I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 85

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

Chapter 85

Ameti clutched his pounding heart and checked the experiment results.

The results of an experiment that could revolutionarily change the Northern Region’s environment depended on these few beautiful pieces of glass.

“Please, please, please…!”

What he was trying to create was heat-concentrating glass. Simply put, glass that could maintain warmth for a long time. Glass hot enough to melt the snow that constantly falls in the Northern Region so it wouldn’t accumulate, and that would block the heat coming from the greenhouse inside.

Ameti squeezed his eyes shut then slowly opened one side. His eyes, which wavered for a moment, soon filled with joy.

“It worked, it worked!”

Ameti pushed up his glasses while calming his rapidly rising breath from jumping around several times.

“Re-record. I need to record this. Record. What time is it now?”

This could be a one-time coincidence, so he needed to try it several more times.

Twice, three times. …Ten times.

All ten attempts succeeded. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Ameti picked up the finger-sized glass greenhouse as if handling the most precious thing in the world. He needed to report quickly and make identical glass.

He submitted a report to Zephyrus, who had become busier since being able to leave his room, and went to find Rossia.

Since Rossia had started the greenhouse business, Zephyrus had entrusted everything to her.

“Really? You discovered heat-concentrating glass?”

Rossia was delighted but suddenly expressed doubt.

“Wait. Discovered, not invented? Did you misspeak?”

“No. I discovered it on the day the avalanche almost covered the village.”

Ameti had been there that day too.

When he briefly went outside to prepare lunch for the children.

Clemente’s absurd heat that could melt even the ground, and the Dowager Duchess’s cold that could freeze even the sky!

The fantastic scene created by those two energies intertwining and pushing against each other.

It was probably a scene only visible to his eyes as a mage.

‘Come to think of it, their energies aren’t mana. They’re similar yet different.’

While mana felt like a special power, their power felt natural.

Even though it was energy that could never be natural.

“Ameti?”

He snapped back to attention under Rossia’s suspicious gaze after briefly getting lost in other thoughts.

“The sand beneath them seemed to repeatedly melt and freeze, creating glass. Actually, at first I was just investigating for fun because I was getting such a headache from lack of progress…”

The deeper he dug, the more he naturally thought, ‘This will work.’

“It passed ten experiments. The method for making glass seems to be high heat and rapid cooling, repeating that quickly.”

Rossia bit her lip slightly while reading the experiment report.

“Ameti, you’ve been to the glass factory, so you know, right? We don’t have equipment capable of such experiments.”

“I wrote it on the last page, but I’ll tell you directly. We need the glass workshop’s power.”

“Are you talking about the Pruina Glass Workshop?”

“Yes. I heard before that the Pruina Glass Workshop has a furnace that can melt anything.”

Rossia tilted her head.

“I’ve never heard that. Actually, I’ve never been there either. Only people His Grace permits can go there.”

“When is His Grace coming?”

“Well… I’ll try asking. If it’s not possible, we’ll have to find another way, so keep thinking about it too, Ameti.”

“Yes. Then I’ll be going.”

Ameti moved on to his next destination.

Perhaps because there was someone he didn’t want to encounter there, his pace only slowed.

“What are you doing in front of the door?”

“…I was trying to enter.”

Airite the physician was looking at him with strange eyes.

What was this physician so absorbed in until now?

Right.

He was making a cure for Noven’s grandson who had been poisoned by someone coveting the Duke’s position.

“How far has Tei’s treatment progressed?”

“Adequately.”

He knew such an answer would come. He wasn’t even angry.

“I found a clue for heat-concentrating glass. There should have been progress in your experiments too, Airite.”

“Did you come to talk about that? Specifically?”

“…Though we’re in different fields, we’re both involved in the greenhouse business, so I came to inform you. I’ll be going.”

A sigh escaped naturally. This antisocial physician turned Ameti’s stomach inside out every time he spoke. There was a limit to just accepting it. If Rossia, who had heard from Clemente, hadn’t given them separate rooms, he might have given up research on greenhouses and everything else long ago.

“Well, good luck with your struggles. More importantly, have you seen Clemente by any chance?”

“I heard she went out with His Grace. Why are you looking for Clemente?”

“I need her to treat Tei. If you see her, tell her to come to me.”

“I’m leaving.”

Ameti didn’t answer.

