I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 59

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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 59

As mercenaries, abandoning a commission and fleeing because it was dangerous was absolutely unacceptable. It would mean they could never live as mercenaries again.

Even if it was a commission with a visible end, refusing it was the fate of a mercenary group. He squeezed his eyes shut and commanded.

“…Except for those two, surround her again.”

Excluding those closest to the leader, the others surrounded Clemente again.

Each one steeled their resolve.

However, the atmosphere was different from before. It couldn’t be the same.

The hands gripping weapons were all dampened with nervous sweat.

Some people were trembling slightly.

As Clemente walked toward Nerhi, the mercenary group moved with her.

This wasn’t restraint. It was closer to an escort.

Clemente smiled wickedly at them.

“…Monster.”

Someone muttered. It was quiet, but in the silence it was loud enough to be heard from afar.

Clemente pretended not to hear and crossed her arms.

“Who’s making who kneel?”

Even at Clemente’s sneer, Nerhi stepped back. However, he wasn’t even aware that he had acted that way.

It was just that Clemente was too hot.

Frighteningly so.

Nerhi had continuously tried to associate Clemente with fire spirits in order to use her.

But seeing her now, he felt he could never call her a spirit.

Nerhi wasn’t the only one who didn’t blink an eye at people burning in flames.

Nerhi gritted his teeth and fought against that heat. If he was pushed back here, not only would all his dreams and grand ambitions end, but his life would disappear too.

“You! To me!”

Nerhi charged directly at her.

It wasn’t part of the plan, but since the mercenary group had become useless, there was no choice.

Nerhi held a small pill in his hand and grabbed Clemente’s forearm.

He too was a swordsman who had trained with the sword since childhood.

Though he had only trained for physical maintenance as he aged, grabbing such a frail woman was nothing.

If he was willing to endure getting burned, that is.

He took out a suspicious dark purple pill and grabbed the back of Clemente’s neck.

‘If I just make her take Studyworm, I can turn her back.’

With that much power and that level of courage, there were many places she could be used.

This one being alone had the ability to dominate the Northern Region.

“This is that terrible drug you fed Grandfather, isn’t it?”

But why. Why was that drug over there?

As Nerhi instinctively reached out to snatch the drug back, his vision flipped.

Clemente had grabbed Nerhi’s arm and thrown him backward.

“Whyyy! Ahhhhh!”

Nerhi, who had held onto hope until the end, let out a scream.

“What exactly are you! What are you to suddenly appear and interfere with my plans!”

“I came here wanting to know that too.”

“What?”

“Does that answer your question?”

Clemente raised one corner of her mouth in a smirk and struck down on Nerhi’s solar plexus with her elbow.

“The end.”

In the end, Nerhi, who had gained nothing he wanted, foamed at the mouth and fainted.

She smiled coldly and faced each of the mercenaries who were still holding weapons.

“What. Want to continue?”

Flames seemed to dance in Clemente’s golden eyes as she faced them.

The leader who had suffered burns all over his body and lost consciousness, and the monster who still looked perfectly fine.

The mercenaries looked at the lieutenant. The lieutenant looked at Nerhi.

The client was already unconscious. From the looks of it, she seemed like she’d give them an escape route, so there was no need to continue.

The lieutenant dropped his weapon and raised both hands.

“No. We surrender.”

As soon as the lieutenant’s words fell, Gwen stretched out her arm.

“Everyone! Bind those bastards!”

“Yes, Captain!”

The knights who had been waiting after rescuing Lésible followed the command and tied up the mercenaries.

“…”

Clemente blinked as she watched the scene.

“Wait. How long have you been there?”

“From the beginning.”

At Gwen’s answer, Clemente let out an exasperated sigh.

“Then why didn’t you come out sooner? I had such a hard time!”

“Hard time… really?”

Gwen’s reaction was strange.

Clemente thought that could be the case.

Just releasing this level of heat made people immediately wary and suspicious.

It was like that in the Desert too. Most of the people she briefly encountered on the way to the Northern Region were the same.

Even when she saved someone who was threatened by monsters on a mountain path, negative looks came her way more often than gratitude or relief.

