#17. No Chance to Make Amends

“No!”

Was the woman dying in that damned nightmare truly Partanie?

Had he dreamed a prophetic dream?

Shocked, Taran pushed past even the Grand Duke of Dragonia and rushed in.

The raw emotion he couldn’t hide was clearly visible on his face, which usually feigned composure.

“That, that insolent—!”

The vassals pointed fingers at his disrespectful attitude toward the Grand Duke, despite him being his own father.

However, the Grand Duke himself said nothing.

No, he too glanced at Taran. But it wasn’t a reproachful look like the others gave.

Rather, he merely surveyed Taran from head to toe with a gaze that seemed to suspect and measure something.

But Taran didn’t notice the momentary glance.

‘……Was it, a hallucination?’

Was it because the nightmare had left such a strong impression? When he came to his senses, the frail silhouette he had seen collapsed in the snow was gone.

But an even more horrific sight awaited him.

“Good heavens……”

Those who entered after him involuntarily groaned.

The bedroom of Partanie, the youngest lady of Dragonia, was so cold that everything was frozen solid.

From the small window deliberately damaged by servants, winter’s knife-like wind and snow leaked in without pause, and the blue brick walls, stripped of tapestries and lambris inscribed with heating spells, exuded a bone-chilling cold.

With even the carpet gone from the floor, the bedroom was no different from a massive freezer.

It would be fair to say that the fierce snowy winds outside were warmer.

The temperature difference between the corridors with added heating throughout and the stripped bedroom was so extreme that everyone temporarily stepped back.

“Why, why is it like this……”

At the shocked voice, Penelope’s heart pounded as if it would burst.

‘This wasn’t part of the plan.’

Penelope hadn’t intended to go this far.

More precisely, she had planned to restore everything before the Grand Duke of Dragonia returned.

People naturally hate when someone they consider beneath them rises up, and they want to trample them down to confirm their inferior status.

Because of this, Penelope’s underlings hated Partanie, who had provoked Penelope’s anger, more than they hated ‘Madam’ Penelope herself, who beat and punished them harshly.

Penelope was ‘originally’ their superior, so they couldn’t help it, but why should a worthless half-breed lady cause trouble and harm them too?

Of course, this only applied to people on Penelope’s side.

But Penelope was the only person acting as the mistress of the Blue Brick Castle in Dragonia, and her underlings were not a number to be taken lightly.

Thus, Penelope’s servants periodically invaded Partanie’s room, saying they needed to ‘ventilate’ while opening all the windows to let in the cold winter wind, or claiming ‘there’s a problem with the fireplace’ while not bringing any firewood, tormenting her in petty ways.

That much wasn’t Penelope’s direct order.

Of course, she had heard that her underlings were taking out their frustrations on the half-breed lady.

But she only thought it was for the best.

‘If she believes she’s as great as the other Dragonia siblings, that she should be praised and worshipped like them, she’s greatly mistaken.’

That adoration comes from the Dragonia bloodline’s uniquely powerful strength and inhuman superiority.

‘It doesn’t apply to a worthless, useless girl like that half-breed!’

The weak cannot survive in Dragonia.

How dare she, who couldn’t even stand on her own without someone’s care, touch her.

Thinking that proper education was needed, Penelope sent someone when she thought the girl had been taught enough of a lesson.

‘Madam has sent a message. If you admit your guilt even now, she will smooth things over.’

This was Penelope’s version of mercy.

Though lowly, she was still a girl bearing the Dragonia name, so she couldn’t push too hard.

‘By now, she must have come to her senses.’

There would never again be any wild behavior from misinterpreting Taran’s momentary impulse as favor.

She was certain of this, but Partanie rejected her covert ‘request for cooperation.’

She had kept her door firmly closed, as if locked, and wouldn’t open it.

‘How dare she……!’

Enraged, Penelope decided to show Partanie the bitter taste of life.

‘Don’t give her anything, not even food! She’ll learn her place after starving nearly to death!’

Animals obey after being beaten and starved. Penelope intended to follow this rule this time as well.

But…. Penelope shuddered with a chill.

‘What if, at that time, she didn’t lock the door but couldn’t open it?’

What if, from that moment, the door had been frozen?

“Partanie!”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia called out in a low voice.

The handsome and strong face that usually made everyone exclaim in admiration was set in a fierce expression.

“Answer me, Partanie! Where are you!”

His voice, resonating deeply like a cave, spread throughout the bedroom, but there was no answer.

‘No way.’

While everyone froze, imagining the worst scenario, Taran sat down heavily on the seemingly empty bed.

