Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 57
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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57.
Annelize shook her head.
“It’s not about wanting it or not. Your Grace. If the moon disappears from this world, big problems will arise. How panicked must other people be?”
“So?”
“I’m truly grateful for the gift you prepared for me, but I’ll just accept the sentiment. Since it’s a gift, I can do what I want with it, right? How do I send it back to the sky?”
Despite all the trouble he went through to bring it. Annelize was talking about returning his gift.
The Duke replied sulkily.
“I’m not going back. If you want to return it, do as you please.”
Annelize was flustered.
“What? How am I supposed to return it? I don’t even know how you brought it! Your Grace! Hey!”
* * *
“—So that’s what happened.”
Isaiah, having heard the whole story, crossed his arms with interest.
“To actually pluck the moon for someone. Our lord is truly romantic.”
“Isaiah.”
Annelize didn’t hide her irritation.
Isaiah made an innocent expression as if asking what was wrong.
“I was genuinely admiring it. And my lady, from what I heard, you were the one who requested it?”
“I swear I thought it was a joke!”
Annelize immediately corrected him.
“What kind of person would think someone would actually steal the moon from the sky just because they said that! Think about it logically!”
Isaiah smiled as if amused.
“That’s why the ancient sages said we must be careful with every word we speak.”
“Isaiah. So will you come with me to return it or not?”
“Hmm. Well, should I?”
Why was Isaiah the only person who could help her?
Annelize gritted her teeth and said.
“Please, I’m begging you. Come with me to put the moon back in its place.”
She had tried asking Pamine, but he refused, saying he wasn’t of the right standing to go there carelessly.
Instead, he said Isaiah could help.
‘So that means Isaiah has the right standing?’
Annelize wondered what this “standing” was and what criteria determined it.
Anyway, now that the Duke wouldn’t help, Isaiah was the last hope for returning the moon to the sky.
And Annelize really, really wanted to return the moon.
As soon as she learned the Duke had stolen the moon, she stopped by the village out of concern for the people, only to find the villagers trembling in fear, completely panic-stricken.
[Lady Annelize! Look over there! The moon has disappeared from the sky! God must be angry!]
[Someone ate the moon! I don’t know who, but spit it out quickly!]
[The world is going to end—!]
[Now who’s going to tell us the calendar…]
If the village was in this state, she couldn’t even imagine what the Empire with its larger population would be like.
Scholars who study the moon. Fortune tellers who divine by the moon.
And even lovers who whisper sweet words under the moonlight.
She had to return the moon to them.
“Sir Isaiah. If you don’t help me, I’ll call you a scoundrel.”
Isaiah leaned back diagonally on the sofa.
“It’s not exactly my preferred travel destination either. But it can’t be helped. Since I’ve teased you enough, I’ll help you as payment.”
He stretched his long arm straight toward the ceiling. Isaiah extended his index finger as if pointing in a direction.
“Come. Let’s go up there and quickly return it.”
Annelize followed Isaiah in a carriage, continuously racing through the vast northern region.
How long had it been since she followed his lead without knowing where they were going?
The coniferous forest visible through the window looked familiar.
‘This is Aldeon.’
The place she had come to with Anna Rose just a few months ago.
If they went a little further, they would see the Aldeon Monastery where Anna Rose was.
Isaiah stopped the carriage in a clearing where the monastery’s spire was visible.
After pushing through the tall coniferous forest, they came upon a building covered in moss.
It was a crumbling temple.
‘This is the temple that was built in Aldeon in ancient times.’
A ruin that looked like it would collapse immediately if you leaned against a pillar. Isaiah guided Annelize inside.
His steps were confident, as if he had been in and out countless times.
The interior was as shabby as the exterior.
Annelize briefly doubted Isaiah.
No matter how she looked around, it didn’t seem like a sacred place that could reach the sky.
As she looked around the dusty agora, Isaiah extended his hand to Annelize.
When Annelize took his hand, Isaiah stepped forward, and simultaneously they passed through a faint membrane in the plaza.
In the blink of an eye, Annelize was standing in a completely different space.
What had been crumbling pillars now perfectly supported the ceiling, maintaining their former majesty.
The temple had transformed into the building from long ago, when worshippers’ footsteps never ceased.
“We just passed through a barrier.”
“Where is this place?”
“You could call it a crossroads where the boundaries of each world intersect. Since we’re not beings like our lord, this method is best. It’s safe, and there’s no worry of dying.”
She couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying.
Isaiah draped something over Annelize.
It was the Duke’s black cloak.
“The one disadvantage is that we might occasionally encounter uninvited guests. So while I’m returning the moon, even if a stranger talks to you, don’t answer. Don’t let them hear your voice.”
“Are you sure it’s a ‘person’ who might talk to me?”
“It might not be a person, of course.”
Isaiah took the bundle containing the moon from Annelize.
He disappeared among the countless pillars.
Annelize leaned against the wall, waiting for Isaiah and hoping that no strange being would speak to her.
Like a cruel twist of fate, as soon as she had that thought, a stranger appeared before Annelize.
The stranger, or rather the strange young boy, looked to be about thirteen years old at most.
But despite his youthful appearance, his eyes reflected years of experience that made his true age impossible to gauge.
His burning red eyes like the sun and snow-white hair were striking.
The boy spotted Annelize and smiled crookedly.
“You’re human. How dare a human set foot in this place.”
That appearance and tone. He looked arrogant and ill-tempered at first glance.
He seemed like the type who would be tiresome to deal with.
Annelize glanced at the boy.
‘He told me never to answer strangers.’
After looking him up and down as if she had assessed him, she immediately turned her head away.
The boy’s jaw tightened at being blatantly ignored.
“How dare… How dare you ignore me!”
Annelize scratched her cheek, pretending not to hear.
She felt a little sorry, but it couldn’t be helped.
This was a completely unfamiliar space to her.
She was worried about what might happen if she ignored Isaiah’s warning, her only source of trust.
‘He looks like a boy smaller than me on the outside, but he seems dangerous somehow. He’s definitely not an ordinary being.’
The boy’s eyes sparkled as he raised his hand.
The temperature of the nearby air instantly heated up.
Fire started from beneath his feet and stretched toward Annelize.
Should she run away? But where to?
If she got lost here, Isaiah might not be able to find her.
‘No. Isaiah must have prepared measures for situations like this.’
As she expected, the young boy who had been reaching for Annelize hesitated.
The fire stopped, unable to come any closer to her.
Unknown symbols glowed in a circular pattern around Annelize.
“Ugh! That bastard’s power!”
The young boy made a disgusted expression and dry heaved.
“He should just stay buried in the North, what nonsense is he up to now… Human. Who are you to receive that bastard’s protection?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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