CH 3

He let out a deep sigh and continued with difficulty.

“After my wife disappeared, I searched the entire Martenssen Empire. But I couldn’t find her.”

Why would he search for the wife he abandoned? Such hypocrisy from these men.

The Duchess struggled to hold back the words she couldn’t say out loud. She trembled nervously.

“It must have been really difficult for you.”

“But today, I found my wife here.”

“What? What do you mean…?”

Cain roughly took off his cravat and started unbuttoning his shirt.

Observing the firm chest muscles glimpsed intermittently, the Duchess swallowed hard.

However, soon she shook her head again. While it wasn’t strange for high-ranking noblemen to have mistresses, she still had a conscience. Wasn’t it too much? Does he want to take a mistress?

“Your Excellency. What do you mean? You’re my son’s age…”

A locket necklace was put in front of the fan of the Duchess, who was fanning herself out of embarrassment.

“This is a portrait of my wife.”

He had unbuttoned his shirt to retrieve the necklace inside. The Duchess, embarrassed by her thoughts, received the locket necklace.

Being the hostess of this ball today, it was natural for her to confirm someone’s identity. The Duchess forced a smile and opened the locket necklace.

“Oh!”

The woman in the portrait inside the locket was none other than the Duchess herself, the Duchess Delacroix. She also knew who the woman was.

It was… her daughter’s maid, Lariana.

“The person in this portrait… it’s La-Lari. My daughter’s maid… How is this possible?”

“Lady Sorelle said my wife was a married woman. Well, it doesn’t matter even if she was married. She lived as a maid… If she married a servant in the same situation, she can divorce.”

Resting his chin on his hand, Cain replied with a sardonic smile.

“What? No, Lari didn’t get married. However, she… has a child. She was already pregnant when we first met …Now that I think about it, Kalix looks a lot like you, Your Excellency.”

The sound of grinding teeth could be heard chillingly. Trying to suppress his anger, he closed his eyes and clenched and released his fist slowly.

Although she said the child resembled him, it could still be someone else’s child. It didn’t matter whose child it was. Even if it was another man’s, he was willing to consider it as his own heir and raise it.

“How old is the child?”

His eyes, once filled with resentment, were now filled with regret and longing. If only he hadn’t lost her…

“He’s four years old.”

Upon the Duchess’ answer, Cain closed his eyes. His face lit up with madness and ecstasy. Judging by the timeline, there was no doubt that it was his child.

“D*mn it.”

He lost the woman who bore his child. Cain began to laugh fiercely in his anger.

Witnessing the mad sight of the Duke, whom she had previously called insane, the Duchess felt a chill in her spine.

Who was Cain Delacroix? He was the young Duke of the Delacroix Duchy, one of the three Duchies of the Martessen Empire.

Duke Delacroix held power alongside the rulers of small kingdoms within the continent. Additionally, Cain was a renowned war hero and the greatest knight in the continent, having fought on numerous battlefields.

In preparation for the potential downfall of the Serren Kingdom, efforts were made to establish a relationship with Duke Delacroix and gain his support. However, it was a precarious situation where they could become mere pawns in an instant.

“Your Excellency, I could never have imagined Lady Heliosen would be here.”

Cain was visibly taken aback.

“Lady Heliosen was found in the forest wearing a modest dress. I thought she was just a noblewoman who had become pregnant and fled, then lost her way. Wouldn’t anyone think the same? So please, put aside your anger…”

A mere noblewoman who became pregnant and fled, even insultingly referring to her as a mistress and servant.

Cain furrowed his brow and asked, “How can you not find the family of a person who lost her memory and became pregnant?”

“Lari… I mean, sorry. Lady Heliosen didn’t want us to. We tried to send her back, but she said she had nowhere to go. How could we determine the identity and status of someone who has no memories?”

The Duchess was unjustly aggrieved. If only she had valued Lady Heliosen from the start, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

As if sensing her inner thoughts, Cain’s eyes narrowed.

“I must bring the Duchess and the young lord of Delacroix.”

“Y-young lord of Delacroix?” The Duchess of Isis was taken aback when she heard Lari’s child referred to as the young lord of Delacroix, the heir of Delacroix.

To her knowledge, rumors of Duke Delacroix’s remarriage had been circulating even before their divorce, and that was still the case.

“What’s wrong?”

Suddenly the Duchess’ personal maid came toward them and visibly hesitated to say something. In response to the maid’s reaction, the Duchess only discreetly observed Cain’s reaction. She was also keeping an eye on the maid.

