The Grand Duke's Soulmate-Chapter 592: The Weight of Secrets

A man sat quietly by the window.

The wooden shutters stood open, allowing the warm summer wind to drift into the room.

It brought in a faint scent of blooming flowers from the garden below—along with the unusual sound of raised voices that broke the calm.

His gaze shifted downward.

From his vantage point above the cloister garden, the scene unfolded clearly before him.

A heated argument erupted between a woman and a man, specifically a knight and a lady. Even from a distance, the tension between them was apparent.

Then, the confrontation escalated. The lady’s hand suddenly rose, and a sharp slap landed across the burly knight’s face.

The sound echoed faintly upward.

The man by the window watched in silence, his expression unreadable.

From where he sat, he could also see two other ladies standing a short distance away—Meredith and Sylvia.

Their earlier conversation had clearly been interrupted, and now both of them craned their necks slightly, eyes wide as they watched the unexpected confrontation in secret.

Below, the knight remained still after the blow. The watcher’s eyes narrowed to him.

Garin Skyler could have avoided that slap. The third-in-command knight was far from helpless.

With the authority and position he now held within the order and being appointed as the grand duke’s temporary representative, he could easily have restrained the lady or even ordered her punished for striking him.

Yet the man by the window knew with certainty that Garin would do neither because he carried a secret.

A quiet sigh escaped him.

Watching the frustration in Garin’s eyes stirred something deep within his chest.

Yes, Garin had committed an act that seemed unforgivable—abandoning his woman on the very day that was supposed to be their wedding.

Few wounds cut deeper than that kind of humiliation. But the truth was far more complicated than what the world believed.

There had been another story behind that tragedy. A reason Garin had never spoken of.

Instead, he had chosen to bear the consequences alone—enduring years of suspicion, resentment, and blame while keeping his lips sealed about what had truly happened.

It was a burden he had carried in silence, and it should never have been his to bear.

Garin had always been a kind and honourable man. Yet he had been misunderstood by everyone around him following the wedding cancellation.

Watching the aftermath unfold again before his eyes after all these years, the man by the window realised he could no longer allow the truth to remain buried.

Once, he had made a foolish promise to the third-in-command knight never to reveal what truly happened.

But some promises should never have been made.

Slowly, his fingers moved towards the desk before him.

He picked up a pen and dipped its tip into the small bottle of ink resting beside a stack of papers. A single blank sheet had already been laid out across the wooden surface.

With a faint tremor in his weakened hand, he began to write.

The strokes were uneven and clumsy, as though the writer had long since lost familiarity with the act. Yet the words that formed across the page remained clear enough to read.

When he finished, he folded the paper carefully.

Then he called softly to the only other person in the room.

A woman stepped closer.

She had been standing quietly nearby, watching over the man by the window as she often did.

His sudden action today had surprised her; ever since the terrible incident, he had never once taken up a pen to write.

Yet now he had done so without hesitation.

When he passed the folded letter into her hand, he spoke in a low voice. His words were little more than whispers.

The woman listened, her brows slowly knitting together as she understood his request.

Her eyes moved towards the open window, where the figures in the garden remained visible, still engaged in a heated argument.

"You want me to pass this letter to the lady in secret?" she asked quietly, intrigued.

The man gave a small nod.

For a long time now, he had done very little. Most of his days were spent sitting in silence or lying in bed, watching the world pass beyond his reach.

Life had seemed to lose its purpose.

But when he saw the sorrow lingering in Garin’s eyes—even from this distance—he knew there was still something he could do.

Even for someone who was no longer of much use.

Because he knew something. Something that no one else knew.

No one... except the burly knight standing below, enduring the fury of the lady before him.

The woman holding the letter studied the paper for a moment longer before tucking it carefully into her sleeve.

"I’ll see to it," she said.

The man let out a slow breath. Relief settled quietly within him.

Garin deserved more than the torment he was receiving.

Perhaps, with this small message, the truth that had been buried for years would finally surface and be accepted in a much better way. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Whether the knight wanted it to or not.

***

Meanwhile, far away on the island of Semeta, another storm of emotions was brewing.

The days that had passed since Callis first sensed the strange premonition had been restless for her. Sleep came rarely, and peace even less.

Inside the chamber, the Mederian Princess paced anxiously across the floor. Each turn she made seemed quicker than the last, as though she were trying to outrun the thoughts that refused to leave her mind.

Her movements were frantic, almost desperate, like someone struggling against a tide of emotions she could no longer control.

Kiev, however, was the complete opposite. He stood near the balcony, leaning on the railing with a calm expression, his posture composed as if the troubling behaviour didn’t bother him.

"I’m telling you," she insisted, her voice trembling with conviction, "Rafe is coming."

The Mederian Prince let out a short, disbelieving scoff and shook his head.

Callis was letting her longing cloud her judgment again. There was no way the healer could come here to this island.

"Forget it," Kiev said firmly. "It won’t happen."

The Mederian Princess stopped pacing and glared at him.

"They couldn’t come even if they wanted to," he continued. "The barrier would stop them."

The sea’s barrier had proven impenetrable since the day Kyren broke his oath.

The magic woven into that vow had sealed the route to the island from the Cassians, cutting off all paths for the grand duke and his men to pursue Anna.

Even the simplest attempts at communication had failed.

The carrier pigeon returned every letter the Mederian Princess had sent, the birds circling helplessly before flying back as if something unseen barred their way.

At first, the occurrences weren’t noticeable and seemed merely peculiar.

But soon, stranger things began to happen.

Ships attempting to sail towards the continent, carrying messages intended for the Cassians, found themselves trapped in unnatural currents.

Winds that should have carried them forward suddenly died without warning, and vessels wouldn’t move, no matter how much force was made for the voyage.

