I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 41

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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 41

 

Clemente smiled benevolently and took the man’s hand.

 

“No. Keep your eyes open. You just need to listen.”

 

The man’s eyes snapped wide open. Seeing his pupils trembling with fear, Clemente spoke as if talking to herself.

 

“The reason you can’t speak even though you want to is probably a drug? Right?”

 

For just a moment, the man’s breath caught.

 

Clemente’s eyes curved gently.

 

Clemente had always been an object of fear, disgust, and avoidance.

 

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t hurt by it, but it was already familiar.

 

So she studied how to make others even more afraid.

 

And what people feared most was the unknown.

 

That kind of mystery was what her grandmother, who had been a diviner, used most skillfully.

 

The mystique of seeming to read all of someone’s emotions and thoughts without even using magic.

 

Clemente had learned that technique.

 

If they were going to be afraid even when she did nothing, her plan was to make them even more terrified.

 

She never knew that what she learned as childhood mischief would be used like this.

 

“I won’t ask what kind of drug you used right now. But it must be something life-threatening, right? What else could there be.”

 

Clemente innocently tapped the man’s hand. His hand was red, as if he had burned it on a furnace.

 

“Trying to steal a horse from the stables means you were planning to run away. So you must have done something at the manor. Ah, right. Did you go to the dungeon?”

 

“He even left me a threatening note! Telling me to leave immediately tomorrow!”

 

“Aha, you would have come during the day, so you probably observed the manor’s atmosphere too. You must have been busy. How do you deliver the information you gathered? Messenger bird? Magic? Or in person?”

 

Each time Clemente spoke, her crescent-shaped eyes coldly observed the man’s reactions. Every time she slowly spoke a word, his reaction was different.

 

At her last words, the man’s Adam’s apple moved.

 

“You were planning to go and deliver it in person.”

 

The man unconsciously opened his mouth. His heart sank with a thud.

 

Despite the heat, his fingertips felt ice-cold.

 

“H-how…”

 

“Now, let’s summarize. I don’t know what kind it is, but you can’t speak because of a drug. You also investigated information about us. You deliver information by meeting in person. And what did you do when you went to the dungeon? Can’t you say that either?”

 

The man, who had bitten his lips until they bled, shook his head.

 

How on earth had she figured it out? He hadn’t said a single word, but she had accurately guessed the big picture.

 

She would soon find out what he had done in the dungeon too.

 

Since an important clue and witness for them had died. It would be strange if they didn’t know.

 

‘Even if the Duke doesn’t kill me, I’ll die when time passes anyway. If I’m going to die anyway…’

 

He wanted to die without pain. Without suffering, all at once.

 

“If I speak, I die. Even if I don’t return, I die. Then it’s better to die as a loyal subordinate.”

 

A barely audible voice scattered through the room.

 

“…I didn’t take it because I wanted to.”

 

Cough! Suddenly the man spat up bright red blood. That was his end.

 

Choosing death by his own will was his best option.

 

Harvie, startled, checked the man’s breathing and shook his head.

 

In this completely unexpected situation, Zephyrus struggled to steady his breathing.

 

Clemente looked down at the man who had grown cold with an unreadable expression.

 

Then, there was a knock.

 

“Your Highness! You said not to disturb you, but I’m sorry. There’s something you must know.”

 

Gwen continued in a serious voice.

 

“The prisoner in the dungeon has died.”

 

And in a terrible state with skin burst all over his body.

 

“Hah.”

 

Harvie let out a sigh.

 

Hasu’s death in the dungeon.

 

They could immediately tell what the man lying cold in the room had done in the prison.

 

Zephyrus’s breathing became unstable. The air grew cold enough to freeze everything, beyond merely cool.

 

His mind was too complicated right now.

 

Nerhi, who wanted to bring him down and become Duke?

 

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand.

 

But killing the prisoner, Hasu, was different.

 

A subordinate who had trusted and followed him. He had killed a vassal he was supposed to be responsible for.

 

Anger followed the confusion.

 

Until now, he had thought he had no right to be angry.

 

The caravan being disappointed in him and not coming?

 

Cutting ties?

 

Because he thought it would have happened eventually even without Nerhi.

 

When that time came, his mother and the Dowager Duchess would be able to give up on him too.

 

But this was different. This was something that shouldn’t be done as someone responsible from above.

 

“Does Nerhi… give him the antidote?”

 

“No, he doesn’t. Rather than that…”

 

Harvie organized what he wanted to say.

 

Honestly, he wanted to speak at length, in detail. He wanted to vent to someone, something he couldn’t do with anyone else.

