Chapter 2.3

“Aurelian… It’s you.”

When Emperor Quinze-Nouais saw Aurelian entering the audience chamber, he had the illusion that he was looking at a living embodiment of his father in his youth. The Emperor looked at him, closed his eyes, and sank into thought.

His father, the Empire’s strongest man and an absolute monarch who unified Quinze-Nouais into a single continent, and the son he loved the most.

However, the Emperor’s closest knights, upon hearing his name, held their swords to Aurelian’s neck to protect the Emperor.

“Lower them. He is my brother.”

Aurelian came to the Imperial Palace in the same clothes he was wearing at the Count’s mansion. When a man in a slave’s clothes entered the Imperial Palace leading twelve knights, the report about it quickly reached the royal family.

At the main gate of the Imperial Palace, Owen adjusted his grip on his sword.

The meaning of a swordsman in the Quinze-Nouais Empire was unique, to the extent that it was said that an Imperial knight’s sword determined its master.

Owen had already accepted and acknowledged Aurelian Quinze-Nouais as his master. There was no way he didn’t know that following the Grand Duke was by no means an easy path.

When the Emperor heard that Grand Duke Aurelian Quinze-Nouais had arrived at the Imperial Palace’s main gate and wished to see him, he doubted his ears. He couldn’t believe it until Aurelian arrived in front of him.

But Aurelian appeared before him just as he was in his childhood.

When a sword was held to Adrian’s neck, Owen’s party, who were standing behind him, also put their hands on their scabbards.

“This subject, Aurelian Quinze-Nouais, has come to greet you, my brother, as a younger brother.”

The Emperor opened his closed eyes. His brother’s voice, as if it were his father’s, sent a ripple through his heart.

The current Emperor had cherished the young Aurelian. And he didn’t dislike his brother now that they had met again. But that’s what a throne is.

“…Do you resent me?”

At the Emperor’s question, Adrian’s eyes wavered slightly, but soon became calm.

“I have merely come to give up one thing and to take one thing.”

“…What is it?”

“I wish to uphold the previous Emperor’s will and protect the North as the sword that defends the Empire.”

In this world, protecting the North literally meant disappearing from the Imperial family.

That is to say, he had no ambition for this Imperial family and was merely expressing his obedience to protect the Imperial family and the Empire as a vassal.

Upon hearing those words, the Emperor realized that the emotion that had filled him was fear.

Aurelian was the son of the previous Emperor, and in fact, Aurelian’s succession to the throne was ahead of the current Crown Prince’s.

“…Then what should I give you in return?”

“I will tell you later.”

“You’ll tell me later?”

“Yes. If Your Majesty the Emperor grants me that one thing, this Aurelian Quinze-Nouais will never leave the North and loiter in the South.”

The Emperor promised. For now, that was all he could do. If the fact that Aurelian was alive and in the capital were to be revealed, the entire capital would be stained with blood.

It was a fact that could be known just by looking at the knights of his brother, who were about to draw their swords without hesitation in the audience chamber where the Emperor was.

 

***

 

When I came to my senses, I was inside a carriage. And on the opposite side, Adrian was sitting and looking at me. At his gaze, as he rested his chin on his hand, I unconsciously recoiled.

But I sat up straight and looked at him defiantly. His face, which was not branded, shone inside the carriage.

“How did you find me?”

There was no answer to my difficult question, but I couldn’t stop questioning him either.

“Why did you find me?”

At my words, Adrian let out a small laugh.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“I wonder…”

The Grand Duke of the North.

‘I must be crazy. How could I have only just remembered that common trope in romance fantasy novels? That most grand dukes are Grand Dukes of the North?’

What in the world made me crawl into this place with my own two feet? But Adrian, who I thought would kill me as soon as he saw me, was just looking at me.

‘Ah… Is he trying to kill me by staring?’

The carriage stopped, as if we had arrived at our destination. As I slowly got out, a desolate castle stood there, which was so bleak even for the North.

And how big was it… It felt like even the owner would get lost if they got lost here.

I can’t believe that the castle, which was said to have had no owner for many years, was Adrian’s.

Why is a castle a castle? It’s a castle because a royal lives there, right?

It was a dark summer night in the Grand Duke’s castle. In this place where dogs were barking and it felt like a wild animal would rush in at any moment, only the face of Adrian, who was looking at me with his blue eyes shining, was etched into me like a brand.

“It’s been a long time, my lady.”

A familiar voice cut through his suffocating gaze. I turned my eyes toward the direction of the voice and saw Cedric.

Seeing a familiar face, I forgot my situation and shouted at him in delight.

“Cedric!”

He didn’t come closer even though I called him, and he just held up his thumbs from a certain distance.

“Did you know? I played a huge role in finding you this time.”

“What?”

