#23. You Want to Die Over Something So Trivial? 

“Taran. Do you not hear the words of your father and the Grand Duke of Dragonia?”

“……”

Taran couldn’t deny it.

The Grand Duke’s words weren’t a question, and he hadn’t been permitted to speak.

Though bound as father and son, their relationship was clearly hierarchical.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia expected absolute obedience and didn’t tolerate those who disobeyed his words.

The Grand Duke spoke while roughly gripping Taran’s teal hair, or rather, holding it as if he might tear his scalp off alive.

“How truly insolent.”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia muttered lowly.

A light tone, as if sighing.

But to the listener, it was a rebuke as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Taran flinched without realizing. The hand holding his bleeding nose from the near-breaking impact trembled.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia didn’t care either way.

From the beginning, his gaze wasn’t even on Taran.

It was directed only at Partanie, the girl he had personally brought in but who was now dying due to his neglect.

It was terrible indifference.

It was cruel heartlessness.

But Taran didn’t find it strange.

This was the true nature of the Grand Duke of Dragonia.

A cold man who showed little affection or interest in his wife, sons, or anyone else.

Rather, he felt somewhat relieved.

‘Partanie will be treated.’

And she will recover.

Because the Grand Duke of Dragonia said so.

‘Then, it can be reversed.’

Taran, who had been clenching his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms, silently bowed his head.

And at that moment, blood that had pooled between Taran’s fingers dripped into the bathtub where Partanie was immersed.

The bright red drops seeped into the clear water surface.

“……”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia slightly furrowed his brow as if displeased. He immediately dropped Taran’s head away from the bathtub.

“—!”

Taran tried not to tense his body as he submitted to that strong hand.

After briefly observing his obedient son, the Grand Duke of Dragonia sighed shortly.

“It must be my fault for raising you poorly.”

And then he finally released his grip on Taran’s hair.

Recognizing this as a kind of permission, Taran apologized, “I’m sorry, cough, I apologize.”

“Go back.”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia ordered without a single word about the apology.

Taran quietly stood up and left under the knights’ supervision.

“Everyone out.”

The close aides, having once again witnessed the Grand Duke’s harshness even toward his son, couldn’t hide their fear as they backed out of the room.

“……Haa.”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia quietly looked down at Partanie with bloodshot eyes. Countless emotions flashed across his handsome but inscrutable face.

As if trying to hide his face, he closed his eyes while resting his forehead against the bathtub.

Partanie’s eyes, which had met his gaze in the darkness, suddenly appeared.

The characteristic blue eyes of Dragonia.

But with a faint pink spreading toward the center of the iris, creating a mysterious eye color that appeared violet depending on the angle.

‘They say blood will tell.’

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, Garet, smiled bitterly.

But his face soon blurred with a rising voice.

‘Garet, I beg you.’

The owner of that voice was the previous Grand Duke, Partilova.

‘Please, this child, in my place……’

What the previous Grand Duke extended with a haggard face was a child with blue-violet hair.

Partanie.

“……I hate this.”

Garet, who couldn’t utter these words back then, finally expressed his true feelings today.

“I hate this!”

Cracks appeared in his rock-solid face as raw, boiling emotions erupted.

It was hatred and resentment and despair.

The Grand Duke’s broad shoulders shook as if silently screaming. The veins on the back of his hand gripping the bathtub bulged.

“What is that child to you, that you would……!”

The low voice was extremely pained, as if being strangled.

“……”

When he raised his head again some time later, the Grand Duke’s face was cool as usual.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, looking down at Partanie’s face, took out the dagger he had put away due to Taran’s intervention.

And without hesitation, he stabbed the rusty blade into his own palm.

“……Kuh.”

The blunt blade tore into the flesh rather than cutting cleanly. The rough blade roughly ripped skin and muscle as blood seeped in.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia gritted his teeth.

Not simply because of the pain from the dagger piercing his palm.

Strangely, not a single drop of blood spurted from the palm pierced by the dagger. Rather, the color of blood around the torn flesh was diminishing as if being absorbed by the knife.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia twisted the dagger in place. The wound in his palm was gouged deeper.

“Kuk!”

Still, not a single drop of blood spurted out.

The dagger blade that had pierced his palm, unlike its previous old and rusty state, gradually became smoother, glossier, and sharper.

