It is my Destiny to be the Savior of the Protagonist

0. The starting point of the anomaly

Duke Franz Eldier looked young for his age. Gorgeous platinum hair, blue eyes like the clear sky, and well-balanced eyes. Even though he was closer to 40 than 30, his beauty has not faded at all to the extent that he was said to be a work of art. He was said to have a beautiful smile that even made the viewer feel better.

“Welcome, Archmage.”

Archmage Solan Garcia thought while watching the Duke smile.

‘I want to burn his face with fire.’

The old Archmage did not hide his true feelings. He frowned and let out his words.

“Don’t laugh.”

” Yes?”

“Seeing you smile makes me feel like I’m making a mistake. Maybe it’s because I’m older, but my patience isn’t what it used to be.”

“… Ah, yes.”

The Duke stopped laughing and cleared his throat.

“I repeat, the death of my wife was also a sudden accident for me. You know that she was originally a weak person, don’t you?”

“The guy who impregnated a weak child and took her away sure speaks well.”

“We loved each other! It wasn’t even because of her pregnancy that she died!”

The Duke burst into anger. The Archmage crossed his arms, hoping to hear what his damn son-in-law was talking about. The Duke took a deep breath and continued.

“My daughter is already seven years old, so how could she collapse now because of her childbirth seven years ago?”

“Then what did she do that killed my daughter before she was thirty?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Not because of me, but because of pollution.”

“Gloria was an Elementalist. An Elementalists dying from pollution? Say something that make sense.”

“She has never really fought pollution because her body was weak. Do you know how shocked I was to be like that because the Elementalist entered the contaminated area?”

The Duke beat his chest as if frustrated and unfair. The Archmage gave him a chin.

“Then now explain why you suddenly sent your wife to the polluted area. You know very well that Gloria has never been to a polluted area in her life, so why?”

“She said she was going.”

“Even if she said she would go, you should have stopped her.”

“I thought so too many times. I should have dried it. Why couldn’t I stop her?”

The Duke paused for a moment. Tears welled up in his blue eyes. He cried and cried.

“But Gloria… She was also an Elementalist herself, but she asked why I couldn’t believe it. Shouldn’t her husband trust and support his wife, she begged me, that she could do it… Her, only her, for her sake, her… I hope that such a result would come out…”

The Duke bowed his head and he began to sob. It was like a model husband who lost his wife in an unexpected accident and was lost in her grief. The Archmage stared at him like that and then said as if tossing it.

“Hey, you laughed a lot earlier, but now you seem to be in tears.”

“I thought it got better with time… When I think of my wife I just… Excuse me.”

The Duke answered while wiping away tears. His facial expression and tone were desperate. He looked even more desperate because he had a beautiful appearance like a prince in a fairy tale. However, the Archmage only felt uncomfortable.

‘A guy I hate to see.’

No matter how Duke he was, he wanted to kill him from the moment he married his late youngest daughter, who was only 18 years old. He told her he would disown her if she was going to marry him, but her youngest daughter cut off real contact with him. After entering the Duchy of Eldeer, the Archmage had not heard from his daughter at all. Once she made a decision, the stubbornness to not look back was very similar, fearing that it was someone’s daughter.

‘Even if she didn’t, he, the son-in-law, should have contacted me!’

No matter how, it was 8 years of no contact. He didn’t like it very much. If she left like that, she would have lived well as if to show off, but dying before thirty was nothing like that.

‘To hear the news after the funeral is over… Because she became a mother, she couldn’t even look at the way to the end…’

It felt like his heart had turned into a stone thorn and poked his insides. The Archmage turned the pain into anger and screamed.

“Why did you give the news so late? I didn’t even see my daughter’s funeral!”

“I called right away! I just didn’t know that the messenger would be annihilated by the monsters on the way.”

“If that’s the case, send another one, what if I could have helped her!”

“I sent a new messenger as soon as I understood the situation, but it was already too late…”

“If you don’t receive a reply, shouldn’t you send it again and check the situation? Or, postpone the funeral until we can contact you!”

“I’ve never contacted you, so it’s a little late to figure out if you heard the news and ignored it.”

The Archmage, who had nothing to say, fell silent for a moment.

18-year-old Gloria asked sadly.

‘Are you not coming to my wedding?’

The Archmage did not even look back while he answered.

‘I’m not going to a wedding with a guy like that. Hit me up now. It is enough to take away the child.’

