The Duke Only Needs My Child (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 35
“My lady.”
Rina’s voice came through along with a knock. Blair closed the book she had been reading.
“Come in.”
No sooner had Blair given permission than Rina entered the study. Approaching with a solemn expression, as if bearing a grave responsibility, Rina handed Blair a letter.
“It’s from the guild.”
It was the news she had been waiting for.
Blair set aside the book she’d been holding and unfolded the letter.
The letter omitted any information about sender or recipient, just in case it fell into other hands en route, containing only a brief message.
[We have discovered the source of the sentence you previously asked us to investigate. That sentence is…]Blair’s eyes began trembling uncontrollably as she read further down the letter.
[This is the timeline separator]“He’s coming!”
The knight’s voice echoed through the quiet winter forest. Simultaneously, the ground far off began cracking open as something approached.
There was something enormous beneath the earth.
Standing directly in its path was Herdin.
Herdin watched the approaching entity with cold eyes, then plunged his sword into the ground.
A blue magical circle spread out from the blade—redirecting his ice magic not toward the surface, but deep underground.
Beneath the circle, sharp icicles pierced downward through the soil, stabbing the creature that had been stealthily advancing below. Instantly, a massive worm-like monster burst onto the surface.
“Now!”
Hidden knights in the forest, upon hearing their captain’s command, simultaneously fired their crossbows.
Dozens of crossbow bolts, each tied to thin yet sturdy twisted-wire cords, embedded themselves into the monster’s body.
Though the beast thrashed its massive form violently to shake off the knights and retreat underground, it couldn’t possibly dislodge all the dozens of strong men clinging to it.
The knights gritted their teeth, straining against the monster’s strength.
“Aaargh!”
One of them was flung away, unable to withstand the creature’s power. The monster’s maw gaped wide, ready to swallow the fallen knight whole.
Just as the knight froze in terror—
In the blink of an eye, Herdin darted forward, snatched the knight up, and hurled him toward the safety of the woods.
Then, swiftly crafting another magic circle beneath his feet, he moved across it in an instant, reaching the monster’s head in a flash. With no wasted motion, he cleanly severed the worm’s head.
The bisected monster writhed, its head and torso each attempting to regenerate the other.
At that moment, a luminous image of a sword materialized in midair. The blade of light rained down upon the monster’s body like a torrential downpour.
The knights watched, once again awestruck by the sight they’d witnessed countless times before.
Magic required intense concentration, making it difficult to cast while moving—and for the same reason, impossible to cast multiple spells simultaneously.
Yet Herdin moved without pause even as he cast magic, chaining one spell seamlessly into the next.
Anyone who saw this would have no choice but to acknowledge it: his power truly surpassed that of ordinary humans.
Landing lightly, Herdin drove his sword into the monster’s severed head lying on the ground. As the creature’s heart, embedded at its core, shattered, both head and body ceased moving entirely.
Seeing this, the knights exhaled in relief. The battle was over.
Herdin sheathed his sword and looked down at his palm. He could feel the mana within him flowing steadily.
‘No unusual symptoms since the New Year Festival.’
Ever since his mana control faltered during the festival, he’d periodically checked his condition—but found nothing amiss.
Even after scouring every grimoire, he’d found no recorded cases of mana temporarily vanishing and then returning.
He couldn’t reveal such instability to others. His weakness would become Delmarque’s weakness; thus, he had no choice but to monitor himself closely.
‘Troublesome things keep piling up lately.’
Both his erratic mana and the waking visions plagued him.
“My lord.”
A servant approached the contemplative Herdin and offered him a towel.
Herdin wiped away the monster’s viscous fluid from his body.
Meanwhile, the servants began collecting the monster’s carcass.
Hunting monsters entailed tremendous risk, yet their corpses fetched high prices—so arrogant monster hunters often trespassed into their territory for profit.
Consequently, incidents like today’s—where monsters were driven all the way to villages—occurred fairly often.
“That monster? Truthfully, we’d nearly captured it ourselves! Since we dealt the decisive blow, it ended right here.”
Herdin regarded the culprits—who moments ago had been begging for their lives—with disdain now that they brazenly claimed their share after the monster was slain.
‘They’ll only end up as the monster’s next meal anyway.’
But there was no need for him to intervene. The captain of his knights, long accustomed to dealing with northern monster hunters, would handle it.
Herdin returned the towel to the servant and stared blankly at the monster’s corpse being gathered up.
Killing always left a foul taste, whether the victim was an enemy or a monster.
After more than ten years of taking countless lives, he thought he’d grown used to it—yet why did this unsettling feeling return anew?
As Herdin pondered the reason, Blair suddenly came to mind.
The woman in his arms had been warm. Her skin soft against his, her heart beneath her chest beating gently yet firmly—just like its owner.
Being alive was truly wondrous.
Though he’d always known this fact, it struck him freshly now—perhaps that’s why the deaths he’d wrought felt especially distasteful.
He wanted to return home quickly—to the mansion where that wondrous life awaited him.
As Herdin turned toward his tethered horse, he spotted Ruth approaching—and behind him, some rather unwelcome faces.
It was the Imperial Knights.
Leading them was their Vice-Captain.
“Oh dear! While we went to fetch a priest from the temple… you’ve already slain that giant brute? Truly, the Delmarque Knights live up to their reputation as bane of monsters!”
