The Search for the Duchess’s Husband - Chapter 111

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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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In Search of the Duke’s Husband – Episode 111

“Still spouting nonsense without fear, I see.”
“Since nothing was placed in my mouth, it seemed you weren’t forbidding me from speaking. So I stopped… Did I make a mistake?”
Count Elysium did not laugh at Artia’s playful remark. He looked down at her with a piercing gaze and spoke.
“Nothing was placed in your mouth so I could hear your screams properly.”
Count Elysium held out an old riding crop as if displaying a treasure. Seeing Artia’s widened eyes, Count Elysium spoke.
“You recognize it, then. Yes, this is the whip I used on Frigia.”
“…!”
“Every time I swung the whip, watching Frigia writhe in pain was so pitiful and beautiful…”
His eyes, which had been tender as if reminiscing about beautiful memories, turned sinister in an instant.
“Today I will wield this upon you. Until you scream in every conceivable way and beg for forgiveness, until you can never look at me with such eyes again, until my heart finds peace.”
Count Elysium’s lips curved upward.
“Once Frigia sees your state, she will come to her senses and return to me, won’t she?”
In that moment, I understood.
The man before me was not in his right mind.
The moment I tried to rise and flee, my legs buckled beneath me. The drug Count Elysium had used to render me unconscious still coursed through my veins.
As I collapsed, Count Elysium approached with the whip raised.
My entire body began to tremble violently.
Count Elysium’s figure overlapped with that of my father, Benedict.
Whenever I failed to speak properly, Benedict would wield a cane under the guise of education.
It was terrifying and agonizing.
Yet I could only grit my teeth and endure in silence.
A heartless father beating his young daughter, a sickly mother who could only weep without stopping him.
I had learned that no one would come to my aid.
But in this moment, there was a face that came to mind.
One who had always come to find me in my darkest hours…
“Killian…”
I did not call out his name through conscious thought. It was like an incantation I uttered to dispel my fear.
“Killian, Your Highness…!”
The moment I spoke his name again, the window shattered into fragments, and a massive black panther appeared.
The black panther’s golden eyes blazed as it lunged at Count Elysium. Just as its sharp fangs were about to close around Count Elysium’s throat, I cried out.
“Stop!”
The ferocious black panther, as if it would obey no one in this world, halted in that instant.
‘Why?’
The black panther asked with eyes that gleamed an eerie gold. Trembling with tears streaming down my face, I answered.
“Your Majesty, I….”
Before I could even register the shock of being recognized, a thin voice continued.
“I don’t want his blood on me….”
It wasn’t some platitude about how one shouldn’t kill people, or how it was too cruel.
I had never heard such words before.
The black panther stared at me with an expression of utter incomprehension, then looked down at Count Elysium.
Pinned beneath the massive black panther that had appeared so suddenly, Count Elysium was in a state of semi-consciousness from shock and terror.
“P-please, spare me, please….”
Just as the panther opened its jaws again, as if to tear apart the trembling Count Elysium whose eyes had lost all focus….
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Count Elysium let out a piercing scream and lost consciousness. The black panther, having dealt with Count Elysium in one swift motion, approached me. As it took a step, the massive black panther transformed into the figure of Killian von Orpheus.
Killian von Orpheus, standing before me, opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
The man I had thought only arrogant and strong apologized with an anguished expression.
As if it were his fault.
Faced with a surreal sight I had never imagined, I stared blankly at Killian von Orpheus before my legs gave way. Alarmed, Killian von Orpheus steadied me.
His embrace, which I had thought only unyielding, was surprisingly….
‘Warm….’
Along with the warmth came the sound of his heartbeat against my ear.
Thump, thump, thump, thump….
As the rhythmic sound echoed like a lullaby, I closed my eyes.

* * *

Killian von Orpheus arrived at the Edenberke Estate with Artia cradled in his arms. Bibi, who had been waiting at the mansion, rushed forward in a flurry.
“Master!”
Killian von Orpheus spoke.
“She merely fell asleep after the extreme tension released. There are no serious injuries.”
He was not the type to naturally offer detailed explanations out of kindness.
The reason he bothered to say such things was not to reassure the loyal maid whose eyes had reddened with worry for her mistress.
It was a warning not to be troublesome.
“I will care for her until she wakes.”
“Forgive me, but it is my duty to look after Madam.”
“I know. But I want to.”
A prince and a maid.
The gulf in station between them was so vast that even listing them together seemed absurd, yet Bibi met Killian von Orpheus’s gaze with eyes utterly devoid of fear.
The emotion contained within those golden eyes, gleaming with the luster of poured gold.
It was fierce desire—the savage, primal possessiveness of a male refusing to surrender his mate.
Bibi understood instinctively that no measure could make him yield.
‘Above all, this is not the time to struggle for dominance while Madam lies unconscious.’
Knowing that Killian von Orpheus’s affection for Artia was genuine, Bibi chose to step back.
“Very well. Then I entrust her to you.”
Entrust. Why did that single brief word grate so?
Killian von Orpheus passed by Bibi, puzzled by the sensation.

Entering the chamber, Killian von Orpheus laid Artia upon the bed. His touch was even more delicate than one would use with a sleeping child.
Killian von Orpheus gazed intently at Artia’s closed eyes.
The moment he heard that Artia had vanished, all the blood seemed to drain from his body. That eerie sensation—one he had never felt on any battlefield—was fear.
He was terrified she might be hurt.
Terribly, desperately so.
Killian von Orpheus brushed aside her silver hair and murmured.
“What have you done to me, Artia von Edenberg….”
Despite the reproachful words, his golden eyes glistened with a tenderness that threatened to spill into tears at any moment.

* * *

At dawn, I opened my eyes. In the dim room, I could see Killian von Orpheus sitting motionless.
“Your Highness…”
My voice emerged as barely a whisper from my parched throat, and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly.
“My throat… is so dry…”
Killian von Orpheus carefully raised my upper body, then brought a cup to my lips.
Though startled, I did not refuse his gesture and obediently swallowed a small sip of water.
Watching him relax with relief, I looked up slowly and opened my mouth.
“You’re Nabi, aren’t you?”
Though he had anticipated the question, Killian von Orpheus felt his heart plummet.
Yet knowing this conversation could not be avoided, he forced a composed expression and nodded.
“Yes.”
Killian von Orpheus had imagined it before.
What would Artia’s reaction be if she discovered the black cat was him?
Would she be shocked? Frightened? Disappointed?
All possibilities were grim, but the worst of all was the complete severance of their bond.
[It’s horrifying that you were Nabi. Never show yourself before me again.]
Merely imagining her cold expression made his heart ache, and he had reached a cowardly conclusion.
That this truth would never be revealed.
Yet she, with her keen intellect, had discovered it nonetheless.
‘Is it over now?’
Ironically, in that moment, memories of the days spent with Artia in his black cat form flooded back.
Her radiant smile as she called out ‘Nabi’ and laughed brightly returned to him.
I did not want to lose that.
Yet I could not fathom any way to hold onto it.
The tens of thousands of books I had read since childhood, the teachings of the Empire’s renowned scholars—none of it held any value now.
‘If I begged…’
If I fell to my knees and pleaded desperately, would she welcome me again? Would she smile?
As Killian von Orpheus moved to rise, entranced by the thought, Artia’s clear voice reached him.
“So it was true after all.”

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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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