The Grand Duke Who Wants Me Dead Is Surprisingly Kind - Chapter 8
Chapter 4.2
“Did you forget Nectar’s order to refuse all visitors and deliveries?”
Jade grumbled, clearly annoyed.
“Tch. And here I was, finally having a bit of fun. Now the mood is completely ruined.”
The maid recoiled and lowered her head even further.
“I-I’m terribly sorry, Madam. It’s just… the G-Grand Duke himself is here. He’s asking to see the young lady.”
“What?”
It wasn’t just Jade who was shocked. Anais, who had been standing in a daze, snapped out of it and turned toward the maid.
“H-He said he must speak with her immediately…”
The maid couldn’t finish her sentence and bowed her head, her face drained of color.
On the other hand, Jade’s expression darkened with a scowl. Without even glancing back, she coldly threw her final words at Anais.
“Keep quiet and don’t make a scene. Rex and I will handle the guest.”
With that, Jade and the rest of the servants closed the door and left.
Thud.
Only then did Anais’s knees give out, and she sank to the floor. The box she had been holding slipped from her hands, and the bottles inside spilled everywhere.
‘…Is this really Father’s will?’
As she repeated Jade’s words in her mind, she shook her head.
“I’ll ask him myself. That’s the only way to know the truth.”
She cut off her spiraling thoughts and shut the open box. It could have been Madam Jade acting on her own.
“Yes. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that I’m his daughter, and I’m Orelcian. Until I hear it directly from him, I’ll focus on just that.”
She clung to that faint thread of hope.
“I’ll put it away for now.”
She pushed the box under the bed.
Thinking of it this way made it feel a little less overwhelming. If it was just the mistress being spiteful, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
For the time being, she set aside the pieces of her shattered heart.
“…Hah.”
After tidying up the box, a different thought crept into her mind.
“…If he came unannounced, then he must have brought an answer about the contract marriage, right?”
The Grand Duke’s unexpected visit somehow brought her a strange sense of calm.
She steadied herself and walked over to the window. Looking outside, she saw that the Grand Duke had already stepped out of the carriage and was making his way toward the mansion.
“Please, let it be a good answer.”
She whispered fervently as she watched him approach.
He wore a black uniform similar to the one from before, walking away from the pitch-black carriage. But unlike before, this time there were white tassels hanging from his epaulettes. From a distance, they looked like snow carried down from the northern mountains.
The sweltering midsummer breeze drifted in through the window, yet somehow, only the Grand Duke seemed to be living in a cold winter.
He walked with calm, measured steps, completely ignoring Madam Jade and Rex as if they weren’t even there. His pace—calm, unhurried, and perfectly controlled—radiated an effortless composure that made him seem distant, unapproachable.
‘What kind of person is he?’
Why did he go so far as to kill me? He could’ve just handed me divorce papers and walked away.
While studying him closely, trying to keep her distance, Anais suddenly found herself locking eyes with the Grand Duke as he looked up.
“….!”
He found her in an instant and gave a faint nod as if greeting her.
Realizing she’d been caught watching, Anais stiffened, frozen where she stood. She flinched but didn’t look away, her eyes widening as she continued watching him from above. The Grand Duke, on the other hand, had already turned his gaze and was walking straight toward the front gates of the estate.
Only then did Anais exhale the breath she had been holding and lean against the pillar by the window.
It was because those red eyes, which she couldn’t forget since the day she first saw him, had come vividly to mind once again. If she had to name it, the look on his face had resembled sorrow—so clear that she could see it in her mind as if he were right in front of her.
“Hah.”
Just as an unfamiliar, heart-piercing emotion began to flood Anais, the thick summer breeze flowed in through the window and wrapped around her. Because of it, the emotions that had yet to fade churned restlessly inside her.
Time passed like that.
Knock, knock.
Just as Anais placed a hand to her chest, trying to calm her unsteady breath, a knock echoed through the room.
︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵
In the Viscount’s parlor.
In a room lavishly furnished to match the Viscount’s extravagant taste, the Grand Duke, Diego, sat in silence.
Leaning against an opulent sofa, his cold gaze was fixed on the door.
“So?”
Rex, the heir and eldest son, who had inherited his father’s dull brown hair and Jade’s black eyes, watched Diego with a stiff expression.
But Diego, uninterested in him, asked in a cold, expressionless voice,
“When can I see Lady Anais?”
When no prompt answer came, he slowly rose to his feet.
“If you’re not going to tell me, I’ll go find her myself.”
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