A Shadow Cast in Paradise - Chapter 23
“Let’s call a doctor for treatment. Perhaps traditional methods, not holy power, might be effective?”
Eclas calmly suggested an alternative.
At that, Sched clenched his fist.
“Carlyle.”
“Yes, my lord.”
At Sched’s somewhat calmer voice, Carlyle bowed his head and went outside.
Without a long order, Carlyle brought in a doctor.
Doctors, compared to the miraculous healing power of priests, had limited abilities, so they generally treated the common people.
When injured, nobles wanted to be treated by priests, not doctors.
But now was a time when a doctor was needed instead of a priest.
“Y-You called for me, Your Grace.”
The doctor bowed his head, barely breathing in the tense atmosphere that filled the room.
Sched immediately had the priest step back and let the doctor tend to the wound.
The priest frowned at the large medical bag the doctor had brought. He seemed upset at being replaced by such a barbaric and ignorant treatment method, but there was no choice.
The doctor cared for the wound as he had learned and practiced. He didn’t know much about holy power or black magic, but he knew how to disinfect and close wounds.
Soon the bleeding was completely stopped, and he carefully applied medicine, sutured the wound, and then meticulously wrapped bandages around Riana’s body.
As the doctor stood up, wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sched approached him as if he had been waiting.
Eclas thought he looked like a dog waiting for its master.
Not a cute puppy, though, more like a fighting dog.
“Her condition.”
“I’ve done all I can. From now on, we can only monitor and provide appropriate treatment…”
“I’m asking if she’s safe or not.”
“She’s just passed the immediate crisis. The wound is large and deep, and there was a lot of blood loss, so we can only leave it to God’s fate…”
Sched’s face hardened coldly, seemingly unsatisfied with the doctor’s answer.
Damn priests and doctors, they’re all useless.
“Everyone out.”
Sched roughly ran his hand through his hair.
The doctor and priest left as soon as the words fell, and Carlyle and Eclas followed.
As the door closed, Sched slumped into a chair.
He clenched his interlocked hands.
He knows.
It’s not them who are incompetent, but himself.
Unable to handle the anger rising in his chest, he’s taking it out on innocent people.
He had never felt so pathetic and helpless.
Even when surrounded by enemies, when a trusted subordinate betrayed and sold information, or when faced with a massive magical beast, he hadn’t felt this emotion.
He looked at the woman lying on the bed, exhaling thin breaths.
The sight was so similar to an old memory that his head throbbed.
So, once upon a time. Back when his relationship with Louise Ideana could at least not be called a bad one.
Even then, she was often bedridden.
Weak since childhood, she rarely left the Ideana estate.
Unable to even go out, she was educated by tutors and couldn’t make friends.
When he returned with spoils and game after battles or hunts, Louise Ideana would rush out to see the items brought from outside.
Sched was a slave carrying the spoils and game, and the young lady approached him with curious eyes.
At such times, he would kneel before the small girl and show her the items he had brought.
That’s how he grew close to Louise Ideana.
A girl who matched well with the sunlit garden.
White skin and a light body, eyes shining with curiosity, platinum blonde hair swaying in the breeze, and a clear smile that brightened the mood of those who saw it.
Once, he thought Louise Ideana was a person of flawless nobility.
Until he learned why she couldn’t even go out properly.
“Cough, cough!”
“Young lady…!”
He saw blood gushing from her mouth.
Blood splattered on the grass in the sunlight, and her small body collapsed onto the dirt.
When her frail body was burning with high fever and her stomach was so upset she could barely swallow her saliva, the maids would move her with indifferent expressions as if it were a common occurrence, sighing as they wiped away the blood.
On nights when her body couldn’t bear the pain and writhed in convulsions, crying sounds would leak through the door.
“Young lady, are you alright!”
“Sched. Help me…”
When she regained consciousness, she would call for him with a torn, cracked, and hoarse voice.
On nights when her small body trembled, swallowing pain, Sched would hold her.
Struggling as if about to breathe her last, she would fight death all night and finally fall asleep as if fainting.
The next day, Louise Ideana would be sitting in bed as if nothing had happened.
“Yesterday… I’m sorry.”
