Chapter 26
Alice raised her head, looking up at the white backboard that blocked her vision.
Her hair fluttered as it fell over her ceremonial robes.
The person standing protectively in front of her was High Priest Prion.
“Move aside this instant!”
“I’m afraid I cannot do that. Who knows what you intend to do to the Duchess?”
“High Priest Prion! This is a family matter!”
“No, it is not just a Dearrut family matter, not since the Duchess expressed her wish to become a priestess.”
Prion’s deep voice resonated.
Madam Quillian flinched for a moment, stepping back in the face of Prion’s icy blue gaze. But it was only for an instant.
“She is still my daughter-in-law! High Priest Prion, you are overstepping your bounds in the ducal household! Do you think I will let this matter slide quietly?!”
Prion looked down at Madam Quillian with a cold stare.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, twisting the corner of his lips, Alice pulled her wrist from his grasp and stepped in front of Madam Quillian.
Prion’s surprised gaze turned to Alice.
But Alice did not hide behind him again.
Though she had asked for Prion’s help, that didn’t mean she intended to cower silently behind him.
Of course, she was a bit startled by how furious Madam Quillian was, more than expected.
But declaring her wish to become a priestess was something she had to do herself.
Alice looked straight at Madam Quillian and said:
“I requested the High Priest Prion’s assistance. Therefore, this is no longer just a Dearrut family matter.”
“How dare you…”
“Mother, haven’t you always said I was lacking as a duchess? I thought so too. Since I arrived, the Duke has shown… no signs of improvement. So I will become a priestess and live praying for the Dearrut duchy.”
Madam Quillian’s eyes flashed.
“Absolutely not!!”
Shouting loud enough to make the room reverberate, Madam Quillian raised her hand high as if to slap Alice’s cheek.
Before Prion could intervene, Madam Quillian’s hand flew towards Alice, whose eyes widened—
A sharp groan echoed through the room.
Madam Quillian paused, her face scrunching up.
“Ha! You act hurt so well, even though I haven’t struck you yet!”
Madam Quillian scoffed, as if finding it absurd.
“…That wasn’t me?”
Alice, who had been focused solely on Madam Quillian’s hand, hadn’t heard anything.
Who was pretending to be hurt?
Seeing Alice’s confused expression, Madam Quillian furrowed her brow.
“If it wasn’t you, then who…”
“Ugh…”
At that moment, a clear groan sounded once more. This time, Alice heard it distinctly.
“The sound is coming from the bed,” Prion said, hesitating.
He approached the bed with a grave expression.
The bed? But only Kylus was on the bed…
Why would there be a sound from there?
The eyes of both Madam Quillian and Alice wavered greatly, for different reasons.
“The Duke… he’s waking up…!”
Prion’s eyes widened.
Simultaneously, Alice and Madam Quillian, who had been facing each other, whipped their heads around.
Towards the bed.
At that moment, a harsh breath erupted from Kylus.
“Huh!”
Like someone who had just been rescued from drowning, he gasped for air roughly.
“Ugh, haa, ha…”
“Your Grace!”
The butler rushed to the bed and supported Kylus’s shoulders.
With the butler’s help, Kylus raised his upper body and leaned back against the headboard, exhaling a long breath.
After a moment, the butler asked in a trembling voice:
“Your Grace, are you conscious?”
“…How long have I been unconscious?”
A voice as rough as parched earth.
Though deeply sunken, it clearly pierced the ear, causing goosebumps to rise on Alice’s arms.
He really woke up.
Kylus, who had been all but dead, had truly awakened.
“You’ve been unconscious for a full 7 months!”
The butler cried out, unable to contain his emotion, his voice choked with tears.
“Seven months… I’ve been lying here.”
“Brother…”
As Sienna, who had been standing silently until now, spoke with a sob, Kylus’s gaze turned to her.
“Sienna, seeing that even you’ve come, I must have been unconscious for quite some time.”
“I’m so relieved… that you’ve woken up.”
A teardrop like a glass bead rolled down Lady Meltain’s cheek as she approached Kylus’s bedside.
Kylus, the butler, and Lady Meltain.
They looked at each other as if a separated family had been reunited.
It was a touching scene, if one could call it that, but Alice unfortunately had no time to feel moved.
She couldn’t believe the reality that Kylus was wide awake and speaking normally.
This isn’t a dream, is it?
She wanted to pinch her cheek to check, but her body was frozen stiff and wouldn’t move.
