Duke, This Will Sting for a Moment (30 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 9
Even though the morning sun had already reached its zenith, the Grand Duke’s bedchamber remained dark, its curtains tightly drawn.
Frost lay in bed, deeply asleep, while on the nightstand a single sleepbloom burned softly, releasing its gentle fragrance.
— Thud.
“Ouch.”
A groan came from the terrace, followed immediately by the faint creak of a window opening slightly.
The heavy curtains swayed, and the solitary sleepbloom, which had been quietly burning, fluttered in a breeze carrying the scent of garden trees.
Rustle. Rustle.
Beneath the gently gathered green chiffon of her dress, a pair of small, pale bare feet tiptoed silently toward the bed.
The intruder was none other than Yuriella—the suspicious young lady with crimson eyes—who had kept the Grand Duke tossing and turning all night while she herself slept soundly.
She had come straight to the Grand Duke’s chamber upon waking, but the knights refused to let her in, saying His Grace was still sleeping.
Even if she got past the knights, there was no guarantee Frost would permit treatment.
‘Might as well be lucky. I’ll sting like a bee and flee like a butterfly while he’s sound asleep.’
Treatment couldn’t wait. She needed to assess his condition and administer follow-up care to prevent further seizures from the venom for the time being.
Yuriella took a deep breath and stretched both hands toward the deeply slumbering Grand Duke.
Her slender ten fingers undid one of the shirt buttons fully fastened over his chest, then paused briefly, afraid of waking him.
She undid another button and checked his breathing.
Undid another, and again checked his breathing.
After unfastening the last button one by one, she peeled away the sweat-dampened shirt, revealing a torso sculpted like marble by firm muscles. The bandages wrapped around his abdomen and left shoulder remained clean.
The small hands, which had been gently stroking the bandages, momentarily forgot their task and drifted up to rest on the Grand Duke’s broad shoulders.
Her fingertips, landing on his trapezius, slid down the resilient deltoid to the triceps. Then, changing direction, they traced from the pectoralis major beneath his clavicle down to his abdominal muscles, delicately probing the muscles beneath his skin.
Each breath Frost took made his rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and internal and external obliques clearly visible—defined muscles honed by battle.
“Ah…!”
A low sigh escaped her lips, reddened from biting back her voice.
The emotion shimmering in her narrowed crimson eyes was thick with envy and jealousy.
“You’re so lucky, Your Grace…! I wish I had a body like this too….”
Another soft sigh scattered over Frost’s abdomen.
Then her ten fingers busily moved again, sliding down toward Frost’s waist.
Wriggling the trousers down over his iliac crests—
— Clack.
A large hand seized her small, porcelain-white wrist, veins visibly taut.
“…Hah!”
Frost, who had somehow already sat upright, twisted Yuriella’s wrist backward and yanked her swiftly toward himself.
“Our young lady is quite bold. Left alone for just one night, and she sneaks into a man’s bedroom like a little mouse.”
“I—I wasn’t! I came to treat you—”
Yuriella twisted her wrist in a wide arc to escape his grip, but the Grand Duke yanked her again and laid her down on the bed.
“Treatment, you say.”
Positioning himself over Yuriella, Frost pinned both her hands above her head with one hand while his other groped the pocket at her dress waist.
“Yes. Fortunately, the worst is under control, but from now on you’ll need daily acupuncture. So please, let go of my arm…”
Frost withdrew a velvet case from her dress pocket, checked the silver needles inside, but didn’t loosen his grip on Yuriella’s wrist.
“Isn’t treatment just an excuse? What you really want is my body, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“You kept touching it—mouth agape, kneading nonstop, from here all the way down to here.”
Frost’s finger traced from his deltoid down to his abs.
“N-no! I really came to treat you—”
“Liar.”
Frost lowered his head until his eyes met Yuriella’s crimson ones directly.
Strands of his translucent silver hair brushed against Yuriella’s forehead.
Frowning slightly, Yuriella turned her eyes away, uneasy under Frost’s relentless gaze that seemed determined to dig into her very soul.