I wanted to spit all over Cedric’s proud face. I had been atoning for Claire’s sins so hard because I was afraid he would find me…

Was it really that difficult to destroy the original story? I wanted to give myself a beating, as I had been so smug about being a rare reincarnated person who succeeded in escaping the novel.

Just as a look of bewilderment appeared on Cedric’s suddenly grim face, another familiar voice was heard.

“My lady.”

This time, it was a more serious voice.

“Owen!”

“You look well.”

In my delight, I moved to run toward him without realizing it, but someone’s arm wrapped around me, forcing me to stop in my tracks. My feet were dangling above the ground.

The person who had wrapped his arm around my waist was none other than Adrian. I was startled when I confirmed his face and slapped his arm away, but he didn’t budge and entered the castle while holding me.

When the large castle gate opened, a cold energy surged inside the castle. It seemed easy to clean as it was just a big building.

While I was exploring the surroundings for a moment, a middle-aged man who seemed to be the butler came out and blocked Adrian and me.

“You have arrived, Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke.”

I squirmed to get away from Adrian. Then, in a moment, I think I saw the word ‘displeasure’ written in the butler’s eyes when our gazes met.

“There are many people watching.”

Hearing that, Adrian put me down in the castle lobby.

“Lock her up inside.”

“Who said you could!”

But as soon as my feet touched the ground, the maids inside the castle swarmed out and dragged me up to the second floor. And as I was led into a room, bathed, and dressed, I easily realized that I was locked up in this castle.

 

***

 

After putting Claire inside, Adrian also entered his bedroom. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had actually found her…

It was more difficult than he thought to find Claire, who had hidden herself with a purpose.

She was the one who stopped breathing when her waist was in his hands, but he was the one who could finally breathe. Adrian wiped his face with a dry hand.

The past two years were only about two things.

Guarding the gate of the Empire and finding Claire.

Adrian hated Claire. It was as natural as a novel with a predetermined ending.

But she had disappeared from in front of him as she pleased. With that horrible memory she had returned to him…

So he had to have Claire by his side and watch her. So he had to find her. He found her because he had to. Where else could Claire Ianster be if not by his side?

 

***

 

After I was washed and came out to the bedroom, the clothes they put on me were really flimsy pajamas.

These cute maids seemed to have thought I was his woman, as their scary master had carried one woman into the castle.

I wanted to tell them that this situation was an extreme survival game, not a romantic matchmaking game.

“Are these the only clothes you have?”

“Yes.”

‘How firm you are, these maids who are like your master…’

But when I entered the room, I thought I needed to confirm once again if this was really a survival game.

Adrian was in my room… and he was sitting languidly on the sofa, drinking a red liquor, with almost no clothes on.

‘How old is he now?’

He was bare-chested and was wearing loose white satin pants. He was, without a doubt, the sub-male lead who showed off a decadent beauty, the Grand Duke of the cold North.

It was a good thing I didn’t drool.

“Is this… your room?”

“Everything in this castle is mine.”

As he said that, he put down his glass and started to walk toward me, so I held out both of my arms toward him.

“D-d-don’t come closer!”

Adrian laughed at my action.

‘I’m doing this for a different reason than what you’re thinking.’

Of course, he didn’t listen to me and when he came closer, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me toward him. My body was so helplessly pulled that it was frustrating.

“What are you doing?”

“I wonder…”

He began to stroke his hands on my waist, moving them up and down. But didn’t you used to hate being touched by me?

“Hmph, stop.”

“Stop?”

He buried his face in my neck and then suddenly started to chuckle.

“That sounds so good. ‘Stop’… Did you feel this way too?”

Adrian brought up the story of the time when Claire tied him up and tormented him. At that time, she seemed to enjoy watching Adrian pleading. Of course, it was a side of her I had never seen in reality.

“I didn’t think about what I would do to you in the future. I’ll just do whatever I want to do to you on a given day. Just like you did to me…”

“Don’t talk crazy, Adrian.”

“Adrian…”

Adrian slightly raised his head and bit my earlobe. It was an action that could cause a slight pain. I had imagined many times that he would find me someday and take revenge, but this kind of action was not in any of the categories in my imagination.

When my body flinched because of Adrian biting my ear, he pulled me closer and started to whisper.

“That guy earlier grabbed your exposed shoulder with his hand… Did you allow him to do that too? Hmm?”

“Hmph.”

“Answer me, Claire.”

“N-no…”

His lips left my earlobe and slowly approached my mouth, teasing. An unbearable sensation began to dominate my entire body.

‘Fly, fly, airplane. Fly, fly. High, high, oh, fly. Our…’

I started to sing the most sacred children’s song I knew in my mind.

‘No matter how much you try to write a dark story. I will definitely turn this into a bright one,’ I thought.

But the moment I fell for Adrian, the path for me to survive in this novel, which was a terrible death route, seemed far away. Adrian was that persistent.

