I Became The Wife Of The Cursed Grand Duke Chapter 85

Frowning, he began to run off into the distance as if he could hear nothing.

 

“Your Majesty, you must be careful, the rift may still be there!”

 

Running past the knights’ worried cries, Kalian soon reached the spot where the ice pit had been created.

 

Beneath the icy floor of the rift, he gazed out at the Milky Way-like lake.

 

“One who wanders the darkness, over the water.”

 

Then, muttering as if mesmerized by something, he jerked his head toward the ceiling.

 

Above his head were six massive pillars of ice.

 

They were not ordinary ice pillars, but rather the kind you’d find in the corridors of a temple. It was a ghastly sight to behold.

 

Chaaaahhh!

 

Kalian unleashed his sword energy and slashed at the six symmetrical pillars in one fell swoop.

 

“Turn the six pillars over.”

 

And just like Helene’s words, the great pillars fell one after the other, turning upside down, bottom up, and top down.

 

“At last, the boundary between darkness and light welcomes you.”

 

With the last words, Kalian looked straight ahead.

 

The long morning light stained the horizon red, forming a perfect border with the dark caverns.

 

“This can’t be it.”

 

The cave shook violently, as if it would collapse at any moment.

 

Kugung-!

 

Then, a strange light emanated from the six pillars embedded like a magic circle.

 

“That, Your Majesty, is another room!”

 

The giant ice wall at the innermost part of the cave began to open with a magnificent roar.

 

“…I’ve found it.”

 

It should have been a moment of celebration, but strangely enough, no emotion was felt. Instead, Kalian let out a weary breath and continued walking.

 

The space in front of him was now clearly inhabited.

 

Small hearths, stone countertops and tables where fires were lit, and simple meals were prepared.

 

It was a little more habitable than an ice cave, but it was still a harsh environment.

 

Kalian looked around.

 

A large table sat against one wall, a book open on it.

 

It was unclear if it had been there all along, or if it had appeared when the circle of magic was activated.

 

Picking up what appeared to be a small diary, he muttered to himself.

 

“There you are. The final condition for the destruction of Babel.”

 

The place where Helene, the first saint and progenitor of the Lindbergh family, hid the Book of Seals before her death.

 

The village of Lingus, home to a silver-haired, green-eyed, regenerative kin.

 

It was all in one place.

 

‘That is…’

 

At that moment, Viktor, realizing the identity of the pamphlet in Kalian’s hand, approached, stunned.

 

“Your Highness knew of the connection between the town of Lingus and the Book of Seals?”

 

Kalian was speechless.

 

He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel an instinctive pull toward Evelyn.

 

But it hadn’t occurred to him that the artifact he sought might be hidden in the village of Lingus she spoke of.

 

“Perhaps Evelyn is a descendant of the Lindberghs.”

 

Kalian opened the booklet, hiding his excitement.

 

His face darkened as he read Helene’s note.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Evelyn lay awake, wide-eyed, and stroking the spot where Kalian’s warmth had left her.

 

“My lady, are you sleeping?”

 

Lucy cautiously opened the bedroom door not long after the morning sun had fully risen.

 

Evelyn hadn’t been in a very good mood last night before she fell asleep. Lucy was just about to leave when she realized Evelyn was awake and came into the room.

 

“I see you’re up already, how are you feeling?”

 

Lucy asked sweetly, her brow narrowing in concern as she studied Evelyn’s complexion.

 

“Hmph, ma’am. Your eyes are very puffy, but if you continue to feel unwell, shall I ask Mr. Matthias to visit you again?”

 

Lucy was right to be worried about her.

 

The mending of the butler’s leg and the call to the godmother were secrets that only three people knew: the maid, the butler, and Evelyn.

 

To Lucy, who knew nothing, she must have looked like a weakling who was suffering for no particular reason.

 

Evelyn’s head ached like it was going to crack, but it took her less than a minute to pull herself out of bed.

 

She couldn’t let Lucy worry.

 

It wasn’t like she could sleep much longer.

 

“No, I’m fine, I just had a little trouble sleeping.”

 

“Then let me put a compress on your eyes and you can lie down for a while.”

 

Evelyn smiled in relief as Lucy placed a cloth soaked in cold water over her eyes and began to chatter.

 

“I saw you a little while ago,” she said, “and my goodness, you know the butler has captured a big bear. He caught it on a patrol at dawn, and I don’t know what he’s been doing all this time.”

 

As she later learned, Benedict had been her godmother’s bodyguard as a young man.

 

After injuring his leg in a demon battle that claimed the grand duke’s life, he was rewarded for his service by being made a butler.

 

Of course, Evelyn knows the truth of the matter, but she’s not shy about it.

 

“The chef is working hard on it, and there will be a meat party tonight!”

 

Lucy flipped the lukewarm towel over once as she imagined what a dish made from a bear would taste like.

 

“By the way, madam, do you know, Mr. Matthias, who came yesterday, is actually married to the maid of honor.”

