Chapter : 09
I placed my trembling hand on the Duke’s arm.
“I… I’m al…right.”
I wasn’t alright at all. I was scared out of my mind.
These days, every time I opened my mouth, I seemed to be lying.
“I-I’m sorry for interfering without permission. But…”
The Duke had been looking down at Alexei, but when his eyes turned toward me, they wavered.
Surprisingly, what I saw in those brown eyes, which faintly shimmered with gold, wasn’t anger.
It was fear.
Is he afraid of Alexei, too?
“Shut up! Get out of here right now!!”
However, perhaps sensing that I had approached, Alexei began struggling again.
I reflexively stepped backward at his voice.
The Duke’s eyes, which had wavered for that brief moment, returned to Alexei and became stern and resolute once more.
“Steward, lock Alexei up. This boy has no right to join us for dinner tonight.”
“Your Grace, but…!”
“This is an order from the head of this family!”
The servants hesitated, but at the Duke’s forceful command, they quickly moved.
The Duke gritted his teeth as he restrained his son.
“Alexei. Do not leave your room until you realize what you did wrong and are willing to apologize to Cassandra.”
“Father, I…!”
“Today! You not only insulted the Clayman family, you hurt every one of us. As your father and as the head of this family, I am deeply disappointed in you.”
Alexei screamed and struggled, but the butler and several large servants fastened strange, glowing shackles around the boy’s limbs.
As if that weren’t enough, they tightly bound him and carried him away.
Thud. Thud.
Even after the door closed, I could still hear Alexei struggling and screaming angrily from the other side.
“D-Duke… Truly… Alexei really didn’t do anything to me. I just felt like I didn’t belong in this family, and that’s why… Alexei didn’t do anything wrong. I…”
“…Cassandra. I understand how you feel, but I think too much has happened here today. You should return to your room as well.”
The Duke spoke without looking at me.
His broad back was straight, but he looked exhausted.
He walked past me and approached the Duchess, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
Seeing them comfort each other, I followed Hanna out after being clearly dismissed, but I unconsciously looked back.
I saw the Duchess carefully embracing the Duke from behind.
For some reason, watching the two of them comforting each other made me feel lonely.
‘Lonely?’
Why would I feel lonely?
These people weren’t my family.
I shouldn’t arbitrarily mistake someone’s kindness for something more.
I’m a transmigrator, not the real Cassandra.
I couldn’t even become a member of this family.
“Lady Cassandra, are you all right?”
“…I’m fine.”
Get a grip.
I couldn’t forget my goal.
‘I have to survive Alexei.’
That was what I needed to think about first.
I needed to find a way to become free from him.
But now, I had stepped into a family matter I shouldn’t have interfered with.
And in doing so, I’d earned Alexei’s hatred.
What am I supposed to do now?
Next to the bedroom, which was so enormous that it was difficult to get used to, was an equally enormous sitting room.
“Cassandra.”
A tall, handsome, one-eyed man entered the room.
I was already anxious, so I immediately stood and opened my mouth.
“Duke! Really, about what happened…”
“Sit down.”
At those words, my mouth immediately snapped shut, and I sat down on the sofa.
Even aside from what had happened today, there was something incredibly intimidating about the Duke.
He possessed the natural aura of someone born to command others, and it was just as strong as Alexei’s.
Hanna quickly arranged the tea service.
Steam and fragrance rose from the tea, spreading through the air.
“There is something I want to ask you.”
A long while after the two of us were left alone, the Duke set down his teacup and finally spoke.
“By any chance, last night…”
At those words, I immediately froze.
Seeing my extremely wary expression, he stroked his beard and gave a bitter smile.
“…It seems you left your bedroom.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Yes… So that’s what happened.”
I had already been warned not to leave.
Yet just like the protagonists in fairy tales, I had ignored the warning.
And just like them, I had encountered the monster.
I wanted to beg for forgiveness.
I wanted to explain that I hadn’t gone out because I wanted to take a walk at night, that I had thought everything was part of a nightmare…
I wanted to tell someone.
Anyone.
And be forgiven.
“…Alexei didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault.”
But what came out of my mouth was something else entirely.
“I’ll forget everything. I’ll make sure I never remember it. I’ll pretend I don’t know anything! I’ll start preparing to leave right away, even today…!”
“Cassandra.”
I desperately wanted to prevent any more misunderstandings from piling up between Alexei and me.
More than anything, I wanted to stop earning his hatred.
But the Duke seemed to read the fear hidden beneath my words and sighed.
“Come with me.”
Am I being thrown out?
If I were expelled like this, would I finally be able to escape Alexei?
The corridor grew darker as the sun set.
There was no one around.
The Duke walked ahead, holding a lantern, and his shadow gradually stretched longer across the floor.
‘If I do escape, how am I supposed to survive from then on?’
What could a minor with no advantages other than being literate even do in this era?
“Cassandra.”
“Yes, yes!”
I had been lost in thought and only belatedly realized he was calling me.
I quickly raised my head.
A face similar to Alexei’s, but older and somewhat gentler, was looking at me.
“I’m not trying to scold you.”
The handsome man with a dignified charm looked at my face and smiled.
“I told you, didn’t I? You’re my daughter now, and Alexei will be your younger brother… You simply learned something you needed to know.”
