I Was Adopted by the Villain Grand Duke Who Killed My Favorite Character - Chapter 21
My mouth was parched from the high fever, and I felt nauseous.
I tried to move my fingers, but they wouldn’t obey. As I swallowed my groans, someone gently stroked my forehead.
‘I need to get up.’
I couldn’t guess how much time had passed since I ate the wheezing grass. I needed to check how the situation had unfolded while I was unconscious.
“……Sen? Are you there?”
My vision was blurry from the fever, and I couldn’t distinguish objects. As I tried to raise myself somehow, a gentle hand stopped me.
“If you’re looking for that maid, I sent her away. She was making too much noise.”
“Your Grace?”
After quite a long silence, the Grand Duke responded with a brief, “Yes.” Cold fingertips brushed my dry lips, then held a glass of water to my mouth.
After eagerly swallowing the water, my mind cleared a bit.
“Are you in a lot of pain?”
Though my whole body was aching so much I could barely move, I slowly shook my head.
I had been prepared for the pain from the beginning.
More urgent than that was understanding the situation around me to see if things were going according to plan.
“I’m fine. But why are you here, Your Grace?”
“You……”
The Grand Duke hesitated before slowly continuing.
“You looked like you were about to die.”
I wanted to joke that I wasn’t in pain at all, but I wasn’t in any state to say I was fine even as a white lie. I gritted my teeth against the pain that made my vision flicker black.
I could feel the consequences of what I had done throughout my body.
Although I had tried to avoid a lethal dose, I might not have considered my body being weaker than an average child’s. The Grand Duke wiped my sweaty forehead with a cloth and said,
“Don’t strain yourself, just lie down.”
As I lay still as the Grand Duke instructed, my mind raced with thoughts. Why was the busy Grand Duke nursing me by my side?
‘Whatever the reason, it’s an opportunity.’
I just needed the Grand Duke to question who had given me something to eat that made me like this.
Come on, say it.
I stared at the Grand Duke’s blurry face with anticipation. The Grand Duke sighed softly and covered my eyes with his palm.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“How am I looking?”
“With goodwill towards me?”
The Grand Duke might have believed I liked him, so it could have appeared as goodwill.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I just said that because I’m not used to receiving such looks.”
“Your Grace…… it’s dark. Please remove your hand.”
“Sleep like this. I wonder if you even know what happened to you.”
Well, I was poisoned, of course. I knew that perfectly well.
‘Though I swallowed it myself.’
I gathered all my strength to remove one of the Grand Duke’s fingers covering my eyes. Through the gap between his fingers, I could see the Grand Duke’s face.
Even though blurry, it was a face obviously filled with sadness. I was surprised because it wasn’t the angry expression I had expected.
Perhaps because my head wasn’t working properly due to the pain, my hidden true feelings slipped out.
“It doesn’t have to be me, you know.”
“What?”
“You could make another child the princess, couldn’t you?”
I had realized it when I saw the excessive loyalty of his vassals.
With the Grand Duke’s power and authority, he could create a stand-in and claim her to be the princess. Such a stand-in would be easier to manipulate too.
Yet the Grand Duke was pleading with me, a mere stubborn child, not to die. Whatever the reason, it was a kindness to me.
“Who’s been telling you such nonsense?”
“I just knew. From the beginning.”
The life I thought would end soon was continuing regardless of my will. It was thanks to the Grand Duke’s inexplicable kindness.
“Why did you adopt me, Your Grace?”
Why are you trying so hard?
He could have saved me because having the real princess would be more suitable for the justification of the rebellion. But after that, I only did things that grated on his nerves.
All I could give back to him who showed me kindness was deceit, hiding the truth.
“I’m sorry for being me, Your Grace.”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking in that little head of yours, but I’m using you.”
“I know. I’m grateful for that too.”
“You really……”
From the conversation with Luke, I learned a bit more about the Grand Duke’s past. Knowing the truth, I couldn’t condemn the rebellion he was planning.
Because I too knew the sorrow of losing someone precious.
Perhaps the villain Grand Duke’s rebellion was destined to fail. Even so, even if that’s the case.
“I’ll support you. In what you’re doing, Your Grace.”
Although I knew that I, being a fake, wouldn’t be of much help.
“So use me as much as you want.”
“……”
The strength slowly drained from my fingers that had been gripping the bedsheet to endure the pain. In my flickering vision, I saw the Grand Duke’s astonished face.
“Doctor! Call a doctor immediately!”
Crash!
I heard the sound of the chair he had been sitting on tumbling to the floor. The Grand Duke, who had jumped up, grabbed my hand and shouted incomprehensible words.
‘A face that looks like it’s about to cry.’
As I gazed at the vivid blue in the Grand Duke’s eyes, I felt like I might be mistaken. That he, the villain of the original story, cared for me.
That can’t be.
I looked into the Grand Duke’s eyes and then closed mine.
***
When I finally woke up, the maids were crying.