 

But now wasn’t the time.

 

“My grandson fell ill. All the famous physicians said they didn’t know the cause or the name of the disease. But Nerhi, that bastard, said he had medicine.”

 

Even from that short paragraph, they understood what had happened.

 

Zephyrus also knew all too well the feeling when family members fell to an unknown disease.

 

Even while thinking this was wrong, he would get swept up in it.

 

“Did you also check for desert endemic diseases?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Zephyrus, with a regretful expression, continued coldly.

 

“For this kind of blackmail to work, he’d need to receive medicine regularly. How much time is left until the next dose?”

 

“Since I received it before the caravan came, about a week remains.”

 

“How about having the physician I mentioned earlier examine him?”

 

He meant he would call Airite, the physician knowledgeable about medicinal herbs.

 

“Yes. Thank you.”

 

The conversation ended there. Zephyrus closed his eyes while steadying his breathing. At the silent dismissal, Clemente opened the door.

 

“Please go safely.”

 

“You are…”

 

Seeing Clemente maintain a bright atmosphere even while wearing a blood-stained maid uniform, words caught in Harvie’s throat.

 

From catching a spy to naturally conducting an unusual interrogation.

 

Actually, from Harvie’s perspective, the most suspicious person was Clemente.

 

It was also strange that the Duke, who had so refused to meet with him, accepted it so naturally when a maid opened the door without even getting permission.

 

Though drawn by the Duke’s atmosphere, he had clearly chosen the Duke’s side in the rapidly progressing situation.

 

‘No. No. Since it’s come to this, I have to believe.’

 

Harvie suppressed his rising anxiety.

 

One week ahead. He could only hope to be smiling after that.

 

**

 

Clemente and Zephyrus remained after Harvie left.

 

“You got plenty of sleep today. Right?”

 

Even at Clemente’s teasing, Zephyrus had no answer. Only his trembling eyes swept over Clemente.

 

“You seem very shocked.”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“I’ll clean up the room first. We’ll talk in detail after that.”

 

When Harvie opened the door to leave.

 

Gwen, who saw the situation in the room, took the corpse away with a coldly sunken expression.

 

As he left, his suspicious gaze brushed past Clemente before disappearing.

 

What remained were only traces that someone had been alive. Clemente cleaned up those traces completely. She also took off the blood-stained maid uniform.

 

Zephyrus, who had been wondering what to say, turned his head in startled surprise.

 

“What are you doing-”

 

“I have a slip on.”

 

“That’s the problem.”

 

“I’m covered much more than what I wore in the desert. Please tolerate this much.”

 

A calm voice unlike Clemente’s usual manner. After the sound of her plopping down on the sofa, silence flowed. Zephyrus, who had been restless, pondered before throwing out a comment.

 

“…It would be nice if you at least covered yourself with a blanket.”

 

“It’s hot.”

 

A firm refusal came back.

 

Zephyrus, who had squeezed his eyes shut, made a firm resolution and turned his gaze forward.

 

Clemente had folded her knees inside her pure white slip, resting her face against those knees with her eyes closed.

 

Hoo, ha. Her hair swayed following Clemente’s breathing. It was a side of Clemente he had never seen before.

 

“You have many things you want to ask. I know. But I also need some time.”

 

Unlike her usual clarity, her voice scattered like mumbling.

 

Zephyrus’s body flinched.

 

He felt the urge to go over and embrace her right away.

 

“Alright! Done!”

 

However, before he could make that resolution, Clemente sprang up.

 

“I almost started a fire again. Now, let’s interrogate!”

 

Zephyrus blinked at her energetic tone.

 

“Start a fire…?”

 

“Yes. Just like how Master freezes the surroundings. I also create a sea of fire if I’m not careful.”

 

Clemente, who laughed cheerfully saying she started many when she was young, was the same as usual.

 

‘Come to think of it…’

 

Zephyrus had been greatly shaken since the spy bit his tongue and committed suicide.

 

Even if the room had been filled with ice, it would have been unavoidable.

 

But he had never even seen moisture.

 

Zephyrus only now realized that it had melted and disappeared before it could even form.

 

And why Clemente was half-convinced she could control his curse.

 

The two were in similar situations.

 

However, while Zephyrus was wasting time fallen into a pit of despair after being cursed.

 

Clemente had been fighting a desperate battle to survive.

 

To the extent that she could suppress her turmoil just by closing her eyes silently for a moment.

 

Above Clemente’s bright smile, desperation flickered.

 

Zephyrus lowered his head and secretly wiped away that emotion, burying it in his chest.

 

To carry on her desperate battle.

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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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