The Soulless Duchess

Chapter 6

With the Kiridan fruit procured, Yvona had everything she needed for the elixir.

She got to work brewing. She let it simmer for a long time, seasoned it, and stirred mana into the cauldron.

Since the elixirs were made with different methods, they each took on a different color. Yvona cooled the elixirs, compared and analyzed each one, and began to test them out herself.

The Kiridan fruit elixirs did, indeed, increase mana. However, Yvona wasn’t very pleased after testing the last batch.

The effects are... weaker than I expected.

She used up a whole basket of Kiridan fruits to make the elixirs, but she saw a minimal increase in her mana. It was much quicker than increasing mana through training, but it did not meet her expectations.

Maybe it’s because I’m not an alchemist.

Yvona was a Summoner. Both alchemists and summoners used mana, but summoners were not typically great with potions. This was her first time following recipes she found in a book and making an elixir herself.

It was likely she cooked away the effects of the Kiridan fruits. In her past life, she heard that Kiridan and a few minor ingredients quickly made an elixir that dramatically increased mana, but she didn’t know how to brew it because she was not an alchemist in the Tower of Magic.

She had hoped that putting together the key ingredients would create a similar effect, but despite the range of methods she tried, none of the elixirs were very potent. This meant that she would have to put in more careful research.

But I’m all out of ingredients…

Yvona sighed as she looked down at the empty basket. She went back out to the market for Kiridan fruit, but it was no use. Supply from the north had been completely cut off.

There was never plenty of it in the south to begin with, but she hadn’t expected to run into such difficulties. The fruit vendor shook his head and said he wouldn’t get a fresh supply of Kiridan fruit for months.

Yvona grew anxious.

I haven’t made any progress on breaking off the engagement, either.

Gaspar was the most vain braggart she had ever seen in her life, but he was also the proudest. When she returned from the past and saw him for the first time, she had expected him to break off the engagement just to avoid apologizing to her for his rude behavior.

When that didn’t work, she expected their second encounter, this time with Tristan, to do the trick. Gaspar and Tristan were bound together for good as far as Yvona was concerned. They made a mockery of her life and used their socially-prohibited love as an excuse for such atrocious behavior.

Still, Gaspar told Yvona that he loved her as Tristan watched, so she pushed him even further and demanded the Blessing of Iphelia.

Yvona wondered how far she would have to push them before they’d let her go.

If they were just using me as a beard, they would have broken off the engagement much more easily. But I am... a little too useful for them.

The elixir wasn’t going well, and breaking off the engagement was turning out to be a greater challenge than Yvona expected.

She sighed. If only I could meet Lord Claude Azentine in the north. He would have an easier time procuring Kiridan fruits, and he might be my ticket out of this engagement.

Then, she realized that she had just stumbled upon a viable option. Lord Claude was the heir to the House of Azentine, one of two great duchies in Parama.

I could get out of this marriage by forming an alliance with Lord Claude.

This would solve other problems besides finding ingredients for the elixir. She would become the future Duchess of Azentine.

Yvona herself may not have been remarkable in personality or appearance, but she would have the people’s respect just by virtue of being the Duchess of Azentine. Rather than living as Gaspar’s shadow, working side by side with her husband to fight the demon king, this would be much better for her reputation.

Lord Claude was still unmarried at the time I died in my past life.

In Paraman culture, unmarried people were seen as imperfect. This imperfection could only be remedied by two people becoming one. It was therefore quite common for young men and women to marry as soon as they became of age.

Almost everyone succeeded in getting married before they were bestowed titles. Even the youngest emperor in history, who was crowned at the age of eight, was married before his coronation.

But Claude still had not married long after his predecessor passed away and he inherited the title. He was officially the Duke of Azentine now, but apparently, the temple did not recognize his title yet.

That’s why they called him the half Duke. Only because he wasn’t married, the victories he won on behalf of Parama by wielding the Holy Sword were undermined.

Lord Claude was perfect, and there were always those who were jealous of his perfection. They latched onto his only flaw—that he was unmarried—and picked to death at it. Seeing that he wasn’t even courting, they castigated him for not even trying to strive toward perfection.

Nevertheless, Lord Claude remained untethered at the ripe age of twenty-five. And Yvona knew the reason why.

He doesn’t crave anybody’s love.

She closed her eyes and recalled a scene from her past life.

* * *

Yvona had seen Claude from a distance at balls she attended with Gaspar.

But they were never introduced, as Gaspar actively avoided him. It wasn’t until much later that Yvona got to know Claude Azentine on the battlefield where the armies of the north and south came together to stop the resurrection of the demon king.

“Ah, you must be Lord Gaspar the Golden Summoner. And who is this woman?” Claude asked.

“She’s just somebody I brought along... I tap into her mana, so it’s hard to summon divine beasts if she isn’t close by. Don’t worry about her.”

“How could I not worry about her?”