Seeing their faces covered in tears and snot, I felt guilty. Amidst all this, Sen’s voice, filled with moisture, reached my ears.
“I, I should have been more careful. Because of me, the Grand Princess……”
“It’s not your fault, Sen.”
“Grand Princess? Is it really you, Grand Princess?”
“Yes. Good morning.”
As I greeted them with a nonchalant face, Sen rushed out to call the doctor. Soon after, shocked maids bustled about, taking my temperature and bringing water.
My heart tingled at the sound of the maids’ voices, which seemed like I hadn’t heard in a long time.
“The fever has gone down a lot.”
“Are you not hungry?”
“Bring some warm water and a towel first!”
I smiled at the maids who were hurriedly checking my condition, to show them I was fine.
‘It’s an herb without after-effects.’
The doctor who came running diagnosed that I would recover with plenty of rest. At the doctor’s words, Sen’s legs gave out, and she collapsed on the floor.
“Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.”
Sen muttered the same words repeatedly like a broken machine. Seeing Sen’s face with clear tear marks made my chest tighten.
The other maids looked equally unwell.
“I’m sorry for worrying you. Next time, there won’t be anything like this……”
Before I could finish speaking, the maids almost pounced on me, hugging me.
The white dress I was wearing became wet with the maids’ tears.
Sen, who had buried her face in my chest as if throwing a tantrum, continued speaking in a muffled voice. Despite the slurred pronunciation, her words were clearer than any others.
“I was scared. Because the Grand Princess couldn’t open her eyes.”
“Yes.”
“Never, never get sick again.”
“Okay. I won’t.”
The warmth of the maids embracing me tightly made my heart warm. I thought this was the easiest way, but maybe I was the only one who thought so.
Seeing the maids who seemed to have worried more than I expected left me speechless.
According to the original plan, I should have recovered after being mildly ill for about half a day. I asked the maids, who had finally calmed down, about what happened while I was unconscious.
The maids, while still sniffling, answered diligently.
“It was chaos. The Grand Princess’s heart suddenly stopped in the middle of the night.”
“His Grace the Grand Duke came urgently and stayed by the Grand Princess’s side the whole time.”
“They said if it had been a little later, you would have died.”
Suddenly, I vaguely remembered the Grand Duke’s face I saw before I collapsed. Perhaps that desperate look was because my heart had stopped in the middle of the night.
It seemed that the Grand Duke had saved me again.
“What about the Heidus family?”
“Forget about that wretched family.”
Seeing how they deliberately changed the subject, something must have happened.
“I want to know what happened to that family.”
“……Actually, it seems the gift from that family was the cause of the Grand Princess’s collapse.”
“Then what should I do?”
“The Grand Princess should just rest well. His Grace the Grand Duke has resolved the matter with the Heidus family.”
Just resolved it like that?
The Heidus family was a Marquis family, not a Count or Viscount. Even though they belonged to the Grand Duke’s territory, they were still high nobility.
That’s why I had prepared my testimony.
I was planning to use the common belief that a young child wouldn’t knowingly eat a poisonous herb. I was curious about how the matter was resolved.
“Did they ask for compensation?”
“No. It’s not really a pleasant thing to hear.”
When I kept pressing, Sen reluctantly revealed the truth.
“Actually, all the people from the Heidus family are in prison now.”
“So they’re going to trial.”
“No. They didn’t go to trial. Besides, Marquis Heidus has already passed away.”
Sen told me what had happened during the days I was unconscious.
Gerard, who had returned just in time, had raided the Heidus Marquis’s residence and obtained evidence that the Marquis attempted to raid and slander me.
No matter how I thought about it, it was unlikely that a Marquis family would have left such incriminating evidence so carelessly.
“What was the evidence they found?”
“They say it was a handwritten letter from the Marquis stating he would poison the princess.”
Another maid who was listening added,
“They say it even had the execution date and official seal, so there was no room for denial.”
“That’s a lie.”
There was no way such a thing could exist.
Swallowing the wheezing grass in the Grand Duke’s room was due to an impulsive plan. As my complexion worsened, Sen wiped my forehead with a towel.
I sorted out the tangled thoughts in my head.
“……They fabricated the evidence.”
Just like I had done.
It was strange from the start that the meticulous Marquis from the original story would leave a handwritten letter. It made more sense to think that the Grand Duke had fabricated the necessary evidence.
The power the Grand Duke possessed, which I hadn’t been conscious of until now, hit me physically.
“The original story has changed again.”
The Heidus family, who should have betrayed the Grand Duke in the future, was wiped out along with false evidence. The princess who should have been manipulated by Luke was already dead.
And I, the fake princess, was adopted into the Grand Duke’s family and being cared for by the maids.
‘What’s going on here.’
When I decided to bring down Luke, I didn’t anticipate this outcome.
A pitch-black future that I couldn’t see an inch ahead of appeared before my eyes. Unable to bear the stress, I collapsed, holding the back of my neck.
