The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 31

Episode 31. The Man from the Wall

Helen was stomping her feet beneath Emilia’s bedroom window, shouting with all her might.

“His Highness the Grand Duke isn’t here, what do we do? Wake up, Your Highness!”

Outside the annex, the servants were frantically carrying water back and forth. If the knights had been there, the fire would have been put out quickly, but the knights and soldiers had all gone outside the castle to repair the collapsed bridge.

Getting out of bed, Emilia went to the window and looked down. Right beneath the window, she could see Helen stomping her feet.

“Helen, what’s going on?”

Emilia shouted loudly so Helen could hear her.

“There’s a fire, Your Highness! You must escape at once!”

Helen also cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted back at her.

“Fire…?”

Startled by the word fire, Emilia froze. She realized that the faint sound of “fire” she thought she had heard in her sleep was real. When she looked at the door, pale smoke was seeping in through the crack.

“Cough, cough.”

Choking on the acrid smoke that had seeped in, she searched for a handkerchief. Fortunately, she spotted a small towel nearby. She dipped it in the water from the teapot and covered her nose and mouth.

Meanwhile, more and more smoke started seeping through the crack of the door.

‘I can’t go out the door.’

There was no way she could push through the flames.

As she hesitated, the door suddenly caught fire. The flames spread to the carpeted floor and were creeping closer.

‘I’ll have to jump…’

Emilia looked out the window, gauging the height. Her bedroom was on the third floor, but each level was tall, so in reality it was like the sixth floor of an ordinary building.

‘Gasp, it’s too high. I’ve never even jumped from the height of the first floor…’

The ground was far too low. She couldn’t possibly bring herself to jump.

In fairy tales, at times like this, they would tie curtains together and climb down after fastening them to a pillar. Should I try that?

Emilia pulled hard on the curtain attached to her bedroom window. With a ripping sound, the curtain came down.

‘I just tore down a curtain!’

It seemed that in the face of danger, she gained superhuman strength. But when she tried to tie two curtains together, the fabric was too thick and difficult to knot.

She looked around desperately.

What should I do?

Trying to do something she had never once done before in such a short time, her hands trembled and her mind was blank.

The flames were creeping closer. It was so hot she felt like her body would catch fire. Instinctively, Emilia stretched out her right hand toward the flames. It was a last desperate attempt to defend herself.

“Huh?”

But then, an astonishing thing happened. The flames stopped. The fire that had been rushing toward her could come no closer and weakened.

‘What is this? Did I see wrong?’

She forgot about running away and stared in shock at the halted flames. She kept her hand stretched out, afraid the fire might surge again. At that moment, the wall beside the fireplace opened silently.

“Emilia!”

“Gasp, Louid?”

Did a person just come out of the wall?

Emilia’s eyes widened in shock.

I’m not seeing things, am I?

She blinked several times. The man standing in front of her was unmistakably Louid.

Louid grabbed her hand and swiftly pulled her into the open wall. Then, from inside, he quickly shut the wall again.

“Phew…”

It seemed their lives were spared for now. Relieved, Emilia stretched her hand forward, touching the closed wall. No matter how she examined it, what lay before her was a perfectly solid wall.

Louid draped his outer robe over her, since she was dressed only in a thin slip.

“Can you walk?”

“Yes.”

In the pitch-dark passage was a staircase leading downward.

Holding Louid’s hand, Emilia descended the stairs. At the bottom, the stairs connected to an underground passage.

“Where are we going?”

She glanced around nervously, her eyes darting back and forth in the corridor.

“To the main castle.”

“……”

So this was the secret passage she had only heard about.

The underground passage branched off in several directions, forming a complex structure. It was dark and damp, and it gave her an eerie feeling. If she had gone in alone, she would surely have been lost.

After walking for quite a while, they came to another staircase leading upward. Emilia’s legs had been trembling for some time.

“Oh my?”

Louid easily lifted her trembling body and slung her over his shoulder. Half-draped over his solid, broad shoulder, Emilia looked down below.

With one arm, he held her legs together and climbed the stairs. When they reached the end, he opened the wall just as before and went inside.

“Where… are we?” Emilia asked as she looked at the unfamiliar room before her.

“My bedroom.”

“……”

Louid gave a short reply, set her down on the bed, and pulled a cord. A servant soon entered.

