I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 32
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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 32
His imagination had been limited.
Even if he could go outside, he would wrap up all his skin before going out. That was about the extent of his hope.
Therefore, he didn’t even need to worry about how his expressions would look to others.
But everything changed after Clemente arrived.
‘The situation has changed.’
Something he couldn’t even imagine had happened.
Though there was distance between them, Rossia had entered his space. They faced each other and shared the same moment.
As the situation had changed, the bleak future he had painted would also change.
“What do you see in my expression?”
“Everything shows. All of it.”
Rossia stood still and carefully examined Zephyrus’s face.
Wavering eyes, trembling eyelashes. Slightly lowered eyebrows and corners of his mouth.
That wasn’t all.
Powerlessly drooped shoulders, unstable breathing. Everything revealed Zephyrus’s emotions.
“If you meet the caravan leader like that, the deal will probably proceed unfavorably.”
“…Am I the one conducting it?”
“Then were you planning to just show your face and hide again?”
Even Zephyrus thought that would be strange.
To face the final decision-maker but not even talk and then drive them away. It would feel like announcing there was some problem.
“So you want me to practice?”
“Of course. This is just the beginning anyway, isn’t it?”
Rossia smiled gracefully.
“…”
Zephyrus unconsciously furrowed his brows. The Rossia in his memory had been a tomboy. She wasn’t a sister who could make such feminine smiles.
“What’s that expression, Your Highness?”
“What did I do?”
Rossia snorted and said she’d let it slide just this once.
“Yes, thank you.”
“…What? Thank you for letting it slide?”
“For all your hard work until now.”
Rossia rubbed both arms and stepped back.
“What is it. Why are you acting like that?”
“Never mind. So how should I practice expressions?”
Zephyrus’s expression as he said this was strange. His eyes were raised too much and the corners of his mouth were raised too.
“First, relax the tension in your face. Where’s the mirror? Clemente- Clemente? What are you doing?”
Rossia looked at Clemente and asked. Zephyrus also turned his gaze. Clemente was scribbling with a pen on paper.
“Ah? It seemed like a historic scene. I was preserving it as a drawing. I’m almost done!”
Clemente spoke in a bright voice. It seemed like she had just spoken very much like an Imperial.
She was proud of herself for thinking to draw such a scene.
“Ta-da!”
She turned around the finished drawing to show them, her eyes sparkling brightly.
“Uh, um…”
“It’s a doodle.”
“That’s mean! It’s a drawing!”
On the paper were drawn two human figures whose gender could barely be identified.
**
That night.
“Kyaa, kyaaaah!”
A maid’s scream echoed through the manor.
“A, a ghost it was. That pale thing…!”
Northern nights are cold.
During the nightmare of the snowy mountains, they’re even colder.
However, if you’re human, there are times when nature calls urgently.
The restroom where the servants stayed was communal. The communal restroom was outside the rooms, in the middle of the corridor.
‘I didn’t even eat much, so why…!’
The maid Julay who claimed to have seen a ghost this time was in such a situation.
It was unfair, but she really had no choice but to leave her room.
The manor’s corridors are dark. Rather than lighting fires to illuminate the corridors, the same cost would be better spent providing more firewood to heat the vassals’ homes.
Therefore, visibility in the corridors existed only where luminous stones that emit their own light were embedded.
A situation with sparse lights in the dim surroundings.
Through the small windows of the corridor, snow fell so heavily you couldn’t see ahead. The sound of wind hitting the windows and walls sounded like screams.
‘Scary…’
Something suddenly passed in front of her as she made a tearful face.
She immediately raised her portable heater, but there was nothing in the corridor.
At first, she thought she had seen wrong.
It had to be wrong.
As Julay composed herself thinking this, she heard the sound of something moving several more times.
She deliberately straightened her shoulders and pretended not to hear as she moved. Just a little further and she’d reach the restroom.
Once she got inside, that place would be bright.
However-
Swish!
Something brushed against Julay’s hand that was holding the portable heater!
She could no longer endure it.
The scream she finally let out caused a commotion in the manor, but it couldn’t be helped.
Julay said this while curling up her body and trembling.
