So I Was the Persecuted Grand Duchess Destined to Die? Chapter 19

Chapter 19

— — —

Unlike earlier, the Grand Duke was unusually quiet.

…Huh?

Before I could fully process the unfamiliar attitude, he yanked his hood down with a sharp, irritated motion.

That’s when I saw it.

Under the hood, his face was pale.

Oh. This guy… got his social battery murdered.

Yeah—confirmed introvert.

Those hollow, dead-fish eyes? The unmistakable gaze of an “I” surrounded by crowds and slowly losing contact with reality.

Honestly, I could probably slip away and he wouldn’t even notice.

I was halfway through drafting an escape plan when—

I suddenly realized something.

Wait. Me, though…

…I was a pauper.

“……”

I fiddled with the hem of my skirt for no reason.

Of course Garnet’s adorable dress had no pockets.

And of course, this so-called “Grand Duchess” had exactly zero coins on her.

I hadn’t even thought about buying anything.

I’d just sprinted here like a racehorse blinded by the word festival.

Reality slapped me clean across the face.

I’m broke… but he isn’t.

There was only one answer.

So I stared up at the Grand Duke.

“Hmm?”

Maybe he felt the intensity of my gaze, because his eyes finally dropped to me.

That familiar expression—arrogant, annoyed, and somehow already… weirdly normal to me now.

“What.”

Still grumpy.

Still obnoxious.

And I didn’t want to talk to him either.

But you don’t argue with your sponsor.

The universe is built that way.

Besides, I’d left my pride back in my previous life.

I swallowed my retorts, pasted on my best imitation of a “polite noblewoman,” and asked as respectfully as I could manage—

“……Do you have any money?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“……”

Xavier stared at Renée, who looked like the happiest person alive—holding two skewers, one in each hand.

“This one’s chicken. Wow—holy—this is so good. Is this… heart?”

He ate meat every day. He lacked nothing.

What was so special about cheap street skewers that she looked like she’d found religion?

Muttering nonsense to herself, Renée wore the brightest expression Xavier had seen since she arrived at the duchy.

It made his mood… complicated.

What kind of person are you?

No matter how many times he tried to place her, she slid out of his grasp.

She was lively—more than he’d imagined. Full of energy.

Even after being treated… poorly. In his own estate.

Is she simply tough?
Or is she clenching her teeth and pretending?

Truthfully, today’s “outing together” had been Xavier’s choice.

He’d heard her reputation a hundred times—from other mouths.

And yet she remained impossible to pin down, so he’d decided to collide with her directly.

But now he only felt more uncertain.

She was someone called a filthy bastard at the Blanche marquisate, raised under cruel oppression.

That could explain why she was so small and thin—

but not why she didn’t fear him.

And certainly not why she had the audacity to openly extort money from him to buy skewers.

“Ha.”

And the strangest part?

Him.

He hated House Blanche—so why did he keep doing what Renée asked?

“……Why?” Renée asked suddenly, narrowing her eyes, as if she’d sensed his stare.

Xavier didn’t answer.

So she drew her own conclusion.

“Ah.”

Slowly, she held out the fresh skewer in her other hand.

“You’re mad because I bought two and I’m eating both, right? Then you should’ve bought one too… Anyway. I’m not that shameless.”

She said that, but her hand wobbled—as if she deeply regretted offering.

“…No.”

At Xavier’s blunt refusal, Renée immediately replied like she’d been waiting.

“Yup.”

And she shoved the offered skewer right into her mouth.

“……”

So merciless that Xavier genuinely lost words.

Then—

her eyes went round like a rabbit.

“K—cough! Cough!”

She started coughing hard—like she’d choked.

But her gaze was locked on something.

And at the end of that gaze was someone even worse than Renée.

“Wow. Give me everything from here to here.”

“All of it?”

“Yes!”

A man with long green hair was clearing out the skewer stall, threading skewers between his fingers like claws.

He laughed, delighted.

Renée’s expression twisted.

“Crazy dr—”

The curse escaped her lips… then died.

That wasn’t the face of someone meeting a mere “skewer rival.”

It was hostility—sharp enough to cut.

…Wait.

Something clicked in Xavier’s mind.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Renée Blanche was standing in front of the cabin with an unknown man!”
“Not a messenger from the ducal estate?”
“No! If there were a servant that handsome, I’d know!”
“Ahem! Anyway! He had green hair. Long, straight, down to his waist… and there’s no one like that in the estate.”

It matched Katarina Hugo’s description exactly.

A fairly handsome man. Long green hair.

Xavier’s eyes narrowed instantly.

Then he checked Renée.

She’d frozen like a statue, skewer still between her lips.

That report was true?

He couldn’t fully trust Katarina.

But Renée’s reaction was wrong.

Especially the way she—who’d been so brazen—suddenly looked like she was measuring every breath.

Xavier fixed his sharpened gaze on the green-haired man.

And then—

“!”

Their eyes met.

No mistake.

“Oho.”

The green-haired man—yellow eyes bright with interest—formed the sound silently with his mouth.

Then he smiled and gave a casual wave.

Even with his face half-shadowed beneath his hood, it was obvious.

The stranger recognized him.

But Xavier had never met this man in his life.

With features that distinct, forgetting him would be impossible.

And then—

…What?

For a split second, the man’s pupil compressed into a vertical slit.

So fast it could’ve been a blink.

Then it returned to a normal, round pupil like nothing had happened.

But Xavier hadn’t imagined it.

His instincts screamed certainty.

Every nerve in his body went taut.

This wasn’t a small matter anymore.

Xavier Celeste was one of the empire’s top Swordmasters.

And yet that man’s presence carried a pressure even he couldn’t ignore.

It wasn’t something you felt from a human.

That man wasn’t a person so much as—

a natural disaster.

An overwhelming gap in power—like standing before something that could crush you without effort, without warning.

He’s not ordinary.

At some point, Xavier realized his fist had clenched so hard it trembled.

Still, he didn’t look away.

That wasn’t bravery.

That was stubbornness.

Better to break than bend.

So, as always, he moved first.

Xavier strode straight toward the suspicious man.

At his side, Renée hurried after him, flustered.

“W-where are you going?”

Xavier didn’t answer.

The crowd—strangely—didn’t block his path.

It parted.

As if it knew.

He stopped in front of the green-haired man, maintaining eye contact.

Up close, the man was slightly smaller than Xavier—

but his presence didn’t diminish in the slightest.

No… if anything, the stranger’s relaxed ease was a complete victory.

“Who are you?”

Xavier’s voice was low—tight, like he was biting down on a curse.

But the man only shrugged, completely unbothered.

Renée’s small hand caught the hem of Xavier’s cloak.

“Why are you doing this? He’s just a passerby!”

“Do you know him?” Xavier asked at last, finally looking back at her.

The tone was sharp.

Nearly accusatory.

Renée’s lips snapped shut.

Her hands clenched together, trembling.

Watching that, the green-haired man let out a soft, amused laugh.

“Grand Duke. Lord. Whatever you are—”
His smile widened.
“You’re really quick to scare your wife first, aren’t you?”

Then his voice dropped, pleasant and poisonous.

“Outside, they call you a benevolent ruler… but at home you’re just a filthy bastard, huh.”