Chapter 8

As Odely intently listened, the merchants across from the traveler couldn’t help but chime in.

"Word is he’s hunting for his long-lost childhood sweetheart, someone he was forced to part with."

"No, I heard he is searching for the perfect ideal type he saw in a dream?"

"That's not it, he can't forget his deceased lover, so he takes in any woman who resembles her."

"Which version is true?"

One merchant shrugged at their conflicting gossip.

"If he doesn't know himself, how would we know?"

"What? He doesn't know?" The traveler asked back incredulously.

"A servant working in the castle said so. He barely remembers anything about that woman. Whether he forgot because he was young, or if it was a dream, or if he has partial amnesia, no one knows for sure..."

“He burns through lavish banquets nightly to find a woman he barely remembers.”

"That's insane"

"Yes, I told you, he's completely insane."

The merchant twirled a finger beside his head and added, "They say his speech and demeanor have completely changed, as if he's possessed. People die if he's even slightly displeased. He's nothing short of a tyrant."

‘His speech and demeanor changed? People die if he's even slightly displeased? That can't be…’

Odely felt like grabbing the merchant by the collar and shaking him, asking to stop spouting nonsense. Something was terribly wrong.

"Hah, that iron-blooded Grand Duke…”

The merchant paused, looking at the sighing traveler, then added in a low voice, "Anyway, what's certain is that the woman the Grand Duke is looking for has 'blue eyes.' And..."

"Here." He tapped his collarbone area and continued,

"She's a woman with a peculiar scar here. It's shaped like a semicircle drawn above a horizontal line."

“A semicircle above a horizontal line... Wait a minute, could it be the divine symbol?"

"That's why everyone says it might be a stigmata."

Odely flinched and unconsciously traced her collarbone with her fingertips. A semicircle above a horizontal line. That was a scar she got when she was a test subject in the Cardel family during her childhood. It just coincidentally resembled the divine symbol, it was neither a stigmata nor anything else. It was merely a trace of sacrifice and abuse.

‘...Ludeville remembered that?’

Combining their conversations, she found that recently, women from even distant foreign countries were flocking to the Grand Duchy. Illegitimate nobles, commoners, slaves, dancers, saints, princesses of fallen kingdoms, their statuses and stories were all different, but their commonalities were clear. Namely, 'blue eyes' and a 'scar on the collarbone.' If they had blue eyes and a scar, they would gain the right to attend the banquet held at the Grand Duchy. If any woman caught his eye, she would be allowed to stay there and be treated with great respect. No less so than the imperial princess in the imperial palace.

However, no woman lasted longer than half a month. This was because he would suddenly, as if on a whim, cast the woman out of the Grand Duchy. But he would give her a large sum of compensation.

"Some women even fake that scar to get in. Even if they’re cast out, they leave rich. And if they’re lucky… maybe they become Grand Duchess."

These women were described as fragile, with tragic histories, lining the banquet halls with sorrowful backstories. Thanks to this, the banquet hall these days was bustling with women, each trying to present a more tragic and unfortunate past. That commonality also... reminded Odely of herself.

‘I thought he wouldn't remember anything.'

To that extent, he was practically wandering around, instinctively searching for someone, remembering nothing but a few vague fragments of memory. Ludeville had not forgotten Odely. On the contrary, he was obsessed to the point where the residents of the North called him insane.

‘...Could Ludeville be doing that forever, just to find me?’

‘Forever? No.'

After finally bringing him back to life, why is this happening again...?

Odely slowly unclenched her fist, which she had clenched so tightly that her fingernails dug into her palm.

'I need to go check on his condition.'

Odely rose. No more delay. Suddenly determined, she set her course for Ecsepsion, toward Ludeville himself.

Suddenly, a sharp spear was thrust before her eyes.

"Where do you think you're sneaking in?"

A guard, who had appeared out of nowhere, scrutinized the woman from head to toe. His gaze held scorn and annoyance.

Ice shards clung to the hem of her robe, and snow and mud were dirtily matted to her boots. Traces of someone who had crossed the harsh northern winter on foot, unable to even secure a single carriage.

"Get out of here at once!"

However, the captain of the guard next to him carefully observed the woman's eyes visible beneath her robe.

Ice blue.

A clear and transparent color like ice. He looked into her blue eyes for a moment, then spoke curtly.

"Scar."

His tone, asking about the endlessly repeated verification procedure, was tinged with exhaustion. Odely, without a word, slightly lowered her collar to reveal the scar on her collarbone.

"Let her in."

The guard grumbled and opened the castle gate.

"Now even vagrants are showing up."

The moment she passed through the castle gate, the biting northern wind, which had seemed as if it would last forever, ceased abruptly. It was as if the season itself changed.

Unlike the frozen world outside, the air inside was sticky and sweet. The fragrance of sweet fruit wine, honey-preserved fruits, and perfumes that seemed to combine all kinds of flowers mingled together. It was as if she had entered a garden in early summer.

'So the rumors were true...'

A banquet was in full swing in the castle. The melody of string instruments echoed from afar, and a gold-threaded carpet stretched along the marble corridor. When the banquet hall doors opened, light, music, fragrance, and laughter poured out all at once.

The Golden Banquet Hall. That's what this place seems to be called these days. This was because chandeliers crafted from gold adorned the ceiling like stars in the night sky.

'...That wasn't there in my previous life.'

In just three months.

Odely looked around with a bewildered expression. A ripple of silk and lace. A scent as ripe as fruit on the verge of decay. Laughter more brilliant than jewels. Women with blue eyes, elaborately adorned, laughed and danced.

"...He hasn't returned yet."

At that moment, a woman muttered, biting her lip anxiously.

"That saintess who just left with His Excellence, surely she's not the real one, is she?"

At her words, another woman let out a hollow laugh.

"Of course not. What kind of saintess would attend a banquet just to catch the Grand Duke's eye?"

"You can't be so sure."

Odely's gaze quietly turned in that direction as another added.

"They say she lost all her memories in an accident when she was young and was raised as a saintess in the temple. If the scar on her collarbone is a stigmata... she might be the 'real one' he is looking for."

"Goodness, how tragic."

A woman sneered, covering her mouth with a fan.

"It was quite plausible... but I wonder. Would His Excellence give his heart to such an obvious fraud?"

"Well, even if he did, it wouldn't last more than half a month at most. He's always been that way."

Despite their words, the women constantly glanced anxiously at the entrance of the banquet hall. Who would be 'chosen' this time?

Expectation and jealousy, hope and anxiety, intertwined glances passed between them countless times.

BANG!

A tremendous roar erupted from the entrance of the banquet hall.

"Good lord, startled me."

“W- what's going on?"

The elegantly dressed women and their escorts, stirred and murmured. The melody of string instruments instantly ceased, and conversations died down. Breaking the commotion, footsteps echoed.

Thud, thud

The heavy footsteps, regular like trained soldiers, crushing the floor with a massive physique, grew louder.

Everyone simultaneously fell silent. There was no need for an usher to announce his arrival, everyone knew. The owner of those footsteps. Ludeville Ecsepsion.

At his unexpected entrance, the stench of blood, so strong no perfume could mask it, washed over the room.

"Gasp!"

"Ahhh!"

Everyone screamed.

He carried a man’s limp body by the arm, like a corpse.