Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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21.

“His Majesty chose this gift himself for the Grand Duchess’s future. I do hope you’ll treasure it for many years to come.”
“…….”
“In such a primitive place, it would be nearly impossible to lay eyes on such a treasure in one’s lifetime. Surely it deserves to be preserved as a heirloom of the Grand Duke’s house, does it not?”
Count Chromel appeared satisfied with the icy chill that had settled over the room, smirking with cunning in his eyes.
But.
“Kaiden.”
At Axid’s quiet call, Kaiden seized Count Chromel’s shoulder and wrenched it down with a sickening force.
“What is this!”
As his face contorted in shattering pain, Kaiden spoke with an expression frozen solid.
“Kneel.”
“How dare you treat an emissary of the Empire this way—do you not fear the Emperor’s wrath?”
“Shut your filthy mouth.”
Kaiden’s eyes glinted like daggers as he swept a brutal kick at the back of Count Chromel’s knees.
“Agh!”
Thud.
The moment the count fell obscenely to his knees, protests erupted from the Empire’s delegation behind him.
“Your Grace, what manner of disrespect is this!”
“Grand Duchess, will you merely stand by and watch?”
Lumiere looked down at them in cold silence.
Why would she lift a finger to help those who’d come to set the torch to someone else’s wedding?
When she said nothing, knights forced the remaining emissaries down to their knees as well.
In the tense silence, Axid spoke.
“Seems you’ve fallen out of favor with the Emperor.”
“What do you mean—”
“Or perhaps you’re desperate to die.”
Those words fell like a death sentence, and all color drained from Count Chromel’s face.
“Surely you don’t intend to spill blood here?”
“Didn’t you come looking for the right place to die?”
The count’s face went rigid.
He’d grasped the truth: his very life hung on the Grand Duke’s next word.
‘No matter how angry I am, I cannot shed blood here.’
Lumiere decided it was time to soothe her husband.
“Your Grace.”
She laid her hand gently upon his forearm.
A flinch.
The savage, suffocating pressure that had gripped the hall eased slightly.
A sideways glance told her that at her touch, the line of his jaw had stiffened in surprise.
She spoke with the faintest smile in her eyes.
“Count Chromel—please convey to His Majesty that his sincere sentiments were well received.”
She was actually accepting that ominous, insulting gift?
Murmurs of shock rippled through the crowd.
Yet how could she be anything but mad to do so?
“However, that gift seems far more suited to His Majesty than to myself. You may take it back with you.”
“Gra—!”
Count Chromel’s face flushed crimson as he cried out, but when Kaiden pressed hard on his shoulder, he bit his lip with visible frustration instead.
The Grand Duke watched him with the chill gaze of one waiting for a misstep.
One more word out of line, and his head would roll.
In the end, Count Chromel fell silent, his jaw working soundlessly.
“Your Grace, since our guests appear to have concluded their business, perhaps we should see them out and begin the banquet.”
Axid, who’d been regarding Count Chromel as one might regard an insect, gave a nod.
“Kaiden, escort our guests beyond the castle gates.”
“As you command, sir.”
When Kaiden released his shoulder, the count grabbed the wooden box with trembling hands.
“……You will surely come to regret treating an emissary of His Majesty with such contempt.”
The count turned on his heel, his face still flushed with rage.
Perhaps.
I’ve never found anyone frightening who was content to wait and see.
Shouldn’t they be worrying more about their own futures instead?
Lumiere inwardly mocked those shuffling out of the hall like defeated dogs.

