I Became The Monster Duke’s Wife For The Second Time - Chapter 73

“……Your Highness, did you come up with any good idea?”

Count Roche secretly took a glance at his expression and asked. Then Owen answered the question in a voice full of aspiration.

“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

“……What?”

“Count Roche. Find a wizard right now.”

“A wizard?”

“Yeah. But, someone who is not related to Alberton.”

“……What? Your Highness. That’s impossible. As you know, all the wizards of the Empire are either the descendants of the Duke of Alberton, or his disciples who are willing to even die if ordered by him.”

Count Roche shook his head at Owen’s command. It was because he thought Owen’s words were too far from reality.

However, Owen’s face caught a strange smile when he heard that. It was as if he knew he would say something like that. Owen stared at Count Roche and spoke in a subtle voice.

“No. If you look for him, you will definitely find him.”

“So it is… … .”

“A wizard with a vengeance for Duke Alberton.”

“………What!?”

“Duke Alberton is a hard-nosed man who throws away his own children who have inherited his blood if they are not worth using. There’s no way for someone like him to not have an enemy, right? There must be wizards outwardly loyal to him, but behind the scenes, sharpening their swords of betrayal.”

“……Hmm, certainly Duke Alberton has a lot of enemies. But there are many allies too. There are also allies of the blood alliance that he obtained by marrying the children of his clan to powerful families. And that force should never be taken lightly. Even the wizards who know him well, on the surface they all seem to be loyal towards him.”

Owen took a sip of the tea in front of him as Count Roche retorted with a cautious attitude.

After that, Owen responded in a soft voice to Count Roche’s rebuttal.

“So this empire, no, you’ll have to search all over the continent. Someone who hates the ambitious Duke Alberton and is willing to lend me his full strength.”

“……Your Highness.”

“You can do it. No, we can do it.”

Saying so, Owen reached out and clasped Count Roche’s hand.

Count Roche could feel a strong will and insidious hatred in the grip of the skinny Crown Prince holding his hand. It was a kind of struggle that he couldn’t just fall into the trap of the viper-like Duke Alberton and die.

Feeling that strong will, Count Roche immediately looked at Owen and nodded heavily. After all, his body exists for the royal family. If the imperial family wanted it, he had to do it calmly even if he has to get his hands dirty. That was the fate of a ‘lord chamberlain’.

Seeing Count Roche like that, Owen smiled as if satisfied.

If God had cursed his fate, he would have cursed God equally. And he was going to get what he wanted. That also too lavishly.

───※ ·❆· ※───

At Grace’s request, the lunch that continued like a dinner party ended sooner than expected.

Grace tenderly hugged Leon, who was disappointed that he couldn’t spend time with his beloved brother and sister-in-law, who suddenly cut off and handed him an apology.

“These days, all I do is only apologise to Leon. I’m sorry, Leon.”

“…… No, sister-in-law.”

“Instead, tomorrow lunch and dinner! No, from now on. If there is nothing special, let’s eat lunch together with your brother, Leon, and me. What do you think?”

“I love it!”

When Grace offered her proposal with an apology, Leon loosened his sulky face and smiled broadly.

After a brief kiss on Leon’s cheek, Grace handed him over to Sir Oliver, who approached her.

“Then please take Leon.”

“Don’t worry, Duchess.”

“Leon, see you in the evening!”

“Yes!”

After that, Grace waved to Leon, who was waving in Sir Oliver’s arms.

Arthur, who watched the two of them silently and waved to Leon as Grace did, spoke while putting his hand on Grace’s shoulder as Leon moved away.

“I asked Sally to come to the drawing-room. Except for the minimum number of guards I can trust, I send everyone else away.”

“Thank you, Arthur.”

Grace nodded and left the banquet hall half-embracing Arthur’s arms.

Unlike the last time in the Secret Garden, Grace didn’t get a terrible headache or lose her mind, but she loved how Arthur was holding her like a fragile glass doll and supporting her, and at the same time, she was embarrassed inside.

Arthur and Grace, who took only a few steps and came to the drawing-room from the banquet hall, entered when the knight standing in front of the door opened it.

After that, Sally, who had been sitting uncomfortably in the drawing-room and looking around, jumped up and walked to the two of them. Then she looked at Grace, who was supported by Arthur and asked.

“Oh, my God! What happened? Did madam fall again like last time?”

“No. It’s not like that. Sally.”

“Then I’m glad. I heard that you were urgently looking for me in the main building, so I thought you collapsed and lost consciousness, or that you had a big problem…….”

