# 34
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The gardener tending the garden, and the servants who happened to be passing by, were entirely occupied in eavesdropping on the two lovers as they crossed the porch.
The prestige of the young duke returning after more than ten years does not need explanation, but the woman walking beside him was no less eye-catching. In the corridors of the Inner Palace, countless rumors spread about her, describing her as a commoner trying to climb the social ladder by relying on her beauty alone. However, whoever saw her with his own eyes could not believe that such a description could befit her at all.
The moment the servants fell into this confusion, they were not the only ones watching her.
"Can't you relax your features a little?"
Grace was distracted, so when she heard the faint voice, she raised her head. Two black eyes touched her and then returned to staring straight ahead.
“Right now, aren't you supposed to be the Duke's beloved woman? Whoever sees you will think that I saved you from certain danger, but with those cold features...wouldn’t it seem strange?”
Grace blinked her eyes, then looked forward as well.
Cold? He himf never rhymed with words like love or tenderness. However, he was still holding her hand. A large, solid hand, and in comparison with it her small, slender fingers looked somewhat ridiculous, like a withered tree branch.
A beloved woman…
As soon as she conjured the word that had erased her from her life, a faint shadow from a long time ago followed it. Her mother no longer remembers her features well, but the image of her always standing next to her father, with a friendly smile, remained ingrained in her mind like an old painting.
She tightened her fingers and pulled away from his grip. She felt like he stopped walking and looked at her from above.
Grace ignored his gaze, took one step closer, and then clung to his arm.
“?!”
Just one step was enough to break through the other's boundaries. A light fragrance, like a mirage, swirled around her nose, and from the contact of the two bodies, the heat of each was transferred to the other.
Grace raised her head slightly and looked at him. His handsome features, shaded by opposing light, seemed to bear a slight sneer; Perhaps astonishment, perhaps disapproval.
As if someone is doing this out of desire!
Grace smiled deliberately and said:
“So...do I look like a grateful woman?”
“Ha.”
Walter let out a dry laugh, as if he couldn't believe it. A rough drawn laugh, resembling lines drawn with a sharp pen. However, as if he decided to go along with her, he did not relax his arm, but rather bent it moderately.
“The method is primitive. Carrying out the crime in a dark room, then accusing him based on evidence alone.”
His voice was dry and cold, in contrast to his movement in which he softened his steps to match hers.
“There's one thing the two maids kept saying.”
“What is it?”
“You didn't see anything.”
There was a cold silence between them. While both of them were deep in their thoughts, they arrived at the room. Grace let go of his arm and took two steps back. The place that had been warmed by their contact cooled quickly.
“The Marquis wants to drop you into Richmond Castle. But to overthrow the Duke of Richmond in his castle is a very difficult thing...as you just saw.”
As she saw his gaze sinking into the darkness, she murmured lightly:
“So, if they wanted to bring down the Duke inside the castle… would it only be possible if they handed over the future Duchess’s room to a traitor?”
Grace pulled her lips into an involuntary smile.
“That's better.”
As soon as she said it, Walter started laughing. Grace blinked softly as his dry laugh continued for a long time, before he slowly ran his hand down his face.
“When I returned from the Wall of Death with five hundred knights alive, I repeated one sentence over and over.”
«……»
“Do not take your life lightly.”
Grace blinked silently. Walter looked at her with a sharp look, as if he was dissatisfied, then sighed lightly and turned around. He carelessly took off his jacket and threw it on the chair, unbuttoned several buttons of his shirt, then leaned his body against the window.
“I brought you because you said you would be the sharpest sword in my hand. Don’t think about being taken as bait and disappearing.”
“You seem to have forgotten what I said. “I repeatedly said I would get Tyler back no matter what.”
Walter suddenly had a strange curiosity to taste the cigarettes his men were smoking.
“Anyway…what happened with the grand lady?”
“You didn't get up.”
Eliza Richmond, who, even in the form of a dying man, showed a dignity that could not be imitated by well-dressed ladies. She was not a disposable presence, but someone indispensable to what was to come.
“To wake her up we need two things. A clear goal forces her to rise, and feelings so dry that cutting off all her limbs will not wake her up...”
As she spoke, a lightning flashed in her mind.
The sight of Walter leaning against the window was reflected in her retina. He seemed indifferent to etiquette, but that was natural to him. He is the one who sets the standards, not the one who follows them, as his predecessors were.
In the annals of Deccan history, in the chapter on the emperors, the following is mentioned:
[Successive emperors often carried out what they intended at night the next morning,]
They are very quick-tempered,
[They apply high and strict standards in every matter,]
picky people,
[They do not hesitate to be frank with anyone.]
They get angry openly without quibbling.
The blood that had inherited those qualities was now standing before her.
“Why did you stop talking?”
“…I think you can do it, Your Highness.”
Walter's eyes shrank.
“I prefer an understandable explanation.”
“To burn the inside, as you said.”
Grace's voice rose rarely.
“I entered the bedroom without permission, as you advised, but that was not enough.”
Walter's brow furrowed as a bad feeling creeped into him. If Joseph had been present, he would have bowed immediately, but Grace was confident in her answer.
“To awaken the Grand Lady we need anger and a clear purpose. And these two things... I don’t think anyone else can achieve them.”
However, Walter responded coldly:
“I made sure of that for ten years. I even went myf as soon as I got back.”
«……»
“If she doesn't wake up, leave her. If she had risen now, she would not have been alive today.”
Grace looked at him, at the coldness of his words, then said:
“I thought about it.”
"In what?"
“Why does she live, when she has been wishing to die for so long? "She could have died at any time."
«……»
“Don't you think she was waiting for you?”
Grace remembered the mountain werewolf. The tense calm before the pounce itf was emanating from Walter. Her heart pounded out of instinctive fear, but she couldn't hold back.
“Come with me. “Let’s go and meet the eldest lady together.”
Walter let out a long, deep exhale.
“I told you I went yesterday.”
“Is one time enough? Go again.”
“I am sure the result will be the opposite.”
“Reverse how?”
He didn't have the confidence to ask her nicely to get up. Just imagining her dying state was making him angry, let alone the words that would come out of him.
“You'll close the door on her.”
“So that means you can make her angry enough to wake her up, right?”
“I said she would get up and close the door!” Don't you understand?!
“Even to close the door, she has to get up first. Just getting up is important. Now she doesn't even want to talk to anyone.”
Walter was about to respond when...
Knock knock!
With a knock on the door, Joseph appeared, and behind him was a middle-aged man, his face flushed. In contrast to the man's features, the burly young man was smiling brightly.
“Your Highness, as you ordered, I have brought the castle’s security officer!”
As might be expected of a follower of a quick-tempered master, Joseph moved with astonishing speed. Grace secretly thanked him for his presence at this time, and hastened to end the conversation.
“Then I will wait for your conversation to finish, Your Highness.”
Walter watched her bow lightly and walk away, in silent astonishment. The sway of her blonde hair at her waist made him think, inexplicably, of a fox's tail. At the same time, he saw the sight of Grace and Eliza standing together.
Grace Taylor with her blonde hair loose, and Eliza Richmond with her silver hair in an updo.
Can that image come true?
Walter furrowed his eyebrows and let out a short snort.