He didn’t leave me alone until a groan of pleading came from my lips.

“Pl… ease… stop…”

Then, just before his lips touched mine, he suddenly pushed me away.

It wasn’t a rough gesture. But as he moved a little away from me, he turned around hastily as if to leave the room.

“Adrian!”

I grabbed him this time, the man who was so cold and about to leave without any explanation, after he had been cornering me.

“When can I get out of here? I need to go home. There are people waiting for me.”

“Home? People waiting? You’re crazy, Claire. You can’t take a single step out of here.”

“What are you talking about! I can go anywhere.”

He turned around again and came to me in one stride. His face was excessively calm for his hurried steps, but I flinched and moved backward from the pressure he was emitting.

“No, you, Claire Ianster. From now on, you’re mine. You returned that horrible memory to me and disappeared from my sight as if nothing had happened. But now, that can’t happen. Because… you’re my property. Until I’m done with you and throw you away, you’re mine.”

He spoke as casually as if he was talking about what he had for breakfast this morning. And yet, his eyes were so sad that they pained my heart.

I brought my hand to Adrian’s face, which looked distressed.

“Okay, okay… just stop being angry. It’ll give you a headache.”

When my hand touched his face, I felt him flinch. He roughly pulled my hand away from his face and muttered with a distorted face.

“You’re a wicked person, Claire Ianster. You should have just kept whipping me until the end. You.”

As soon as Adrian left the room, my legs gave out, and I sat down on the bed.

This guy, he grew up to be so scary.

I thought about his attitude. In the original story, Adrian holds a sword to Claire as soon as he sees her.

But fortunately, my efforts at the Count’s mansion were not in vain, and Adrian’s feelings for Claire had changed a little.

I should have just kept whipping him? You don’t know what you’re talking about. If I had, I would already be a corpse.

Sleep didn’t come easily. I paced by the bed and fell into thought.

‘What’s going to happen to me now? Adrian must have met Celine… Why on earth did he look for me?’

It was highly likely that Celine had accepted the Crown Prince’s heart as in the original story, and the guy who couldn’t win Celine’s heart had come to get me, as in the original story.

The timing also fit perfectly. The time when Claire is killed in the original story is right now.

 

***

 

The next day, as expected, dawn broke, and a visitor arrived at Grand Duke Aurelian Quinze-Nouais’s castle from the morning.

It was Evan and Simone, the two siblings of the Genes Baron’s family.

“I have only come to see my friend. So please allow me to meet her.”

The butler, Ben, was in a pickle. He knew how persistently his master had searched for the woman he had brought back last night.

Even if that woman was one thing, letting her meet this man named Evan was dangerous.

“The Lady is too tired to meet anyone right now.”

“Then I will wait here.”

Evan felt that the relationship between her and the Grand Duke was not ordinary yesterday. And yesterday, Grand Duke Aurelian called her Claire.

Evan was confused, but he had to confirm the truth, no matter what it was. What were all the things that had happened between him and her until now? If Helena was the Grand Duke’s woman, he should rightly give up.

But the only emotion Evan saw in Helena’s eyes last night was fear.

“Waiting will be no use.”

“Then, I will meet His Royal Highness the Grand Duke.”

“…That is not a good idea.”

“It’s not for you to interfere, just deliver the message.”

Evan was right. It was not a matter for a mere butler to decide.

Reluctantly, Ben carefully delivered the message to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke’s face was covered with fatigue, as if he hadn’t slept a wink last night.

He got up from his desk, lightly shook his head, and headed to the drawing room.

The drawing room of a place called a castle, unlike a regular mansion’s drawing room, had a separate seat for a royal.

Adrian sat down with his legs crossed and looked down at Evan condescendingly.

“Young Master Evan Genes, you know where you are, don’t you?”

Evan, seeing the Grand Duke smile coldly, had to focus all his concentration to not flinch back from the instinctive fear that arose.

Simone also couldn’t speak easily when she saw the Grand Duke up close, whom she had only seen from a distance.

“…I have merely come to see Lady Helena Evans, who was dragged here last night.”

Adrian looked at Evan and snorted.

“Can you take responsibility for the word ‘dragged’?”

“Yes, that’s what it looked like to me. If she wasn’t dragged here, then why are you not letting me meet her?”

“Whether she was dragged or not, who are you to meet her?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking who you are to her that you’re asking to meet her.”

Evan straightened his body and raised his head at Adrian’s question. Simone was looking at her brother with an anxious face from the side.

“I am a person who has shared his heart with her.”

Aurelian made a face as if he had heard something unbelievable.

“What? What did you share? Your heart?”

“Yes. I am waiting for her answer to my proposal.”

Adrian’s eyes crinkled as he laughed at Evan’s words as if they were truly funny. His blue eyes sparkled and looked almost joyful.

