The Grand Duke’s Little Lady - Episode 118
After Lucian disappeared with Ariel, Dietrich took charge of the chaotic ballroom.
He sent the nobles home and ensured the injured were seen by the palace physicians.
Once everything was under control, he sank into a chair, exhausted.
Dale, a palace servant, hurriedly brought him a cold drink.
Dietrich waved the drink away and buried his face in his hands.
“…”
The harrowing scene from earlier replayed in his mind.
When Lucian lost control and unleashed his terrifying power.
Knowing Lucian’s true nature, Dietrich instinctively realized that people could get hurt if Lucian unleashed his full strength.
But in that brief moment, Ariel had intervened.
He knew the Grand Duchess was a mage; the palace’s intelligence was thorough.
However, her stepping in to stop Lucian was an entirely different matter.
She could have been injured or killed.
Dietrich understood.
Ariel had stepped in to save others, to stop Lucian’s rampage.
“Really…”
Dietrich’s voice leaked through his covered hands.
In that moment, he felt a mix of relief and anger at her.
‘Are you crazy? Do you think you have multiple lives to spare?’
He wanted to grab her and scold her for risking herself.
It was then that Dietrich finally realized his own feelings.
As Crown Prince, he was drawn to a girl who was already married, someone else’s wife.
Even though he was usually good at hiding his emotions, he found it hard to mask his expression now.
Dale, worried about the visibly shaken prince, watched him closely.
However, he didn’t notice that Dietrich’s hidden face was flushed red with a mix of frustration and something deeper.
Thus began the long, unspoken love that would torment the Crown Prince.
* * *
Ariel and Lucian sat in the carriage, returning home.
Lucian held Ariel close the entire time.
The carriage was silent.
The moonlight streaming through the window softly illuminated Lucian’s profile.
“Ariella.”
After a long silence, Lucian spoke first.
With his tie loosened and shirt unbuttoned, he looked particularly disheveled.
“Why didn’t you let me kill that princess?”
“…Because.”
To be precise, Ariel was more concerned about the other people than the princess, but it was true that she had stopped Lucian.
Sensing he was about to use his wide-range sword technique, Ariel had acted quickly, using her magic to escape the crisis.
She had exposed her identity as a mage to prevent a massacre.
In that brief moment, she hadn’t been fully conscious of her thoughts.
She had just known she had to stop Lucian from killing everyone.
The sword technique he was about to use could mercilessly cut through even the sturdiest tree trunks.
If it had hit people… well, she didn’t want to imagine it.
And the second reason was…
‘I didn’t want to rely on Lucian to save me…’
Ariel was a mage.
A mage with an extraordinary amount of mana.
Relying on him for something she could handle herself was something she couldn’t accept.
‘Even if I explain, Lucian wouldn’t understand, right?’
He never understood why Ariel hesitated to accept gifts.
A man who had everything couldn’t comprehend the small pride of a woman who had nothing and wanted to keep it.
Instead of explaining, Ariel just looked at him.
Lucian, gazing down at her, spoke again, his red lips parting.
“I commanded you not to try to save others.”
His voice held no trace of mercy.
“If you do, I’ll personally kill them.”
Ariel swallowed hard.
Lucian seemed deadly serious.
His eyes were hungry for blood, his cruelty fully prepared.
“You know I keep my promises.”
In that moment, Ariel realized that Lucian wouldn’t forgive Clarisse.
* * *
As they arrived at the mansion, Susan came running out, having been informed of the situation. Allen followed close behind, his white hair flying.
Both looked pale, clearly very worried.
They barely glanced at Lucian, who was carrying Ariel, focusing entirely on Ariel herself as they hurried her inside and upstairs to her room, cradling her protectively.
Their actions were filled with the belief and trust that ‘the young master couldn’t have been hurt.’
Once Ariel had changed out of her dress and into her nightgown with Susan’s help, she entered her room to find Lucian leaning against the window frame.
He still wore his uniform, looking as if he was ready to go out again.
Lucian casually tossed the neck brooch he had removed onto the table.
It was the blue gemstone brooch Ariel had chosen for him.
“Leave it here. I’ll come back for it tomorrow, so keep it.”
“Why, Lucian?”
“I’m going out now.”
Ariel nodded and put the brooch safely in a drawer before crawling into bed.
Lucian’s smile was cruelly beautiful, his lips curling at one corner.
“Sleep well, Ariella.”
He whispered in a haughty tone.
“When you wake up, you’ll hear the fate of those who hurt you.”
Lucian looked out the window with eyes that seemed like they had just emerged from the depths of hell.
Night was his domain.
The small tear mole by his eye looked like a drop of blood.
Exhausted from the tumultuous day, Ariel fell asleep quickly, the image of Lucian’s face the last thing she saw.
The next day, she awoke to the news that the Kingdom of Siena had fallen.
* * *
‘What? Destroyed?’
The Kingdom of Siena, with a history as long as the Empire’s, was completely reduced to rubble.
No one knew exactly what had happened to the kingdom.
Surrounding nations speculated that the Kingdom of Siena had angered the Dragon God of the Empire and had been attacked by a legendary monster.
Buildings in the Kingdom of Siena were completely demolished, with not a single stone left standing on another.
Some said it had been struck by a rain of fire, others claimed thunderbolts had rained down.
The Empire, which had always found the Kingdom of Siena mildly annoying, secretly rejoiced at its destruction.
The Emperor, wary of the wrath of Lacartiel, handed over the entire kingdom’s territory to the Grand Duchy.
Meanwhile, Princess Clarisse and her attendants, who were in the Empire, were all executed or exiled.
Even if they survived, they had no home to return to.
