I Don't Need the Grand Duke's Regret - Chapter 70
“I must find it.”
“Master, what are you doing!”
The other knights rushed towards Ricardo in shock. The Grand Duke, brushing aside the knights trying to restrain him, continued to tear through the beast’s entrails.
The knights were all horrified.
No one had ever done such a thing in the history of beast hunting.
Digging through the innards of a beast was unnecessary and merely distasteful.
“Please, Master, stop!”
“Let go!”
When Ezio couldn’t stand it any longer and grabbed Ricardo’s arm, Ricardo shrugged him off and shouted.
“I must find it!”
“What exactly are you looking for?”
“Proof… Proof that Armilla is still alive.”
At Ricardo’s response, Ezio was left speechless and stared blankly at him.
The Grand Duke’s face, smeared with the beast’s blood, was hauntingly beautiful but chilling. Ricardo murmured like a lost man.
“If it’s not here, then Armilla hasn’t died. She wasn’t devoured by the beast.”
Tears welled up in his bloodshot eyes. Ricardo numbly said to the knights.
“I’ve killed all the beasts. It lured out the leader.”
Ricardo’s gaze slowly moved to the leader beast’s corpse.
“If there’s no trace inside this creature, then Armilla is alive. That’s what it means.”
No one dared to contradict the Grand Duke. They remained silent as Ricardo completely butchered the leader beast.
The Grand Duke had gone mad.
His madness would not cease until the Grand Duchess was returned alive.
* * *
Red hair whipped violently in the fierce wind. The cold air lashed Armilla’s cheeks as she fell. Like everything in the Arcangelo Empire, even the wind was harsh against her.
Armilla tightly closed her eyes feeling the air’s resistance. She kept falling, down and down, without end.
She thought the cliff was high, but this terrifying sensation of falling seemed eternal.
At some point, Armilla lost consciousness. Passing out would be a more accurate description.
And then, what seemed like an endless fall finally came to an end.
Armilla’s body landed softly on a high pile of snow. The fluffy snow acted as a cushion, softly catching her, but the sloped hill caused her body to roll down.
Even as she rolled, Armilla never let go of her hands that were wrapped around her belly. Even unconscious, she instinctively protected her baby.
Armilla’s head hit a rock hard.
Thud, a trickle of red blood appeared on Armilla’s pale forehead. Her delicate body was covered in minor injuries.
Armilla’s body convulsed in pain as she lay on the ground. In the midst of this, her hand reached her forehead. As her hand brushed the wound, the blood that flowed touched the bracelet on her wrist.
And then.
The bracelet emitted a dazzling light.
A warm golden glow enveloped Armilla gently..
The light slowly climbed up her slender ankles and legs, around her waist and chest, enveloping her before lingering on her face.
The light slowly turned Armilla’s red hair that was red as rubies, into a shimmering gold.
Soon, Armilla’s hair transformed into a radiant blonde. As if it had always been her natural color. There wasn’t anything awkward about her appearance with blonde hair. It seemed even more natural than when it was red.
The bracelet’s light didn’t fade even after changing Armilla’s hair to blonde. Like a beacon calling for help, the bright light did not diminish, even in the darkest night.
“Huht…”
Armilla groaned unconsciously while surrounded by the light.
She felt enveloped in something warm and comforting.
Like being in Ricardo’s embrace, warm and snug.
‘Move.’
Recalling the man’s cold voice made Armilla’s brows furrow.
Warm and snug like Ricardo’s embrace? Such a thought was ridiculous.
Ricardo had never been warm. He had never offered her a comforting embrace.
He was the man who pushed Armilla away as soon as their relationship ended.
He had threatened to kill her if she became pregnant with his child.
A terrible and cruel man.
Armilla’s eyelids fluttered, and clear droplets sparkled at the corners of her eyes. As tears streamed down her cheeks, Armilla’s consciousness once again faded.
And so, Armilla lost consciousness again, while the light continued to embrace and sparkle around her.
“What is that?”
Days later.
Handmaids of the Segollinde royal family, who had come to the forest near the border to collect Steren mushrooms unique to the area, spotted a distant twinkling light. They were about to return home as night fell when they encountered this strange phenomenon.
The clear yet distant light beckoned the handmaids like a siren’s call.
“Is it a firefly?”
“I doubt it. There shouldn’t be any around here.”
As they exchanged opinions, the maids felt drawn towards the faintly glowing light as if enchanted.
As they pushed through the green foliage, the light became clearer.
Led by the light, the maids were shocked to find a person lying in front of them.
“My goodness…!”
As they discovered the wounded woman, the glowing bracelet clinked to the ground. The servants, having forgotten that the light had faded, exclaimed.
“Princess Mirabel!”
For the princess who was thought to be dead, had appeared before them.
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