Ah.
This was exactly as I remembered.
The moment Aeliana died in the novel, that was when the decline of the Thaddeus Duchy truly began.
It was the turning point.
Because after that—after losing his daughter—the Duke himself had taken on a suicidal task.
He had confronted the Kraken.
And he had lost.
Not his life—no, not immediately.
But his arm.
Even as an Awakened, even as a man who had reached the peak of an 8-star, he could not regrow something severed by an otherworldly being like that Kraken.
The wound had been permanent.
A mark of failure that could never be undone.
And that? That had changed everything.
The loss of his right arm had been more than just a physical handicap. It had been a symbolic defeat.
A reminder that the once-unshakable Duke Thaddeus was not invincible.
