So the Duchess Disappeared

82. If the Truth Cannot Save Us 2

When Clint visited the study, the Duke did not greet him warmly but instead showed blatant annoyance as he let him in.

“Is it something so important that you had to interrupt my work hours?”

“Speak quickly and to the point.”

The Duke only offered scolding words instead of a greeting to his nervous son.

Clint, trying to convey his mother’s transgression in a less shocking and less provocative manner, brought up various topics. He even talked about the weather and a recent sword training session. Amidst these, he subtly inserted remarks about his mother, but all he received were cold stares from the Duke.

“Did you come here to talk about such trivial matters? Have you inherited your mother’s lack of discernment?”

“I’m not as idle as you think. Don’t act like your mother towards me.”

At these words, Clint shut his mouth, feeling dejected.

Then, with great difficulty, he chose his words carefully and finally spoke what he needed to say.

When he told the Duke that the Duchess, his mother, had taken up with another man, the Duke was silent for a long time.

It seemed he was somewhat shocked.

But that shock was brief.

The Duke quickly collected his emotions and stood up with a dry expression.

“Do you think revealing the truth to me has solved anything?”

Clint looked puzzled by the question.

“It would have been better if I hadn’t known.”

“Remember this, Clint. Sometimes the truth… is not always the best solution.”

The Duke’s face seemed momentarily sad as he spoke, but that too was fleeting.

“But now that I know, I can’t let your mother stay here any longer.”

Clint sensed something was going wrong.

At the time, he was still not even ten years old, too young to understand the complexities of adultery or the outcomes of romantic entanglements.

But they were still his parents.

He thought they would at least try to patch things up.

However, his father was not a man of such leniency.

Clint quickly realized that his father intended to expel his mother.

He couldn’t let that happen, so he quickly fell to his knees.

“Father! No! If mother is expelled from the duchy, she might die soon after. Please don’t!”

He wanted to prevent his mother’s death at all costs.

No matter how poorly she had behaved, she was still his mother.

Even if others pointed fingers, she was his only mother.

Already living a precarious life in the duchy, Clint feared she might truly die if she were expelled.

As Clint pleaded desperately, the Duke smirked.

“Then you take on your mother’s sin.”

“Someone has to pay for it, right?”

The Duke’s words were spoken with a playful tone.

Clint responded desperately.

“I will! I’ll take the blame!”

Within a week of that conversation, Clint was expelled from the duchy.

The Duke spared his mother’s disgrace in exchange for Clint’s departure.

And he said,

“If you can survive a year outside the duchy without my help, I will take you back.”

It was a cold command.

The Duke mercilessly pushed Clint out.

It was unbelievable.

On the day Clint confessed the truth to his father, he learned what it meant to be abandoned.

Because of that event, the Duchess began to lose her sanity, crying out for her son’s name.

“How could you expel Clint!”

“Be quiet, Duchess. You should be grateful to your son for revealing the truth.”

“You never had a choice. Just think of it as failing to educate your son properly.”

The Duke kept his promise and didn’t expose the Duchess’s disgrace.

However, their conflicts deepened, and the Duchess fell ill.

Even while staying away from the duchy, Clint often visited his mother out of concern.

But the Duchess’s condition worsened, and it became unbearable to see.

Clint couldn’t shake the guilt that his attempt to save his mother only made her suffer more.

His mother wasted away day by day.

She blamed herself, more so because she didn’t know the reason.

“Is it because of my lack of virtue?”

“What did I do wrong? Tell me, Clint.”

The lives of the mother and son deteriorated daily.

Without a purpose or reason to live, Clint’s mother lost her will to live more and more each day.

And the Duke didn’t even look at her.

Despite this, she wanted to know why her son, Clint, was expelled from the duchy.

As her relationship with the Duke worsened, Clint became her only hope.

On days when she argued with the Duke, she would return to her room, embrace Clint, and repeat similar words.

“My dear, I hope you become the Duke.”

“You need to be a better person than your father.”

“My pride and joy, my son.”

But the fact that her only hope was expelled by the Duke was something she couldn’t accept.

She was sure that the calculating Duke wouldn’t do something like that without a reason, and she wanted to know the truth.

But Clint didn’t want her to know. He didn’t want his mother to blame herself any further.

If she knew the truth…

She would certainly suffer more.

So Clint tried to keep the truth hidden.

However, there are no perfect secrets in this world, and the truth always comes out eventually.

That day, what started as a small argument with the Duke escalated.

She was mentally unstable and, in moments of extreme emotion, would sometimes threaten the Duke with her life.

That day, she grabbed the Duke’s dagger, held it to her neck, and screamed to be killed.

The Duke, his emotions stirred, sneered and spoke.

“You are truly a mother who is no help to your child.”

“What did you say? You, who expelled our child, dare to say that!”

“Do you even know why he was expelled?”

The Duke, unable to hold back any longer, threw off his cravat and shouted.

“Your son saw you sharing your dirty emotions with a knight!”

“What… did you say?”

“Do you even know that your son is taking the punishment in your place!”

At those words, Clint’s mother fainted on the spot.

The sound of metal hitting the floor reverberated through their hearts, tearing them apart.

Knowing the truth, Clint’s mother cried hysterically and fainted multiple times.

She couldn’t bear the fact that she had obstructed her son’s future.

She didn’t have the courage to live with the truth.

So, after crying for several days and nights, one sunny morning, she hung herself, ending her life.

She left behind only a short note, apologizing to her son.

Clint remembered that day vividly.

“Mother? Mother?”

An eerie silence filled the room.

He felt a sudden chill.

A strange sensation swept through his body, ominously foretelling the coming tragedy.

The dark interior.

A bedroom devoid of any sign of life.

And then, his mother, cold and lifeless.

“…”

Clint couldn’t believe it.

The memory of that day was still so clear, shaking the very foundation of his life.

He wept bitterly.

“If only you had lived instead of leaving those few words of apology.”

“Living would have been better.”

“You shouldn’t have left me. Didn’t you know staying with me was better than saying sorry? Mother…”

His mother had been so cruel.

Her twisted love, unable to protect her son until the end, always left him anxious.

Above all, the memories of being abandoned every time he told the truth or the truth was revealed dominated his entire being.

What if someone else learned the truth? Would they leave him too?

He was always afraid of that.

After his mother, Psyche was the first person he didn’t want to be abandoned by.

So, he thought he would hide what he could and show her only the good things.

Sometimes, the truth is not always the best solution. He just wanted her to stay by his side.

For him, he needed a trust that transcended the truth.

But that trust was shattered the first day Psyche left him.