DTBTHS Chapter 39

"Who came, you said?"

The Margrave questioned, doubting his own ears. The butler answered.

"The Duchess of Eldier has arrived."

"So you mean that woman who married that Eldier bastard? Her name was Leda, wasn't it?"

"Yes. She appears to have come in great haste. She hitched a ride on a milk delivery cart. She didn't even pack proper clothing—she's trembling in thin garments."

"What in the... Are you certain she's the Duchess? Not someone else?"

"The knight you sent to deliver your refusal to attend Eldier's wedding confirmed her identity. She is definitely Leda Picaro, Duchess of Eldier."

"A duchess who should be enjoying her honeymoon has come all the way to Weaver looking like she fled in the night? Why on earth?"

"If I may be so bold, she may indeed have fled here."

"What?"

"Her right arm is wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage. She's crying and babbling incoherently, repeatedly saying she was deceived. She appears to have a fever as well."

Right arm bandage. Injured condition.

The Margrave's expression turned peculiar as he recalled the state Ariadne had been in when she first arrived at Weaver.

The butler asked carefully.

"You ordered us to refuse anyone from Eldier without exception, but in this case... what should we do?"

The Margrave pressed his forehead and groaned. After hesitating, he gave his order in a reluctant tone.

"...We cannot turn away a patient in Weaver's winter. Show her to a room for now."

The Picaro family was a small baronial house located near the Eldier Duchy.

Picaro had also become a Blighted Region when the labyrinth called Horse Grave appeared there.

The same Blighted Region where Gloria Weaver had been contaminated.

Noble families typically install defensive magic circles and spirit towers in their territories to suppress labyrinth appearances.

Therefore, labyrinths rarely emerge within cities or villages.

However, the impoverished Picaro Barony lacked the resources to install spirit towers, which were expensive to build and even more costly to maintain.

They had at least laid down defensive magic circles, but it seemed they had failed to maintain them properly.

When Horse Grave appeared, half of Picaro's territory became contaminated.

Eldier took in Picaro's refugees. Among them were members of the Picaro baronial family.

Leda Picaro, daughter of Baron Picaro, was said to have first met the widowed Duke while sheltering at Eldier Castle.

And five years later, they married.

Leda Picaro was a red-haired beauty. Her beauty remained evident despite her haggard condition.

"I loved Franz. Truly."

She spoke while trembling, her face streaked with tears.

"He's so beautiful, isn't he? When I first met him, I thought an angel was walking toward me. When he greeted me kindly, I thought my heart would burst."

Why does that cursed bastard have to be so unnecessarily handsome? The Margrave clicked his tongue inwardly.

"I fell for him at first sight. But he'd only recently lost his wife, you see. So I tried not to show it... but as time passed, I couldn't hold it in anymore, oh, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry."

Leda, who had been pouring out words as if entranced, suddenly apologized as though she'd abruptly realized where she was.

The Margrave shook his head.

"It's all right, madam. Five years have passed... and we don't want anything to do with that man anyway."

Leda hesitated, reading the room. She seemed timid.

The Countess offered warm tea.

"Drink this and take your time talking."

"Th-thank you."

She drank the tea, caught her breath, and continued speaking. Her eyes still brimmed with tears.

"...I knew full well that Franz had his custody rights stripped because he abused his daughter."

"But, but, he, he said he was wronged, that he missed his daughter and cried, so I, I, I'm sorry. I was foolish enough to believe him. I was blind. I'm sorry. I only realized after I experienced it myself..."

Leda burst into tears.

She curled up trembling as if terrified and clutched her arm.

Physician Zailyn, who had just examined her, reported that Leda's forearm bore the exact same scars that had been on Ariadne's arm.

The Margrave and Countess exchanged troubled glances.

Leda sobbed out her story in fragments.

He said it was nothing serious. He said it would help her too. He said he'd stop immediately if she disliked it.

But after trying the experiment once, it hurt so much that when she said she didn't want to do it anymore, his expression turned terrifying...

"...He said I could divorce him if I wanted. But then the Picaro refugees would be expelled along with me... and if I went around talking about this, the same thing would happen to them..."

