DGDITMIAE 02

Chapter 02

Your Highness the Grand Duke?

At those words, Terestia rolled her eyes for a moment before realizing they were directed at her.

*Ah, I’m the Grand Duke!*

Hurriedly, she rummaged through Terestia’s memories to find out what she would say in such a situation, and finally managed to open her mouth.

“I, I was just playing around.”

“Here?”

“……”

*Is it not allowed to play here?*

Terestia spent her days playing, drinking, and being holed up in places like this, only to wake up from sleep.

Not knowing what was wrong, she stared blankly at the man, who let out a short sigh and looked at her intently.

*How should I deal with this…* That kind of look.

“By the way, who are you?”

“……Are you talking to me?”

*Well, is there any other human here besides you?*

First of all, there was absolutely no man with a face like that in Terestia’s memories, so he was definitely a stranger.

But another strange thing was that a man with such a handsome face couldn’t possibly be unknown.

“Did you come to the capital recently?”

If not, there was no way he wouldn’t have been caught by Terestia’s handsome-man radar!

After all, Terestia spent every night carousing dissolutely with handsome but low-ranking noble men, drinking and gambling.

Then, as if belatedly recalling Terestia’s reputation, the man muttered softly, “Ah……” and shook his head again.

“First, let’s get out of here, Your Highness.”

“Why?”

“Your Highness may not be aware, but this is a dangerous and sinister place where demons are summoned.”

“Demon…? Dangerous… Sinister……”

At the man’s words, Terestia pouted her lips timidly.

*I’m a demon, but I’m neither dangerous nor sinister!*

She barely held back the urge to argue and carefully placed her hand on the hand the man offered, pulling herself up.

The man guided Terestia outside very naturally.

And only after leaving that place did she realize that where she had been was the basement of an otherwise unremarkable-looking mansion.

Come to think of it, why was Terestia offered as a sacrifice here?

She was the Imperial Princess of the Empire and held the high status of Grand Duke ruling the North.

……For that status, she was certainly busy carousing in the capital every single day.

And who was this man who appeared as if he had come to fetch Terestia so naturally?

Terestia unconsciously wiggled the hand holding the man’s as she thought.

“Hmm… This is troublesome. I think we need to leave this place immediately.”

“Leave? Why?”

“Do you see that over there?”

Where the man pointed, imperial knights were exchanging glances, searching for someone.

The faces were familiar… Ah! They seemed to be the Empress Dowager’s personal guard.

The moment she cheerfully waved her hand at them and tried to hop up and down, the man produced a black robe from somewhere and threw it over Terestia.

Then, putting strength into the hand he held, he led her in the opposite direction.

“What! Where are we going?”

“Shh, do you know who those people are that you were about to approach?”

“The Empress Dowager’s personal guard!”

“Hmm… You have all your memories, but is it difficult to make mature judgments?”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Those people are trying to harm Your Highness. Come this way.”

*Why would they harm me? I’m of high status!*

She didn’t understand, but since he said they were trying to harm her, she decided to obediently follow the man’s words for now.

The man looked around for a moment, spotted a moving cart, waved it down, and they boarded it together.

Fascinated by the swaying cart, Terestia kept making noises and looking around.

“Wow, it’s swaying. So this is what a cart is like.”

“Your Highness.”

“Huh?”

The man met Terestia’s clear face and paused for a moment.

After hesitating for a long while after calling her, he seemed to make up his mind and carefully opened his mouth.

“It would be best to head straight to the North.”

“The North? Why?”

“Are you not the Grand Duke who rules that land?”

“……”

*Well, that’s true.*

But Terestia had never once been to the North until now.

It wasn’t enough of a reason to go to the North now.

*I’m still curious about the capital!*

As Terestia rolled her eyes silently without answering, the man continued explaining in a gentle and kind voice to persuade her.

“Surely you know that if you return to the palace, the Empress Dowager will likely target you.”

“Huh? Really? Why would the Empress Dowager target me?”

“……”

At Terestia’s counter-question, the man blinked with a bewildered expression.

*’Oops, why… Did I say something wrong?’*

Seeing his expression, Terestia hurriedly pulled up memories related to the Empress Dowager.

