I Was Adopted by the Villain Grand Duke Who Killed My Favorite Character - Chapter 5
It seems today is the day I die.
Everything went dark before my eyes, and my heart sank. I gasped for air, panting, and clutched my chest.
‘What should I do now.’
Of all people, I vomited on the shoes of the Grand Duke, the greatest villain in the original story. Even if I were to die, I didn’t want to die like this.
The image of the Grand Duke, which I faced in nightmares every night, gripped me in the form of fear. As the tension peaked, hiccups burst from my mouth.
“…Hic, hiccup.”
I covered my mouth in surprise, but the hiccups that had just started wouldn’t stop.
‘I’m going to be tortured by the Grand Duke.’
Cold sweat formed as I recalled the terrible pain I had experienced in some of my lives. A child’s body is vulnerable to sudden emotional changes.
Shedding tears and snot simultaneously, I stammered words to the Grand Duke.
“…For, forgive. Hic!”
“What are you saying?”
I sniffled hard, inhaling the mucus.
“So, that’s… I, hiccup.”
The hiccups came out faster than my apology. The silence, now much heavier than before, pressed down on my fidgeting self.
The Grand Duke looked down at me with his head lowered. His emotionless gaze, impossible to read, sent chills down my spine.
The Grand Duke asked me in a low voice.
“Is that all you have to say to me? If you have nothing more to say…”
“No!”
With a pale face, I hugged the Grand Duke’s legs tightly.
‘If I clean it, he might forgive me!’
I looked around for something to clean the Grand Duke’s dirty shoes. Unfortunately, the room was full of expensive-looking furniture.
In urgency, I spread out the dress I was wearing.
After spreading the skirt of the dress, I even blew on it before wiping the Grand Duke’s shoes. Somehow, it felt like the shoes were getting dirtier the more I cleaned.
Just as I closed my eyes tightly in despair,
“What are you doing?”
A cool voice fell from above my head.
The Grand Duke’s expression was even more rigid than when I had vomited. His furrowed brow revealed his discomfort.
The Grand Duke asked again, addressing me as I trembled with fear, my lips quivering.
“I asked, what are you doing?”
“Tr… Trying to clean.”
“Why are you trying to clean it?”
“Be, because I did wrong?”
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue softly and reached out towards me, who was curled up. His finger, which lightly touched my cheek, was cold enough to steal warmth.
He must be about to hit me now!
I leaned my head against the Grand Duke’s palm. Then, I shouted with all my might.
“I’m, I’m sowwy. Sniff. Hi, hit me, pwease.”
The Grand Duke’s chest swelled slightly, and a faint sigh settled on top of my head. No matter how long I waited, the expected pain didn’t come.
“I’m not going to hit you.”
Suddenly, my two legs were lifted off the ground, and the Grand Duke’s surreal face came closer. The Grand Duke, holding me in his arms, spoke with a fierce expression.
“This is not the place where you were imprisoned, and I am not them.”
“…Hiccup?”
“It’s troublesome to be treated the same.”
The Grand Duke examined my face, which had stopped hiccuping in surprise, and furrowed his brow. A faint sense of guilt was felt from his utterly indifferent face.
‘This is more like…’
A very subtle worry was evident in the Grand Duke’s gaze as he looked at me. It was like the feeling of worrying about an important object getting damaged.
“Have you stopped crying now?”
He carefully wiped the vomit off my cheeks. He didn’t seem to mind his fingers getting dirty because of me.
At that moment, the forcibly suppressed dry heave came out.
“Urgh.”
“What on earth is the problem?”
At his words, which seemed to genuinely not know, a fire rose from within me.
You made me like this!
I swallowed the words I couldn’t dare to say to the villain Grand Duke. To show such an attitude now after forcibly feeding me.
‘What exactly is your intention?’
Even now, the Grand Duke was pacing the room slowly, patting my back.
I thought he would get angry for dirtying his clothes.
“…Strange.”
Does he want to torment me but find it inconvenient if I die before the rebellion? I didn’t think that having the maids torment me was a lie.
After all, facing him up close, I could tell for certain.
‘The Grand Duke hates me.’
There was clear hatred in the Grand Duke’s eyes as he looked at me. If there was a reason for the Grand Duke, who didn’t even know what the princess looked like, to hate me…
‘He hates the imperial family.’
The sharp attitude of the mansion’s maids towards me, whom they mistook for the princess, was the clue. What on earth had happened between the imperial family and the Grand Duke?
Unable to overcome fatigue, I closed my eyes in the Grand Duke’s arms.
***
It seemed I had slept for quite a long time.
In my sleep, someone wiped my sweat-soaked forehead with a wet towel.
‘It’s cold. Nice.’
I rubbed my heated forehead against the palm touching me acting as if I was a spoiled child. The kind hand, which had stiffened for a moment, gently wiped my forehead again.
Voices continued through my hazy consciousness.
“She’s sweating a lot, is she alright?”
