I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 48

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 48

Zephyrus led her with somewhat stiff movements and asked rigidly.

“Why are you curious about my thoughts?”

It meant he didn’t want to answer.

Usually, Clemente wouldn’t ask again in such situations.

But for some reason, the question came back again.

Zephyrus answered based on facts, removing as much emotion as possible.

“A heater wearing fur clothes. What more do you need?”

“Wow. That’s annoying, but it’s true.”

“You answer too. Are my thoughts important?”

Clemente giggled.

“They’re important. Master is the most important person to me.”

At the unexpected words, Zephyrus froze as if turned to ice.

“Master is the first person I’ve wanted to look good for like this. I guess it’s because you’re my first friend. I hope we can continue to get along well.”

Was it because of the night’s magic?

Or was it because of Clemente’s calm tone?

Feeling both joy and strange disappointment, Zephyrus slowly covered his mouth.

“…Me too.”

“What?”

The words were too quiet, so Clemente, who couldn’t hear properly, asked again, but Zephyrus shook his head.

“Do what you need to do, heater wearing fur clothes.”

“Yes, for the kind people who put fur clothes on heaters too!”

Zephyrus flinched for a moment.

He worried that Clemente might think he was treating her like an object. He glanced at Clemente and corrected his words in a flat voice.

“No, Clemente wearing fur clothes.”

“What’s the difference?”

Clemente was looking at him with her usual mischievous smile.

It was that painted-on smile that wouldn’t disappear even when she received the first suspicious looks and cold stares when they turned the inside upside down to catch Nerhi’s spy.

‘I don’t know what this emotion is, but.’

While hoping Clemente would always smile, he suppressed the contradictory feeling of wanting to see her cry too.

“It’s different. You’re not a heater, are you? It’s just… a metaphor. Do you understand?”

Zephyrus was carefully saying in a roundabout way that he had misspoken.

“I think I could be a heater. I’m warm, aren’t I?”

“I wish you wouldn’t think of yourself as a heater.”

“Why!”

Clemente widened her eyes and protested.

“Everyone likes me and seeks me out because I’m a heater, right? That’s a really happy thing.”

“People could like you even if you weren’t a heater.”

“Why? How?”

Why, she asked. How should he explain the reason? No, even if he explained, would Clemente accept it? Actually, he didn’t know either. He had been quite loved before being cursed. Thinking about it now, there were people who liked him even after he was cursed. He just didn’t want to realize that and feel more guilt.

However, there was one thing he was certain of.

“I would have. Even if you weren’t hot and I wasn’t cursed.”

Zephyrus continued in a calm tone as if it were obvious.

“I would have kept you by my side.”

That was something he could say with confidence.

“Though the relationship might have been a little different then.”

After saying everything, he felt somewhat heated, so he added unnecessary words. But he believed Clemente would understand his sincerity.

“…”

However, Clemente remained silent, quietly looking down at the floor. When anxiety began to creep in, wondering if he had said something wrong, Clemente raised her head to look at Zephyrus. She wore a faint smile.

“It would have been better if you hadn’t said that last part.”

“Why. Isn’t it true? You might not have come from the desert to the Northern Region. And even if you had, the situation would be different from now.”

“Even so~”

She was briefly imagining what it would have been like if they had both been in ordinary situations. Actually, she couldn’t imagine it well. Clemente was only now slowly getting a sense of what ordinary life was like.

Whether Zephyrus came to travel to the desert, or Clemente moved to the Northern Region. Or they met somewhere on a trip.

The conclusion was one.

If it weren’t for the current situation, they couldn’t have become such a comfortable and enjoyable pair.

“So I don’t think my constitution is bad either. Thanks to it, I became close with Master.”

Whoosh.

At those direct words, Zephyrus’s face instantly burst into flames.

“Master likes me too, right?”

Clemente playfully poked Zephyrus’s arm.

“I didn’t say I liked you. I said I would keep you by my side.”

“That means you like me.”

“No.”

“Really not?”

“Absolutely not.”

At Zephyrus’s desperate denial, Clemente giggled again.

“Thank you for saying you’d stay by my side even if the situation were different. But I’m satisfied with warming people up now too. And I have Master who won’t see me only as a heater.”

Clemente, who had entered the bedroom familiarly after visiting just once, asked.

