Chapter 169 — Forced Awakening
Meisel’s chest swelled endlessly.
This was the moment she had waited for her entire life.
“Grand Duke!”
Just as Meisel smiled brightly and reached out her hand—
The Grand Duke’s expression hardened the instant their eyes met.
“What are you?”
His handsome brows twisted sharply.
“Where is Annette?”
A terrifyingly low voice rang out.
Killing intent surged around the Grand Duke in an instant.
‘Is it possible the illusion magic isn’t working?’
Panicking, Meisel turned toward Cecilia, but Cecilia was also staring at the Grand Duke with a confused expression.
Before she could answer, the Grand Duke roughly grabbed Meisel’s hand and dragged her out of the carriage.
“Ah!”
Meisel collapsed heavily onto the ground.
As she lifted her head, a flash of light burst before her eyes.
The Grand Duke was already aiming a sharply honed sword at her throat.
“C-Commander!”
“Why are you suddenly doing this?!”
The startled knights rushed forward to help Meisel, then flinched and froze.
The blue aura surrounding the sword darkened into a chaotic violet glow near Meisel.
“It’s sorcery!”
The knights stepped back from her.
“N-no! I’m—!”
Just as Meisel tried desperately to move away from the blade—
The Grand Duke suddenly closed the distance and roughly grabbed the back of her neck.
“G-Grand Duke!”
His large, powerful hand yanked her necklace and snapped the chain in one motion.
As Meisel coughed violently from the pressure on her throat, the magic stone on the necklace shattered in the Grand Duke’s hand.
Gasps of shock rose from the knights around them.
When she lifted her head, everyone was staring at her with horrified expressions.
“My goodness!”
Cecilia covered her mouth as their eyes met.
The illusion magic had clearly been dispelled when the magic stone broke.
‘N-no! I was so close!’
“Meisel…?”
Tiern’s eyes shook violently, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The Grand Duke spoke as though he might crush Meisel’s throat at any moment.
“Where is Annette?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Tell me right now, before I kill you.”
His tightly clenched fist trembled.
I can’t be hated any more than this.
“I—I was just quietly praying at the monastery, and when I woke up, I was inside the carriage!”
Meisel blurted out excuses as fast as she could.
“The Grand Duchess—no, Her Grace—must have run away! She told me herself that she was sick of the North!”
The words started sounding believable even to her.
“She must have escaped while sending me here. Come to think of it… she said there was a man she met in the capital!”
“Meisel, stop it!”
Tiern roughly grabbed her arm.
“Brother!”
“How far are you planning to go?! Get a grip!”
His face, filled with disappointment and rage, shouted at her.
“Tell us where Her Grace is, now!”
The arm Tiern was gripping so tightly began to ache.
Her gentle older brother had never treated her like this before.
Panicked, Meisel looked around.
Everyone was staring at her with disgust, as if she were roadside filth.
Only then did Meisel realize it.
She had crossed a line she could never return from.
If she had stayed quietly at the monastery, maybe after three years she could have returned to Blenheim.
If her father provided a generous dowry, she might have married the son of a fallen noble family.
But—
‘I hate that.’
She didn’t want a lukewarm life like that.
If she couldn’t become the Grand Duchess, nothing had meaning.
Meisel chose to gamble for her chance instead.
And she lost that gamble.
‘I really almost had it.’
She could have become the Grand Duchess loved by the Grand Duke…
As she let go of everything, deep exhaustion washed over her.
“…I don’t know.”
At her resigned tone, Tiern grabbed her shoulders in despair.
“Meisel, it’s not too late! Tell us where Her Grace is, right now!”
“I really don’t know.”
She remembered leaving the monastery, but after that, everything was blurry.
Perhaps the shaman had erased her memories.
“Summon a mage immediately!”
The Grand Duke shouted coldly, already turning his gaze away from Meisel.
“Gather every ‘eye’ nearby. Start by checking whether there are traces of a cargo carriage moving along the route from the monastery.”
A mage activated a magic circle and appeared at the scene.
“Can you track it?”
The mage nodded.
