Chapter 2: Grand Duke Kailos Ludwig III
It was Kailos who saved me as a child. So, officially, Grand Duke Kailos Ludwig, a distant relative of mine and my five-year-older brother. I was originally an illegitimate child of his collateral family, the Garnets.
(T/N: A collateral relative is any blood relative who is not your direct ancestor. So your ancestors are your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., and your collateral relatives are cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc.)
My mother, who was called the best beauty in the village, was a commoner woman who already had a husband.
One day, the woman gave birth, and the child grew up beautifully at a young age, resembling her mother, The woman’s husband also formed a harmonious family by loving the child.
However, one day when the child was six years old, misfortune came when it was revealed that the woman’s husband had no reproductive function.
One cold winter day, the husband kicked out the woman and the child. The woman knocked on the door of the Garnet mansion holding the child’s hand in the face of a rough snowstorm without even wearing a proper jacket.
‘Please, only accept the child, Milord. She is the lord’s child.
The woman appealed with tears, but the Garnet’s owner coldly expelled the mother and daughter.
Of course he remembered the woman. She was so beautiful that he knew she had a husband, but he forcibly coveted it. There’s no way he can’t remember. However, he just wanted to eliminate the turmoil that would occur to his family.
The woman who cried in front of the mansion for a few days, was caught and beaten by Garnet’s servants. Her body collapsed, her bones broken, flesh torn apart, and her blood flowed down endlessly…….
Mother, my mother.
I had to watch the whole process of the woman, who was once my mother, the most beautiful woman in the village.
“Please…I can’t…….”
The last word left by the woman fell into the air without being delivered. I’m afraid of those unfocused eyes that used to capture me…. I took a back step back.
At that moment, the woman’s hand, which was extending towards me, fell to the cold ground and at the same time the woman’s eyes closed. It was at that moment when the only warmth of my life left.
I ran quickly, but only a dead body whose shape was broken was waiting for me.
I cursed at myself for turning a blind eye in her last moment and stepped back. However, no matter how much I cried, the woman, my mother, did not return.
It was only after I was alone that I became more desperate to picture her existence.
Mother, my beautiful mother……. The only person who loved me in my life. Someone who only worried about me until the moment of her death…….
The fact that she would never return, pushed me into the pit of sadness.
Viscount Garnett, my biological father who sowed me, into this world, ordered my dead mother’s body to be thrown into the field.
It was his son who took me in, instead of the Viscount who did not give me the last name of ‘Garnet’ until the end.
“Stupid b*tch, crawl like a dog and lick my feet.’
The young lord of the Garnet family was born with a talent for treating subordinates like a ‘dog’.
“You idiot, who are you staring at?’
The young body, which tried to rebel timidly, but was tamed by pain, would easily collapse even with a small whip.
“Right! Good job, Chloe!’
Every time the rumble of laughter pierced my eardrum, tears flowed silently. At that time, the young lord of the Garnet family enjoyed my pain even more. Why do I have to suffer like this?
At that time, when my way of thinking was close to that of an animal, I did not even dare to blame the owners of the Garnet family and blamed myself.
There was an animal in the shape of a human in the Garnets. There was an animal crawling on all fours, licking its master’s paws, they taunted her who was in a stinky rag, and occasionally made her beg for her life from her master’s whip. I was their little entertainment.
“Welcome, uncle. It’s your first visit to Garnets, right? I’ll show you something fun.’
One day, the young lord showed me in front of a boy of his age. There was darkness in the boy’s smooth gray hair and jet-black eyes.
The boy glanced at me and spoke indifferently,
I’ve heard that an illegitimate child of the Garnet family is treated worse than an animal.’
When the boy was not interested in me, the young lord of the Garnet was greatly disappointed. Perhaps because I couldn’t attract the boy’s attention, the beating that day was particularly severe.
When I returned to the room with my sick body and struggled alone all night, the door opened silently and someone came to me.
“Hello.”
Black eyes enraptured mine. It captured me, who was in the shape of a bug with my stomach on the floor, bending my back and shaking.
‘Doesn’t it hurt?
The boy asked, looking at the wounds on my body. The wounds reddened from the merciless whip, were, torn here and there because they were not treated in time.
The tip of his hand that came slowly, passed over my, wound. At the same time, a stinging pain penetrated, my body.
‘Shh, it’s okay. I’m not trying to hurt you.
