Chapter : 31
In an instant, the surroundings were swallowed by darkness.
The chant of the white-robed priests echoed endlessly in my ears.
Time and space twisted and warped, as if reality itself had been bent.
Dizzy.
I felt nauseous — and the moment I blinked my eyes open again, the world turned bright, revealing an unfamiliar scene.
Was that just now… magic?
Where am I?
A chandelier adorned with gold and transparent crystal gleamed above me.
The interior was so lavish that even such a chandelier didn’t seem particularly special.
“Are you the Duchess?”
A deep male voice reverberated through the space above me.
Does he… know who I am?
Perhaps because of the teleportation, my vision rippled like waves.
I couldn’t make out the face of the man who stood at a higher level than me.
The Duke of Cassiar?
The faint silhouette resembled Duke Cassiar.
But that didn’t matter right now.
What mattered was that I had been kidnapped by a stranger.
Cassiar once told me something before.
That he had many unseen enemies — and that, as his wife, I would be in danger because of it.
I didn’t think that day would come so soon.
What should I do in a situation like this?
“I asked if you are Duke Cassiar’s wife.”
The man repeated his question, his tone calm but heavy.
When my vision finally cleared, I saw him clearly.
He was a man in his middle years — dignified, handsome.
Sitting on a golden throne carved with a massive dragon, he looked down at me.
Are all villains this good-looking?
And of course, exactly my type… not that that’s important right now.
I glanced around discreetly.
Several armed men stood guarding him.
If I provoked him, they might kill me on the spot.
And there was no one nearby to help.
There was only one way to protect myself in a moment like this.
“No, I’m not.”
Deny everything.
“What do you mean, no? You’re saying you’re not the Duchess?”
“Yes. I heard the Duchess is Lady Alios Liel. I’m not her.”
“Is that so?”
The man’s lips curved into a crooked smile.
“But I heard you just stepped out of the same carriage as Kissen.”
Wow, what sharp ears. When did he even find that out?
Then again, since they kidnapped me the moment Cassiar disappeared, maybe they’d been watching from the start.
“I just happened to be going in the same direction and borrowed the Duke’s carriage. The Duchess sprained her ankle, so she couldn’t accompany us.”
“Ah, yes. I heard she injured her ankle.”
He seemed to know that much — that I had hurt my ankle.
Did he put someone on my tail?
He knows more about me than I thought.
“But your ankle seems perfectly fine.”
He eyed me closely as I moved without difficulty.
Good. He’s taking the bait.
Apparently, he hadn’t heard that my ankle had already healed.
“That’s because I’m not the Duchess.”
I made a point of moving around lightly, showing off my healthy ankle.
“How strange. You claim not to be her, yet every other detail matches the information I received — except for that ankle.”
His eyes swept slowly over me.
“Soft pink hair like strawberry cream. Rare violet eyes. And a beauty, they said.”
“Beauty? Whoever told you that has quite the eye.”
Flustered by the unexpected compliment, I toyed with my hair awkwardly.
“They say that about the Duchess, yet you seem delighted — as if it were about you.”
Ah. Right.
I’m pretending not to be the Duchess.
Why am I smiling like an idiot?
“I just think Lady Liel is beautiful. Honestly, she looks like a doll, doesn’t she? And she doesn’t even put much effort into maintaining it.”
The man looked at me like I’d just said something ridiculous.
…Did I talk too much?
“Oh, I only asked because I was curious about her flawless skin, and she told me she doesn’t do anything special. Hehe.”
I ended my clumsy excuse with an awkward laugh.
Even I could tell how flimsy that sounded.
The longer his silence dragged on, the more my stomach twisted.
“How do you explain your resemblance to the Duchess, then?”
Right — I’d forgotten about that part, too.
Violet eyes were rare in the Empire.
They were said to be a unique hereditary trait of the House of Alios.
I needed a believable excuse — something quick.
“Well, it’s only natural we look alike.”
They say if you keep your wits in a tiger’s den, you can survive.
I smiled steadily to hide my panic.
“Because I’m the Duchess’s younger sister.”
“You’re her sister?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I said it as shamelessly as I could.
What else could I do? “We look alike because we’re sisters” was the best I could come up with.
It wasn’t a bad lie, considering how fast I had to think of it.
“I heard the Marquess of Alios had only one daughter.”
Father, Mother…
Why did you only have one child?
