The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 127

Chapter 127. Cruel Fate (2)

“Gasp.”

As she tried to sit up abruptly, dizziness hit her, and she collapsed back onto the bed. Her head spun, and she felt like she was going to vomit.

“Helen? Lucy?”

She called for her maids out of habit.

Ah, right. I sent them all on leave. Then who was there….

Ah…!

At that moment, everything came back to her. The scenes from that horrific moment resurfaced in fragments, like pieces cut apart with scissors.

“Louid?”

She turned her head from side to side, looking for Louid. She felt uneasy not knowing where he was.

She was alive like this, but where could he be?

Did someone find them collapsed?

The only people who would know about the secret passage in the imperial palace were the Emperor and them.

Louid had lost consciousness, so perhaps His Majesty had rescued them.

At that moment, footsteps echoed steadily from the darkness. Emilia turned her head toward the sound.

“Could I have some water?”

At that moment, a familiar face appeared before her.

“Louid!”

But in the next instant, Emilia’s body stiffened. Something was wrong. She was about to ask if he was okay, but the next words would not come out of her mouth.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to make yourself look pitiful?”

“…?”

Louid, wearing a cold expression, looked down at her as if she were a disgusting insect. Emilia could not say anything and simply stared at him with her mouth slightly open.

“Emilia Berthe.”

Why is he calling me Berthe? Is this a dream? She raised her hand and pinched her cheek. A sharp pain stung her now hollow cheek.

“I’m your wife.”

She barely managed to speak.

“I know. For you to claim yourself as my wife, you truly are shameless, just like your grandfather.”

“…Louid?”

Her voice grew quieter. An unidentifiable anxiety made her body tremble.

“Don’t call my name. It’s not a name a criminal may speak carelessly.”

A criminal?

“What do you mean? Please explain so I can understand.”

“Explain? I heard the snake venom only grazed your skin. Stop pretending to be sick and get up.”

His words made no sense, and it only confused her further.

“Why don’t you explain what happened? I’ll listen.”

Louid asked with a look that showed he had no expectations.

“That day….”

Once again, the next words wouldn’t come out.

Why is this happening?

She could speak other things, but when she tried to explain what happened that day, the words would not form.

“It seems you still haven’t come to your senses.”

Louid let out a sigh, his face filled with contempt.

“His Majesty died because of you.”

Louid’s voice wavered. He was trembling. It was the first time she had seen him this weakened.

“….”

Emilia was struck speechless in shock. She did not blink or even breathe.

“His Majesty… passed away?”

Two streams of tears burst from her eyes. His Majesty had welcomed her more warmly than her own grandfather. She could not believe that someone who had been smiling brightly just days ago was gone.

Louid silently observed her reaction closely. But soon, as if he didn’t believe her, he spoke with a cold expression.

“Stop acting. No matter what you do, you won’t be able to keep your life.”

“Did you lose your memory? How much do you remember?”

At her words, Louid’s cheek twitched.

“We entered into a marriage neither of us wanted, your grandfather tried to kill me for ten years, and this time you conspired with him to kill His Majesty and me so you could become Emperor yourself. Of course, since you would succeed your grandfather, you must have gone along with it.”

“I never intended to do such a thing. I have no reason to.”

“It must have been jealousy.”

“Jealousy?”

“Will you pretend not to know until the end? You must have felt jealous of the woman I love.”

The woman Louid loves?

“Who is that woman?”

“Because of you, Lina is dying. The woman I love.”

“….”

The last cold words Louid spat out drove an irreparable dagger into her. Emilia remained motionless, her face pale as if she had been stabbed by a blade.

Not even tears fell. She simply stood frozen like a statue, as if the world had ended.

“I’ll see you at the trial.”

After leaving those words with contempt, Louid turned his body. He took a step without hesitation, then stopped and looked back. His eyes, as he looked at Emilia, gleamed eerily like a demon in a temple mural. Then they suddenly shook as if struck by an earthquake, and he shook his head.

I must not show sympathy to a criminal.

He strode away into the darkness.

“Move the criminal to the underground prison.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

From afar, the sound of his order faintly reached her ears.

