Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 69

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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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Episode 69
“Don’t like it? What can I do? Still, just have some soup and you must take your medicine.”
“I don’t want to eat it.”
The child’s voice dragged out in protest.
Even so, the girl disliked bitter tastes, as children do.
“That’s why the maid gave us sweet syrup too. If you mix the medicine in it, it’ll taste sweet.”
Linea didn’t answer, and I was just pulling myself away from the child to take the soup from the maid’s hands.
“Don’t go, Mother.”
A tiny voice spilled from Linea’s lips.
The child gripped my hand weakly.
It would have been easy to pull my hand away from her fluttering grasp, but I let her hold me without resistance.
“I’m not going anywhere. Sit up a little—shall we try just a few spoonfuls?”
I carefully lifted Linea’s body upright in my arms.
She was probably dizzy. And her appetite was gone.
In all the time I’d been with her, I’d never seen Linea unable to get food down like this.
The child barely managed to swallow even the lukewarm soup.
“It hurts.”
“Yes, it does hurt. Your throat is swollen—it aches every time you swallow?”
The child nodded repeatedly.
There were tears pooling in her eyes—she really was in pain.
‘I wish I could take her pain instead.’
With Linea suffering, my heart felt as though it were tearing apart. Even though I knew a cold and body aches would pass in a few days.
“Once you take your medicine and rest well, you’ll feel better soon, sweetheart.”
Linea, who had barely managed a few spoonfuls, quickly refused even that.
“Oh dear, what am I going to do.”
The child went limp and warm like freshly baked dough, spreading across my arms.
I mixed the medicine into the syrup and brought it to her lips no matter what.
“Swallow. Just once, just this once? Yes?”
Linea, who would normally take her medicine without complaint, seemed genuinely reluctant today and kept her mouth firmly shut.
“Come on, take just one sip and it’s done. You need this medicine so it won’t hurt anymore.”
At last, Linea forced her mouth open with effort.
I seized the opportunity and gave her the medicine.
“That’s right. Our girl takes her medicine so well.”
“Mm.”
No matter how well I’d hidden it in the syrup, the bitter taste of the medicine couldn’t be masked.
Linea wrinkled her face in disgust and shook her head slightly.
Her discomfort was plainly visible.
“Oh no, is it bitter? What can I do. Let’s have some orange juice to wash it down.”
I was trying to give her a taste of the sweet juice, but Linea suddenly turned her body away.
The child faced the wall with a pouty gesture.
“Linea?”
No answer.
‘She’s upset.’
Because I forced her to drink the bitter medicine against her will.
Linea would never have done such a thing ordinarily, and the realization made me laugh despite myself.
Linea was still just a child.
“Oh, my darling. You still have so much growing to do if you can’t even take bitter medicine.”
I spoke playfully, running my hand down her round little head.
After coaxing the unmoving child at length, she finally turned her body back toward me.
The plump little face had taken on a sullen expression.
I touched her cheek gently.
“Linea, you’ll need to take medicine one more time later—how can you be upset already?”
“Mother, I hate you.”
Linea spoke only those few short words, but soon closed her eyes comfortably as my hand brushed through her hair.
The medicine was beginning to take effect—her expression was gradually easing compared to before.
I watched Linea in silence.
Only once her breathing had become steady did I allow myself to relax.
After covering her with only a thin blanket across her abdomen, I was just turning my head to ask the maid to change the basin—the water had long since melted into warmth.
Someone had already approached and placed a fresh basin beside me.
“Oh, thank you—Carcel?”
“The medicine is taking effect,” he murmured softly.
He knelt on one knee to meet my eye level as he spoke quietly.
I nodded.
“Her fever was so high until just now that I was worried, but it seems the fever reducer is working.”
Carcel, who had been listening quietly, made a suggestion to me first.
“Wouldn’t it be good for you to rest now?”
“How can I rest when Linea is ill? Even if the medicine is working, she might wake up in a while and need me again.”
“I will continue to change the towel on her forehead, and if Linea wakes and looks for you, I will wake you.”
Concern was evident in Carcel’s eyes.
I wasn’t free from exhaustion.
It was already past midnight, into the early morning hours.
As I hesitated briefly, Carcel advised me firmly.
“Caregiving is not something done for a moment—it continues. You must rest, even if just for a while.”
“But you need rest too, Carcel.”
“Asha, are you concerned about my stamina now? With that small, delicate stamina of yours?”
“Tch.”
I had no words.
