The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 150

Chapter 150. In Search of Her (4)

“My wife and I took turns going up the tower to take care of the young master. After my wife died a few years later, I took care of him alone.”

“Why did you take care of him alone?”

If the child was young, he would have needed a nanny, so it was suspicious that a man had taken care of him alone.

“It was because the secret must not leak out.”

“What secret?”

“The young master was a twin.”

“….”

So that’s why he was locked up. Damn Berthe. His throat tightened as emotion surged up.

“What happened?”

“My master tried to kill the young master, so I helped him escape, but I heard he was attacked by a wild beast. It was because I told him to go south that he lost his life…. I am a sinner.”

Simon’s voice choked, and he couldn’t continue speaking for a while. While wandering in search of Damian, he heard that a backpack had been found in the forest. The backpack was empty, and there were bear hairs and fragments of human bones nearby.

The innkeeper described the shape of the backpack, and it matched the one he had given to Damian. In truth, it was Ben, who had stolen Damian’s money, who had been attacked by the bear, but Simon didn’t know that.

Since he believed Damian was already dead, he did not mention the alias Lucian to the man in front of him.

Because he had been the one to tell Damian to go south, his guilt was immense.

“If they were twins, what happened to the other one?” Louid asked, thinking Simon might know Emilia’s whereabouts.

“The young lady married a good man, but sadly she passed away.”

Thinking of Emilia, Simon’s face became even more sorrowful.

A good man…. A bitter smile appeared on Louid’s face.

“I see. Where are you living now?”

“I’ve been wandering in search of the young master, but my eyesight has worsened and I no longer have the strength to travel, so I plan to spend the rest of my life on Keros Island in the south.”

Simon spoke as if lamenting.

“Do not lose hope.”

Louid patted Simon on the shoulder.

“You as well, sir. You will surely find your wife.”

Twins….

To imprison children like that.

Anger surged up from deep within his chest.

So Emilia had been imprisoned since she was young, and then she was imprisoned again.

“Ha….”

He covered his face with a pained expression. Even if he died like this, he would have nothing to say.

***

“Jamie!”

After comforting Simon and coming out of the inn, Louid called for his escort knights. But there was no response.

“Deo!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Jamie and Deo appeared hesitantly.

“Find a man named Damian. He is twenty-one years old. There is a high possibility he is in the south.”

He no longer believed someone was dead until he confirmed the body himself. He intended to find Damian, Emilia’s sibling, as well.

“Yes, understood.”

“Ah, find a woman named Roe as well. She is twenty-one.”

“Yes!”

“Do not return until you find them.”

“….”

“Where are you going?” Jamie asked urgently.

“I’m going to the Shine villa.”

The Shine villa was the Emperor’s villa at the southernmost edge of the empire.

***

The next afternoon, Emilia finished her checkup at the clinic and was returning to the farm in a carriage with Damian.

Unlike the previous day when it rained, the weather was clear and refreshing. The fields formed waves of green, and the cypress trees were thick with scale-like leaves.

A gentle spring breeze softly shook the grapevine leaves, and between them, green grape clusters like tiny baby hands peeked out.

“The harvest should be good this year.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

Emilia had worked truly hard, so seeing the vineyard bearing fruit filled her with genuine joy.

“Since it seems to be twins, make sure to exercise moderately and maintain good nutrition.”

She smiled faintly as she recalled the physician’s words that the fetus seemed to be twins.

As the two of them chatted from time to time, someone rode past the carriage on horseback.

It was a well-built man with a beard. Because he had pulled his robe down low over his face, Damian, who was driving the carriage, did not recognize him.

Damian was also wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and since he had turned his head to the side to talk with Emilia inside the carriage, Louid did not recognize him either.

About ten minutes later. Louid dismounted and looked out over the vast field spread before him. The grass bent this way and that with the wind, forming waves like the sea. In the distance, vineyards could be seen. It was the Dalton ducal territory.

“Emilia!”

He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted with all his strength toward the field.

“Damian, didn’t you hear something just now?”

When the carriage stopped briefly, Emilia spoke toward the driver’s seat.

“No, I didn’t hear anything. Did you hear something?”

Damian turned back with a puzzled expression.

Why did I hear his voice? Was it just my imagination?

“No, I must have heard wrong.”

***

That night, Louid stayed at a small inn. The villa was not far ahead, but there was a reason he chose to stay at the inn.

“Do you know this face?”

He showed the innkeeper a small portrait that he had urgently commissioned from a painter before leaving the imperial palace.

