~Chapter 04~
I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 4. Did You Kill Me?
Through the swaying carriage window, the view of the Princess Palace could be seen.
Heredin’s aide, Rus Penril, looked at the Princess Palace with displeased eyes and began to grumble.
“His Majesty the Emperor is truly shameless.
How can he even bring up marriage?
When House Delmark was declining, he was raising a toast.”
More than ten years ago.
After losing both parents and then even his aunt, the Empress, the young Heredin was left alone, and the House of Delmark stood as precariously as a candle before the wind.
But when Heredin achieved brilliant merits in war and was praised as a hero, Emperor Ivan proposed a marriage with his younger sister.
It was an offer whose intention—to quietly absorb Heredin’s influence—was obvious.
“Thanks to that, Her Highness the Princess really hit the jackpot.
She gets the empire’s best groom as her husband while just sitting still.”
Rus did not think much of Blair, whom he had never even properly spoken with.
With a mother and brother like that, what else could be expected of the princess?
Most likely they were all in the same boat.
“Didn’t I say so?
You should have quickly found a suitable young lady and married her.”
But unlike Rus, who was grumbling irritably, Heredin seemed to feel nothing about the situation and remained silent.
That appearance only made Rus more furious.
“Your Grace, aren’t you angry?”
“Rus.”
Heredin, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and silent despite Rus’s heated speech, cut him off simply by calling his name.
His gaze remained outside the window.
At the same time, the carriage the two were riding in passed through the main gate of the Princess Palace.
“From here on, this is the Princess Palace.”
Though his voice held no emotion, Rus knew the meaning contained in those words and shut his mouth.
“…My apologies.”
Soon the carriage came to a stop.
The head attendant of the Princess Palace, who had been waiting for them, guided them to the reception room.
Leaving Rus behind, Heredin entered alone.
“Her Highness the Princess will be here shortly.”
When the attendant left, Heredin remained alone in the empty reception room.
As he lifted the teacup a maid had served to moisten his throat, he heard the sound of the door opening behind him.
Heredin rose from his seat and turned around to greet the princess properly.
Through the open door entered a delicate beauty with a petite figure.
Blair Sonnet von Ardel.
The mistress of this Princess Palace, and the woman who, barring unforeseen events, would likely marry him.
The woman before him was so beautiful that it seemed as if a doll girls played with had been turned into a human.
She was indeed worthy of being called the daughter of the Dowager Empress, famed for beauty capable of toppling nations, but her appearance stirred no emotion in Heredin.
No, rather…
‘Calling it a dreadful face that reminds me of the past would be more fitting.’
Heredin hid a twisted smile as he kissed the back of Blair’s hand.
“It is an honor to meet Your Highness the Princess.”
At that moment, Blair’s mysterious violet eyes, meeting his, twisted for an instant.
For a fleeting moment, her expression seemed sorrowful.
But when Heredin lifted his head again, the emotion filling Blair’s eyes had vanished.
“Thank you for making time despite being busy, Duke of Delmark.”
Blair naturally sat in the seat of honor.
As she moved gracefully, her soft platinum hair and the lace of her dress fluttered gently.
Silence lingered between the two sitting face to face.
They only lifted the teacups before them to moisten their throats, saying nothing.
Usually, when people unfamiliar with each other met, the subordinate would start the conversation with small talk.
But Heredin seemed to have no intention of doing so.
In the end, the one who spoke first was Blair, who had been absently touching the rim of her teacup while staring at his face.
“I’ll speak frankly.”
Blair set down her teacup and continued.
“The marriage my brother proposed—I don’t intend to refuse it.”
That much Heredin had expected.
No matter who she was, refusing the emperor’s order would be difficult.
But what came next was something he had never anticipated.
“One year.”
At the unexpected word that suddenly slipped from Blair’s lips, Heredin looked at her with curiosity in his eyes.
“Maintain the marriage with me for exactly one year.”
“…What do you mean?”
“After one year, I’ll divorce you by my own fault.
I won’t change my mind and cling to you, nor will I bother you with talk of love or anything like that.”
Heredin’s handsome brow narrowed.
‘A contract marriage for one year—what could she possibly be plotting?’
As if reading that thought, Blair presented an offer he could never refuse.
“The Empress Palace fire incident ten years ago.”
At the unexpected story from her lips, Heredin’s gaze sank coldly.
“If you accept my proposal, I will cooperate as much as possible in uncovering ‘what truly happened that day.’”
A cold sneer slipped from Heredin’s mouth.
She had kept silent for ten whole years, so how did she have the nerve to bring that up now?
Heredin still remembered clearly the emotions from ten years ago.
When the Empress was accused as the culprit of the Empress Palace incident, Heredin sent Blair—its only witness—several letters to clear his aunt’s name.
But no reply ever came.
The first time he heard her answer was the day the trial for the Empress Palace incident was held.
Unable to enter the courtroom because he was young, Heredin heard Blair’s voice through the slightly open courtroom door.
‘I don’t… remember anything.’
A lie.
You’re lying when you say you don’t remember, aren’t you?
In the end, you took your mother’s side too, didn’t you?
Even now, ten years later, the memory of that day remained for Heredin as a piercing sense of betrayal and resentment.
