I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 39

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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 39

 

Dark clouds filled the sky. Thick curtains. Zephyrus had extinguished all the lights in the room and sat alone in the darkness.

 

It was a kind of training.

 

He had been doing this ever since Clemente said she was going to the stables for a moment and left.

 

It was practice for pushing himself into dark tension and enduring it.

 

Actually, even after Clemente left the room, her warmth lingered for a while, making it useless.

 

He only felt Clemente’s importance all the more.

 

‘Still, it’s better than not doing it at all.’

 

He wouldn’t be able to sleep even if he went to bed early anyway. Zephyrus ran through the simulation once more.

 

How to act when meeting Harvie, the leader of the Noven Merchant Guild.

 

Expression confident yet courteous. Actions elegant yet bold.

 

Based on Rossia’s words that the position of Duke was sufficient if it could earn trust and respect from others, he decided to act with perfection.

 

‘Just a little more practice should do it.’

 

He devoted himself to practice for a while. Since he had asked for non-urgent reports to be given tomorrow, there was nothing to disturb him.

 

“You cannot!”

 

“Your Grace! Harbi Noven requests an audience!”

 

But there was commotion outside.

 

Harbi Noven would be the caravan leader.

 

They hadn’t even scheduled a meeting yet. More importantly, coming without notice when night was almost upon them was rude.

 

It was impossible unless he was ignoring him.

 

“Guild Leader, I really said no!”

 

The knight assigned to guard him today held Harvie back and tried to stop him, but.

 

“Meet with me right now! Right now!!”

 

The sound of scratching at the door could be heard. His voice was somehow desperate. Desperate enough to make one want to open the door immediately and let him in.

 

‘But not yet.’

 

He knew his own condition. Meeting alone without Clemente was still dangerous.

 

Moreover, the current caravan leader had been the leader since before his father became Duke. He was obviously old and frail. If his nanny were still alive, she would be about the same age.

 

Zephyrus bit his lips tightly and spoke coldly.

 

“Do you know what rudeness you are committing right now?”

 

It became quiet outside. But it was only for a moment.

 

“Your Grace! Please hear my plea! This old man begs you like this!”

 

His voice was already hoarse from shouting so much. He kept calling for Zephyrus. It seemed he intended to call until the door opened.

 

“Go back. I will not see you today.”

 

“Please! If you see me today, I won’t ask to meet again. Please, Your Grace!”

 

“Guild Leader, please go back today. Yes?”

 

“Your Grace! I will stay here until you meet with me!”

 

Before long, pitch-black night had descended.

 

Northern nights are cold. Even inside the manor, it was colder than outside the Imperial Court. It was a temperature not easy for the aged Harvie to endure.

 

His knees, which had been kneeling and touching the marble, began to ache.

 

“I told you to go back.”

 

The Duke’s chamber door remained firmly shut with no sign of opening.

 

‘There’s no time other than now.’

 

Of course, it wasn’t that he hadn’t expected to be turned away like this. He had deliberately shouted loud enough to shake the manor. That bastard’s eyes were surely watching this too.

 

That’s why he came to his room and left that kind of note.

 

A threat that if he didn’t leave immediately tomorrow, he wouldn’t give Tei the medicine.

 

If he failed to meet the Duke and disappeared powerlessly, leaving the domain tomorrow, that bastard would feel relieved too.

 

Even with a heart-breaking feeling, Harvie had thought that far and moved.

 

However, he hadn’t come without hope.

 

Hope that the Duke would care for the domain. Faith that a child born between the Dowager Duchess and the previous Duke couldn’t be irresponsible.

 

But it wasn’t so.

 

Whatever problem the current Duke had.

 

Even knowing full well that if he didn’t show his face, the vassals’ lives would become impoverished too.

 

“Your Grace, today is the only opportunity.”

 

Harvie made his final plea to Zephyrus.

 

There was no answer at all.

 

He also stood up silently. His knee made a cracking sound and his leg began to go numb.

 

The Duke’s guard knight caught him as he swayed.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

He didn’t look fine at all. His already gaunt face had turned pale blue. His body trembled.

 

“Should I tell His Grace that you apologize for your rudeness?”

 

“That is…”

 

“And that you must return immediately tomorrow morning-”

 

Harvie stopped speaking mid-sentence and looked up. It seemed like a warm breeze was blowing from somewhere.

 

Heat also rose in his body that had been stiff from the cold.

 

“Clemente must be coming!”

 

“Clemente?”

 

There was joy mixed in the knight’s voice. Looking where he was looking, scarlet fabric fluttering through the dark corridor caught his eye.