“If you truly desire it, I’ll consummate our marriage right now. At best, six months left. At worst, three. Or maybe I’ll drop dead tomorrow—what’s there to lose?”
“Consummate?! Are you mad?”
Startled rigid, Yuriella squirmed in Frost’s arms, trying to wriggle free.
“Anyway, I have no other choice but you. The Marquis Grande certainly knows that, which is why he presented you—an illegitimate child he abandoned before birth—in front of me.”
“Let go of me.”
“Isn’t that precisely why you came to my bed? In case I die before we can properly wed and consummate, leaving everything incomplete.”
“You’re the one who put me in this bed! You keep bringing up my credentials and blocking my treatment, so of course I had to endure the inconvenience and sneak in.”
Frost looked down coldly at the woman wriggling beneath him like a small creature caught in a trap and gave a mocking snort.
“Now that a noble father fell from the sky for you, do you wish to play the true lady? If you insist on proper courtesies—engagement, wedding preparations like other nobles—it’ll easily take over half a year. By then, I might already be dead from another venom seizure—”
“I’ll save you!”
“How? Do you even have a cure? An antidote?”
“I’ll find one! Until then, daily acupuncture is the only way to suppress the venom and prevent seizures—”
“I forbid it. My life isn’t so trivial that I’d entrust it to a quack.”
“I know! If you die, the North will collapse too! That’s exactly why I’m asking you to try! Just trust me and let me save you!”
The crimson flames in her transparent eyes were fully reflected in Frost’s icy gaze.
“Did Airy guarantee it? That she could save me with the wind’s blessing?”
Frost’s eyes sharpened coldly, all amusement gone. His gaze allowed no falsehood whatsoever.
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Yuriella’s eyes wavered.
“The energy that healed me, the wind that took you to the Ice Mountain—it was all from the holy sword Airy. What’s your relationship with Airy? You don’t seem formally contracted yet. Why would Airy help you?”
“…”
“Shall I ask another? Where did you hear that I absolutely detest sweets?”
Frost narrowed his eyes and laid out the questions that had plagued him all night with no answers.
She could have brushed it off with some excuse, but Yuriella remained silent.
The memory of the dazzling blond Emperor—who constantly lied through his teeth—made her mouth bitter. Better to die by Frost’s blade than live like that scum.
Yet she couldn’t confess outright either: “I’m Solace, the one who cursed you with this death sentence.” Who would believe in a possession she herself didn’t understand?
“You claimed my chef is better than the Imperial Palace’s. You spoke as if you’d personally tasted dishes prepared by the palace chef—dishes only imperial family members or esteemed envoys ever get to try. How would a wandering apothecary’s dancer like you possibly know that?”
It was a question she could have easily dismissed as a random guess, but again, Yuriella stayed silent.
“And it’s strange that Mars let you ride him. That horse only allows me or those I personally approve onto his back.”
Yuriella frowned, realizing her mistake.
Mars was the proudest of steeds, refusing to carry anyone except his master.
The year Emperor Justin ascended the throne, freed from the Empress Dowager’s regency, Frost had visited the palace for the coronation after a long absence. Noble young ladies swarmed around him like bees.
Though the Imperial Court kept sending assassins nonstop to curb the North’s growing power, the position of Grand Duchess remained highly coveted, and their advances toward Frost were both fervent and persistent.
Desperate not to miss this golden opportunity, they employed every strategy: dropping flowers, letters, handkerchiefs, sneaking into his chambers.
During a hunting tournament, one young lady even begged Frost until she finally succeeded in mounting Mars alongside him.
But before she could even enjoy the envious stares, Mars reared violently, and she collapsed unconscious, foaming at the mouth.
Even after the Grand Duke’s knights rescued her, Mars kept stomping his forelegs high, protesting indignantly to his master for a long while.
So it was indeed odd that the same horse had carried a complete stranger all the way from the Ice Mountain to the Grand Duke’s chambers without a single protest.
When Yuriella nodded vigorously, looking convinced, Frost’s straight eyebrows arched skeptically.
“That look of conviction is suspicious too. And how exactly do you know my horse’s habits?”
