I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 35

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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 35

 

Clemente shouted stiffly, as if grumbling.

 

“Why are you attacking me!”

 

“Why? If you were me, wouldn’t you catch a fire spirit that appeared in front of you?”

 

“I’m not a fire spirit!”

 

“No, you are a fire spirit. A fire spirit that will let me live very warmly and comfortably.”

 

Clemente, who barely managed to turn her head, glared at Hasu’s face.

 

“Where are you trying to take me?”

 

Hasu smiled sluggishly and knelt on one knee. He planned to pull out the arrow, tie her up roughly, and carry her on his back.

 

“Well, you’ll meet him anyway. My master is right… Huh?”

 

His face hardened. Her leg with the arrow stuck in it was as hard as stone, not like human flesh.

 

“Ah, what a shame.”

 

Clemente turned her body as she was, hooked her leg around Hasu’s neck to knock him down, and snatched away his bow.

 

From on top of his body, she turned around and stood up while pressing down on Hasu’s neck with her foot.

 

It all happened in the time it takes to draw a single breath.

 

‘What… is this.’

 

Even then, Hasu didn’t know what had happened and was just blinking his eyes. By the time he realized it, everything was already over.

 

“This is impos- Gaaaah!”

 

“While we’re at it, why don’t you tell me about the mastermind. It’s a waste of time otherwise.”

 

When Clemente gathered heat in her sole, the bottom of her shoe burned and red blisters began to form on Hasu’s neck as well.

 

Even as his vision turned white from pain, Hasu could see Clemente’s face smiling serenely.

 

“Cra, crazy-”

 

“You should know that you people drove a perfectly normal person crazy.”

 

Say one more word and I’ll burn all those clothes. At Clemente’s quiet whisper, Hasu’s mouth gaped open. The burns were now so severe that he couldn’t even make a sound.

 

As the pain grew stronger the more he struggled, Hasu eventually lost consciousness.

 

“Huh? Eh? Already?”

 

Clemente’s eyes widened as she saw the enemy faint much faster than she had expected.

 

She had controlled her strength, you know. Was what she did to his neck too much? No, but the neck is the most reliable spot.

 

Just as Clemente was thinking this and that and was about to carefully lift her foot.

 

“Clemente!”

 

The Duke’s knights appeared.

 

Gwen was there too.

 

“What is this- An arrow! You were hit by an arrow?”

 

At Gwen’s fuss, Clemente rolled up the clothes on her arrow-struck leg as if it was nothing.

 

“I’m fine. There’s wood inside!”

 

What she was referring to were wooden shin guards. Just in case, she had been wearing armor under her clothes.

 

And it had been a very good choice.

 

“Shin guards…? Clemente, don’t tell me you were expecting this?”

 

“First, we need to take this person and interrogate him. We must! Interrogate!”

 

Gwen calmed down the suddenly excited Clemente and told another knight to take Hasu away.

 

“So what happened? His Majesty suddenly told us to come find Clemente, so I was surprised.”

 

“I’ll tell you on the way. I need to hurry and go tell my master too.”

 

From the moment Gwen came, she had expected that Zephyrus would learn about this incident. It had been decided from her conversation with Rossia. Rossia had said she would tell him right after the Snowy Mountains’ nightmare ended.

 

Still, Clemente wanted to tell him directly. She wanted to see him happy about receiving an unexpected gift.

 

She recalled her conversation with Rossia from the night to organize what she would say to Zephyrus.

 

Her feather-light footsteps were a bonus.

 

**

 

Around the time Clemente went outside with Julay.

 

Zephyrus was tapping the desk with his fingers.

 

Following the movement of his fingers, ice formed and disappeared repeatedly.

 

If he could control creation and destruction at will.

 

So if he thought the curse was under his control, it would be much easier when meeting the caravan leader, he had said.

 

Crack-

 

“Hmm.”

 

Perhaps nervous about the thought of facing the caravan leader, the desk froze solid.

 

Clemente would have something to say if she saw this.

 

Zephyrus directed his gaze into empty air to clear his mind.

 

‘…What’s this?’

 

In his eyes, he saw transparent glass. The side of the glass was slightly melted.

 

It was definitely someone’s trace. In this room, there was only one person who could enter without Zephyrus knowing.

 

Clemente.

 

Then why?

 

The ghost commotion that had happened at the manor a week ago flashed through his mind.

