I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 6

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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 6

Rossia opened her bulging eyes and glared at Gwen.

“Don’t laugh, Gwen! And Clemente, you shouldn’t say things like that. It’ll cause big trouble.”

Clemente asked disappointedly.

“Ah, it’s not? Then what is it?”

“Gwen, what on earth did you tell her?”

“Hehe… I didn’t say anything, Lady Rossia.”

Clemente pondered seriously, then resolved to go to the village and look through a dictionary. Rossia and Gwen were bickering playfully together.

“Gwen, Rossia. I want to go to the village now. You said there was something I needed to write. Gwen did.”

The two whispered to each other for a moment, then looked at Clemente and nodded slightly.

“Follow us. It’s not something we can do here.”

**

What Gwen told her to write. What it was became clear.

A confidentiality agreement.

Gwen’s judgment was accurate.

Since she had learned Zephyrus’s secret anyway, writing an agreement would be safer.

With their meager resources, they even had a mage notarize the agreement, so it had to be secure.

‘If I just let her go and she makes a slip of the tongue, it’ll be a disaster.’

Such rumors tend to spread faster than anything else.

If that happened, the domain’s people would become anxious, and His Highness’s engagement would be even more doomed.

‘Of course, even if rumors don’t spread, the engagement will probably break off soon anyway…’

It was only natural since the engaged parties hadn’t even met for ten years.

Digging deeper into it brought other worst-case scenarios to mind.

The attempted rebellion by Nerhi Pruina, a cadet branch member who stayed in the Capital to monitor its movements.

He had been showing suspicious behavior recently.

‘If only I could do something about it.’

The reason she could only keep watching his movements without being able to act was simple.

Because she was also from a cadet branch.

Cadet branch members couldn’t interfere in the Ducal Household’s internal affairs. In other words, Rossia holding personnel authority in the Duchy House was itself a violation of family rules.

‘He’s someone who couldn’t budge when Aunt held full authority.’

Nerhi had been moving openly since Zephyrus came of age and the Dowager Duchess’s regency ended.

This was possible because no substantial authority was granted to the Dowager Duchess after her regency ended.

‘I should at least tell Aunt about it…’

She couldn’t burden the Dowager Duchess further when her health wasn’t good either.

She couldn’t tell Zephyrus because she was afraid.

If she said there was someone trying to take responsibility for Pruina, Zephyrus would likely just leave alone without hesitation.

‘Actually, it would be right to tell both of them.’

But the words wouldn’t come out. It was even more so because she knew there wasn’t much the two could do even if they knew.

In the end, everything would only be resolved when Zephyrus’s curse disappeared, or at least when his condition improved enough for him to engage in outside activities.

She was still holding onto that thread of hope and enduring, but she was gradually feeling it too.

That she was getting exhausted.

The work she was doing for a cousin she couldn’t even have proper conversations with for ten years— hm?

“…What are you doing?”

Rossia looked at Clemente coldly.

Clemente had been tapping the back of her hand and even grabbed it.

Her already sunken mood worsened at such incredibly rude behavior.

“Sorry. But you looked so cold.”

“The Northern Region is naturally a cold place.”

“That’s right. That’s why I can hold your hand like this.”

What kind of conversation was this?

Rossia frowned and tried to shake off her hand, but this woman was stronger than expected. She had been training her stamina consistently too.

“Hmm. It’s hard to explain in words. But…”

Clemente stared intently at Rossia. Rossia was reflected in her calm golden eyes.

Herself, exhausted and dark-faced, trying hard to erase it while wearing a confident mask.

“There must be a way to solve the cold. I’m certain. Like me.”

“…”

Rossia quietly looked down at her captured hand.

Honestly, she couldn’t clearly understand what Clemente was saying.

It seemed like she had a lot to say and was carefully choosing her words, but it felt like a lot was omitted in between.

However, there was one thing that was certain.

Clemente’s hand was too warm. The current Duchy Castle, where even lighting a fireplace couldn’t block all the cold wind, felt so cozy.

As if the Northern Region’s cold was nothing at all.

‘If it’s not just my imagination… so this person is comforting me right now? But why?’

Rossia’s doubt was reasonable.

According to what she heard from Gwen, they were the ones who dragged Clemente here suddenly. And they were also the ones who said they couldn’t trust her and would make her write an agreement.

“Do you know what you came here to do? You came to write a confidentiality agreement.”