Sally swept her chest with one hand when Grace smiled affectionately and replied that she was okay.

Arthur glanced at Sally and said while pointing his eyes at the long sofa.

“Go ahead and sit down, Sally. We’ll go sit down, too.”

“……Yes. All right, Duke.”

After hesitating for a moment at Arthur’s words, Sally soon sat down on the long, plush sofa in the drawing-room, in a similarly uncomfortable position as before. Arthur then made Grace sit down on a sofa opposite Sally, and he sat right next to her.

Sally tilted her head and said as she looked into the eyes of the owner and the couple sitting opposite her with a serious expression on her face.

“But why did you came finding me in such a hurry?”

“…… It’s for that. Sally.”

“Yes. Please, go ahead.”

“Then, do you remember? When I asked about my parents-in-law, the former Duke Felix, and Duchess Eileen.”

Sally, who had a blank face as if to ponder for a moment at Grace’s words, soon uttered a brief exclamation.

“Oh, yes. Of course! But why do you ask that?”

“I have a question for you then.”

“Sally, I want you to tell him everything you remember without hiding anything.”

“……Umm, yes. Feel free to ask.”

Sally answered, looking a little nervous at Arthur.

Arthur then held Grace’s hand tightly and blinked affectionately at her, and Grace brought out the questions she had put together in her head.

“If I remember correctly, you told me that on the day Arthur was born, the former Duke Felix carried Duchess Eileen and went up to the highest tower in the castle, right? After that, you said that the two of them did not come down from the tower for the next three days.”

“…… Ah, yes. You’re right.”

“Then, are you sure that no one entered the tower until the two of them came down?”

“… … I do not know. As I said before, neither of our servants nor maids know anything about the tallest tower. It’s been used by the knights like a watchtower since long ago, so all the cleaning and maintenance of the place were done by them. It’s also a remote place far from the main house of the mansion. So I don’t know if there were any other people there besides the two of them.”

To Grace’s question, Sally answered with a slight frown as if she were groping her memories. It was no different from the answer she gave to Grace last time.

However, Arthur’s face hardened significantly when he heard the answer. Grace looked back at Arthur and asked.

“Do you know anything about the tower, Arthur? What do you think? Is it a place where someone can go in and out without the mansion’s people knowing?”

“No. That can’t be. It is indeed a remote place, and it’s a place where knights are in charge, but it is not a place where people can enter without being noticed by anyone in this mansion.”

“Couldn’t it have been possible to use the knights to secretly call someone from outside the mansion?”

Upon hearing this, Arthur shook his head and answered.

“It is impossible. To enter the tower, the person must present his identity and the purpose of his visit to this mansion. And even if he were successful, no knight would stand still if a stranger tried to enter the tower where the two of them were living in seclusion at the time. The knights must have contacted my father and tried to verify the person’s identity.”

“… … That said, there were really only two people in the tower for three days. Arthur, could your father possibly use healing magic?”

“That cannot be. My father was a person who had nothing to do with magic. He never learned about medicines either. My father had at best the knowledge of wrapping a sword wound with a cloth.”

Hearing Arthur’s answer, Grace made a slightly hardened face as she got lost in her thoughts.

Eileen Felix, the former Duchess of Felix, whose condition was so precarious that her whole body was drenched in blood, and the former Duke Felix who lived secludedly in the castle’s tallest tower holding her. And three days later, the previous Duke Felix came down the tower with his “resorted to life” wife.

For three days, no one went into the tower, and the former Duke Felix was not well versed in medicine.

‘That means, isn’t it true that Arthur’s father had the power to revive his loved one like the Duke of Snow?’

She honestly thought it would be a little absurd to even think about it herself, but without explaining it like that, there was no way by which she could tell how the former Duchess Eileen, who was dying from a difficult childbirth, survived.

Grace turned to Arthur, who was sitting next to her and whispered in his ear, making it inaudible to Sally.

“……If so, Arthur. Maybe your father had a power similar to the ‘Duke of Snow’? The power to resurrect the life of someone who is dying by connecting it with his own life.”

“……Madam.”

But upon hearing Grace’s words, Arthur shook his head.

“I don’t think so. If he had that kind of power, he would certainly have said something to me.”

“But then, the situation just doesn’t make sense. The story of the miraculous survival of the dying Duchess Eileen, and crucially, the circumstances of the day the two died.”

Arthur vehemently denied it, but Grace couldn’t shake the thought.