Lady Devil - Chapter 202

‘I will not be able to turn away.’

‘Walked on four legs.’

Johannes heard Kretzman sneering behind his back. That incomprehensible laughter tightens Johannes’ collar.

***

So it was perhaps natural that Johannes, upon returning to Gustavus, frequented Inette’s chambers as if it were a daily routine.

The wedding procession that had departed treading on early autumn leaves like a military expedition returned like defeated soldiers pushed back by the frost-bound bitter cold. Even the flags fluttering in the biting wind were desolate. The mood in the domain was ominous due to the war that could break out at any time. The condition of the duke’s daughter, who had become completely silent, was not good. As those who had left for the capital gradually returned to their places and resumed their original duties, strange rumors began to spread among the freemen and low-ranking officials. Only the knight sirs sitting in Fort Gustavus were unaware of it.

They say the duke’s daughter has gone mad, possessed by a demon. It was an unfounded rumor that could not be stopped even with swords and spears since it could not be heard.

“Now I’ll remove your headdress.”

Griselda, who had pulled a low chair up to the mirror and seated Inette, bent deeply at the waist and carefully spoke. Inette still gave no reply.

It was a chamber where the low crackling of burning embers could be heard. As soon as it was freed from constraint, Griselda gently gathered the duchess’s hair, which fell in a deep golden color eating up the firelight, and brought it down in front of her chest. She also loosened the belt cinching the duchess’s waist and changed her into nightclothes. Amidst the continuing silence, she finally let out a faint sigh. The duchess’s pale cheeks reflected in the mirror were pitiful.

“Ah… Please don’t skip meals. If only for this wet nurse’s sake.”

She almost called her ‘young lady’ and hurriedly mumbled her lips once. No matter how sharp the widow before her eyes was with blue eyes exactly like the duke’s and precociously composed behavior, her appearance was still too young to be addressed as madam or mistress. The girl’s baby fat was still noticeable. Moreover, the gaze fixed on empty space as if in a daze no longer held that previous blue energy. Compassion preceded the etiquette of a vassal.

What on earth happened in that brief moment to make her like this?

Griselda bit her lip, her complexion slightly crumbling. She should not have left her post. She should have stayed by the young lady’s side to care for her, even if it meant pushing Gaader aside. Surely she wasn’t going to follow in her mother’s footsteps like this? Such a tender body, small life, not yet lived even a few years. What sin did she commit to be so ill-fated… It was all that woman…

The duchess’s sin…

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