His voice was nothing like the stern, forceful voice he’d used at dinner.
It was soft and gentle.
“…Though I wish you hadn’t had to learn it this way.”
There was pain in his voice as he sighed.
The Duke placed a hand on my shoulder and pointed toward a portrait with the other.
“Do you know who this is?”
The enormous portrait directly ahead depicted an incredibly charismatic woman.
She was sitting atop a bleeding bear, looking arrogantly down at the viewers.
Long, flowing black curls.
Pale skin.
Golden eyes.
There was an inexplicable ferocity in her deep-set eyes, while her thick, elongated lips curled into a playful yet arrogant smile.
She radiated an authoritative arrogance, yet somehow, even that made her seem more attractive.
‘A sword in one hand, and a gigantic glowing ore in the other…’
A memory suddenly surfaced.
I remembered the setting about Alexei’s family that I had liked.
“…Lady Luxona?”
“Yes. You know her well.”
The Duke smiled and began to tell me the story.
Luxona Ekaterina Clayman.
The woman who had been called a demon.
The great Duchess who had revived the once-insignificant Clayman family.
That magnificent and wicked woman had been born between a demon and a human.
“What?!”
It would have been absurd to say that was impossible.
After all, nothing about my current situation made sense from the moment I transmigrated into this world.
And I had seen Alexei’s…
Demonic appearance.
‘He really does have demon blood?!’
I suddenly remembered the religious books I’d seen in the study.
The words descendant of a demon had appeared in them, too…
“Cassandra, you don’t need to be afraid. There are very few people who inherited Lady Luxona’s blood as strongly as she did.”
‘How do you know that?! Did you conduct a genetic test or something?! Then what about Alexei?!’
According to the Duke, Luxona, a descendant of demons, was wicked just as befitted her bloodline.
But she was equally extraordinary.
She inherited her title at a young age and personally led the vanguard, slaughtering her enemies.
After winning battle after battle in territorial wars, she discovered valuable minerals in the unimpressive Clayman territory and revitalized its mining industry.
But she didn’t stop there.
She conquered the small countries neighboring the northern region, expanding the territory of both the Kingdom of Marcel and the Clayman family.
In other words, Luxona was an extraordinary ruler who raised the declining Clayman family—once being ruined by endless plunder, warfare, and mining—to the position of leader of the North.
But such extraordinary greatness came with a price.
“They say that sometimes, she would spend time in that form.”
He said it so casually.
As if transforming into a monster were nothing unusual.
However, I could catch a flicker of fear on the Duke’s face as well.
‘He’s seen it.’
“Only a few people in the Clayman family know about it. Very few children are born with her blood running strongly through their veins in the first place.”
“…Is it a curse?”
If someone transformed into a form like that, anyone would call it a curse.
But the Duke gave me a subtle smile at my question.
“Cassandra. Children born like Lady Luxona, even with such problems, were extraordinarily gifted.”
He neither confirmed nor denied it.
It wasn’t a curse, but it was passed down through the family in a way that resembled one.
‘The Duke… The entire family must be incredibly proud of Luxona.’
And yet, at dinner, the Duke had been afraid of Alexei.
The Clayman family endlessly praised Luxona’s greatness.
They believed that even possessing the appearance of such a monster was proof of inheriting Luxona’s legacy, and they supported children like that as heirs.
I followed the Duke down a corridor filled with portraits.
Surprisingly, all of those descendants had golden eyes.
Only then did I realize that the Duke’s eyes, unlike mine, were an ordinary brown.
Just as those descendants paid the price of sometimes taking on a demonic appearance, they were also cunning and exceptionally perceptive.
The Clayman family had been shaken by reckless and rapid growth, but thanks to these descendants, it had once again entered a period of prosperity.
‘The family’s faith wasn’t completely unfounded after all.’
“Alexei is… an exceptionally gifted child, just like those descendants, and I am proud of him.”
Did the Duke worship Luxona so much that he was trying to take pride even in his son’s monstrous appearance?
Or perhaps even though he was afraid of that appearance…
Was he still proud of his son?
Did Alexei know that?
“The problem is… that child has difficulty controlling it… That’s why what happened today occurred.”
Wait.
“Controlling it?”
“Yes. He doesn’t live like that all the time. If he did, the Clayman family wouldn’t have survived.”
So you did know…!
Well, that made sense.
While the family openly admired Luxona Clayman, they had hidden her monstrous appearance.
Even someone nonreligious like me would think she was a demon and panic.
In a country where priests could wield divine power, it would probably cause an even greater uproar.
“The more he grows, the more he will be able to control his transformations. Eventually, he’ll be able to remain in human form without transforming even when the circumstances call for it.”
But Alexei apparently couldn’t control it yet.
“Alexei becomes particularly sensitive during that period.”
According to the Duke, Alexei transformed several times at intervals of one or two months, and the transformations were irregular.
For now, the most they could do was prevent him from transforming during the daytime.
“Unfortunately, the time you arrived happened to overlap with that period… I’m truly sorry.”
At the Duke’s quiet words, I felt strangely conflicted.
A few times a month.
That sounds like a menstrual cycle.
‘And he’s particularly sensitive during that period? Even that is similar…’
Suddenly, I felt a burst of sympathy for Alexei.
‘I hated the world during that time, too… I wanted to smash everything… And I craved sweets…’
