Chapter 18

So that day was the happiest Elina had felt since entering the Rennes Grand Ducal residence.

She felt at ease not having seen Floyd’s face for a long time, and Bianca, who attended to her like a maid, had only good things to say all day.

She lived each day thinking that a big turning point in her life might come in a few days, but it wouldn’t be today, and it wouldn’t be tomorrow either.

“Your health has improved a lot. You can go outside the bedroom now.”

“Yes… I mean, yes. I think that’s okay.”

“Don’t sneak out like before. I was so worried…! I was surprised when you came with His Grace that day.”

“I’m sorry… but I was too curious.”

Regardless of the current situation, she seemed to still like Floyd. Her mind felt at ease with him not coming to the bedroom for days, yet she missed him at the same time.

She hated herself for still feeling this way, but she felt she had to express this emotion. So she briefly went to the annex where he was….

She shouldn’t have gone.

After that, back in her room, Elina spoke informally to Bianca for the first time, who had asked her to do so from the moment they met. She left the bed, wore an indoor dress instead of pajamas, and indulged in sweet desserts.

Instead of tea with caffeine, she enjoyed fruit juice with lots of sugar and strawberry tarts topped with fluffy whipped cream.

She didn’t listen to anything happening outside and only thought about the child in her womb. She wondered how much worse the situation could get.

If Floyd insisted on marrying her despite everyone’s opposition, she would block out others’ words and follow him.

If Floyd said… he could only offer her the position of a mistress, she wasn’t ruling out the idea of secretly running away.

“I’m glad you’re eating well. Is there anything uncomfortable about your stay? Originally, a maid should attend to you, Lady Elina….”

“I said it would be uncomfortable without you, Bianca…. And how long am I going to stay here?”

“There’s no such thing… Shall we organize the luggage you brought? It’s untouched in that room….”

While Bianca, as usual, changed the subject, there was a commotion outside the bedroom. It seemed several people were holding someone back, and a voice was heard.

The voice seemed to belong to a young man, but from what he said, he didn’t seem to be a knight guarding the Valois residence.

“Lady Valois! May I see you just once?”

Elina and Bianca widened their eyes and stared at the slightly shaking bedroom door. No one was supposed to visit because Floyd had ordered absolute rest for Elina.

So the person outside had defied the head’s order….

“Wait, I’ll go out… Please continue eating the tart.”

“That person outside… isn’t he a retainer of His Grace…?”

“But… His Grace clearly said he would punish any retainers who came looking for you, Lady Elina, with death….”

“Wait a minute, Bianca….”

If they were retainers of the Rennes Grand Ducal family, she had seen them from afar when she sneaked out while Bianca was away for a moment. The shouts of the Rennes retainers were heard beyond the annex conference room.

Among them were retainers who wanted to persuade Elina to give up the position of the main wife. 

Was the retainer outside one of them…?

She knew it was more important to persuade them than to resolve the rumors circulating outside.

“There’s no way you can be suitable as the Grand Duchess of Rennes! So, ah! Let go of me!”

“What insolence is this! Earl Gent!”

Listening to the voices outside, the sweet dessert wouldn’t go down any further. Elina put down the fork she had in her mouth and looked at Bianca, who had opened the bedroom door.

Although the bed and the bedroom door were quite apart, she could see everything happening outside. The man who was shouting while holding the door tightly for a moment.

How much malice the visiting retainer harbored against her. And how much he wanted to cut her down with sharp thorns.

The knights guarding the front of the bedroom blocked him, but they couldn’t stop the sharp words pouring from his mouth.

And Elina was defenseless against such sharp malice. Of course, few people could handle someone harboring such malice.

“Can’t you just disappear cleanly? His Grace will pay dearly for it.”

“This crazy bastard must be insane. Shut his mouth!”

The knights at the front of the bedroom blocked the retainer, but it was not enough. The man resisted, full of inexplicable malice, not caring for his own body.

“How do you know the child in your womb is His Grace’s blood! If you’re aiming for the position of Grand Duchess with another man’s child! Ah! Let go, you bastards… Your Grace?”

Then Floyd appeared beyond the door. Although it was hard to see because the retainer and knights were entangled blocking the door, he was holding a long sword with a very angry face.

With a chilling sound, the sword was drawn from its scabbard, sharpened to cut through anything immediately.

It was frightening.

“I clearly told you not to cross the line. Earl Gent.”

“But we have the right to choose the Grand Duchess… huh, huh!”

As the sharp sword was thrust right next to his neck, the man screamed and sat on the floor, unlike a moment ago. Anyone would have. Floyd was truly furious.

“I clearly said not to touch the prospective Grand Duchess and the child in her womb.”

For a moment… Elina wished Floyd would just cut the retainer’s neck and kill him. If he tried to kill someone with his tongue, he should pay the price.

Bianca, who opened the bedroom door, and the adjutant who always stayed by Floyd’s side, all screamed without exception. They looked bewildered by the sudden situation.

His adjutant and a few knights tried to stop Floyd with all their might, but it seemed impossible to change his mind.

“Your Grace, please calm down! This is in front of the prospective Grand Duchess’s bedroom!”

“Miss, close your eyes…!”

