The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 22

Episode 22. Carriage Accident

Emilia was dumbfounded, unable to grasp what had just happened. A thick cloud of dust poured in through the carriage window.

“Your Highness, are you all right? Cough, cough.”

Helen, coughing endlessly from the dust coming through the window, asked in a hurried voice. Her leg was right above Emilia’s face.

“I… I’m fine. Are you all right?”

Emilia’s voice was rough from the dust.

“Yes, I’m fine. Your Highness, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I think I twisted my wrist a little.”

When the carriage tilted toward her side, Emilia had instinctively supported herself with her right hand. Pain also spread through her right elbow and shoulder.

The side where Emilia sat had completely sunk, while Helen’s side, opposite her, was lifted up. Fortunately, Helen didn’t seem badly hurt, but she was clinging to the armrest of the seat, dangling desperately to avoid falling onto Emilia.

Soon the carriage door opened.

“Your Highness, are you all right?”

The two knights, their faces full of alarm, looked between her and Helen.

“I’m fine. Help my maid out first.”

Helen, weakened, was about to fall on top of Emilia. Normally, the knights would have rescued the Grand Duchess first, but if Helen fell, Emilia would be injured as well. So, following her command, they rescued Helen, who was hanging from the seat, before helping Emilia out of the carriage.

Once outside, she saw that both rear wheels on her side had completely come off.

“There was nothing wrong when I checked this morning, I don’t know what could have happened.” The coachman, pale as death, trembled as he spoke.

“We are all alive, so it’s fine. Don’t worry.”

Even in her confusion, Emilia answered calmly.

“It’s fortunate the wheel came off at the start. Had it happened while we were at full speed, it would have been a major accident. For now, let us take you to the nearest hospital.”

The knights decided to escort her to the hospital run by a nearby monastery. There, she could receive urgent treatment before being transferred to the Grand Duke’s castle.

The physician at the monastery wrapped her aching right wrist with a bandage and applied medicine to the abrasions on her elbow.

“If not for the sturdiness of the carriage, Your Highness, you could have been gravely injured. With an ordinary carriage, it would have been much worse,” said the physician while tying the bandage.

“Is that so? Then it’s fortunate. Thank you for treating me.”

Emilia thought the Grand Duke’s carriages must indeed be sturdily built.

“For now, avoid using your right hand.”

“Yes.”

After the physician left, Emilia leaned against the headboard of the bed.

“Phew…”

She had pretended to be calm in front of others, but she had in fact been greatly shaken. The deafening crash inside the carriage still rang vividly in her ears. As she let out a long sigh—

Bang!

The door to the room burst open with a thunderous noise.

“Louid?”

Louid, whose hair was usually slicked back neatly, stood at the doorway with his fringe falling across his forehead. Upon hearing the report that the Grand Duchess’s carriage had met with an accident, he had ridden straight to the monastery.

“Emilia.”

“How are you here?”

Emilia’s eyes widened as though she had seen a ghost. She hadn’t expected him to come. Without answering, Louid examined her condition first.

“It’s not serious.”

She showed him her bandaged right arm with a proud look.

“…It seems quite serious.”

“This will heal quickly.”

Emilia smiled brightly as she spoke with bravado. She had once suffered a concussion from tumbling down the stairs at the ducal residence, and had endured numerous cuts and bruises from the rough stone walls of the castle tower. The wounds on her feet from walking barefoot not long ago had already healed.

“Hah…”

Louid let out the breath he had been holding. He wasn’t relieved; he was furious.

“Do you think this will make me listen to you?”

“What do you mean?”

The smile slowly faded from Emilia’s face.

“Are you trying to draw my attention, to hasten having an heir?”

“…What?”

She was dumbfounded. How could he think that? But then she recalled—she had indeed once said she would fulfill the duties of the Grand Duchess if he granted her a divorce, and the duty of the Grand Duchess was to bear his heir. It was possible he misunderstood.

Still, she had not caused the accident. To remain silent felt too unfair.

“I didn’t do this for attention. It was an accident.”

“Then who’s responsible?”

“I don’t know…”

He suspected she had staged the accident herself.

