I Was Adopted by the Villain Grand Duke Who Killed My Favorite Character - Chapter 3

I ultimately failed to convey to Gerard that I wasn’t the princess. No matter how hard I tried to explain, Gerard took my words as a joke.

It was the first time in my thirty-second life that I felt like I might die of frustration.

“Not princess.”

“Yes, Your Highness. So that’s the game we’re playing.”

“I’m really not the princess.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Shall I call you Grand Princess instead? You’ll be adopted soon anyway.”

How irritating it was that he kept answering so gently with a smile.

‘Fine. Believe what you want.’

I forgot that words from a six-year-old child wouldn’t be convincing. Thinking that the Grand Duke would also believe I was the princess made me feel like I had eaten a thousand sweet potatoes.

How do I resolve this messed-up situation?

Even if dying after being discovered as the princess was unavoidable, the problem was ‘that’ Grand Duke.

Just looking at the Grand Duke’s description in the original story, one could tell how serious he was about the rebellion. Someone like that wouldn’t kill a fake princess gently.

[After the rebellion, the Grand Duke hung the bodies of the imperial family on the city gates. Those who saw the corpses skewered on spikes were appalled by the Grand Duke’s cruelty.]

The thought of being tortured by the Grand Duke, who exuded such a cold aura, drained all the blood from my body.

I was just thinking that it might be better to end my life early.

After Gerard left and the room became quiet, unfamiliar maids rushed in.

The youngest-looking maid with black hair among them frowned and said,

“This child is supposed to be the princess?”

At those words, another maid who was examining my appearance burst into a sneer.

“I’d believe it if they said they mistakenly brought some other slave instead of the princess.”

That was exactly correct.

I was impressed by the maid’s sharp judgment, befitting a servant of a noble house. They exchanged irritated words about me, who showed no reaction.

“Look at that dumb expression. Princess or not, what would a child like that know?”

“It would be better to leave an illegitimate royal to die as a slave.”

“Shh, be quiet. We’re supposed to keep it a secret that the child we’re caring for is royalty. Didn’t we get instructions to uniformly address her as Grand Princess?”

At the word ‘secret,’ the other maids swallowed whatever they were about to say. I raised my head and observed the maids’ tense expressions.

‘Even so, to say “royalty or whatever.”‘

In an empire ruled by an emperor, it was rare to hear such bold words. The servants of the Grand Duke’s residence seemed to have considerable resentment towards the imperial family.

To the extent of badmouthing a child, they presumed to be an illegitimate princess right in front of her.

Instinctively realizing there was something to their conversation, I perked up my ears. However, the maids’ conversation didn’t continue.

“Then I’ll bathe her and be back.”

The black-haired maid who first spoke grabbed the back of my neck and lifted me. Her face was full of displeasure as if she had been forced to take on an unwanted task.

The maid entered the bathroom attached to the room.

“Stay still.”

The maid who sat me in the bathtub pressed a magic stone to turn on the shower.

Shhhh.

Warm water poured over the thin dress I was wearing. Startled, I fidgeted with my wet clothes, and the maid sneered at me.

“What’s wrong? Are you angry that a lowly commoner is spraying water on royalty?”

“…No. Not that.”

I spread my fingers to catch the gushing water. I didn’t expect to be able to feel clean water in this life.

So this was the original color of water.

I had forgotten, as slaves were always given dirty sewage water.

“Water that’s not dirty.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s warm.”

The clean water droplets bouncing between my fingers were simply fascinating.

When exposed to poor environments for too long, one tends to forget about ordinary things. It was a place where both happiness and sadness naturally became dull.

If Juno hadn’t been there, I probably would have given up on life early.

“It’s clean. Amazing. It’s not black.”

Only then did the maid’s face contort with bewilderment as she realized what I was saying. She frowned and huffed.

“Do you think I’ll fall for your act of p-pretending to be pitiful?”

“Who’s pretending to be pitiful?”

“Enough!”

Though the maid responded coldly, she adjusted the water temperature to be not too hot. The stream of water gently enveloping my body felt cozy like a blanket.

I bowed my head to the maid, expressing my gratitude.

“Thank you. Kind person.”

“Eek!”

My attitude seemed to provoke the maid, and her gaze sharpened. She nervously chewed her lip before flinging the bathroom door open.

“That’s, that’s enough! Wash yourself and come out! You can do that much, can’t you?”

Bang.

Telling a child like me to wash alone?

I stared blankly at the forcefully closed door and then chuckled. That maid seemed unaccustomed to tormenting others.

‘She even turned on warm water for me.’

All the maids had harsh tones, but they didn’t cause any direct harm. To me, who had lived thirty-two lives, that level of hostility was rather cute.

“Well then, let’s wash.”

I threw off my water-soaked dress and cupped water in my palms. It was quite unpleasant to see the water turn black upon touching me.

