I’m in the Arms of the Cursed Grand Duke - Chapter 9

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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 9

‘It can’t be. How could that disease exist in this remote Northern Region?’

While Clemente clenched her fist tightly, the Dowager Duchess’s door opened.

“Aunt, I’m here.”

“Rossia. Today, you came… thank you…”

Rossia, who smiled bitterly at the hoarse voice, sat in the chair beside the bed.

“Today we have a special guest too. Her name is Clemente, she’s His Grace the Duke’s meal companion.”

The surprised Dowager Duchess’s dry lips parted.

“Miss Clemente, this is the Dowager Duchess of Pruina.”

“…Hello. My name is Clemente.”

Clemente stepped forward, knelt down, and took the Dowager Duchess’s hand.

It was cold.

Not just her hands. No matter how cold the Northern Region was, it was still daytime yet the fireplace was blazing excessively. The room was sweltering hot because of it.

A room where the Northern Region’s coolness couldn’t be felt at all.

Yet a body growing cold and withering away.

These were familiar symptoms.

This symptom of becoming so thin that the cheeks were sunken, body temperature gradually turning cold like a dead person’s, and giving off a stale sweet smell.

Her suspicion became certainty.

The Dowager Duchess’s face overlapped with her grandmother’s face. That playful diviner who did whatever she wanted until the very end before leaving this world.

Clemente smiled as if nothing was wrong and spoke to the Dowager Duchess.

“I’m quite hot, you know? So it’s good to be together when it’s cold!”

Her grandmother was the same. Only when she was reduced to skin and bones did she call Clemente to her side. Saying she wanted to go warmly at least when departing. Without even taking the medicine she had worked so hard to obtain.

“I’ll visit often until you recover from your illness. Would that be alright?”

The Dowager Duchess’s eyes, which had been listlessly open, moved.

The first thing she saw was scarlet hair. A person like flames. To her blurry eyes that couldn’t see properly, that’s how Clemente appeared.

‘A meal companion…?’

That meant Zephyrus’s curse didn’t work on her.

Even if Zephyrus became unable to leave his room, if there was someone who could travel between the outside and inside, whatever they did would be better than now.

The Dowager Duchess gathered all her remaining strength and focused her eyes. This was someone who would have to continue being with her son from now on. She had to observe her properly.

When she passed the brilliant hair, brushed over the fair forehead, and met Clemente’s eyes.

‘She’ll be fine.’

She closed her eyes in relief. Some might say her judgment was too quick and rash, but it was fine.

Because the warmth contained in Clemente’s eyes was transmitted as clearly as a lake.

‘God has answered my wish. Oh, thank you.’

Her earnest prayers for Zephyrus’s loneliness to diminish had been worthwhile.

“Be close with… Zephyrus…”

“I like my master. I want to get along well with him.”

“Talk to him… often…”

“Yes. Oh, if my master treats me badly, can I tell you about it?”

The corners of the Dowager Duchess’s eyes drooped slightly. She wanted to nod, but no strength would enter her body. Just this brief conversation had exhausted all her energy.

At the point where she could see the end, she had witnessed a miracle sent by God.

That alone seemed to put her heart somewhat at ease.

There was only one regret.

That she would leave without seeing Zephyrus’s face.

In the depths of the Dowager Duchess’s blurry vision and fading consciousness, young Zephyrus’s face appeared.

That tear-filled face as he locked himself in his room, telling others not to come near.

Then, a gentle voice softly echoed through her ears that felt muffled as if submerged in water.

“Have sweet dreams. It will be warm.”

That’s right. It’s warm. For the first time in a long while, the Dowager Duchess felt as if the chill was disappearing. Even burning firewood all day had only left her cold.

Somehow feeling like she could sleep deeply, she slowly closed her eyes. Softly, peaceful breathing sounds escaped for the first time in ages.

“Th-this can’t be…!”

The maid who had been caring for the Dowager Duchess exclaimed in surprise, then covered her mouth. She couldn’t wake the Dowager Duchess who had finally fallen asleep.

Clemente gestured with a gentle smile for them to go outside.

After quietly closing the door and moving away, silence fell for a moment.

The maid was pondering how to express her gratitude, and Rossia was busy processing what had just happened.

And Clemente asked as if it was nothing important.

“What illness does the Dowager Duchess have?”

“We don’t know the name of the disease. If only we knew the name, we could somehow find a way…”

As expected. If they had known what disease it was, they would have immediately tried to obtain medicinal herbs. They wouldn’t have acted as if the Dowager Duchess was facing death like this.