He didn’t miss the flicker of guilt that crossed her face either.
Yuriella let out a heavy sigh and finally spoke.
“Can’t you wait until after you’re fully healed to ask all these questions? For now, just trust me—”
“I trust no one.”
“Liar.”
“And how do you know that’s a lie?”
Yuriella stiffened, shoulders tensing. Why did she keep blurting out things that made him suspicious?
“If you know so well, then answer this: who do I trust?”
In her mind, Yuriella recalled four names.
Alexis, the head butler who’d cared for Frost like a son since he lost his parents young. Rosalynne, the head maid. Captain Leo, his loyal knight and close friend—she’d read about them in the Emperor’s intelligence reports.
And Solace Moretti… that came from experience.
You couldn’t entrust your back in battle to someone you didn’t trust. To Frost Eelheim, Solace Moretti had been a reliable comrade—and vice versa.
No, Solace was probably out of the picture now. Ever since that day his trusted ally trampled his lands and wielded the cursed blade that doomed him to a death sentence…
Frost, who had been silently staring into Yuriella’s crimson eyes, suddenly stood and walked to the window.
As he buttoned his shirt, his gaze fixed on the curtained wall.
The Imperial map hidden within was already memorized, clear as day in his mind. To wrest that vast territory from the Emperor’s grasp, he needed the Marquis Grande’s hand—controlling iron mines and merchant guilds.
“Go home. I’ll send a betrothal gift. Tell me what you wish for. I’ll preserve your dignity as a young lady.”
“The only thing I want is your permission for treatment. I’m confident no one else can heal you but me. I’ll make you completely healthy—so you can spend every night happily with the beautiful Lady Shabelle, and one day welcome a strong young heir and a lovely daughter as your true Grand Duchess.”
“True Grand Duchess?”
One of Frost’s eyebrows lifted crookedly.
“Of course! Once you’re healthy, you’ll divorce me and take a proper wife. How could a bastard daughter of a wandering apothecary’s dancer ever be fit for you?”
Yuriella brushed off her crumpled dress and stood, walking toward the window.
She pulled back the curtains and flung the window wide open, flooding the room with brilliant sunlight and the crisp scent of summer garden trees.
Frost glared at Yuriella standing in the sunlight.
Blinded by the sudden glare, her silhouette blurred into the light.
“Oh! Better than divorce—annulment! I heard marriages under duress or coercion are completely void. I have more than enough proof that my father forced me into this. I’ll tidy everything up neatly for you.”
“Are you serious? If I die, an enormous inheritance will fall into your hands. If I recover, you’ll enjoy unimaginable power as Grand Duchess. Why give that up?”
Frost scoffed, his eyes full of disbelief.
“No need for schemes. If by some miracle your treatment frees me from this death sentence, I’ll pay a price worthy of that debt—even if it’s offering you my lifelong companionship.”
Frost wore an expression of grand generosity—but Yuriella’s reply was firm.
“No.”
Frost’s eyebrow twitched. No?
“When you’re healthy, I’ll leave. I’ll sever all ties with the Marquis’s house. Once you no longer need me, do as you please—keep me, kill me, it’s all up to you.”
“Leave? Where? Why?”
The marriage had been accepted as a personal sacrifice for the greater good.
“That’s none of your concern, Your Grace.”
A woman who should have been shedding tears of gratitude instead said something so casually dismissive.
“To be honest, you’re not my type either.”
In the sunlight, she smiled, her clear crimson eyes glinting.
“I prefer kind men. If a man must raise a blade, I’d want one who hunts rabbits or deer just to feed his family—not a knight hardened by human blood. If I’m lucky enough to meet such a man, I’ll cherish and love him for life.”
Frost stared fixedly at Yuriella as she walked lightly toward him from the bed.
“I truly have no ulterior motive toward you, Your Grace. So please accept my treatment without worry.”
Her slender fingers boldly unfastened Frost’s shirt and pressed and probed around his wound with a detached, utterly selfless touch—so devoid of hidden intent that the Grand Duke’s brow furrowed deeply.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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