The Murderous Duke's Domestic Affairs - Chapter 57

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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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Chapter 57
“What’s occupying your mind so deeply?”
At Aster Veil Lilywood’s voice, I lifted my eyes. Had I been lost in thought so visibly that he’d noticed? I let out an awkward laugh, but his furrowed gaze never left me. Perhaps I was merely hoping his eyes held concern for me. I turned away, evading his scrutiny.
“I was thinking how fortunate I’ve been.”
Ever since meeting the Imperial Princess and returning, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I understood her desire to learn more deeply than anyone else could—after all, I too had been a child who loved studying. If only she weren’t the daughter of Emel Siaz.
The hypothetical that suddenly surfaced made my violet eyes furrow. The social gatherings that clashed with my nature, the sharp words exchanged within them, the accumulating wounds. A life where I could do nothing but exist to be cherished by a husband. The imagined version of her was withering away with an expression as melancholic as the Imperial Princess’s own.
Yes, I had been fortunate. I knew this truth better than anyone. My parents, who loved me dearly, had nodded in agreement even to my unreasonable insistence—something no noblewoman would dare imagine—that I didn’t wish to enter society. At my single request to learn, they taught me things that couldn’t be learned anywhere else.
And because of that, I was able to escape from the Marquis Siaz Estate, which Trace Siaz controlled. Had I lacked competence as an administrator, Aster Veil Lilywood would never have accepted me into the Duke’s Mansion.
Lost in thought, I was doodling absently on blank paper when I glanced up at Aster Veil Lilywood. Having reviewed all the documents I’d submitted, he was watching me with his head tilted slightly to one side. Our eyes met—those deep green irises fixed directly upon me—and I hastily averted my gaze. Beyond the wide-open curtains, sunlight poured through the windows, making his golden hair shimmer brilliantly. For some reason, my ears grew warm.
“Fortunate, you say?”
“In various ways, really.”
I set down the pen I’d been using to doodle on the blank paper with a small sigh. I tapped the stack of documents I’d arranged beside me against the table to organize them, then bound them with a wax-sealed cord and slid them back across to Aster Veil Lilywood.
Though I’d become capable of handling work independently now, he still refused to sit at the Duke’s official desk. Somehow, the two of us had fallen into the habit of working together at the low table before the long sofa where he always reclined. I’d worried it might be inconvenient at first, but working together proved more comfortable than expected—especially when documents requiring his review and signature were involved.
Aster Veil Lilywood accepted the documents I offered and began reading. Having handed them over, I took a moment to breathe and sipped my coffee. The beverage I’d initially found bitter and harsh had somehow become my constant companion.
While I drank, the office fell silent except for the soft rustle of turning pages. Soon, having finished reviewing the documents, Aster Veil Lilywood picked up his quill and signed. My gaze followed the letters forming beneath his hand. His handwriting was rough yet neat, large and distinctive—bearing a character entirely his own.
Seeing his script, I smiled without thinking. Then, realizing I was smiling, I startled and let out a fake cough. Aster Veil Lilywood’s gaze followed me, but I deliberately turned away. I caught his tilted head in the corner of my vision but forced myself to ignore it. Really, what was there to smile about over something so trivial? I posed the question to myself but found no answer.
“Aster, may I ask you something?”
So I broached a different topic instead. At my question, his green eyes gazed at me intently. He neither spoke agreement nor nodded, yet his gentle gaze conveyed permission. When we first met, his eyes had been so fierce that I’d frozen in fear. Now, I no longer feared him. I’d come to understand his intentions without words. Perhaps that was because our time together had lengthened and our relationship had naturally deepened.
“What kind of place is the Lilywood Dukedom?”
I voiced the question that had suddenly occurred to me. Aster Veil Lilywood’s eyebrows furrowed faintly. It wasn’t anger, certainly, but what did that expression mean? If I remained by his side a little longer, would I eventually come to understand the meaning of such a face? If so, when might that be? In ten years, twenty years—would we, like my parents, come to know each other’s hearts merely by meeting eyes?
I hoped so. I still cared for Aster Veil Lilywood deeply. The thought of spending long years together by his side made my heart flutter slightly—so much so that it was difficult to maintain an indifferent expression.
“…Why do you ask?”
“Simply curious. Even looking at documents like these, I don’t truly understand what kind of place it is. You can’t know the atmosphere of somewhere without visiting it, can you?”
I answered Aster Veil Lilywood’s question with a smile. But he couldn’t smile in return. The corner of his mouth, forcibly raised, bore a bitter taste. He drew his large hand across his face and slowly reclined against the long sofa.
“I don’t know either. I’ve never been there.”
My already large violet eyes widened in surprise. At my shocked expression, Aster Veil Lilywood’s lips twisted. It was rather amusing, wasn’t it—that a lord had never once visited his own fiefdom.
