The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 147

Chapter 147. In Search of Her (1)

That afternoon, the oldest among the Grand Temple priests entered the audience chamber with the support of knights. With white hair and a bent back, he had retired from active duty and was spending the rest of his life in a monastery.

“I greet His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Thank you for coming. Please, sit.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Louid had the elderly priest seated in a chair. Then he dismissed those around them.

“When does the western sea freeze?”

Once they were alone, the Emperor asked quietly.

“The sea, you say? Once a year, on the night when the black moon rises, the waters around Peric Island freeze. But once the sun rises, the areas close to the island and the mainland begin to melt immediately.”

“I see.”

If the sea had frozen and then melted, it explained why the doll had not drifted away but had been right below the window, as if someone had dropped it onto the ice.

On the day Emilia disappeared, the black moon had risen, and the sea around Peric Island had frozen.

Idiots.

The guards and soldiers still did not know this and were continuing to search around the prison.

If he had kept trusting them, he might never have found Emilia.

‘Emilia, you escaped. You’re alive.’

Louid’s expression turned harsh for a moment, then he thought of Emilia and smiled faintly. He felt relieved that she had escaped alive.

‘When it’s dangerous, run and wait. I said I’d come to save you, so you must be waiting for me somewhere.’

The darkness lifted and hope rose.

‘Then why haven’t you appeared? Do you not know I’ve regained my memories?’

I need to let her know I’m looking for her.

‘But how do I tell her?’

What if she thinks I’m trying to harm her and hides even deeper?

Hope and worry alternated, leaving him dizzy.

“Ha….”

In any case, Emilia was alive. That fact alone satisfied him.

After ordering that the priest be escorted back respectfully, he pondered how to let Emilia know that he was searching for her.

“Adam, bring dinner to the bedroom.”

That evening, after going to the Crown Prince’s palace, he gave the order to Adam.

“Shall I? Understood, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor, who had only been drinking without properly eating, said he would have dinner, and Adam brightened. Before long, the table in the Crown Princess’s bedroom was filled with food.

You’ve prepared quite a lot.

After showering and coming out in a robe, Louid sat at the table with a small smile. He poured wine into two glasses and set one across from him.

“Emilia, I’ll come to find you soon.”

Whistling, he finished his meal in a good mood, then stood and walked over to Emilia’s desk. It had been a while since he had looked at the drawings she had made.

Opening the top drawer, he found a stack of papers with drawings on them. With the corners of his lips lifted into a bright smile, he picked up the stack and looked through them one by one. Most of them were dress designs.

He sat down in the chair and began to look through them in earnest. As he focused, placing the ones he had seen on the desk, he suddenly stopped moving. After the dress designs, there were many drawings of him. Not just a few, but dozens. In them, he was smiling, slightly frowning, keeping a straight face, showing various expressions.

When did she draw these?

He would sometimes sneak glances at Emilia while she was drawing. He had never seen her draw him, yet she had drawn him in so many different ways.

“You loved me a lot. Thank you, Emilia.”

Assuming on his own that Emilia had liked him, he looked through the drawings with a pleased expression, then moved to put them back in the drawer. But he spotted a key inside the drawer.

What key is this?

Picking up the key, he examined the desk. The bottom drawer was locked. Without hesitation, he opened it.

“…?”

There was an unfamiliar envelope inside the drawer. On the front, in Emilia’s handwriting, it read, To His Highness the Crown Prince. His face hardened as he quickly tore it open.

‘Divorce agreement?’

His hand trembled as he pulled out the document inside the envelope and unfolded it. 

There was also a short letter inside. The handwriting on it was unmistakably Emilia’s.

Leaving because she’s infertile?

Why is that a problem?

‘Then before that incident even happened, were you already planning to divorce me? Is that why you ran away?’

Louid’s solid body swayed. He could barely breathe.

It felt like his head had been struck hard with an iron hammer.

The eyes that had been filled with hope, believing Emilia was somewhere waiting for him, began to burn with anger.

“Why are you trying to run away?”

“Because I have to marry someone I don’t know.”

The words Emilia had said during their first meeting echoed in his ears.

Even after the marriage, she had been the one to say she would fulfill her duties as Grand Duchess and asked for a divorce after one year.

‘That can’t be. Emilia tried to leave me?’

Suddenly, he realized he had never once heard her say that she loved him.

In truth, if she were waiting for him, she would have contacted him when he announced that the former Crown Princess would be reinstated.

The fact that there had been no word from her despite her being alive meant she had abandoned him and run away.

“You can’t leave me, Emilia.”

Louid slammed the desk with the documents in his hand.

He would find her no matter what. Even if she ran away out of fear of him or because she hated him, he would find her and keep her by his side.