However, he knew himself well.

If he saw Clemente, he would end up delivering that annoying physician’s message first.

‘…But where did His Grace and Clemente go?’

Their first outing was definitely with the Marquis’s daughter, but from the next day on, only the two of them went out together.

They didn’t even take Sir Gwen.

‘That was the first time I saw Sir Gwen make such a scary face.’

As soon as they said they wouldn’t take any guards, he made a terrifying expression like an evil dragon from the 【Forgotten Legend Stories】 book the twins read.

He fiercely opposed it, saying it was absolutely not allowed, but he couldn’t beat Clemente.

Because as soon as Clemente, who was watching from the side, said something, Sir Gwen was convinced.

“If anything happens, I’ll melt all the snow around, so come there!”

Those words made him realize Clemente’s power once again.

His Grace wasn’t hurt by Clemente’s heat, so should he say their compatibility was quite good?

‘Though I can’t say it out loud.’

Ameti thought they were a man and woman who suited each other quite well in many ways.

**

“Huff, gasp, wheeze.”

Rough breathing echoed through the mountain.

His legs trembled as if they would collapse at any moment, and sweat poured like a waterfall from the palm gripping a tree branch chosen as support.

Not just his palms.

Zephyrus’s entire body was already soaked.

“Think of when you carried me back to the castle! Think of me being carried on your back!”

Even Clemente’s encouragement was useless.

‘What kind of power did I have that day?’

Zephyrus stopped briefly and looked up at the sky. Though the sky wasn’t properly visible through the dense conifers, it felt refreshing despite the difficulty. After taking several deep breaths, he spoke.

“Would you rather actually be carried?”

“What? You want to be carried, Master?”

“By you?”

The gazes of the two people looking at each other were identical. Eyes that said they couldn’t understand what the other was talking about.

“How could I be carried by you?”

“Then how could I be carried by you, Master? I look like I’m about to fall over right now.”

Thud.

The tree behind Clemente melted and poured down. Zephyrus’s sensitive gaze was drawn in that direction.

“Are you saying I’m weaker than that snow right now?”

“What kind of talk is this now? Master, Master. Get a grip!”

To Clemente, Zephyrus seemed to have half lost his mind from exhaustion.

As evidence, the spilled snow didn’t freeze solid again.

The mountain hike that started with the goal of finding land blessed with fairy power. Zephyrus was exhausted after just one hour.

Of course, she knew that Zephyrus hadn’t moved for a long time and had weak stamina.

But there had been times when she carried her from the village to the Duchy Castle.

She had seemed fine while walking around the village too.

Even when they climbed the mountain as a trial yesterday, she had looked perfectly fine.

She had sweated like now, but not to the point of saying such strange things.

‘The difference between thirty minutes and an hour is this significant.’

Clemente understood.

Come to think of it, wasn’t it double the time?

Moreover, it wasn’t flat ground but a mountain path. She hadn’t been to other mountains so she couldn’t be sure, but books said the Northern Region’s mountains were treacherous. Then it would be even more difficult!

“Yes, Master. There’s no one around anyway, so freeze everything. I just need to not freeze, for now.”

She must have been extremely careful not to let the cold energy escape for several days.

If she released everything for a moment, it might feel a bit refreshing.

Both body and mind.

Clemente praised her own generous magnanimity and took Zephyrus’s hand.

Even the gloves were frozen solid, but they quickly melted under Clemente’s touch.

‘Hmm. Bare hands would probably be better.’

She removed Zephyrus’s gloves. As hot skin touched the cold hand, Zephyrus’s fingers trembled slightly.

“What are you doing?”

“Are you coming to your senses a bit? Oh, you don’t need to control the cold energy. After all, frozen ground freezing a bit more won’t be a problem.”

Clemente absentmindedly stroked the back of Zephyrus’s hand.

Since Zephyrus wasn’t controlling the cold energy, it actually felt more refreshing.

Would touching snow feel like this?

She had heard that Zephyrus’s body temperature wasn’t particularly cold.

Yet to her alone, it became a hand cooler than anything else.

‘What could be the reason…’

As Clemente’s fingers wandered meaninglessly over the back of Zephyrus’s hand while lost in thought, Zephyrus’s fingers slipped between hers.

“Clemente.”

A low voice like a groan resonated.

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