Early in the morning, friends who had come to check on her conveyed this story to Ariel.
And then, starting with Diana, they poured out their concerns.
“Ariel, I was so worried. I couldn’t eat anything since last night because of you.”
Since it had happened while Diana was away, she only heard the details after the fact and was furious.
‘How dare they harm my Ariel!’
Diana, furious that her dear Ariel had been in danger, rushed to see her first thing in the morning with Cecil.
“That’s right, Ariel. When you collapsed, I wanted to follow when the Grand Duke took you away.”
Although they were a bit reassured by how well she seemed, the usually strict Cecil muttered.
“Ariel, I heard you weren’t hurt, but… are you really okay?”
In truth, now mostly recovered, Ariel nodded at her friends’ concern.
“Yes, I wasn’t hurt and I’m perfectly fine now.”
Our sweet Ariel!
Although they had already heard that Ariel had used magic to escape, Diana insisted on hearing it again from her.
‘I want to hear it directly from our sweet little mage!’
In Diana’s mind, Ariel had performed heroically as a grand mage.
Such a small, cute Ariel had defeated her adversary!
Even Cecil, usually composed, looked at Ariel with wide, eager eyes, ready to listen.
Under their eager gaze, Ariel did her best to recount the events of the previous night in detail.
She explained how she had felt the surge of Lucian’s destructive sword technique and had to act quickly.
She described using her wind magic to escape and bind Clarisse, and the subsequent battle with the cursed dagger.
Her friends listened with rapt attention, their expressions a mix of admiration and concern.
When she finished, Diana hugged her tightly.
“You’re so brave, Ariel. I can’t believe you managed to do all that.”
Cecil nodded, still wide-eyed.
“Yes, you were incredible. We’re so proud of you.”
Ariel smiled softly, feeling their support and love.
Despite the turmoil and danger, she was grateful for friends who cared so deeply.
* * *
After hearing Ariel’s account, Diana, serious-faced, proposed the ‘Elemental Revenge Theory’.
“My goodness. How could such a natural disaster have occurred? Ariel, maybe because you’re an elemental mage, the elements took revenge on your behalf?”
Well… Diana, it was revenge, but not by the elements.
Explaining it would take a while, but it was a dragon…
On the other hand, Cecil solemnly advocated the ‘Retribution Theory’.
“It was divine punishment. The Kingdom of Siena has long enslaved minorities. And they tried to harm Ariel. They got what they deserved.”
Cecil’s words were true, but saying they got what they deserved was a bit much.
‘I didn’t think Lucian would go that far.’
Ariel had assumed he would only punish Clarisse.
But Lucian, in true Lacartiel fashion, determined the scope of his revenge by his own standards.
‘The problem is that his scope includes entire kingdoms…’
Even Matthias, who hadn’t attended the party, had left the house last night.
Given Allen’s comment that “the master seemed extremely angry,” it wasn’t hard to guess where Matthias had gone.
Ariel sighed softly.
She felt she now fully understood what it meant to face ‘Lacartiel’s revenge’.
If there were a god of retribution or vengeance, they would resemble Lacartiel.
To destroy an entire kingdom overnight—how much power did they truly wield?
‘I’m really glad I’m not on the opposite side of Lucian or Matthias.’
Being on their side was reassuring, but being their enemy would be utterly despairing.
Ariel had once been on the opposite side of Lucian and knew that fear and helplessness when facing an unbeatable predator.
Before meeting Lucian, she had felt that same feeling from ‘him’.
The unknown villain who had embedded a cursed gem in her heart.
Whenever she was controlled, she felt scared, confused, and utterly powerless.
‘Control…’
Ariel suddenly recalled how Clarisse’s hand had turned black after being hit by the Echelene spell.
‘Why did Princess Clarisse’s hand turn like that?’
She had moved as if controlled for a moment.
Her eyes targeted Ariel’s neck, but her hand moved towards Ariel’s face.
It was possible she had been controlled by something.
Ariel felt a strange sense of déjà vu about the incident.
‘It’s similar to what I felt when I saved Diana four years ago and the coachman was acting strangely.’
But it was just a feeling; she couldn’t prove that Clarisse was controlled.
After all, Clarisse had originally harbored malice towards Ariel.
“…Ariel? Are you listening?”
“Hmm?”
Ariel snapped back to attention and looked at her friends.
Diana and Cecil were looking at her, puzzled.
“Was the Grand Duke very angry? Because you were threatened.”
“Yes. You could feel his rage at not being able to protect his wife when he carried you away.”
Ugh, rage at not being able to protect his wife…
Sometimes her friends could say the most embarrassing things because it wasn’t their own marriage.
But knowing that Lucian had personally destroyed the kingdom, Ariel couldn’t say he wasn’t angry.
‘He was probably angry… because I was in danger.’
And Lucian carried me…
Remembering Lucian infusing his mana into her, Ariel blushed deeply.
Seeing her turn into a tomato in real-time, Diana and Cecil exchanged amused glances.
“Oh my, our dear Ariel. Your face is red. Something must have happened with the Grand Duke?”
“Diana. It’s not mature to pry into a friend’s love life.”
“Look at you. Asking about this is the polite thing to do!”
“That’s just your opinion.”
As her friends bickered as usual, Ariel lost herself in thought.
‘I didn’t know that was possible.’
Lucian’s mana, typically meant for destruction, had entered her body, and surprisingly…
It felt sweet, like water after a long thirst or honey on parched lips.
She suddenly remembered the feeling.
His mana, cold and hot at the same time, flowing into her body.
Her fingertips tingled.
To cool her blushing cheeks, Ariel gulped down her lemon iced tea.