Despite the morning sun being high in the sky, the Grand Duke’s bedchamber was dark, with the curtains tightly drawn.

Frost lay deeply asleep on the bed. On the bedside table, only a single sleep-inducing incense stick burned, emitting a soft fragrance.

– Thud.

“Ouch.”

A groan was heard from the direction of the terrace. Soon after, the window creaked open slightly.

The heavy curtains swayed, and the solitary burning incense flickered in a breeze carrying the scent of garden trees.

Rustle. Rustle.

Small, bare white feet peeked out from beneath the gathered hem of a green chiffon dress, tiptoeing stealthily towards the bed.

The intruder was Yuriella, the suspicious red-eyed lady who had kept the Grand Duke tossing and turning all night while she slept soundly.

She had sought out the Grand Duke’s chambers as soon as she woke up, but the knights wouldn’t let her in, saying the Grand Duke was still asleep.

Even if she got past the knights, there was no guarantee Frost would allow the treatment.

‘This might be better. I’ll sting like a bee and flee like a butterfly while he’s sound asleep.’

Treatment cannot be delayed. She needed to check his condition and provide additional treatment to prevent worries of seizures due to magic poisoning for the time being.

Yuriella took a deep breath and stretched out both hands towards the deeply sleeping Grand Duke.

Her ten slender fingers undid one button of the Grand Duke’s fully buttoned shirt, then paused, fearing he might wake.

She undid another button and checked the Grand Duke’s breathing.

Undid one more button and checked his breathing again.

After carefully unbuttoning all the way down and removing the sweat-soaked shirt, a sculpted upper body of solid muscle was revealed. The bandages on his abdomen and left shoulder were clean.

The pair of small hands that had been gently stroking the bandages seemed to forget their task for a moment as they moved up to the Grand Duke’s large shoulders.

Fingers alighted on the deltoid, sliding from the resilient trapezius to the triceps. Then changing direction, they delicately traced the muscles beneath the skin from the pectorals below the collarbone down to the abdominals.

With each breath the Grand Duke took, the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and internal and external obliques revealed the distinct abs of a man honed by battle.

“Ah…!”

A low exclamation escaped from lips that had grown even redder from being bitten.

The emotion in those narrowed red eyes was intense envy and jealousy.

“The Grand Duke is so lucky… I wanted a body like this too…”

Another shallow sigh scattered across the Grand Duke’s stomach.

Once again, ten fingers busily moved down to Frost’s waist.

As she was fiddling to lower the pants hanging on his iliac crest…

– Snap.

A large hand grasped the small, pale white hand whose very veins seemed visible.

“…Hah!”

Frost, who had suddenly sat up, twisted Yuriella’s wrist behind her back and yanked her towards him.

“Our lady is quite passionate. Sneaking into a man’s bedroom like a little mouse after being left alone for just one night.”

“Th-that’s not it, I was just trying to treat-”

Frost pulled Yuriella, who had escaped by twisting her captured wrist in a large circle, back onto the bed.

“Treatment, you say.”

Frost, now positioned above Yuriella on the bed, bound both her hands above her head with one hand while feeling around the dress pocket at her waist with the other.

“Yes. Fortunately, I’ve put out the urgent fire, but from now on you need to receive acupuncture daily. So this arm…”

Frost took out a velvet case from the dress pocket and checked the silver needles inside, but did not loosen his grip on Yuriella’s wrists.

“Is treatment just an excuse, and what you really want is my body?”

“Eh?”

“You kept touching. With your mouth hanging open, rubbing and rubbing, non-stop, from here to here.”

Frost’s finger pointed from his deltoid to his abs.

“N-no, I really was just trying to treat-”

“Lies.”

Frost lowered his head to stare directly into Yuriella’s red eyes.

His transparent silver hair that had fallen forward tickled Yuriella’s forehead.

Yuriella frowned and rolled her eyes away. It felt like Frost’s probing gaze, searching for something, would see right through her.

“If you want it, I could consummate the marriage right now. At most six months. At least three months. Or if I’m unlucky, I could die and rot tomorrow. What’s there to be precious about?”

“Consummate? Are you crazy?”

