I Proposed Because You Were Terminally Ill - Chapter 11

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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 11

“Young Duke, are you alright?”

When Cassian remained motionless for a while, Damia tilted her head.

It was Damia who had nearly fallen into the water, so she seemed puzzled as to why he had turned pale.

“What did you mean when you said you found something?”

Damia was looking at him with a worried expression. When their eyes met, his heart began beating even faster.

“It’s nothing.”

Cassian let out a long breath. Only after a long while did his relentlessly pounding heart finally calm down.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

He lowered his eyes, avoiding Damia’s direct gaze. As his excitement subsided, suspicion raised its head.

An ordinary viscount’s daughter was deeply entangled with his curse.

She had created a cure that even renowned physicians had given up on, and with just one touch, she had briefly stood against the dragon’s curse.

‘She said she wanted only one thing—an engagement with me.’

Looking back, everything seemed suspicious. Cassian examined Damia carefully.

Her delicately crafted features, her calm yet subtly bold personality, and even her somewhat pitiful aspects.

It was as if she had been calculated and created to weaken Cassian’s heart.

‘Is all of this really just coincidence?’

Damia Ponti was only thirteen years old, too young to be entrusted with important responsibilities.

He had secretly assigned people to watch her, but there had been no contact with suspicious groups.

He had set aside his suspicions about her being a spy, but perhaps that had been too hasty?

“Are you perhaps afraid of snakes?”

The word “snake” broke through Cassian’s contemplation.

“Don’t worry, Young Duke. It’s a very gentle snake, so it’s fine.”

Damia smiled brightly while holding the white snake wrapped around one hand.

“What are you doing? Didn’t you almost get bitten just now?”

Cassian’s cheek stiffened at the surreal sight.

Her delicate appearance was just a facade—with that level of courage, the possibility of her being a spy couldn’t be ruled out.

“Oh, that’s right. It’s supposed to be very gentle, so I wonder why it suddenly acted like that?”

Despite Cassian’s shock, Damia remained calm. Her expression was too innocent for someone with ulterior motives.

She seemed completely unaware of what changes had occurred in Cassian through contact with her. Could that really be an act?

Even in his profound confusion, one thing was certain.

Whether she was a spy or truly a stroke of luck that had rolled his way by chance, he could no longer let go of this unpredictable girl.

With just one contact with Damia, the curse had quieted.

Such a miracle couldn’t happen twice with another person.

“Put it down quickly and come here. We’re stopping the boat ride immediately.”

“What? Why?”

“You’re hurt, and you expect me to just sit still?”

He had to bind Damia to his side by any means necessary. Whatever the girl’s true identity, Cassian had to protect Damia’s safety.

* * *

The boat ride was suddenly halted, and then shocking news arrived.

“A snake appeared on the boat the Young Duke was riding?”

Gasps of shock erupted from the boys and girls gathered in the garden.

“And the Young Duke’s fiancée was bitten?”

“Oh my, isn’t this terrible?”

“Was it an accident? Or perhaps…”

Voices mixed with worry and curiosity filled the garden.

‘Surely I wasn’t discovered?’

Drury, standing among them, bit her lips tightly.

Her heart was pounding like crazy, but she couldn’t show it.

‘I just wanted to see Damia Ponti get bitten by a snake and cry pathetically.’

But that soft-looking girl hadn’t cried, let alone screamed.

‘There was no point in risking danger and even pushing in my handkerchief!’

Was it because she took out her anger on them whenever she was upset?

The snakes kept at the marquis’s mansion were terribly afraid of Drury.

The scent of Drury’s perfume that had thoroughly soaked into the handkerchief could make even the gentlest snake aggressive.

After all, they had survival instincts too.

“Lady Soro Marquis, are you alright?”

If someone discovered that handkerchief, she planned to pretend she had lost it.

She could just frame one of the maids she brought along, claiming she had always been prone to stealing.

“Lady Drury!”

Drury startled and quickly raised her head.

The girls around her were looking at her with puzzled faces.

Drury quickly hid her hands behind her back. She had bitten so hard that her nails were already ragged.

“Oh, snakes are so shocking that I…”

The girls nodded vigorously at Drury’s words.

“That’s right. Ugh, snakes are so horrible.”

In the Belotea Empire, dragons were nothing short of disasters. Snakes, which reminded people of dragons, were also objects of disgust.

So no one knew that Drury kept dozens of snakes.

“Lord Cassian will be alright, won’t he?”

Tears had already welled up in Drury’s eyes.

Thanks to a secret yawn, Drury looked like an innocent girl worried about the Young Duke.

“The Young Duke is… Huh? He’s trying to carry his fiancée himself?”

What? Drury’s face flushed red.

“Is the viscount’s daughter seriously injured? From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Even so, he could have the servants do it, why go to such lengths…”

She thought it was nonsense, but it was real.

Cassian was heading toward the manor while carrying Damia in his arms.

With an urgent expression, as if he couldn’t hear Damia and the servants’ protests.

Flames surged up in Drury’s stomach.

“Oh my, he must be truly smitten with Viscount Ponti’s daughter.”

“That’s right. This is the first time I’ve seen the Young Duke so flustered.”

Drury believed that Cassian would naturally become hers. Her father had already promised her that several times.

So the Young Duke should fall into Drury’s arms without being touched by anyone else’s hands.

“Don’t you think the two of them have become much closer than before boarding the boat?”

“Right. I felt it too!”

The girls whispered among themselves, unable to contain themselves while still watching Drury’s reaction.

She had risked danger to cause trouble for Damia, but ended up bringing those two closer together with her own hands.

‘How dare a mere viscount’s daughter!’

Drury ground her teeth. Her bright blue eyes blazed with fury.

* * *

“Please put me down, Young Duke!”

“Be quiet. You’re an emergency patient.”

“I was only bitten very lightly. I can walk!”

Cassian didn’t even pretend to listen and headed toward the manor. He was carrying Damia directly in his arms like a princess.

“Everyone’s staring at us!”

“What does that matter? I’m just fulfilling my duty as a fiancé.”

“No. I think you’re being excessive!”

Damia struggled, but Cassian didn’t budge an inch.

Rather, as if worried she might fall, he even pulled her tighter into his embrace.

‘Why is he acting like this!’

Damia’s cheeks were burning so hot she felt like she was going crazy.

The princess carry wasn’t the only problem. Cassian had even torn his own shirt to wrap it tightly around Damia’s hand.

“Viscount Ponti’s daughter must be seriously injured!”

‘No, that’s not it!’

The soft texture of the shirt kept tickling her skin.

This one shirt probably cost more than several years’ worth of Damia’s dresses.

“Y-Young Duke. Is your fiancée in critical condition?!”

The physician came running over, his face pale as a sheet.

“Is the situation so urgent that you had to carry her while running!”

“That’s right. Time is of the essence, so hurry!”

All the commotion was driving her insane. And Cassian, who was making it even worse, was another story entirely.

Damia no longer had the courage to even try to stop him.

The Young Duke had always had an unpredictable personality, but he’d become much stranger since the incident on the boat.

‘I think he muttered something about finding it…’

After that, Cassian began obsessing over Damia’s well-being to an eerie degree.

Even though Damia had repeatedly explained that the white snake had no venom whatsoever and that she’d only been bitten very lightly, so she was perfectly fine.

‘It’s not like he suddenly started genuinely liking me.’

After all, it was Cassian himself who had repeatedly emphasized that this temporary engagement was nothing more than a contract.

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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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