The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 138

Chapter 138. Irreversible (2)

What Evan brought were ingredients such as meat, potatoes, and vegetables. After bathing and changing into the clothes hanging in the dressing room, Emilia cooked vegetable soup and ate. Strangely, her morning sickness was milder, so she ate her fill for the first time in a while.

‘My baby, you must feel at ease too.’

Emilia spoke gently as she stroked her belly. She wondered if her own anxiety had been passed on to the fetus all this time.

“I’ll do better so you won’t feel anxious anymore.”

After finishing the dishes, she went up to the second-floor bedroom and lay down on the bed. Without realizing it, she closed her eyes. Perhaps because she had been so exhausted, even though it was early to sleep, she fell into a deep sleep. She woke around noon the next day.

“Chloe, a letter has arrived.”

Evan, who had brought firewood, handed her the letter.

“Thank you.”

There was no sender’s name on the envelope, and the recipient was written as Chloe. Emilia hurriedly unfolded the letter and began to read.

[I arrived safely at the capital. And everything went according to plan. I’ll come down soon.]

‘I’m glad he’s safe.’

There was no recipient’s name and the message was short, but everything important was contained in those few lines.

“Phew….”

Emilia let out the breath she had been holding and showed a relieved expression. But a moment later, her expression darkened.

‘There’s nothing about Louid.’

There was no mention of the Emperor’s condition in the letter, which made her uneasy. She wanted to know how he reacted to the news of her death and what state he was in now, but it seemed she would have to wait until Damian arrived.

Is Louid alright?

He must have heard of her death, but she had no way of knowing how he took it. She hoped he wasn’t deeply hurt. And yet, at the same time, she wished, just a little, that he had been hurt. If he wasn’t hurt, it would mean he still didn’t remember her. She didn’t want Louid to suffer, but she still wanted to cling to the possibility that he had thought of her.

***

That evening.

Louid sat in front of the fireplace in Emilia’s bedroom, his face drained of color, eyes closed.

“Your Majesty, you haven’t eaten a single meal today. Shall I at least bring some soup?”

Adam approached quietly and asked with a worried expression. In the bedroom, without even a lamp lit, only the faint embers of the dying firewood could be seen.

“No. Leave me alone.”

Louid’s voice echoed heavily in the darkness. Since hearing the news of the former Crown Princess’s death, he hadn’t slept or eaten. He simply sat in a room with black curtains drawn, staring at the fireplace, lost in thought.

“Yes, understood.”

Adam had no choice but to follow the Emperor’s order. After the chamberlain left, Louid suddenly stood up. Pressing behind the frame hanging above the fireplace, he entered the hidden wall passage as it opened.

On the day the incident occurred, he had regained consciousness in the secret passage. When he woke, he was lying in Emilia’s arms, and she had fainted while holding him tightly.

‘That place was right in front of the secret passage of the prince’s palace bedroom.’

Louid, as if his mind were shrouded in fog, traced his faint memories and walked the path he had staggered along while carrying Emilia, this time in reverse. After a while, the place he arrived at was the wall door of the prince’s palace where Emilia and he had collapsed.

Did I put the ring on my finger here?

He looked down at the bracelet on his wrist. Hanging from it was the worn ring Emilia always wore in his memory. It didn’t look like an expensive jewel, but it was a mysterious ring set with a pale blue stone the same color as Emilia’s eyes. Lifting his head, he opened the wall door and entered the prince’s palace bedroom.

Since that day, Louid had never once returned to the scene of the incident. The bedroom had already been thoroughly cleaned, and no traces remained.

‘There’s no way coming here would make me remember.’

No matter how much he looked around the bedroom, he still couldn’t recall anything. With a disappointed expression, he trudged toward the window.

In the pitch-black night sky, where even the moon hadn’t risen, there was a particularly large and bright star. It was the North Star.

“She liked stars.”

Louid muttered whatever he could recall about Emilia.

She liked skewered meat and potato soup, and she even made a large, flat bread herself, calling it rug bread.

“Heh.”

He let out a faint laugh as he recalled her appearance, making bread without even realizing flour was smeared on her face and hair.

‘But why did she make rug bread?’

A doubt suddenly arose in his memory. There was a chef and servants, so why would the Grand Duchess….

Ah!

