The Grand Duchess Escape

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He looked at Asella with a face of disbelief. He couldn’t make sense of what she was saying at all.

“Asella, what do you mean? Explain it in a way I can understand.”

But already, nothing reached Asella’s ears.

Since the day her mother died, she had been hiding the truth of that day. Now, as she revealed to the very person who had kept her in fear all this time that she knew everything, Asella could hardly keep her composure.

“Y-you….”

With trembling fingers, Asella pulled out the necklace she was wearing.

As the lid of the pendant seemed to open, something fell out and rolled down. A button came to a stop at Calix’s feet.

Calix’s face momentarily flashed with confusion as he recognized the pattern engraved on the button.

The emblem, clearly etched on the entirely black button, belonged to an organization he was all too familiar with.

“How do you have this? This is—”

Before Calix could finish his sentence, Asella screamed out, almost like a cry of despair.

“You killed my mother!”

“What?”

“You were the one behind her death! You had Karma kill her!”

Calix let out a breath that sounded almost incredulous. Rubbing his face roughly, he asked, “Who told you such a thing? Philip?”

“Does it matter?”

Asella looked straight at him with a face streaked with tears. Calix, reading the emotions brimming in her bright blue eyes, faltered for a moment.

It was clear resentment and hatred.

‘Why?’

He understood that she was afraid of him, that she felt fear— For she would tense up and become anxious at the slightest hardening of his face, unsure of what to do.

However, it was the first time his wife had shown such fierce animosity. A chilling sensation gripped his heart, and without realizing it, Calix brought a hand to his chest.

For the first time in a long while—perhaps for the very first time—he was acutely sensitive to another’s emotions.

A restlessness and tension that defied explanation rose within him, even a strange fear. All these unfamiliar feelings swirled chaotically inside him.

This sudden confrontation with such change in personality left him utterly bewildered.

Because of that, Calix failed to notice the resolute determination that had appeared on Asella’s face.

It all happened so fast.

“I don’t mind if you kill me. I’m prepared for that.”

Asella picked up a shard of glass that had fallen to the ground.

“But you can’t touch Meriel.”

“Asella!”

Calix, realizing too late, reached out hurriedly, but her movements were quicker.

Without hesitation, Asella stabbed the shard of glass into her own neck.

  *

The atmosphere in the grand duke’s castle, which had seemed to loosen for a moment, froze once again.

A suffocating silence enveloped the castle, making it hard to breathe. No one dared to speak, carefully observing the tense situation around them.

The servants summoned by the duke’s order to his bedchamber, all wore pale faces and kept their mouths shut.

In particular, the face of the physician who had been called in the morning and had only just emerged by evening was completely stricken with terror. He could barely steady himself, swaying as a knight stationed at the door had to support him.

It was obvious who the patient was that the physician had tended to all day without a drop of water, and those observing began to realize the gravity of the situation.

Instinctively, they understood that speaking carelessly could cost them their lives, and so they held their tongues.

As a result, only a few knew the details of what had transpired. However, they could all guess at least one thing.

Something had happened between the grand duke and his wife.

***
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