According to what she heard from Ruby, a Duke held power second only to the Emperor, so he would have somehow obtained the herbs.

Of course, obtaining medicinal herbs wasn’t easy, but wouldn’t it be different for a Duke?

‘But why don’t they know?’

It might be natural for there to be no southerners in the Northern Region, but the Capital was different.

Though she had passed through the Capital only briefly, she had still spotted quite many southerners there.

If they wanted to find out, they could have done so easily.

But that wasn’t something Clemente needed to worry about.

She was simply, as one southerner, informing them about a desert endemic disease that anyone who had been to the south would know about. Something anyone could do.

“Um, I’ve seen someone who was sick in the same way… hmm. In the same manner as the Dowager Duchess.”

“Where!”

“Really?”

At their intense reactions, Clemente patted their backs soothingly. After waiting for them to calm down a bit, she spoke slowly.

“First, they can’t eat well. Then they gradually get cold and their body withers. They lose strength too. When it gets worse, their body gives off a smell. A slightly sweet and strange smell.”

“Y-yes, that’s right. Lately there’s been that kind of smell…”

“I can’t say for absolute certain, but it’s a desert disease.”

“…A southern disease?”

“Yes, but why the Dowager Duchess caught a desert disease…”

“I-is it contagious by any chance?”

Clemente nodded slightly.

“But healthy people have no problem.”

“What’s the name of the disease?”

“‘Cactus Flower.'”

It was a truly bitter disease for her as well.

‘Cactus Flower’ wasn’t a dangerous disease.

Like a common cold, it would go away quickly with just a little rest.

For young, healthy people, that is.

‘But if you catch it when your body is weakened, or if it spreads to the elderly…’

It becomes very difficult to find an answer.

Just like when the desert diviner, Clemente’s grandmother, caught the disease.

The two didn’t share blood. However, she was someone kinder and more affectionate than anyone, and also cold-hearted.

When she learned that such a person had caught ‘Cactus Flower,’ her world nearly collapsed. She absolutely couldn’t let her world collapse.

If she went to the Lava Region where the medicinal herbs grew, it seemed like her grandmother would leave this world. But she couldn’t just leave it alone, so she obtained seeds.

The seeds were actually easy to obtain.

There were plenty of seeds that had been abandoned after failed cultivation attempts near the Lava Region.

Using her constitution, it seemed like she could grow the medicinal herbs, but she was worried about potentially harming other people.

However, she couldn’t send the diviner away without doing anything. Especially since she had told her about the illness too late, leaving little time.

Clemente eventually gathered a lot of heat in a place where no one came.

The center was hot enough to melt sand, but the temperature dropped toward the edges.

Young Clemente planted the seeds evenly from the center outward.

Then she found the right temperature, grew the medicinal herbs, and brought them to the diviner.

“You… obtained the medicinal herbs?”

Clemente, covered in sand and dust, nodded vigorously and smiled.

The grandmother looked at her with cloudy eyes and laughed with a clear, ringing voice.

It was a volume that seemed impossible to come from such a frail body.

“Keep that safe with you.”

“You want me to eat it, Diviner-“

“Do you know how to use it?”

She didn’t know.

“But you know, Diviner!”

“I won’t tell you.”

“Why, why!”

“Because it will help you. Clemente.”

The Diviner gestured with her hand. It wasn’t a signal to go, but to come. This was the first time.

Clemente hurried over and took the Diviner’s hand.

“Poor thing…”

What followed would be “pitiful thing.” It was what the Diviner always said.

“Enviable thing.”

“Huh, what?”

But it was different. The desert Diviner, looking at Clemente’s round golden eyes, laughed with a deflated sound.

“You’ll live well. Happier than anyone.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“But…”

Would that be okay? When she only made the people around her suffer.

“Why not! It’s all happiness you’ll create yourself. I told you not to blame yourself!”

“Y-yes…”

“Now, would you give this old woman a warm hug?”

“You told me not to call you grandmother.”

“Hehe.”

The Diviner, the grandmother, was mysterious to the end.

Still, grandmother’s embrace was nice. It was the first time anyone had held her like that.

It would have been nice to have hugged her sooner.

**

Clemente watched the retreating figures of Rossia and Shea, the Dowager Duchess’s maid, walking quickly while talking.

She hoped nothing would happen that they’d regret.

‘But will the herbs be okay?’

She could obtain them somehow. What mattered was time. The Dowager Duchess’s body was already covered by illness.

She tapped her chin, thinking deeply, then soon began walking.

Behind those quiet footsteps, a small resolution of Clemente’s bloomed.

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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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