If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 49
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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At that time, those words felt like an attempt to reassure her. She didn’t believe it to be sincere or genuine.
But why does that statement keep coming back to her now? Agatha opened the lid of the seal. She brushed against the sharp, cutting edge.
John’s exposed white neck caught her eye. He was completely absorbed in tearing the dress, oblivious to what she was planning. While he was distracted, it would become more dangerous if she didn’t finish him off with one blow.
Agatha took a deep breath. At the point where the jaw meets the ear, just a little below that. That was the target.
Her hand trembled. No matter how much she hated John Calvino, attacking a person wasn’t an easy task.
Stab.
Finally, as John, who had loosened the strap halfway, smirked and leaned towards her chest to bury his face, Agatha tightly closed her eyes.
And the hand holding the seal unhesitatingly moved towards John’s neck.
* * *
The boy who left with Ethan returned. The rest of the group had gone somewhere, leaving him alone.
He reported that the maid from the Grand Duchess’s entourage had come to the dressing room to fetch Agatha.
“To the Grand Duchy?”
“Yes. We couldn’t refuse. She insisted so forcefully, saying something about not ignoring the Grand Duchess’s regards…”
As if waiting for Agatha to visit the dressing room, the maid appeared and took her away. While it wasn’t unusual for a noblewoman facing marriage to be called to have a conversation with a high-ranking lady, there was something peculiar about it.
From the beginning, Grand Duchess Norfolk was not one to summon people without reason to foster friendship. All her connections were strictly managed through visible benefits, whether material or emotional.
Those who offered substantial wealth and resources, those who stuck around, ingratiating themselves like the tongue in the mouth. Agatha did not fit into either category.
Of course, considering the occasional whimsical side of the Grand Duchess, who acted like a young girl, one might speculate that she had developed a simple curiosity upon hearing the news of Lady Kristin’s marriage, which suddenly emerged in the social circles of Leden. There might be a desire to have a direct conversation with Agatha since there was hardly anyone who knew much about her.
“Well, there was something strange.”
“Something strange?”
“The Lady was supposed to board the carriage personally prepared by the Grand Duchess, and Sir Ethan and the knights were not allowed to ride with her. Although having one of the guards accompany you would have been fine, they deliberately prevented anyone from boarding. It seemed a bit odd…”
The boy trailed off at the end. He felt uneasy about passing by without mentioning it, but he hesitated to make any reckless guesses about the Grand Duchess’ intentions, worried that he might assume the intentions of the nobility too lightly.
“I understand what you’re saying. Go back.”
“Yes.”
The young boy, with his fluffy appearance, bowed his head and saluted. There was a sense of pride in having successfully completed his first solo mission since becoming a squire.
“The Grand Duchess.”
Boudica Durer, the second wife of Grand Duke Norfolk. Cain rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
The first wife of the Grand Duke had suffered from a long-term illness and passed away several years ago. The current Grand Duchess, who had invited Agatha, was the second wife.
The deterioration of relations between the Emperor and the Grand Duke likely began shortly after the death of the Grand Duke’s first wife. Emperor Blahova restrained and oppressed anything that posed a threat to his reign. Even if it wasn’t an immediate threat, the potential for it to become one in the future was enough for it to be a target for suppression.
Thirty-three years ago, Blahova, who was a prince, killed his five brothers and father to usurp the throne. At the age of just twenty-one, he carried out the bloody purge.
Grand Duke Norfolk and Emperor Blahova had different mothers. The Grand Duke, born as the son of the third empress, was just six years old at the time. Amid the massacre of his other half-siblings, he survived because the external faction found him politically advantageous due to his youth.
The ruthless Emperor seemed to not want to be criticized for killing his six-year old brother, perhaps not wanting to draw attention to his cruel act. However, it didn’t mean he set his half-sibling free.
The Grand Duke had to endure the Emperor’s constant constraints throughout his upbringing. He couldn’t reside in the capital until he reached adulthood. For years at a time, he was moved from the western regions to the eastern regions, citing various excuses, and he couldn’t even choose a marriage partner freely.
Naturally, there was no warmth in his relationship with his first wife. The Grand Duke considered his wife as a planted spy from the Emperor. She constantly faced suspicion, and he didn’t share even a bit of his heart with her.
The Grand Duchess couldn’t bear her husband’s mistreatment any longer, and, suffering from depression, chose to end her own life. Many rumors circulated about her death, with a prevailing belief that she didn’t commit suicide but was, in fact, a victim of a suicide forced by the Grand Duke’s schemes to escape his watchful eyes.