Elina couldn’t comprehend the situation before her eyes. What had she done so wrong to deserve such harsh words from the retainer… Her head hurt so much she felt like she would faint.

But in the end, she understood why this situation was happening. She knew well who it was because of….

“Stop it!”

A week and more had passed since Floyd hadn’t visited, and her tear ducts, which hadn’t opened once, opened silently.

It didn’t even feel like crying. It was tears full of frustration from knowing she couldn’t resolve the anger she felt.

She was sick of it all. She hated everything.

She felt like she would be called Floyd’s one-night stand until she died and would be criticized for being an unmatched woman for the rest of her life. With nothing of herself left. Even the child in her womb being pointed at.

“Elina….”

“See, Your Grace, you are exhausted too! Just let me go. Just… abandon me.”

The last words were never her intention. Words she never wanted to say, but she felt Floyd wouldn’t give up on her unless she said them.

She still liked Floyd. She liked and appreciated his kindness even in this situation. That’s why she wanted to stop.

Floyd’s face, which she hadn’t seen in a long time, was full of worry. The person who always shone brightly looked exhausted.

Even though it was just one night, she didn’t want to be cruel to him who loved her. This was too much for him. It felt like she was placing all the responsibility on him.

“Lady Elina, wait a moment!”

Ignoring Bianca’s cry, Elina ran to the room where the luggage she brought when she came to the Rennes Grand Ducal residence was piled up.

She wondered why she hadn’t unpacked until now, but it seemed it was all for today.

She thought she could just take what she brought and leave. She didn’t want to cling to this place any longer. She hated that many people were fighting and getting hurt because of her.

At first, she only thought of herself and the child in her womb. She intended to selfishly protect herself no matter what others said.

But now everything seemed futile. Even if she begged Floyd, and he managed to marry her formally.

Leaving far away and giving birth to a child resembling him, raising it alone, seemed to invite the same criticism.

If it was going to be like this, why bother doing this.

Elina wanted to be happy. She didn’t need a high status; she wanted to meet a man who loved her, have a beautiful child, and create a harmonious family.

“I’m so tired… I’ll just give up everything. I did something I can never take responsibility for… something I can’t handle even if I die.”

Leaving the place where the bed was, she opened the door to the small room. There was a pile of luggage she had brought from the Valois residence.

They had given her clothes, food, and even assigned a doctor at the Rennes Grand Ducal residence, so there was no need to unpack. Looking now, she had brought quite a lot.

“Elina, wait. Don’t give up… I’ll take responsibility for everything. So please…!”

“Let go. I want to take responsibility for the child. Please… please. Let me go for the sake of me and the child… I didn’t know you were the Grand Duke… I never coveted the position of Grand Duchess….”

Floyd reached out and held Elina’s shoulder. Unlike before, he wasn’t unpleasant or scary.

She just felt nothing. She decided to give up everything, to put away the feelings she had for him.

No, it was right to put them away.

He followed her into the room and embraced her. He seemed to think it would be bad if an incident happened while struggling like before.

But Elina had already made up her mind. She had given up everything to protect the child, just as she had when she left the Valois residence.

“If… if you truly loved me, then let me go. If I stay here any longer, I fear something will happen to the child in my womb… I can’t take it anymore.”

“But marriage… Elina….”

Slowly, Floyd’s arms, which were wrapped around her waist, loosened. His intention was affirmative. He said nothing, but Elina thought so.

With a face full of despair, he helped Elina pack the luggage she had brought.

Bianca, still looking surprised, said a few words to Floyd, and only then did his expression soften a little.

Leaving the Rennes Grand Ducal residence, where she had stayed for several weeks, was organized faster than expected.

Fortunately, there was no atmosphere of protecting the retainer who dared to defy the Grand Duke’s order and sought out the woman carrying the Grand Duke’s child. Moreover, the woman herself said she would leave.

The members of the Rennes Grand Ducal family clearly treated Elina as a burden.

The retainer who visited Elina was not following Floyd, the Grand Duke, but Duke Silvesta, the most powerful retainer, and he was abandoned by everyone.

Afterwards, Floyd even knelt down to stop Elina from leaving the Grand Ducal residence immediately. He asked her to stay a little longer.

Whether it was his lingering attachment or his last mercy was unknown. But hearing how the retainers of the Grand Ducal residence acted after the incident left a bitter taste.

“If you’ve changed your mind even now….”

“No. Everything will be solved if I just disappear. Let’s stop….”

It would be noisy for now, but if Elina disappeared, the criticism would soon die down. Elina wanted that, and Floyd… probably wanted it too.

She was no longer afraid that the child in her womb would be called his illegitimate child. Even without a father, she would raise the child well. She was sure she could do it.

“Never come looking for me. You said you’d abandon me… so never.”

Floyd, who had strongly opposed her plan to leave the mansion and find a new place to live by hiring a carriage, eventually threatened not to let her go unless she used the Grand Ducal residence’s carriage.

And he loaded an enormous amount of money into the carriage, enough to live luxuriously for decades in the imperial capital, where the cost of living was high.

Was it a gift for the unborn child, or for that one night….

“I never abandoned you or the child, Elina. Wait… wait for me. I’ll come find you soon. I’ll apologize for everything then….”

He was someone who made her care until the very end.