‘Come to think of it, there was one person who wasn’t like that…’

Anyway, it was a familiar gaze.

That didn’t mean her stomach didn’t feel bitter about it though.

“I caught them all by myself, so it was hard work. Gwen, Master sent you here, right?”

“That’s right. Please go ahead and report first. I’ll clean up the rest.”

Fortunately, when Clemente treated him the same as usual, Gwen returned to normal too.

Though she didn’t know what thoughts might be inside him.

“I will! I have a lot to say!”

For a moment, Gwen’s body flinched.

“Please speak well of me.”

“About what?”

“That… I did my job well?”

Clemente, who had been trying to understand Gwen’s meaning, soon raised the corner of her mouth mischievously.

“I’ll tell him you watched quietly and carefully.”

“Clemente!”

“Then hang in there, Gwen.”

Clemente left the scene with light steps.

**

At that moment.

“Hmph. He should have held onto his justification until the end. How foolish.”

What was the reason the Duke didn’t send knights to capture Nerhi?

Because there was no justification.

Even though anyone could see he was planning a rebellion, the reason they couldn’t respond forcefully was because of the justification that Nerhi’s actions were for the vassals.

But if he abandoned that and went with force, obviously the Duke’s knights would win, wouldn’t they?

Crea shook her head and smiled faintly.

Today too, she had gone to the river cursing heavily because she was told to put poison in it.

Rather, it was fortunate. Of course, she wouldn’t have been caught, but she almost revealed her identity.

‘Wait. But the Guild Master’s grandson is fine now?’

How?

Watching the situation roughly come to an end, Clemente’s words from earlier came to mind.

There was no way a medicine made from her unique herbs could be countered in such a short time. She could be confident that other physicians would never know.

‘…Ah, wait.’

There was exactly one more person who knew about her herbs.

Airite.

The only brat who had kept up with her passion in childhood.

Though he wasn’t as serious about herbs as she was, so he gave up halfway through.

“Right, so he does have skill.”

Crea licked her lips.

If he became a physician for the exclusive ducal household, it meant that guy had achieved quite a bit too.

She was already sick of the other stupid physicians’ methods of handling herbs, and now something useful had caught her eye.

Then she should make use of him.

‘First, let me write a report….’

Crea finished writing the report to send to her precious financial backer who provided her with money and manpower.

She slowly headed toward the square to determine when to make her escape.

A small number of knights who remained after the cleanup were distributing some kind of water.

The vassals who drank that water all showed the same symptoms.

They would sweat, and afterward their complexion would brighten.

Crea mixed in pretending to be a vassal and received a water bottle.

‘The Northern Region is great for hiding one’s identity since everyone covers up.’

Now, let’s see.

As soon as she took a sip of water, she felt changes in her body.

Being a mage, she could feel it even better.

An energy purer and more refreshing than mana swept through her entire body, purifying the toxins.

However, that wasn’t what was important.

“Ha, hahaha!”

She found it.

The Fairy’s Spring that was said to be somewhere in the Northern Region.

So what exactly was the Fairy’s Spring?

It was a place created by the combined power of four fairies who now only remained in legend.

It was information that could only be found in books within the Royal Secret Library.

‘They said you need a fairy’s stone and cold blood to reach the Fairy’s Spring.’

The conditions given in such books are metaphorical. But cold blood wasn’t that difficult a metaphor.

Noble blood is commonly called blue blood. The fact that the cold blood in the Northern Region belonged to Pruina could be figured out without much thought.

‘If those conditions are correct, it means they have the fairy’s stone in their hands right now.’

The fairy’s stone is a kind of key. Only those who are qualified can use it. She didn’t know what that qualification was yet, but she didn’t need to know. There must be someone in the Northern Region who met the qualifications.

And once she obtained that fairy’s stone, the preparations would finally be complete.

The elixir of immortality she had dreamed of her entire life!

The collection of core materials to make it, that is.

Crea pressed her lips firmly to suppress the laughter that threatened to burst out even louder. She ruthlessly tore up the letter she had written. Undisguisable greed was thick in the laughter that leaked between her lips.

‘I’ll need different plans, different support.’

Because the fairy’s stone must become hers.

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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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