“Why are you hesitating?”

“L-Lady Sorelle is missing, and everyone is searching for her.”

“Here we go again.”

Duchess Isis let out a bitter laugh. To think it would happen on a day like today.

“…She brought Lari and Kalix along.”

Oh my goodness.

“Oh no!”

With a startled scream, the Duchess of Isis fell backward, but her maid quickly supported her.

“How amusing.”

Cain looked down at the Duchess, who had fallen before him, feigning unconsciousness. It was a ridiculously farcical scene. Cain’s lips twisted.

He could not afford to lose Lariana and his own child again.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

While the chaos erupted at the Duke of Isis’ mansion, Lariana found herself inside a speeding carriage.

“Did Duke Delacroix really say that he is your husband?”

“Yes, he did. I’m supposedly Lariana Heliosen.”

‘Could it be true? They do look quite similar, the Duke and Kalix,’ Lari mused.

She glanced at her sleeping son, Kalix, who resembled the Duke so much that she couldn’t deny his paternity.

However, if she truly was the Duke’s wife, why had she lost her memory and ended up living as a maid in a remote kingdom? And what about the divorce?

She desperately wanted to recall even the smallest detail from her past, but no matter how hard she pondered, nothing came to mind. Her mind felt foggy. There seemed to be vague glimpses of something, but she couldn’t grasp onto anything tangible.

As she strained to remember, a headache crept in, and she pressed her temples.

“Anyway, you’re a noble, just as I suspected. I always said you seemed like one.”

“Lady, did you think that way?”

With excitement, Sorelle clenched her fists, and seeing her enthusiastic response, Lari chuckled weakly, feeling drained.

To her, Sorelle was both family and friend, a cherished person in her life despite her memory loss. The Duke and Duchess of Isis hesitated to bring an unknown and unidentified woman into their household as a maid. If it weren’t for Sorelle’s older brother, Jue, and Sorelle herself, the pregnant woman might have been driven away from the Duke’s mansion and led a wandering life, possibly ending in demise.

“Now there won’t be any problem with marrying Jue,” Sorelle said confidently.

“Lady, what are you saying? That’s an absurd statement,” Lariana responded.

“If you’re a Martessen noble, my mother won’t object either.”

Sorelle had completely misunderstood her relationship with Jue, her older brother. Even if it weren’t a misunderstanding, a future between the Duke and a maid was utterly impossible, except perhaps in fiction.

“Lady!” The coachman called urgently, opening the carriage door.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone seems to be chasing us.”

“What? Faster!” Urged by the coachman’s words, Lariana leaned slightly out of the carriage window.

In the distance, dozens of mounted knights were galloping towards them. And at the forefront… was Cain Delacroix.

Startled by the sight, she tightly held her son, Kalix, out of an inexplicable fear. In an instant, the carriage jolted violently.

“Lady, it’s dangerous!”

Lariana’s trembling voice rang out. Frightened, she repeated anxiously, “We’re going to have an accident at this rate!”

It seemed like Lariana’s words didn’t reach her, as Sorelle pounded on the carriage wall with her fists, as if urging for more speed.

Simultaneously, there were thuds and clunks as hooves struck the carriage from all sides. Startled, Sorelle pulled shut all the curtains. The noise grew louder and continued relentlessly, like an unending thunderstorm.

Soon, the coachman and the servants on the other carriage could be heard struggling and screaming, it seemed like someone had fallen off the carriage. However, this carriage didn’t stop and continued to race forward.

“Stop the carriage! Stop!” Lariana yelled while covering her son’s ears. Sorelle crouched on the floor, crying and wailing. Despite being a perennial troublemaker, she was just a child and couldn’t withstand the sudden attack on the carriage.

Lariana herself wanted to cry like Sorelle. Why wouldn’t this cursed carriage stop? What on earth was happening outside?

“Please, stop!” she pleaded desperately.

Finally, with tears streaming down her face, she shouted her plea. Simultaneously with Lariana’s cry, the carriage door opened, and a pungent smell of alcohol mixed with a refreshing scent wafted in on the night breeze.

When she lifted her head, there he was, Cain Delacroix, holding onto the door of the speeding carriage, precariously balanced. Behind him, the dark scenery of the night rushed by swiftly.

Their gazes met. In the enigmatic blue eyes of the man, there was a trembling woman, clutching a child, filled with fear. One side of Cain’s crimson lips curled upward.

“I found you.”