Raniarne’s head ached from the baby’s crying and Millie’s worried voice.

“Lady Raniarne! Lady Arne! Please open your eyes! You can’t sleep now, even if you’re sleepy! Everyone is worried.”

Thinking that only the maid Millie would worry about Arne in the cursed Grand Duchy of Renigrad, she tried to smirk, but her face wouldn’t move as intended.

She was too tired. Exhausted. It was understandable, since she had just given birth.

Especially considering Arne’s body had received a terminal diagnosis.

“Lady Arne!”

The maids around her rolled their eyes at the sound loud enough to tear ears.

“Hey, she’s the grand duchess with not much time left! Those who will die will die anyway, what’s with all the fuss?”

“What are you saying?”

Thick tears fell from Millie’s eyes. Her voice trembled with sorrow.

‘Why are you crying, Millie?’

Arne swallowed her words, her lips not moving.

The maids who snapped at Millie started spilling words without noticing, thinking Arne had fainted.

“She wasn’t even supposed to have a child in the first place. Even healthy ladies die giving birth, let alone her.”

“What? How can you say such a thing! Just wait until the duke comes, all of you…….”

“What change will there be when the duke comes? He headed straight to the battlefield right after the wedding. We haven’t heard from him since.”

“That’s because… he’s in a dangerous battlefield where no messenger can reach…….”

“Ha, you need to wake up. You’re delusional. Staying by a broken lady like that, you’ll end up dead soon, too.”

The maids’ laughter flipped the room upside down.

Millie bit her lip, her fists trembling with rage.

She was so angry, but she had no words to fight back.

Because it was all true. The last time the ducal couple was seen together was on their wedding night. The duke hadn’t even sent a letter.

Maybe it was inevitable.

Duke Cedric Schopendha du Renigrad wasn’t in love with Arne when they married.

The reason for their marriage was that Cedric’s fiancée, Amelia, had an affair with Arne’s fiancé, Kale.

「Lady Arne, don’t you want to take revenge on Kale who betrayed you? I do.」

「Are you suggesting we have an affair?」

「Why not? If the other party didn’t show me courtesy, why should I show it to them? Or are you put off by the rumors that I’m cursed by a demon?」

「You do know that I’m called the empire’s mad villainess? And that I’m rumored to have slapped a cheating Kale across the cheek.」

Cedric’s lips, stiff until now, lifted gracefully for the first time. He was as handsome as if bewitched by a demon.

「I like that you’re a mad villainess. Compared to a demon, isn’t a villainess cute? Are you afraid of demons?」

「It doesn’t matter anymore. I received a terminal diagnosis recently.」

「…Then we should get married right away. We don’t have much time.」

「Are you joking?」

「Does it seem like a joke?」

The Grand Duke’s eyebrows, who were said to have turned cold after being betrayed by Amelia, who had an affair, rose.

His firm jawline and tightly closed lips were quite serious.

His eyes swirled with surging anger and an inexplicable urgency. Arne slowly parted her lips under his gaze.

「Okay.」

It was an impulsive decision.

Arne, who had been an orphan, always dreamed of having a family.

She was adopted into the Marquis of Ronia family for her magical talents, but she still felt like an outsider.

‘They said I’m of dirty blood from an unknown place, a lowborn who dares to think she could be part of a family.’

Her stepmother and stepsisters disliked Arne.

She did her best not to be hated. She went to war without complaint at the marquis’s request.

For a war orphan, the battlefield was familiar territory.

Concealing her name, she joined the war as Ronia’s secret knight, and her achievements elevated the Marquisate of Ronia to a Duchy.

It didn’t matter that the achievements weren’t under her name.

Just not to be expelled. Not to be hated.

No, she wished to be loved.

The only praise she could receive upon returning from the war with her achievements was the Duke of Ronia’s satisfied expression.

So, she trained tirelessly through the nights, exhausting her body. It was natural for her body to hurt. Yet, she couldn’t stop. She feared being abandoned if she fell even slightly behind.

Foolishly, it was only after receiving a terminal diagnosis that she realized how severely her body was damaged.

「Father… I’m in so much pain.」

Arne swallowed these words she dared not say before, along with her tears. Her head throbbed, and her mind was foggy.

The sharp voice of a maid struck her ears.

“Tsk. They say a daughter’s fate follows her mother’s. This child will become an orphan too.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Unfortunately, the child has red eyes. Stop crying. It’s noisy! What good is having a grand mage as a mother if they’re all dying and useless?”

The child’s intermittent sobbing, startled by the maid’s annoyed voice, was met with Millie’s indignant retort.

“Why are you doing this to the child! What has the child done wrong!”

“Hey, you should be thankful for the advice too. What are you doing sticking by a child without parents? Soon, relatives will swarm in to take over the Grand Duchy of Renigrad. Get in line properly.”

“Nobody has passed away yet! Even if they do, the Grand Duchy belongs to the young lady, what are you talking about!”

Millie’s naive words were met with relentless laughter from the maids.

Eventually, the silent head maid spoke up.

Her voice carried arrogance, perhaps due to rumors linking her with the Marquis of Renal, the most influential among the relatives.

“Millie, stop pretending to be good, it’s unlucky. What can an orphan do? She’d be lucky if she didn’t get assassinated after being manipulated and used like this. Do you think the relatives would spare such a bloody mess?”

The head maid, lost in foolish dreams of becoming the new grand duchess, muttered while looking at the grand duchess unknowingly.

“She’s just an orphan, after all.”

The room fell silent. The head maid flinched as if he hadn’t intended to say those words out loud, but what could she do?

‘The grand duchess is as good as dead anyway.’

But the atmosphere was excessively heavy and quiet. The surrounding maids were frozen stiff.