"Good heavens."

"This was the only place I could think of to flee to. I'm sorry. Because Weaver rescued that poor child, the Young Duchess, who, I, I, I suffered the same thing as me, so that's why..."

"I understand, madam. You don't need to apologize."

The Countess embraced the trembling Leda and patted her back.

Leda cried for a long while, as if finally reassured.

The Margrave and Countess initially tried not to tell Ariadne about Leda.

They worried that meeting someone who had suffered similar abuse might revive her trauma.

But no matter how large Snowstorm Castle was, a guest's presence would inevitably become known.

They couldn't confine the guest, nor would she be leaving after just a day or two.

Eventually, the Countess arranged tea time and introduced Leda.

"Ariadne, this is Leda Picaro. The new Duchess of Eldier. You remember what I told you yesterday?"

"Yes, I remember. Hello, madam. I'm Ariadne Eldier."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Young Duchess. You're truly as pretty as a doll..."

Leda began tearing up immediately after greeting her.

"Oh, Young Duchess, I'm so sorry. I was deceived by him. I thought the claims about your abuse were lies. To do such things to such a small child, what on earth was Franz..."

Ariadne was considerably flustered.

Leda was nothing like the kind of woman she'd imagined her father's remarriage partner would be.

Fragile, pitiful, tearful.

Looking at that pale face still marked by illness, she was suddenly reminded of her mother.

'Was this person also deceived by the Duke? Like my mother?'

The speculation made emotion surge up suddenly.

She barely swallowed it down.

One question had arisen.

'Why did the Duke conduct unnecessary Elixir experiments on his new wife? Wasn't he remarrying to produce an heir?'

Was he trying to complete the potion separately through experimentation because she'd donated the Elixir recipe only to the Temple and wouldn't give it to him?

'The losses would outweigh the gains, though.'

Human experimentation wasn't easy, and test subjects who endured as well as Ariadne were rare.

And the subject was his wife?

He subjected his new wife to experiments where most test subjects died?

His previous wife had already died—if his remarried wife died too, everyone would find it suspicious.

Moreover, even if he managed to replicate Elixir, the Duke would gain little profit.

The Elixir market was already almost entirely monopolized by Weaver's production workshop—by Ariadne, in other words.

No matter how incompetent Duke Eldier was reputed to be, he wasn't so foolish he couldn't calculate that much.

'That's why for five years after losing custody, all he did was whine in letters.'

Ariadne glanced at the sniffling Leda.

Pie had found and provided information about Leda Picaro recently.

The spirit said it had been discovered in the Kingdom of Abivhelle's Labyrinth Disaster Annual.

The content matched exactly what Leda had described.

A baron's daughter forced to shelter in Eldier until her contaminated territory could be purified.

There had been no mention of remarrying the Duke, but that was natural—it was something that wouldn't have happened in the original timeline.

The reports from her planted informants were similar. A woman who'd been living at Eldier Castle with the refugees since five years ago.

'It's all plausible enough, but...'

Something felt off.

On the other hand, she wondered if she was being overly suspicious.

'What kind of experiment did the Duke conduct? Could he have started developing a different potion besides Elixir?'

She hesitated, then asked carefully.

"Um, madam."

"Sniff, yes, Young Duchess?"

"Young Duchess? You're legally my stepmother."

"B-but I, until recently I was merely a baron's daughter..."

Leda flushed red and stammered.

Her expression said how could someone like her dare address the Young Duchess so casually?

'Come to think of it, she's only 24 or 25 years old.'

Damn Franz Eldier, you tricked and married another woman much younger than you again.

'A leopard can't change its spots.'

Ariadne smiled sweetly while grinding her teeth inwardly.

"Please address me comfortably, madam. Call me Ariadne."

"Oh, oh, yes! Yes! I will!"

"Um... there's something I'd like to ask."

"Ask me anything, You—I mean, Ariadne."

Leda answered with a determined expression. Ariadne asked as gently as possible.

"Could you tell me exactly what kind of experiment you endured, madam?"