CH 67.2

Descartes’ dark eyes trembled angrily.

“Isabella, how can you attack me to save that fake?” Descartes bellowed.

He just couldn’t accept this reality.

Descartes’s eyes were wild as he reached out to her half-heartedly.

Isabella’s blue eyes widened with fear as black energy came out of his hands.

“I’m destined to be your man. I’m not the fake Isabella. But you treated me as if I’m the villain!

“I’m the one you have to deal with!”

Duke Kyar’s loud shout cut Descartes off.

At that moment, a huge ice blade from Duke Kyar’s hand flew toward Descartes’ heart.

Dark red blood sprayed from Descartes’s chest like a fountain.

The ice blade had penetrated  Descartes’ heart with precision.

Isabella’s eyes widened when she saw Descartes release ice spears from his falling hand.

“NO!”

The ice spears reached Duke Kyar’s heart in the blink of an eye.

Isabella flung herself toward the Archduke to protect him, but his cold air had frozen her body.

He didn’t want her to interfere as Descartes’ ice spears went straight into his heart.

Descartes and Duke Kyar collapsed in unison, their blood covering the floor.

“You have to move. Isabella.”

Isabella was frozen, so she couldn’t hear Duke Kyar struggling to call her name.

He had a lot of things to say, but he knew that he didn’t have much time left.

Breathing hard, the Archduke panicked when Isabella’s image in front of him began to blur.

He didn’t want to close his eyes for fear that he couldn’t open them again.

“I love you, Isabella.”

Duke Kyar uttered the words with all his strength before he stopped breathing.

He was looking at Isabella until the light in his eyes went out.

As soon as he died, Isabella’s frozen body returned to normal.

A sharp scream burst out of her mouth when she saw Duke Kyar’s dead body lying on the floor.

“Oh, no. No! Your Highness. No. You can’t leave me like this!”

Isabella sobbed as she staggered to him.

“Your Highness! Duke Kyar! Please wake up.”

When her knees weakened, and she gave up, she crawled towards him on all fours and hugged his body.

It was still warm.

“Isabella!”

Ifrit rushed to Isabella’s side, but she couldn’t hear her voice.

Isabella refused to believe that the man she loved was dead.

She brought her lips to his, but she could no longer feel him breathe.

“Please, please. Your Highness. Please breathe for me. Your Highness. Please. Do it for me.”

She chanted the words like a spell, but his body only cooled.

+++

There was so much she hadn’t told him yet.

Isabella never thought it would end just like this.

She hoped it was a terrible nightmare.

‘Please. Someone wake me up from this nightmare,’ Isabella hoped as she hugged Duke Kyar tightly.

If she were to die on his behalf, she could break a hundred and a thousand times if he would just—

“You can tell me anything, Your Highness. I won’t mind even if it makes me angry or annoyed, so please—”

A lot of what he told her in the past crossed her mind.

‘I love you so much that it drives me insane.’

‘Don’t forget me. Stay here and keep your promise.’

‘I don’t want to, Isabella. Once the antidote is finished, you’ll leave me.’

‘If I drink the antidote and still feel the same, what shall I do then?’

His words, which she had previously ignored because she assumed it was all because he drank the love potion, broke her heart.

‘From now on, I’m going to do it properly for you to like me.’

‘I gave it to you so that you’ll be pressured to make a decision. I’ll think about myself as I please as much as you feel burdened.’

‘Isabella, I like you.’

Isabella cried even more as she recalled him treating her with consistency even after drinking the antidote.

‘Isabella. I know that this premise is meaningless, but if I had met you without drinking the love potion, I would have fallen in love with you. I’m sure of it.’

As she recalled Duke Kyar, whose sincere words had clearly expressed his mind when he talked about marriage, she touched his cool face with trembling hands.

“I love you. I love you, too, Your Highness. I love you so much.”

Isabella couldn’t stop saying it, knowing he couldn’t hear her anymore and the confession was too late.

She was so sorry for the times when she couldn’t love him more than he did.

“Isabella, wake up! We have to  get out of here before the barrier closes!” Ifrit cried, clutching Isabella’s shoulder.

She shrugged her off and shook her head in refusal.

Isabella couldn’t just leave Grand Duke here all alone.

She couldn’t leave him in this world.

“You can save him. If you return to the world where we came from, you can save the Archduke!”

Isabella couldn’t believe her at that time.