Duke, Please Fail! - Side Story 2 (Part 3)

Side Story 2: Part 3

The dawn’s blue light began to invade the room. 

Without any thought, I walked to the window. Unconsciously, I stood there for a while, as if waiting for strands of brown hair to be visible, as if waiting like someone lost. 

Eventually, after the people bustling about in the bright daylight had dispersed, I turned my body.

Roger was standing near the door, a silent acknowledgment of my solitude in the room.

“Were you in the study all night?”

I didn’t answer, but Roger understood the meaning of the silence.

“Your Grace, I think you’d better get some rest, and if you’re asleep, I’ll wake you up.”

As if my mind were veiled in fog, I felt hazy for a while. I nodded and returned to the room.

Lying down on the bed, I habitually opened the drawer of the bedside table. A small bottle deep in the drawer tilted and rolled out onto the floor.

Staring at the liquid for a while, I slowly closed my eyes. But sleep didn’t come. I kept replaying your death in my mind. It was becoming increasingly difficult to carry on daily life while pretending to be okay.

What’s the meaning of enduring like this without you?

I got up from the bed, took a sleeping pill, lay down again, and after tossing and turning several times, gradually, my consciousness faded away.

In the brief moments of falling asleep, I felt strands of hair tickling my forehead.

More accurately, someone was stroking my hair.

I furrowed my brow. When I opened my eyes, small and white fingers came into view. Through the gaps of those fingers, emerald green eyes with an adorable sparkle peered at me.

“Did you sleep well?”

Longing surged through me so strongly that I couldn’t breathe. I reached out towards the slightly tousled brown hair without thinking.

Trembling fingertips touched you.

Thin, soft, curling hair. The sensation I had been allowed to feel just once scattered like a dream beneath my palm.

“Is this a dream?”

As I pulled you closer, the small and round body nestled against mine.

“Or am I finally going insane?”

When our bodies touched, I felt warmth, a heartbeat that wasn’t mine, thirst, hunger, and the feeling of being resurrected from death alongside you.

When I exerted strength in my arm, the little hand patted my back.

I bowed my head, and I brought my ear below my left collarbone, listening. I could hear the sound of a beating heart.

The touch of the hand caressing my hair and neck felt natural.

It was so vivid that it couldn’t be dismissed as an illusion. Your presence was so tangible—the warmth, scent, breath, and heartbeat—all the evidence that you were alive was clear.

It couldn’t be like this.

When our eyes met, a worried expression crossed your face.

“I’ve been unconscious for a long time, haven’t I? That’s why I look so pale. I’m sorry, it must have been painful.”

For a moment, the clarity that had just returned to my mind faded away. As the vague energy dissipated, the reality of the senses gradually returned.

This woman couldn’t be you. You’re dead.

My head chilled. I grabbed the small hand reaching out to me and pressed it down onto the bed. Even though I climbed on top, completely overpowering her, the woman just blinked her eyes.

“Who sent you?”

“Huh?”

I eliminated a few. Lost people and gained fear. Thanks to that, the vassals and the relatives lay flat on the ground.

Even if I thought about it, there was only one who could restrain me.

“Did Adelhardt send you?”

“The prince? Me? Where to?”

A woman who resembles you tilts her head with an expression that cannot understand.

Brown hair scattered on the bedding. Round, wide emerald-green eyes are really…

“It’s chillingly similar.”

So much so that, as if she were your twin sister hidden, the woman looked exactly like you in my memories.

Was that why? If it were any other intruder, I would have slit their throat immediately, but I couldn’t harm a single hair.

“What’s your name?”

“My name?”

“Then, is there anyone else here?”

The woman who resembles you looks at me with a confused expression. The emerald-green eyes sparkle transparently, locked in a mist of tears.

“…Nelly. I’m your fiancée.”

For a moment, a sensation like my heart collapsing, anger boiled up. How dare a spy-like person resembling you utter your name. Grinding my teeth, I stood up.

The woman who resembles you clung to my arm.

“Leonel. Why are you suddenly like this? Are you angry?”

I pushed her hand away and shouted towards the door.

“Roger!”

The woman who resembles you shuddered and huddled her shoulders for a moment. Even that appearance was so similar to you that I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

I made an effort to regain my composure. I hung on to the resemblance of you in her desperate clinging to my calf, trying not to reveal my longing. I recalled the past.

I felt your life slowly fading away like a candle trapped in a glass bottle. So, confusion and delusion were out of the question. You’re dead. You’re dead.

Every time I realized it, it felt like my heart was being torn apart.

I didn’t know who sent this woman, but I could guess the malice behind it. If it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to thoroughly shatter my mind, such an act wouldn’t have been committed.

Grinding my teeth, I looked at the woman who resembled you.

“Leonel.”

