The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 148

Chapter 148. In Search of Her (2)

Louid summoned the warden of Peric Prison. The warden had been imprisoned in a facility near the imperial capital for failing to protect an important prisoner.

“I’ll ask just one thing. If you tell the truth, I may reduce your sentence.”

The next day, he questioned the warden who had been brought in, his expression severe.

The warden answered with a frightened expression, “Yes, please ask anything, Your Majesty.”

“Before the Crown Princess disappeared, who entered that room?”

“That….”

The warden, who had said he would answer anything, hesitated and rolled his eyes. He panicked, thinking he had been caught not visiting the Crown Princess’s room several times.

“Speak properly!”

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty. The people who entered that room were a newly assigned guard and… an aide sent by Duke Dalton.”

Only after Louid shouted did the warden answer, trembling.

“Why would the duke’s aide go to the prison?”

Louid asked with a puzzled expression. Asher had several aides, but there was no particular reason for them to go to Peric Prison.

“He said he came for a special inspection. The aide didn’t stay long and left quickly. He only stayed briefly in the room where Her Highness was before leaving the island.”

“Did you see him board a ship?”

The warden rolled his eyes again. That day, he had been drunk and dozing on the sofa in the warden’s office, so he hadn’t witnessed anything himself.

“I was working in the office, and a guard said he saw it.”

“Very well. If it’s proven that what you said is not a lie, I’ll reduce your sentence.”

“Th-thank you, Your Majesty.”

Glancing at Louid, the warden bowed his head repeatedly with a moved expression.

That afternoon, Louid visited Asher’s office.

“Your Majesty, welcome.”

Asher warmly greeted his friend, who had come to his office after a long time.

“Asher, I have something to ask.”

After dismissing the attendants and being left alone in the office, Louid began speaking seriously.

“Did you ever send an aide to Peric Prison?”

“I did. I wanted to transfer Her Highness to a prison near the capital, so I sent someone to check the conditions.”

Asher, watching Louid’s reaction, told him the truth as it was. He had planned to bury it forever, thinking it would hurt his friend if he learned there had been a chance to save Emilia, but since Louid already knew and asked first, he decided to tell him.

“Who was it?”

“It was Lucian.”

“Lucian? What did he say after visiting the prison?”

Louid recalled the young man he had encountered in front of the greenhouse not long ago.

“He said the prison conditions were miserable. That Her Highness had become very weak. He said she needed to be moved elsewhere as soon as possible. So I wrote a report, but the very next day I heard the news of her death. If I had submitted the report sooner, she might have lived,” said Asher with a regretful expression.

“I want to meet Lucian.”

Unlike Asher, whose face showed regret and sorrow, Louid’s expression remained calm. If Lucian was the last person to see Emilia, there were many things he needed to ask him.

“He came to the capital not long ago. He should come again in a month.”

“Then I’ll see him then. Give me the address of the vineyard where that aide works.”

“Understood.”

Asher immediately wrote Lucian’s address on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“Handle state affairs for me in my place. I’ll return within three months.”

“Where are you going?”

Asher looked over his friend with a worried expression. Normally, when he went on border inspections or provincial tours, he returned within a month or two, so three months felt strange. Then he saw the resolute look on Louid’s face as he looked at him.

“Emilia is alive.”

The words that came out of Louid’s mouth the next moment were beyond anything he could have imagined. Asher stared at him, unable to speak for a while as if struck by lightning.

“…What did you say?”

For a moment, he looked stunned, then gazed at the Emperor with a sympathetic look. Something was clearly wrong with Louid. Since childhood, he had been brilliant and exceptional in martial prowess, renowned across the continent as a genius, but after Emilia’s death, he had lost his reason.

‘…The shock must have been that great.’

Asher let out a sigh inwardly, then nodded as he answered, “Alright. Make sure you return within three months.”

There was no other choice. For now, it seemed best to let him do as he wished, then summon the empire’s finest physicians and treat the Emperor.

A few days later, Louid left the imperial palace riding Blian. It was to find Emilia himself. He carried with him the note with Lucian’s address, just in case.

***

“His Majesty the Emperor has gone on a secret inspection. For the time being, I will preside over the council in his place.”