He exaggerated his astonishment, seemingly praising the Delmarque Knights—or so it appeared at first glance.
Herdin eyed him coolly. He knew the Imperial Knights had deliberately arrived late; they always did this.
If civilians’ lives hadn’t been at stake, he would have ignored them entirely.
“Indeed. Had I finished just a bit later, it might’ve been disastrous. You nearly got your precious Imperial insignia spat out from that worm’s rear end.”
Herdin’s clearly sarcastic remark instantly chilled the atmosphere.
The Vice-Captain’s face hardened momentarily, but he quickly composed himself and laughed heartily in response.
“Haha! Surely our knights aren’t that incompetent—we are the Imperial Knights, after all.”
“Ah, I know full well how capable you all are. Isn’t it remarkable how you always arrive with priests at the most… opportune moments?”
“…”
“Hurry up and evacuate the wounded to the village. Isn’t that precisely what you excel at?”
It was a thinly veiled insult, treating the Imperial Knights like mere cleanup attendants.
Unable to mask his displeasure any longer, the Vice-Captain turned sharply from Herdin and issued orders to his own knights.
Ruth, standing beside Herdin, clicked his tongue as he watched the Imperial Knights depart.
“Damn shameless lot—they waste good tax money.”
Watching Delmarque’s knights receive treatment, Herdin held out his hand toward Ruth.
“How many injured on our side?”
Understanding immediately what the gesture meant, Ruth cut a cigar and placed it in Herdin’s hand, lighting it as he replied.
“Five in total, but all minor injuries—nothing to worry about.”
“What’s on today’s schedule?”
“Nothing particular, though… don’t you recall? Lord Caligo’s party should be arriving sometime today.”
Caligo was one of the knights who had fought alongside Herdin on the battlefield—a skilled and loyal subordinate.
Originally stationed at Delmarque’s main fortress under Herdin’s orders, he was currently traveling down to the capital.
“Noted.”
Truthfully, he’d only just remembered—but there was no need to say so aloud.
As Herdin gave a cursory nod and drew on his cigar smoke, he sensed someone approaching from behind.
“Um…”
Both Herdin and Ruth turned around simultaneously.
“Ah! It really is you, my lord! We met briefly at the temple before—do you perhaps remember me?”
A silver-haired woman beamed at Herdin.
As he exhaled smoke and regarded her indifferently, Blair’s voice echoed faintly in his mind.
‘That priestess back then… she’s the woman you’ll fall in love with.’
Her tone had been calm, almost detached—as if speaking of someone else—and so had her gaze.
Remembering this, Herdin’s eyes grew icy cold.
He didn’t know her name, but he recognized that face. Not because he wished to remember it—but because he simply couldn’t forget.
“I remember, Priestess.”
In truth, even if he hadn’t recalled her, her attire alone would have revealed her identity.
Yet Miera brightened visibly just from hearing him say those words. Her emotions played openly across her face.
“I’m so glad to see you again! Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No.”
His blunt reply embarrassed Miera, but she quickly rallied for something else to say.
“How is the injury I treated last time? May I ask how you’re feeling?”
“Perfectly fine. Your healing magic was flawless.”
Despite the compliment, Herdin’s eyes remained utterly bored as he smoked his cigar—a clear dismissal, though Miera failed to grasp it and instead blushed.
“I’m relieved. You had internal injuries, and I was so nervous back then—I worried my healing might not have worked properly…”
“…”
“Oh! How is the Duchess? She seemed quite shaken that day as well.”
At the familiar title slipping from Miera’s lips, his perpetually weary expression shifted.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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MANGA DISCUSSION
7 Comments
Chapter Comments (762)
““Oh… I’m sorry. I got carried away by how happy I was to see you…”
Instead of leaving immediately, Miera hesitated briefly before bowing slightly and adding”Gosh she is soo patheticly flirting with a married man, and Ruth think she is such a waste???? Ugh this woman belong to the 💒
I also according to chapter 3 he the assassin had something weird in his eyes like he is controlled
I really love this story if a you want to pass your time should watch it author keep making stories but also make heroin more powerfull
So sad if Ruth’s one of the reason why the female lead’s relationship with Herdin became cold in the past.
Inline Comments (4932)
Instead of leaving immediately, Miera hesitated briefly before bowing slightly a
Your ulterior motives is reeking, it smells so bad. If you really care about the injured you should have treated them first but it really shows your trying to seduce someones husband
They’d had little interaction, so it couldn’t have been personal animosity—and l
Technically, she is. As long as she’s married to Herdin. Her brother can use him to incite war and for any grunt work he xhooses. The monster hunt he was at just now was on of them.“Oh… I’m sorry. I got carried away by how happy I was to see you…”
I’m disgusted by this woman, a vulgar whore. Your job is to kindly care for hurting people, stop going around looking at married men, you slut.
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AKUMA is an akuma
Here comes the snake! Mamm aren’t you a Priestess? You should serve only God why are you this H0RNY OVER A MARRIED MAN! UGH!
Jojo Did
This Miera… She knows he is married but still approaches him in an unsincere manner.. Definitely up to no good
Mimi
How can anyone be so clueless? Herdin doesn’t want to talk to you, you crazy, delusional woman.
Vasundra Devi SK
Well priestess you think we didn’t know that it was you who killed duchess in first life ??!!
DaniCa Z
I really hope this priestess is just a naive girl and not a real nasty and scheming b*tch.