“Absolutely not. No matter how much I want a divorce, I am not foolish enough to harm myself. Besides, Helen and the coachman could have been hurt too.”

“……”

Even at her explanation, Louid glared at her in silence.

“Are you not busy?”

Several hours had passed since he had arrived at the hospital. Yet Louid showed no sign of returning to the Grand Duke’s castle. Instead, he kept pacing back and forth, looking out the window, then turning back to gaze at her again. Thinking of the many affairs of state he must be neglecting, Emilia looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked.

She had thought he had only come to check briefly on her condition, but his continued presence made her feel greatly uneasy.

“I am not busy.”

Though she knew well he worked from dawn until late at night, Louid lied without blinking an eye.

“You may go.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“But the knights are guarding well outside.”

“Even with guards, an accident happened.”

Louid’s face darkened as he answered. He was angry at himself for not assigning more knights to her, and angry at the knights who had failed to prevent the accident.

“That may be, but… it wasn’t their fault.”

How could the knights have known the wheels would suddenly fall off? Two of them had even continued to guard her inside the boutique, while the coachman had only briefly stepped away. No one could have anticipated such a thing.

Emilia worried Louid might blame them.

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

As though he had been waiting, Louid answered quickly. The one who entered was the castle’s physician.

Before leaving the castle, Louid had ordered him to come directly to the monastery. Having prepared his medical tools and rushed by carriage, he arrived later than Louid.

“Your Highness, where does it hurt?”

“Here.”

The physician carefully examined her right wrist and arm.

“There is no serious damage to the joint, but the muscles have taken considerable shock. Avoid using your hand, and with a week of rest, you should recover.”

“Yes.”

At the physician’s words, Louid’s expression finally eased a little.

After the physician left, a knight entered carrying cake.

“Eat.”

Louid had ordered the knight to buy the strawberry cake she had enjoyed before.

As Emilia stared at the cake, her mouth watered. But perhaps from the shock of the accident, even her uninjured left hand trembled, and she spilled it before she could bring it to her mouth.

“Give it here.”

When she kept dropping it, Louid took the fork, scooped up the cake, and placed it into her mouth himself.

‘Why is he doing this?’

The cold, unfeeling man seemed a different person. Though bewildered, Emilia accepted each bite he gave her.

After feeding her the cake, Louid even gave her water and medicine by hand. As a prince, he had surely never done such things before.

“Ouch.”

A short while later, she forgot herself and pressed her right hand to the bed to steady herself. A sharp pain like fire seared her wrist.

“Does it hurt?”

At her cry, Louid looked startled. She couldn’t understand how a man who had fought in countless battles could be shaken by so little.

“I’m fine. Let us go back to the castle. I’ll go too.”

Emilia forced herself to endure the pain and spoke calmly. Since Louid showed no intention of leaving, she thought it best to return with him.

“No. It may be inconvenient, but stay here for the night. Traveling far while injured is unwise.”

“……”

Once again, there was no reasoning with him. A moment ago, he had suspected her of staging the accident, and now he was being overly attentive. She couldn’t understand him.

“Why did you go to the boutique? You could have waited a few days for them to bring the clothes to the castle.”

When she gave no reply, his expression turned cold again as he asked.

At times like this, he was like a block of ice, as if an entire glacier from the north had been placed before her.

“Because I had no shoes.”

“……”

This time, Louid was at a loss for words. His red eyes wavered slightly, though his face remained expressionless.

It was unthinkable that the granddaughter of a duke had only a single pair of shoes.

“Were they precious to you?”

“Yes.”

“I see. In the future, order new shoes from the servants. Don’t risk yourself again for something so trivial.”

Still frowning, he warned her.

“Yes.”

When she answered, Louid left the room without another word.

“Phew…”

Hearing his heavy footsteps fade away, Emilia let out a sigh of relief.

As he had ridden urgently to the monastery hospital, Louid had berated himself for not assigning her more guards.

But to learn it was because of the shoes he had thrown away?

Returning to the castle that night, he couldn’t sleep. His headache returned fiercely.

‘Just one night apart, and it’s already this bad.’

In the dead of night, he leapt from his bed and went straight to the forest where Emilia had ridden the swing. There, he began searching for something.