The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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We climbed into the carriage and headed toward the location specified in the photograph. The place designated by the Dark Sorcerer Organization was a village some distance from the city.
Inside the carriage, Kaelyun hurled curse after curse at the sprawled form of Everain.
“This bastard…… deceiving us all this time……!”
Just before going to meet Everain, I’d asked the Duke and Kaelyun to wait in the corridor beforehand.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected Everain to move so quickly to kidnap me. It was pure providence that I’d swapped teacups with him just to be safe.
I held back Kaelyun, who looked ready to throw a punch at any moment.
“Restrain yourself, Advisor. If you’re going to hit him, at least wait until he’s awake.”
At my words, Kaelyun snorted and lowered his fist. Whether his subordinate complied or not, the Duke stared silently out the window.
I turned to address the Duke.
“…Duke. How much do you actually know?”
“Know about what?”
“About Everain’s younger sister, Shailo.”
The Duke turned his gaze toward me.
“That’s the question I should be asking you. How much do you know? Or rather, how much have you uncovered?”
At his brazen demeanor—offering no excuse of ignorance—a hollow laugh escaped me.
“I thought so…… So you intended to bury the truth forever like this?”
“I didn’t particularly care. Frankly, if Everain hadn’t acted so drastically, I would have kept silent about it indefinitely.”
“That’s something I can’t accept as his physician.”
“Wait…… what exactly are you two talking about right now?”
Kaelyun interjected, but the Duke and I merely glared at each other, our lips pressed firmly shut.
Just as Kaelyun opened his mouth again.
“We’ve arrived.”
The coachman announced our arrival. The Duke and I hastily descended from the carriage.
Beneath a darkening sky as twilight faded, the dreary landscape of the abandoned village came into view.
Rusted iron gates and collapsed roofs, with crows rustling about in the surroundings, all testified to how long this place had been abandoned.
“…Well, someone certainly has refined taste in venue selection.”
“Let’s go. It’s almost six.”
The Duke led the way, followed by me, and then by Kaelyun carrying the unconscious Everain on his back.
Ragged breathing and curses spilled from Kaelyun’s lips as he bore the muscular young man.
“Huff, huff……. Is this guy’s brain made of muscle too? Huff, huff…… I’m going to have to eat nothing but broccoli for a month…….”
“Are you subtly trying to provoke me?”
“No, I’m not! How could I ever dare, huff…… to show such disrespect to a heavenly figure like you, hagh, hagh…… I’m merely cursing my miserable coworker!”
It was just as Kaelyun cried out.
The air around us suddenly churned. I instinctively crouched down.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…….
This sickening tremor through the earth. A sharp, prickling sensation against my skin. I had felt it before.
Soon, a deep rumble that seemed to bore through the ground reached my ears.
“Well, well, it seems we have quite a few more guests than expected.”
From the darkness, a man draped in a robe appeared before us. At a glance, I recognized him as the one who had attacked me at the Market.
The Duke pushed us back and replied.
“You’ve finally graced us with your presence, Dark Sorcerer. Your name was Scarlet, wasn’t it?”
“How honored I am that you know my name, Immortal Duke. I didn’t expect you to appear in person, but this saves me effort. Has your body fully recovered?”
Scarlet removed his robe.
Red hair and eyes black as pitch. With that sharp, piercing gaze, he looked between me and Everain in turn.
“It seems the spy tried to put this female physician to sleep but was thwarted instead. Utterly useless, as always.”
I fired back quickly.
“I was just bait to draw out the Duke, wasn’t I? Since the Duke himself has come, your objective’s been achieved, hasn’t it?”
“Of course it has. But I’m also interested in you, Lionel Frensia.”
I looked Scarlet up and down, my expression darkening.
“I prefer handsome people.”
“I don’t care about your face either. What interests me is your ability.”
With those words, Scarlet spread both arms wide.
“I—or rather, we of the Dark Sorcerer Organization—always welcome those with talent. If we combine your knowledge with our techniques, we could heal any disease. So then…….”