*Hmm, the Empress Dowager…*

Terestia was the Imperial Princess of the Pavelon Empire, and she had once almost become the Emperor of the Pavelon Empire in place of her sickly older brother.

*”If I become Emperor, the Empire will be ruined that very day.”*

Aware that she was a prodigal, Terestia, in a rare moment of self-awareness, uttered those words and was granted only the title of Grand Duke ruling the northern part of the Empire.

But that was it. She was the Grand Duke of the North in name only; in reality, she had been busy carousing wildly in the capital, using her young nephew, who had become Emperor, as a front.

So the Empress Dowager she was talking about now was her sister-in-law and the mother of her nephew, the Emperor.

Then what was her relationship with her like?

……It was closer to Terestia unilaterally hating and snubbing the Empress Dowager.

*That woman is not worthy of my brother, if she becomes Empress Dowager, it will be a disaster…* and so on.

She often mocked and ignored her to her face, so there were plenty of reasons for the Empress Dowager to dislike her.

Not only that, even now, she despises her as a prodigal who only causes trouble for her son, the Emperor.

But… after reviewing all the memories, Terestia felt a little wronged!

“But the Empress Dowager I saw when I was young was kind of strange and sinister!”

“Shh, be quiet.”

At Terestia’s outburst, the man hurriedly looked around.

Fortunately, it seemed no one had heard Terestia’s voice.

Letting out a sigh of relief, the man shook his head.

“If this continues, the synchronization progress will be fast enough to make you think she’s the real one…”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing. Rather, did you see anything strange at the place where the ritual took place?”

“Strange?”

“For example… a young, handsome man. With red eyes…”

The man trailed off, realizing that description referred to himself.

Sure enough, Terestia also stared blankly at the man before pointing her index finger at him.

“No, not me… Probably with long black hair, and a red jewel embedded in his exposed chest…”

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

At Terestia’s words, the man fell silent.

After deliberating for a long time, he spoke in a small voice.

“For instance… a demon, that is.”

“What?”

Despite the man’s efforts, Terestia jumped up.

*Why bring up demons all of a sudden? Did he find out?*

She had learned from her memories that people hated demons, and that it would be a big deal if her identity was revealed.

At the man’s direct question, she almost blurted out, *’How did you know my identity?’*

Unaware that her expression was giving everything away, Terestia looked up at the man with a restless face.

“Ah, no? I, I didn’t see anything!”

“You really can’t tell a lie, can you?”

“No! It’s true! Ah, I don’t know anything about demons! And I… I’m not a demon!”

“……Aha.”

The man, who had been gazing intently at Terestia, seemed to realize something and nodded with a smile, a beat late.

The man’s smile, his red eyes curving, was captivating enough to enchant people.

Staring blankly at that sight, Terestia came to her senses belatedly at the man’s words.

“So you’re under that delusion… I see. Anyway, you’re saying you saw nothing strange except for Your Highness, right?”

“M-me too, exclude me. I’m not strange either!”

“Yes, that’s a relief. It went according to my plan, but… anyway, since the Empress Dowager is targeting Your Highness, it seems dangerous for you to stay in the capital.”

“Then what should I do?”

*Is it because I didn’t grant any wishes and just ate the offerings and ran away?*

*’But I don’t even know how to grant wishes!’*

What if the Empress Dowager demands Terestia be returned?

As she looked at the man with anxious eyes, he calmly suggested a solution.

“For now, the Empress Dowager’s power only reaches the capital. It would be best for Your Highness to go to your territory, Inyument. After all, you are the Grand Duke there. Since things have come to this, how about fulfilling your duties as the Grand Duke?”

The duties of the Grand Duke?

Even searching through her memories, she couldn’t figure out what that meant.

It seemed Terestia didn’t know anything about that. Did she really have to go to the North?

“Besides, if you stay here, the Temple will discover traces of the demon summoning ritual and will interrogate Your Highness, who was there.”

Of course, unless the Temple was colluding with the Empress Dowager, there was no way they’d know Terestia was there.

But the man’s veiled threat worked miraculously well on Terestia.

Recalling the method of destroying demons that existed in her memories, Terestia obediently headed north as the man suggested.