The World Mistakes Me for Terminally Ill - Chapter 34

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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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The World Thinks I’m Terminally Ill Episode 034

 

‘No.’

 

I don’t know why, but I felt like my pride would be hurt if I said something and he really lost interest, so I decided to just let it go.

 

It’s definitely not because I felt disappointed or anything. Just… there was no particular reason.

 

‘Really, no reason at all, I’m telling you?’

 

For some reason, emphasizing this to myself made me feel hurt in my pride, and I was standing there sulking when Shubel, who had been walking quietly beside me, spoke up.

 

“Madam.”

 

“Yes?”

 

When I turned to look at him, against the backdrop of the daytime garden completed after about two months, the man who looked somewhat anxious bit his lips tightly.

 

“…Could you please not go out anymore today?”

 

Had he ever directly restricted my actions like this before?

 

Curious, I stared intently at Shubel before opening my mouth.

 

“You don’t want me to go out?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Are you worried my health will get worse?”

 

“Yes.”

 

After a moment of silence, I looked into Shubel’s eyes and asked.

 

“Why?”

 

Then his eyes narrowed slightly.

 

As if he couldn’t understand such a question.

 

“I’m worried that you might cough up blood again due to overwork…”

 

“No, not that. There must be some reason why you want to stop me.”

 

“…”

 

“Don’t you know?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

I deflated and crossed my arms with a sharp motion.

 

Actually, I don’t know why I’m acting like this either. I don’t even know what answer I wanted to hear.

 

My intuition just told me to ask this, and as you can see, the result was a failure.

 

“Well, I don’t have anywhere else to go today anyway, so resting in my room wouldn’t be bad.”

 

Shubel’s face brightened.

 

“No wait. There’s a report from the Medical Center about medicinal materials, so I might need to go check it out.”

 

His face darkened again.

 

“Hmm, but it’s not urgent, so I think it could wait until tomorrow.”

 

“…Madam.”

 

Shubel finally spoke up after holding back.

 

“Are you perhaps… teasing me right now?”

 

I smiled brightly.

 

“You just figured that out now?”

 

“…!”

 

“How nice. To think I can tease the Grand Duke’s son of Lunein.”

 

I turned around so forcefully that my hair whipped around.

 

As I walked away from the garden with clicking steps, Shubel, who had been standing there dazed for a while, hurriedly chased after me. He followed behind me and asked.

 

“Madam, did I perhaps do something wrong—”

 

“No, nothing.”

 

“Then why…”

 

I whirled around to face the confused man and said.

 

“I don’t know either.”

 

Usually he was like a cunning fox, but today he looked exactly like a dog caught in the rain. Why are people so multifaceted when they should just stick to one thing?

 

Not even knowing why I was being spiteful, I angrily headed toward the castle while Shubel frantically chased after me.

 

“Madam, if you run that fast, you might get hurt—”

 

“Ah, that damn health! I’m healthy, I tell you!”

 

“Madam…”

 

“Don’t follow me! We’re sleeping in separate rooms. I’ll pack my things and leave, so figure it out yourself.”

 

“Then are you taking me with you?”

 

“What?”

 

“Because I’m your luggage.”

 

“This man must be crazy, really!”

 

And the servants who witnessed this whispered quietly.

 

“They must have had a marital spat.”

 

“It was about time for that to happen.”

 

“The young master must have done something wrong, right?”

 

“99%.”

 

They chatted about when the young master and his wife might make up.

 

It was an afternoon with warm sunshine.

 

‘How embarrassing, really.’

 

After having a pointless fight with Shubel.

 

In the end, I couldn’t actually sleep in separate rooms and spent the night with my back turned to him after threatening him once more not to cross the line on the bed.

 

I felt someone’s obvious gaze from behind me all night, but I pretended not to notice and fell asleep.

 

The next morning, I drove away my tactless husband who tried to follow me around and came to the room that had become my study at some point, then banged my head on the desk.

 

“Why did I do that?”