“Who on earth did you propose to? Helena?”

“Yes.”

“Proposing to a woman whose name you don’t even know, you’re pitiful.”

Evan remembered the other name he had called her yesterday.

“It doesn’t matter what her name is. I just want her heart.”

Adrian laughed out loud, as if Evan’s words were really funny. Adrian, who barely managed to stop laughing, slowly got up from the main seat. And he slowly approached Evan.

“Yes, it doesn’t matter what her name is. She’s quite pretty, after all… But you know, there’s one thing you don’t know.”

The sound of Evan swallowing his saliva was heard all the way to Simone.

“That woman has no heart to share.”

Adrian, who had slowly approached, drew the sword of the knight closest to Evan. The first person to read the anger hidden beneath his calm face was the butler, Ben.

“That woman made countless wounds on a royal’s body, dared to humiliate a royal, and ran away. You, who are willing to take such a woman, are also a sinner to me. So it’s okay for me to kill you, isn’t it?”

The woman who dragged him to hell, opened a more terrible gate of hell, and then ran away, what could she possibly share with another?

‘I should kill this man.’ He thought so.

“Adrian!”

If it hadn’t been for Claire’s voice calling him at that moment, Evan would have died.

“Hahahaha, Evan, Simone… I didn’t know you would come all the way here.”

I tried my best to make this unnatural situation seem natural. If Butler Ben hadn’t had a maid tell me about the Genes siblings’ visit, Evan would have been dead.

“Butler, please go and prepare some tea. It’s not right to have guests and not offer them anything.”

“Yes, my lady. I will prepare it right away. And please, be informal with me.”

Thinking that he was a butler who seemed to dislike me but was good at reading the atmosphere, I quickly approached Adrian and subtly grabbed his wrist, which was holding the sword.

I had to think very deeply just to do this simple action. It wouldn’t have been strange if that sword had changed direction and aimed for my neck. Fortunately, I felt the strength leave his hand.

Encouraged by his reaction, I pulled his arm with a little more force, and Adrian, pretending to be defeated, put the sword back in its scabbard.

I pulled his freed arm and put it on my shoulder and naturally wrapped my arm around his waist. I pushed my body as if to fit it into his shoulder.

I saw Evan’s brows furrow in pain at my action.

‘I’m sorry… Evan…’

When I slightly pushed Adrian, he moved toward a table set up in a corner of the drawing room.

“I’ve had some circumstances and have been deceiving you all. I am not Helena Evans, but Claire Ianster, the second daughter of Count Ianster’s family of the Hesse capital. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t tell you the truth all this time.”

“Helena, is that true?”

Kind and naive Simone’s face turned as if she was about to cry. I wanted to hold her hand, but I couldn’t right now.

“…Then, what were all the things you showed me until now?”

‘Hey, Evan. Please, just shut your mouth. You’re going to get yourself killed.’

“If I did something that could be mistaken by Evan—I mean, by Young Master Genes—please forgive me. I didn’t mean it.”

Adrian, who was sitting sideways on the table, was looking at me with interest. He rested one arm on his face and tapped the table with his index finger of the other hand. The steady noise doubled my tension.

“And I’m not feeling well right now, so I’d appreciate it if you could go back for today.”

“Helena!”

“Yes… Young Master Genes.”

“Just tell me this one thing.”

“What is it?”

I gritted my teeth and tried to look as calm as possible.

“Are you really here because you want to be? If not, please tell me the truth.”

‘You fool, how can I tell you the truth here?’

“Of course, Young Master Genes. The Grand Duke and I are old friends. So please don’t worry and go back home. I will contact you when the time is right.”

Evan and Simone left the Grand Duke’s castle with faces that could not be convinced. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“Did you save that man from me?”

“Huh?”

I could neither say yes nor no. Adrian looked at me with a crooked face, staring intently, as they went out the door.

“You and I are old friends?”

“I didn’t really have anything else to say…”

“He said you shared your heart with him. Can that be shared?”

“…”

I read the unorganized confusion in his eyes from last night.

That was it. He had gained power and had started his revenge against me.

The things Adrian had gone through at Claire’s hands were so terrible that they were inexcusable, to the point that he had to find me and take revenge.

The sub-male lead who came to hate me just enough to not kill me. Just like the plot intended in the original story… he seemed to be planning to take this story forward by finding me and hating me.

“I hate you.”

‘I know.’

“Enough to want to kill you…”

‘I know…’

“So you must never disappear from my sight.”

“…”

“If you disappear from my sight, I will stomp on the Ianster family and wipe them out.”

‘It doesn’t matter much to me, but…’

“I won’t leave a single ant behind.”

‘So if that makes you feel better…’

“If you don’t want that to happen, it’s better to stay put.”

‘I’ll stay by your side.’