Couldn’t you have given me a little sister to back this story up?
The man clearly knew more about my background than I expected.
“I meant we’re like sisters — very close. Not by blood.”
“So, you’re not related by blood.”
Now what?
I had no more excuses left.
I didn’t want to end up dead just because I got kidnapped thanks to Cassiar!
Fine, then—time to escape!
I darted toward the nearest window and flung it open.
I remembered how Suu always jumped out of windows to escape.
But my plan failed the moment I opened it.
Outside was… nothing but darkness.
What—?
How is this possible? Where am I?
“It’s no use. As long as this magical barrier stands, you can’t leave without my help.”
A magical barrier…
I racked my brain for everything I knew.
Nothing.
Of course not — I wasn’t a mage, and the House of Alios had no connection to magic.
But wait — I vaguely remembered something.
Cassiar once used a magical barrier when he kidnapped the heroine’s acquaintance.
No matter how hard she searched, no one could find the hostage because the barrier concealed the location completely.
When the deadline came, Cassiar’s men executed the hostage.
In short — there was no known way to break a magic barrier, even in the original story.
Cassiar might know how, but he was probably with the Emperor right now — and didn’t even know I’d gone missing.
Am I really going to die here?
At the hands of some stranger I don’t even know?
Wait—who is this man, anyway?
If he exists in this world, then he might be a character from the novel.
There was power in his voice and gaze — enough to make me instinctively speak politely.
I didn’t know who he was, but one thing was certain: he was a powerful noble.
Everything about him screamed, “I’m an elite aristocrat.”
“Who are you, then? And why would you kidnap the Duchess?”
“So now you’re curious about who I am?”
As if he had been waiting for that question, the man rose from his throne and approached me.
Now I could finally see his face clearly.
“I’ll let you figure that out yourself.”
If I could figure it out just by looking at him, I wouldn’t have asked!
Still, maybe his appearance could give me a clue.
Jet-black hair.
Eyes like molten gold — sharp, intense.
Distinct, striking features that instantly reminded me of… Duke Cassiar.
He looked too much like Cassiar.
But Cassiar never mentioned having any siblings.
A distant relative, maybe?
But even Cassiar’s only uncle — the Emperor — was said to have no children.
So who the hell was this man?
“Do I not remind you of anyone? People often say he and I look quite alike. Practically identical when I was younger.”
That line—! I’ve read that line before!
It was the exact thing the Emperor said to Cassiar on the day he first entered the palace — to win his favor.
After that, the Duke, who had longed for familial affection, began answering his uncle’s summons.
Which meant… this man before me was Cassiar’s uncle — the Emperor himself.
But… he looked far too young for that!
Even for a novel character, how does he not have a single wrinkle?
As far as I knew, the Emperor was in his late forties.
Yet the man before me looked barely thirty.
No wonder I didn’t recognize him.
“So, you’ve realized who I am.”
“I greet the Sun of the Empire. I am Alios Liel, eldest daughter of the Marquess of Alios.”
I quickly lifted my skirt slightly and gave a formal curtsy.
“So, you now admit you are the Duchess?”
His smile made me flush with embarrassment as I remembered all the nonsense I’d just spouted.
If only he’d said he was the Emperor from the start!
Now I’d just made myself look like a lying fool.
There was no point in denying it anymore.
If he wanted, he could summon me anytime.
Surely, he wouldn’t kill his nephew’s wife… right?
“Yes. I spoke falsely, thinking I had been kidnapped. Please forgive my rudeness.”
“I should be the one asking forgiveness for acting in a way that caused such a misunderstanding.”
At least he didn’t seem angry.
Still, that didn’t mean I was safe.
The Emperor was just as dangerous a man as Cassiar — maybe even more so.
“I apologize for startling you, Duchess.”
“I was surprised, but I’m all right.”
He wasn’t going to mention my earlier lie?
“I’m glad to hear that.”
The Emperor didn’t press the matter any further.
I sighed in relief — but then his expression shifted ever so slightly.
“There’s a reason I went to all this trouble to summon you here.”
So now we’re getting to the point.
What does he want from me?
I waited silently for him to continue.
“It’s because of him.”
“Him…?”
“Ah, and it seems he’s just arrived.”
The Emperor’s gaze turned toward the open window.
The endless darkness split apart—
and a man appeared.
“What kind of insolence is this?”
That familiar, furious voice.
“To my wife.”