Like new.

Only then did the Grand Duke withdraw the dagger. The blade’s color was blood-red. It looked like a knife made entirely of blood.

The scar left from removing the knife was white and grotesque, drained of all blood.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia then unhesitatingly plunged this blade, which looked as if it were made of blood, into Partanie’s heart.

Swoosh—

The blade precisely passed between Partanie’s ribs and entered her heart.

Strangely, the dagger that had roughly and forcibly gouged the Grand Duke of Dragonia’s palm entered Partanie’s heart area very softly, without making a sound.

“……Ugh.”

The Grand Duke’s jaw tightened, and a grinding sound could be heard.

It was a bizarre situation. Though it was Partanie’s heart being pierced by the knife, it appeared as if the Grand Duke was the one feeling the pain.

“Haa, ha……”

Panting could be heard through his clenched teeth. The Grand Duke of Dragonia’s complexion grew increasingly pale, as if blood were draining from him.

Conversely, color gradually returned to Partanie’s face.

Her pale cheeks became peach-like and rosy, and her dry, cracked lips became plump and fruit-like.

It was as if he was offering his blood to restore her.

And that was actually the case.

What the Grand Duke of Dragonia had just performed was one of the dark magic arts, considered so wicked and dangerous that it was also called evil sorcery.

Blood magic, which uses one’s blood and flesh to extend the life of the spell’s target.

It was strictly forbidden in the Hakan Empire.

But this was the only method Garet knew.

‘This child is cursed.’

The one who had handed Partanie to him had pronounced with a despairing face.

‘Different powers that cannot mix or harmonize are colliding, harming and sickening her body. They deny her life and existence, trying to kill her somehow.’

‘Yes, even this blood magic is merely a deception. But in my current state, this is my limit.’

Promising to find a solution somehow, he had left, and now Garet was repeating this act over and over.

‘How long can I continue?’

It was unknown.

But at least today, she wouldn’t die. Garet himself wouldn’t allow it.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia withdrew the dagger once he felt Partanie’s body temperature fully return and her breathing stabilize.

Shwick— The withdrawn dagger had reverted to its original old and rusty state, as if it had never been glossy red like new.

However, Partanie’s chest area was clean as if it had never been pierced, and the same appeared true for the Grand Duke of Dragonia’s hand on the surface.

He swallowed the pain and lifted the child from the water.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia, like a servant, personally dried Partanie thoroughly from head to toe.

It was done with practiced skill, as if he had done it dozens of times.

After that, he wrapped her in chimera leather again and personally carried her to the largest and most precious bedroom in the west wing of the Blue Brick Castle.

“Gr-Grand Duke……”

The servants who recognized him tried to greet him but hastily retreated at his chilling expression.

As he laid Partanie on the vast bed, the Grand Duke suddenly realized.

“……You’re small.”

The bloodline of Dragonia all grew quickly, much taller than their actual age, with large builds.

Yet the child in his arms looked incredibly fragile and delicate.

For a moment, a clear, tender voice echoed in his mind.

‘Father!’

The image of a small girl with sparkling eyes following him around flashed in his mind.

Despite looking up to him so much, Partanie never said a word about the harassment and disregard she faced in Dragonia Castle.

As if she didn’t want to trouble him with her problems.

She just gazed at him with eyes full of affection and admiration, smiling brightly.

As if her father’s mere existence made her happy.

Partanie’s affection for the Grand Duke of Dragonia was that blind and devoted.

And yet.

‘Please abandon me.’

‘Rather, let me die……’

To say such things.

The words Partanie had left like a last will before losing consciousness again suddenly scratched at the Grand Duke’s mind.

‘Why?’

The Grand Duke unconsciously questioned. Then he recalled what Partanie had experienced during his absence.

Persecution by Penelope, whom he had brought in as Taran’s nanny, the servants’ contempt……

Things that would make ordinary people sympathize even once witnessing them, things that would infuriate them if their daughter experienced them, the Grand Duke of Dragonia had coldly observed.

And he felt displeased.

‘You want to die over something so trivial?’

How dare she.

Garet smiled a twisted smile and gripped Partanie’s small chin. Then, with blue eyes tinged with anger, he whispered:

“No, you absolutely cannot die.”