If only he could describe the atmosphere of the Lilywood Dukedom to her, but he was as ignorant of it as she was. The Previous Duke Lilywood and his wife—Aster Veil Lilywood’s parents—had come to the Capital to meet the Emperor and given birth to twins at the Duke’s Mansion. It seemed they never returned to the dukedom afterward. Of course, as a Duke, his father must have visited the fiefdom several times.
The duties of the dukedom, thrust upon him unexpectedly, were overwhelming. As someone who hadn’t been raised as the heir, the documents were incomprehensible to him. Aster Veil Lilywood looked down at the papers he’d just signed. Blaze Lilywood, who had been groomed as the legitimate heir, might have handled this work far more easily. Though now, there was neither reason nor need to think of such things.
Yet it would be a lie to say he wasn’t curious. Had Blaze Lilywood visited the fiefdom with their father? That question had haunted him since he began managing the fiefdom’s affairs. From childhood, Aster Veil Lilywood had never left the mansion. It was only natural, after all. The cursed twin. He was the brother who shouldn’t have lived.
He’d left home before he was old enough to understand—to become a soldier, to attend the Military Academy. The child who had found his heart racing only twice a year when returning home had never learned to covet things that weren’t his, yet now, why was he doing this? Aster Veil Lilywood’s darkened eyes fell upon the documents he’d just signed.
It wasn’t that he’d never wanted to visit the dukedom. But he couldn’t. From before reaching adulthood, he’d been bound by the Emperor’s orders to traverse battlefields. Even after the wars ended, the Emperor kept him confined to the Capital, claiming no one knew what might happen. The assertion that he couldn’t leave without imperial command was no lie.
But that wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t leave the Capital. Blaze Lilywood—Aster Veil Lilywood’s twin brother—had also kept him trapped in this mansion. Whenever he received imperial orders to leave, whether for war or bandit suppression, Blaze Lilywood, left alone in the mansion, would rampage. Screaming, destroying furnishings, even assaulting servants who brought meals.
Each time he heard reports, Aster Veil Lilywood would exhale a bitter laugh tinged with resignation. Though the heir to the Ducal House had once been the freest of all, now confined to the darkened Forbidden Zone, Blaze Lilywood must have found it unbearable to watch Aster Veil Lilywood roam freely outside. Or perhaps it was jealousy. He understood that emotion well enough, but it was entirely of Blaze Lilywood’s own making. There was no reason for Aster Veil Lilywood to sympathize with him, nor to pity him.
In any case, he couldn’t simply ignore Blaze Lilywood’s violent behavior. While minimizing contact between him and the servants, Aster Veil Lilywood also reduced his own absences and long journeys away from the mansion. Naturally, the hope he’d once harbored—that he might tour the fiefdom once the wars ended—gradually faded.
It wasn’t only Blaze Lilywood who was bound to this mansion.
But I didn’t want to tell Lauren about such things. She didn’t need to know about Blaze Lilywood’s existence or the inner workings of the Duke’s Mansion. She should return to the Marquis Siaz Estate, to that peaceful fiefdom. If I’m being honest, I wanted to grasp her hand tightly. I didn’t want to let her go.
But she was too precious to hold onto with such selfish desire. Lauren, who gazed at me with eyes that sparkled like stars, wasn’t someone meant to be bound here with me.
“Then let’s go together.”
A bright voice, as if singing, reached my ears as I looked down. For a moment, I doubted my own hearing before my eyes snapped up. Lauren, her large eyes curved into crescents, was smiling at me. I didn’t want to see that face. My lips, which had been moving soundlessly, trembled slightly. I had to let her go. I should, but when she smiles like that, I cannot tear my eyes away from her.
“You’re the Duke of Lilywood, and I’m the Duchess, aren’t I?”
“…Yes.”
My lips curved faintly. I cannot go to the Territory. Not with Lauren. But if I said so, she would be disappointed. I couldn’t bear to see that brilliantly radiant smile fade into disappointment. So I simply nodded. Her gaze flew straight toward me, and I had no choice but to meet it head-on.
“I hope the people of the Territory will welcome us.”
“Yes. I hope so too.”
Since that day when the Mansion had been drenched crimson, had I ever encountered anything so radiant and warm in a life shadowed by blood? I gripped my scattering thoughts and answered in a murmur. In this moment, no one wished for her words to come true more than I did. Even though I knew that wish could never be fulfilled.
Lauren smiled brightly at me and reached for the next document. As if she hadn’t just shaken my heart with her words, she began reviewing the papers with natural ease. The sight of her refocusing after our brief exchange was beautiful. I had taken her as my wife purely out of necessity. I had told Blaze the same. It certainly wasn’t a lie.
When had my heart shifted from necessity to affection? I reflected quietly. She was small and lovely, confident and clever—a captivating woman. Anyone would inevitably fall for her.
But I was someone who should not love anyone. How much better it would have been if it weren’t I who had fallen in love with her. For both of us. Knowing it was wrong, I could only wish to cut away this helpless heart that kept drawing me toward her.

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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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