“The range of an exchange spell isn’t very large. She should still be within the Everne Forest.”
“Split up. The moment you find a trace, send a signal.”
At the Grand Duke’s command, the knights mounted their horses.
“…We’ll place Lady Meisel under guard.”
Perel spoke while watching the Grand Duke mount his horse last.
“No need. We’re short on search personnel.”
“Yes? But if we leave her like this, she might escape—”
Before Perel could finish, the Grand Duke said firmly,
“Just break her legs.”
The Grand Duke’s cold, sharp gaze briefly brushed past Meisel before he spurred his horse forward.
Tears streamed down Meisel’s face as she let out a hollow laugh.
“Just die, Grand Duchess.”
Just die, before the Grand Duke finds you.
Watching the Grand Duke’s retreating back, Meisel endlessly cursed the Grand Duchess.
***
I was sitting face to face with a dragon wearing the shaman’s face.
The dragon looked extremely pleased.
“You’ve finally been imprinted.”
Imprinted?
I tilted my head, not understanding.
The dragon smiled strangely.
“Didn’t you become the Grand Duke’s mate? Your body reeks of a sweet scent—can’t you tell?”
Ah.
At that moment, I remembered what I had read in Priest Benemus’s book about dragon imprints.
‘I became Loic’s mate?’
No wonder, since the night we spent together, I had been able to sense and stabilize Loic’s mana naturally, even without touching him.
So that was because of the imprint.
As I finally understood everything and nodded, the dragon, who had been staring at me, suddenly twisted his face.
“Damn it!”
Anger clouded his pale face, as if something had gone wrong.
“I rushed things too much.”
Clearly irritated, the dragon thought for a moment, then raised his brows as if he had made a decision.
“Fine. A small stab should be acceptable.”
The dragon snapped out of his thoughts and met my gaze.
“Didn’t you ask what I want?”
Seeing my frustration, the dragon spoke as if granting me a favor.
“I need your holy power.”
Holy power?
So all of this was because of that damned holy power?
Fear mixed with irritation.
To think I had to go through all this over holy power I hadn’t even awakened yet.
At the same time, the pieces in my head fell into place.
Just as Priest Miel said, my holy power had been sealed, which was why the dragon couldn’t take it until now.
And now, thanks to Loic’s mana, that seal was slowly being undone.
“I thought once you were imprinted, your mate would pour mana into you and the seal would disappear immediately. But you’re still nothing but an empty shell.”
Seriously, he was troublesome to the very end.
Grinding his teeth, the dragon stood abruptly and began pacing around the table as if searching for something.
“Why do you need my holy power?”
The dragon picked up a small dagger from among the shaman’s belongings on the table.
“I’m dying.”
Because of who, I wonder.
Examining the blade, the dragon spoke indifferently.
“If I don’t replenish my strength with your holy power, that will soon be my fate.”
Then, when our eyes met, the dragon slowly walked toward me.
“‘Soon’ may mean eternity to you. But I have no intention of merely prolonging my life like that.”
A bad feeling tightened my chest.
“…Are you planning to kill me?”
“What have you been listening to this whole time? If I kill you, how would I take your holy power?”
The dragon snapped irritably.
“You were annoying when you acted clever, but spouting nonsense like this is truly unbearable.”
The dragon’s emotions fluctuated wildly from moment to moment.
He was extremely anxious.
His voice boiled out of control before he forced himself to calm down.
“Now that you’re imprinted, the seal will break soon. I may be rushing things, but if you’re wounded, your holy power should awaken faster.”
What—so he planned to stab me to forcibly awaken it?
The dagger in his hand was thicker than my finger and sharply pointed.
Being stabbed by that wouldn’t just sting.
The dragon adjusted his grip on the dagger.
“Don’t move. I wouldn’t want to stab the wrong place.”
The moment he told me not to move, my body truly wouldn’t budge.
Cold sweat poured down my back.
“W-wait! There has to be another way!”
Ignoring me, the dragon raised the dagger.
‘This has to be a lie. I don’t want to die yet!’
Just as I braced myself for unbearable pain and squeezed my eyes shut—