“Get lost, you quacks. I don’t work with charlatans. Giving Adrian those addictive drugs and not even knowing what hypoglycemia is? That’s pathetic.”
I raised the middle fingers of both hands. Scarlet’s expression twisted in displeasure.
“Quite the temperamental woman. You’d make a poor bride. ……Wouldn’t you agree, Everain?”
“……!”
The moment the Duke and I turned around. Everain’s limp hand twitched. The Duke bellowed.
“Kaelyun, get back!”
Thwack!
Kaelyun took the blow to the back of his head and went down hard. The Abacus tumbled from his prone chest without resistance.
Everain moved with fluid speed, rolling to his feet. Without hesitation, he bolted past me and toward Scarlet.
Scarlet regarded him with a sneer.
“Sleep well, Everain? Getting taken down by a woman like that—your little sister must be crying with shame. Her brother’s not nearly reliable enough, is he?”
……
Everain didn’t answer. Instead, he drew his blade from his belt. The sight of it wrenched a cry from me.
“Lord Everain! Stop this at once!”
“……I’m sorry, Teacher. I just—I need to save my sister.”
The blade’s steel-blue edge pointed toward the Duke. The Duke simply watched him, unmoved.
I stepped forward, placing myself between them.
“Lord Everain, come to your senses. Can you truly betray the man who saved your life and raised you for over a decade? This is desperately wrong.”
The word “betray” made Everain’s shoulders flinch. Yet he didn’t yield.
“She’s my only family. My blood—the only blood in this world that matters. How can that be wrong?”
“Lord Everain!!”
“Leave it, Teacher.”
The Duke gripped my shoulder, then stepped past me.
“Everain. If you truly wish to save your sister that badly, I’ll gladly help you do it.”
The Duke raised one arm.
I stood frozen, unsure of his meaning—until words came that I could never have imagined.
“Cut off this arm and give it to whoever’s standing behind you.”
“Your Grace?!”
I gasped in shock.
“Have you lost your mind?! What madness is this?!”
“Everain. You knew my weakness and sold that knowledge to the Dark Sorcerer Organization. Now that your chance has come, use that silver blade to take my arm. If I should happen to die…… well, that’s what I want anyway.”
Everain’s eyes widened for a moment, then his jaw tightened.
“……You think I won’t do it?”
“Of course you will. Did I raise you to be so soft, Everain?”
Violet eyes flashed with terrible brightness. The Duke spoke with measured calm, yet absolute force, pressing his sworn sword onward.
“Do it now. That’s the only way you’ll save your sister, as you say. Kill me while you’re at it.”
……
“Now!!”
Everain stood as though unmoved, yet the blade before the Duke trembled visibly.
Within that tremor lay hesitation, sorrow, despair, rage—
A maelstrom of warring emotion. And into it, I cried out.
“Listen, Dark Sorcerer. Is Shailo really alive? If she is, bring her here right now! Show me proof!”
“Tch. Troublesome woman.”
Scarlet frowned and withdrew something from his robes.
The moment I saw the spherical crystal, I recognized it as a Magical Crystal Projection Orb—the hot item everyone had been talking about lately.
“If you’re so eager to see her, look at this.”
Scarlet placed the orb on the ground and spoke a few words of incantation. The crystal began to glow.
The light spilled forth like a modern projector, illuminating the wall. On the projected image, a young woman lay upon a bed.
Long black hair. Pallid face. She looked about my age, and bore such a striking resemblance to Everain that she might have been his feminine double—
“Shailo.”
I glanced over. Everain looked half-dazed.
His sister, whom he’d only seen in letters and not in years, was now a full-grown woman. It must have been moving enough to bring tears—
“……Lord Everain.”
I knew the woman on the wall was a fake.
And so, as his physician, I bore the duty to tell him the truth.
“That isn’t Shailo. Though she’s your spitting image.”
Everain looked at me, his gaze sharp with incomprehension.
“What are you saying? She’s right there—”
“It’s touching, I’m sure, seeing a sister who grew up just like you. But look carefully. That’s a fake. A fabrication built from your own appearance.”
I raised a finger and pointed to part of the projection.
“She has six fingers.”

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