It did not take Kiev long to understand the truth.

The barrier was not merely blocking passage. It was preventing any attempt, no matter how small, to reconnect the Grand Duke with his wife.

So when Callis insisted that her husband was coming, Kiev could only see it as a delusion.

"You’re imagining things," he said bluntly. "Rafe cannot reach this island. He’s the grand duke’s person. He won’t be able to pass through the barrier."

Callis shook her head fiercely. Though she understood the power behind the oath that had been made, her instincts refused to yield. Every part of her heart insisted that Rafe was on his way.

"No," she countered firmly. "I know he’s coming and nothing will stop him."

Kiev folded his arms, his brows knitting together.

"And how exactly would that happen?" he asked. "In what way could he break the restriction and come to you, huh? Pray tell."

"I don’t know," the Mederian Princess replied, eyes drooping. "But I felt it."

Her hand slowly pressed against her chest.

"Right here."

Callis couldn’t explain the reasoning, but she knew the feeling wasn’t imagined. Even now, it remained resolute.

Kiev, however, was sceptical about the intuition. For him, his sister’s words seemed like the last-ditch hope of someone avoiding the truth.

"Stop this, Callis," he said firmly. "You and he are finished! There’s nothing left to recall, and he will not come for you!"

"He is!" Callis glared back at him, tears already welling in her eyes. "Say all you want, but I know what my heart tells me!"

Kiev’s expression hardened. He pushed himself away from the balcony railing and turned fully towards her.

"Your heart?" he scoffed. "Your heart has been deceiving you ever since you met him!"

Callis stared at the Mederian Prince in disbelief.

"He left you," Kiev continued, his voice growing colder. "He has made his decision, and you don’t belong to him anymore."

"That’s not true!" she snapped. "Even if he did say that he wanted me to leave, I still belong to him! He’s my soulmate!"

"You are no longer his," Kiev insisted. Impatiently, he remarked, "And if you keep on clinging to this useless fantasy, I’ll slap you in the face to bring you back to reality!"

"Go ahead!" the Mederian Princess shot back bitterly. "If a slap will make you realise how I truly feel—if it will finally make you understand how deep my love for Rafe runs—then do it!"

Her voice rose with a rawness she rarely displayed.

"You don’t understand anything!" she continued. "Because you’re not the one being abandoned!"

Her eyes burned with accusation.

"You’re the one who abandoned your wife!"

"Enough!" Kiev’s voice thundered through the chamber.

But Callis refused to stop.

"No! You don’t get it!" she cried. "Maybe it’s easy for you to live without your soulmate! You even keep your marriage a secret, and you forbid me from revealing mine!"

Her voice quivered with suppressed frustration as tears fell down her face.

"Well... maybe you simply don’t care. That’s why you can pretend nothing ever happened!"

"Callis!" Kiev’s hand trembled at his side.

Pain hung heavily in the air between them.

The same cruel fate wounded both of them, yet neither stood in the same place.

And Kiev—the Mederian Prince who always carried himself with unshakable composure—was bearing far more than he ever allowed others to see.

"Just go," he said at last, his voice low and strained as he turned away from her. "You are pushing me to the limits of my patience."

The meeting Callis had insisted on to discuss her premonition had clearly gone nowhere.

Instead of answers, it had only stirred old wounds neither of them was ready to face.

Kiev’s shoulders stiffened.

"Leave... before I do something I might regret. I’ve had enough of this nonsense!"

Tears streamed uncontrollably down Callis’s cheeks. Emotions were running high.

"I’ve had enough too, brother!" she shouted, voice filled with resentment.

Kiev’s brow lifted sharply.

"What do you mean?" he asked, turning back to face her.

Callis’s expression hardened as a sudden resolve filled her eyes.

"I’m going to tell Anna," she declared. "About her husband... About the life she once had in Cassian."

She drew a breath before continuing. "And after that, I’ll tell Father and Mother everything."

Kiev’s gaze darkened.

"Everything?" he repeated.

"Yes! That includes the truth about your marriage to Elis," Callis said firmly. "And about mine to Rafe."

"Don’t you dare!" Kiev shouted.

His sudden outburst echoed across the chamber.

"It’s better if they don’t know, especially Princess Anna," he said, his voice tightening. "Her life as it is now... that is what God has allowed for her. It should remain that way."

"That’s not your decision to make!" Callis shouted. "Everyone deserves to know the truth!"

Her eyes flashed defiantly.

"If you won’t tell them, then I will! I’ll tell Father and Mother about everything that happened during our voyage to the continent—about the people we met and the things we’ve been hiding all this time!"

Kiev’s jaw tightened.

He had kept those matters secret for a reason. Not for himself. But for Anna.

All that the King and Queen of the Mederians knew was that the mission to retrieve the Khasif had been completed, with only a slight delay caused by an uprising led by Kaizer Ronan, the former Prime Minister of Ardel—at least, that was the report Kiev had given them.

Revealing the full truth now would only shatter the fragile peace the princess had managed to build for herself.

Yet Callis had already turned away. Without another word, she stormed towards the door.

Kiev let out a heavy sigh. He was not afraid of the truth being revealed. What troubled him was only Anna.

In the state she was in now, the sudden revelation of her forgotten past would only bring confusion and pain.

Still, he could not allow Callis to act recklessly.

Reluctantly, Kiev pushed himself away from the balcony and followed after her, trailing the path she had taken through the corridor.

But what had begun as a simple confrontation soon took a far more disturbing turn.

Before he could even catch up with her, shouts erupted from the far end of the hall.

Servants ran past in panic, their voices overlapping in frightened cries.

When Kiev finally reached the courtyard where Anna had been only moments before, his steps halted abruptly.

Chaos had erupted.

Blood stained the stone floor.

Something unimaginable had happened.