Chapter 6 (Part 3)

‘Our Jeremy is so admirable, I can’t stand it.’  

Their mother had always openly favored Jeremy, and as a child, he had felt a slight sense of superiority because of it.  

But Duke Richard, their father, was different.  

‘Jeremy, people all have different talents. Even Gabriel, who seems reckless, has something we can learn from.’  

‘But Father, I’m smarter and better with a sword.’  

At Jeremy’s words, Duke Richard would smile faintly and frame one of Gabriel’s drawings.  

‘Gabriel, there’s something special about your drawing.’  

‘Yes, yes! I felt happy while drawing it.’  

When their father praised Gabriel, who was still sniffling, his little brother jumped up and down in place.  

‘It seems our Gabriel will become the empire’s greatest painter.’  

‘Being a painter is cool!’  

The Duke, carrying Gabriel on his shoulders and looking at the drawing together, genuinely seemed happy.  

But Jeremy, with his arms crossed, looked up at the drawing with a dissatisfied expression.  

‘I don’t even know what he drew. Why is he being praised so much?’  

Moreover, for the youngest son of a ducal family to become a painter was disgraceful.  

Eventually, the three of them went out to the garden, and their father suggested a game.  

‘Jeremy. What are you standing there for? Come here.’  

When his father reached out his hand to him, Jeremy reluctantly approached.  

In truth, he hated such games, but he considered his father’s dignity.  

But Jeremy’s composed face didn’t last long.  

When the Duke grabbed both of his sons and began spinning them around, Jeremy and Gabriel started screaming.  

‘Ahhh! Father, I feel like I’m going to fly away!’  

‘……Ugh!’  

Jeremy tried his best not to make a sound, clamping his mouth shut, but he couldn’t stop the strange noises escaping as he felt like he was about to be thrown off.  

‘Brother, isn’t this amazing? Right?’  

‘……Yes.’  

As he overcame the dizzying and terrifying tension, a strange sense of joy enveloped his small body.  

When Jeremy smiled faintly, the Duke’s lips softened as he looked down at his son.

‘I love you, Jeremy.’  

‘Father! I love you!’  

Gabriel shouted loudly in his place, as Jeremy was too embarrassed to respond. When Jeremy’s cheeks turned red at his younger brother’s answer, their father, seemingly unaffected by dizziness, spun around a few more times.  

Laughter filled the air.  

The laughter of the two sons spread throughout the garden like dandelion seeds.  

That moment with their father was the last time Jeremy Richard ever acted like a child.  

And then, their father passed away.  

It happened just over two months after the war broke out.  

The father, who had left the ducal residence with such a gallant appearance, returned as a cold corpse.  

His younger brother didn’t yet understand what death was, but Jeremy did.  

‘When someone dies, you can never see them again.’  

When the cat they had raised as children died of illness, their father had explained it to him. He said the cat had gone to heaven and could only be met again in dreams.  

Their father’s coffin was placed in the chapel within the castle.  

On the night before the funeral, Jeremy secretly went to see his father in the darkness.  

‘I’m scared.’  

The chapel at night, dimly lit by flickering candles that looked like they might go out at any moment, was no place for a child. But Jeremy had something he absolutely needed to say to his father.  

Something he couldn’t say in front of the guests at the funeral, his mother, or his younger brother.  

‘……Father.’  

His father, lying in the coffin, looked as though he were simply asleep.  

Looking at his peaceful face, Jeremy felt tears well up uncontrollably.  

‘You said you’d be back soon.’  

At the time, they had promised to go horseback riding and fishing together.  

‘Why are your eyes closed?’  

People didn’t see Jeremy, capable in both academics and swordsmanship, as a child. From the age of five or six, he had borne the expectations of everyone as the heir to the Richard family.  

Everyone except his father.  

His father would scold him for his shortcomings but also embrace him with all his might. He was the only person who accepted him as he was, imperfections and all.  

Losing such a precious person, the only one of his kind in the world, made young Jeremy feel as though his entire world had collapsed.  

‘……Hic.’  

As he sobbed, resembling Gabriel, whom he usually ignored, someone suddenly entered the chapel.

‘Close the door.’

A voice he had never heard before echoed through the room.

‘Eek!’

