The Duke Only Needs My Child - Chapter 15

Blair was standing on the outside of the balcony railing. Precariously, as if she might fall at any moment.

Blair also seemed quite flustered, as if she hadn’t expected Lina to enter the room.

Lina took advantage of that moment to rush over and roughly grab Blair’s waist.

“No! You can’t!”

“Lina, wait! You misunderstand. First, let go of this…”

“No! I won’t let go! If Your Highness is going to die, I’ll die with you!”

“That’s not what…”

“I don’t want to! I won’t listen to anything you say until you come back over here! Hurry and come inside!”

Finally, Lina began to sob while holding onto Blair. Even so, she clung to Blair tenaciously and pulled her in, as if reeling in a big catch.

“How could you try to leave me behind and go somewhere alone! Absolutely not! If you’re going to have such bad thoughts, kill me first before you go!”

“That’s not what I was doing. From just the second floor, what…”

But Lina, sniffling with tears and snot, didn’t seem to hear those words. Blair had to endure receiving her tears while being held tightly.

Only after a long while did Lina finally calm down and ask Blair.

“But why did you have such thoughts…?”

Her voice was still nasally from crying.

Blair scratched her cheek sheepishly as she explained.

“It’s not what you’re thinking. I was trying to sneak out because I had somewhere to go.”

Hearing Blair’s words, Lina finally noticed the cloth tied to the balcony railing. It was a rope skillfully made from the bedding in the room.

Lina was aghast.

“Oh, no. How reckless! What if you fell and got hurt?”

“It’s only the second floor. There are bushes below.”

Blair was proud, as if she had made her own meticulous plan, but Lina, who had watched over Blair for a long time, knew better.

Her lovely princess, despite her gentle appearance, would occasionally do reckless things.

Lina sighed, touching her forehead, then suddenly remembered something and asked.

“By the way, where were you trying to go in the middle of the night…?”

Instead of answering Lina’s question, Blair just smiled brightly. It was a dazzlingly beautiful smile, but somehow ominous.

* * *

“This is…”

Lina’s eyes widened as she looked out the carriage window.

The place they arrived at after sneaking out of the duke’s mansion with Blair was the guild street in the back alley of the capital.

Blair flipped up her robe’s hood and opened the carriage door, saying,

“I’ll be back soon.”

“If you’re not out in 30 minutes, I’m really going to come looking for you. I mean it!”

Throughout the carriage ride, Blair had earnestly insisted that Lina couldn’t come with her into the guild, so Lina backed down obediently while making threats.

Blair, who got out of the hired carriage, stood in front of a guild building.

Guild Rebellus.

It was an information guild renowned for its unrivaled ability to collect information among the numerous guilds.

Blair took a deep breath and entered the guild building.

At first glance, the interior looked like an ordinary tavern. When Blair entered, the noisy guild suddenly fell silent as if cold water had been poured over it.

They scrutinized the unexpected visitor who didn’t fit in with this place.

Although the woman had her face hidden by her robe’s hood, the high nose and small reddish lips that were briefly visible were enough to tell she was a beauty.

A well-built middle-aged man who had been eyeing Blair’s face slammed down his beer mug with a thud and shouted.

“Hey, who brought their girlfriend to the guild? Confess now.”

“Ah, I think she’s my girlfriend.”

“What are you talking about? She looks like my wife.”

The men joked around, each claiming Blair as their woman. Even their snickering laughter sounded frightening to Blair.

For her, who had grown up preciously as a princess, encountering a group of men showing their raw nature was something unfamiliar.

But if she had thought of running away scared from here, she wouldn’t have come in the first place.

Blair ignored them and approached the bar located in the center of the guild.

However, the drunk men didn’t seem willing to let go of their rare eye candy so easily, and blocked her way.

“Hey, pretty lady. What brings you here?”

“I came to meet the master of this place.”

“Our master is too busy to take on trivial tasks. How about talking to us elder brother’s instead? We’ll do it for you cheap and sure.”

“Have a drink with us and tell us slowly. What kind of trouble brought our pretty one to fearlessly visit a place crawling with these dark fellows?”

A man so drunk he could barely aim his own body leaned in close to Blair, putting his arm around her shoulders. The smell of alcohol and unfamiliar warmth that came with him made her skin crawl.

Blair calmly removed the man’s arm. Then she placed a ring in his hand and said,

“Go call the master.”

“Hah!”

The man, whose face had turned red from the alcohol, burst out laughing as if dumbfounded.

He was quite displeased at being completely ignored and treated like a servant, just given a jewel.

“Who do you think you’re treating like a neighborhood mutt! You think everyone wags their tail for money?”

The man raised his voice, spitting as he spoke. His large build and loud voice alone were threatening enough.

But Blair didn’t back down.

No, she couldn’t back down.

Not when she thought about the future with Asiel that hinged on this guild request.

Blair clenched her instinctively trembling hands to hide them and stood up to the man.

