INDC 03

~Chapter 03~

I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 3. The Second Life

As her fading consciousness suddenly returned, Blair snapped her eyes open.

Her blurred vision gradually cleared, revealing an unfamiliar ceiling.
‘No, no.

That pattern is…….’
Staring blankly at the pattern on the ceiling, Blair remembered that it was the ceiling of the imperial palace where she had stayed before her marriage.
‘Why am I in the imperial palace?’
Her last memory was being attacked by an assailant at the Holstein villa far from the capital.

If she had not died, she should have been receiving treatment there, yet for some reason she was in the imperial palace.

She did not know what had happened, but there was only one thought in Blair’s mind right now.
‘Asiel!’
My baby must have woken up and looked for his mother first thing.

Flustered, Blair got out of bed and hurried toward the door.

At that moment, the door opened from outside.
“Ah.

You’re awake, Your Highness?

I was just about to wake you.”
It was Lina, Blair’s personal maid.

Lina had served Blair in the Crown Princess Palace since childhood, and because she had Blair’s trust, she followed her to the Delmark ducal house even after her marriage.

To Blair, she was sometimes like a sister, sometimes like a friend—her closest confidant.
“Lina, where is Asiel?”
“Asiel?”
“Yes, Asiel.

Where is that child?”
“Who is that?”
Lina tilted her head, then suddenly gave a small exclamation as if something had occurred to her.
“Ah, is the cat that’s been wandering around the backyard lately named Asiel?”
Blair, already extremely sensitive, frowned.
“Lina, I’m not in the mood for jokes right now.

Asiel, where is my son?”
“Wh-what?

A son?”
Lina blinked in confusion.
“How could Your Highness have a son when you’re not even married yet?”
“……What?”
Only then did Blair realize that Lina had been calling her “Your Highness.”
‘No way…….’
Blinking her confused eyes, Blair asked Lina,
“Lina, how old am I right now?”
Lina thought it was strange that Blair had suddenly forgotten her own age, but since it wasn’t a difficult question, she answered immediately.
“You turned twenty this year.

You came of age two months ago.”
That’s impossible.

Hearing her age, Blair had no choice but to accept that the impossible assumption had become reality.
‘I’ve returned to three years ago.’
Before Asiel was born, before she even married Herdin.
* * *
Without even having time to collect her thoughts, Blair attended the luncheon she had been prepared for.

It was the weekly family meal with the emperor, her older brother Ivan, and the Empress Mother, Katrina.

Seven years had already passed since the former emperor who created this family tradition had died, yet the tradition continued as if carrying out his will.

But Blair’s mind was occupied with something else entirely.
‘I thought I had died, but I returned to the past……

Am I dreaming because I died?

Or is what I believe to be the future actually the dream?’
Chewing food whose taste she could not even recognize, Blair traced back her memories and came to a conclusion.
‘No, that wasn’t a dream.’
She could not explain it in words, but it had not been a mere dream.
‘Asiel’s voice calling me, the warmth when he held me, his face……

All of it is so vivid.’
And that only made this present moment feel even emptier.
‘My baby…….’
She had miraculously returned to the past, yet this reality without Asiel felt like hell to Blair.

Because the child who had been her hope, her life, her everything had disappeared in an instant into the trickery of time.

Just then, as Blair was drowning in emptiness.
“Princess.”
Lina, who had been waiting behind her, called softly and touched her shoulder.
“……Ah.”
Only then did Blair snap back to her senses.
“His Majesty is calling you, Blair.”
Katrina was looking at Blair with a somewhat irritated expression.

To her, the son who had become emperor was a source of pride and a trophy she had gained by dedicating her entire life.

Ignoring that trophy was practically the same as denying her entire life.
“You’ve seemed completely out of it since earlier.

Did something happen this morning?”
“I’m sorry.

I had a restless dream last night……

What were you saying?”
“Nothing much. Just that you should prepare well so there’s no trouble with the marriage to the Duke of Delmark.”
Ivan spoke casually as if it were nothing, even though Blair had never once been consulted about the marriage.

Blair’s eyes widened in shock.
“I’ve already finished discussing it.

I’ve given him suitable bait, so that man won’t refuse.”
It was an engagement arranged without even a single word of notice to Blair herself.

Interpreting Blair’s shocked expression as opposition to the marriage, Ivan quickly added,
“I trust you won’t say something childish like refusing a political marriage.”
“That’s more than a decent match—no, the best possible one.

Women all over the empire are lining up just to dance once with the Duke of Delmark.

