Duke, This Will Sting for a Moment (30 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 4
Thud!
‘Thud?’
Not a slash, not a chop?
I groped my neck in bewilderment. The neck that should have been cold and severed was perfectly intact.
The one who was not intact was Frost. The sword of ice had failed to reach my throat, and Frost’s massive body had collapsed and was lying on the floor.
He had clearly fainted due to the side effects of the demonic poison that caused random seizures.
I straightened my crouched body, approached Frost who had fallen to the floor, and lightly poked him with the tip of my foot. Tok, tok.
A shallow groan leaked out, so he wasn’t completely unconscious.
When I placed my hand on his forehead, it was boiling hot. Just moments ago it had been as cold as ice…
Thinking I had to apply the needles before he woke up, I hurriedly sterilized the silver needles over the candle flame and wiped them clean with a dry cloth. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated as much as possible.
Please let the treatment work.
This time, the green light gathering on the silver needles shone even deeper and stronger.
“Grand Duke, this will sting a little.”
I began thrusting the silver needles infused with green aura deep into Frost’s abdomen and sides, where the flesh had melted and rotted from the demonic sword’s poison. One by one, the silver needles I had prepared in my dress pocket were embedded in Frost’s stomach.
“Ugh! Urgh…! Uuuh…! Hurgh…!”
With every needle I drove in, rough groans burst from Frost’s mouth.
The wounds were deep and widespread, so the pain had to be immense.
“Breathe! Breathe deeply. Breathe with every needle!”
Deep breathing would lessen the pain a little.
But Frost, unable to control his breathing properly, ground his teeth against the unrelenting agony until he finally let go of what little consciousness remained and slumped limp.
This was actually better. If he was fully unconscious, he wouldn’t feel the pain.
I inserted the last silver needle and collapsed beside Frost, drenched in sweat.
As I wiped the sweat running into my eyes with the back of my hand, the bedroom door suddenly burst open.
“Grand Duke! Nooo!”
Immediately after, a sharp woman’s voice rang out. A stunning beauty with radiant golden hair fluttering behind her stormed in wearing a cherry-blossom pink dress. She was an extraordinary beauty who lit up the dim room as if dozens of diamond chandeliers had been turned on at once.
“Lady Shabelle! You mustn’t! The Grand Duke is currently— Gasp!”
The elderly butler Alexis, who had been about to say that the Grand Duke was currently engaged in this and that with Lady Grande and must not be disturbed, shouted until his uvula showed.
“Emergency! Emergency! The Grand Duke has collapsed! Emergency!”
“Your Highness! Your Highness the Grand Duke!”
The woman called Shabelle ran madly toward Frost lying on the floor.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
She grabbed and shook Frost as frantically as her dramatic gestures.
“Don’t shake him like that. If the needles go deeper into his body, it’ll be troublesome.”
“What…!”
Only then did Shabelle’s gaze turn to the silver needles sticking out of Frost’s abdomen and sides like porcupine quills.
“You…! What have you done to His Highness!”
“Eh? That is…”
– Slap!
Without giving me time to answer, the woman’s hand struck my cheek. The powerful slap, unfitting for her slender frame, made my body stagger for a moment.
As if one wasn’t enough, her violet eyes blazed like fire, and the ferocious golden-haired beauty swung her thin arm at me again.
I reflexively grabbed her wrist and twisted it, and the woman screamed “Kyaa!”
Quickly pulling my body back, I raised both hands in surrender. Swallowing the blood welling up in my torn mouth, I apologized politely.
“Ah. I’m sorry. It was a habit, I did it without thinking.”
“You…! You!”
The woman did not accept my apology. Confirming her reddened wrist, she lunged at me, grabbed my hair, and shook me violently. This time I stayed still.
I had felt it when she slapped me—she was stronger than she looked. It hurt as if my scalp was being torn off, but I endured it.
Even so, this body had been a knight in my previous life. Though I couldn’t protect a delicate lady, I had hurt her, so having my hair pulled out was fair punishment.
However, Captain Leo Dominichi of the Grand Duke’s knights, who had rushed in at the butler’s call, grew anxious that she might hurt herself while yanking my hair.
“Lady Shabelle, you shouldn’t touch just anything. You’ll get hurt.”
‘Just anything,’ he says. The same man who used to tremble and clack his teeth when I drew my sword.
“Lady Shabelle. Please let go now.”
The head butler, who had been looking troubled at the needles filling the Grand Duke’s abdomen, called to Shabelle.
“It seems only Lady Grande can remove the needles currently embedded in His Highness’s body.”
Reluctantly, Shabelle released my hair. She glared at me as I began removing the needles, then tearfully shouted in a shrill voice, tears falling onto her milk-white face.
