I absentmindedly glanced at the article and then turned my gaze to the date of publication. February 10, 314. My fingertips trembled slightly. There was no way I could forget that date. It was the day my mother and grandfather, who were leaving for the County of Lopez, died in a carriage accident.
"..."
I let out a heaving breath. It was the moment when my suspicions turned into certainty. Dante was indeed related to that incident. My head was faintly throbbing, and fragments of memories floated to the surface with a plop.
"If you don't want to die, open your eyes. If you lose consciousness now, you'll die!"
"I told you not to fall and hold on tight! Damn it, if I knew you'd lose your hand like this, I wouldn't have picked you up."
"... Ah."
I spat absentmindedly. The face that flashed through my mind was definitely Dante as a boy.
"Duchess is the investigation going well..."
Elias came down with a drink in his hand and was startled when he saw me.
"Duchess! Are you okay? Your face is pale!"
"... Your Grace."
Instead of answering, I slowly turned to him.
"You have been friends with the Duke for a long time, right?"
Elias blinked at the question and the different answer, but soon answered sincerely.
"Yes. Since childhood. Our circumstances were completely different, but we were quite similar. Dante was not the child of the first wife, and although I was the child of the first wife, my father loved the second wife he brought in after my mother passed away so much."
Elias smiled bitterly. I could guess from that explanation alone. Just like Dante, who was an illegitimate child, Elias must not have been a welcome child in the household. I made up my mind and opened my mouth.
"I want to hear more about the Duke's childhood."
Elias's eyes widened.
"Please."
***
Elias hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth. What I heard after that was unexpected.
I already knew that Dante was an illegitimate child. He had three half-brothers born from the previous Duchess, but all three gave up their right to inherit, and Dante, who was the son of a concubine, took the ducal title. There was a scandal in the noble society at the time of his succession. It was unusual for the youngest son, not even the eldest, to inherit a high-ranking noble title, and it was an illegitimate child at that.
However, Dante's achievements were so great that no one dared to raise an objection. That's all I knew about how smoothly he ascended to the ducal title...
However, Dante's childhood was much more unfortunate than my shallow guess.
"I don't know because he never told me the details, but the abuse and bullying must have been more than I imagined. Dante was a genius who excelled in both martial arts and academics from a young age. Even for an illegitimate child."
In particular, the hatred of the half-brothers was said to be filled with blatant malice. Then one day, Dante's half-brothers finally did something. They knocked him unconscious and pushed him into the river.
"It was the middle of winter, and the Eren River was famous for its rapid currents. It's a miracle that he survived."
The lower reaches of the Eren River meet the Parje Forest. The very forest where my mother and grandfather had a carriage accident. The puzzle gradually became more complete. As if they had only found it now, the pieces snapped back into place, gaping open as they turned.
The more I did that, the worse my headache got, but I clenched my teeth and continued to think. I left the newspaper office in a hurry, saying that I would come back for an interview. The more my headache got worse, the more certain I became. The certainty that I was now close to finding the answer. As I stepped out of the building, the coachman greeted me.
"Oh, Ma'am. Are you going back to the mansion?"
"No. Please go to the palace."
"Yes? The palace?... Yes, I understand, Ma'am."
The coachman blinked once and nodded obediently.
'Dante said he was in the palace.'
First, I planned to go see his face. I couldn't shake the conviction that if I saw him one more time, the memories that were like smoke would take shape.
As I got out of the carriage, the gazes of the officials, servants, and nobles coming and going from the palace were immediately fixed on me.
"Oh my. Isn't that the Duchess over there? I'm not seeing things wrong, am I?"
"Oh, I see she's feeling much better since she's going out. That's a relief."
"But I don't think we should talk right now, do you?"
"She looks too busy."
I felt like I was walking down a road filled with iron filings with a magnet attached to my entire body.
