Chapter 18: 18

Leah, as well as the butler and Edwin, who were kneeling on their knees, trembled at his fierce anger.

Leah crouched down, but even then, for a moment, she shouted evilly.

“It’s because Diana’s a picky eater, so it’s for discipline! It’s abusive, bring all the maids here! If you’ve ever seen me beat Diana so terribly, bring them all and check it out. Please! I’ve never abused a child, just disciplined them. Diana is my daughter!”

Are you going to do the last one?

The duke looked at Leah, who was looking at him with flashing eyes, and called the butler.

“Haron, find the maids who will prove Leah’s abuse right now and bring them all.”

“Yes, my lord.” 

The butler got up and left the room.  The moment the butler left the room, Leah’s hand trembled. In case the duke finds out, Leah puts her hands together and holds them tightly.

But the duke turned to Diana, who was unconscious, and not to Leah.

A child who can’t even see the slightest movement in this noise.

When he saw the pale, tired face of the child and his heart was filled with complicated emotions, he heard a knock on the door.

 “Your Majesty, I have brought the maids.” 

“Come in.”

The door opened and the six maids and the butler entered the room.

The maids looked at the unusual atmosphere in the room and bowed their heads to the duke.

“I see you my Majesty the Grand Duke.” 

The duke cut their greetings and immediately asked them.

“All of you, say it right away. Are you the ones who saw that woman abuse Diana?”

The maidens looked at each other with frightened faces at the sharp gaze of the duke.

Perhaps because of fear, the butler, who was looking at the maids who could not speak, called one of them by name.

“Mary, didn’t you tell me last time? I think Leah is bothering her too much.”

A brown-haired maid named Mary rolled her eyes in embarrassment.

 “…Yes?”

The duke looked at Mary, who rolled her light brown eyes, as if looking into her eyes, said the duke.

“If you tell the truth, nothing will happen, so don’t worry about it.”

Mary unconsciously turned her head to the side where the voice had come from, and then hurriedly bowed her head in the eyes of the grand duke she met.

Mary licked her lips and began to speak.

“That’s… I’m a maid working at the laundry… I always see a little girl coming out to do the laundry, even in the cold winter.”

“Are you just saying that I abused you by looking at it?!”

Leah, who was still, shouted.

The young maid flinched as if startled by Leah’s voice.

“Who said it was okay to talk?”

The duke’s cool voice rang out.  Leah kept her mouth shut at the look of the duke, who was colder than the bitter winter wind in the middle of winter.

“And did you say it was all? If you were only doing laundry in the cold winter, what the hell are you doing on a regular basis?”

After the duke spoke coldly, the maid added:

“Sir, I have seen another thing. I have seen a maiden slapped on the face by a stream. This was not only seen by me, but also by the other maids.”

Mary looked at the other maids beside her as if asking for help.

She opened her mouth one by one to Mary’s eyes.

“Yeah, I was at the laundry that day too, and I definitely saw it.”

“Yes, yes, I have seen it too. And I know that you have helped me a lot with hitting directly in front of others, Grand Duke.”

“Call the servant now.”

When I told the butler, the butler made a troubled face.

“Kunta hastily resigned and left because something happened at home a few days ago.”

 “Right.”

As the duke narrowed his brow as if contemplating for a moment, Leah, who was glaring at his maids, shouted.

“Your Majesty. Their words…” 

“I don’t want to give you excuses for what you’ve done. It’s as if you’ve already admitted to abuse from what you just said.”

 ” …I’m sorry.”

Leah, clutching his hand tightly, was looking at him with eyes full of sorrow.

Seeing this, the duke was in awe.

The duke looked at Leah and said.  

“Is your injustice more desperate than the feeling of Diana, who is lying there after being attacked by the mercenaries that her mother had instigated?”

“Ordering mercenaries?, my lord. I’ve never done anything like that.”

Leah said with a face that she would die of regret. However, the duke ignored Leah and looked at Edwin.

“Edwin, tell this woman what you heard.” 

At the words of the duke, Leah’s gaze turned to Edwin.

Leah checked his face properly and wrinkled his face.

That man was the knight at the time he was with Diana.

Leah, remembering that she had looked at her with a somewhat reluctant look that day too, faced Edwin’s face hostilely.

Edwin stared at Leah with cold eyes and slowly opened his mouth.

“According to a person who worked at the inn, the young lady’s mother showed signs of trying to get to know the mercenaries who mainly deal in human trafficking, such as giving them more snacks. Sometimes, they said we sat down at their table and talked.”

At Edwin’s words, which seemed to have done a background check in advance, Leah felt the blood in her body get cold.

Seeing Edwin driving her into a corner with a tenacious and bitter gaze, Leah bit his lip and clenched her voice.