Even with the hood of her cape pulled all the way down and her head bandaged, Yvona couldn’t completely conceal the horrific rash around her eyes and her mouth.

Pity. Disgust. Sympathy. Horror. These were the reactions she saw in the eyes of those who looked upon her.

I am not human in their eyes.

Being looked at was harder to endure than fighting magical beasts. When the day’s battle was over, Gaspar would abandon her to go enjoy himself with his comrade-in-arms, while Yvona went to secluded places where she would hide from gawking eyes.

She would summon the divine beast of darkness, pull the hood down over her head, and curl up in a ball. This made her invisible.

But there was another person who was as fond of being alone as Yvona was.

Lord Claude?

He would also spend hours looking for quiet places to be alone. Their only difference was that Yvona was forced to be alone, while Claude chose to be alone. He wanted to train alone so that he would not be interrupted.

Soon, they were spending more and more time together—not that Claude was aware of it, as he could not see her.

Yvona often found herself in the same place as him and came to see how he was in private.

“Duke Azentine. I have much affection for you, sir. Ever since the day you saved me—no, actually since the day we met...”

Each time the army passed through a village that had been attacked by magical beasts, countless women professed their love for him.

Before Yvona met Claude in person, she had always pictured him as a burly, brutish-looking man. Renowned for felling a magical beast as a young boy and single-handedly striking down entire battalions of magical beasts, he would surely look the part of such a formidable warrior.

But Lord Claude Azentine was far from burly. It wasn’t until Yvona saw him that she knew it was possible for a man to have such sophistication of good breeding and still have raw agility.

People always gasped to see Claude walking along in his jet-black uniform, the same color as his hair. He was a knight out of a storybook—both in appearance and valor.

As a woman, Yvona could understand the women who threw themselves at Claude. Even without his rank and the famous prophecy surrounding him, he was enormously attractive.

“Please take my heart, even if it’s just for one night.”

The first time Yvona saw a woman make a move on Claude, she assumed he would not refuse such a great beauty. Men, after all, considered virility a key component of a hero.

But she was wrong.

“I saved your life. Wasn’t that enough?” Claude spurned her coldly, leaving the lady with no hope whatsoever.

Yvona assumed the lady wasn’t his type.

He must have impossibly high standards, Yvona thought to herself. Even I could see that the lady was perfect.

But then she began to wonder if it really was a matter of standards as she watched him coldly reject one beautiful lady after another.

“Please, at least take this handkerchief. I embroidered it stitch by stitch, praying for your victory...”

“I cannot accept something so meaningful from a woman I just met.”

No matter who it was, Claude was not swayed. Yvona began to wonder why he wasn’t interested in courtship.

Then one day, she was given a little peek at his thoughts.

The butler from the Azentine castle had come to see him. Yvona saw that Claude was more at ease with his butler.

“You’ve received many propositions today as well, my lord. Do you really have no thoughts of marriage? If you took a wife, the ladies would leave you alone at last.”

“Are you proposing I fight off women with a woman?”

“This nonsense about ‘half-a-duke Azentine’ will finally go away. You will produce an heir and become closer to perfection. Not that you aren’t wonderful as it is...”

“As I have told you numerous times, I have no interest in love.”

Yvona was surprised by the irritation that suddenly overtook his usually flat, icy tone. The butler fell quiet, subdued by the finality of that statement.

“If I find a woman who can promise never to fall in love with me, I might marry...” Claude trailed off.

The butler mumbled something about at least being a little more polite to the ladies, then bowed his head with an apology.

Yvona disagreed with the butler.

Isn’t it out of consideration for the ladies that he rejects them so unequivocally?

On the noble crusade against the resurrection of the demon king, the soldiers had relations with different women in every village.

Then they secretly laughed at the women who tearfully made them promise that they would meet again. They would laugh at them for being so emotional and harping on love when there was a great hurricane about to strike.

It was cruel of the men to leave the ladies with empty promises while expecting to be released from any obligations. Yvona thought it was more considerate to spurn a lady’s advance quite bluntly.

Perhaps her opinion of Claude was better than he deserved, but she found him to be respectful if a little lacking in cordiality. And she turned out to be right.

One day, when the demon forces attacked in greater numbers than ever, Yvona was on the verge of collapse after continuously summoning powerful divine beasts.

The mana artificially infused in her through the sacred text continued to clash with her body. The pain was ever worsening from the violent force of the mana.

“Gaspar...”

She reached over to lean on Gaspar, but he was gone. Just then, her legs gave out. She saw a pile of magical beast corpses at her feet where she was about to fall.

She shut her eyes tight, bracing for impact, when she felt a strong hand grab her arm. Thanks to this person, she could avoid her skin sustaining further injury from the acidic blood of the magical beasts.

Yvona gasped, having narrowly avoided disaster.

What was that? I should thank him…

She tried to regain her balance by relying on the hand that was holding her up, but she was too weak. The sky was spinning before her eyes. She stood shaking, unable to stand or sit, when the hand released her arm.