So I Was the Persecuted Grand Duchess Destined to Die? Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Sitting up straight at my desk, I slowly retraced everything I knew.

So… I was Renée Celeste, the female lead of The Northern Duke’s Wife Doesn’t Know Spring.

A terminally ill duchess who gets abused her whole life and eventually dies of sickness?

“Hmmm.”

In the story, Renée had low self-esteem and was so timid that not only the Duke but even the servants trampled all over her.

The Duke, fully aware of her feelings, didn’t bother hiding his contempt. If anything, he used her love to humiliate her again and again.

Which was exactly why I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I was that Renée.

“Me…?”

Because if that was true, I hadn’t exactly been treated that badly.

Maybe the original was written from fragile Renée’s perspective, so even the same events felt far more hopeless and devastating.

“Or maybe I’m just… weirdly insensitive…?”

Scratch, scratch.

I gripped the poor pen like it had personally offended me and scribbled harder out of sheer irritation.

Well, whatever. If it hadn’t felt like suffering to me, I wasn’t going to complain.

The real problem was something else.

I’m terminally ill?!

Just when I’d finally started settling into life in the North, I get hit with this thunderbolt?

“If I even knew the name of the illness, I could look for a cure…”

I tried desperately to remember, but in the original, I couldn’t recall it ever being properly explained.

Even Jim, who examined me, only ever called me “born weak.”

He didn’t even seem to know I was terminally ill yet.

“This is insane.”

So what, I’m supposed to live trembling, never knowing when I’ll die?

No. Absolutely not.

I’d died pointlessly in my previous life. I wasn’t doing that again.

I grabbed my head.

“Think! Anything! Any clue!”

Aaaagh!

And then, like my desperate prayer reached the heavens, one memory suddenly flashed through my mind.

“You… you’re a ‘fragment,’ aren’t you?”

“Transparent Dragon!”

Right. There was a dragon who’d acted like he knew something.

And he wasn’t even a character who appeared in the original.

Which meant either he was hidden world-building only the author knew… or he’d shown up because I was an unexpected variable in this world.

If I can find that lizard… maybe I’ll get some kind of lead.

Yeah. This world has magic and dragons. Why would a possessed transmigrator be the weird part? I should be bold!

And more than anything, he seemed ancient. Someone who’d lived a very long time.

He had to know more than I did.

“Right. Worst case, I lose nothing.”

I couldn’t be certain, but it was also true I had no better option.

Then I hit the next problem.

“How am I supposed to find him?”

Last time, I’d had that silver cup and just followed it.

But he’d taken it ages ago.

“So I just… stumble around and try to find him from memory?”

My one true superpower, reckless initiative, kicked in. I sprang to my feet.

The sun was still high.

If I went quickly, I could be back before sundown.

I threw on some comfortable clothes and a cloak, then tried to sneak out of the room.

Knock knock knock.

“Milady, it’s Betty. I’m coming in.”

“Hii!”

“Oh my. Why are you standing?”

Betty entered with a tea tray, her face gentle as ever.

“Hm? And why are you wearing a cloak…?”

Something seemed off to her, because her usually mild eyes narrowed instantly.

Was this what it felt like to have a guilty conscience?

I panicked and blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Uh, yeah. I feel stiff. I thought I’d get some exercise…”

“Exercise?”

“Yeah! I heard hiking is good for building basic stamina. Wow, such a great idea, right? So I’ll be off now.”

“Haaaaaah…”

So we’re not even pretending to respond anymore?!

Like my words weren’t even worth acknowledging, Betty stepped into my path like Cerberus guarding the gates of hell.

Then she shouted at full volume.

“Dora!”

“Huh?”

“Our delicate milady coughed up blood and collapsed, and the moment she wakes up she wants to climb those rugged mountains?! I think I should inform His Grace immediately!”

Betty, that is so exaggerated! That happened almost a month ago!

