I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 2

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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 2

‘Huh?’

An unfamiliar ceiling.

The crackling sound of a fireplace burning pierced through her muffled ears.

Clemente’s hazy gaze slowly moved as she recalled the situation before losing consciousness.

She had definitely been climbing the mountain, avoiding rocks, when she got lost.

Her food had run out completely, and while searching for a path in her hungry state, she had misstepped and tumbled down the steep mountain trail.

‘Is this suffocating feeling because of my injuries?’

When she slowly lifted her head while lying down, an unimaginable scene unfolded before her.

Two young children were clinging to her chest and stomach.

Clemente, who instantly came to her senses, examined the children.

She wondered if her heat had run wild while she was unconscious and hurt the children, or if they had been burned by her hot body temperature despite having clothes and blankets.

Then she met eyes with a little girl who was staring intently at her.

Those eyes were filled with curiosity and, for some reason, fondness.

‘They seem okay?’

Clemente let out a sigh of relief and gently curved her lips upward.

“Hello?”

When she awkwardly spoke the self-taught Imperial language, the children simultaneously jumped up and ran out.

“Mommy! The furnace is talking!”

Watching the children leave while saying strange things, Clemente scratched her cheek.

‘What words are similar to furnace?’

It didn’t take long for her to realize she hadn’t misheard.

“It seems the children were playing a prank because your body is hot. Apologize, Lora.”

The children’s mother came over with an embarrassed smile and offered an apology. Lora puffed out her cheeks.

“Isn’t your face all burned because you’re a furnace?”

“Hey! She just came from another region!”

“No! You’re a furnace! Lora’s furnace!”

Lora climbed onto the bed with effort and clung tightly to Clemente’s side.

Lora’s twin brother Rudo, who had been sucking his finger, smiled brightly and lay down on Clemente’s legs.

“Hey, you two! To someone who just woke up—”

“It’s okay. I like it.”

“Pardon?”

Looking at the flustered mother, Clemente showed a harmless smile.

“My savior. Thank you for rescuing me.”

“Oh, no. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

With those words, silence settled over them. The mother kept glancing at Clemente while tending to the children. She seemed to have many questions.

‘That’s understandable.’

Even among the white-skinned Imperial people, those living in the Northern Region had particularly snow-like skin.

The Northern Region’s characteristic light-colored hair was also different from Clemente’s.

Vivid scarlet hair and lightly tanned skin. Anyone could tell she was an outsider.

Moreover, clearly someone from the desert in the continent’s south.

As the words themselves suggested, the desert and the Northern Region were complete opposites. Even traveling between the Northern Region and the Capital wasn’t easy.

An outsider from the south when even fellow Imperial citizens would be a curiosity?

It would be strange not to be curious. That was true even excluding her strange constitution.

“I’m Clemente. I’m 21 years old and I came here because I like cold places.”

“Ah, I see. I’m Ruby.”

Ruby hesitated but couldn’t take her eyes off Clemente.

She couldn’t forget the situation when she first discovered Clemente.

Despite the falling snow, there wasn’t a trace of white around her. It was warm enough that no breath vapor appeared.

For someone born and raised in the Northern Region, it was an unimaginable situation.

While a blizzard raged from the sky, the air surrounding Clemente was so warm that snow turned to rain.

It was her first time seeing water fall instead of snow.

Clemente’s existence was that mysterious. She clearly had human form, yet felt like she wasn’t human.

‘Right, she was like a fire fairy from the Founding Legends.’

The fire fairy who joined forces with the first emperor who founded the Empire to defeat an evil dragon.

It was said that fire fairies could warm the world and purify evil through their mere existence.

The greatest evil in the Northern Region was precisely this snow that fell constantly!

A person who could melt such snow.

The legend that a fire fairy slept somewhere in the Northern Region was a famous story among Northern people, so it wasn’t strange for them to think of fire fairies when seeing Clemente.

‘But it doesn’t make sense for a real fire fairy to be collapsed on the ground.’

Then what could that person’s identity be?

She seemed kind and warm, but human hearts don’t show on the surface. Yet asking directly seemed rude.

As Ruby’s worries grew, Clemente called to her with a bright smile.

“Ruby, ah. May I call you Ruby?”

“Yes, I don’t mind.”

“Then Ruby, please tell me where the village chief’s house is.”

“Why do you need that…?”

“This is my first village! I want to live here.”

Ruby blinked.

“You want to… live here?”