“You’ve worked in this field for a long time, so you should know better than anyone how to conduct yourselves. How foolish it is to cut open the belly of a goose that lays golden eggs.”

The man who met Blair’s eyes through the robe hood flinched. From this fragile woman’s gaze, he felt a strange pressure that couldn’t be defied.

It wasn’t just the man who felt it; the guild members watching also sensed the strange atmosphere and exchanged glances with each other.

If nothing else, seeing how confidently the woman was acting, they were certain she must be a high-profile client that absolutely couldn’t be let go.

One of the guild members who had been exchanging glances went up to the second floor and came back down shortly after with another man.

“Did the young lady ask to see me?”

Blair looked at the man once and opened her mouth.

“No. I want to speak with the master.”

“I am the master of Rebellus.”

“Is it Rebellus’ rule to deceive clients like this?”

As Blair said this, her gaze was directed towards the bartender who was wiping glasses behind the bar.

He was a handsome man with a kind face, curly brown hair, and green eyes.

“I’d like to make a request to the guild master of Rebellus.”

The man’s eyes hesitated for a moment behind his round glasses, but soon he smiled as if amused and asked,

“May I ask how you knew?”

“When I asked for the master to be called. Everyone glanced at you for guidance, but you just listened.”

“You have good eyes.”

The man smiled at Blair, then looked around at his subordinates who had been caught ‘glancing’. The subordinates avoided his gaze sheepishly.

The man put down his glass and came out from behind the bar.

“Shall we move to a different location?”

Blair followed the man up to a room on the second floor. The room he led her to was an ordinary empty room.

Once they were alone, the man bowed politely.

“Let me introduce myself properly, Duchess. My name is Mikhail Kines.”

Blair startled. The man knew her identity without her saying anything. But thinking about it, if the head of an information guild didn’t even know the face of a princess, that would be more unreliable.

“…So that situation earlier, you were testing me on purpose.”

“I wanted to see how desperate you were. Those who seek me out despite the risks are willing to pay a price corresponding to their desperation. I apologize if I offended you.”

“It’s alright. I suppose that means you’re confident in carrying out the task cleanly.”

Despite Mikhail’s rude behavior in daring to test her, a princess of the country and a duchess, Blair responded calmly.

However, in her soft voice and gaze, there was both tolerance and a sharpness. An attitude that both showed mercy and overwhelmed the other party at the same time. It was natural for someone accustomed to dealing with subordinates.

‘Was she born as a noble princess from the start?’

Mikhail smiled faintly and replied to her words.

“Rebellus will duly repay that trust. Now, could you tell me the details of your request? The more specific you are, the better we can help you achieve your goal.”

When the topic of the request came up, light filled Blair’s purple eyes, which had remained calm until now.

“I have three things to request.”

As she mentioned ‘three things’, Blair held up three fingers. It was a habit that came out when talking to Asiel, but Mikhail, unaware of this fact, thought her gesture was quite cute.

“Entrusting us with three tasks, Rebellus will surely become wealthier.”

It was a joke born from the confidence that there was no way they would fail the assigned tasks.

Blair laid out her requests.

“First, find me a small villa near Agenta, the capital of the Kingdom of Clania. And also a new identity to live under, abandoning this name.”

She didn’t intend to live in one place for long, but it would be difficult to move around while pregnant, so she planned to stay in Agenta until Asiel was born.

‘Agenta is the capital of the kingdom, so it should be easy to find skilled doctors and necessary supplies.’

Mikhail was inwardly surprised by Blair’s words.

A princess saying she would abandon her name. That meant she was also leaving the duke’s family.

He was curious about the reason, but he didn’t have the right to be that curious.

“Secondly, I need men who can be involved in scandals with me. Four or five of them. It would be good if they were trustworthy people for the sake of confidentiality.”

“In that case, it might be best if I intervene as one of them. To report the progress to you from time to time. Would that be alright?”

“If it’s fine with you.”

Blair nodded readily. If the guild master himself was directly involved, it would be that much more reliable.

At that, Mikhail smiled faintly.

“Then when would you like the scandals to break?”

Mikhail grasped her plan immediately after hearing just one sentence. It was convenient how quickly he understood, like a professional.

“I’d like it to be half a year from now.”

“We’ll need to prepare as quickly as possible then. What’s the last request?”

Blair took out a note from her inner pocket and handed it over. There was a crest drawn on the note. It was a drawing of the crest engraved on the dagger of the assailant who had killed her before her regression.

“I’d like you to find the person possessing a dagger with this crest.”

Mikhail examined the crest drawn on the note carefully, then put it in his own inner pocket.

“I’ll do my best to get you the answer you want as soon as possible.”

After finishing her conversation with him, Blair went down to the first floor.

The subordinates, who had vaguely guessed her status from Mikhail’s attitude towards Blair, only now bowed their heads deeply.

Blair left the guild, leaving their send-off behind. At the same time, the shadow that had been watching her disappeared.