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“Hah, hah.”
Rian was walking down a dark mountain path sweating. He did not call workers or use a carriage because he should never be caught by anyone.
Dana was on one shoulder and a shovel on the other hand.
“Dana Deniz.”
Although he was not a nobleman, when Dana’s father, Russell Deniz, was once alive, he was the subject of tremendous influence that the country’s economy faltered by his decision alone.
And after Russell suddenly died one day, all his property was inherited by his only daughter, Dana Deniz. At that time, she was only fifteen.
Rian met her then.
‘It was a chance like heaven and earth. Now it’s all in my hands.’
Rian, who was breathing hard, eventually put Dana on the ground without reaching less than half the height he was originally going to. It was still before winter, but he was pouring sweat from his forehead like rain.
Rian looked around. The actions were not distinguished because it was dark, but by this time, it seemed appropriate.
He removed the fallen leaves and began to dig with a shovel. It was never easy to dig up the ground that had not yet melted.
Rian was so absorbed in it that he couldn’t see Dana flinching around the fabric.
“Ha… This much.”
Rian, who had been shoveling for a long time, looked at Dana, wiping off the sweat on her forehead.
“The angel has done her job, so it’s time to go back to heaven. No, should I call it the ground?”
Rian strode closer to Dana.
“Of course, Dana. You won’t believe it, but… At one time, I loved you sincerely.”
To give a mean kiss to the revealed fine forehead, Rian leaned down.
At that time, he heard a rattling carriage from afar. Rian looked up in surprise.
“At this hour, a carriage…?”
Seeing the light from over there, it seemed that it was already quite close. Such a bright light on the wagon itself meant that its owner was quite a high-ranking aristocrat.
Rian was very tired climbing the mountain, so she couldn’t get off the side of the road where the wagon was coming.
“Damn, at times like this.”
Rian looked around in embarrassment, and roughly covered Dana’s body with fallen leaves. And for now, he immediately left the body on the spot.
* * *
Dalgak. Dalgak.
He leaned his head obliquely over his fist-clenched hand with his elbow on the window frame. Black and long bangs shook and tickled near his eyes.
Although it was not scheduled to return so soon, as soon as Grand Duke Leon Teratius finished his work in the capital, he hurried to his estate as if he didn’t want to stay overnight.
The Emperor, his aides, and the nobles were very anxious to marry Leon with his family. He introduced all kinds of women, made them dance at the banquet, and didn’t let them go for a moment.
Then, his father, Duke Owen Teratius, called him to find a woman with a ‘special relationship’ with her family and urged him to marry her.
‘The old man is still fair.’
The father and son of the Teratius family supported the different prince, and eventually, the prince supported by the son Leon became Emperor.
The Emperor unconsciously granted the title of “Grand Duke” to his subjects and relatives who played a decisive role in his ascension, Leon Teratius, then count. Now he was the only Grand Duke in the Hashel Empire.
As a result, even though his father was a duke, his son became a Grand Duke.
‘She’s only a daughter of the merchant family. Are you still checking my political position, father?’
His tired red eyes slipped out and casually looked out of the window. When he found something that was blinking slowly, he stopped for a while and put strength around his eyes. He pulled Mana up and brightened his eyes at night.
He usually had brighter eyes than the general public, but he wanted to check more properly because he saw strange signs.
‘What is that?’
A person’s shadow wiggles behind a tree on the street. The scene of quickly disappearing under the mountain was clearly visible to his eyes.
‘Are the bandits ambushing?’
He knocked lightly on the wall of the carriage. Then the horseman who heard the sound immediately stopped the carriage.
“What’s the matter, Grand Duke Teratius.”
The horseman opened the door and politely bowed his head in front of him.
“Stay here for a while.”
Leon slipped his hand on the handle of the sword with his waist and jumped lightly from the carriage. The horseman shook his head for a while looking at him with a worried look. And he answered as he was told.
“Yes, your highness. I’ll be here.”