His memories had returned to the state they were in before the marriage.

‘Is it because of the poison? Or the shock from being struck by that flame attack on his back?’

Emilia thought with a confused expression.

It wasn’t me. Don’t you remember? She wanted to ask, but the words would not come out.

She could say other things, but she could not speak about the incident.

Was she under black magic?

“You killed the marquess’s daughter. The woman I love.”

The moment she recalled Louid’s words, her heart dropped heavily. Something was wrong. It felt like she had fallen into a swamp she could not escape from.

Louid woke up that day in the secret passage. His body was already trained to withstand poison, and perhaps because he had been poisoned by Serot poison once recently, he was able to wake up miraculously.

When he opened his eyes, Emilia, who had lost consciousness, was clinging tightly to him. The secret passage was pitch-black, and a cold wind blew from somewhere. His gaze as he looked up at Emilia gleamed sharply like a wolf’s eyes.

He got up, lifted Emilia into his arms, and quietly exited the passage. With unsteady steps, somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness, the place he reached was the Crown Princess’s bedroom.

After roughly laying Emilia down on the bed, he called for a maid, and Adam came instead.

He remembered people, but his past had been distorted by black magic.

[The woman I truly love is Lina Carrion. Emilia is second in line to the throne. She conspired with Duke Berthe to poison His Majesty and me and seize the throne.]

False, manipulated memories kept surfacing in his mind.

***

“They say the Crown Princess is a witch?”

“What? What do you mean?”

After the Emperor’s death, ominous rumors about the Crown Princess spread among the people of the imperial capital. The Marquess of Carrion had spread them through his subordinates.

“They say the Crown Princess poisoned the Emperor.”

“Oh dear, poor His Majesty.”

“Why would she do that?”

“They say she wanted to take the throne.”

“She’s truly greedy, then.”

Thus, Emilia became branded as a villainess among the people of the empire.

***

The trial date was set quickly. The day before the trial, Louid went down to the underground prison where Emilia was confined.

“If you have anything to say, say it. I’ll at least hear your excuse.”

Even as he thought he shouldn’t give a demon a chance, his body moved toward Emilia.

“….”

Emilia, who had been sitting motionless on the cold floor like a doll, her long platinum hair draped down to her waist, gave no reply. Even if she wanted to speak, she couldn’t.

She tried to speak, but the more she tried, the more her breath became blocked. The strange symptoms grew worse day by day.

A black magic that would kill her if she revealed the truth had been cast on her. However, since Della, who cast the black magic, was dead and Lina, who sealed the magic, was in a coma, she didn’t bleed and die like the suspects captured at the Grand Duke’s castle. She simply remained expressionless like a plaster statue, unable to move at all.

“Since you’re not making any excuses, I’ll take that as an admission of guilt.”

“Louid.”

In the pitch-black darkness, Emilia, who had been sitting like a doll, called his name in a whisper. Tears flowed from her eyes.

At the sight, Louid’s cheek twitched. His eyes also wavered, unable to settle. He stared at Emilia for a long time, but in the end, he turned away without saying a word. His chest ached as if stabbed by a blade.

To pity a woman like that. I must be insane.

He couldn’t understand himself. Shaking his head roughly, he staggered up the stairs.

‘It’s over now.’

After tomorrow, he would never see the granddaughter of Duke Berthe again.

***

Early the next morning, the trial was held. Louid presided as judge, and the ministers of the empire and nobles, except for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, sat surrounding the courtroom.

Emilia was unwell, but she sat with a composed attitude. From the morning, she felt dizzy, nauseous, and her body trembled with chills. And Louid felt an inexplicable sense of unease at her silence.

“Emilia, speak. When did I ever tell you to do such a thing? Didn’t you do it all on your own?”

Duke Berthe, who sat in the defendant’s seat with her, was already in a situation he could not escape from, and in a final struggle, he tried to pin all the charges on his granddaughter. When Emilia gave no reply, he pleaded toward Louid.

“Your Highness, it was absolutely not me. Emilia did it alone.”

Louid, seated at the high seat, shot the duke a terrifying glare.

“Call in the witnesses.”

He gave the order in a solemn voice.

“Yes!”