Chapter 110. Over a Mere Woman
2023.12.19.
"Your Grace."
It was Mason.
As Herdin tilted his head toward Ruth, Ruth approached and opened the office door.
"What is it?"
"I tried to handle it within my authority as much as possible, but the elders have been visiting every few days since a while ago."
At Mason's words, Ruth's expression stiffened.
'I wondered why they were quiet for a while.'
Why were the people who should have stormed in immediately to hound Herdin about marriage as soon as Blair's rumor spread still quiet? Little did he know Mason was holding them back.
But Herdin meeting them now was not a good situation.
The elders, filled with greed to make their granddaughters the Duchess, wouldn't act tactfully, nor would Herdin quietly listen to their words.
Especially now, Herdin was like an active volcano that could erupt at any moment.
Ruth observed his lord's expression with anxious eyes.
Herdin, who had been listening to Mason's report with his usual cool expression, asked.
"Are they outside right now?"
"For now, I told them to wait in front of the entrance as Your Grace previously ordered."
"I'll go out."
As Herdin rose, Ruth looked at him with puzzled eyes.
"Aren't you going to let the elders inside?"
"There's no need to treat uninvited guests who came without notice as guests."
Herdin poured the whiskey on his desk, picked up the glass, and replied as he walked out of the office.
Hearing that, Ruth recalled how a few months ago, when the elders visited unexpectedly, Herdin had threatened that 'if they come without notice again, I'll leave them standing outside,' and was appalled.
'To think he'd actually leave the elders outside.'
Mason also seemed quite flustered by Herdin's attitude of not letting the elders into the mansion until the end, but neither of the two could raise an objection.
Herdin wet his throat with whiskey and said to Ruth, who was urgently following behind him.
"If you're done with work, go home first."
"Ah, well... There's something I need to ask you about later."
"Then talk about it now."
"Ah, no. I'll wait."
In truth, there was no business. It was just an ominous premonition that something terrible would happen if he left Herdin alone with the elders.
Mason seemed to think the same, as he followed behind Herdin along with Ruth.
When the three came out to the mansion's entrance, three waiting carriages were visible.
The elders who had been waiting inside the carriages saw Herdin and got out to approach him.
"You should change the mansion's butler soon, Your Grace. Even if these old folks were thoughtless and came without contacting you, to leave guests standing outside like this..."
"To treat us like this when you know full well who we are... You've gotten so inflexible as you've aged, I swear."
"Let's go inside and talk first. My knees ache from sitting in the carriage for too long."
As the elders badmouthed Mason to his face and tried to enter the mansion, Herdin, who had been watching them with cold eyes, spoke.
"I'm the one who said to leave uninvited guests standing outside."
"...Pardon?"
"I believe I clearly said before that I would leave you standing outside if you came without contacting me. It seems you've already forgotten."
"Hah! Are you truly going to leave us old men standing out here?"
"Or you could contact me in advance and visit again another day."
Over the past month, they had visited the ducal mansion several times to meet him, but because Herdin had been away in another territory, they had come away empty-handed each time. If they missed him today, they didn't know when they'd be able to meet him again.
The elders hastily grabbed him.
"Ahem! This doesn't seem like the right place to talk. Please, let's move inside first."
They patted their knees and subtly urged him to invite them in. They were using their age as a shield.
However, Herdin seemed to have no intention of yielding to them, remaining frosty.
"I'll listen and judge that myself."
Herdin tilted his glass, wetting his lips, and asked.
"So? What is it? This thing you have to talk about."
After briefly clearing his throat and glancing at each other, one of the elders broached the subject.
"The position of the Duchess is vacant, is it not?"
Herdin's hand, which had been idly spinning the glass with the liquor swirling, stopped. A cold sneer spilled from his clenched teeth.
As expected, a story that didn't deviate from his expectations in the slightest.
It was laughable—the tug-of-war between Ivan, who was trying to maintain this marriage for his own dignity, and the vassals who were trying to snatch the Duchess's seat in this gap.
"Now you should slowly wrap things up and prepare to bring in a new mistress. That way, that shameful rumor won't further taint Delmark, wouldn't you agree?"
"Well, the position of mistress hasn't been vacant from the time I married at the end of last year until now. Surely you haven't already become senile."
"Your Grace!"
"The Duchess, who is with child, is in poor health and has gone to recuperate. That's all. The position of Delmark's mistress has never been vacant."
Two months since the rumor spread.
There was no one who didn't know the news that the Duchess had runaway in the dead of night, carrying another man's child. And Herdin too couldn't possibly be unaware of that fact.
No, he would know better than anyone.
Yet for him to say that meant he had no intention of divorcing Blair.
The elders, realizing what that implied, gasped.
"Are you truly saying you'll make that child, whose father is unknown, the heir of Delmark?"
