Chapter 88
“Your Grace, are you here?”
As the saying goes, even the devil appears when mentioned. Terran smiled as he walked over. It had been a while since he returned to the castle, and spending time with his family seemed to have brightened his face.
Caldricks glared at Terran, but when he saw him flinch, he held his breath to calm himself.
After all, it had been his decision to follow Terran’s advice, so he couldn’t blame him. Still, a curse slipped out.
“Damn it!”
“Y-Your Grace?”
“Why!”
“We’ve captured the remaining rebels who fled. We were about to begin the interrogation—would you like to go see?”
“Ahem.”
Caldricks spun around and headed toward the interrogation room.
“Remind everyone in the castle again about the decree forbidding any mention of Iella. If even one of them dares to acknowledge her true identity, their neck will hang higher than the rebels’.”
“It’s already been cautioned, repeatedly, Your Grace.”
Terran said this with a stern expression, recalling how tense the castle atmosphere had become because of that decree. The way Lionel referred to the Duchess as “Madam” was actually shorthand for “Duchess.”
But Caldricks, who would not tolerate mistakes, was not satisfied with just “caution.”
“What about Father and Mother?”
“They have been instructed not to enter the inner castle.”
“Inform the servants, the soldiers, everyone again.”
“Yes, sir.”
The underground prison of Philoche Castle was a place no one wished to enter. A place that seemed to embody death and suffering, even Caldricks’ knights were reluctant to go there.
Yet now, the place was crowded with rebels captured in the Old Western Territory, their screams and moans echoing from all directions, deafening anyone nearby.
“Your Grace, this way.”
Terran tried to lead Caldricks to the interrogation room of the newly captured rebels, but Caldricks seemed to forget him, heading down the stairs instead.
“There…?”
Terran silently followed. He found it odd that the Duke, whose mind was entirely preoccupied with his wife, had come all this way just to witness a few low-level interrogations. Yet Caldricks had a different destination.
When Caldricks stopped in front of Nadriel’s cell, a guard quickly ran over and opened the door. Caldricks took a chair and turned it to face Nadriel, who sat hunched over in chains.
Nadriel revealed a contemptuous smile but said nothing.
Caldricks leaned back slightly, looking down at Nadriel, muttering,
“A mage stripped of magic…”
“…”
Nadriel gritted his teeth. A mage without magic was nothing more than a commoner, forced to compete for relevance even with village children.
“Is the Duchess well? By now, if she has regained her memory, she must be hating me with all her heart. Perhaps you should bring her a sweet, at least.”
“…”
This time, Caldricks fell silent.
Since moving into the cabin, he had done his best for Iella, but the emotions built between them were only mild excitement and affection. That warmth was insufficient to melt the ice-cold regret accumulated by the couple in the past.
Thus, he could not revive her memories just yet.
“My wife is my responsibility, mage. Or should I call you Gayson?”
“…”
Nadriel gritted his teeth. Being called “Gayson” by either a friend or an enemy felt like mockery. Even years after his father’s death, that had not changed, and the realization only fueled Nadriel’s rage.
“Tell me what you intended to do with my wife. After hearing it, I’ll decide whether to burn you alive or hang you gently.”
“Ha…”
Nadriel wanted to mock his enemy, but the tension in his facial muscles twisted his expression into something grotesque.
“The Duchess is like me, Your Grace.”
Caldricks raised an eyebrow at the bizarre statement.
“What do you mean?”
“She is someone who lost her parents because of you, who had to live unhappily and miserably because of you. We are people who cannot forgive you.”
“If you say ‘we’ one more time, I’ll cut out your tongue.”
Caldricks gritted his teeth, muttering. He should have found Nadriel’s predictable provocation laughable, but hearing the story of Baron Rohan made it difficult.
Still, Caldricks had not come unprepared.
“Are you really Gayson’s legitimate child? You left an eight-year-old in the Mage Tower because there was nowhere else to send him. Did the Marquis doubt your mother’s fidelity?”
“Shut up! I said shut up, Duke Philoche!”
