The Monstrous Grand Duke's Fake Lady

“Where is the real Alexia?”

“Please promise me that you won’t tell the Count anything. If you don’t do so, I won’t be telling you as well.”

“Why should I? Shouldn’t you be the one to pay the price for fooling me?”

“Then, I won’t be telling you the truth either. I, too, know how to hold on to my own precious life.”

He found the fact that Alexia was actually proposing a deal with him to be absurd, but he had no other choice. Rather than making haste of himself to punish this one who had deceived him, finding her was much more important.

“Then, who are you—the one in front of me right now?”

“I have said it before, right? I am Alexia Britton. Me—myself.”

“But it’s just impossible for you to be Alexi……”

“Sorry. I was rather busy, so even though I know that I shouldn’t have done it, I used a trick.”

“A trick, you say……”

The Grand Duke’s head began to feel dizzy. He felt like he could no longer see everything in front of his eyes properly. He also felt like his eyes had been reverted back to when they weren’t any better.

Alexia bit her lips for a moment when she saw Knox’s confused expression, then she carefully opened her mouth.

“I used a stand-in.”

“……A stand-in?”

“Yes. I was busy and therefore, I didn’t have time to visit you, Your Highness. So, I ordered another person to go in my stead.”

In an instant, Knox felt like his mind was already being swallowed by that pitch dark abyss.

A stand-in, she says?

As if his usually quick loaded mind had suddenly gone lost, his head was hardly even moving.

Since when? Then, who’s the one I’ve been meeting this whole time? The Grand Duke barely managed to control his freezing lips as he asked—stuttered.

“…since when have you been using the stand-in?”

Alexia bit her lips slightly.

As she had already been caught red-handed, she felt like confessing the whole truth, but there was no absolute guarantee on how far the Grand Duke could accept everything. Since she wouldn’t like to be harmed in any way, she then appropriately hid the veracity of it.

“Who knows. I didn’t say that I will explicitly tell you about that.”

“Young Lady.”

The Grand Duke’s growl eventually reached her. His ferocious beast-like appearance had made Alexia tremble unconsciously.

Nevertheless, she never yielded and kept on meeting his eyes—unlike Vivian.

“I’ve said it before, right? I know how to keep holding onto my life.”

Alexia’s firm voice was utterly different from what he was familiar with all this while. Although the voice was still the same, her tone and accent were poles apart. It was very distinct from that very person, who had been thoughtful and even knew how to be considerate with others.

“…Don’t tell me, it has been from the start?”

Knox’s sudden words that confronted her directly had stabbed right into her heart, but Alexia just shrugged her shoulders calmly as ever.

“Who knows. It depends on how you feel about it yourself, Your Highness.”

Knox didn’t really like how Alexia was being rather uncooperative. His burning fury felt like it was muddling his sight temporarily. He was filled with much desire to blatantly condemn all of those who had been taunting him all this while.

Despite all of that, Knox just couldn’t take his leave. He wanted to know the reason for his wrath that was surging abnormally. For that reason, he felt that she should be meeting this stand-in.

The Grand Duke ultimately suppressed his feelings to storm out of there as quickly as he could.

“Then, I will ask you once again. Where is the one who has been acting as your stand-in?”

“If I’m aware of that, there will be no need for you to come and visit here in person, sir.”

Knox instantly felt a sense of déjà vu at Alexia’s drop of sigh.

He wasn’t feeling good at all. He blocked off his mind that kept on imagining the worst case scenario before glaring at her.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s exactly like what I just said, sir. It simply means that I can’t use that stand-in any longer.”

“…Are you implying that she’s sick?”

He also asked if I was sick before. Alexia squinted her eyes at Knox’s specific question.

Seems like the one whom I used as a stand-in was truly closer to the Grand Duke than what I’ve thought. Alexia finally felt like she somehow knew the reason why she had decided to run away all of a sudden.

“No.”

“Then?”

“She ran away.”

“What…?”

Knox could no longer think properly due to these series of surprises. Before he could even dwell over her disgraceful action of deceiving him, the traces of abuse immediately made him panic.