Before the elder's words could even finish, a sharp cracking sound rang out. It was the sound of the glass in Herdin's hand being crushed.
At the same time, the atmosphere froze.
Shards of broken glass dug into his hand, creating bloody gashes. As if the drops of blood falling were not his own, his eyes looking at the elders were utterly devoid of emotion. The sight was chilling.
"If what's in that womb isn't my child, then whose is it?"
His frostbitten voice ringing in the suffocating silence crushed the surroundings.
Just as everyone, overwhelmed by that intimidation, couldn't easily open their mouths, one elder stepped forward with resolute eyes.
"Do you think closing your eyes and covering your ears makes the truth untrue? The rumor is already widespread throughout the capital. A wanton woman like her mother, daring to bear a seed from heaven knows what lowly wretch she―"
The elder's bold words were cut off before he could finish.
By the knight's sword that Herdin had drawn in a flash and aimed at him.
"Say that again."
"...."
"Who, did what with whom?"
The glass shards dug deeper into the hand gripping the sword, tearing the wounds further.
The crimson blood flowing from those wounds trickled down the blade he held, dripping onto the elder's neck. At a glance, it almost looked like blood from the elder's neck.
The elder, terrified by the red blood soaking his clothes, went pale and couldn't even breathe properly.
But on the lips of Herdin, who had the sword pointed at that neck, hung a twisted smile. The sight was bizarrely eerie.
It wasn't just the elders who were shocked.
Ruth too froze at the sight of his lord he was seeing for the first time and couldn't continue speaking.
He had never been one to be polite to the elders to begin with, but right now...
He was out of his mind.
Even while thinking he should stop him, he was seized by the overwhelming intimidation and couldn't utter a word. It was the instinct of the weak.
The one who broke the atmosphere, where it wouldn't be strange if someone died at any moment, was Mason.
He knelt before Herdin.
"It is my fault for not properly attending to the guests, Your Grace. Please, quell your anger."
Only then did Herdin's gaze, which had been staring at the elder as if trying to kill him with his eyes alone, turn toward Mason. At the same time, the mana that had been surging suppressed around him subsided.
Herdin, who looked at Mason for a moment, turned to the elders and spoke.
"Blair Delmark is my wife, the mistress of Delmark, and your lord. And the child to be born from her womb is undeniably my heir."
"...."
"Insult me one more time, and you'll have to surrender that neck of yours."
Herdin turned around, dropping the sword he had withdrawn as if tossing it on the ground.
The elder who barely escaped the situation flopped down on the spot, panting heavily.
"To be treated like this over a mere woman..."
Though the sound of the elders lamenting could be heard from behind, Herdin ignored them and entered the mansion. Ruth, who came to his senses a beat late, followed behind him.
"Your Grace, please get your hand treated first. The wound looks quite serious..."
Herdin, ignoring Ruth's urging, came to the bathroom. Glass shards were embedded deep in his palm. It was because he had gripped the sword earlier.
Even though the wound was quite large, his eyes gazing at the blood dropping on the bathroom floor were as detached as if looking at someone else's wound.
Question came before pain.
If I were dying, would you come?
You, with your tender heart and naivety, would come without knowing it's a trap. Then I could just catch you then.
But external wounds would be quickly treated if a priest came, so this much wouldn't even be close to enough.
Having finished removing the shards while quite seriously contemplating what even he thought was a crazy idea, Herdin roughly wrapped the wound with a towel and stepped into the bath. He felt grim from the alcohol splashed on his body.
After finishing his shower and returning to his office, Herdin faced two people waiting in front of the door.
Ruth and Miella.
"Hello, Your Grace. I heard you were injured, so I came."
Herdin's eyes chilled as he looked at her greeting him.
Ruth, who couldn't have known Herdin's feelings toward Miella, quickly added.
"The wound seemed quite deep. I brought a priest, but..."
"Send them back."
Herdin sighed, roughly swept his bangs back with his left hand, and turned around. At that moment, Miella grabbed his hand.
"Just a moment will do. Just so I can see the wound―"
But Herdin swatted her hand away.
As Miella staggered back from the impact, Ruth, who was watching from the side, supported her. Just as he parted his lips at the same time, Herdin cut him off.
"Ruth. This is where your leniency ends."
It was a flat voice, but that alone was sufficiently intimidating.
"...I apologize."
Ruth bit his lip and bowed his head.
No matter how much it was for his lord's sake, if he didn't want it, it was a presumptuous act.
Just as Herdin, having sorted out the situation, was about to enter his office, urgent footsteps were heard from behind.
It was Kaligo.
"Your Grace."
Entering the office, he delivered the news Herdin had been waiting for.
"Someone has reportedly spotted the madam in Nerha."