Published: August 10, 2026
Slowly, as if letting out a sigh, the duke exhaled and smiled.
"...I do not resent him. Rather, I am grateful."
He hunched his large back as if folding it in on itself, and spoke in a small, halting voice.
"He let me have a good dream—he let me see a good dream. It was fun. I was happy. I gained so much. I lost nothing."
"...Lord Cornelis."
"What was never there in the first place was, as expected, never there at all. That is all."
He was probably speaking from the heart. I could not sense any regret in his tone. And truthfully, that much was likely true.
For a heart worn down after losing all dreams and hope, even a false light, even for a moment, could feel like warmth. No one could laugh at that and call it foolish.
Lord Cyrus closed his eyes and bowed his head to the same level as the duke.
"I offer my condolences for your daughter."
After forcing those words out in a hoarse voice, he suddenly looked toward me and jerked back in alarm.
I was crying. Tears spilled down my face in torrents, streaming all the way to my chin, enough to soak my dress. My clenched hands had gone bloodless and white.
...This wasn't pity. It was sympathy. Empathy.
Ah, Princess, you must have been scared. You must have been sad. You must have been lonely.
She did not choose death because she agonized over things. She chose it because she was happy. The days she spent happily waiting for him, filled with hope, were too precious, and she could not bear for that time to end.
Lionel, Lionel. Why did you—why did you not keep deceiving her until the very end? You knew she was loved. You knew how heavy that love was—!
Lord Cyrus took my trembling, furious hand and squeezed it tightly. My chilled fingers were warmed in his palm. His hand was also far colder than usual, but even so, it was warmer than mine. I leaned on his body heat and comforted myself. And for the deceased girl, I grew even more deeply resentful of Lionel, who had once given her that warmth only to take it away.
...I can't forgive him.
Noticing our reaction, the duke's expression changed in a flash.
"Oh, I do apologize! No, I have gone and brought up some gloomy old story. That was not my intention at all!"
"No, it was us who asked about it..."
"It's truly nothing more than an old story. I have not exchanged a single word with His Highness since then, and I am not waiting for him anymore. I have no interest in where he is now or what he is doing."
"...Lionel is, right now—"
"If that fellow's coronation ever did take place, I'd have marched in there with a pickaxe!"
Wahaha! The duke laughed boisterously. I, too, managed to force my face into something resembling a smile. Beside me, Lord Cyrus laughed brightly as well.
"That sounds good. In that case, my wife and I will come running as well."
"How reassuring! The words of a descendant of Hero Siegfried!"
The duke laughed even harder. After the two of them had let out a laugh like a cold wind blowing through, the duke smiled with only his mouth.
"Yes, Lord Cyrus. With your existence, this is very reassuring. As I mentioned, there is no heir in the Dutchman household. My eldest daughter married off to a faraway foreign land, and now that I have lost my wife as well, I am quite light on my feet. I am thinking it may be best to renounce my noble title and return to private life."
"Then you intend to leave this island to the state?"
"Yes, though the truth is that I am rather attached to it... Regardless of the circumstances, I do worry about the future of this Ildanaf Island, which I have carefully nurtured for twenty years. If granado trading company would protect it, then I could retire without regrets. I am hoping you might make good use of this land as a relay point between Dilz and Oracle."
"...I see. That bustling market is certainly attractive. But the mine..."
"Please do as you like. It can still produce enough to avoid turning a loss, but I have already closed it because it is a waste to spare the manpower for it now. The miners' housing is still exactly as it was."