~Chapter 18~
I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 18. A Good Person, A Bad Person
As she approached the direction where the sound came from, Blair saw Heredin in one corner of the garden, retching.
Blair hurried toward him.
“Are you alri—”
But the moment she tried to pat his back, Heredin roughly shoved her away.
“Get lost!”
Struck by the force of the emotionally agitated Heredin, Blair helplessly fell backward with a thud.
Her backside throbbed from hitting the ground, but the pain was less overwhelming than her shock at the situation.
It was the first time someone had shown her such clear hostility.
Although the situation left her bewildered, her concern for Heredin was stronger.
Blinking blankly, Blair quickly got to her feet.
“Are you okay?”
Heredin’s eyes flickered for an instant when he saw Blair fall, but soon sank coldly again.
And he responded even more harshly.
“Didn’t you hear me tell you to get lost?”
He had long since discarded any courtesy toward a princess.
Heredin stepped closer to Blair as if threatening her and spat out the words through clenched teeth.
“If you don’t want to die, then get lost.”
A clear killing intent could be felt in Heredin’s voice as he spoke.
Blair instinctively shrank back at the murderous aura she had never encountered before, but the moment she saw his eyes, she could not run away.
Or rather, she did not want to.
Though he was speaking harshly, the twisted boy’s blue eyes somehow looked terribly lonely.
Suddenly, she remembered what Esmeralda had said yesterday.
“To be honest, Heredin isn’t a very affectionate child.
He has many wounds in his heart, so he’s awkward when dealing with people.”
Indeed, just as she said, Heredin was neither affectionate nor the good person Blair had falsely claimed he was.
But…
‘He’s not a bad person either.’
Just a boy who was struggling to bear the grief left behind.
“Wait a moment!”
Blair, who had been staring up at Heredin, suddenly remembered something and turned around, running back into the banquet hall.
Then she quickly grabbed something of hers and rushed out again.
She had been taught that running around like that was not ladylike, but Blair was in a hurry.
Like when she ran to get food for the cat that sometimes appeared in the backyard.
“Haa…
Haa…”
When she returned to the backyard, Heredin was nowhere to be seen.
Wandering around the garden, Blair finally found him on the opposite side of the wall where he had been earlier.
Heredin was sitting against the wall with his face buried in his knees.
‘Is he in a lot of pain?’
Remembering how Heredin had been retching, Blair wondered if she should bring medicine instead and approached him with concern.
At that moment, a sigh escaped from Heredin, who had his face buried in his knees, followed by the rough voice typical of an adolescent boy.
“…Why have you come back again?”
His tone was clearly annoyed, but this time he tried to speak politely.
Before he could push her away again, Blair quickly placed the item she had brought into his outstretched hand.
“I’ll lend you this.”
Only then did Heredin raise his head and look at what she had placed in his hand.
It was a pair of fur earmuffs.
“They’re rabbit fur earmuffs. If you wear them, you can’t hear sounds very well.”
These earmuffs would block out at least some of the whispers.
Since it was winter, no one would think it strange even if he wore earmuffs.
“And they’re warm and really soft.”
The rabbit fur earmuffs were fluffy.
They felt so nice that one would want to keep touching them.
Whenever she touched that fur, it made her feel better.
‘Then the Duke will feel better too, right?’
Heredin looked back and forth between the earmuffs and Blair, whose eyes were shining brightly, with a bewildered expression, about to say something when—
“Your Highness!
Are you here?”
A maid’s voice calling for Blair was heard.
Hearing approaching footsteps, Blair quickly stood up.
If it were discovered that Heredin was hiding here, the effort he had made to pretend nothing was wrong at the banquet today would fall apart.
“I’ll keep today a secret.”
Leaving Heredin behind, Blair quickly rounded the corner and hurried toward the maid.
Her hand felt empty without the earmuffs, but her heart felt lighter.
That night, before falling asleep, Blair made her usual wish.
Please let Mother love me.
Please let Mother and Her Majesty the Empress become close.
To the wish she made every day, she added one more that night for someone else.
Even though she disliked the person who took away the Empress’s attention…
‘Still, please let the Duke of Delmark become happy.’
* * *
“So the former Empress arranged the first meeting between you and the Duke?”
Though the story had nothing to do with her, Agnes listened to Blair with great interest.
What Blair had told Agnes was only that she had played cards with him the day before the New Year Festival and that Heredin had also attended the banquet. That was all.
She did not mention that he had run away from the banquet that night.
It was an old story, and even if someone learned now that he had run away that night, no one would be able to mock him.
Because the current Heredin was the empire’s greatest knight and a war hero.
But even if that secret no longer mattered, she did not want to turn his wounds into gossip for others.
“So a connection that began in childhood eventually blossomed into marriage. What a romantic story.”
“Is it?”
“Of course.
It’s the kind of story every young girl dreams about at least once.