At this rate, it would take ages to get clean.

‘Ah. That’s right.’

In my twenty-seventh life as a sword master, I developed an innovative shower method to reduce bathing time on the battlefield.

The so-called roll-around shower.

I rubbed soap on the floor to create a lather, then quickly rolled around in it.

After about ten rolls, my original skin color finally emerged.

“So I was white-skinned.”

As a finishing touch, I rinsed off the soap bubbles under running water. My body, now much cleaner than before, was reflected in the small mirror on the wall.

I slowly placed my hand on the mirror.

“This is… me.”

Always confined in an iron cage, this was the first time I saw myself directly in this life.

Red hair with a pinkish tint and large violet eyes.

A small stature that wouldn’t even reach an adult’s waist and cheeks still retaining baby fat. My body, bearing the traces of long-term abuse, was frail.

‘I’m extremely thin.’

There was no trace of resemblance to Juno anywhere on my face. I had hoped a little, but it seemed the only similarity was the red hair color.

I probably won’t make it to adulthood in this life.

I whispered to my red hair, the only feature I shared with Juno.

“It will end someday.”

This life is a gift, mistaken for you.

Anxiety about the unpredictable original story and the loneliness of being left alone. Unrefined emotions stirred my heart.

I leaned my forehead against the mirror. The cold sensation spreading from my forehead brought me back to my senses.

‘I miss you.’

The emptiness inside my chest ached.

Everything was for the sake of one girl who showed me love when I had grown weary of life.

***

An unusually peaceful day continued.

For several weeks, the Grand Duke didn’t come to find me in the room. It was as if he had forgotten that I was in his residence.

‘That can’t be.’

He simply hadn’t realized yet that I wasn’t the princess.

Regardless of the circumstances, spending my days neglected was miserable. Every night, I had nightmares of the Grand Duke coming to interrogate me.

In the dream, the Grand Duke drew his sword from his waist and aimed at my neck. His face, expressionless like a doll’s, was filled with deep contempt.

<How should I dispose of this bug pretending to be the princess?>

You’re the one who misunderstood on your own!

In the dream, I couldn’t even utter a proper excuse before being killed by the Grand Duke. After the nightmare repeated several times, I became afraid to fall asleep.

Rubbing my dark-circled eyes from lack of sleep, I crawled out from under the bed. Coming out of the darkness, the light was dazzling.

“I can’t live like this anymore!”

Should I go find the Grand Duke and beg him to kill me painlessly so I can sleep? Unable to sleep, courage I didn’t know I had was welling up.

‘Let’s eat first.’

The maids only came to the room during meal times to leave food.

“It’s soup today.”

I first gulped down the cold soup.

As I put a piece of hard bread in my mouth for dessert, my stomach filled and my body became limp. It felt like every cell in my body was cheering.

Judging by how delicious it was even when cold, the Grand Duke’s cook seemed quite skilled.

“It’s so yummy.”

When I was a slave, meals consisted of stew made from various food scraps mixed together. Very occasionally, moldy bread was provided as a ration.

Warm sunlight and meals.

Except for the fear of not knowing when the Grand Duke might kill me, it was an extremely luxurious life.

“The Grand Duke is human too, after all.”

Even if he’s a villain rumored to be a bloodthirsty demon, he should at least listen to a plea.

Having made up my mind, I climbed onto the windowsill.

Standing on the sill, I opened the window and a cool breeze blew in. Roughly pushing back my windblown hair, I gauged the height to the ground.

And then I leaped out of the window.

Using the falling technique I learned in a past life, I rolled once in mid-air and landed safely.

The Grand Duke’s vast garden spread out before me.

“Let’s see.”

I couldn’t go to the Grand Duke empty-handed, so I needed to find some sort of gift. I searched the garden barefoot, looking for something suitable as a present.

After about 30 minutes of wandering.

I discovered a precious herb in the shade of a tree at the corner of the garden. Star-shaped leaves and the sweet scent of mana floating around it.

‘The herb of all herbs. The legend of the plant world.’

It was starwort, a rare herb that aids in mana circulation for swordsmen. Starwort only grows in places with high mana density.

For some reason, the Grand Duke’s residence had a noticeably higher concentration of mana compared to other places.

‘Did they conduct some kind of magical experiment?’

The unexpected harvest of such a precious herb boosted my confidence.

The Grand Duke will surely like this.

I gently brushed off the dirt from the roots of the starwort with my hands.

“Nothing more to give?”

Although starwort was impressive, it seemed insufficient to present just one plant as a gift. I gathered flowers and berries blooming nearby.

‘Now I just need to know where the office is.’

In my days as a maid, I had been to dozens of noble mansions. The location of important people’s offices was usually similar.

“This way.”

I put the gathered berries and herbs in my skirt and ran off. I was worried whether the Grand Duke would like the bribe I brought.