If his mother found out he had come here at night, he would be in trouble. Jeremy quickly squeezed himself into the narrow space beneath the coffin.  

He covered his mouth with his hands to stifle his sobs, but the unfamiliar man’s voice grew closer.  

‘……They must have spread the rumor that he died in battle?’  

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’  

Jeremy’s eyes widened at the words “Your Majesty.”  

In the empire, the only person referred to as “Your Majesty” was the Emperor.  

‘I can’t believe I’ve lost such a dear friend like this. Have they discovered the poison that killed Duke Richard?’  

‘Not yet, Your Majesty.’  

‘I’ve lost count of how many it’s been.’  

The two men, speaking in cryptic tones, fell silent for a moment. Then, as one of them left, the other quietly began to pray.  

‘Duke, I will not forget your sacrifice. I swear on the name of Morciani’s fortress to protect your remaining family.’  

Soon after, the man praying left the chapel, leaving only Jeremy and his father’s corpse in the space.  

Even before he could process the shock of losing his father, Jeremy had overheard a secret far too great for him to bear. His face turned pale.  

‘Father didn’t die in battle but was poisoned?’  

At the time, the empire was rife with cases of poisoning, and public sentiment was growing uneasy. The headlines of newspapers were filled with sensational titles every day.  

‘The Faceless Assassin Strikes Again—This Time in Chester’s Territory!’  

Sending assassins to eliminate rivals had become a thing of the past.  

Now, they infiltrated their target’s daily life and poisoned them subtly. Sometimes, the poison was hidden in the warm, creamy milk handed over by a nanny, or in sweet cookies.  

‘I heard someone poisoned a village well out of spite and wiped out the whole town.’  

‘That kind of lunatic deserves to be stoned to death.’  

Jeremy had overheard the servants gossiping like this.  

Since then, the Richard family had adopted the practice of testing all their food with silver spoons before eating. Jeremy had thought it was just a precaution, but now he realized that all these measures were connected to his father’s death.  

‘……Poison.’  

The head of the empire’s most prestigious family had not been felled by an enemy’s sword or spear, but by poison. Even though he had learned this shocking truth, there was nothing Jeremy could do.  

He had no way of knowing who had poisoned his father or what his father’s final moments had been like.  

‘Father, I will avenge you.’  

But even in that moment, Jeremy was still just a weak child who needed his father’s help.  

Wiping his tears with his sleeve, Jeremy mustered the courage to speak.  

To say the words he hadn’t been able to say to his father when he was alive.  

‘Father, I, I lo…….’  

Unable to hold back his sobs, he ultimately couldn’t say the words “I love you” to his father. And that regret stayed with Jeremy for the rest of his life.  

***

The warm sunlight tickled Therese’s forehead.  

‘When did I fall asleep again?’  

As she opened her eyes, her hands tingled.  

The aftereffects of the poisoning made it difficult for her to get up every morning. As she cautiously tried to move her powerless hands, something squirmed.  

Startled, she sat up and found herself locking eyes with Jeremy, who had just woken up.  

The Duke, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, seemed to have fallen asleep leaning against the headboard.  

‘Am I still dreaming?’  

Therese couldn’t hide her confusion at the Duke’s drowsy gaze. Beneath his tousled blond hair, his black eyes, which seemed to sparkle like stars, blinked slowly.  

Feeling something strange, Therese looked down.  

Their hands were tangled together on top of the blanket.  

“……Your Grace! Why are you holding my hand?”

In that moment, the words he had spoken last night came vividly to her mind. Like a grim reaper from hell, he had driven his sword into the ground and declared that he would never let her go.  

And now, it seemed he had fallen asleep holding her hand through the night.  

Therese shuddered at the Duke’s obsessive persistence, something she hadn’t noticed before.  

The Duke quickly tried to explain under her gaze.  

“Madame, this is a misunderstanding.”  

“……?”  

Looking closely, it was Therese who was gripping the Duke’s hand tightly.  

“You held onto me all night and wouldn’t let go, Madame.”  

“Your Grace……!”  

“When I tried to pull away, you gripped even harder. It was quite troublesome.”  

“Your Grace, p-please stop……”  

Therese stammered, her cheeks burning as if they were on fire.