 

I muttered with a sigh.

 

It was really nothing important, but I don’t understand why I suddenly got angry at someone who was worrying about me.

 

I knocked my forehead as a form of reflection, then got up thinking I should just work.

 

‘Now that I’ve secured food and public safety, it’s time to build self-sufficiency.’

 

Most of the estate’s residents couldn’t survive on cottage industries forever.

 

A small estate might be different, but a duchy is vast land that could be considered a country in itself.

 

I decided the next direction for the ‘North Restoration Project’ would be finding businesses that could become sustainable sources of income for the estate.

 

Wondering how they survived during the Thousand-Year War, I checked with Father and got the expected answer of ‘war business.’

 

[What does war business mean?]

 

“Literally, they lived off war. Wherever people gather, supply and demand explode.”

 

Kaiseus, who was rolling around hugging an apple beside me as usual today, showed curiosity.

 

Being a baby dragon who was only 100 years old, he had many questions.

 

As my business mind started working, my subtle feelings and concerns about Shubel disappeared, and I answered in a relieved mood.

 

“An army is like a hippopotamus that devours enormous resources. Military supplies would be needed in no small amount, but would they produce all of that in the North? Especially food, which requires vast farmland and many workers, would be nearly impossible.”

 

[So they imported from other regions.]

 

“Right, exactly. Back then, since there was manpower to consume it, you could say all resources from across the continent were concentrated in the North.”

 

The North has many mines but few flatlands suitable for farming. Even the average temperature drops significantly, making it inefficient for fruit cultivation, fish farming, or raising edible livestock like cattle and pigs.

 

The reason metallurgy and weaponry developed exceptionally in the North while other fields couldn’t even reach average levels is probably due to this.

 

When they were busy fighting off invading monsters, when would they have time to produce inefficient food?

 

It would be better to use that manpower to make weapons and train even one more soldier.

 

It was much more profitable to buy food, so they did that, and this continued out of habit until…

 

“The war ended.”

 

It was no different from the beginning of all downfall as the reason for the great army’s existence disappeared.

 

A place where other abilities converged to nearly zero while only military power was maxed out, but the place to use that overflowing military power disappeared.

 

Meanwhile, as the war ended and the manpower and resources concentrated in the North began spreading across the continent, the Empire experienced unprecedented prosperity.

 

Continuous technological innovations occurred, an era where the pen was mightier than the sword arrived, and in contrast, the North failed to adapt to this era and was left behind.

 

Lunein brought peace to the continent but couldn’t protect the family’s future in return.

 

Here, I felt one doubt.

 

‘Did the Duke of Lunein from a hundred years ago really not know this?’

 

Cruel as it sounds, sometimes those in power start wars to maintain their own power.

 

Even a duchess from a hundred years ago couldn’t have been unaware of this.

 

Kaiseus definitely said that.

 

[Eternal rest to this land.]

 

I felt such doubts for a moment, but when I saw the bright, innocent eyes of the 100-year-old baby dragon who seemed to say ‘I don’t know anything at all,’ I thought there was no point worrying about something that had already passed.

 

‘Right. What would he know? He’s a dragon who can’t even fly.’

 

[I, I know everything I need to know too!]

 

“Really? Then tell me what 15+17 is.”

 

At my words, Kaiseus’s red eyes began to shake.

 

He started counting ‘One, two, three…’ while struggling to fold his pink jelly paws.

 

Soon he had counted all his front and back toes but had nowhere else to count, so he made an expression like the world had collapsed and started counting from the beginning again.

 

Since he looked like he’d do that all day, I left him alone and tapped the documents I was looking at.

 

[Northern Scenic Spots and Hot Springs List]

 

It was a list compiled from nearly 20 years of local and visitor data.

 

‘The Northern Region has no specialty products.’

 

A few items did catch my eye. If developed and commercialized, they would become important sources of income that could sustain the Northern Region.

 

But for specialty products to become famous, first the Northern Region itself needed increased recognition.

 

To increase recognition?

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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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