“Why are you crying, wife?”
When the Grand Duke opened his eyes, I didn’t even think about the shame of being caught crying.
I threw my arms around his neck, grateful that I wasn’t alone, without the old lady or the Grand Duke.
“You’re not dead…, huk, you’re not dead…….”
And then I sobbed like a child, making stupid noises.
I didn’t even know why I was crying.
Since I don’t even have the old lady with me, am I scared that even the Grand Duke is dead?
Or…….
Because I don’t want this man to die?
For reasons unknown even to me, I hugged the Grand Duke around the neck and cried for a long time.
The Grand Duke stiffened in surprise for a moment, but then raised his arm and patted me gently on the back.
“It is an honor to have someone to cry for me when I die.”
I’m surprised he has time to joke in this situation.
I buried my face in his shoulder and breathed in the familiar scent of his body.
His palm, tapping slowly, tickles my chest.
“Did you cry it all?”
He asks, his voice playful, and I finally feel some shame creep in.
I say, pulling my face away from him.
Covering it with both hands, of course.
“Flotty, let me see your face.”
“No. I’m embarrassed.”
I had just stopped crying, so my face must have been a mess.
My nose and eyes are red, and my hair is a mess.
“It’s okay, take your hands off me.”
“I don’t want to.”
The day my mom stopped coming home, it was the first time I cried since then.
Or maybe it’s more accurate to say I didn’t cry, because after that day, I locked myself in the corner of my room and did nothing.
I scrambled to my feet, afraid of being caught by the Grand Duke.
“You see, I’m not taking a no for an answer.”
I heard a playful voice say,
Then the Grand Duke grabbed my hand that was covering my face and pulled me closer to him.
I was forced to show him my messed-up face.
“Don’t look, it’s really embarrassing…….”
I don’t know why he wants to see my face.
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I ducked my head to avoid making eye contact with him.
“Can’t I even see my wife’s face when she cries for me?”
“Don’t tease me.”
I hear the Grand Duke chuckle low.
“Why? I’m saying this because I really like it.”
He tugs my chin up with a gentle touch.
I am forced to face him, my face still wet.
“Were you sad?”
“……I don’t know.”
His hazel eyes slowly swept across my face.
The black marks had completely disappeared from his face.
His face was spotless again, and he was smiling.
“It’s nice of you to cry, but you mustn’t cry again. I don’t want to see you crying.”
“Of course not, and if you run off on your own into anything dangerous again, I’ll run away.”
“I will keep that in mind, wife.”
The Grand Duke was playful to the end.
His long fingers brushed a single tear from the corner of my eye.
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“I hope you’re not hurt.”
“I’m fine. Varan is being held by Hardin.”
“……Did you run into Varan? Where? Are you sure you’re okay?”
At the mention of my encounter with Varan, the Grand Duke narrowed his eyes and turned my shoulder to and fro.
‘Oh, I’m fine.’
When he was satisfied that I was unharmed, he grabbed both my cheeks and turned me around.
“You didn’t hit yourself with the poison, did you? That’s dangerous stuff.”
“Oh, that…….”
Might as well be honest, right? Anyway, the poison was completely gone.
“He sprayed me with poison……”
“Shit. I knew you weren’t fine.”
The Grand Duke leaped to his feet and swept me up in a hug.
“No, no, no, listen to me!”
“I don’t need to hear more. You were sprayed with poison.”
By now, the Grand Duke’s voice had gone cold.
‘Listen to me when I’m speaking!’
The Grand Duke’s great height lifted me high into the air, and I had to hug his neck to keep from falling.
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“I was sprayed with it, but I purified it, so let me down!”
“……You purified it?”
“Yes. The bell purified me. I’m scared, so put me down.”
The Grand Duke looked down at me in disbelief.
Just then, the bell in my hand swayed with my movements and made a clinking sound.
There was a moment of silence.
“It was imbued with a powerful force, especially since it seemed to be made of human blood.”
“……Human blood?”
“Yes. Do you remember the black lion you saw on me?”
“I remember.”
“The black lion kept me from dying, and the poison contained such power.”
“Ah…….”
Can I really make it through this alone until the old lady comes back?
Even without her by my side to help me?
I shook the bell with a clink, clink, clink, until the light faded and it looked like an ordinary crystal ornament.
