I Was Adopted by the Villain Grand Duke Who Killed My Favorite Character - Chapter 1
Crash!
The solid door blocking the entrance to the iron cage was torn apart like a piece of paper. Knights in shining armor rushed in through the opened door.
As chaos erupted all around, the sound of clashing metal could be heard. I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them again at the shouting echoing in my ears.
“This one’s empty! Don’t stop searching!”
“Check the iron cages!”
“P-please spare me! Please, I beg you!”
The faces of the slaves trapped in the iron cage with me were colored with fear. I blankly watched the knights as they poked through each iron bar.
The dark mages who had been guarding the slaves were now corpses rolling on the floor.
‘So that day has come.’
Although I had expected it would come someday, seeing it with my own eyes brought a new feeling.
How should I describe this, this feeling?
I leaned against the wall and exhaled a shallow breath. My hand touching the floor was as small as a maple leaf.
A body withered to skin and bones, and a tiny frame that didn’t look like it belonged to a six-year-old.
That was me in this life, born as a slave.
I watched the knights who were searching through the iron cages one by one, looking for someone. My vision kept blurring, and drowsiness was overtaking me.
‘Thirty minutes at most.’
My body, already at its limit from long-term malnutrition, was facing imminent death.
To think I’d see a scene from the original story right before dying.
The black lion crest drawn on the knights’ armor revealed their identity. They were the Black Lion Order, directly under Grand Duke Yurian del Astarote.
And the person they were looking for was…
“Find Princess Juno! This is a direct order from the Grand Duke!”
“Where is the Princess? Bring in more manpower!”
The illegitimate princess, Juno Robelia.
The reason I knew about the situation that was about to unfold and their purpose was simple.
This scene unfolding now was the first scene of the novel “The Saint’s Kiss of Happiness.”
“The Saint’s Kiss of Happiness” is a romance fantasy where the protagonist, Hella, a saint, stops the villain Grand Duke Yurian who starts a rebellion with the Crown Prince.
In the original introduction, the Grand Duke rescues the illegitimate Princess Juno who was trapped as a slave of dark mages. It was to use her as a tool for rebellion years later.
[Yurian was certain that the red-haired girl trapped in the iron cage was Princess Juno he had been looking for. He planned to install the illegitimate princess as a puppet emperor and take control of the empire.]
In other words, according to the original story, the villain Grand Duke Yurian should soon find Princess Juno here. I stared intently into the darkness.
It should be about time he arrived.
Just then, the noisy surroundings quieted down, and the sound of steady footsteps was heard. A tall man appeared through the path cleared by the knights.
The man, wearing a black cloak over a white uniform, exuded the unique pressure of one who rules.
‘Is that Grand Duke Yurian?’
When I saw the man’s face, I gasped in surprise.
Is that even a human face?
Beautiful silver hair that seemed to be molded from pure silver shone brilliantly in the darkness. His delicate features were like a meticulously carved work of art.
The doll-like face of the man wrinkled slightly with subtle annoyance.
The man, all in white, blended seamlessly with the space filled with corpses. It was believable enough to think that a war god from mythology had descended.
‘He’s handsome, just like in the original.’
Purple eyes, devoid of even a hint of warmth, turned towards me. A faint glimmer appeared in the man’s eyes as he discovered me dying.
The man asked indifferently while looking at me.
“What is that?”
The pink-haired knight standing next to the Grand Duke hurriedly answered.
“It’s a slave child, but it seems to be dying, so we left it alone without checking its face.”
“I thought I told you to check everyone.”
“I apologize. I’ll check right away…”
“Never mind. I’ll do it myself.”
The Grand Duke walked towards the iron cage where I was trapped. I painfully raised my upper body that had been leaning against the wall as I watched the approaching Grand Duke.
To think such an opportunity would come.
Finally, when the distance between the Grand Duke and me narrowed to about a hand’s breadth, I reached out to him.
I felt the pain squeezing out of my lungs that had reached their limit, but I didn’t care. I had something I had to say to that Grand Duke.
“…?”
I desperately grabbed and pulled on the man’s, the Grand Duke’s, elaborate black cloak.
I moved my lips while making eye contact with the Grand Duke.
You. Are. Doomed. You. Fool.
His pupils dilated as he read my lip movements. That one sentence was the only last will I wanted to leave as I was dying.
‘He won’t be able to rescue the princess.’
Because the illegitimate Princess Juno, whom Grand Duke Yurian should have rescued, had already died a week ago. The original story, which should have started with the princess being rescued, was twisted by Juno’s death.
Because, unlike the original, the timing of the Grand Duke’s attack on the dark mage’s tower to find Juno was delayed.
A difference of just one week.
That difference led to the worst outcome where Juno, who had survived perfectly fine in the original story, died. I anxiously waited by Juno’s side as she was dying from a fever, hoping the villain Grand Duke would arrive as he did in the original story.
I recalled Juno’s voice from the day we first met when she spoke to me affectionately.
“Little one, if you don’t have a name, shall I give you one? How about Liat?”
“Liat?”
“It means ‘resurrection’ in the ancient language. When combined with my name Juno, which means ‘flame,’ it becomes ‘beautiful birth.’”
Princess Juno who died because that man arrived late, unlike in the original story, was my benefactor.
A benefactor who generously gave love to me, whose emotions had dulled, and gifted me a name. It didn’t matter that she was a character in a novel, or that I was born as a slave in “The Saint’s Kiss of Happiness.”
I just wanted to see Princess Juno, who was merely an extra in the original story, become happy.
‘What went wrong?’
I closed my eyes, picturing Juno’s face with her flame-like hair in my mind.
I wish you had lived.
If that had happened, I would have tried my best to protect you using all my knowledge of the original story. Tears formed in my closing eyes as my strength faded.
I had lost Juno.
And with the death of the illegitimate princess, the villain Grand Duke’s rebellion in the original story was doomed from the start.