“Why? Did I say something wrong?”

The moment the head maid sharply retorted and turned around, she realized why the room had gone so quiet.

Raniarne, the Grand Duchess, was looking down at her.

“…I’m just an orphan, after all. That was one of the phrases I heard most often. Thanks to you, I’ve snapped out of it. I thought I was going to die like you said.”

“Gr, Grand Duchess.”

The head maid was momentarily flustered but decided to brazen it out.

After all, Arne didn’t look like she would live much longer.

Her already pale face had no color, looking like a ghost who was just standing there. She had lost too much blood, and he had seen enough wives pass away after fainting like this.

As if reading his thoughts, Arne lazily smiled.

“I’m really lucky to be a grand mage. Magic doesn’t betray me. Do you know what was the first magic I manifested?”

Arne flicked her finger slowly.

“Healing magic. On the battlefield, nobody saves an orphan.”

A slowly rising lavender mana gently and warmly enveloped Arne. The mana always stayed with her, ensuring she wasn’t hurt.

It always protected her.

When Arne flicked her finger again, the head maid’s knees buckled involuntarily, and her head hit the floor.

“Cough, Grand Duchess, please.”

As the head maid writhed in pain, looking up at Arne, he saw her smiling face as if she had never been close to death.

“It seems like it’s not my time to die yet. How can I close my eyes? My daughter, who did nothing wrong but be born, might end up like me.”

Arne lifted the head maid’s face. Her cold, icy gaze swept over her.

The maids were frozen stiff. Raniarne was rumored to be the empire’s mad villainess.

She would never let it slide that someone dared to whisper she was an orphan.

As Arne tried to snap her fingers again, the head maid’s face turned deathly pale.

“Duchess, I was wrong. Please, spare my life. I will never make such a reckless remark again!”

Despite the head maid’s desperate sobbing, Arne did not move an inch. Then, a loud noise resounded.

Bang.

People who turned their eyes to the window saw a giant flying beast crash into the barrier.

“Looks like today is your lucky day.”

Arne slowly released the head maid’s head she had been holding as she watched the flying beast.

The cursed Renigrad Grand Duchy, where even the Grand Duke’s father and grandfather died under mysterious circumstances.

The land was rich in magical energy, making the Renigrad Grand Duchy a constant target for monster attacks due to its dense magic.

It had been too quiet today. It was time for a swarm of monsters to attack due to the overflowing magical energy.

As Arne moved, a burst of purple mana rose instantly, and the flying beast in the sky burned up into ash.

The head maid gasped at the sight.

“Millie.”

“Yes!”

Arne looked down at her hiccupping daughter intending to call her name, but she hesitated.

Her husband hadn’t named the child. She wasn’t even sure if he knew of her existence.

“Millie, stay in this room with the child. It has the thickest barrier. I’ll be back.”

“By yourself, Lady Arne?”

“When have I not been?”

She had sent several letters to the Duke of Ronia pleading for at least one mage to defend Renigrad Grand Duchy, but there was no response.

Most of the soldiers left with her husband when he went to war, leaving only a minimal force behind.

They had all valiantly fought against monsters and returned to the soil long ago.

Arne alone walked through the familiar corridor and opened the door to the banquet hall leading to the castle gates.

“Cedric?”

Was she seeing things? Why would her husband, who should be on the battlefield, be here?

But it was indeed Cedric. He was smiling tenderly with that handsome face she saw on their first and last night together.

“Raniarne.”

It wasn’t an illusion. It really was Cedric.

As Cedric moved, the chains on his body and the door rattled.

“You’re truly Raniarne. My wife.”

His voice was excessively tender, just like that night.

No, she wouldn’t be fooled again. Hadn’t he whispered sweetly that night and then not sent a single letter all year?

“Why did you cry?”

But when Cedric gently wiped away the dried tear stains with his fingertips, something inside her crumbled.

“Why ask? You don’t care anyway. Stop acting like you’re in love with me.”

“That’s impossible. I fell for you the moment I saw you.”

Cedric slowly wiped away the tear stains and embraced her.

Arne couldn’t understand his words.

His hand, wrapped in sturdy armor, gently enveloped her shoulder, and she felt a cold touch along with a rattling noise.

“Arne, I don’t have much time left. There’s some adelin herb in the grand ducal garden. Let’s brew and drink it together.”

Cedric struggled to turn his body to hand her a box stained with blood.

Only then did she see several spears stuck in his back. His eyes, deeply set as if shadowed by death, were heavy with fatigue.

Even the banquet hall was filled with magic formations. Moreover, beyond his back, the castle gates were shaking from regular strong impacts.

“Cedric, what’s happening right now?”

“Arne, if something happens, go to the room of mirrors. It will grant your wish.”

“What do you mean what’s happening!”

“But you must wish carefully. You can only do it once, and you must pay with what’s most precious to you.”

“Cedric!”

As the castle gates finally broke, an enormous number of monsters that she had never seen in her life poured in.

Cedric hugged Arne urgently. His lips slowly delved deep into her, exploring her deeply.

It was tender and intense. Suddenly pushing Arne away, Cedric laughed languidly and tiredly.

The dress she was pushed away in was heavily stained with dark red bloodstains.

“Goodbye, my insanely beautiful wife.”

As Cedric pulled on the chains attached to his body, the door slowly closed.

The countless number of monsters pouring in and Cedric’s languid laughter did not match at all.

It was full of things she couldn’t understand. Why are you here? A room of mirrors? Granting wishes?

What made the least sense was the item left in the last box by Cedric, whom she thought had not a shred of affection or interest.

The heart of a dragon, the world’s best medicinal ingredient said to heal any patient.

…Why did you do this?

* * *