“Yes. Oh, would that be unwelcome?”

“It’s not that, but…”

She was worried about how the village chief and the people here would accept Clemente.

They might revere her as an incarnation of a fire fairy, or they might reject her as non-human.

“Outside the village is fine too. If you don’t want to meet, I won’t meet anyone.”

What kind of life had this person lived for such words to come so naturally?

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and sighed.

“I’ll arrange for you to meet the village chief. Don’t expect me to persuade him though.”

“That’s fine. Thank you!”

Clemente simply smiled with joy. Seeing that happy smile made Ruby’s heart even more complicated.

“Our house furnace! Mine! Can’t give it away!”

“Furnace… warm.”

It was fascinating to see Lora and Lu clinging to Clemente and being stubborn. They were children who were extremely shy with strangers.

‘Maybe I should speak to Lady Rossia…’

Rossia was handling affairs inside and outside the territory in place of the secluded Duke and the bedridden Dowager Duchess.

‘Somehow through a head maid’s recommendation… Even when the manor interior freezes over, it would melt quickly if Clemente went there.’

Wiping away water took much less effort than scraping off ice.

Ruby, who had unconsciously been thinking of ways to utilize Clemente’s usefulness, shook her head.

It was overstepping her bounds. Considering the Ducal Household’s circumstances, they couldn’t let just anyone in.

“Kyahaha! Kyah! Kahahaha!”

Seeing the twins laughing as if they might run out of breath from whatever made them so happy felt bittersweet.

What about Clemente, who was carefully stroking the children with a flushed face while not knowing what to do? Her heart kept softening.

‘Just… let me really try talking about it.’

Having made that decision, she felt like a weight had been lifted.

“Kids, stop that and come here. You need to let her rest more.”

“Ah, it’s okay!”

Clemente was waving her hand when she noticed the unfamiliar sleeves.

Unlike the loose desert clothes that swayed with every movement, these were Northern clothes with sleeves tightly closed to the ends.

“I changed your clothes. They were too dirty. I think they’ll dry in about two days…”

Ruby stopped speaking mid-sentence and closed her mouth. Clemente had grabbed her hands while showing too much joy.

The momentary flinch at the warm, almost hot hands was brief.

“I love it so much! I feel like I’ve become a Northerner! I want to go outside like this!”

“No way! Those are pajamas!”

Ruby had no choice but to shout. It looked like Clemente would open the door and rush out at any moment.

“These are pajamas? They’re so thick!”

“You’ll freeze to death if you go out like that.”

Clemente was taller than Ruby. The pajamas that could wrap around Ruby’s entire body barely came up above Clemente’s ankles, and her wrists were completely exposed.

“It’s fine! I’m hot. Cold doesn’t bother me!”

Clemente shot out like an arrow and stepped on the snow.

The snow felt cool and soft under her bare feet.

It melted instantly, but that was okay. White joy kept pouring down from the sky.

“The heater! The heater will go out at this rate! Watch out for the wind!”

“Broken… me.”

Lora and Lu, who had put on coats and chased after her, simultaneously spread their arms.

‘…This is a first.’

Until now, no one had ever tried to approach her first.

Because she was hot. Because she caught fire. Because she was a disaster. She was someone who had to be driven away, even with stones if necessary.

Even the fortune teller grandmother who had practically raised her had hugged her only once.

‘I’m so happy.’

As if she couldn’t contain her joy, she lifted the corners of her mouth and spread her arms wide.

She lifted up the two children who dove into her embrace as if they had been waiting.

“Wow, so warm.”

“So cozy…”

The children pressed their cheeks against her neck and nuzzled.

Clemente couldn’t help but smile. Her extremely high body temperature seemed to help them, and what could be more joyful than this?

‘They actually like it.’

She was happy. It felt like she had been given permission to stay here.

Now if she could just talk things over with the village chief and live in this village, nothing could be better.

‘A heater? I’ll do it for life if you want!’

Clemente let out a puff of breath.

‘Maybe I can make friends for the first time.’

It seemed like she could live the ordinary, happy life she had longed for in this place.

…Or so she had thought a day ago.

“Please deliver this to His Lordship! We believe the Fire Spirit can surely do it!”

Clemente was dragged away after accidentally meeting knights who were polite but half-mad.

She ended up meeting the lord of the territory, which wasn’t part of her plan.

A person wrapped from head to toe in fur and leather despite being indoors.

It was the moment their eyes met. The hot heat that had been tormenting her subsided.

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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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