“Damn it, where the hell……”

Suddenly, an eerie sensation ran up Taran’s spine to the tips of his hair.

Something was strange.

Partanie’s bed wasn’t as soft as his own, made with duck feathers and cotton.

It sank with a thud as soon as his buttocks touched it.

With an unpleasant feeling, Taran yanked off the bedcover.

Beneath it, he saw rough straw and unknown old cloths bundled together under thin cotton that had gone moldy from poor quality.

“What is this?”

Taran was so dumbfounded that he felt heat rising to the top of his head.

‘Am I really in the lady’s bedroom right now?’

This was a terrible bed that even servants wouldn’t use.

The malice of deliberately covering it with a decent-looking bedcover to make it appear normal.

Following an inexplicable intuition, Taran removed the cotton and straw, then froze.

“Is she there?”

It was then that the Grand Duke of Dragonia approached, seeming to notice Taran’s strange reaction.

But even his footsteps faltered at the sight before them.

In the center of a pitiful and shabby nest, made by scraping together anything that might provide warmth, a small girl was curled up like a baby bird, tiny and frail.

Frozen solid and white.

“……”

The audience was shocked.

Her long, luxuriant purple-blue hair wrapped around skin so pale it was almost transparent.

But that was all; her lips were beyond pale, almost blue, and her closed eyes looked as soulless as a doll’s.

“……Part, anie.”

A voice squeezed out, cracked.

“Why, won’t she open her eyes……?”

Taran, who had been speaking in a daze, was struck as if by lightning.

‘This isn’t just a bad dream.’

It’s not a hallucination or a nightmare.

What he had seen was truly a prophetic dream!

As Taran froze in shock, the Grand Duke of Dragonia strode over.

His cold face remained the same as before, but his large hands were trembling as if in disbelief.

At that moment, the small face of the girl fell into his palm.

“!”

The Grand Duke’s face contorted at the coldness he felt from the face that suddenly dropped.

“Who, dares.”

Crunch— The sound of teeth grinding could be heard as the Grand Duke’s strong jawline tensed.

At the killing intent emanating from the Grand Duke of Dragonia, Taran flinched and stepped back, and everyone knelt.

“Who dares to reduce the lady of Dragonia to this state.”

The Grand Duke’s face, as he turned his head, was savage enough to tear someone apart alive.

At the end of that gaze was Penelope.

Even the knights hesitated at the Grand Duke’s fury, who rarely showed emotion no matter what happened, and the servants trembled in fear.

“……Hm, mnh.”

A small moan, barely audible even if one strained to hear, cut through the space.

“Partanie!”

The two Dragonians quickly turned around.

Partanie’s eyelashes, who had been lying as if dead, were trembling, and faint breaths emerged weakly between her pale lips.

‘But, she’s alive.’

She wasn’t dead.

The nightmare wasn’t being reenacted……

With this realization, Taran’s strength gave out, and he collapsed without realizing it. His hands were trembling as if he had consumed poison by mistake.

But it was too early to feel relieved.

Because after that voice, Partanie didn’t move again.

“Partanie!”

The unconscious girl looked like a corpse.

“She mustn’t lose consciousness!”

The Grand Duke covered the child with the chimera hide from his shoulders. The large hide not only wrapped around Partanie’s small frame but was left over like a blanket.

As the child was lifted and cradled, only her small face and purple-blue hair were barely visible, obscured by the Grand Duke’s massive form.

“He-Healers! Mages too! Anyone, right now……!”

Taran shouted like a madman, then suddenly ran off somewhere, yelling, “Get out of my way!”

As he ran, Taran’s shoulder bumped into Penelope.

Thud!

Penelope hit the wall, but the pain actually brought her to her senses.

‘She’s, she’s alive!’

Yes. Then, she hadn’t killed her.

‘As long as she didn’t die by my hand……’

There’s a chance to make amends.

Just as Penelope was feeling relieved—

“Your, Your Highness the Grand Duke!”

A trembling voice rang out from somewhere.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, as well as everyone in the lady’s bedroom, turned their gaze toward the voice.

There, a kneeling low-ranking maid, Eren, was present. With a pale complexion, she recalled.

‘I have a favor to ask.’

The lady’s plan that followed those words….

‘And when the time comes, step forward and confess for me.’

‘Wh-What? How should I speak……’

To her question, the lady answered with a face that seemed to smile but not quite.

‘You’ll know when the time comes.’

And when the time truly came, Eren knew what to say. With a tearful face, she cried out:

“Please save the lady!”