 

“Oh, Kael! Have you been here all this time?”

 

“Yes. But what… what are you dragging along!”

 

“This? A bad guy?”

 

Clemente answered nonchalantly and looked at Harvie.

 

“You must have a reason to see His Grace today, right?”

 

“…That’s right.”

 

Clemente nodded and knocked loudly on the door.

 

“Master, I’m coming in.”

 

It wasn’t asking permission. It was a notification. The knight didn’t stop this woman either.

 

Harvie was still trying to grasp the situation when the door opened.

 

The door that had been like a stone wall no matter how much he shouted moved so easily.

 

As the door opened and his view cleared, Zephyrus came into sight.

 

The beautiful Duke with an expression that seemed relieved.

 

**

 

Harvie and Clemente went inside. Clemente saw Kael mouth “good luck” and closed the door.

 

But there was another person who entered besides the two.

 

“What’s that in your hand?”

 

It was the person Clemente had dragged along.

 

His wrists and ankles were already tied with rope and his mouth was stuffed full of cloth.

 

“Ah, I’ll tell you later. Right now, talking with grandfather comes first.”

 

“Grandfather… you mean me?”

 

“Yes. For now, have a comfortable conversation. Think of me as a fireplace.”

 

Clemente smoothly deflected Harvie’s question and stepped back.

 

Naturally, Zephyrus and Harvie faced each other.

 

Silence flowed. Zephyrus, who was still not mentally prepared, was trying hard to manage his expression.

 

It would also be improper for Harvie to speak first.

 

However, thinking he had already been rude anyway, and with little time left, Harvie knelt and opened his lips.

 

“Your Grace, I apologize for my rudeness.”

 

“…It’s fine. You must have had something urgent to discuss.”

 

“Yes.”

 

The words “then why didn’t you open the door earlier” rose to his throat but he held back.

 

Patience was one of the important virtues that had brought him to this position.

 

“I desperately wanted to meet Your Highness.”

 

“Did Nerhi specifically order you to see me?”

 

“Actually… yes?”

 

However, Zephyrus couldn’t hide his surprise that the Pruina Duchy knew about Nerhi.

 

“What did he tell you to do after seeing me?”

 

Zephyrus added coldly.

 

“Let’s sit down and talk first.”

 

At his nod, Clemente brought a chair to the front of the door.

 

This reflected Zephyrus’s intention to have the conversation from as far away as possible.

 

Harvie slowly sat down in the chair. It was warm. So warm that his tension might relax if he wasn’t careful.

 

He slowly exhaled and collected himself.

 

“He didn’t tell me to see Your Highness.”

 

“So wanting to see me was the guild master’s own will?”

 

Zephyrus stared at Harvie as if telling him to say more.

 

“Why haven’t Your Highness engaged in outside activities until now? Why have you been in seclusion? If you hadn’t, that bastard wouldn’t have been running wild.”

 

“I never intended to talk about myself. I only let you in to hear about the guild master.”

 

“Why should the Noven Merchant Guild join with Your Highness’s Pruina? Please convince this old man!”

 

Harvie looked at Zephyrus with wide eyes. Those eyes were bloodshot.

 

Zephyrus remained silent. This wasn’t among the situations he had simulated.

 

Him interrogating Harvie, Harvie denying and then eventually admitting.

 

Questioning his crimes so the guild could supply more goods, and so on.

 

He hadn’t expected the meeting to unfold this way in the first place.

 

So Zephyrus was curious. If Nerhi hadn’t told him to see him, then what was his reason for wanting to meet him?

 

The reason he had wanted to meet him so desperately.

 

“Guild master. I can tell there’s some reason. But if you don’t speak, there’s absolutely nothing I can do.”

 

“…”

 

“You’re doing this because you want something from me, aren’t you?”

 

Harvie’s lips moved. But no voice came out.

 

Can I trust this person? That’s what he seemed to be thinking.

 

Harvie was the owner of a guild that ranked in the top ten in the Empire. He should be quite skilled at controlling his emotions, yet even the inexperienced Zephyrus could sense his urgency.

 

It meant that much pressure had been placed on Harvie.

 

Tap tap, Zephyrus tapped the desk while organizing his thoughts, then spoke first.

 

“Are you being blackmailed?”

 

Harvie, who had been biting his lips and only looking down at the floor, slowly raised his head.

 

“Nerhi’s reach isn’t big enough to shake the Noven Merchant Guild. Did he catch you with some weakness? Like corruption, for instance.”

 

“How could that be possible?”

 

Harvie’s jaw tensed.

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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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