CH 49.2

[Please become Grand Duke Cromund and give us strength.]

[Why should I? Aren’t you afraid of me?]

[Lord Daymond is the official heir to the Cromound family. You are the only one who can lift up this territory, the north that Lady Mariel loved.]

Daymond had never been interested from the very beginning but eventually accepted their will after successive persuasion.

As soon as they held the Grand Duke’s funeral, they appointed Daymond, who was the only heir, as the Grand Duke and set out to reestablish their territory. They told Daymond to get rid of the rumors that faded as time went by and to shut up the Grand Duke’s castle and lock it up.

Daymond, who became Grand Duke Cromound, helped rebuild the Wald family’s vassals and the northern territory. He was an outstanding leader as he inherited the Grand Duke’s blood, and the people of the Wald family swore allegiance to him.

Even as time passed and his servants grew old, he alone maintained his youth. Thoughout his immortal life, when members of the Wald family passed away, their children took over the work of their parents.

Rumors about him naturally faded over time, and people completely forgot about them. After that, he pretended that a new successor inherited the title every fifty years.

Then one day, a man came through the strong snow.

As if he had just undergone a coming-of-age ceremony, the young man’s silver hair shone softly in the light. As soon as he saw the dazzlingly beautiful man who exuded an aura as cold as ice crystals, Daymond intuitively recognized that he was the same as himself.

[Why did you come to see me?]

[I just came to see what caused my brother to die.]

As he expected, the boy was like his father. He briefly explained that Daymond’s father had lost his life for leaving behind a human mixed-blood.

[Who are you?]

[Humans call us gods, or demons. We are just nameless beings observing humans on the side.]

He said there was no way to explain their existence, just like the monsters whose origins were unknown. However, the man replied that he had existed since the land was submerged in the deep sea, long before the empire had ever formed. He said that he has lived so many eons that it is hard to count time.

At first, Daymond thought that only this man could fully understand him, unlike the others who feared him. However, Daymond, who was born with half human blood, was different from the man as well. He didn’t understand feelings like emptiness at all, and the man didn’t acknowledge him as an equal, saying that he was evidence of a weak human being.

Introducing himself as Luciel, he continued to visit the castle from time to time, but Daymond completely ignored him.

But the more he did, the more Luciel hung around him and told him one by one the facts he didn’t know. Most of them were nonsensical, so it just passed through his ears, but a few things were imprinted in Daymond’s head.

[You, the other half, have eternal life like us, but you cannot conceive children.]

Daymond was unmoved by his words. He wouldn’t birth a child just for them to have the same misfortune as him. He had no intention of having one even if it was possible.

It was Anne who Daymond met at the end of such a boring and dull time period.

For the first time, he cherished and loved her with all his heart. She, who awakened his human feelings for the first time… She betrayed him because of a child.

* * *

When Anne opened her eyes, the coldness that had been gripping her so terribly was gone. Instead, a blanket that was hot enough to make her feverish wrapped around her. She thought she was held in someone’s arms in a hazy dream, but that must have been the blanket.

As she turned her head helplessly, an unfamiliar old man was explaining something to Emily, crushing pills in a white dish.

“Uh…”

Her throat was stinging as she tried to call them. Feeling the presence of that alone, Emily suddenly called out to the man behind her.

“Are you awake?”

To the man’s question, Anne nodded her head instead of answering. And because of her uncomfortable voice, she couldn’t help but ask what was going on with her eyes.

“Madam, I thought I would never see you again… Huuh.”

From her sobbing, she could tell how worried Emily was. When she turned to the rather calm Marie standing next to her, she too wiped her eyes once.

“His Grace saved Madam, who was swept away by the avalanche.”

Anne’s eyes widened slightly at the wonder. The Grand Duke was currently out hunting monsters… Come to think of it, the bloodless face she had seen before she passed out slowly came to mind.

Was he on the way back after subjugating monsters? If not…

Anne, wondering if he had come back after hearing the news, asked herself what kind of foolish things she was thinking. She gently closed her eyes. He was not the kind of person who would delay something important just to save her life.

Still, how relieved she must have been to see the Grand Duke at that moment. She felt fortunate to have been saved. She even felt grateful because he had saved her life. If he had not come, she would have died after being buried under the snow.