Chapter 102
“Lady Soabo?”
Soabo’s eyes lit up when she saw Iella.
“So my guess was right. Iella!”
The guard shouted nervously.
“Call me Lady!
Lady, please save me!”
“Why is Lady Soabo here?”
Startled, Iella turned to look as the guard explained.
“She’s imprisoned for hiding your whereabouts and stealing your belongings, my lady.”
“…….”
While Iella was stunned, Soabo desperately defended herself.
“Stealing? I was safeguarding them! My lady, I kept them to protect you. If I hadn’t kept my mouth shut, you would already be dead!”
“How audacious!”
Terran barked at her, but Soabo clung to the door as if seeing nothing.
“I kept Daniel’s secret until the end. My dream is to die and go to heaven!”
“Hah! You dug up the Filoche family heirlooms buried in the yard yourself, old woman,” Terran scoffed.
Soabo protested.
“That was my matchmaking fee in advance! That was legitimate!”
Terran explained sharply.
“My lady, this old woman tried to force a remarriage on you, pretending that the stolen heirlooms were her matchmaking fee. Do you really think that will send her to heaven? Pathetic.”
“What do you know! Do you have any idea how lonely and harsh my life was? I’m the one who found you on a mountain path and saved you! I’m the savior of your life!”
“And probably took you along so you wouldn’t report the heirlooms stolen if you woke up!”
“Th-That……!”
Soabo could not counter Terran’s words, as if proving she had a conscience.
Watching the argument, Iella felt numb and finally spoke. Being betrayed like this by someone you trusted was truly disheartening.
“Is it true? You saved me because of my heirlooms, madam?”
“Well……”
“You hounded me to get me married because of that? Not because a woman needs a husband’s protection?”
“Sob……”
“You did keep Daniel’s secret, right?”
“Yes! That alone, that alone was for good. I thought if I made a child unhappy, no good deed could save me from hell… My lady, you risked everything to protect Daniel!”
Iella moved forward with a hollow feeling. To think she had treated this woman like family… her own poor judgment felt shameful.
“Lady, Lady!” Soabo’s desperate cries made Terran glance at Iella.
She spoke coldly.
“Bring a priest tomorrow and make her swear to keep everything related to me secret. Even a loose-lipped woman keeps a promise to a priest. Then let her go.”
“…My lady.”
Iella looked toward Nadriel’s prison deep inside the fortress and said:
“You won’t face opposition from His Excellency either. Check if you wish. Sir.”
“Yes, my lady.”
This time, Terran had the guard open the door first, and she went inside without a struggle.
“Do not enter, no matter what noises you hear inside.”
Nadriel looked even more wretched than before. His face was bruised and scarred, his limbs chained separately. Each chain that bound him had the gems he had previously broken, now used to seal his magic.
“They really tied you up tight.”
Nadriel finally opened his eyes and looked at her. He had no strength to speak but recognized the soul of the woman before him.
“Duchess.”
“Wizard Nadriel. How have you been?”
“Hah! Is this a Filoche-style joke?”
Instead of answering, she approached him closely.
Nadriel showed hostility at her cold, noble demeanor—speaking to the wife of his enemy.
“Why have you come?”
“There might be something you can do for Daniel. You know what I mean, right?”
“Duchess, why would you think I would show such favor to Filoche?”
“Nadriel!”
Iella wanted to grab and shake Nadriel by the collar. But whether from hunger or weakness, he was too feeble to resist.
She took a step back and said:
“I investigated you. You were abandoned by your father, became a wizard superior to your master in the Sun Tower, and while you traveled the ‘Soul Journey,’ the Sun Tower allied with Duke Filoche to destroy the Gaison family. So you came alone to the Filoche castle for revenge, right?”
Nadriel groaned in pain.
“What are you saying? Laughing at an abandoned son for seeking revenge?”
Iella picked up a strange torture tool from the wall and began breaking each gem that sealed his magic. Before she broke the last one, Nadriel’s eyes flashed.
“If I get free now, what do you think I would do, Duchess?”
“You don’t know my name? I’m Iella Filoche.”
“…….”
Her tone, just like before, shook Nadriel’s gaze.
“Just as you know me, I know you, Nadriel. You are not someone who can truly harm others. Isn’t that why you were expelled from Gaison in the first place?”
“…….”
“Return Daniel to me.”
She broke the last gem as she spoke. But Nadriel was resolute.
“No.”
Iella grabbed his collar.
“Daniel made a deal with that tyrant to save you, and you insist on this old revenge? You know what Daniel needs most right now. You can do it!”
“Daniel……”
Nadriel spoke with pain yet remained firm.
“Precisely because I know, it cannot happen. That is my revenge.”
“Damn it.”
Iella slapped him. Nadriel, gaunt and frail, fell back, eyes wide in shock.
“Break the magic on my son! Then I swear, I’ll save you no matter what!”
Nadriel laughed bitterly.
“No matter how obsessed Duke Filoche is with you, he cannot save me.”
“Do you know who I am!”
Iella stomped her foot, shouting.
“Nadriel, from now on, you live or die with me. You promised! To be Daniel’s teacher! Stop this revenge. All the lies, all the schemes, all the revenge—it’s unbearable!”
Nadriel felt hollow. Realizing that this frail woman before him was still half the herbalist Iella he knew, he wanted to laugh at the absurdity.
Then a question arose in his mind.
“Why… didn’t you ask my master?”
Iella stamped in frustration.
“I’m doing this to save you! The one my son loves!”
“Hah……”
Iella crouched in front of Nadriel, shaking his collar.
“So stop useless revenge. Wasn’t your furious rush to Filoche castle driven by losing the chance to reconcile with Marquis Gaison because of His Excellency? Did you really love your father so obsessively?”
Nadriel laughed like a madman, shaking under Iella’s hands. Her words were undeniable, but he refused to admit them.
When she finally stopped shaking his collar, Nadriel chuckled and asked:
“So did the Duchess also easily forgive the husband who killed her father?”
“That’s……”
Iella didn’t want to answer. A proper answer would require too much explanation.
“I want to live in the present. And the future.”
“…….”
“And Daniel needs him.”
Nadriel smirked strangely. Perhaps he realized he had never truly been loved by his parents.
He also realized that following her could give him a sliver of a possible future.
He spoke bitterly:
“Duchess, you’re terrible at domestic matters, aren’t you?”
Iella, exhausted, puffed indignantly.
“You’re the expert. So, shall we make a deal?”
“I have no choice. I feel like I’ll die by the Duchess’s hand otherwise.”
As Nadriel left the prison, he asked:
“Did you do that too, Duchess?”
Iella paused, then answered:
“Anyway, my father would have been executed. I knew that… But I was sad I could never have a genuine conversation with him, even once.”
As they stepped outside, Terran drew his sword seeing Nadriel freed. But Iella blocked him.
“I want him to say his final goodbye to Daniel.”
“But my lady, this man is the most dangerous in the north!”
“He’s frail and dying, what danger is there! Nadriel, what will you do to me?”
“Hah, what could I do? He’s already this weak.”
“Exactly. Now let’s go.”
As Iella supported Nadriel and moved away, Terran gaped. He couldn’t help thinking about the reproach he would face from the duke, and the faces of his wife and son.