But before I could protest, Dora came rushing in too, glaring daggers, and threw herself into stopping me.

“My goodness, milady! We only let the farming slide because you begged and begged. Again?! I’m reporting to Sir Karl.”

“Aaah! Fine, fine! Please stop!”

Damn it. Total defeat.

After barely managing to prevent a full-blown commotion, and changing back into normal clothes, I slumped onto the sofa like a dead fish.

Betty was probably stationed outside my door right now, fully evolved into Cerberus mode.

“Retreat for now. I’ll try again at dawn tomorrow.”

The expensive velvet sofa wrapped around me like a hug, ridiculously soft.

I half-flopped and rubbed my cheek against it.

Honestly… heaven.

“Ugh… I want to lie here and be lazy forever…”

But I couldn’t just ignore the whole “terminal illness” thing either.

Why won’t this world let me rest for even a second?

My dream job is literally “home protector.” I’m just a normal person!

Outside the window, spring shone bright and beautiful.

“Completely opposite of how I feel…”

Sniff.

I was swallowing back tears in silence when.

“Hey.”

A strangely familiar voice suddenly came from behind me.

“…Nox?!”

“Hiyaa.”

When I jolted upright, Ternox was sitting comfortably on the window ledge, waving.

How on earth could a green dragon be this welcome?

“You’re already being lazy, so what’s the problem, Your Grace?”

“….”

Picking a fight the moment he arrives?

Honestly, it was almost comforting how consistent he was.

But I forced myself to face reality.

I was the one who needed him.

And I’d just been planning to find him, only for him to walk in on his own.

Great. Saves me the trouble.

I immediately switched gears and plastered on my sweetest smile.

“Oh, mighty Dragon Lord Ternox! To honor me with your presence, this humble one is endlessly blessed!”

“…Why are you suddenly like this?”

“What do you mean? I’m exactly the same as always.”

Damn it. All I had to do was flatter him, but my lowly-minion instincts kicked in again!

The truth was, bowing to this green lizard made my insides twist, so my words got tangled too.

Even I could tell it was awkward, but confidence is everything.

I rubbed my hands together shamelessly and grinned like a villain.

“Just that I’ve been yearning for you so dearly, my lord dragon… I’ve lost sleep every night from longing…”

“The one losing sleep wasn’t you. It was someone else.”

“…What?”

“That guy. That kid who glared like he wanted to kill me.”

“Gl-glared…”

Was he talking about the Duke?

Come to think of it, back at the spring festival, they’d squared off with terrifying intensity, and the Duke had ended up looking completely dazed.

It felt weirdly distant now, like something from my past life.

“Well… yeah, but he’s been sleeping fine lately?”

“Really? When I saw him, it looked serious…”

Ternox frowned, then his eyes narrowed sharply.

“You did something, didn’t you?”

“Me?”

“Who else would be the variable?”

My mouth snapped shut.

And at the same time, I knew.

This had to be connected to what he’d called me before, a fragment.

Ternox looked unusually serious, and I seized the moment to ask what I’d wanted all along.

“Nox, about what you said last time. ‘Fragment.’ Can you explain that in detail?”

“Before that, I want to hear your side. What changed while I was gone?”

“Well… basically…”

I gave him a short summary of everything that had happened.

The “madness” passed down from the Duke’s father’s generation.

And how, strangely, it vanished completely when he was with me.

“Hm. I see.”

After listening carefully, Ternox looked back at me.

“When you live long enough, you run into all kinds of things.”

His eyes narrowed vertically in an instant.

There it was again.

That unsettling, unmistakable gaze. Something not human.

But why did that difference feel… oddly comforting?

Like he was telling me, look. There are beings like me in this world. Compared to that, you’re not that strange.

It was a weird kind of reassurance.

After a brief pause, Nox spoke.

“I thought so before, but… you really don’t seem like someone who belongs to this world.”

His golden eyes fixed on me, sharp enough to pierce right through.