Chapter – 30
But since she seemed reluctant to talk, he didn’t press her further.
Someday, when Ashley felt inclined to share the story she was hiding, he would simply listen quietly as he always did.
“Anyway, I went in to check if any monsters might jump out. I thought it was unlikely since it’s the Imperial Palace, but the state of it was just that bad.”
“Leave it be. It’s a banquet the Emperor is hosting to observe potential Crown Princess candidates anyway.”
“Right? Then I’m not going to do anything.”
Ashley, who had been snickering, suddenly seemed to remember something and spat out words with an expression that seemed to have gathered all the world’s annoyance.
“Ah, and I met the Crown Prince in that garden. For a Crown Prince, he looked like he had absolutely nothing to do.”
Ashley scrunched up her brow tightly.
“Now that I think about it, he really doesn’t have much to do, does he? They say the Emperor, forced against his will, doesn’t entrust him with any work because the Crown Prince keeps causing trouble? You handle that work instead.”
At that, Ludwig shook his head while gently rubbing the space between her brows.
“The Crown Prince isn’t just idling around either.”
“Doing what?”
“He’s busy trying to stop the evil deeds I orchestrate.”
“Ah… So he’s busy playing the role of the champion of justice in the play you set up.”
“He said he’s genuinely busy trying to stop them.”
“But it’s all an act anyway. It’s not like you’re actually loan-sharking and torturing people who can’t repay.”
“Well, if he grows through such trials, the Empire’s future will be bright.”
“It would be a relief if he actually grew from it.”
Ashley let out a deep, hollow sigh, grabbed his hand to pull it down, and leaned the back of her head against his firm chest.
“Anyway, between the jungle where I didn’t know what to do and the Crown Prince popping up, I really never want to go back. Ah, right.”
Ashley narrowed her eyes and shot a glare towards the Imperial Palace.
“It’s the Empress’s garden, so why did they entrust that garden to me? It’s probably not just to make me meet the Crown Prince and feel annoyed for no reason.”
“They likely entrusted it to you on purpose, thinking that if someone properly restores the garden, the Crown Prince would only be interested in that lady.”
“Because I’m the Grand Duchess?”
“Yes. You are my Duchess.”
So naturally, as naturally as breathing.
He referred to her as his Duchess.
Ashley stared intently at Ludwig for a moment before speaking.
“That tickles.”
“Hmm?”
“It just feels tickly here for no reason.”
Ashley tapped her chest a few times and shook her head.
“You really are a natural airhead.”
“That again.”
“If someone’s a natural airhead, you should call them that, what else would you say? But I feel relieved now. I had a headache wondering what to do with that jungle.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Bad enough that talking about it hurts my mouth.”
At that, Ludwig seemed about to say something but then closed his mouth.
Just as Ludwig had noticed when Ashley unconsciously swallowed words she was about to say, she also noticed him closing his mouth.
Ashley immediately grabbed both his cheeks and spoke with feigned solemnity.
“What. You just swallowed something.”
“What?”
“You were about to say something but swallowed it. Spit it out. Now. I told you, didn’t I? Don’t swallow your words.”
When Ludwig closed his mouth again, Ashley hesitated for a moment before putting more force into her gaze.
“If you’re just going to dismiss it as ‘it’s nothing’ again, then just say it and move on!”
Born with an innate stoicism and dry disposition, Ludwig dismissed most of what he experienced as ‘nothing.’
For instance, even his own life.
“Don’t tell me you faced another life-threatening crisis today? You’re not hovering between life and death after being poisoned like last time, are you?”
“If I were hovering between life and death, I wouldn’t be able to be by your side right now, would I?”
“Ah, it’s not… a dream.”
After smacking her lips a few times, Ashley finally shouted.
“That’s not the important thing right now! What is it, what happened?! Are you hurt somewhere?”
On a certain day in the past.
Ludwig had once casually mentioned that he had drunk poison and was hovering between life and death.
That day was just like any other, no different from usual, to the point that she doesn’t even remember what they were talking about back then.
Even after that, Ludwig often experienced terribly harsh events that would make Ashley scream, but he would only talk about them much later, extremely nonchalantly.
Ashley began tearing open the buttons of his jacket as if to rip them off, simultaneously sniffing to try and catch a scent of blood or medicine.
Grabbing both her hands with one of his and pulling them down, Ludwig shook his head.
“It’s not like that.”
“It’s not. Thank goodness.”
As Ashley’s eyes, which had been shaking as if from an earthquake, gradually calmed down, Ludwig spoke.
“You said the Garden of Mists was Her Majesty the Empress’s garden.”
“Yes. You said she cherished it a lot.”
“It’s the place where my parents spent the most time within the Imperial Palace.”
His voice was calm and even, but Ashley’s eyes widened impossibly large.