With every step I took, gazes and whispers were drawn to me. I recalled Elias' words that my existence was the most talked-about topic in the empire. It seemed that his words weren't an exaggeration.
"Oh my, Ma'am!"
Rio, who had spotted me from afar, came running over to me in a hurry.
"What brings you to the palace? Are you feeling okay?"
"Thanks for your concern, I'm fine. I, Mr. Rio. Can I ask you to guide His Highness the Duke?"
"Oh, my, my master?"
Rio asked back, his face visibly flustered. I nodded with a faint smile.
"I know he's in the basement."
"Ah... You heard."
Rio rolled his eyes once and soon nodded as if he had no choice.
"I'll guide you."
This wasn't my first time visiting the palace's dungeons. It wasn't long ago that I had stopped by to mock Lucas.
'Lucas' was a name I hadn't thought of even once in the past few days. He must be exhausted from waiting for his trial day by day. It should have felt refreshing, but right now, even thinking of Lucas made me numb. At the moment, the only thing that was filling my mind was a single face.
"Please wait here for a moment. I will go and speak to the master."
Rio said that at the entrance to the basement and made a gesture to the guards. The guards politely guided me and even offered me a drink. It was the kind of hospitality I had never thought I would receive in prison. While waiting anxiously, I gathered my thoughts.
'What should I say first when I meet him?'
I had gotten this many clues, and the puzzle was almost complete. But still... I don't know what a first kiss means. The hints he gave me are actually confusing me more, so should I demand that he take responsibility?'
While thinking such thoughts, I absentmindedly turned to the side.
"...!"
I took a short breath. A man was staring at me through a window in the wall.
"Huh...?"
Startled, I realized a beat later that it wasn't a window, but just a realistically drawn picture. How foolish of me to be surprised by a mere montage. Even as I thought that I couldn't take my eyes off the painting.
"..."
For some reason, my mouth was parched. The man in the painting had a strange appearance. His face was extremely pale, his eyes were strangely large, and his nose and mouth were shadowed as if they were hollow. It was as if he was wearing a mask. My heart pounded rapidly.
"...A white mask."
The image I had seen in my dream occupied my mind. It was an image so intense that it was even realized on stage. I forced my dry mouth to moisten it and asked the guard.
"Who is the person in the painting?"
"Oh, he's the one who recently invaded the palace. Don't worry about it."
The guard smiled brightly as if trying to reassure me.
"He was caught last night. The mastermind will soon be revealed. Since your husband is personally interrogating him, how foolish of him to be?"
... Dante is with that man right now.
The moment that thought occurred to me, I jumped up from my seat.
"Where is the room where my husband is being interrogated?"
"Huh? In the innermost Interrogation room... Oh, you're not going to go there, are you? It won't look good for the lady!"
It was the moment I turned around, leaving the guard's voice behind.
"Ariana."
Dante was standing there, looking slightly disheveled as if he had come in a hurry. He approached me with a frown.
"What's going on? I told you to eat well, but your complexion has become even more corpse-like."
"... Duke."
Dante's eyes widened at the slightly cracked voice.
"The prisoner on that wanted poster. Can I see him myself?"
He stared at me blankly and then opened his mouth.
"Follow me."
"Sir, master? This is the interrogation room... There are a lot of scary tools. It's not a place we can show to my lady!"
Rio looked back and forth between me and Dante with a puzzled expression.
"She's not that weak of a woman."
Dante answered briefly and motioned for me to follow him. I quickly followed him. We walked together through the deep corridors. As I walked further inside, a strange smell of blood tickled his nostrils. After walking for a while, I finally came across a dead end. Dante, who had reached the innermost room, creaked and opened the door. As I entered, a chair in the middle of the room caught my eye. A man was sitting on it.
"..."
His appearance was no different from the montage. A face as white as a dried corpse, and his appearance was strangely empty, like a mask.
'... Ah.'
I was convinced when I saw the real thing. I had definitely seen that man. A long time ago.
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