 

He also recalled that Rossia had finished the investigation the very next day.

 

‘Clemente saying she was going to the village probably has a connection too.’

 

He had boldly let her go, but this wouldn’t do. He had a bad feeling.

 

Just as he was about to call Gwen-

 

“Your Majesty, Lady Rossia has arrived~”

 

Rossia had come. The person who would solve his questions, who would tell him the facts he didn’t know.

 

**

 

‘This is strange.’

 

Clemente was obediently clasping her hands together in the cold atmosphere, only rolling her eyes.

 

In her imagination, she was receiving praise and thanks from Zephyrus.

 

In reality, she was standing there like someone who had done wrong.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”

 

Zephyrus, who had heard the whole story from Rossia, quietly expressed his doubt to Clemente.

 

“I wanted to surprise you.”

 

“Did you want me to freeze the manor from surprise?”

 

“It’s not something to be that surprised about.”

 

At Clemente’s sullen face, veins bulged on Zephyrus’s forehead.

 

“Are you getting annoyed with me right now?”

 

It was unfair. Why was Zephyrus angry?

 

Hadn’t she relieved his worries?

 

He must have heard from Rossia why she had tried to act that way.

 

She had wanted to see Zephyrus happy.

 

“I don’t think I did anything wrong. Why are you angry?”

 

“Not telling me isn’t wrong?”

 

“You liked the surprise gift last time.”

 

He had been happy when she let him see his mother.

 

“That and this are different.”

 

“What’s different? I don’t really understand.”

 

“You weren’t in danger that time.”

 

“There was no danger this time either.”

 

“The time of the Snowy Mountains’ nightmare is the most dangerous day in the Northern Region.”

 

There had even been another motive. The intention to interfere with those who were moving to target him. Even if he could overlook the cold considering Clemente’s constitution-

 

‘No.’

 

That was an issue he couldn’t overlook.

 

“It’s not that I didn’t consider your power.”

 

A situation with insufficient firewood. Zephyrus had to hope that his vassals would somehow endure.

 

Nevertheless, the reason he didn’t ask Clemente if she could look after the domain was just one.

 

Because he was worried.

 

Worried that some unforeseen danger might arise. So much so that he didn’t even want to think ‘What if something happens to Clemente?’

 

And yet she had done something like this without even telling him?

 

His chest felt tight and he couldn’t focus on anything.

 

And when he saw Clemente entering the room looking proud, his mood suddenly plummeted.

 

If he just let this slide, she would probably do the same thing again next time.

 

Zephyrus’s expression changed by the moment. His eyes narrowed, then widened. His lips jutted out, then curled inward.

 

‘Ah. I see.’

 

Only then did Clemente obediently clasp her hands together.

 

What other reason could there be for not telling her when he had thought of the same solution?

 

“Were you worried?”

 

Clemente was the first person to worry about her using her power, so she didn’t realize it right away.

 

“I was worried about myself after you disappeared.”

 

Zephyrus rolled his eyes and answered in an indifferent voice, but Clemente took it to mean he hoped she wouldn’t disappear.

 

“I’m sorry for making you worry.”

 

“I wasn’t worried about you. Though I was worried about the vassals…”

 

In the end, Zephyrus had chosen her over them. He had decided to keep Clemente inside rather than send her away.

 

“I really don’t have the qualifications to be a lord.”

 

Zephyrus seemed to think so too. That he had left the vassals to die in order to save himself.

 

Unlike Zephyrus’s calm tone, his expression held a faint sense of guilt. Ice fragments formed from that guilt and floated in the air.

 

It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand his feelings.

 

‘But why do I feel like laughing?’

 

She decided to figure out her strange feelings later.

 

For now, Clemente decided to comfort Zephyrus.

 

She approached Zephyrus, pushing away the ice fragments that kept forming even as they melted from her heat.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“What?”

 

Zephyrus’s eyes widened. Was she thanking him for not having the qualifications to be a lord?

 

His mood was so terrible that even kind words didn’t register properly.

 

“Because Master thinks of me that way, I thought of the vassals too.”

 

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

 

“If it weren’t for Master, I wouldn’t have cared whether the Northern Region people lived or died.”

 

“…”

 

“So Master saved those people!”

 

Zephyrus looked down with his brow slightly furrowed.

 

“…Is this consolation?”

 

“It’s the truth. And…”

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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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