‘Still, it’s not a bad offer.’
In any case, he could not refuse the emperor’s order.
No, more precisely, he had no intention of refusing.
The emperor had agreed to permit reinforcement of the duke’s military forces on the condition that Heredin became a member of the imperial family.
At present, Delmark’s military strength had been reduced to half of what it had been in the previous generation.
Public opinion that the house might raise rebellion under the pretext of Empress Esmeralda’s treason had played a large role in that process.
Even so, compared with other houses, they still possessed tremendous forces, but it was burdensome to both guard the northern border and subjugate demonic beasts.
Though Heredin was a great war hero and a magic swordsman, he could not stop everything alone.
Even knowing it was the emperor’s trap, reinforcement of his forces was an offer he absolutely could not refuse.
And now he could even uncover the truth of ‘that day’ along with it.
He did not know what the princess proposing the contract marriage intended, but if he could use her somehow to uncover the truth and then divorce cleanly, there could be no better ending.
After watching Blair for a moment, he asked,
“Why do you wish to enter such a marriage?”
“The only legal way for a princess to leave the imperial palace is through marriage.”
“If that is the reason, wouldn’t it be better to marry someone who will cherish and love Your Highness?”
No matter how royal she was, life as a divorced woman would hardly be easy.
As the emperor’s sister and the daughter of the Dowager Empress, there would be countless people willing to cherish and love her.
If none satisfied her, she could even choose someone herself.
Heredin could not understand Blair’s intention in choosing him among so many options.
Rather than a marriage with an enemy whose end was predetermined, there were far better choices.
Blair stared silently at Heredin without answering.
Each time her brilliant violet eyes, reflecting his figure, blinked slowly, strange emotions flickered within them.
Her gaze seemed faintly sorrowful, and at the same time as if she resented him for asking such a question.
“I don’t believe in things like that.”
“….”
“Rather than a relationship that speaks of empty eternity, I prefer one with a clear beginning and end.
A relationship where you can take as much as you give.”
Blair spoke firmly as she gazed quietly at the man across from her.
Once, she too had been thrilled by the gaze of that proud man, like many other young ladies.
Once, she had believed in love and eternity.
Now it was only something in the past.
“I thought you would do that, Duke.”
Heredin did not take his eyes off Blair’s face as she spoke.
Over her pale face overlapped the image of the young Blair from the past.
‘When I become an adult, I want to leave the imperial palace.
I’ll leave the capital and travel the wide world!’
The moment that face came to mind, irritation twisted within him, yet Heredin answered readily.
“I accept the proposal.”
“Thank you.”
“If you have nothing more to say, I will take my leave.”
After checking the time, Heredin stood up the moment Blair gave permission.
In Blair’s eyes, watching his back disappear beyond the door, the resentment she had hidden toward him was revealed.
There was a question she had not asked.
A question whose answer she could not receive from the man he was now.
Heredin.
Did you kill me?
* * *
The wedding preparations proceeded quickly.
Time passed swiftly, and before long it was the day before the wedding.
Blair visited the imperial palace cemetery.
[Esmeralda Delmark]
The name of the former Empress was engraved on the tombstone before her.
Her father had stripped her of the title of Empress and the imperial surname, yet granted mercy by allowing her to be buried in the imperial cemetery.
Whether it was truly mercy when her honor had been cast into the dirt and she was buried here without even returning to her homeland was uncertain.
Blair placed a flower she had picked in the greenhouse and carefully wrapped in paper beneath the tombstone.
Katrina did not like Blair coming here.
From her standpoint, not only was it the grave of a political enemy, it was also the grave of the woman who had tried to kill her daughter, so it was understandable.
But Blair found it difficult to believe that fact.
‘Blair.’
If the warm embrace that had always held her when she was pushed aside by her brother Ivan had been a lie, it was terrifying.
As a child, she did not try to recover her memories.
She was simply afraid.
Whichever was true, she would lose one mother.
But years after that incident, on the day she encountered Heredin at a banquet.
Blair decided to face the truth she had been avoiding.
She brought a hypnotist into the Princess Palace and underwent hypnosis, but it only harmed her health instead.
Then she married Heredin, fell in love with him, and once again buried those memories.
Because she was afraid of losing him, whatever hidden truth might exist.
However, when she realized that the man she loved had in fact hated her indifference for many years.
When she realized he had pretended to love her in order to uncover the truth from her.
Even knowing his love was false, Blair wanted to give him everything he desired.
She wanted to cling to his love even in that way.
Later she tried again to recover her memories, but what returned was…
‘Ha, after pretending not to know for ten years, do you feel guilty now?’
‘….’
‘Don’t do anything anymore.
Just stay still.
Like you always have.’
Before his cold gaze, Blair completely collapsed.
If Esmeralda’s crime was a false accusation, Heredin would despise her indifference even more, and even if it were true, he would never love her.
So Blair abandoned everything about the memories of that day.
Just as her beloved husband wished.
Thus, in her past life, those were memories she had given up trying to recover.
‘But nothing will change if I keep avoiding it.
In this life, I will face the truth and move forward.’
Whatever the truth hidden in those buried memories might be.
Just as Blair was organizing her future plans in her mind, hurried footsteps were heard behind her.