He had no intention of letting Emilia go.

‘Where did she go?’

That night, he spread a map across the table in the sitting room and spent the entire night deducing Emilia’s possible movements.

She disliked Duke Berthe, so she would not have gone to the ducal estate where no one was around. Then….

The places that came to mind were the Grand Duke’s territory, Plumond where the ‘Fire of God’ was, and Count Dalton’s estate where the vineyards were.

The Grand Duke’s territory lay north of Peric Harbor, while the others were south of the imperial capital.

There were many nobles in the capital who knew her, so she would not have come there, and she would have thought the Grand Duke’s territory was also dangerous since people there knew the Grand Duchess’s face.

“She must have gone south.”

There was a high probability that she headed south of the imperial capital.

***

The next day, Helen entered the imperial palace. During the Founding Festival holiday, she had gone to her hometown in the Grand Duke’s territory, but she received orders not to return and instead to serve at the Grand Duke’s castle.

[Even after returning from monster hunting, Her Highness the Grand Duchess is still spending her nights alone.]

In the past, she had been the one at the Grand Duke’s castle who reported the movements of the grand ducal couple to the late Emperor William. But when she heard that His Late Majesty had passed away and that Her Highness the Crown Princess had been imprisoned, she could not believe it.

To make matters worse, a few months later, even more shocking news arrived. It was news of Her Highness’s death.

“I have something I must do at the imperial palace. Please send me there.”

She was able to return as a maid of the Crown Prince’s palace only after repeatedly requesting it from the head butler, Philip.

It was because she had been the head maid of the Crown Princess and wanted to sort through her belongings and hide anything that could be used against Emilia. After that, she planned to quit being a maid.

“Your Highness… sob.”

Helen shed tears in front of Loren Palace as she thought of Emilia. She wanted to pay her respects at the graves of the late Emperor and Emilia, but entry to Loren Palace was strictly forbidden to anyone except the Emperor.

After finishing her visit, she went to the Crown Prince’s palace. When she entered the Crown Princess’s bedroom, a portrait she had never seen before was hanging on the wall. In the portrait, Emilia was smiling gently.

‘Poor Your Highness.’

After shedding tears while looking at the portrait, Helen began to organize Emilia’s belongings. But after a moment, her expression turned to shock.

***

“Your Majesty, a maid from the Crown Prince’s palace requests an audience.”

A maid from the Crown Prince’s palace?

Louid, who was in the office, slightly raised one eyebrow. Since that incident, there had not been a single maid in the Crown Prince’s palace. There were only a few servants in charge of cleaning.

“Let her in.”

The door opened, and a moment later Helen entered the office. Louid also recognized her face.

“Your Majesty, I have something urgent to report.”

After greeting him, Helen spoke with a resolute expression. Louid dismissed the attendants in the office.

“Speak.”

“Her Majesty the Empress had been designing dresses since her time at the castle and entrusted their production and sale to Madame Bella, depositing the profits in a bank. The alias written on the certificate of deposit was Roe.”

Roe….

Louid’s face hardened. So she wasn’t drawing as a hobby.

If she needed money, I would have given it to her, so why did she do that?

Was she saving funds to become independent?

She had said she wanted independence from Duke Berthe, but to think she had been saving money to leave me.

“What happened to it?”

Though the Emperor’s voice was sharp, Helen did not tremble and reported calmly.

“The jewelry and accessories in the wardrobe are still there, but only the certificate of deposit is gone.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Understood.”

After Helen withdrew, Louid immediately summoned Jamie and ordered him to investigate whether a woman named Roe had withdrawn the deposit.

And the next day, Jamie reported the results of his investigation.

“A man claiming to be a proxy for a person named Roe withdrew the money from the imperial bank.”

“When was that?”

“It was around the Founding Festival last autumn.”

She prepared thoroughly.

Louid once again felt a deep sense of betrayal. His eyes burned fiercely.

In the Richert Empire, anyone could withdraw a deposit as long as they had the certificate and a letter of authorization signed by the owner. The identity of the proxy was not verified. Looking at the certificate Jamie had brought from the bank, it was signed Roe, but it was unmistakably Emilia’s handwriting.

It must be someone very close to Emilia.

She wouldn’t have handed over a high-value certificate to just anyone.

‘Who could it be?’

He thought it over carefully, but could not even guess.

“The Empress is alive. Contact Aaron and search the entire Grand Duke’s territory in secret.”

Calling Alex, he gave the order in a confident voice. Aaron had been promoted from vice commander of the Grand Duke’s knights to commander and was guarding the northern border of the empire and the grand ducal territory.

“Yes, understood.”