“If anything happens to His Highness, kill that wench too! No, cut her throat right now!”
Only after the sparkling beauty, who shone even without light, was supported by a maid and completely disappeared from view did I remember who she was.
‘Shabelle Allery. Grand Duke Frost Eelheim’s mistress.’
The young Grand Duke had taken a mistress into his bedroom before even marrying, leading to much gossip among the capital’s nobles about his debauched lifestyle.
At the time, I hadn’t believed it.
Whether when I hunted magical beasts alongside Frost under the Emperor’s orders in my previous life, or when we subjugated the barbarians at the southern border, the man I saw was never someone frivolous enough to keep a mistress and indulge in wanton nights.
Rather, he was quite ascetic, almost to the point of obsession with purity.
After campaigns ended, local lords would send women to Frost’s and my quarters more than once or twice as thanks for our grace, but none ever crossed the threshold before being chased away.
In my case, I sent them away for fear my identity as a woman would be discovered. The Imperial Knights strictly forbade women and commoners from joining—it was a pureblood noble order. Even the wielder of the holy sword was no exception.
Had I truly been a man, I wondered if I could have refused—the women who visited those quarters were the most renowned beauties of their regions.
So when I heard rumors about Frost’s mistress, I dismissed them as baseless lies fabricated by those jealous of him.
But upon seeing Shabelle in person, I couldn’t help but nod.
Until now, I had thought the Emperor was the most beautiful person of either gender in the empire, but Frost’s golden-shimmering mistress was the unparalleled most beautiful woman on earth.
No wonder even the greatest beauties offered to Frost must have seemed like mere squid to him.
‘Wait. Then am I a squid too?’
The question Frost had asked earlier now pricked my conscience.
[Why should I marry someone like you?] [Well… because I’m pretty?]Remembering the Grand Duke’s scoffing face made my cheeks burn.
That damned Marquis Grande! I thought he was only rotten in personality, but his eyesight is terrible too.
Calling a squid the empire’s—no, the world’s—most beautiful woman and telling her to become the Grand Duchess over the actual most beautiful woman?
“Is he insane?”
Utterly dumbfounded, I crossed my arms and let out a dry laugh when Captain Leo poked my back with the tip of his scabbard.
Leo seemed to finally relax and remember his original duty only after the Grand Duke’s personal physician arrived, examined all the areas where needles had been inserted, and confirmed there were no abnormalities.
“Lady Grande. Would you come with me for a moment?”
His tone was polite, but his eyes were as murderous as if he were facing an assassin who had infiltrated the Grand Duke’s bedroom in the dead of night.
“Sir. Please call Marquis Grande. I will answer nothing until the family lawyer arrives.”
Recalling the noble ladies I had seen in the imperial capital, I lifted my chin as high as possible and asserted my rights.
“There’s no real need for answers. When His Highness awakens, we can simply execute you on the spot.”
“E-Execute on the spot?”
“Yes. We must confirm if there’s a mastermind behind this, so an immediate beheading would be difficult—though merciful execution might be challenging.”
Captain Leo slowly drew his sword from its scabbard and murmured sinisterly.
“I pride myself on having the finest torture instruments in the empire in our Grand Duke’s underground dungeon, but people rarely seem to know that. They all boast that the imperial torturers are the cruelest—it wounds my pride. Why the difference? What makes us different?”
His arrogant, insolent attitude as he tilted his head in question was truly infuriating.
“Well… because those who experience it never come out to talk about it…?”
I clasped my hands together and answered politely.
Right now, I was nothing more than Yuriella Grande. Moreover, to the Grand Duke, I was just a squid he wouldn’t even glance at. On top of that, I was a suspect who had suspiciously inserted needles into His Highness’s noble body.
“You’re sharper than you appear. Correct.”
If it’s correct, will you let me go?
“Shall we go confirm it personally?”
Without mercy, the Captain dragged me down to the lightless underground dungeon of the Grand Duke’s residence.
In the center of the interrogation room lined with terrifying torture instruments.
Leo sat across from me with a long table between us and neatly arranged on red velvet cloth everything from hair-thin fine needles to thick ones that would leave vivid puncture marks.
“You tried to heal His Highness by stabbing him with these needles? But I’ve never heard of such a treatment method, Lady Grande.”
“It’s a medical technique I learned from the traveling medicine troupe I belonged to before entering the Grande family. A wandering physician from across the sea in the Eastern Continent taught it to me.”
“Is that true?”
Half true, half false.
Acupuncture was something the real Yuriella had learned, and after entering this body, I became able to perform that strange medicine by relying on Yuriella’s memories.
“It’s absolutely true! If I’m lying, cut off all ten of my fingers.”
I spoke calmly and confidently. But the response was cold.
“I don’t need the fingers. The price of lies is, as always, the neck.”