I took a step back, distancing myself from the woman. Soon, the door opened, and Roger came in. He couldn’t hide his surprised expression as he looked at the woman.

I turned my body as coldly as possible.

“She’s a spy. Lock her up in the dungeon.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“What? A spy? Me?”

The knights came in and grabbed the woman’s arms.

“Wait, Leonel! What’s going on, Leonel!”

Turning away from the woman, the voice resembling you gradually faded.

It felt like the ground beneath my feet was crumbling away bit by bit.

* * *

In an instant, imprisoned in the dungeon, I blankly reconsidered what had happened to me. 

That day was just an ordinary day shortly after Leonel and I had the engagement ceremony.

I was searching for a book that detailed the history of the Altwood family to study. However, no matter how much I searched the library, I couldn’t find the book. Frustrated, I was idly circling the bookshelves when the butler spoke.

“Miss Nelly, the family records are in the study.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to get permission to study after getting married.”

“There’s no need for that. His Grace has already said that if Miss Nelly wishes, the study is open anytime.”

“Did Leonel know I was doing this?”

The butler gracefully nodded as he moved.

“Yes.”

“No wonder! Lately, he’s been looking at me so fondly.”

“That has always been the case.”

Despite Leonel being my fiancé, my face flushed for no apparent reason. I cooled my cheeks with the back of my hand. The butler, who had opened the study door, handed me a key.

“Why is this?”

Was he instructing me to lock up and leave? He handed me a key hanging like a pendant on a long necklace.

“This key is specially crafted for access to important places like the study and vault. His Grace asked me to give it to you, expressing his embarrassment.”

“Leonel, really. What if I steal a treasure and run away!”

I muttered, but laughter kept escaping.

“Hmm! Thank you for delivering the message, butler.”

“Yes. Should I convey your thanks to him?”

“No, I’m embarrassed, but I’ll thank him personally.”

The butler nodded with a gentle smile and stepped aside at the door.

“Then, please call me if you need anything.”

“Yes!”

I hung the key around my neck and tucked it inside my clothes as I entered the study. The cold metal extended to my chest quickly warmed up, blending into my body temperature.

I aimlessly roamed around, scratching the area around the study. Books about the family’s history were concentrated on one side, as usual. I picked a book from the left arm, as I always did.

While wandering, my eyes suddenly caught a book that protruded oddly. The book cover was deep red leather, and the spine was intricately engraved with a sophisticated but noisy pattern in gold leaf.

It was slightly thicker than a handspan and almost the size of a human torso. It was a majestic book that seemed like it might collapse if mishandled due to its weight.

‘Why would such a book exist?’

Nevertheless, the unfamiliar appearance of the book was too intriguing to ignore. Moreover, it seemed to be almost proudly protruding from the bookshelf, as if daring me to take a closer look.

Setting aside what I was carrying, I stood in front of the bookshelf. Since it wasn’t positioned too high, I grabbed the book with both hands and pulled it out. However, despite my efforts, I couldn’t withstand its weight and ended up sitting back, the book slipping from my hands.

As the book fell, its pages spread open. Despite the effort to retrieve it, there were no words written on the pages.

‘What is this? It was all for nothing.’

I grumbled internally, glaring at the book. It was at that moment, as I was about to get up, that sentences appeared above the book.

Suddenly! From a blank sheet of paper!

Startled, I quickly retreated from the book. I hid behind the table and caught my breath.

I thought magic only appeared in legends! What is happening? Should I tell Leonel?

Carefully lifting the chair, I approached the book with slow steps. Characters shimmered like fish under the surface of the water, wandering over the blank pages.

As I stopped, the characters slowly took their places.

‘When you close this book and fall asleep, you can meet someone who longs for you beyond the stopped time so much that it defies death.’

After reading it, the characters fluctuated significantly.

‘If you want to come back, close the book and fall asleep on the day of the full moon.’

This time, instead of characters, the bookshelf itself turned.

“Ahh!”

Terrified and startled, I quickly used the chair’s backrest to slam the book shut.

It seemed like the characters were moving, but I had no desire to confirm.

The book remained quiet, but it was still frightening, so I poked it cautiously with the chair.

‘Fortunately, it’s not moving.’

The content was not strange or ominous. In a way, it seemed somewhat romantic. Closing the book and seeing Leonel when I wake up would be nice.

Having such a strange thought, I decided it would be better to put the book back in its place. It was impossible to lift it above my head, but I could manage chest height. Holding the book close, I climbed onto the chair.

While trying to insert the book, its weight caused my body to waver, and I fell backward.

“Oops?”

In a moment of confusion, my balance shifted, and my body tilted. Without the chance to react, I tumbled backward, falling under the chair.

I could see the book that had been hanging on the bookshelf falling. The wide-open book rushed toward my face.

And that was the last memory.

When I opened my eyes, Leonel, who was asleep, came into view.