It was frustrating, but comparing Carcel’s stamina to mine would probably be laughable.
In the end, I compromised by dozing briefly on the long sofa near the bed.
As I drifted into light sleep, I felt someone place something over me.
And I, who had fallen into sleep as though I’d lost consciousness, slowly opened my eyes feeling the warmth of sunlight.
‘Morning?’
Startled that the time had already become morning, I hurried to sit up.
“Linea.”
When I turned my head, the bed was empty. Carcel was not in the room either.
“Where did they go?”
Afraid that perhaps she’d gotten worse and been taken somewhere, I rushed out of the room in a panic.
The corridor was silent.
“Carcel! Linea!”
The child was sick, and here I was sleeping until morning!
Blaming myself for sleeping so peacefully, I looked about the corridor frantically.
Then I heard footsteps and turned toward the sound.
* * *
A few hours earlier, in her illness, Linea had begun whimpering and searching for Asha.
“Mother.”
“It’s Father,” Carcel replied.
He wiped Linea’s forehead with a cool towel and held the hand of the child searching for her mother.
“I will stay right here. So be at ease.”
At this, the child seemed reassured and blinked her eyes slowly.
Even so, Linea gripped Carcel’s hand tightly with her hot little fist.
That single grip made Carcel’s eyes sting for the very first time in his life.
His heart trembled, and a feeling different from what he felt with Asha washed over him.
‘This endless sorrow, this guilt at not being able to suffer in her stead—’
It was a guilt mixed with helplessness he had never felt before. He was simply terrified of losing this child.
“I will certainly find a way to make you well again as quickly as possible. Linea, so—”
Carcel squeezed Linea’s hand more tightly and whispered.
“Trust only in me, and hold on just a little longer.”
At this, Linea seemed reassured and nodded once.
At that fragile gesture of trust, Carcel’s heart felt as though it were melting away.
On that day, Carcel understood.
That he would protect this child even at the cost of his own life.
Carcel, who had never relied on anything in his entire existence, could do nothing but pray before this child.
* * *
“Carcel.”
Fortunately, Carcel was approaching, cradling something wrapped tightly in a quilt like a burrito.
I recognized at once that it was Linea, and I hurried toward him.
“You’re awake, Asha?”
“Where did you go? Is Linea all right?”
“Don’t worry. She woke and I gave her medicine again, and since she wanted to get some fresh air outside, I took her for a walk in the garden while her fever was down.”
“Ah.”
I exhaled a deep sigh of relief and asked Carcel.
“How is Linea doing?”
“Yes. The Doctor says she doesn’t need any more medicine now and just needs plenty of rest.”
“I’m so relieved. I was—I was so afraid when I woke up that she’d gotten worse while I was sleeping so shamefully. It terrified me.”
Carcel’s brow furrowed faintly at my words.
“Asha, why do you speak so?”
“Because the child is ill and I was just sleeping.”
“That is why Father exists.”
He answered me firmly.
“You are always the mother who does her best for Linea, and you cared for her well despite your exhaustion.”
“…Thank you.”
“Didn’t you call her our daughter?”
He gave me a long, steady look.
“I was simply caring for my daughter, so you go wash and change your clothes.”
I nodded to Carcel.
So he too was bearing the weight I thought only I carried.
“When I come back, you rest too.”
“Don’t worry.”
With Carcel’s reassuring words, I was able to head to the bedroom with a lighter heart.
* * *
Though her appetite had diminished greatly, Linea managed to empty an entire bowl of soup.
“Since Linea took her medicine well yesterday, she doesn’t need any more today.”
“Phew.”
The child’s relief made me laugh, and I asked teasingly.
“Is medicine really that bitter?”
“I didn’t know medicine was bitter until now.”
“Hmm?”
Aren’t most medicines bitter?
“…Did you perhaps take medicine for the first time?”
Linea seemed a bit flustered at my questioning look.
The child simply nodded once.
‘It’s impossible that she’s never been sick growing up.’
Thinking it strange no matter how I turned it over in my mind, I asked very carefully.
“So this is your first cold too? The first time you’ve been this sick?”
“Last year I was sicker, but this year it went away quickly.”
The innocent child had fallen into my trap question.
“Then did your grandmother not give you medicine even when you were sick?”
Still, Linea desperately shook her head at the mention of grandmother.
“No. It’s just that I didn’t want to take it, so…”
“I see.”
I smiled at Linea, but inside, my thoughts were churning angrily.

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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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