This was the first time he had ever brought up a story about his parents.
Had he ever even mentioned the word ‘parents’ in passing before?
“They hated the Imperial Palace, saying it was suffocating, but they quite liked the Garden of Mists.”
A childhood memory now so faint.
“It’s a story from quite a long time ago, back when the Crown Prince was still a suckling infant.”
The story Ludwig began wasn’t particularly grand or special.
Just a certain day, under the warm sun, laughing brightly under the affectionate gaze of his benevolent parents.
“I thought if I traced my memories like this, I might vaguely recall my parents’ voices, which have already faded from memory, but it seems that’s not the case.”
Because it wasn’t particularly special, the memory itself is faint, but it’s also a day he misses with an aching heart, a day that will never return.
Ludwig reached out, held Ashley’s chin, and lifted it; she had bowed her head deeply.
“Why are you making that face.”
He smiled faintly and stroked the reddened corners of Ashley’s eyes where she was forcing back tears.
Then, rather foolishly, a single tear, and then another, began to stream down her cheeks.
He wasn’t even crying, so why was she crying?
Embarrassed, Ashley avoided his hand, hunched her shoulders, and rubbed her eyes vigorously.
“Stop it.”
Because Ashley’s skin was soft, the area around her eyes became red and swollen almost immediately from the slightly rough rubbing.
With her hand caught by his, Ashley grumbled vehemently.
“And you were going to swallow that story?”
“It’s just a story from the past.”
“It’s not ‘just’ anything!”
“It’s all in the past.”
Facing him, who was dismissing his past with his departed parents as nothing once again, Ashley shouted sharply.
“That’s what you call a memory!”
She had naturally learned after falling into this world.
The fact that his parents had already passed away.
On sleepless nights, she would imagine what his parents were like, and then her own parents’ faces would also blurrily come to mind, making her cry silently.
She didn’t want to feel a sense of camaraderie over the fact that they had both lost parents who loved them unconditionally…
Not knowing what more she could say to explain her feelings, Ashley pulled Ludwig’s neck and hugged him.
Ludwig closed his eyes, feeling the soft, warm warmth.
Almost as much as that happy childhood moment, now nearly worn away.
This moment, too, would surely become a day he looks back on someday with an aching heart.
Around the time Ashley was grabbing Ludwig’s cheeks and demanding he spit out what he was holding back.
In a certain Count’s household with a fairly long history and tradition within the Empire, someone was grinding their teeth.
-Grind, ggrrrind.
A sound so rough it seemed like teeth would shatter echoed through the room, but it wasn’t enough for the person in question, whose jaw trembled.
-Bang!
The man, the heir to the Count’s household who was soon to be married, slammed his desk.
“Gaaaaaah!”
Unable to contain his anger, he screamed, then looked down at the white paper he had placed on his desk intending to write a letter and shouted.
“Why! Just why!”
Plopping down into his chair, he swept away the paper where he had written her name with a feeling of vomiting blood.
It was an engagement that had even remained intact during the Grand Duchess selection party.
So, even when he heard that His Majesty the Emperor himself would preside over the selection tournament, he never expected this.
However, not long after the news of the tournament arrived, his expectations were completely overturned.
“To break off the engagement…?”
Even though the wedding was just around the corner, his engagement disappeared as if it had never existed.
Moreover, not even a single letter arrived from the woman he loved.
Leaving only the message that an agreement between the families had been concluded, the woman he thought would spend her life with him had turned her back on him.
‘I cannot accept this!’
‘What can you do, since you cannot handle it? It’s already a done deal.’
His father, who held decision-making power over all family matters, instantly dismissed his objections, and there was nothing he could do.
Clenching his fists, he poured out his resentment.
“She wouldn’t just break off the engagement like this. There must be some circumstance, for sure!”
Just as he had fallen for her at first sight, she had loved him too.
There’s no way she would flip her hand so suddenly and break off the engagement just because of the position of Grand Duchess.
Surely! Surely, there must have been some circumstance that forced her to break the engagement.
And that ‘circumstance’ ultimately must be related to that vile Grand Duke who caused this mess!
It was a leap without basis or even an ant’s leg worth of logic, but he was utterly serious.
The enemy of a man blinded by lost love is none other than the new man of the woman who was taken away, isn’t it?
“Grand Duke Calient! I cannot forgive you!”
It was unclear who couldn’t forgive what and why, but the man’s eyes were sincere.
He couldn’t help it.
Deep down, he knew too.
It was a strategic engagement arranged because the interests of the families aligned.
He had lost his heart to her at first sight, but she had never seen him as anything more or less than a strategic partner.
But he couldn’t admit it.
And so, he could only flail about, holding onto the sense of loss from losing her and his wretchedly wounded and crushed self-esteem……