She said she made it to share with those who worked hard putting out the fire at the annex.

‘Fire….’

His eyes widened at the chain of memories that surfaced.

When a fire broke out at the annex of the castle, Louid opened the secret passage door to save Emilia. At that time, he saw Emilia reaching out toward the flames, and he also saw that the fire could no longer approach her.

Then this ring?

Louid looked at his bracelet once more. This time, he examined it very closely for a long time.

‘Is it a ring that blocks fire?’

If so, then that day, Emilia had put a ring on him that blocked fire.

Fire….

With his eyes closed, the image of pillars of fire flying toward him surfaced in his mind.

‘Someone attacked us with flames, and Emilia stopped it.’

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. Though faint, his memories were returning. He went to the spot where Emilia and he had been attacked by the flames and focused his mind.

“Ugh. Don’t torment me. Ugh.”

At that same time, at the Marquess of Carrion’s residence, Lina was muttering deliriously in pain.

“What is wrong with her all of a sudden?”

The marquess, who had been watching Lina, shouted in confusion. She had clearly been gradually improving, but suddenly she couldn’t breathe and her whole body was trembling.

“It seems she’s having a seizure.”

The physician of the marquess’s household, flustered, grabbed Lina’s body. The marquess also held her shaking legs. The convulsions were so severe that even the two of them together couldn’t restrain her.

“Lina, get a hold of yourself.”

“Ugh.”

No matter how desperately the marquess called out, Lina only repeated that she was being tormented.

That woman! Lina’s birth mother was a black mage. Emilia stopped the flames to save me.

Suddenly, all his memories came rushing back at once, like scenes flashing before his eyes.

“That’s impossible. I killed Emilia.”

Louid grabbed his hair with both hands.

How could this be?

He couldn’t believe he had caused Emilia’s death.

What I wanted to say that day?

‘I wanted to say I love you. That I liked you from the beginning. That I can’t live without you.’

“Emilia!”

He shouted Emilia’s name and dropped to his knees on the floor. Then he stayed frozen like a rock.

At dawn the next day, as the light began to break, Alex, who had been searching for the Emperor, came to the prince’s palace. Until then, Louid remained kneeling with a vacant expression.

“Your Majesty, this is an urgent report that just came in. They say Lady Carrion passed away last night.”

“The time of death?” Louid asked without even blinking.

“They say it was around midnight.”

So that’s when my memories returned.

He finally understood everything.

He had been under black magic, and when Lina died, his memories returned.

‘Lina was the vessel.’

“Arrest the traitor, the Marquess of Carrion.”

As a single ray of dawn light wrapped around Louid’s body, his voice rang through the bedroom. It was a cold command without the slightest hesitation. Killing intent flashed in his eyes.

“Yes, understood.”

Alex flinched at the Emperor’s order but quickly left. It was the command he had been waiting for a long time.

***

At that time, the marquess’s residence was wrapped in silence.

When Lina, who had been in a coma for months, failed to recover and passed away, the Marquess of Carrion, who had been brimming with confidence that his daughter would become Empress, lost his words and clutched his head.

“No. It was all going well. This can’t happen.”

“Your Excellency, we must prepare for the funeral.”

The butler spoke to him as he muttered incomprehensible words.

“The funeral? Yes. We must hold a funeral. Prepare the most magnificent funeral in the empire.”

The marquess muttered like a parrot, not even realizing what he was saying.

“Yes, understood.”

After the butler left, he slowly came to his senses. He wanted to deny it, but Lina’s death was reality.

‘If I had another daughter, I could present her in Lina’s place….’

He had no children with his wife. He had several mistresses besides his wife, but none of them bore him a child. So he took in a wandering woman rumored to use magic that bewitched minds as a mistress, and the child he barely obtained from her was Lina.

What should I do? Should I find a woman who looks exactly like Lina? The Emperor isn’t in his right mind anyway, so wouldn’t he like a woman who resembles Lina?

If I find a woman who looks like Lina and say she’s a niece who lived in the countryside, he’ll believe it. He wasn’t close with his relatives, so his real nieces kept their distance from him.

‘I have no choice but to bring in a fake.’

Louid is completely infatuated with Lina, so he’ll like a woman who resembles her as well.

As he was scheming, imperial knights in black uniforms stormed into the marquess’s residence.