 “I’m not… I’m not.”

“If you investigate the inn further and find out about the mercenaries you talked to, the evidence will come out soon.”

“You  won’t believe me no matter what I say, so I have nothing to say.”

“Yeah, you don’t have anything to say. Even if it’s not a mercenary thing, there’s already enough evidence that you abused Diana.”

The duke hardened his face.

 “Haron.”

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“Yes, my lord.”

“Take Leah to the dungeon and hold her until she repents. If she loses her mind, imprison her in a hut and do not give her any medicine, water, or food for three days.”

“Yes , my lord.”

If it was a dungeon high, it meant cruel torture, not only whipping, but also plucking fingernails and claws.

Leah, who had been contemplating at the duke’s orders, shouted.

 “Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Please help me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll only torture you to the point where you won’t die.”

The duke only looked at Leah crawling on the floor with contempt.

The servants grabbed Leah’s arms and pulled her out of the room.  While being dragged out, the archduke wrinkled his brows as his ears hurt at how evil he was screaming.

But then, a faint moan was heard from the bed.

A familiar sharp voice was heard.

I have to get up

Diana was moved by her instinctive fear.

But she did not listen to her as easily as if someone had placed a heavy stone on her body.

Diana let out a groan, her dream, and slowly lifted her heavy eyelids.

 “Ah…”

I blinked slowly at the colorful ceiling pattern I saw for the first time, not the wooden ceiling I saw every day.

‘Where am I …why am I here.’

Trying to think of something, my head

It was throbbing and I had a headache.

  “Ugh.”

As she frowned in pain, a low voice was heard.

“Are you awake?”

Diana turned her head towards the voice. Then she met her eyes with the golden eyes that seemed to contain the light.

“…Your Majesty the duke.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll call a doctor.”

The duke looked at me and immediately turned his head and said,

“Haron, Diana is conscious. Call the doctor.”

“Yes , my lord.”

At the same time as the butler’s voice was heard from outside the room, a high-pitched woman’s voice was heard from outside the door.

“Diana!”

“…”

It was definitely Leah’s voice. The moment Diana was startled, there seemed to be a commotion outside, and then Leah opened the door and ran to Diana.

The duke’s face could be seen wrinkled violently.

But even for a moment, Leah grabbed Diana’s face.

Maybe she was crying, or Leah’s eyes were red. Leah walked over to Diana and wrapped her hand around Diana’s cheek. At the same time, tears fell from Leah’s eyes.

“Diana, how much I, I was worried about you… Hmm. I shouldn’t have left you there alone, but it’s all your fault. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Diana.”

As she listened to Leah’s words, situations began to come to mind one by one.

In the early morning Leah goes to the market to buy her clothes, she goes to find her bag, meets her boy… Even being hit by mercenaries.

When all Diana’s memories came to mind, Leah hugged Diana’s small body as if she couldn’t bear it and burst into tears.

She felt Leah’s shoulders shake.  The sound of her crying was so sad that if anyone else had cried so much, I would have shed tears as well.

But it was Leah who was crying now, not anyone else.

Leah is crying because she’s worried about me…?  She shook for a moment, but then, in her returned memory, the words of the green-haired man came to mind as a warning.

– As she said.

It was obviously referring to another woman.

And Diana knew is who she is

She seemed to know what she was instinctively. When she realized it, she was horrified that Leah was holding her in her arms.

“Diana, please tell His Majesty. I did not abuse you, and tell me how much you loved you. If you don’t tell me, you will die.”

 She’s dying

Diana’s head was confused by the fear towards Leah and the unknown word of death.

But she was not feeling well, and there was no force to push her away, so as she waited for Leah to stop crying, the duke said with a frown.

“Go out quietly, do not provoke my wrath.”

Diana flinched at the cold voice of the duke.

Leah, who was crying, slowly got her body up.

Leah patted Diana’s cheek pathetically, as if the duke was invisible.

Whispering Diana’s name softly.

“Diana, my only daughter…” 

Why the hell did she even want to kill her one and only daughter?

Diana couldn’t make eye contact with Leah like that, so she avoided her gaze, and she heard a squeaking noise.

Leah turned her head to the duke.

“You can’t take a child who is so sick. How can you separate her mother from a child who is still surprised. How frightened Diana would be without me!”

Leah shrugged her shoulders as she cried out loudly.

It felt like life was going to break her neck right away.

The duke passed Leah and walked over to Diana’s side.

The duke’s gaze turned to Diana.  The eyes of Diana and the duke met.

The bright golden eyes stared intently as if looking into Diana’s inner heart. Diana trembled without realizing it.

Seeing Diana’s trembling, the duke’s eyebrows rose sharply.

He was looking at Diana with eyes mixed with complex emotions similar to her last time.

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