The next day, at the council meeting, Asher announced the Emperor’s departure. Since he had often presided over meetings as the minister of administration, no one voiced objections. However, questions poured in for other reasons.

“Where has His Majesty gone?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“Does he plan to visit our territory as well?”

“I don’t know that either.”

The Emperor would often travel across the nation to inspect various issues such as nobles’ taxes. Each time, nobles caught committing corruption were punished.

“What if he suddenly comes to our territory?”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

Even after Asher left the meeting room, the nobles could not shake their unease. Each of them wore expressions that suggested they had something to hide.

A few days later, it was officially announced that the Emperor had gone on a provincial inspection. Although Asher did not believe that Emilia was alive, he hoped that this journey would allow Louid to cast off all his pain and return to his former self.

***

After leaving the palace, Louid searched every place Emilia might have gone. He first headed to the grand ducal castle. In the grand ducal territory, Aaron, having received a message by carrier pigeon, had mobilized the knights and was searching every area thoroughly.

Thinking there was no need for him to join them, Louid mounted his horse and headed to the cabin in the forest he had once visited with Emilia.

“Emilia? Are you here?”

His voice echoed hollowly through the quiet forest. The cabin, which no one had visited, was covered in dust, with no trace of anyone having been there.

There was no sign of anyone at the lake where he had once caught fish with Emilia. In the silent mountains, only the cries of unknown birds and the sound of the wind could be heard.

“…Ha.”

Letting out a sigh, he did not even pause to linger on his memories with Emilia at the grand ducal castle and instead headed to Plumond. He had no time to waste.

In Plumond, he stayed at the villa where he had once been with Emilia and personally searched the place where the ‘Fire of God’ was located, as well as various villages, together with the knights. But no one had seen a woman resembling Emilia.

A few days later, he instructed the knights to continue the search and headed south alone. He had no time to delay, as he needed to find Emilia as quickly as possible.

‘Where did she go?’

She wouldn’t have gone to a completely unfamiliar place. Since he didn’t know where she had gone, he felt as if he himself was lost as well. As he rode aimlessly, he entered the former territory of Duke Berthe. It had been confiscated by the state treasury when Duke Berthe was imprisoned, but once Emilia returned, it would become her domain.

‘Emilia wouldn’t have gone to the ducal estate.’

After thinking for a moment, he rode toward the ducal estate. No one would be there, but since it was where Emilia had grown up, he wanted to see it.

***

The estate, having lost its master, felt desolate. The hundreds of servants were gone, as were the knights of the ducal household, once the largest private force among the nobles.

He slowly walked through the estate, where only the buildings remained without people, and stopped in front of the eastern tower. It was a place he had always found strange. Dismounting, he circled the tower, deep in thought.

That child!

Like a bolt of lightning striking his mind, a memory from long ago suddenly surfaced. The child who had dropped flower petals from the tower window.

Could that child have been Emilia?

Emilia had been imprisoned in the tower.

He got off his horse and looked up at the top of the tower.

There’s no way a child would have climbed up there on their own.

Long ago, when he had visited the ducal estate with his older brother, he had once looked up after seeing flower petals fall from the tower window. He had briefly seen a small child with blonde hair looking down from the window, but the child had quickly disappeared.

He had tried to go up the tower, but the entrance was locked. Even after returning to the imperial palace, he kept thinking about that child, so he told William, who said he would ask Duke Berthe. But a few days later, the reply came that he must have seen it wrong and that the duke said no such child existed. So he thought it had been an illusion.

Emilia had dropped flower petals at the annex of the grand ducal castle as well.

The image of the child dropping petals overlapped with the image of Emilia dropping petals. They could have been the same person.

According to Rosie, there was no one in the ducal estate who had worked there for long except Simon.

If no servants had ever seen the duke’s daughter until she became an adult….

She was imprisoned!

There was no doubt that Emilia had been confined here.

The old iron door at the entrance of the tower was still locked, just like it had been back then. Louid lifted his leg and kicked the lock. The old lock shattered easily.

Creak—

The heavy iron door opened with a chilling sound. He took long strides, climbing several steps at a time up the staircase.