“So what should Clemente, who’s warm like a heater, do?”

At that question, Zephyrus shook his head to slightly cover his face with his hair and answered.

“The blankets feel too cold. I need your warmth.”

“Aha. Master, you must have slept really well last time.”

“It’s more like…”

Seeing Zephyrus trailing off, she got a sense of what happened.

It also explained why Zephyrus’s complexion had been tinged with fatigue.

“You couldn’t sleep because it was too cold~?”

Zephyrus briefly avoided her teasing gaze.

Even if he said no, it would just become the stubbornness of someone unwilling to admit it.

The moment he said he needed Clemente, it had already become fact.

But it couldn’t be helped.

Since the day Clemente came to prevent him from making a mistake due to nightmares, he hadn’t been able to sleep properly.

He had never felt the sensation of cold before, but he kept thinking he was cold.

It felt empty and strange.

Just that one day.

Even that short night, when he couldn’t even remember when they started sleeping together.

Clemente had given him warmth.

It was warmth he could never forget, imprinted in his unconscious.

So much so that he couldn’t fall asleep without it.

Of course, he tried to sleep somehow.

He thought he could just do the same as he had done before.

He thought it would be forgotten quickly.

But as days passed, the empty room only felt cold.

Like that for several days.

Unable to sleep well, it even affected his work.

He pondered and pondered.

Whether it was really okay to do this.

The decision was quick.

It was just difficult to say it.

He could have said it better.

In the end, the words he uttered were a request to become a heater.

Zephyrus, who had been imagining shouting at his past self to say something else, took a shallow breath and hardened his expression.

He couldn’t let himself get drawn into Clemente’s pace like this.

“Just go in quickly, warm up, and come out. I want to sleep too.”

“What are you saying? Do you think you’ll be able to sleep properly like that?”

“Then are you telling me never to sleep for the rest of my life?”

“Ah, so you can’t sleep for life without me?”

“Clemente.”

“Oh, I’m just joking.”

At his lowered voice, Clemente shrugged and sat on the bed.

Then she patted the spot next to her.

“Come over here.”

Zephyrus’s eyes widened with force.

He had to think for a long moment about what he had just heard.

Was she really suggesting they sleep together right now?

Ridiculous!

He waved his hands frantically and spoke coldly.

“Just warm up the blankets quickly.”

“To get properly warm, we need to stay close together.”

“It’ll be warm enough without that. You know how warm you are.”

“Oh, wait! Are you seeing me as a woman?”

Zephyrus flinched and glared at Clemente.

“Then are you a man? Gender is already determined – I’m a man and you’re a woman. We’re in a situation where we shouldn’t share the same bed.”

“You asked me to be a heater. A heater needs to stay close to be a heater!”

Clemente, who had been teasing Zephyrus with a mischievous face, let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Are you worried you might end up liking me?”

“…That won’t happen.”

“Then what’s the problem? Just think of me as a heater. I’m fine with it. I actually feel cool and comfortable too.”

Zephyrus gritted his teeth.

“So that’s how you think of it? Fine. Just don’t regret it later. And don’t get caught if you want to protect your reputation.”

In the end, he got drawn in.

Zephyrus went past Clemente to the edge of the bed and lay down. Then he turned his back. Clemente, who had been watching him with gentle eyes, also lay down comfortably at the edge of the bed.

“It really is cool.”

When Clemente stretched both arms above her head and whispered, Zephyrus glanced at her.

“All the people who’ve entered my room until now couldn’t feel coolness from me.”

“Our constitutions seem to be connected somehow. This feels so good.”

Clemente, who had been lying down looking at the ceiling, turned to her side.

She could see Zephyrus lying in a posture so proper it could be called rigid.

Even his profile was beautiful like a sculpture crafted by a skilled artist. It was comfortable to look at.

‘But still… the one who’s most comfortable is me.’

It wasn’t to the extent that she couldn’t sleep without Zephyrus.

But just by coming over one wall from her room, the fatigue she had to suppress was dramatically reduced.

It was so comfortable that she wanted to stay like this forever.

Clemente slowly reached her hand toward Zephyrus’s arm area. The hand that hesitated in the air for a moment dropped onto the bed with a thud.

‘Let’s not become too dependent. I probably won’t be able to stay like this forever.’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————