The innkeeper tilted his head as he answered, “It looks like a face I might have seen somewhere, but I have never seen her around here.”

“I see. Ah, do you happen to know someone named Damian?”

“I’ve never heard that name before.”

“I see.”

After going up to his room, he let out a long sigh. It seemed Emilia was not in the south either.

He unpacked his belongings in the room and went outside. As he walked along the path beside the fields, the sun tilted low in the sky and a red sunset spread across it.

“Where are you? Emilia. Answer me.”

He stood on a hill and shouted her name with all his strength.

“Emilia.”

After calling out continuously without rest, he looked up at the sky and shouted again.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind rose in the quiet sky, and he saw a red bird flapping its wings.

‘Levi?’

Levi, who had not appeared until now, was flying high in the sky.

Just like before.

The image of Levi guiding him to the place where Emilia had been abducted in the Grand Duke’s territory came to mind.

Louid mounted his horse and rode after Levi. After a while, he arrived at a vineyard near the sea.

Domer village?

A large stone engraved with the village’s name stood at the entrance. It was the same village name written on the address he had received from Asher.

Since I’ve come this far, should I meet him?

He wanted to meet Lucian and hear what Emilia had been like the last time he saw her.

When he looked up at the sky, Levi was no longer visible, as if it had flown far away.

Before he knew it, the sunset had faded and darkness was closing in.

Domer village had no other houses nearby, only vast vineyards surrounding it.

Louid dismounted and tied Blian to a tree by the sea, then slowly walked between the grapevines.

A moment later, his body froze like ice.

In the middle of the darkening vineyard, there was a woman. She stood looking up at the sky, and her back looked exactly like Emilia’s.

Emilia.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

You’re still beautiful.

He remained standing in place, waiting for Emilia to turn around.

Just as he thought he should call her name, he suddenly worried about how he must look. He had spent his entire life on the battlefield and had never once cared about his appearance. But in front of her, he wanted to look good.

He searched his pockets for something to tie his hair with, but there was nothing like that. In the end, he quietly brushed off the dust on his clothes and parted his lips.

“Emil….”

“Emilia, what are you doing?”

At that moment, someone appeared from between the grapevines. Louid quickly hid himself behind a large old tree a short distance away.

***

It sounded like Louid’s voice. There’s no way he would be here.

Emilia, who had been thinking about the voice she heard the previous day, turned her head to the side at Damian’s voice.

“I was watching the sunset. I think I might have seen a red bird for a moment.”

“A red bird? Maybe it was just a piece of the sunset?”

“I think so.”

What she thought was a bird must have been a trace left behind as the sunset faded. There was no way Levi would appear here. That creature lived where the northern monsters were.

“It’s still chilly at night. Let’s go inside.”

Damian wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Okay.”

At the sight of the two of them together so affectionately, Louid clenched his fist.

That pink-haired bastard….

‘Lucian.’

He said he went to inspect Peric Prison, so it seems he took Emilia out at that time. The words about a man withdrawing Roe’s deposit also came to mind.

So she prepared to run away with that bastard.

‘You betrayed me and ran away with him?’

If you had just waited a little longer, I would have come to get you.

‘So you hated me.’

That must be why, even after being reinstated, you pretended to be dead and never contacted me.

Only now did he feel like he understood why she never appeared.

May in the south was the rainy season. Raindrops began to fall one by one onto the grape leaves, then soon turned into a heavy downpour.

Louid walked toward the sea step by step in the rain. His face burned with anger.

“Aaah…!”

That day, in front of the dark sea at night, there was a man kneeling and roaring. His anguished cries were swallowed by the sound of the rain and reached no one.

***

“Where is His Majesty?”

The Emperor, who was supposed to return after three months, came back in less than two. Asher, who had been about to leave the palace, rushed straight to Louid’s office upon hearing the news of his return.

“His Majesty is at the Prince’s palace,” Eddie answered with a dark expression.

“His Majesty is in the greenhouse. Let’s go together.”

Asher went to the Prince’s palace with Adam, who had come to the office at that moment.

“Don’t be surprised.”

“What do you mean?”

Both Eddie and Adam had strange expressions.

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

Adam let out a heavy sigh and guided him to the backyard of the Prince’s palace.

“Your Majesty, welcome back.”

Louid was in the new greenhouse he had built for the Empress. Asher carefully approached the table where he was sitting.

“Your Majesty? Who are you?”

Louid tilted his head as he looked at him.

“It’s Asher.”

“Asher? Asher is ten years old. Why are you so old?”

“….”

The smile gradually disappeared from Asher’s face.