Duke, This Will Sting for a Moment (30 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 54

A night filled only with pure moonlight.

Yuriella stopped her steps before a sprawling cluster of wildflowers.

Bending down, she picked a white violet. A lupine blossom forming a soft purple spire. Two fire lilies bursting golden buds beneath a clump of shrubs….

With each step forward, bending her waist to gather an armful of flowers, she had unknowingly reached the top of the Red Hill.

Colina Rosa was called the “Red Hill” because its soil was made of red loam, coloring both the hills and houses in hues of red.

This red earth was a gracious gift from the gods, enabling the barren North to endure its cold and hungry seasons.

The people of the North planted tuber crops like potatoes in this soil, surviving famines caused by frost, and also cultivated cold-hardy grapes to produce their regional specialty—ice wine.

Yuriella stood at the summit of the Red Hill and silently surveyed the surroundings.

Nowhere could she see the crops that should have been thriving for the autumn harvest.

Nor could she find any trace of the flocks of sheep and dairy cows that should have been lazily grazing below before returning to their pens.

Only stubborn weeds and wildflowers bloomed in clumps. The Red Hill, which should have brimmed with bountiful harvests, lay utterly empty….

It was a painful scar left behind months ago by the punitive force she had led.

At her single command, the Red Hill had turned into a tragic and sorrowful “Hill of Blood.”

Blood from the northern army and the people of Colina Rosa had once flowed like rivers, their corpses piled like mountains—so much so that the red fertile soil had become unrecognizable.

It was said that, by the Grand Duke’s order, the fallen soldiers and victims of Colina Rosa had been respectfully collected and given solemn funerals.

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