“Why should I trust you?”

“Do you have any other options?”

“Humph!”

“Then continue to suffer.”

There was no malice in Atia’s eyes.

So, Casus tried hard to deny his wavering heart.

“Anyway, if you’re in pain, come to me. Don’t be stubborn for no reason.”

“……..”

“I’m not that patient. I can’t wait for long.”

She acted as if she was barely present, and at any time.

Casus found it strange to see Atia nagging like this.

Moreover, Atia knew a fact that he had not confessed to anyone else first.

Surely, it should be a frustrating situation that he had revealed his secret in front of the knights.

‘Why doesn’t it feel bad?’

There’s no doubt she’s up to something.

Otherwise.

“Duke? Do you know, or don’t you?”

“Ah…….”

“Duke?”

Atia, much shorter than Casus, stood on her tiptoes and waved her palm in front of his eyes.

Casus narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke.

“I’m tired. I should leave.”

It was a quiet night, with only the sound of insects echoing deeply.

[This is the time separator]

Casus returned to his office and closed his eyes to resume his remaining work.

The intermittent pain that occurred whenever he sat down didn’t seem to be felt today.

‘Should I be relieved?’

Casus had finished the reinvestigation of Atia.

It was a task completed before the Duke’s investigation, but he investigated more thoroughly due to her suspicious movements recently.

You can pretend to be expressionless, but you cannot forge the past.

There is no dust when you shake it off.

Casus worked hard to find even a small clue.

Facts announced externally and facts hidden beneath the surface.

He picked up the he had obtained.

[No official record of entering the Harad family.] [Born out of wedlock, suffered abuse as a child.] [No participation in official events and banquets.]

“……..”

It was a series of unfortunate past events.

“Is she so skinny because she was abused for a long time?”

He could tell how she had lived in her family, what treatment she had received.

Casus continued to read the Atia report.

[Suffering from a deadly disease. Disease cannot be confirmed.]

‘Cannot be confirmed?’

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Casus lightly tapped the desk with his index finger.

Everyone who enters the Duke’s House is basically treated by a doctor.

Atia was no exception. She can’t be infected with a contagious disease.

But at that time, the report came up that there was nothing wrong.

But now she has a deadly disease.

What disease is it that cannot be confirmed?

‘It can’t be wrong information.’

Or she might not have had a thorough examination.

Casus thought that he would have to have Atia undergo a thorough examination soon.

If this report is true, she must have had a lot of resentment against the Harad family, her birth family.

Just as Casus was forced into an unwanted marriage, there was a possibility that Atia was also a sacrificial lamb of the family.

‘I thought she was sent for surveillance.’

Wasn’t it?

[This is the time separator]

“Cough! Cough!”

Atia, who was lying on the bed in her pink negligee, was startled by the sudden onset of coughing.

“Cough!”

It seems she had pushed herself too hard.

Although it was a level that Kang Jiha from her previous life would not have been bothered by, it was a serious overexertion for the current Atia.

She hadn’t carried anything heavy or run for a long time.

She just swung a sword a few times and went to the mountains for a while.

Why does her whole body ache like this?

‘Anyway, I’m a timelimited heroine in a romance novel.’

Atia felt the reality of her terminal illness again.

“Cough!”

It was when she coughed for the thirteenth time.

This time, a clump of bloody red came out.

“Gasp!”

Atia’s eyes widened, and her long eyelashes fluttered.

‘I’m really going to die soon…….’

Atia realized clearly that she didn’t have much time left to live.

“Ah, I’m like this because I moved a little? Cough!”

How did she get stuck in such a body?

“I chose to do lowintensity exercises so I wouldn’t overdo it.”
It would be a lie to say I was not afraid of death, but that did not mean I could constantly be in despair.

I should live more passionately as my life is short.

Atia hid the bloodstained handkerchief where it could not be seen.

‘I have my own recovery method.’

Then she wiped her feet clean with a white cloth, gently releasing as if massaging slowly.

Soothing.

She also dropped a few drops of snowberry aroma oil.

She pressed down hard with her fingers along the Yongcheon bloodline on the sole of her foot.

‘Ha… It’s a little better.’

However, massaging her own body with her arm was not as refreshing as she expected.

Atia pulled the bell rope.

“Yes, madam!”

Kesha, who was in the maid’s quarters, ran over quickly.

“Kesha, if you’re not busy, could you massage me?”

Atia pointed to her body and asked.

“Leave it to me!”

Kesha enthusiastically dropped snowberry aroma oil on her palm and rubbed her hands together.

Atia closed her eyes and received Kesha’s massage.