The Grand Duke's Soulmate-Chapter 578: The answer he finally saw

Right at that moment, a sharp knock hit the main chamber door from outside with a loud, insistent, and impossible-to-ignore noise.

Mary flinched. Her heart still hammered from the earlier revelation, and though she wanted to hear more, duty dragged her back to the present.

"I’ll see to it," she said, bowing before turning towards the door.

As she hurried away, Kyren’s voice followed her—animated now, urging Elis to explain more about the soulmate magic—but the princess consort’s reply faded into a blur as distance swallowed the sound.

Mary quickened her steps and opened the door.

To her surprise, the man standing there was not who she expected.

For a fleeting moment before opening, she thought it might be Garin, the knight who occasionally visited the princess consort. But it wasn’t him.

"Sir Navin!" Mary’s eyes widened in shock.

"His Highness the Grand Duke and Rafael are here, aren’t they?" Eric, who stood tall, asked bluntly, offering no greeting.

Mary’s lips parted, trembling as if to speak, but no words came. She faltered, instinctively tightening her grip on the door.

Eric read the answer in her silence.

"I thought so," he said coolly. "Let me in."

"N–now isn’t the right moment, Sir Navin!" Mary protested, attempting to push the door shut.

The knight’s palm struck the wood, shoving it open with decisive force. The female attendant stumbled a step, startled.

"Rafael left the banquet without a word," Eric continued, his gaze sharp and unyielding. "When I went to look for His Highness, a servant told me he stormed straight here. I assume Rafael asked you to call for the Grand Duke, didn’t he?"

Mary said nothing. Her eyes widened further, her body stiffening as she realised how precisely he had pieced it together.

Eric’s expression hardened.

"Something is brewing inside," he said, sure of it now. "Let me in, Mary."

Kyren had emerged without hesitation, breaking the self-imposed isolation that neither he nor anyone else had managed to breach for a long time.

Even persuading the Grand Duke to attend the wedding ceremony had required the utmost care, and he had agreed only reluctantly, purely out of duty.

Whatever was behind that door had to be urgent and significant enough to pull a man who had long withdrawn from the world back into action.

Mary still hesitated, but the second-in-command knight had lost his patience entirely.

"Please excuse my impoliteness," Eric said as he pushed the door wide open and entered without permission, passing by the female attendant, who was dragged aside by the force.

Mary hurried after him, trying to block his path, but the knight’s strides were long and purposeful.

"W-wait, Sir Navin! Her Highness Princess Elisabeth is not properly dressed to receive visitors!" she exclaimed.

Eric did not even slow.

"Nice try," he remarked dryly. "Your attempt at lying is most convincing."

However, he paused briefly upon entering the front hall. Looking around, he found it unexpectedly empty, with no one other than the two of them.

Mary rushed ahead of him, positioning herself squarely in his line of sight in a final attempt to bar his way.

"Sir Navin, please leave at once," she insisted. "Her Highness will not be comfortable with your presence. She requires her rest."

Eric arched a brow.

"Rest, you say?" His gaze flicked toward the bedroom door, which stood slightly ajar.

Through the narrow opening, he caught the shadow of a figure moving within. A few voices were heard, spoken in a hushed tone. There was no mistake; Kyren and Rafe were there. And definitely Elis.

Before Mary could react, the second-in-command knight moved. He slipped past her again as if she weren’t there.

"Sir Navin! Sir Navin, please wait!" she cried.

Too late.

The bedroom door was pushed fully open, revealing the Grand Duke’s devastated expression as he sat on the chair, Rafe’s solemn stillness, and Elis reclining pale upon the bed.

Eric halted at once, his grey eyes shifting between them. Kyren didn’t turn around—his shoulders drooped as if a heavy blow had knocked the grief back into him, making him indifferent to the knight’s arrival.

Simultaneously, Rafe wore a vacant expression while Elis was mildly surprised by the knight’s presence.

"Forgive my intrusion, Your Highnesses," Eric said, his tone subdued.

Mary arrived breathless.

This marked the second time she had been forced to run after the Knights of Gerhard—first the Commander, now his second-in-command. Their reputations for speed and agility were, unfortunately for her, well earned.

" I-I’m sorry," she said quickly. "I tried to stop him, but—"

"It’s all right, Mary," Elis said gently. "Sir Navin must have had his reasons for coming. You may step aside."

Mary pressed her lips together, guilt rising in her chest, but she obeyed.

She withdrew to stand by the wall, remaining present nonetheless. With men occupying the chamber, proper decorum still demanded that she stay as Elis’s attendant.