His Majesty has paid a lot of attention to your marriage.”
“Your marriage isn’t simply a union between a man and a woman.

It’s for improving relations between families, so as a princess of the empire you should take responsibility…….”
Ivan and Katrina quickly took the initiative in case Blair might oppose the engagement.

Seeing their reactions, Blair finally recalled the memory from the past.
‘I’m sorry, but I don’t want this marriage.’
Before her regression, in this same situation, Blair had refused to marry Herdin.

It had been the first act of defiance from Blair, who had always obediently followed Ivan and Katrina’s words.

It wasn’t because she disliked Herdin.

Blair simply felt uncomfortable and afraid of him.

Ever since the day of the Empress Palace fire ten years ago.

But…….
“I’ll do it.”
Blair in this life gave a different answer from the previous one.

Just as she had always done before her regression, she obeyed Ivan’s command.
“As it is His Majesty’s will, I should naturally follow it.”
But only her eyes had changed.

In this life, she had a reason she absolutely had to marry Herdin.
* * *
After finishing the luncheon and returning to the Princess Palace, Lina cautiously observed Blair.
‘She seems different from usual today……

Did something happen?’
But as Blair’s closest maid, there was nothing about her daily life that Lina did not know.

Even last night had been no different from usual.

She had simply slept quietly in her room and woken up, so nothing could have happened in that time.

If anything, the shocking thing should have been hearing about the marriage to Herdin at today’s luncheon.

Yet Blair had seemed completely unfazed by the news.
‘No, if anything…… she seems to be in a better mood than this morning.’
Lina tilted her head.

Although it had happened before she entered the imperial palace, she knew that the relationship between the Delmark ducal house and the imperial family was not good.

And that the incident which had driven the final nail into that ill-fated relationship was the Empress Palace fire.
‘Her marriage has suddenly been arranged with a family that used to be a political enemy, yet she seems happy.’
Blair’s father, the former emperor, had two women.

The legal empress, Esmeralda, and the imperial consort, Katrina.

But the empress had no children for several years, and for that reason Katrina had been brought in as a concubine.

At the time she entered the palace, Katrina—who came from a gypsy background—had no power or influence, but once she gave birth to a son, Ivan, people seeking to cling to power quickly gathered around her.

As the power struggle surrounding the two women intensified, political factions formed around Esmeralda and Katrina.

Despite that, the empress cherished Blair, the daughter of her political rival, like her own daughter.

At least on the surface. Until ‘that incident’ occurred.

A fire broke out in the Empress Palace, the empress died, and Blair—who had been there with her—was seriously injured.

From that shock, Blair lost the memories of that time.

The emperor investigated to uncover who had injured his daughter, and in the end all the circumstances pointed to Empress Esmeralda.

The Delmark ducal house, Esmeralda’s natal family, denied the result, insisting it was impossible, but in the end the empress was buried with the status of a traitor.

Her only nephew was Herdin.
‘Their Majesties are truly thoughtless.

Even if it’s a marriage meant to restore relations…….’
It was only natural that Blair, who had never wanted it and had even been the direct victim of the incident, would not welcome a marriage with the Delmark house.

Worried, Lina was about to speak while receiving Blair’s outer robe, but Blair spoke first.
“Lina.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Send someone to the Delmark ducal house.

Tell them I would like to meet tomorrow.

If he’s busy, ask him to let me know a convenient date.”
At Blair’s command, Lina’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You’re going to meet the Duke of Delmark?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
After all, Blair had avoided him even at the harvest festival banquet a few months ago.
‘Well, Your Highness must have her reasons.’
Thinking that, Lina answered.
“N-no, it’s nothing.

I’ll send someone right away.”
After Lina left the room, Blair remained alone and looked out the window.

Soon she saw a servant leaving the Princess Palace in a carriage.

Blair thought of the master of the ducal residence where that carriage would arrive.

And also the lovely child who looked exactly like him.

Thinking of that face, Blair placed her hand on the belly that had once held that child.
‘If it’s to meet Asiel again, I can do anything.’
Even if that ‘anything’ meant repeating the terribly lonely married life she had once had with him.

In that case, there was only one thing she needed to do now.
‘Marry Herdin safely once again.’
If that was the foretold future and if she had truly returned to the past, things would follow their predetermined course even if she did nothing.

But Blair did not want to leave even the slightest possibility that he might not become her husband.
‘I will definitely meet my baby again.’
The eyes that had lost their light began to shine once more.