Chapter 11

No matter how much she thought about it, there was no reason for Amelia to be needed anymore. It had only been a day, but it seemed like there was nothing she had to do as the Grand Duchess. Besides, Amelia didn’t really live a righteous life…

All she ever did was get drunk, break things in the house, and take it out on Leonel. She probably couldn’t stand it without getting drunk. But it was wrong to bother an innocent child like that.

“That’s why the Grand Duchess’s reputation is falling to the ground.”

Just because she had many maids didn’t automatically increase her status. It was almost as if she was asking why he didn’t love her by behaving badly.

“Let’s summarize the content first…”

Fortunately, it hasn’t been long since she read the book. Amelia dies when Leonel is six years old. So there’s only about a year left… All the stories are told from Leonel’s perspective.

“Apparently, he said the smell of strong alcohol stung his nose.”

It was said that Amelia always smelled of alcohol, but it was written that on that day, a particularly strong alcohol scent filled the room. It was so intense that it was scary to go inside.

So the conclusion was that she got drunk and accidentally committed suicide?

“Was Amelia always an impulsive person?”

Humans can change with even the slightest shock. And there was only one person who would be shocked by Amelia.

Raphael Lloyd Siegfried. Something must have happened between them. The couple fought every time they faced each other, so there was a good chance. And to think one parent smelled like alcohol and the other smelled like blood. There was no such thing as a worse situation than this.

‘It’s a miracle that the child grew up healthy under parents like these.’

In the end, even though I said I was summarizing the content, all I wrote on the paper were fragmented stories. And they were all stories after Amelia died. The book didn’t even mention why Amelia died or how she died.

All that mattered was that she choked herself to death in front of Leonel’s eyes when he was only six years old.

“They needed a villain twisted by a lack of affection.”

The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. It was safe to say that all the good stuff went to the male lead, the Third Prince. How could this be?

“Money, looks, power. He’s got everything, even personality.”

In contrast, Leonel was half-hearted in terms of money and power. He was rejected for his looks because he wasn’t good-looking enough, and you couldn’t say he had a good personality. Aaron, the male protagonist, was opposite to Leonel in every way. Like a horizon that could never be reached. The obviousness of the setting made her frown.

“…….”

Amelia silently scratched the paper with her pen. If she didn’t know, she would have ignored it, but it was impossible to pretend not to know when she already knew everything. Even if she left, there was no guarantee that Leonel wouldn’t have other traumas. There were many other unsettling factors in this house.

First of all, she needed information. What she knew were things from a far-off future. She didn’t even know the laws or culture here.

“Why on earth did… Amelia become like this.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to adapt, but rather that she didn’t want to accept it. She still felt like she would return to her original world if she closed her eyes and opened them again.

Flip, flip.

She flipped through the book without any thoughts, and even though she shouldn’t have been able to read them, her mind told her what they meant. As though it were mocking her wishes.

“I can’t believe she brought me that and called it a book.”

Even if you ignore the Grand Duchess, it’s still a bad novel. A low-level sensational novel that commoners would read, even including a picture book. How on earth could someone of her level bring her these books. She might as well have gone to the library and picked them out herself. What she wanted to see was a legal code book that contained divorce laws.

“Isn’t divorce better than death?”

***

There’s an old saying that if you prepare well, you’ll win a hundred battles.

I locked myself in the room and tried to organize the contents until lunchtime, but all that came out were success stories of the Third Prince. How did the Third Prince and the female protagonist, Sierra, come to love each other. It reminded me of Leonel’s death, which I had forgotten.

I felt so dirty that I couldn’t stand it. The author allowed Leonel to awaken only at the end. His changed eyes turned golden like Siegfried, and he gained the ability to fully exert his powers. But the power to wield magic became a curse for Leonel.

“I don’t like it……”

His opponents were a holy maiden who sought to save the empire and a prince who could use white magic. It was obvious how Leonel, who wielded demonic beasts, would be seen by people. Even though the power of the Siegfried family has always been used to ensure the safety of the empire.

To drive out evil and protect the peace of the empire, the Siegfried family must be exterminated. The Third Prince, with a plausible excuse, expelled Leonel. Though no one was unaware that it was to prevent Sierra from being taken away. But the powerful combination of the Holy Maiden’s strong power and white magic silenced everyone.

In the end, Leonel, who was cornered to the extreme, chose dark magic. Dark magic is a dangerous magic that consumes the caster. Once a wrong choice was made, it couldn’t be undone, and people saw Leonel as evil. Unable to obtain Sierra, Leonel began to rampage even more. He even kidnapped Sierra and tried to harm her.

That’s why Leonel became the villain and antagonist in the book. She knew that when the child who smiled shyly now grew up, he would color the entire empire with darkness. And the end would be self-destruction.

“In the end, no one from the Siegfried family survived.”

That’s why she suffered from a fever for a while after reading the book. As someone who was rooting for Leonel, it was the worst possible ending. It was truly a disaster. No matter how much of a villain he was, his ending was too gruesome.

At least she couldn’t point a finger at Leonel like she did. Because she knew his end. Leonel thought of Amelia even as he was dying. He hated his blonde hair and his golden eyes which were traits from the Siegfrieds, wishing instead that he had silver hair and violet eyes.

The moment she closed her eyes, she thought of Leonel, who had asked her if he would ever be able to see his mother, and she clenched the pen in her hand.

“Ah…!”

She didn’t even know that the ink was leaking, so when she pressed too hard, the paper she had written on was a mess. The ink spread quickly, and it was impossible to tell what was written on the paper. But it was okay because it was all in her head anyway.

If there was anything she gained from rolling around at work, it was her improved memory and memorization skills. Thanks to that, she never forgot what she wrote once. She’d rather not be treated like a weirdo for being caught with a note written in Korean.

“….”

Amelia finished, pouring all the ink from her inkwell onto the paper. That wasn’t going to happen as long as she was here. Never.

Clank.

She came into this room herself, but she didn’t want to stay in this room anymore. It had only been two days, but everyone in the Siegfried household wanted Amelia to stay in her room and be quiet. So they would pour her some high-proof alcohol and call some merchants o she could spend money like water.

It was like giving a crying child another rice cake. Please eat the rice cake and keep your mouth shut.

“Y-your Highness?”

“What is this…”

“Ah, the ink spilled.”

When she opened the door and went out, the maids and May were surprised that her hands and dress were covered in ink.

“Can you guide me to the study?”¹

“Yes?”

She felt that she said something wrong when she saw the expression on May’s face.

“I mean a place where I can read books, not the Grand Duke’s study.”

When she said ‘study,’ she thought she meant Raphael’s office, so she made that expression. She must’ve thought she was crazy, going to Raphael’s office herself. But she never wanted to run into him if possible.

“First, clean your hands… “

“This? I can just wipe it.”

Amelia carelessly smeared the ink from her hands onto her dress.

“It’s not even been a day or two, right”

Amelia getting drunk and causing a ruckus inside the house was an everyday occurrence. On the contrary, Raphael let it slide. No, he encouraged it. It meant that she could do whatever she wanted and not bother him. He also increased her personal budget for that reason.

There was no way she could go against his wishes.

“I can’t believe you brought me a book like that to read.”

“….”

“Can you show me the way?”

At least for Raphael Lloyd Siegfried. She had no intention of giving the man what he wanted.