“Call for the physician.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I think I’m fine.”

Emilia tried to stop him. She didn’t feel any particular problems with her body, and she felt sorry to wake the physician in the middle of the night.

“You inhaled smoke.”

Louid cut her off at once. Since it was true she had inhaled smoke, Emilia didn’t try to stop him again. Shortly after, the physician hurried over.

“She inhaled a little smoke, but there don’t seem to be any serious issues.”

After finishing the examination, the physician advised her to rest since she might be in shock, then left the room.

“I told you I was fine.”

“It’s a relief that you are. Stay here for the time being.” Louid shrugged as he spoke.

“Here?”

Her blue eyes wavered and trembled. The third floor of the main castle was difficult to even glimpse, and she wondered if she could really sleep in his bedroom.

“It will take a long time to renovate the annex.”

“That’s true. All right.”

At his explanation, she quietly agreed. Since the fire had been big, it would surely take a long time to repair the annex.

“What about the others? If anyone was trapped in the fire, they must be saved quickly.”

Emilia exclaimed with a shocked expression. In her panic, she hadn’t even thought about the others.

“No one was hurt, and no one was trapped. Everyone is safe, so don’t worry.”

“Yes, that’s a relief.”

She sighed in relief inwardly. It was fortunate there were no injuries.

“Sleep more.”

“And you?”

“I have work to do.”

“Yes…”

After speaking, Louid left the room.

At least put on some clothes.

Emilia belatedly tried to call him back, but it was already too late. She had forgotten that he was in only his shirt, since he had given her his outer garment.

‘Anyway, I need to change clothes…’

The slip she was wearing was dirty, so she had to change. But there were no clothes available.

They might all have burned in the fire.

Having no choice, she went to the bathroom, washed herself, and came out wrapped in a large towel. The gown in the bathroom was far too big to wear. She went to the dressing room and opened the wardrobe.

‘He only wears black clothes…’

At their first meeting and ever since, Louid had only worn black. Even at the wedding, he had.

Among the black clothes, Emilia found a white shirt and put it on. The shirt reached down to her knees, like wearing a gown. The sleeves were long, so she had to fold them several times.

She went to the bedroom and lay on Louid’s bed. It was so large that several people could have rolled around in it.

Perhaps because she had inhaled smoke, her head felt a little dizzy. As soon as she laid her head on the pillow, she fell fast asleep.

***

Louid went to the east annex and looked over the building where the flames had been extinguished. More than half of the third floor had burned.

While he was inspecting Emilia’s bedroom, hurried footsteps approached, and Alex came in. Behind him, two knights dragged in a burly man. The man trembled and knelt before the Grand Duke.

“He is a servant who was hired a few days ago. According to the annex guard, he was seen coming out of the first floor when the fire broke out,” Alex reported.

The man trembled as he confessed, “I was boiling water in the kitchen and dozed off by mistake. I am sorry, Your Highness.”

“Who hired him?”

“The butler was in the process of hiring new servants. He begged to be allowed to work for a few days, so he was given work.”

“Lock him in the dungeon and interrogate him.”

“Yes.”

“Your Highness, Your Highness.”

The man called out desperately as he was dragged away.

As the man said, the annex did indeed have a small kitchen and dining room on the first floor, where tea water was boiled or simple meals were cooked.

‘He started the fire on the first floor, yet only the third floor burned?’

Louid sneered.

‘Who would want to harm Emilia, and why?’

If the target had been him, he would’ve assumed it was Duke Berthe, who had always sent assassins. But Emilia was Duke Berthe’s granddaughter.

The assassins who had come to kill him for ten years had stopped after the Crown Prince died. But now the target had changed to Emilia. It felt ominous.

‘Or was it aimed at me?’

Lately, he had been sleeping in Emilia’s room as well, so it was unclear who the culprit had meant to target.

‘Surely the Duke wouldn’t kill his own granddaughter?’

No matter how vicious a man he was, that seemed unlikely.

‘Then it must have been aimed at me.’

But Duke Berthe had no reason to target him now, so Louid couldn’t guess who the culprit was.

Emilia fell asleep for a short while and soon woke again. Perhaps because of the shock of her first accident, she couldn’t sleep deeply. She leaned against the head of the bed, waiting for Louid.

“You’re back?”

In the deep of dawn, Louid returned to the bedroom. But his expression was grim.