So I Was the Persecuted Grand Duchess Destined to Die? Chapter 50

Chapter 50

“What… what do you mean by that?”

I played dumb.

I mean, come on.

Even if you know, you can’t just say it like that!

I wasn’t ready for you to come at me this directly!

But Ternox only smirked like he already knew everything.

“It’s not like you’re from a completely different universe… More like a fragment from some world got lodged into something that already existed.”

W-why is he talking like a fortune-teller?

Vague as it sounded, it also felt like he’d hit the nail right on the head.

I blinked, stunned.

With that calm, unreadable expression, Ternox continued.

“Even fragments can’t escape the bigger current. At best, they can shift the direction a little.”

…A little? Hasn’t everything already changed a ton?

The way he smiled as he said it, Ternox radiated this overwhelming presence, like he really was a dragon.

A steady, gentle force, like the earth itself, solid enough for all living things to stand on.

Like I was under a spell, I answered haltingly.

“Yeah… honestly, lying to you is pointless, isn’t it? I’m not from this world.”

Once I started, the story got pretty long.

Even so, Ternox listened patiently the whole time.

“So this is a world inside a book… That part’s unexpected.”

He looked genuinely intrigued after hearing the gist.

I let out a long sigh.

“Anyway, I’m someone who possessed this body. And this body is fated to die, terminally ill.”

“I see.”

Up until then, Nox had been perched on the windowsill. He hopped down and sat on the sofa across from me.

Then he casually crossed his legs and said,

“If it’s fate, accepting it is also an option.”

A vein practically popped in my forehead.

Seriously, after I finally open up, that’s what you say?

I’m being serious here!

He’s lived long enough already, so he’s telling me to just die too?!

“I already died once, and you want me to die again? Are you out of your mind?”

“People don’t die that easily~”

“Tell that to my previous life. I died way too easily. And it’s not like you’ve ever died, Nox!”

“Hm. Fair point. You died first, so I guess you’re my senior. Want me to call you ‘senior’?”

“Nox!”

Are you seriously joking about someone’s life?!

At moments like this, he really did feel like a dragon, someone who’d lived so long death had become just… background noise.

To a dragon, human life probably wasn’t worth more than a fly.

“Grr…!”

And that’s still your reaction?

You psychopath lizard, this is infuriating!

While I was fuming, Ternox raised both hands and waved them a few times like calm down, calm down.

“Relax. You don’t look like you’re going to die easily. First off, this ‘me’ you described didn’t exist in the novel, right?”

“Well… yeah.”

“That alone makes it very likely you’ve already created a different branching point. Maybe this place is the split-off universe that formed when your fragment got lodged in.”

“Uhh…”

Professor, you’re going way too fast…

“That’s… really hard to follow.”

“You don’t have to understand all of it right now. But…”

Ternox stood again, suddenly serious, and dropped down onto the sofa beside me with a thud.

“I should take a look. Just for a moment, excuse me.”

“Huh?”

Golden eyes.

When his pupils narrowed into vertical slits, my body instinctively tensed.

“How long are you planning to keep getting startled?”

As if it were nothing, he muttered to himself, then gently cupped my face with a large hand.

“!”

“Don’t be scared.”

Then he pressed his forehead to mine, careful, like a parent checking a child’s fever.

In an instant, my vision blurred and a strange sensation flooded over me.

It felt like dreaming with my eyes open.

This… is like back then…

When I’d fallen into the river and lost consciousness.

The exact same feeling I’d had right before a scene from the novel played out.

No… maybe even more than that…

Like the floating, weightless feeling from right before I first set foot in this world at all…

“What do you think you’re doing?”

That was when

CRASH, something shattered loudly right in front of me, like glass breaking, and the world lurched.

My head swam as my vision scattered.

I looked toward the sound, dazed.

“…Xenos?”

The Duke stood there, sword drawn, his face sharp as a blade.

Wait. Did I just call him Xenos?

Something felt tangled inside me, twisting into knots.

No, that’s not the point right now!

Before I could even process what was happening, the Duke strode over and shoved me behind his back.

“Renée. Are you all right?”

“Huh? I mean… I’m fine…”

He flicked his eyes over my flustered face, then immediately leveled his sword at Ternox’s throat.

“How dare you lay a hand on the Archduchess.”

His voice was so low it sounded like an enraged beast growling.

Just his presence alone was suffocating, like no one in the room could move.

But Ternox, of course, was completely relaxed.

He shrugged like it was nothing, stood, and walked right up to the Duke.

Then he leaned in and whispered near his ear.

“How’ve you been sleeping?”

“!”

The Duke recoiled in shock, nothing like his usual composure.

His brow creased deeply, like he couldn’t even think about smoothing it out.

Honestly, I’d be creeped out too.

Is this dragon insane? Has he gone senile?!

“Heh. Cute. You’re fun to tease, too. You really are just like Lucas.”

Tap.

Ternox lightly poked the Duke’s cheek with his thumb and laughed under his breath.

“What are you doing? Get lost!”

“Kekek!”

The Duke swung his sword without hesitation.

But with an annoying giggle, Ternox vanished and reappeared behind him.

“!”

“Let’s see if you’ll behave and submit quietly.”

He grinned wickedly and wrapped his arms around the Duke from behind.

“H-!”

And then Nox’s hand went straight to

the Duke’s chest.

More specifically, his left side, right where his heart beat.

Isn’t this dangerous in about ten different ways?!

For a second my vision went white, like Wait, is this story’s genre about to change?

But the Duke’s eyes went wide… and then the light drained from them.

“W-what are you doing?! What did you do?!”

Just like at the festival, every time this dragon appeared, he knocked the soul right out of people!

Even as I freaked out, Nox didn’t so much as glance at me.

“Stay still. I need to check properly.”

His voice had no laughter in it now.

At the same time, golden light poured from his hand and flooded the entire room.

“Ugh!”

I threw up an arm to shield my eyes. Nox flicked a look at me, surprised.

“You can see this too? Hm. Yeah, there really is something going on with you.”

Then he started forcing that light into the Duke’s heart.

It must’ve taken effort. Sweat beaded near Nox’s tightly furrowed brow.

But only for a moment.

“Urgh!”

The clashing, crackling mass of light suddenly rebounded, then vanished like smoke.

Thud.

At the same time, the Duke collapsed to his knees, powerless.

“Xenos!”

Startled, I grabbed his shoulders and checked his face first.

The strained expression slowly eased the moment my hand touched him.

His half-open violet-blue eyes drifted aimlessly, until they focused and met mine clearly.

“Ng…”

He let out something like a broken sound and sagged forward, collapsing into my arms.

“Whoa!”

His body was huge, easily two or three times my weight, exaggeration aside, and of course I toppled backward under it.

“Here.”

Ternox lifted him easily and flopped him onto the sofa like it was nothing.

Even then, the Duke’s hand stayed clenched around the hem of my skirt.

With no choice, I sat down right beside him and watched for any sign of movement.

“He’ll wake up soon. Don’t worry too much.”

Ternox’s voice was still calm behind me.

Not long after, the Duke’s eyes fluttered open.

Something about him felt subtly different. His earlier killing intent seemed to have dulled.

But even so, with those sharp eyes, he asked,

“What did you do to me?”

“What? Don’t you feel better than before?”

“That doesn’t mean it was because of you.”

As he spoke, the Duke pulled me behind his back again.

“Who are you, and why do you keep hovering around my wife?”

Even if I couldn’t see his face from behind that broad back, I could practically feel the blade-sharp glare he was wearing.