She would smile weakly with a pale face.
As if being sick were her fault, she would droop like a wilted flower after being ill.
Louise feared that her pain would become a burden to others.
She also said she felt sorry for her father who had suffered because of her illness since she was young.
Perhaps because of this, she began to endure her pain more often.
Even when coughing up blood, she would habitually find a basin to vomit into and wipe it away with trembling hands.
When suffering from high fever, she would bury her shivering body under the blankets and endure it, biting her lips without a single word of pain.
Occasionally, when she couldn’t breathe properly, she would dismiss everyone and sit down clutching her chest, enduring until she was drenched in cold sweat.
Pain was her daily life, and so she bore her given share with composure.
“It’s strange that I’m still alive and not dead despite this.”
Her casual murmur stuck like a thorn in his heart.
As if those words meant she was frustrated at not dying quickly enough.
She thought death would be faster than curing her incurable disease.
But.
“You’ve managed to live well until now, Louise.”
At the precarious edge of life, hadn’t she endured so well until now?
Sched’s jaw clenched tight.
Riana’s thin hand atop the blanket was as white as plaster, devoid of blood.
“So this time too, you must endure.”
As always, no matter how painful, you must live.
I will curse all night for it to be so.
I will plead to the devil for you.
[This is the timeline separator]Thwack!
Eclas frowned at the ear-piercing impact sound.
‘Has he gone mad?’
He thought irritably, watching the man swinging his sword in the distance.
Thud, thwack! Crack! Smash!
The noisy sounds that had been heard all night made it impossible to sleep. And even now that the sun had risen, those sounds showed no signs of stopping.
Eclas watched Sched, holding back the curses rising to the tip of his throat.
That crazed warrior had been like that since yesterday.
Starting before dinner, with his upper body bare and drenched in sweat, he was smashing or cutting anything he could.
‘Just how much has he destroyed?’
He rubbed his tired face, looking at the pile of wood and stone fragments stacked high on one side of the mansion. The debris broken in a day was enough to make a hill one could climb.
Everything worn out over the years was completely shattered by his hands yesterday. Among them were even massive boulders that seemed impossible to break with a sword.
‘Crazy duke bastard.’
Eclas cursed inwardly as he watched.
Having not slept properly due to the noise all night, he was sensitive, and the curses he spat inside wouldn’t be heard by anyone anyway.
‘Why is he doing that all night?’
Eclas heaved a deep sigh.
Why? Don’t you know? It must be because of that woman.
That pretty woman who resembles Louise Ideana.
That woman hasn’t woken up for three days.
“Damn it…”
Sched, who had been swinging his sword with all his might, dropped it in front of the shattered pieces.
No matter how much he swung his sword and destroyed everything in sight, nothing was resolved.
The complex emotions and thoughts filling his mind simply wouldn’t empty.
If only he had been a little faster then. If he had judged more accurately. If he hadn’t been careless for a moment. If he had watched and protected Riana more surely…
Knowing how pathetic and meaningless such assumptions were, endless ‘what ifs’ tormented him.
No matter how many times he struck with his sword, the futile thoughts wouldn’t break like chains forged from crimson flame iron.
If she doesn’t wake up like this, the next thing he’d want to destroy would be himself.
The veins in his hand gripping the sword bulged.
“Duke Lester.”
At that moment, seizing the timing when he briefly lowered his sword, Eclas intervened.
At that, Sched raised his head.
Eclas flinched, seeing the bloodshot eyes.
‘He’s in a terrible state.’
Well, Sched Lester is human too.
It would be strange if he were fine after swinging a sword all night like that.
His hands, thickly calloused from swinging the sword all night, couldn’t withstand it, and blood had been seeping from them for a long time.
Droplets of blood fell sporadically from his scraped and torn hands.
Sched’s body was drenched in sweat.
His torso, with the shirt thrown off, glistened with sweat. The muscle masses covered in scars were intimidating.
His hair, disheveled and wet with sweat, showed none of the usual neatness when properly styled.
Certainly, that appearance was wild and overwhelming.
Yet, somehow, that figure looked the weakest and most precarious among all the Sched Lesters he had seen.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
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