Yuriella stiffened and struggled with her small body, trying to escape from Frost’s embrace.

“I don’t have any choice but you either. Duke Grande must have known all this when he found the illegitimate child he’d abandoned before birth and presented you to me.”

“Let go of this.”

“Isn’t that why you’re in my bed? So I don’t die without consummating the marriage while going through the wedding procedures.”

“You’re the one who put me in the bed, aren’t you? I came secretly, enduring the discomfort, because you keep mentioning certificates and won’t let me treat you.”

Frost looked down coldly at the woman struggling beneath him like a small animal caught in a trap and snorted derisively.

“Now that a noble father has fallen from the sky, do you want to play act as a real lady? If you want to save face and go through with the engagement and wedding preparations like the nobles do, it’ll take well over half a year. By then, I might be dead from a magic poisoning attack-”

“I’ll save you!”

“How? Do you have a cure? An antidote?”

“I’ll find one. Until then, receiving acupuncture daily to manage the magic poisoning is the only way to prevent seizures-”

“Not allowed. My life isn’t light enough to entrust to a quack.”

“I know! If you die, the North will fall too. That’s why I’m saying let’s try. I’ll do whatever it takes to save you, so just trust me and let me!”

The sparks flying in those red, transparent eyes filled Frost’s blue eyes.

“Did Aerie promise? That she could save me with the blessing of the wind?”

Frost’s gaze flashed coldly, his smile gone. It was a sharp look that would not forgive even a hint of lies.

Yuriella’s eyes wavered at the sudden question.

“The energy that treated me, and the wind that took you to the Ice Mountain, was the power of the holy sword Aerie, wasn’t it? What is your relationship with Aerie? It doesn’t seem like you’ve made an official contract yet. Why is Aerie helping you?”

“…”

“Shall I ask a different question? Where did you hear that I absolutely detest sweets?”

Frost, eyes narrowed, unleashed questions one after another that he couldn’t find answers to even after pondering all night.

Yuriella could have made up some excuse, but she kept her mouth shut.

The memory of the radiant blonde emperor who spewed lies every time he opened his mouth left a bitter taste. Better to die by Frost’s sword than live like that trash.

But she couldn’t honestly confess, “I’m Solas who made you terminally ill.” Who would believe an inexplicable possession that even I don’t understand the reason for?

“You said my chef’s skills surpass those of the imperial palace. As if you’ve personally tasted the food made by the imperial chef. How would you, a wandering medicine peddler and dancer, know about dishes that only imperial family members or precious envoys get to taste?”

It was a question she could have brushed off by saying she just made it up, but Yuriella remained silent this time as well.

“It’s strange that Mars let you ride on his back too. That fellow only allows me and those I acknowledge to mount him.”

Yuriella frowned with an “oops” expression.

Mars was a proud warhorse among warhorses who never allowed anyone but his master on his back.

In the year Emperor Justin ascended to the throne, freed from the Empress Dowager’s regency, when Frost visited the imperial palace after a long time to attend the coronation ceremony, noble ladies swarmed around him like bees.

Although the imperial family kept sending assassins, tirelessly trying to check the growing power in the North, the position of the empire’s only Grand Duchess was still coveted, and the ladies’ courtship of the Grand Duke was passionate and persistent.

Flowers and letters, dropping handkerchiefs and sneaking into bedchambers – various courtship tactics were deployed.

On the day of the hunting competition, there was even a lady who successfully managed to mount Mars together with Frost after begging him.

But before she could even gloat under the envious gazes, she fainted, foaming at the mouth, from Mars’ fierce bucking.

Even after the Grand Duke’s knights rushed in to rescue the lady, Mars reared up on his hind legs for a long time, protesting to his master in agitation.

It was strange indeed that such a horse had obediently carried an unfamiliar woman all the way from the Ice Mountain to the Grand Duke’s residence without a single act of rebellion.

When Yuriella nodded her head greatly with an understanding expression, Frost’s straight eyebrows rose crookedly.

“That understanding expression is suspicious too. How do you know the habits of my warhorse?”

This time too, Frost didn’t miss the “oops” expression that flashed across her face.