“His Highness collapsed not because of my needles but because of his own illness. He fell first, and only afterward did I apply the needles.”
I responded clearly, but passing through Yuriella’s sweet voice, my credibility plummeted.
“Whatever the case, if anything happens to His Highness, your neck will be severed, my lady.”
Leo picked up a thick needle, rolled it between thumb and forefinger like a small marble, then flicked it—ting~—into the air.
“Damn it! Whether it’s this bastard or that one, neck! Neck! Are you all possessed by ghosts who regret not cutting others’ throats every time you speak!”
I shouted in fury. My neck still felt cold from where the Emperor had severed it—I could no longer endure them constantly mentioning my neck.
Leo caught me as I tried to stand up in anger and toppled backward, clicking his tongue.
“My lady. I’m so astonished I almost want to praise you. Not only did you dare make needle holes in his noble body, but you spew profanity right in front of me, the Captain of the Eelheim Knights. Your courage must be truly swollen.”
Well, the Eelheim Knights—otherwise known as the Angelus Knights—what kind of men were they?
They were ferocious, rough brutes who beat cave bears to death with broken branches and threw themselves bare-handed at magical beasts while cracking jokes. The previous Grand Duke Eelheim had even given them the nickname “Angelus,” meaning angels, to try to temper their tempers a little.
“Generally, there are only two reactions when arrested by our knights: fainting from terror on the spot or begging for their lives. Yet earlier, my lady not only kicked but even attempted a flying kick.”
“My feet never even came close to you gentlemen.”
I had unconsciously tried to escape. It only added more bruises and wounds to my body.
“I heard you were a dancer in the medicine troupe before coming to the marquisate. Yet how did you immediately identify each of our knights’ specialties and weaknesses? Had you only the strength, you could have inflicted fatal wounds.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You, my lady.”
“You saw wrong. As you said, I was merely a dancer in a medicine troupe.”
I shrugged innocently, but the Captain’s eyes narrowed thinly. He clearly didn’t believe my denial at all.
“You dared make needle holes in His Highness’s noble body. And not just any poison—the demonic poison scattered by Flama, which has turned into a demonic sword. If it cannot be cured yet you damaged his body, you deserve death. But if you possess the ability to cure it, shouldn’t you be killed even more? Knowing the demonic poison well means you are someone who can be close to it.”
This guy Leo—I thought he was only skilled with the sword, but he conducts interrogations quite logically. The chief imperial investigator would want him as a disciple.
To not lose to Leo, I raised my head high. In times like this, you have to insist.
“Please believe me. My acupuncture will definitely help His Highness! If you entrust it to me, I will completely cure the demonic poison rooted in his body!”
“Really?”
“Really!”
I hope it’s really true.
The holy sword of fire, Flama, turning into a demonic sword was unprecedented in holy sword history. The demonic poison flowing from that demonic sword was also a deadly toxin never before seen in the world.
Even when Marquis Grande mentioned the holy sword Airy, it was merely a guess because Airy was known to possess the authority of healing.
The method to detoxify it—I have to find it from now on. And that will only be possible by persuading Airy, who is thoroughly angry with me.
‘But I cannot make a contract…’
Not knowing why Flama became a demonic sword, and unable to know if Flama will remain a demonic sword forever, I cannot rashly contract with Airy. I have no right to do so…
But I will find a way to cure the demonic poison somehow. No matter what.
For my sake, and for Frost’s.
That night, as I clenched my fists and made my resolve, Grand Duke Frost Eelheim wandered the border of life and death.
The personal physician and priests were summoned in the middle of the night, and when the words “You must prepare your heart” finally escaped their lips, the entire Grand Duke’s residence sank into deep silence.
When the male lead is punished by carrying the female lead’s child and having periods like a woman
“I’ve given birth to two children for you, yet you still think about him.
Was I nothing but his substitute to you from beginning to end?”
Synopsis:
Meng Huan, a scumbag who has dated countless girlfriends, transmigrates to a female-dominated country.
Day 1: Whether it’s female dominance or not doesn’t matter. The beauties here are passionate and amorous. Isn’t it easier to date them than in modern times?
Day 2: After a night, Meng Huan discovers the differences in the female-dominated world. Men here actually have chastity locks and menstrual cycles. This hinders his ability to perform, damn it!
Day 3: What’s wrong with sleeping around? I don’t want you to marry me. I’m meant to be a playboy. I don’t care about male virtues… What? You want to drown me in a pig cage? Marry, I’ll marry!
Day N: Meng Huan inexplicably vomits and receives the shocking news of his life… He’s pregnant.
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Hahahaha!!! She is so funny!!!!!! How she changed so much!
I love how she realized she loved him from the begining. But I die seeing him jealous of himself.
Awww