“When I was poisoned, a hot, unpleasant energy tried to enter my body, and I think the bell cleansed it.”
So put me down now. I’m fine.
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I tapped him on the shoulder and told him to put it down.
The Grand Duke, dumbfounded, gingerly set me down.
“I knew you were quite capable.”
“…….”
“But I never thought you would be this good…….”
Was Eden’s poison really that powerful?
The Grand Duke looked back and forth between me and the bell in my hand.
“I told you I would protect you, but that has changed.”
He clasped the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Your Highness protected me, too, so this is the least I can do.”
I smiled brightly, clutching the bell my mom had left in my hand.
So much power.
To be able to protect someone.
I don’t know why those words stuck with me so much.
***
“Hardin, what’s going on?”
This is ridiculous.
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I was greeted by Hardin’s bewildered face, but there was no Varan beside him, only a black stone.
It was all that was left of the place when the Grand Duke and I had returned.
“Explain, Hardin.”
“I apologize, master.”
“Explain yourself then apologize.”
Up close, the stone boulder seemed carved in Varan’s likeness. It was Varan’s size and face.
“After my master left, he suddenly convulsed, struggling to breathe, and then suddenly turned into this…….”
“He suddenly turned to stone?”
“……Yes.”
What in the world is this?
A man turned to stone.
The hard lump of stone was no longer a living human being.
Only the vial Varan had dropped showed that he had ever existed.
“Your Majesty, how did this happen?”
“This is a sight I have never seen before.”
The Grand Duke studied the stone Varan carefully.
He didn’t feel human to the touch.
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“Some sort of curse.”
The Grand Duke muttered that.
He worships a god of evil, so was such a thing possible?
My bell purified the poison, so surely such a thing must exist.
Curses, sorcery, such things.
I sat down on my knees alongside the Grand Duke and looked at Varan, who had turned to stone.
“It could be, I sense an evil energy here.”
“I see.”
“What a shame, we could have gotten a good weapon.”
Varan must have been high enough in the council to create Eden’s poison.
If he were alive, they could have found out more about Eden.
It’s more likely that he wouldn’t talk, but the mere fact that he was in our hands would have made a noticeable impact on the Queen.
“Guess it wasn’t worth the chase.”
“It’s okay, it was for poison anyway.”
The Grand Duke laughed as he held up the empty glass bottle.
“Anyway, the poison is gone.”
“You’re laughing because you made it disappear by throwing yourself at it.”
“And I saw you cry because of it.”
“Oh, really!”
“It’s a joke, don’t be angry.”
The Grand Duke handed the vial back to Hardin intact.
“The vial has some energy left in it, so hold it carefully.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The Grand Duke held out his hand to me, suggesting that we return to the mansion.
“Ah, yes. Just a moment.”
I placed my hand holding the bell on the saccharine stone.
For using human blood to make poison.
For worshipping the wrong god.
And attempting to harm the lives of others.
Those are the sins this man committed.
I will not hold you guiltless for what has become of you.
Please, may you fall to hell.
I closed my eyes and wished it so.
Then a white light pulsed from the bell.
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My vision flashed white,
Ping!
With a loud bang, the white light enveloped him.
Then, the saccharine stone slowly blew away in the wind.
“……what?”
“Flotty, what have you done?”
The Grand Duke wrapped his arms around me, shoulders first, in the sudden light.
Before I knew it, I was in his arms.
I stared, dumbfounded, at the rocks turning to dust and disappearing.
“I don’t know, all of a sudden, the bell glowed…….”
As soon as the bell lost its glow, the stone disappeared completely.
Like it was never there.
And something popped into my head as if someone had said it to me.
‘Annihilation.’
To make an evil being disappear forever.
Not even to hell, but to nothingness.
I was vaguely aware that it was my grandmother telling me this.
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“I think …… it has been annihilated.”
“Annihilated?”
“I don’t know, but I think……. When a being is stripped down to its soul, that’s what annihilation is.”
Varan had vanished without leaving a soul behind.
The Grand Duke looked surprised again at my words.
“Flotty, you never cease to amaze me.”
If you’re not hurt, then that’s good.
The Grand Duke gently pulled me away and took my hand.
“We should return now.”
I glanced back once more at the spot where Varan had been, unmarked.