***

Lumiere slipped away from the banquet with Axid once the celebration had reached its proper warmth.
There was never any reason to linger.
The gathering existed for those who had come to celebrate the State Marriage, after all.
Once she shed the stifling finery, bathed, and dressed for the evening, the weight of the long ceremony finally lifted from her shoulders.
“So it’s finally the wedding night…….”
Lumiere waited for him in the Grand Duke’s Chamber.
A vast bed and side table, a writing desk and sofa tucked into one corner—that was the entirety of the space.
Austere as its master, the room might have felt cold, but the servants had arranged it well enough that the atmosphere remained pleasant.
‘When will the Grand Duke arrive?’
She had imagined this night before, though the frenzy of preparations had left no room for dwelling on such thoughts.
But sitting here now, her mind conjured images she hadn’t quite invited.
‘Knowing him, I’d wager he’d stop mid-kiss to ask permission for every touch…….’
The image of herself scolding him to ask permission even to breathe made her laugh aloud before she could stop herself.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The solid rap of his knuckles sent her heart lurching with sudden tension.
“I’m coming in.”
Creak.
As Axid opened the door and stepped inside, his gaze found her and his entire frame went rigid.
She watched his dark hair, damp and neatly settled, for a moment before finding her voice.
“Welcome.”
“Then I shall enter.”
He moved with the cautious courtesy of a visitor intruding on someone else’s chamber.
She wondered why until it struck her—she was wearing a white shift.
Northern sleeping clothes, modest enough by any measure, but he clearly wasn’t accustomed to such attire, hence his flustered state.
He lowered himself onto the sofa with obvious discomfort.
“Grand Duke……?”
“I’ll rest here. Please use the bed as you wish.”
“No, wait—”
Part of her had suspected nothing would happen, anxiety be damned.
But to sleep on the sofa? Surely not.
“Grand Duke, come here for a moment.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Please.”
At her insistence, he hesitated before settling himself at a careful distance on the bed’s edge.
This massive man, sitting with such meek propriety at the foot of the mattress—it was almost comical.
Was this truly the same man who had crushed Count Chromel like an insect in the banquet hall?
The incongruity puzzled her until an old memory surfaced.
Her past self had first become curious about the Grand Duke when he returned from the Empire bearing news of her death.

“Your Majesty needn’t have bowed so. Strictly speaking, since I died before the marriage was consummated, the Empire should have claimed the body!”
“…….”
“Yet you told them to dispose of it however they saw fit. Is that how a man speaks?”
“Enough. It’s in the past now.”
“Aren’t you angry, Your Majesty?”
“……I have no right to be angry.”

She had learned something of him then, listening to that exchange between Kaiden and the Grand Duke.
Why had he endured the humiliation of the imperial court for a bride who had made him the butt of her mockery?
From that moment, she had watched him.
The man who returned from brutal campaigns to sit in this very place, his face blank, breathing heavily as he let the weight of the day settle.
The man who visited an abandoned grave on the anniversary of her death, tending it in quiet solitude.
There was something she’d wanted to tell him then but never had the chance, yet sitting here now, the words suddenly felt urgent.
Back then.
“I was truly grateful to you, Grand Duke.”
If it weren’t for him, she’d have been nothing but lonely and wronged.
He looked at her as if he didn’t understand what she meant.
Instead of answering, she smiled softly and let it pass.
The conversation died, and the room fell quiet.
Only the faint sound of their breathing remained in that silence.
“…Cast out beyond the castle walls at this late hour, you might well have been attacked by wandering demons.”
Cold and ambiguous words—oddly spoken for someone who rarely indulged in idle talk.
‘Might well have been….’
It was merely a supposition, and yet his voice carried the certainty of absolute conviction.
She paused, turning his words over in her mind, then found herself studying his face without thinking.
Thick lashes hung heavy beneath his eyes.
A nose sharp and finely drawn, a jaw firm and resolute.
……Strange.
She had watched that face for so long, and yet somehow her gaze would not release it.
Her chest stirred for reasons she couldn’t name, and even her breathing became careful and measured.
Then, slowly, he turned his head toward her.
…….
Dark, fathomless eyes burned with an emotion she could not decipher.
Their gazes locked for only a moment.
“There is something I must make clear first.”
“Please, speak.”
“There will be no Marital Duty between us.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I will do everything in my power to ensure you live comfortably as Grand Duchess, but I have no intention of demanding anything beyond that.”
His tone was resolute, allowing no room for doubt.
But then—
Lumiere fell silent for a moment before asking abruptly.
“What if I wished to?”
At her question, his dark eyes widened visibly, shaken.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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