"Pardon me, but I was looking for His Highness the Grand Duke. Ayden seemed down, as he couldn’t have toast with him. So, I—"

Eric suddenly froze after drawing in a slow breath. His eyes narrowed as a faint, familiar scent hit his nose; the metallic smell that usually lingered on the battlefield — a scent that shouldn’t be in a lady’s bedroom.

Blood.

His gaze shifted to the nearby dirty laundry basket, from which the smell emanated. His sharp eyes spotted a piece of cloth smeared with crimson colours within.

At once, the knight’s expression sharpened.

"Are you injured, Your Highness Princess Elisabeth?" he asked the princess consort.

"She’s not injured," Rafe responded instead. "She...," he exhaled deeply,"...she’s pregnant."

Eric’s irises widened when he received the unexpected news.

"Pregnant?" he said, his face turning alarmed. "Then... the blood?"

"She vomited just now. She’s showing the same symptoms as Lady Raychard. The baby requires its father’s mana." Rafe explained further.

The knight’s shoulders eased, and his breathing became steadier. The distant memory that flashed through him filled him with worry that Elis might have met the same end. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

"No wonder you came rushing here, Your Highness," the knight said to the Grand Duke.

Kyren’s silence spoke louder than words. His eyes never lifted. Eric inhaled slowly — the weight in the room told him everything he needed to know.

"If Her Highness Princess Elisabeth is pregnant, that means..." He did not finish, his thumb brushing his lips as he pondered the matter.

"Yes, Eric," Rafe replied, already knowing what was on his friend’s mind. "We were discussing that... about how to send her to Semeta."

The second-in-command knight turned to Elis and asked hesitantly, aware of the fierce argument she had once had with her husband that led to their separation.

"Are you willing for it? To go to the island?"

"I am, for the sake of my baby," the princess consort replied, holding her belly with firm resolve.

"You may be willing, but I believe the issue here is that..." Eric’s eyes narrowed toward Kyren. He paused briefly before continuing, "...you will need His Highness the Grand Duke to accompany you for the mana feeding throughout the journey. But he cannot, because of the blockage... and we are also uncertain of Semeta’s exact location."

Elis’s mouth agape at how adept the knight was at reading the room, as if he could glimpse into people’s minds simply by observing their expressions and gestures.

Meanwhile, Rafe and Kyren remained silent and grave. They were not surprised by Eric’s sharp intuition, as he had always been known as someone who understood hearts easily.

"How do you know, Sir Navin?" Elis asked.

Mary was equally astonished when the princess consort questioned the knight, affirming that his guesses were all correct.

Eric gave a half-smile.

"I’ve known them both for a long time, Your Highness. It’s written all over them."

"Then perhaps..." Elis leaned forward, her voice eager. "Perhaps you could find a way to invoke the soulmate magic. It’s the only thing I can think of that might break the barrier and allow His Highness and me to reach Semeta."

"Wait... you mean you’ve known how to break the barrier all this time?" Eric asked, eyes wide with surprise. "Why didn’t you tell us?"

The princess consort hesitated briefly, a flicker of guilt crossing her features.

She then confessed, "Actually, I don’t know the exact way. Just now, we were discussing it, but none of us really understands how soulmate magic works."

"Tell me more," Eric said, intrigued.

"It was something Kiev once said," the princess consort replied. "Soulmate magic is a mystical power bestowed upon soulmates, allowing them to reconnect no matter how vast the distance. That’s how Lady Raychard’s father reached the island to find her mother. I thought His Highness might be able to do the same, since he shares power with her."

Eric’s ears perked up eagerly. The revelation sparked his interest, as did Mary’s. This was what she had missed while attending to the door.

"I can’t," Kyren said bitterly. "There’s no point in trying. Even if I knew how to invoke it, the barrier would eventually reject the magic. You know how it is."

"I do," the second-in-command knight replied quietly. "The magic would clash with your own power. You cannot override the force that was born from you."

He paused before adding, "And you never performed the ritual itself. Your bond with Lady Raychard was formed by her mother’s casting, not by the soulmate rite."

Kyren closed his eyes, his posture drooping in defeat, while Rafe looked downward, both believing they had reached a dead end.

However, Eric showed a different expression—brooding, as though something had come up in his mind.

"You said the magic is bestowed upon soulmates, didn’t you?" he asked Elis gently, rubbing his chin.

"Yes. The bond between soulmates is a strong connection that unites two souls in an unbreakable way. It is created through the soulmate declaration during the ritual, even if love is unreciprocated. That’s why Kiev was so upset with Rafe for performing the ritual without knowing," replied the princess consort.

The healer’s eyes dimmed with a sudden remembrance of a feeling born from a bond he never sought but never truly regretted.

On the contrary, Eric’s eyes shimmered.

"That’s it!" he exclaimed. "That’s the answer to our problem!"