You Said I Was a Persecuted, Terminally Ill Grand Duchess? - Chapter 42
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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 42
With the feeling of having found a clue to the incident, Jenos coldly reprimanded the servants.
“This doesn’t seem like a matter to discuss here. Everyone return to the Duke’s Castle and await your punishment. And…”
Through the servants hurriedly moving about, he looked directly at the young ladies.
The eyes of a predator targeting its prey.
Feeling chilled, the young ladies bowed even deeper to avoid his gaze.
“…Since this is a serious matter, I’ll request your cooperation. Would you all come to the Duke’s Castle together?”
Though he called it a request for cooperation, it was essentially a unilateral notification.
Lilian and the other two young ladies had no choice but to nod their heads.
* * *
Once the scene was cleared up, Jenos hurriedly went to find Rene.
As soon as Rene arrived at the Duke’s Castle, she was receiving treatment from Jim, the Celeste family’s personal physician.
Bang!
When he opened the door without hesitation and entered, the maids gathered around the bed were sniffling with tear-stained faces.
“Huuung! What will happen to our lady…”
“Her body is already weak, and now this happens, really…”
“I can never forgive this. Just because they’re noble young ladies? How could they do this to our rabbit-like lady-”
“Ahem.”
At the chaotic scene, Jenos cleared his throat to announce his presence.
Only then did the maids look startled and hurriedly straighten their clothes before bowing their heads in haste.
“Enough with the greetings.”
Jenos stopped Jim, who was about to rise and bow, and asked.
“How is the Duchess’s condition?”
His gaze remained fixed on Rene.
Jim, who had been constantly fidgeting with his silver-rimmed glasses, continued with a troubled expression.
“Y-Your Highness. I’m sorry. The truth is… the situation is not good. I’m doing my best, but the fever is too severe. No matter what medicine I use, it hardly responds.”
Jim, the Duke’s Castle’s personal physician, was quite a skilled doctor.
While there was nothing he could do about madness, which had no cure, he was excellent in herbalism and usually solved minor ailments with ease.
Even such a person was struggling, unable to easily control the fever.
“Is there absolutely no solution?”
“I’ve done everything I can at present. Now we can only wait and hope Her Highness overcomes it on her own…”
In the end, it meant there was nothing more he could do within his capabilities.
The situation had become even more serious.
At this rate, Rene might really lose her life.
“Save her. No matter what it takes.”
Like a beast growling, Jenos let out a heavy voice.
Jim read the true meaning within it.
He essentially had no choice.
“I-I’ll brew other herbs and bring them!”
Jim, constantly pushing up his glasses, hurriedly left the bedroom.
“Everyone leave.”
After dismissing the maids as well, soon only the sound of Rene’s labored breathing filled the room.
“…”
Jenos stood as if nailed in place, looking down at the woman.
Her face was pale white, clearly showing signs of illness.
Her red eyes, which always shone brightly, showed no sign of opening.
Her hair, completely soaked with sweat, clung to her flushed cheeks.
“…Foolish woman.”
Even as he said this, Jenos carefully removed the silver-like strands of hair stuck to her cheek with his rough hand.
It was a very gentle touch.
Even so, the soft cheek that touched his fingertips felt as if it were burning with fever.
At that moment, the woman’s already furrowed brow creased even more.
“C-cold…”
“!”
A thin voice flowed out between her weak breaths.
She didn’t seem to have regained consciousness; she was probably delirious from the fever.
Her small hands kept wandering aimlessly over the blanket.
Jenos quickly covered her body thoroughly with the blanket.
But still, Rene’s brow wouldn’t relax.
“So cold… *sob*”
As if the chill was deepening, the woman’s lips were indeed turning blue.
“Damn it.”
Jenos, flustered unlike his usual self, lay down beside her.
Then, after hesitating briefly, he held Rene in his arms.
“Mmm…”
“Just hold on a little longer. Better medicine will come soon.”
As he awkwardly patted her back, he could feel her rough breathing gradually calming down.
How much time had passed like that?
“Mmm…”
Jenos stole a glance at Rene’s now considerably calmer face.
Though they were both soaked from her profuse sweating, strangely he didn’t feel uncomfortable.
Instead, he only felt relieved.
Color was returning to Rene’s pale complexion.
That’s when it happened.
“…Jenos…”
“!”
Rene, who called the man’s name like talking in her sleep, wriggled and burrowed deeper into his embrace.
Jenos’s heart beat at an immeasurable speed.
He never imagined his name would be called in her sleep.
Wondering if she had awakened, he looked carefully, but the woman was still in a hazy dream.
“Jenos, why are you crying…?”
“…”
“…I don’t want to die, *sob*…”
“Ha, this is maddening. Why would you die?”
As if having a nightmare, Rene’s deeply furrowed brow wouldn’t relax.
Thick tears rolled down Rene’s cheeks.
Jenos, unable to do this or that, could only gently caress Rene’s shoulder.
Soon the woman’s breathing spread out evenly again.
But irregular waves were spreading throughout Jenos’s heart.
“Haa.”
Jenos carefully adjusted Rene in his arms and realized painfully.
Why hadn’t he known until now?
‘Too thin. And too small.’
She was such a small woman.
Such a fragile person…
‘But she was so cheerful and confident that I didn’t realize.’
Perhaps it was all him who had pushed her to her limits.
Though there had been pressure, ultimately it was Jenos himself who decided on the marriage with Rene.
Therefore, at the very least, he had the freedom to refuse this marriage.
But Rene was different.
Before the family’s will and the imperial palace’s power, she had no choice from the very beginning.
The woman’s position, which he had never once considered, finally touched his heart.
From his first meeting with Rene, everything sequentially flashed through Jenos’s mind.
“Marquis Rene Blanche. Do you swear to welcome His Grace Duke Jenos Celeste as your husband, fulfill the duties of a duchess, and spend your life together in faithfulness and respect?”
“I swear….”
At the wedding ceremony, Rene standing there in a worn silk wedding dress with frightened eyes.
Speaking her marriage vows with a trembling voice.
An unwelcome burden who came alone in a cargo carriage, enduring blatant coldness with composure.
For such a woman, that small cottage would have been her only place to find comfort.
“Ahaha!”
Jenos recalled Rene laughing like a blooming flower petal among the maids.
Even in the frigid north, hadn’t she become a warm spring all by herself, gently melting many people’s cold hearts?
To such a Rene, he had only spat out words that were nothing short of cruel.
“Don’t expect any husbandly duties or obligations from me. I too expect nothing from you.”
“Don’t make excuses with such petty wordplay. Did you scurry around the duke’s castle like a little mouse, gathering information to report?”
“How did you think you could become Celeste’s duchess with such a soft heart?”
Words that couldn’t even be defended… words he once believed to be true but no longer were.
So was this karma?
“That’s right…. I, I’m not someone suited to be Celeste’s duchess.”
“It was Your Grace who told me to stay quiet and keep low in the first place, wasn’t it? *sob* I followed your wishes exactly. Everything…. But why do you keep….”
Even the glass bead-like tears that fell drop by drop belonged to a woman as delicate as himself.
Jenos looked down at the quietly sleeping woman’s face.
His heart sank with a thud.
‘Rene, what on earth….’
What on earth were you feeling when you came here?
“….”
Unable to even dare guess, Jenos simply closed his eyes.
The dusky dawn was quietly, quietly settling over the two overlapping figures.
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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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