At that moment, the priests gathered around Kylus.
With faces full of joy, they began to speak one by one:
“For the Duke to regain consciousness like this, it’s nothing short of a miracle from the divine!”
“Indeed! Isn’t this proof that the divine is watching over the Dearrut duchy!”
“Of course! The Duchess has always offered prayers, and now she even intends to become a priestess for the Duke’s well-being. Surely the divine was moved by the Duchess’s noble heart!”
What…?
Alice’s mind snapped back to attention as she heard these words pouring out while she stood frozen like a stone.
Why is the conversation suddenly flowing that way…?
In that instant, all eyes focused on her.
Not just the priests, but Kylus as well.
“…Duchess?”
It was then that Alice properly met his eyes for the first time.
Jet-black pupils.
His eyes, hidden beneath his eyelids until now, were far more beautiful and… colder than she had imagined.
If there were a night sky devoid of starlight, it would be Kylus’s eyes.
As her mouth went dry from the pressure of his gaze, Kylus’s eyebrow rose slightly.
“What is that hand for… Mother?”
Hand?
Alice only then realized that Madam Quillian still had her hand raised high.
Seemingly as shocked as Alice, Madam Quillian had frozen in the same posture she’d been in when about to slap Alice’s cheek.
“Ah… This is, well…”
Snapping back to her senses at Kylus’s words, Madam Quillian awkwardly lowered her raised hand.
“I was merely trying to discipline my daughter-in-law.”
“…You’ve been saying incomprehensible things since earlier. Duchess and daughter-in-law? No matter how I think about it, I have no memory of getting married.”
Kylus’s chilling gaze focused directly on Madam Quillian.
“What exactly is going on here, Mother?”
His intense gaze, unbelievably strong for someone who had just come back from the brink of death, made Alice involuntarily swallow.
How much worse must it be for Madam Quillian, who was receiving that murderous look head-on?
She couldn’t hide her flustered expression.
Madam Quillian’s lips quivered as she looked at Alice, but seeming to decide against it, she turned back to Kylus.
As if she had never been facing Alice, Madam Quillian rushed to Kylus’s side, her dress swirling.
“Kylus, for you to wake up like this… I still can’t believe it. Every night I worried, what if you never woke up… But now it’s alright. It’s all fine now. The divine has granted my wish.”
Madam Quillian took out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.
Just as she reached out to Kylus, putting on the perfect mask of a concerned mother, Kylus coldly avoided her hand without mercy.
“That’s not what I asked. I understand you’re happy I’ve woken up, so please answer my question, Mother.”
Though his tone was polite, not a shred of emotion showed on Kylus’s face.
A gaze as cold as ice.
He made no attempt to hide his hostility towards Madam Quillian.
Though she must have sensed it, Madam Quillian calmly withdrew her hand and dabbed at her eyes once more with the handkerchief.
Then, lowering the corners of her eyes, she slowly began to speak:
“…It was all for your sake.”
“For my sake… you say.”
“Yes. After you suddenly collapsed and I became the acting duchess, I hardly had time to attend to the household affairs.”
Her voice continued, sounding as pitiful as could be:
“But I couldn’t neglect your care either… So, I brought in a wife to help with the household and nurse you.”
“…”
“It was all my decision for you and the Dearrut duchy, so please try to understand. Moreover, I carefully selected a calm and… modest young lady.”
Calm and modest.
Those words somehow seemed to be spoken through gritted teeth.
As if confirming Alice’s perception, Madam Quillian’s eyes flashed for a moment as she glanced at her.
Alice paid it no mind, or rather, she couldn’t.
Kylus’s aura was completely overwhelming Madam Quillian.
Anyone could see who the true predator was here.
If Madam Quillian was a wildcat, Kylus was a tiger.
No sooner had Madam Quillian finished speaking than Kylus’s gaze returned to Alice.
He looked straight at her and moved his pale lips:
“How curious. I opened my eyes after 7 months to find I suddenly have a wife…”
Is this what it feels like to put your head in a tiger’s mouth?
Alice unconsciously gulped as she met Kylus’s gaze.
Is this how it ends?
Am I really going to be devoured by a tiger like this?
What about my cozy, peaceful life as a priestess?
As the dream of priesthood began to blur before Alice’s eyes, a voice like that of a savior rang out:
“I beg your pardon, Your Grace, but the Duchess is no longer the Duchess.”
Prion, her savior Prion the High Priest, had stepped forward.