Nadriel lunged at Caldricks, but the chains restrained him. He collapsed with the recoil.
Caldricks watched with a lazy smile and remarked,
“You’re still vigorous. Listening to your subordinates’ screams should have drained you by now.”
“They are not my subordinates, Duke Philoche.”
“…”
“They didn’t know of my existence, yet they rose defiantly. Even if you kill them, even if you kill me, Gayson’s land can never truly belong to Philoche.”
Nadriel trembled as he spoke, but Caldricks scoffed.
“Two days of imprisonment won’t be enough.”
“…Two days?”
Nadriel’s eyes wavered helplessly. In the pitch-black dungeon, he felt himself losing sanity. And yet it was only two days!
Caldricks, who had been waiting for this moment, rose and sneered.
“To you, it may feel like a week or ten days. But in reality, it’s just a handful compared to the time you will spend here.”
“Just kill me! I am Gayson’s son! What am I waiting for?”
Nadriel twisted his body in frustration, knowing that slowly breaking his mind was exactly what the Duke desired.
Before leaving the cell, Caldricks asked,
“If you truly acted alone… why now? What have you been doing until now?”
“Come back in two days if you want to know!”
Caldricks laughed softly.
“Ah, the abandoned child secretly wanted to prove he was Gayson too. How pitiful.”
His mockery struck Nadriel’s heart sharply—not because he had heard it before, but because he had not.
Nadriel shouted,
“Try mocking and imprisoning me! You’ll never know who Daniel’s true father is!”
“…!”
When Caldricks’ gaze wavered, Nadriel twisted his face to return the insult.
“Without me, you’ll never know whose child your wife bore, and you’ll lie awake every night for the rest of your life.”
“You cannot know that.”
“I am Gayson and the mage of the Sun Tower. Do you think I would have missed even one way to torment you?”
“…”
“Even if you hire other mages, it won’t help. Daniel will only heed my magic.”
Nadriel chuckled and leaned back, as if signaling Caldricks to leave.
Caldricks glared and turned away.
“Do you think I would suffer because I don’t know? He is part of Iella. That alone is enough for me.”
“…Lies! You cannot tolerate that!”
Caldricks left the cell, ignoring Nadriel’s shouts.
Terran whispered with a furious expression,
“I’ll send him to the torture room immediately.”
“No.”
“Your Grace?”
“Put him in the room next to the torture chamber. Let him hear the screams without knowing the time or date.”
Terran couldn’t tell whether Caldricks hated or cared for Nadriel. Considering the state of the other captured rebels, the answer was likely clear.
Then he remembered the Duchess and reached a conclusion.
The Duke hated Nadriel more than anyone. He was torturing him without leaving a mark, fearing the Duchess might hate him if she met Nadriel.
When Caldricks returned to his office, Lionel stood at the door, his face pale.
Caldricks gave him a questioning look, and Lionel whispered,
“The late Duke and Duchess are here.”
Caldricks clicked his tongue and entered.
“Caldricks!”
The late Duchess sprang up and shouted, her face flushing instantly.
“They say Iella has returned! Why won’t you let me meet her? How shameless… She came with a child? Whose child is it? Why bring that filthy thing into this castle!”
The late Duke chuckled unpleasantly.
“I heard Iella couldn’t recognize anyone. Are you sure it’s really her? Could it be an impostor?”
Caldricks silently observed his parents. His mother, huffing and flushed with anger, and his father, suspicious-eyed, were both familiar figures.
And yet, he found that familiarity strange.
In the past, he had accepted his parents’ scolding over Iella’s manners or attire. Even when he secretly negotiated marriage with a royal daughter shortly after his own marriage, he thought nothing of it.
He had never considered divorce a possibility, seeing his mother’s fuss as nothing more than a self-inflicted embarrassment.
Parents were naturally hard on daughters-in-law, and expecting them to immediately favor a deceived servant’s daughter was unreasonable.
Now, seeing his parents’ expressions overlap with Iella’s past, he imagined her suffering. Anger surged at the thought that no one in this castle could have been her ally.
