The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 59

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

I knew it instinctively.
The knights surrounding us were all pretending to organize their things while hanging on our every word.
Some of them even whispered to each other in hushed voices.
“The Duke is asking her out.”
“Shh! Quiet. Everyone will hear. Don’t interrupt.”
‘They can all hear you.’
Pretending not to notice, I kept my gaze fixed on the Duke as I spoke.
“What is it you wanted to show me?”
“There’s something I really want to show you.”
The Duke’s expression looked anxious—the kind of worry that showed clearly in his eyes: what if she refuses? His face made me want to cancel whatever other plans I had and say yes.
It was the sort of expression that could bend anyone to his will.
“All right. Let’s go. Is it nearby?”
The Duke’s face brightened. He immediately pulled a Teleportation Scroll from his pocket and showed it to me.
“It’s quite far, but with this, there’s no real problem. Now, let’s get ready quickly.”
Not knowing what was happening, I followed his instructions and put on two layers of clothing, then grabbed a cloak I’d borrowed from the Knight Order.
By the time I finished preparing, night had fallen.
The Duke entrusted things to Everain.
“Then, Everain. I’m counting on you to look after the Knight Order.”
“Yes, please take care on your journey. I’ll see you later at the Estate.”
“My lady, have a safe trip!!”
With Theo’s ringing voice as a backdrop, the Duke tore the Teleportation Scroll. A brilliant light poured out, swiftly enveloping him.
When I opened my eyes, I instantly understood why the Duke had told me to dress warmly. Snow covered everything.
“Where are we…?”
“Belask. The far north.”
Good heavens—the very northernmost reaches of the Empire? What on earth was I doing in this frozen region?
While I wrapped my cloak tight around me and blew on my hands for warmth, the Duke trudged through the snow toward someone standing nearby.
“Give me a sleigh. I’ll pay you with this.”
The Duke pulled a bottle of vodka from his bag. A man in a fur coat snorted and accepted the deal.
“Hold on just a sec!”
He ducked into a hut and soon emerged, dragging a sleigh. And pulling it were…
“Dogs?”
Woof! Woof!!
Six Siberian huskies came bounding out at once. They were so adorable that I laughed, despite the absurdity of the situation.
The sleigh keeper explained.
“It’s eight in the evening now, and it should take about an hour to get there. You know how to drive a sleigh?”
“I do.”
“Then there’s no problem. Have a safe journey.”
Woof! Woof!!
Without hesitation, the Duke climbed onto the sleigh and took the reins. Watching him, I shook my head in disbelief.
“Here I am as a Regression Transmigrant, now even riding a dog sleigh…”
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing! Let’s go!! Come on, let’s fly!!”
‘Besides, why does he look like he’s riding a white horse when he’s on a dog sleigh? I guess if your face is handsome enough, everything looks majestic.’
With such complicated thoughts filling my mind, I climbed onto the sleigh.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
As we crossed the endless snowy plain, there was little conversation between us. I sat wrapped in a blanket, watching the Duke’s back.
His hair, turned as white as the snow surrounding us, billowed endlessly in the wind.
His broad shoulders and the perfect form of his muscles—visible even beneath his clothes—captivated my gaze.
If I truly were to leave Carseido Estate…
‘…I would never see this back again.’
Cold, seemingly indifferent.
Yet this man, who had always protected me from danger no matter what—I would carry him only in memory as I lived my own life.
“Teacher.”
The Duke called to me as I lost myself in thought.
“Yes?”
“Look at the sky.”
My thoughts stopped the moment I looked up at the night sky as instructed.
Waves of green light sweeping across the night sky. Endless undulating waves of luminescence rippling like the sea itself.
That breathtaking vista that overwhelmed all who beheld it was none other than the Aurora.
* * *
We stood the sleigh and gazed up at the sky for a long while.
Even for a Duke who had lived seven hundred and twenty years, this gift from the heavens seemed endlessly wondrous.
With his mouth slightly parted, he watched the Aurora like a child who had discovered a fascinating toy.
“You wanted to show me this, didn’t you?”
The Duke nodded at my words, his gaze still fixed upon the sky.
“Yes. Though I must confess, I feel as though I’m the one who received the gift. I owe my thanks to Shuri.”
It was a name I’d never heard before, yet I didn’t need him to explain who she was.
“Did you come to see the Aurora after that?”
“No. I never did. I didn’t want to.”
