#19. Wronged and Resentful 

“Absolutely not!”

Penelope screamed.

Her mind was confused. She couldn’t understand what was happening.

She certainly hadn’t intended to take things this far.

She had only wanted to torment her a little. She only wanted to educate the lowly half-wit who dared to be impudent to her about knowing her place.

Seeing this scene, even Penelope admitted that her methods might have seemed somewhat harsh.

But shouldn’t a true child of Dragonia be able to endure the cold?

‘It’s not my fault.’

It’s that child’s fault for being weak. Dragonia should be strong.

And the Divine Beast’s egg, though she had initially touched it, ultimately disappeared because of that child!

She felt as if she had fallen into a trap. She felt wronged. She wanted to appeal to someone.

However, facing the Grand Duke of Dragonia directly, Penelope could no longer think clearly.

In truth, Penelope had secretly wished.

For the Grand Duke of Dragonia’s cold eyes to gaze intensely at her alone, and for him to call her name in a low voice.

“Penelope Barshava.”

Now that all those dreams had come true, Penelope realized.

She should never have dreamed such dreams.

The blue eyes looking coldly down at her seemed as if they would tear her apart alive and kill her painfully, and the low voice carrying her name was filled with killing intent.

Death was approaching.

Sensing this fact, Penelope, like most people, was paralyzed with fear and couldn’t move.

“The, the Divine Beast’s egg……”

“Shut your mouth!”

At the thunderous shout, Penelope collapsed.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, tightly holding the frozen Partanie, said.

“Did you truly think I would be fooled by your pretense of kindness?”

“Your Highness the Grand Duke, Your Highness! I swear it’s not true. Please……”

“Gag her and lock her up immediately.”

Being gagged meant she wouldn’t even be given the chance to confess.

It also meant torture would be applied.

Sensing she would be in a position where she’d beg to be killed, Penelope fell to her knees and pleaded.

“Your Highness, I am wronged! I truly didn’t know……”

However, before Penelope could say anything more, she was gagged.

The knights broke her limbs as she struggled and dragged her away like an animal.

“Mmph, mmph—!”

All the servants of the Blue Brick Castle watched Penelope with shocked and horrified eyes.

But there was no time to feel shame anymore.

Penelope felt resentful.

She wanted to appeal her innocence, her sincerity, to anyone.

But just as Partanie once experienced, no one listened to Penelope’s words.

* * *

The Blue Brick Castle, the main castle of the Dragonia family, was vast.

Though Penelope had strutted around claiming to be the mistress, she didn’t hold complete authority over the entire Blue Brick Castle.

Her tyranny was limited only to a part of the west wing where the non-successor Dragonia bloodlines resided.

In other words, not everyone knew exactly what had happened.

Since most people had never properly seen Partanie outside the west wing, many didn’t even know she was being persecuted by Penelope.

They had no reason to be interested in the youngest lady who was merely registered on the Grand Duke’s whim, significantly inferior to the three Dragonia brothers who might become successors.

However, the head butler and head maid in charge of the west wing had been taken away, and the servants of the west wing had disappeared without a trace. On top of that, rumors were quietly circulating that some higher-ups were also imprisoned in the underground dungeon.

‘What on earth happened in the west wing?’

The servants of Dragonia who didn’t know the situation trembled in fear of the unknown.

‘If I get entangled in this even slightly, my head might roll……!’

Of course, if one was innocent, punishment might end with being thrown out with nothing but the clothes on their back, but in winter Dragonia, being thrown out naked was essentially no different from freezing to death.

In an atmosphere where everyone was holding their breath and watching cautiously…

“This, this is strange,”

The healer attending to the lady, who was practically the source of this trouble, had a perplexed look.

“What’s strange?”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia asked with his sleeves rolled up. He had his hands in the bathtub.

And in the beautiful marble bathtub, permitted only to the ruler of Dragonia, was a girl with long purple-blue hair.

It was Partanie, the lady of Dragonia.

“If an ordinary young lady had been exposed to low winter temperatures for so long, she would have frostbite, with skin necrosis and blisters. So I tried to warm her frozen hands and feet with heated clean water, but……”

The healer trailed off.

Clearly, the youngest lady who had been carried in the Grand Duke of Dragonia’s arms was frozen cold.

However, her white, transparent skin showed no signs of blue necrosis, let alone blisters, and remained clean.

And she wasn’t thawing at all in the warm water.

‘Why?’