‘Take it off? I’m not a kid. You stupid Daddy! Are you really not doing too much?’

Gloria got angry and ran out. That was his last memory with his youngest daughter. He didn’t know that his next memory with his daughter would be a letter about her daughter’s funeral.

‘I’d rather not be stubborn and look into it steadily…’

Then he wouldn’t be late and he might have been able to save her somehow. No matter how Eldeer was the best Duke in the kingdom, as a great mage himself, he might have been able to do something more.

The archmage gritted his teeth as he felt like shed tears at the thought. Words leaked out like moans.

“If I had been there, it might have been different…”

The Duke looked at him and spoke cautiously.

“I did my best too. Even if there was a cannabis master, nothing would have changed. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Aside from the Archmage’s personal dislike of appearances, the Duke of Eldeer was a highly sought-after person. He was young, handsome, and even a good-natured Duke. Until his marriage, he was considered the best groom in the kingdom. His marriage to Gloria Weaver was also said to be romantic because it was a love marriage. It is said that many people came to the wedding to celebrate. The only one who was dissatisfied with the marriage was the hemp master. Even after the death of the Duchess, all of them comforted the Duke at the loss of his wife. Gloria’s death was, by all accounts, an unfortunate accident.

The archmage himself knew best, having already investigated before coming to the duchy. No matter how much he searched, there was nothing suspicious about the death of his youngest daughter. If there was even the slightest nitpicking, he was going to throw everything down, including the Duke.

‘Maybe I twisted him from the beginning, so he continues to look that way.’

Gloria’s mother, his wife, was also naturally weak. Even so, she liked children, and she gave birth to three. Even when the Archmage tried to stop her, she didn’t listen. He kept thinking that maybe that was the reason why her wife left him, who was much older than she was. Even the Archmage himself had not been able to stop his wife’s stubbornness.

Considering that, it was understandable that the Duke of Eldeer couldn’t stop Gloria’s stubbornness.

The archmage sighed.

The Duke, realizing that he would not interrogate him further, spoke up.

“While you are here, please go and see your granddaughter. You’ve never seen her before.”

The Archmage did not answer. He was at a loss as to how to deal with the granddaughter he would only see after her daughter’s death. The Duke took a close look at the aArchmage, who seemed uncomfortable, and called the princess in. Soon, a cute girl like a doll in a luxurious dress came in.

“You don’t know the child’s name. This is Ariadne Eldeer. She turns seven this year.”

“I know how old she is.”

“Ah, yes.”

The Duke beckoned his child and set her before the archmage.

“Aria, say hi. It’s your maternal grandfather.”

The princess held the hem of her skirt with both her hands, and bowed her waist. She was a dainty greeting.

The Archmage frowned involuntarily.

She was very pretty as a child, but she looked exactly like the Duke of Eldeer. Her curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Slightly raised eyebrows. It was a gorgeous impression.

Gloria had purple eyes with light brown hair. Rather than flashy, it has a gentle and soft impression.

‘They don’t look alike at all.’

He would believe it even if she was the daughter of the Duke of Eldeer alone. He didn’t like it. 

When the Archmage made an impression without even being greeted, the child’s complexion turned pale. She wanted to be sorry, but it was already too late. It was also funny to be her maternal grandfather now. Anyway, since she was the only princess of Eldeer and she looked exactly like her father, the Duke would take care of raising her.

“It’s okay, I already saw her face.”

The archmage gestured to let the child go.

The Duke immediately tried to send the princess away.

That was the moment. The little princess shook her father’s hand and ran to the Archmage. She exclaimed with her pale face as the child knelt before him.

“Please take me, Grandpa.”

The Archmage’s eyes widened at the unexpected situation. The Duke was also taken aback.

Ariadne Eldeer looked up at the Archmage with a prayerful heart.

‘If I miss this opportunity, I will never be able to meet the Archmage again. So please…’

From the moment she realized what kind of world she was born as, she only aimed for this moment. In the ‘original work’, ‘Ariadne’ at this moment was terrified, she was thrown into the Duke’s arms.

Young children quickly learn whether an adult likes or dislikes them. From the perspective of ‘Ariadne’ in the original work, the maternal grandfather, the great wizard, clearly hated her. That was true, but avoiding it wasn’t the answer.

She knew the original. The archmage who hated her was much better than ‘Dad’. Even if she was teased and scolded by the Archmage, it would be much better for her than living with the Duke in the palace of Eldeer.