The child in the portrait with the round cheeks. The child who had longed to see the Aurora but never did.
The Duke had told me that he never went to see the Aurora, even after hundreds of years had passed.
I could guess the reason without him needing to speak it aloud, and so I had never brought it up until now.
But standing here beneath the Aurora like this meant…….
“Are you alright with it now?”
I asked the question without a subject, yet the Duke surely understood what I meant.
The Duke nodded slowly.
“I thought that coming here would be so agonizing I wouldn’t even be able to breathe. But now that I’m here, it’s not quite like that. There’s a soreness in one corner of my heart, but it’s not unbearable.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
I smiled.
“The passage of centuries didn’t heal your pain—rather, you’ve grown through time, and now you’re finally able to accept that pain. That’s a beautiful thing.”
“At seven hundred and twenty years old, is there really anything left for me to grow into?”
“Don’t people grow right up until the moment they die?”
The Duke murmured quietly, as if turning my words over in his mind.
After standing in silence and gazing at the sky, he suddenly turned his head to look at me.
“No. It wasn’t time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lionel Frenscia, you’re the one who helped me grow.”
My heart thudded hard in my chest. My face flushed crimson.
“I’ve been living all this time by simply burying the past. Even though I became something divine, the contradiction that I could not hold onto those around me was agonizing. I locked everything into a small box and searched only for a way I could die. But you…… you deliberately took it all out and laid it bare before me.”
His voice was measured, as if reading from a picture book, but the message within it was profound.
I forgot to breathe as I listened to the Duke’s words.
“At first it was just a matter of going along with you, then it became interesting, and then…… I found the courage. And so I decided to accept a little of my own past memories too. This was all accomplished by my physician, Lionel Frenscia. So.”
The Duke took my hand.
I noticed that his large, heavy hand was trembling slightly—though I wonder if he was aware of it himself.
With eyes that glimmered in a light different from the Aurora, he spoke to me.
“So, you can do it too.”
……
“If you’re the one, you won’t simply turn away from sad memories and run like I did…… you’ll be able to live through them together. No matter how many stones rest in your pocket, you’ll march forward with courage and resolve. No matter where you are.”
I lowered my head without speaking. Tears threatened to spill at any moment.
‘The Duke thinks I’m going to leave.’
And he’s worried.
Worried that I’ll spend a lifetime consumed by guilt and remorse toward Mother because I couldn’t cut short the life of the one who killed her.
Worried that because of that, I’ll be bound to the past just as he was, forever unable to move forward.
“Lionel, I love you…… Don’t suffer like your mother did. Live healthy and long…….”
I already knew.
Even if I hadn’t cut short the Count’s life with my own hands, Mother would never resent me for it.
The image of Mother clawing up from the pit in my dreams, resenting me—that was nothing but a phantom born from my own PTSD.
‘Then I need to decide now.’
Will I live on powered by resentment toward the Duke for thwarting my revenge?
Or will I, as the Duke said…… embrace the pain that I couldn’t help but carry, and rise again?
“Duke.”
At last I made my decision and lifted my head.
“Do you want me to leave the Estate?”
“No.”
The Duke answered immediately.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”
“But you keep speaking as though my leaving is already decided. Is this perhaps…… constructive dismissal?”
“Absolutely not. I was simply trying to respect your choice. Nothing more, nothing less.”
The Duke’s words suddenly tumbled out faster. There was something desperate about it, and I found myself laughing without meaning to.
“Then I’ll stay too.”
At my words, the Duke went rigid.
His eyes widened, and he repeated my words back to me as though he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
“……Why?”
“Thinking of Mother still hurts me deeply. But.”
I tightened my grip on our joined hands. I felt him do the same.
“I’m not dying anyway, so I have to choose. Do I live with the strength of resenting you, or do I move forward alongside my past? ……I’ve decided on the latter. Here, at your side.”
After that, no more words came.
The Duke pulled me into his embrace suddenly and fiercely.
Thud!
Unable to withstand his strength, I tumbled down with him.

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