And the person involved is the Duke…
Though of course, the one who completed that romance was your love.”
Blair looked at Agnes as if asking what she meant.
“Because you’re the one who kept that memory.
There must have been plenty of other memories from the New Year Festival, yet the one you remember centers around the Duke, doesn’t it?”
At Agnes’s words, Blair’s eyes blinked slowly in surprise.
It was a perspective she had never considered.
Agnes smiled gently.
“You must love the Duke very much.”
Blair, who had been quietly pondering those words, smiled faintly.
Yes, she had loved him.
Perhaps, just as Agnes said, she had been drawn to him from that New Year Festival.
But not anymore.
However, as the Duchess, she could not say to a stranger that she did not love the Duke.
Still, there was one thing she could say for certain…
“…I loved that time.”
The time when I liked you so purely, when those feelings were not a sin.
Agnes nodded at Blair’s words.
“Memories of happy moments can sometimes become the strength that sustains someone for a lifetime.
I hope this year’s New Year Festival gives you such a memory as well.”
This year’s New Year Festival was something Blair had already experienced once.
‘Come to think of it, what happened at this year’s New Year Festival?’
Blair paused as she tried to recall the memory.
Only then did she remember.
During the New Year Festival at this time before her return, there had been an accident.
* * *
That night, Blair paced around the room, touching her lips with her fingertips.
It was because the memory of the New Year Festival before her return had suddenly surfaced.
An accident had occurred during the New Year Festival around this time before she returned.
Demonic beasts had appeared in the imperial hunting grounds where the heads and ladies of each noble house had gone to gather offerings for the gods.
Blair had not immediately remembered the incident because she had caught a cold that day and had not attended the New Year Festival.
All she knew was what Rina told her the next morning after her fever subsided.
That Heredin, who had been there, had slain the demonic beast, and although a few people were injured, no one had died.
Heredin himself had returned covered in the beast’s blood, but he had not been injured.
‘What should I do…?’
If events flowed exactly as they had in the past, it would pass without major problems, but what if her intervention already changed things?
What if trying to prevent it only made things worse?
Countless possibilities stirred Blair’s mind.
She could not tell which was the right answer.
More than anything, the reason she hesitated to reveal the future was that there was no way to explain how she knew this.
Except by saying she had returned in time.
Would Heredin really believe such an absurd story?
‘But he believed me about Rina.’
Without asking or questioning anything, he had defended her and punished the maids.
If that was the case, perhaps he might believe her this time as well.
Even if this story was incomparably more ridiculous than the matter with Rina.
Still, even if he did not believe her, she had to tell him.
Knowing about a possible incident and preparing for it usually led to better outcomes than remaining completely unaware.
By now, Heredin should have returned home.
After hesitating several times, Blair went to Heredin’s room.
But there was no response even after several knocks.
‘Did he go to bed already?’
He did not usually sleep that early, but considering tomorrow’s schedule, it was possible.
Just as she was wondering whether to return to her room—
“What brings you here at this hour?”
Turning toward the voice, Blair met Heredin’s gaze.
He was standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall and watching her.
He looked as though he had just finished washing, dressed in a loose nightgown.
The moment her eyes met his blue eyes in the darkness, it felt like locking eyes with a predator watching its prey.
“…I have something I must tell you.”
Blair spoke with unusual determination, her pale cheeks reddened by the cold wind.
Heredin stared at her for a moment before stepping into the room.
Blair followed him into the bedroom.
The warm air of the heated room melted the chill from her body.
Walking over to the table with long strides, Heredin took a sip of whiskey and turned toward Blair.
“So, what is it that you have to say?”
“A demonic beast will appear at the hunting grounds tomorrow.
It would be best to scout the area beforehand and prevent it before the hunt begins.”
Heredin frowned at the sudden claim.
“Where did you hear that?”
It was exactly the reaction Blair had expected.
After hesitating briefly, Blair carefully began.
“I… can see the future.”
Heredin stared at Blair for a moment as she told such an absurd story, then let out a quiet laugh.
The words Rus had said that night a few days ago, when Blair had gone to the guild, came to mind.
Why had she come here in the middle of the night to tell such a ridiculous story?
What exactly was she plotting behind that innocent face?
The crooked smile that had appeared on Heredin’s lips disappeared, leaving only a cold gaze.
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“It may sound absurd, but there’s no harm in preventing it in advance…”
Blair stopped speaking when she saw that he had suddenly stepped closer to her.
The cold pressure from him made her instinctively step back.
Heredin wrapped an arm around Blair’s waist, cutting off her retreat.
“Heri—”
Just as she tried to push him away in surprise, his lips moved close to hers.
So close that she was afraid they would touch if she even moved her lips.
Stopping just short of her lips, Heredin whispered,
“Then tell me what I’m about to do next.”
His ice-blue eyes pierced down like blades.