 

“What?”

 

Evelyn thought of the two of them growling at each other like a dog and a monkey, and of Dwayne at the same time.

 

The bushy beard, the mane of hair. Come to think of it, the aura was eerily similar.

 

The only difference was Dwayne’s height and bulk, several orders of magnitude larger than Matthias, who was a dwarf.

 

Evelyn guess marrying someone of a different race doesn’t necessarily mean the blood runs in the family.

 

“Then why do they live separately?”

 

“Because they ‘re not the only married couple in the world.”

 

“Ah…”

 

She’d always thought it was a little strange that Matthias used a traveling magic scroll to get in and out of the North, but now her curiosity was satisfied.

 

And it seemed that Lucy was just as curious.

 

“Ah! I get it now!”

 

Lucy exclaimed, looking at Evelyn, who still hadn’t smiled when she heard the story of the hired help.

 

“I was wondering why the lady was so ill for no reason, but it’s because she misses the grand duke, isn’t it?!”

 

Evelyn couldn’t see Lucy’s face because she was blindfolded.

 

But when she heard her cheerful voice, she couldn’t help but smile.

 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

 

Evelyn was embarrassed that she’d given away her secret, but she couldn’t help but notice that the cloth covering her eyes was suddenly becoming livelier.

 

It was then.

 

“I can’t do this!”

 

Suddenly, her vision cleared.

 

Lucy’s face, determined, fell into hers.

 

“Come with me on a tour of the estate, and I’ll entertain you today!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

The center of Johansen might be colder and smaller than the Imperial capital of Marden, but it smelled of human life.

 

The streets were lined with street food vendors, the snow from the night’s accumulation gone.

 

Johansen’s people are often gluttons for punishment for the cold, so the culinary scene is quite developed.

 

“So,” he says, “Kalian was a pretty good eater, too, with nothing to hide.”

 

Evelyn suddenly remembered a moment when she was fascinated to see someone with such a seemingly picky palate who wasn’t at all.

 

She thought of Kalian while looking at street food.

 

She chuckled to herself at the absurdity of it all, but then Lucy’s eyes widened as she interpreted Evelyn’s look differently.

 

“You come from such a prosperous place, my lady, and you find this strange? Ah! No, you’ve never seen street food, have you? I’m in the mood! I’ll buy you this.”

 

Soon, a yellow roasted corn was in her hand.

 

It was her first time eating corn in its raw form. The corn she remembered was just a few kernels floating around in a whitish porridge.

 

“It’s so delicious!”

 

Lucy looked at her with pride, her hands on her hips, her shoulders heaving as if she owned the street.

 

“This is the village where I was born and raised. You’d think the north would be desolate with demon raids, but it’s so peaceful here.”

 

“That’s because of the Grand Duke’s power…, right?”

 

“As far as I know, yes. I’ve been told that due to the bindings and magic circles set up everywhere, the grand duke has to keep using his powers in his sleep without realizing it.”

 

Evelyn’s face darkened rapidly.

 

‘An ability that he has to use without realizing it. That’s too bad…’

 

In the past, she hadn’t understood why Kalian, who had the power to destroy gates and cleanse dungeons, was called “The Cursed Grand Duke”.

 

But now, it seems clear.

 

Unless the damned Babel was destroyed once and for all, Kalian would be trapped in the Wheel of Fate and tormented forever.

 

‘Then I must help him destroy the Babel, whatever I can do!’

 

As she made up her mind, her eyes locked with a merchant sitting on a street corner.

 

And then.

 

‘Why does she look so familiar?’

 

Puzzled, she started walking towards her.

 

Kudangtang!

 

“Hey, keep your eyes open!”

 

“Who says that!”

 

As she turned her head toward the commotion, she saw the back of the merchant running away in a hurry.

 

The merchant had an eye patch over one eye, and her black hooded robe made it impossible to recognize her.

 

But Evelyn’s instincts told her.

 

‘This must be the apothecary from Adelheim’s Great Square!’

 

The tall, lanky, almost inhuman figure, the dark skin color, and the strange aura were a perfect match.

 

The merchant hinted that she traded Iblis’s horns at the top of Parminion, and then disappeared the next day.

 

If the merchant had been sane, she would never have displayed such smuggled goods, nor would she have revealed the name of the top from which they came.

 

That wasn’t the only oddity.

 

Even if it hadn’t happened earlier, the merchant’s behavior was suspicious enough, as she seemed to recognize Evelyn, who was wrapped up in a thick fur coat so that no one but her escort knew her identity.

 

‘Who is she, and why is she following me around like this?’

 

To get the answers to those questions, she had to let her go.

 

After a long chase, Evelyn reached a dead end alley, but the black-hooded merchant had disappeared.

 

But when she saw the sign for the shop at the end of the alley, she couldn’t help but smile meaningfully.

 

“So, I wasn’t wrong after all.”