It was impossible. Could it be because of the Dragonia bloodline?

‘No, if that were the case, she shouldn’t have frozen like this in the first place.’

As the healer couldn’t continue speaking in this incomprehensible situation.

“……Bring consecrated holy water.”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, who had been thinking to himself, spoke. The healer’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘Holy water is famous for its legendary healing power, said to cure all diseases with just one bottle.’

He didn’t know if it was true.

But according to rumors, even the lady of Fenrir, who was once the crown princess, had recovered with the power of holy water and given birth to a precious posthumous child.

The Grand Duke’s aide urgently brought the holy water. Inside a small box were five or six glass bottles containing small amounts of holy water.

And the Grand Duke of Dragonia picked up one bottle.

“Your, Your Highness!”

He poured it directly over Partanie’s head.

Then he opened the remaining bottles one by one and sprinkled them on the child’s small hands and feet, and around her neck and heart.

As a result, the bathtub was filled with holy water.

‘Good heavens!’

The aide was horrified at the box that had emptied in an instant.

Holy water, consecrated with sacred healing power, was so rare that even ordinary noble families would struggle to obtain just one bottle.

Naturally, it was meant to be drunk, and even then, sipped cautiously one mouthful at a time while checking its effects. Yet he had poured it all out like that!

‘Why on earth……?!’

Whether the aide was shocked or not, the Grand Duke of Dragonia and Taran paid no attention and only stared at the girl in the bathtub.

Partanie, immersed in holy water from head to toe, remained still.

No immediate change appeared.

However, as time slowly passed, her fingertips, which had been frozen cold, gradually regained warmth and turned pinkish.

“!”

At that change, the Grand Duke of Dragonia put his hand into the bathtub.

He could feel that the skin, which had been stiff as if frozen white, was gradually becoming soft and pliable.

‘She’s recovering!’

People sighed with relief.

Even though she hadn’t regained consciousness yet, her body was improving, so she would wake up soon.

‘And soon everything will return to normal.’

That’s what the people of the Blue Brick Castle innocently expected, but……

‘Why?’

The situation didn’t turn out as hopefully as that.

Time passed.

During that time, the lady seemed to be recovering but showed no significant change, and both the Grand Duke of Dragonia and Taran stayed by her side.

“……You can’t die.”

Taran, who had been watching the girl floating on the water surface as if in a deep sleep, muttered quietly.

“You cannot die like this……”

Even as he mumbled absently, Taran himself wasn’t aware of what he was saying.

His eyes were bloodshot from not sleeping for days, his face was gaunt, and his lips were parched.

He didn’t realize that others found his appearance strange and unfamiliar.

Similarly, he didn’t realize he was acting unlike his infamous reputation as the Mad Dog.

That moment in the nightmare, the image of Partanie frozen white, kept floating in his mind.

‘It’s a dream, she’s alive.’

And she’ll wake up soon.

Even as he tried to think that way, Taran couldn’t calm his anxiety.

He feared that Partanie, swaying in the holy water, would bleed black blood and die, that he would only hurt her and send her away, and that he wouldn’t be able to stop him this time either……

‘……Wait, this time too?’

But just as Taran was about to dig into his unconscious.

“Ugh……”

A groan was heard from somewhere.

Under the water surface, Partanie’s wet eyelashes were trembling as if waking from a deep sleep.

“!”

Taran rushed to the bathtub, forgetting his thoughts.

But before he could approach.

“Partanie!”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia was first.

The Grand Duke, who had stepped forward, pushed his son aside without hesitation and tended to his daughter.

The Grand Duke’s aide, who had been watching all this commotion, was genuinely perplexed.

‘No, why is someone who normally ignored the lady even when she approached first…… being so attentive?’

The Grand Duke of Dragonia had been indifferent even when his wife died. He was someone who wouldn’t bat an eye even if his sons were injured while carrying out his orders.

‘No, he would rather rebuke them, asking how a son of Dragonia could be injured by such a trivial matter.’

Objectively, the Grand Duke was an excellent ruler for the people of Dragonia, but from a personal perspective, he was such a cold-hearted person.

Was it because he himself had risen from the bottom?

The aide, who had been thinking unconsciously, realized that he had dared to evaluate his master and hurriedly bowed his head.

However, the Grand Duke of Dragonia didn’t care what his underling was thinking. His gaze and attention were fixed entirely on the lady in the water.

And, at that very moment…

“Ah……”

The lady moved her lips.

“Fa, ther?”