“It’s true! Starting with the caravan not being able to come this time, the nightmare is really beginning!”
Rossia and Clemente, who had gathered to hear her story, looked at each other.
“It might be because it’s too cold. I’ll look into the details too.”
“That’s right! Don’t worry. And if it gets too cold at night, let me know. I’ll come and warm it up for you.”
Clemente grasped Julay’s hands. Julay flinched and slowly raised her head. Warm-toned colors rarely seen in the Northern Region filled her vision completely.
‘Warmer than a heater.’
Clemente was always on the 3rd floor or next to His Highness, while Julay was a maid in charge of cleaning the 2nd floor. Moreover, since Clemente ate with His Highness rather than in the common area, there wasn’t much contact between the two.
Her unfamiliar appearance and strange way of speaking were also off-putting. Everyone said behind her back that some desert fox had come to bewitch His Highness.
‘But these warm hands… somehow reassuring.’
Really warm.
Julay unconsciously sniffled. As her surprised and anxious heart calmed down, tears came.
Clemente made a worried expression and patted the back of her hand.
“S, sorry…”
“What? What are you sorry for!”
“For keeping my distance all this time.”
Watching Julay wipe away tears while repeatedly apologizing, Clemente’s eyes wavered.
“No! No! I’m more sorry!”
“That’s not right! Clemente must have felt more out of place! We should have welcomed you warmly!”
At that sincere reflection, Clemente shook her head vigorously.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m really okay. As long as we can be close from now on, so please don’t cry. Please.”
Julay looked at Clemente like that and swallowed her runny nose. She really is a good person. Clemente is.
She hugged Clemente’s arm. As expected, it was warm and even calmed her heart.
“Um, Julay?”
“…She fell asleep.”
“Really?”
Clemente looked at Julay carefully. A pale, youthful face. She looked younger than Zephyrus. To think she had startled such a child.
Then Rossia smiled softly and spoke up.
“Even though she looks like that, she was the head of a household. Last year her widowed mother passed away and she was left alone. I deliberately kept her at the manor.”
“Wow, can you see my expression too?”
Clemente asked while rubbing her own face.
“I’ve been in a position to command people since I was young. If I can’t do it, I might as well go die.”
“Ah, hahaha.”
They called a knight to escort Julay safely to her room.
And on the way back down the corridor.
They dismissed the knight at the crossroads.
“What are you going to do now?”
“What do you mean? It’s nighttime. I should sleep, right?”
“I see.”
Rossia nodded, then asked casually.
“So, what are you thinking?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I’ve been noticing that something’s off about Clemente for a while now.”
Whoooosh— Clatter!
The fierce wind made the window rattle as if it might shatter.
**
The next morning.
Clemente went to find Zephyrus with her usual vibrant energy.
“Another beautiful morning, Master!”
“I heard there was a ghost commotion yesterday.”
“That’s right. I calmed her down well and put her to sleep. Do I seem more like someone who belongs here now?”
“What are you talking about?”
Zephyrus asked with a genuinely puzzled expression. Clemente, who had hesitated for a moment, quickly smiled and scratched her head.
“Not yet, I guess! I need to try harder!”
“That’s not it. Haven’t you already settled in the Northern Region? Then you’re a Northerner.”
“Ah… Huh? Aha! Hahaha!”
Clemente covered her face with both hands and laughed. Zephyrus said indifferently.
“Stop talking nonsense and come here.”
Zephyrus naturally caught Clemente’s hand as she slowly approached and seated her on his lap, muttering.
“Is it because I don’t get shaken by ordinary things anymore?”
He meant to ask if she had intended to make him angry with strange words.
“…You were so nervous yesterday that you made ice.”
“Only at the beginning. After that, I even practiced my expressions and was fine, wasn’t I?”
“That’s right. You did well.”
Clemente lowered the hands covering her face and turned her upper body slightly. Her half-tilted face and golden eyes sparkled between the abundant curly hair that covered half her face.
Their eyes met.
Zephyrus’s body stiffened with a jolt. Whether Clemente knew this or not, she straightened her body again and hummed softly.
“You are…”
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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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