trying to calm her rumbling stomach.

* * *

When Evelyn returned to the North after only a few days, Charlotte greeted her with concern.

“My dear,” she said, “how are you? And how is the Grand Duke?”

“We’re all well. By the way, Godmother is…”

“Now that you’re married, feel free to call me Mother.”

Evelyn forced a smile.

“And how is my mother? I was afraid she might have gotten caught up in the commotion and injured herself.”

In response, Charlotte smiled a rueful, satisfied smile.

It must have been heartbreaking to go through such an ordeal on a wedding day, let alone any other day, and she was glad that Evelyn had handled the situation with grace.

“It’s all right,” Charlotte said. “I’m more worried about the Grand Duchess than I am about myself.”

Even after the dust had settled, the North was still buzzing about the gate for a while.

Charlotte’s anger was especially high, having lost her husband and two daughters to the rampage of a supreme beast.

It flashed through her mind that the Empress had visited the North in the past, when Inferno and the Frost Giant had been summoned.

“I’ve received a telegram stating that you are safe, but it does not reassure me. I wish I could go to the Empire at once to inquire, but I cannot leave the castle.”

The Grand Duke had left half of his knights in the North, as was his custom.

He had hired mages to guard the tower and added guards to the Dark Curtain and the castle walls.

The situation was unnerving.

After an uncharacteristically long ramble, there was a knock at the door.

Charlotte paused as she saw Mrs. Riktor entered with refreshments.

Setting down the teapot, Mrs. Riktor exhaled heavily.

“It is important that you talk, my dear, but the little lady’s complexion is not very good. I think it would be best to let her rest, and then you can talk again.”

Charlotte examined Evelyn’s complexion more closely.

She had assumed it was just from the long carriage ride, but now she realized that was not the case.

Evelyn’s eyes were hollow, her lips dry, and her face pale, almost parched, with not the slightest hint of life.

“Oh, my God!”

Others might have chalked it up to the aftermath of being caught in the gate, but Charlotte and Mrs. Riktor thought differently.

“My dear, did you happen to…”

The two women exchanged a silent glance, and a smile that resembled glee spread across their lips.

* * *

In a dungeon in the imperial palace, devoid of guards, Julius, the High Priest, held his head in his hands as he received a report from his subordinate.

He was not feeling particularly well today.

“The Grand Duke’s aide has reviewed the medical records of the Empress and Crown Prince.”

“What, damn…!”

Julius took a deep breath to calm his churning stomach. It had already been a week.

The Grand Duke, who had thrown him in prison, hadn’t even bothered to show his face, and neither had the Emperor.

Meanwhile, all Julius heard were rumors that his secret work was being exposed at the hands of the Grand Duke.

‘Damn it!’

Julius clenched his fists.

“They want me to confess to something, but I can’t, not after all I’ve done to protect them!”

With shaky hands, he chewed and swallowed the pills his subordinate had brought him, without water.

Clang!

Throwing the vial out of the cage, Julius let out a ragged breath and asked, “And the Grand Duke? Did I make it clear that I wanted to meet with the saint?”

“Yes, but you were overruled. The Grand Duke said the saint would be in his care until the oracle could be made.”

‘What a fool!’

Julius’s face contorted as he remembered Deborah.

“I’ve been working so hard on my own…!”

One hundred primal stones had been within reach.

However, things went awry when the girl he had hidden in Count Lawrence’s mansion began to act out of control.

The girl who was supposed to be a vessel had become the wife of the Grand Duke.

Worse yet, the horns of Iblis were destroyed before they could be used to extract the blood of the wenches in the processing chamber.

“Damn it! How did I let this happen?”

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had a chance.

When he’d been invited to the North, Julius’s mind had been filled with hope.

This was his chance to imprison the wench in the dungeon and discover the location of the orb!

He could even accuse the Grand Duke of being the one who opened the gate.

But once again, the Sun God—that damned statue—was not on his side.

He had succeeded in sneaking the gate open and summoning the girl to the dungeon, but he hadn’t expected the Grand Duke to follow.

“Damn it, damn it…!”

‘I thought the Grand Duke was just a bluff, as the holy woman would come running when called!’

“You son of a bitch, how dare you pull the wool over my eyes?”

The High Priest’s shoulders heaved wildly as he stood up against the bars.

Bang!

He swung his arm and swept everything on the small table to the floor.

‘Theodore, if it weren’t for you…’

His pure ego sizzled with rage.

‘The whole world would have been within my grasp…!’

He had once been called “the emperor’s favorite prince.”

Despite his physical weakness, Julius was extremely gifted, and he had grown up in the arms of his loving parents.

But his happiness was short-lived.

“Julius! Theodore has joined forces with Grand Duke Orpheus in treason, and you must leave the palace immediately!”

Theodore, the second emperor, had always been angry from a young age.

He resented Julius’s mother for taking the empress’s place at the emperor’s side.

Julius understood that.

But his hatred didn’t stop there, and he drew his sword in a way that Julius could never understand.

‘You dared to frame my mother and condemn her to a miserable death! I’ll tear you limb from limb, but I’ll do it in honor of the emperor.’

“S-spare me! Theo, if you spare my life, I will never return to the imperial palace, or anywhere near the empire!”

“Shut up! You can apologize in hell.”

“C’mon…!”

Julius hid in a secret passage and watched it all unfold—even his mother’s screams as Theodore’s blade cut her down. But there was nothing he could do as a child.

‘I will never forget this day.’

Desperate to escape, Julius ran straight to the temple to pray.

He remembered his mother’s words: a temple is a sanctuary.

It was an inviolable realm that no outsider, not even the emperor, could dare to violate.

His world was forever changed.

Julius began to explore his academic curiosities in secret, hiding behind the immense power of the temple.

And finally, he was able to hear God’s voice through his steed.

‘A voice that would give me the power to inherit greatness, to enlighten the empire, and perhaps even the corrupted human race!’

[Help me revive something precious, and I, too, will fulfill your wish.]

“That which is precious…”

Eternal power, eternal life.

If he had it, he could start all over again.