“Yes. It’s promising to keep secrets, right? I know that much.”

“Do you know what happens if you break the secret?”

“I don’t know, but I just won’t tell anyone.”

Clemente raised her nose proudly. Rossia was about to say something but soon shook her head.

“To think of it so simply— no, never mind. Just let go of my hand.”

“Are you warm now?”

A question thrown out casually. Why was it? Rossia couldn’t suppress the surge of emotion rising within her.

“Would I get warm just from holding hands? The blizzard surrounding me is so fierce!”

“That’s in your heart. I think if at least your body is warm, you could rest for a moment.”

“I don’t understand what you mean. Here, sign this. The content is all written, so read it or don’t.”

Since Rossia didn’t seem to want to talk more, Clemente also lowered her gaze and read through the text word by word.

All that was written was that if she attempted to reveal anything related to the Duke’s curse, Clemente’s tongue would stiffen, and a signal would be sent to Rossia’s side.

“I’ve read it all. But a curse…? Is the master here cursed?”

Even while signing, Clemente tilted her head with a puzzled expression. Rossia could only let out a hollow laugh now.

“You went in and experienced it directly.”

“The ice-making thing?”

Her expression asked why that would be a curse.

In that brief moment, Rossia seemed to have lost even the energy to laugh hollowly.

**

A special constitution like her own.

Clemente thought of Zephyrus freezing his surroundings as just that level of thing.

Fire appears, so there could be cases where ice is created too.

It was just a light thought that he simply hadn’t made efforts to control his power since he could live comfortably even while confined.

‘But if it’s a curse, does that curse not work on me alone?’

Moreover, Clemente’s constitution was subdued when she was with Zephyrus. Enough for her to feel comfortable.

“Hmm.”

Clemente crossed her arms and tilted her head. Rossia put the signed confidentiality agreement in her bosom and asked bluntly.

“What?”

“Nothing. This requires thinking, so… um… research! It’s something that needs research!”

“What are you going to research?”

“Everything!”

She needed to examine both herself and Zephyrus. There was much to think about, study, and piece together. Just like young Clemente used to do.

“Are you saying you’ll meet with His Highness again?”

“I can’t do it without seeing him.”

It seems like they’re somehow interacting with each other.

“Don’t you think it was just luck that brought you back alive this time?”

“Didn’t Gwen tell you why she put me in that room?”

“Something about a fire fairy or whatever. It wasn’t really believable.”

Gwen hadn’t completely omitted her report.

You could call it acting first and reporting later.

By the time Rossia read Gwen’s messy report, Clemente had already finished her entire conversation with Zephyrus. It got mixed in with other reports, so she was a bit late in reading it.

‘Such important matters should be reported immediately!’

The fact that it was Gwen’s scheme to delay Rossia from seeing the report as long as possible was still a secret nobody knew.

Anyway, even after seeing Gwen’s report, Rossia didn’t believe even half of what was written in it.

How was she supposed to believe a report claiming that snow melted where she walked, the melted water evaporated, monsters died just from her touch, and that a fire fairy had finally appeared?

Rossia’s speculation was reasonable. She couldn’t imagine anything more extreme. Because it didn’t make sense.

Even if the term “fire fairy” was meant as a metaphor, someone that hot would have difficulty with daily life.

In reality, the Clemente before her eyes right now was just someone with a somewhat warm body temperature. Fortunately.

This was a thought she could only have because she had no idea how much hardship Clemente had endured to lower her body temperature to that reasonable level.

Clemente was happy that Rossia thought of her as an ordinary person. Since she had spent so long striving for that ordinariness, it felt like her efforts had been rewarded.

Of course, the Northern Region’s environment also helped make Clemente appear ordinary, but if she hadn’t made efforts to lower her body temperature in the first place, she wouldn’t have even been able to reach the Northern Region.

It was a result achieved through the combination of her efforts and the Northern Region’s environment.

‘But that can’t interfere with what I’m trying to do.’

She needed to let Rossia know that Zephyrus’s curse posed no threat to her.

Why she had no choice but to live isolated in the desert. Why she had no choice but to become an object of hatred that was constantly pursued.

“I’ll just give you a taste.”

Clemente gradually released the heat she had been suppressing.

The heat that had been pressed down by the Northern Region’s incomprehensible cold began to swell within her body in response to Clemente’s will.

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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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