“She’s past the critical point. It seems the problem was eating forcibly when her stomach was weak.”
“Forcibly, you say. I just…”
Stop. It’s noisy.
As I mumbled, moving my parched lips, the surroundings became quiet. Someone poured bitter water into my mouth and whispered softly.
“Can she become like this just from overeating?”
“It might be presumptuous to say, but the princess is different from ordinary children.”
“How so?”
“Her nutritional state is poor, and it’s a miracle she’s survived this long with such a weak body.”
That familiar hand clumsily wiped my forehead.
“Unreasonably weak.”
Is that what you say to a sick person?
Even in my dazed state, I frowned in displeasure. The hand that was wiping my forehead pressed firmly between my wrinkled brows.
More than that, this voice sounds strangely familiar.
It was as if the Grand Duke was nursing me by my sickbed. Although it’s unlikely for him, known for his indifference in the original story.
“Well, if she dies, that’s as far as it goes.”
With those words uttered as if there was nothing to regret, the surroundings became quiet again.
After that, I could barely remember anything. When I regained consciousness after suffering from a fever, a day had passed.
I couldn’t even distinguish between night and day.
The pain continued to the point where I thought it might be better to just die. When I finally opened my eyes as the fever subsided, it was the middle of the night.
I raised myself in the pitch-dark darkness.
“Where is this?”
Lavish furniture decorated with gold and a bed large enough for six people to lie down with room to spare. Everything in the room was unfamiliar.
As I looked around the luxurious room, I focused on a faint sound reaching my ears.
“…Rain sound?”
Beyond the glass window, I could see the garden where rain was falling.
‘I want to see it up close.’
I gathered mana from the air to temporarily enhance my vision.
Originally, drawing mana into the body and freely manipulating it was not easy even for skilled individuals.
Especially, it was known to be impossible to contain mana, even temporarily, in an untrained body.
‘But I’m different.’
If I was willing to risk damaging my body with mana, I could use it temporarily.
It was thanks to the memories of past lives as a Sword Master and Grand Magician.
With my vision sharpened by mana, every corner of the rain-soaked garden came into view. Suddenly, an impulse I had never experienced before arose.
‘Should I go out?’
When I opened the window with my feverish, fumbling hands, rain from outside pooled on the floor.
I jumped over the window and walked into the garden.
The rain falling endlessly from the sky soaked my nape and the hem of my clothes. The sensation of cold water on my body, still warm with a slight fever, felt good.
The garden walk also yielded an unexpected harvest.
I found sunset mushrooms under a large zelkova tree. Though not as valuable as starwort, this too was a hard-to-find medicinal herb.
‘Moreover, I need it right now.’
Sunset mushrooms had the effect of numbing pain.
I put the mushrooms inside my clothes and moved on.
I had seen enough of the rain, so it seemed about time to return to the room. But my legs wouldn’t move as I wanted.
“…I’m hungry.”
I felt dizzy from having starved for so long. I plucked some edible grass growing nearby and stuffed it into my mouth indiscriminately.
As I was about to swallow without even chewing due to extreme hunger, a sharp voice interrupted me.
“I didn’t know you’d go as far as eating grass.”
My eyes widened at the sight of someone who shouldn’t be here.
Why is the Grand Duke here?
‘And he’s completely soaked.’
Raindrops dripped from the Grand Duke’s disheveled silver hair. Moreover, he was wearing just a shirt without even an overcoat.
“Why is Your Grace here?”
“Why am I here, you ask?”
The Grand Duke’s eyebrow twitched slightly as he repeated my words. He irritably brushed back his wet hair.
His well-toned muscles showed their contours through the wet white shirt. My mouth gaped open at the perfect muscles, close to the ideal for a swordsman.
Not missing that moment, the Grand Duke’s finger slipped into my mouth.
“…Mmph!”
The finger rummaging inside my mouth pulled out the grassroots I hadn’t yet swallowed. He stared at me with a frown, then twisted his lips.
“You’re not in your right mind. Can’t you even distinguish between what’s edible and what’s not?”
“I can eat it.”
“Gerard was right. Left alone, you’d die without anyone knowing.”
He gave me a complex look as if looking at a great troublemaker. It felt unfair that the villain Grand Duke would make such an expression because of me.
What did I do wrong?
I looked up at him with a sulky face.
“Grand Duke bad.”
If he didn’t like the gift, he could have just said so. Thinking about how I suffered for days because of him made me feel indignant.
The Grand Duke didn’t respond to my impertinent words. This gave me a bit of courage. Perhaps even the villain Grand Duke has something like a conscience?
I gently grasped his finger.
As I held onto his finger, I felt the Grand Duke’s body stiffen slightly.
“I have a favor.”
“Whatever the favor is, I don’t need to listen to your…”
“Kill me, Your Grace.”
Looking at the Grand Duke’s dumbfounded face, I forced a smile. I wasn’t sure if I was smiling with a normal face.
It seemed easier to die by his hand now than to die after being discovered that I was not the princess.