As I glared while gritting my teeth, the boy smiled and stroked my dirty hair. It was the warmth of a person which I had never felt for six years after my mother died.
“I’m trying to apply medicine. So relax.’
I stared blankly at the face of the boy applying medicine over my wound. The boy had a gentle relaxed look, not the stern look I had seen when I was with Garnet’s men. Such a face made the young me feel strange.
Chloe. I heard that’s your name.
“Do you want me to save you?’
The boy asked me, while handing me a half-cold soup, who had starved all day. The boy asked again as he saw me hastily shoving food into my stomach.
“Do you want to go with me?’
…..Why are you asking me that?’
Indeed, the voice that came out of the throat for the first time in a long time was hoarse.
‘Because I like you.’
I glanced at the palm that extended out to me.
Chaengrang.
The soup bowl and spoon I was holding crashed to the floor and made a loud noise.
I grabbed the boy’s fingertips slowly and very slowly.
“You’re a good girl, Chloe.
The boy gently bent his eyes and stroked my head once again. That dirty hair which had not been properly washed for several days.
That night, a big fire broke out in Garnet’s mansion. The monstrous fire that colored the dark night sky red engulfed my biological father, Viscount Garnet, and his entire family.
And I was the only one who survived alone.
“Poor Chloe, you are alone.
As I looked up at the burned-out mansion with a face covered in black ashes, there was a sweet voice, ringing in my ear. Grand Duke Kailos Ludwig, the boy who had just returned from dinner, was looking down at me.
…….I was alone from the beginning.’
“Then, come with me now.
Cold snowflakes were sprinkled over the darkly sunken mansion.
That winter, it was the day when the first snow fell. One winter day when I could only hear the sound of white snowflakes falling on the wagon and the rattling of the wagon wheel carrying me.
I took Kailos by the hand and stepped into Ludwig’s Great palace.
As Garnet’s illegitimate child, my life changed when! met Kailos. Ironically, it was not until the death of the Viscount Garnet that I could inherit the name of my father.
“Excuse me……”
“I’m not ‘excuse me’. If you have to look at the genealogy, it’s right to call me “uncle.” Garnet, your biological father, will be my very distant relative brother.’
He smiled and said to me, looking me in the eyes.
Having learned nothing and being ignorant of the world, I didn’t know what ‘uncle’ meant. However, since no one in Ludwig’s mansion called him by that name, I thought the title ‘uncle’ was very special.
“Uncle…nim?”
When I called him awkwardly, Kailos stroked my head with great pleasure.
“Good job, Chloe.”
My face turned red with a gentle voice that fell in my ear. The low laughter rang in my eardrums and gradually moved away.
“It’s much better to wash it here.’
The black eyes stared carefully as if they were opening my face. At the same time, I was reminded of the past he must have seen in the first meeting with him. As crawled on all fours like a beast in front of my halfbrother and licked the top of his feet, a feeling of shame I had never felt before rose up on my cheeks.
Seeing me like that, Kailos burst out laughing once more.
‘It means you’re much prettier than I expected. It’s a compliment.’
Grand Duke Kailos Ludwig was a much more likable and amiable man than I had seen in the Garnets
“From now on, this is your house. Don’t forget that there is always the Grand House of Ludwig behind you, lovely Chloe.’
Thus, Kailos claimed to be my guardian who lost all my family overnight.
Thanks to this, I was able to transform myself into a lady of an aristocratic family who is the relative of the Grand Duke Ludwig, even though it was a small aristocratic family’. In addition, I was sponsored by him while eating greasy food and wearing luxurious clothing in a quiet grand castle.
There was only one reason why Kailos stood behind me.
(T/N: stood behind- sponsored her)
“His Majesty loves all the beautiful things in the world. How foolish it is to be obsessed with an appearance that will only wither.’
I was grateful to my mother for giving birth to me beautifully for the first time in my life. The face that resembled her was poison that evoked the anger of Garnet each time, but it allowed me to meet Kailos.
“Remember, Chloe. There are many beautiful women around the emperor. Just beauty alone cannot hold the emperor.’
Kailos urged me to study various things. And I, who wanted to be liked by him (Grand Duke), studied steadily according to his order. Whenever I finished studying well, I liked the touch of Kailos who patted, me for doing well.
As I got to know the world little by little, I was able to understand what he said belatedly. That I was a beautiful bait that Kailos would throw at the emperor.