I Proposed Because You Were Terminally Ill - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1

The short yet dazzling summer of the Belotea Empire.

Cassian Sarkis, who had arrived at the port, narrowed his eyes against the pouring sunlight.

“Your Grace, are you alright?”

The salt-tinged wind tickled his sculpted face. Cassian slowly swept back his disheveled black hair.

Even passersby held their breath and stole glances at the man, captivated by that picturesque scene.

“My fiancée was planning to flee into exile today.”

Cassian brought up his business first, as if others’ gazes meant nothing to him.

“From the circumstances, it appears she was trying to board a ship departing for the kingdom.”

After turning his entire life upside down, she was really trying to run away?

Cassian exhaled a suppressed breath through his clenched teeth.

“Is she already aboard?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Shall I bring her to you?”

Was she perhaps planning to seek out that pathetic childhood friend of hers who had moved to the kingdom?

Cassian, who had been staring at the ship, let out a hollow laugh.

Vivid jealousy was boiling up in his red eyes.

“No, I’ll go myself.”

He barely managed to pull his straight lips into a smile. As if he wouldn’t allow any objections.

* * *

The narrow corridor in front of the cabin was sparsely populated and somewhat dim.

And there, a woman who didn’t suit that place at all was shining alone.

‘She really was here.’

Cassian swallowed the surging passion by biting his lips firmly.

Though he was relieved to have found her before losing her forever, the fact that she had truly tried to abandon him was devastating.

“Damia Ponti.”

The woman, startled by that call, turned around.

As if she had intended to hide her identity, she wore a shabby cloak pulled low.

“Why so surprised? Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you?”

He had only taken a couple of steps closer, but somehow he had already cornered her against the wall.

As if shocked by his appearance, Damia’s violet eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

Even in this situation, he found himself ridiculous for thinking she looked adorable.

“Young Duke, no, Your Grace. Why on earth are you here…?”

“Why else? I came to retrieve my fiancée who ran away before our wedding.”

“A wedding? You were really planning to marry me?”

“What?”

Cassian’s eyes wavered momentarily at the unexpected question.

“And running away? What did I do wrong that I would be running away?”

So she hadn’t been trying to run away after all?

A slight hope rose in Cassian’s chest.

“I’m just… leaving. For a new beginning.”

But the shock that felt like being thrown into an abyss came immediately.

“…And there’s no place for me in your new beginning?”

“What?”

Damia only asked back with a flustered expression.

“That’s… no, shouldn’t you get off quickly first? What will you do if the ship sets sail like this?”

“Don’t change the subject, Damia. When you proposed to me first, and now you’re tired of me?”

“Why are you suddenly acting like this? You showed absolutely no interest in me throughout the entire contract period!”

Damia looked around and shouted in a low voice. It was a voice that sounded truly wronged.

“Didn’t you personally hand me a contract saying it would be troublesome if I misunderstood your kindness? You kept emphasizing that this engagement was just a transaction!”

Since it wasn’t entirely wrong, Cassian’s fiery momentum was somewhat deflated.

At that moment, her fine silver hair escaped from the cloak and fluttered in the wind.

Every time Damia moved, her distinctive sweet fragrance wafted over. The rationality he had barely held onto seemed about to snap.

“So, what kind of new beginning are you planning to make by going to the kingdom? Don’t tell me you’re planning to go to that childhood friend of yours…”

Damia briefly gasped and averted her gaze.

It was a reaction unlike his fiancée, who had always looked directly at him despite Cassian’s coldness.

“You really were planning to do that, weren’t you?”

“No, I…”

A sigh-like laugh burst from Cassian.

Rather than lose Damia like this, he wanted to kneel and beg her not to abandon him.

Even though he had never bowed his head to anyone since the moment he was born.

But he was afraid that if he did that, Damia would be disgusted with him forever.

“You said you loved me? That you loved me so much you wanted to stay by my side even knowing you might die soon.”

“That was…”

“When did you decide to leave? Did someone bother you? Or did I do something wrong?”

“It’s not like that.”

“…Then don’t tell me you were planning to leave like this from the beginning?”

“No, that’s… Your Grace would never come to love me this time either…”

Damia, as if in a daze, muttered incomprehensible words, but Cassian didn’t detect the strangeness.

He only stared at Damia’s violet eyes, which were shaking pitifully.

Her lips, which had been trembling constantly, ultimately couldn’t produce either denial or excuse.

“Haha…”

Seeing that reaction, it became clear today. He had been harboring unrequited love for his fiancée all this time.

He felt like he might lose his way between the clumsy affection he had realized too late and his presumptuous sense of betrayal toward Damia.

The breath that would heat up every time he thought of her. The countless nights he had spent sleepless because of emotions he couldn’t acknowledge.

“Damia, you can’t leave.”

Before long, the arrogant boy had disappeared, leaving only a man who looked dangerously desperate.

“Whatever your intentions were when you proposed to me, I have no intention of letting you go for the rest of my life.”

“Your Grace, our contract has already ended.”

As if it was too late for regrets now, Damia’s voice was very resolute.

He hadn’t known that childish contract would hold him back until now.

“Even pity would be fine.”

“What did you say?”

“I’ll beg if you want me to beg. No, I’ll do anything you tell me to do. So please, just don’t abandon me.”

In the end, Cassian ended up pleading disgracefully.

Damia turned pale as if she had forgotten how to breathe.

“Your Grace, you clearly found me bothersome. So why…”

The sweltering summer air constricted his breathing, but it wasn’t as torturous as Damia’s bewildered expression.

Yes, the day he first met this cowardly fiancée was also a brilliant summer day like today, when he was fifteen.

* * *

“I’ll make a prophecy. Young Duke, your brilliant life will soon fall.”

“…What?”

The fifteen-year-old boy, Cassian Sarkis, who had been leisurely leaning against a tree admiring the lake, furrowed his straight brow.

“Instead, I’ll pull it back up for you. Actually, I love you, Young Duke.”

Silver hair reaching her waist and gem-like violet eyes. Her young face was as pretty as a doll, but she was a pitifully thin girl.

And despite making such a precocious and sudden confession, she was extremely calm.

“Oh, I’m Damia from the Ponti Baronial House. It’s such a humble family, and I’ve never really had any presence until now, so you probably wouldn’t know me.”

Even her belated self-introduction was quite a spectacle.

‘What nonsense is she spouting…? Is this some new approach? Now they’re trying all sorts of tricks.’

Every girl in the Belotea Empire was using all kinds of bizarre methods to catch Cassian’s attention.

Just as Cassian was about to sneer and rebuke the girl.

Damia Ponti smiled brightly as if she had already anticipated this.

“You’ve already been given your death date, haven’t you?”

“…What, what did you say?”

It was a shocking statement that could freeze the young boy’s entire body.

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting right now?”

“Unfortunately, your denial came a beat too late, Young Duke.”

Damia let out a light sigh and shrugged her shoulders.

“You don’t need to hide anything from me. I’m on your side, Young Duke.”

Despite looking several years younger than Cassian, her eyes seemed to regard him with pity, as if he were a much younger brother.

“Where on earth did you hear such…”

Sparks seemed to fly from Cassian’s red eyes.

It was an impatient interrogation that would have made an ordinary girl burst into tears, yet Damia appeared completely serene.

“Now, let me explain my value to you.”

“Do you think you can get away with spouting such words to me?”

“Please become my fiancé instead.”

The life of Cassian, the sole heir of the Count Sarkis Family, had been picture-perfect.

Until the summer of his fifteenth year, when an unremarkable baron’s daughter discovered his lifelong secret and made a surprise marriage proposal.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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