Yuriella sighed deeply and said,

“Even if you have a lot of questions, can’t I answer them later after I’ve cured your illness? For now, just trust me-”

“I don’t trust anyone.”

“That’s a lie.”

“How do you know it’s a lie?”

Yuriella’s shoulders stiffened with a start. Why did she keep blurting out suspicious things?

“If you know so well, then answer. Who do I trust?”

Yuriella recalled four names in her mind.

Head butler Alexis, who had cared for Frost like a son since he lost his parents at a young age. Head maid Rosalinne. His friend and loyal retainer, Knight Commander Leo. She had seen these in reports from the emperor’s informants.

And Solas Moretti… This was from experience.

One cannot entrust their back to someone they don’t trust on the battlefield. Solas Moretti must have been quite a trustworthy comrade to Frost Ielheim. And Frost was such a presence to Solas Moretti as well.

No, Solas would be out of the picture now. From that day, that moment when a trusted comrade trampled his land and wielded a demonic sword to make him terminally ill…

Frost, who had been silently staring into Yuriella’s red eyes, abruptly got up and walked to the window.

As he put on his shirt properly and buttoned it up, Frost gazed at the curtained wall.

The map of the empire hidden inside the wall was already so familiar it seemed visible to his eyes. If he was to wrest that vast territory from the emperor’s hands, he had to join hands with Duke Grande, who held the iron mines and merchant guilds.

“Go back home. I’ll send an engagement gift. If there’s anything you want, tell me. I’ll try to save your face as a noble lady.”

“There’s only one thing I want. Please allow me to treat you. I’m confident that I’m the only one who can cure you. I’ll definitely make you healthy. So you can spend beautiful nights with the lovely Shavell every day. When you welcome a real Grand Duchess, you can hold strong Grand Duke’s sons and pretty Grand Duke’s daughters in your arms-”

“Real Grand Duchess?”

One of Frost’s eyebrows rose crookedly.

“Of course, when you get healthy, you should divorce me and take a new wife. How could a bastard from a wandering medicine peddler and dancer troupe be worthy of you?”

Yuriella got up, brushing off her crumpled dress, and walked to the window.

As she drew back the curtains and opened the window wide, dazzling sunlight and the fresh scent of summer garden trees poured into the room.

Frost frowned as he looked at Yuriella standing in the sunlight.

Her form was blurred, mixed with the light from the suddenly pouring sunlight that dazzled his eyes.

“Ah! Annulment would be better than divorce! I heard that a marriage due to coercion or intimidation can be completely nullified. There’s more than enough evidence that I was coerced by my birth father, so I’ll clean it up neatly for you.”

“Are you serious? If I die, an enormous inheritance will roll into your hands. If I become healthy, you could enjoy unimaginable power as the Grand Duchess?”

Frost sneered with an incredulous look.

“No need to rack your brains. If by any chance I escape my terminal condition thanks to you, I’m willing to pay a corresponding price. Even if that price is the position of my lifelong partner.”

To Frost, who wore an expression of great generosity, came a firm answer.

“I don’t want it.”

Frost’s eyebrow twitched. Don’t want it?

“When you get healthy, I’ll leave. I’ll cut ties with the Duke’s family too. So when they no longer need me, don’t worry about me – steam me, kill me, do whatever you want.”

“You’ll leave? Where? Why?”

It was a marriage he had accepted as a sacrifice for the greater cause.

“That’s none of your business.”

A woman who should be shedding tears of gratitude. How dare you, mere you.

“Honestly, you’re not my type either.”

The woman smiled, her clear and transparent red eyes curving in the sunlight.

“I like gentle men. If he’s wielded a blade to kill something, I want an innocent husband for whom it was just rabbits and deer for the family’s food. Not a knight accustomed to human blood. If I’m lucky enough to meet such a man, I’ll cherish and love him for life.”

Frost stared intently at Yuriella as she stepped lightly down from the bed and walked towards him.

“I really have no ulterior motives towards you. So please receive my treatment with peace of mind.”

Slender, long fingers unhesitatingly unbuttoned Frost’s shirt and pressed and felt around the wound. The Grand Duke’s brow furrowed deeply at the indifferent touch, devoid of even a grain of ulterior motive.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.