“Have you woken up?”
It was the Duke.
“Your Grace!”
“May I draw the curtain?”
“Yes, yes?”
The Duke waited for my flustered response. As I slowly sat up, he, who had already risen, pulled back the curtain that served as a divider.
There he was, just as I had seen him at dawn.
“Your Grace, how… how long have you been here?”
“I preferred this place over my room for its better facilities. It’s more convenient for the doctors to treat here. Given that war is a part of everyday life, the infirmary in the North is… well-equipped.”
The Duke’s attempt to sound casual was somewhat endearing.
“Weren’t you lonely staying here by yourself?”
I joked without realizing it. The situation of us sitting on hospital beds, facing each other, felt quite fresh.
But the Duke responded with a calm smile.
“Maybe.”
“……”
What should I respond?
Seeing my expression, the Duke spoke.
“In fact, I’ve been waiting here for you, Esdel.”
‘Ah… that’s why.’
Of course.
“What is it, Your Grace?”
“If it’s not too much trouble, could you activate Ventus’s memory stone?”
“The memory stone?”
The moment when the Duke had forsaken the sacred sword Lapis for my sake came back to my mind.
However, his next words made me freeze.
“Julia Nugent has released the Red Caterpillar.”
“!”
“This dawn, Arcadia came and reported everything to me.”
‘Arcadia?!’
“The Steward Lewine said you entrusted her with the memory stone?”
“Yes. I was worried about leaving just like that.”
“Hans must have said something, the Steward honored your request to the letter. She would have risked her life for it.”
“!”
“We must confirm the crimes recorded in it. Until then, we’ve decided to delay any judgment. After all, we can’t condemn a crime we haven’t seen, especially one committed by a lady of the Nugent family.”
Indeed. Julia Nugent is a lady of the primary noble house in the North, the only daughter of the former acting Duke of the North.
And, she is the only sister of Arcadia Nugent.
I had to ask.
“Your Grace. If… if the lady indeed released the Caterpillar, what will become of her?”
A deep shadow passed over the Duke’s face.
“Those who hide or collaborate with a spy, thus bringing harm to the North, have never…”
“……”
“…escaped the death penalty.”
He gazed at me intently.
I clutched the memory stone in my pocket.
The death penalty.
In my past life, Julia Nugent, the fiancée of the Duke of the North, hid a letter from the enemy, the Twotusk Empire, in the Duke’s bedroom.
That letter, forged by Medea, was used by Julia to frame the Duke as a traitor collaborating with the enemy.
That decisive framing allowed the Emperor to kill the Duke.
This life-threatening risk posed by Julia Nugent might disappear in this life.
But she’s Arcadia’s sister.
“Arcadia and the Steward are waiting. Are you okay with that, Esdel?”
“……Yes.”
As I answered, the Duke pulled a cord hanging from the ceiling.
Shortly after, Arcadia and the Steward entered the infirmary.
Arcadia looked terribly haggard.
Knowing why pained my heart.
Steward Lewine spoke to me.
“Knight. Start from the part where Lady Julia, 8 days ago, screamed from her room for a doctor, complaining of stomach pain…”
Her voice was laden with sorrow.
Arcadia gazed past the window, seemingly unable to focus on anything.
It was distressing.
But this was a necessary task for the sake of the North.
“Are you going to watch it right here?”
“……Yes.”
The Duke responded.
I activated the memory stone.
On the white wall of the infirmary, Julia’s figure leaving my room was projected. The memory stone wobbled, probably reflecting the steward’s agitation.
The Steward’s pain at witnessing something she didn’t want to believe was evident in the memory stone’s perspective.
I looked at the Steward. Her head was bowed, so her expression wasn’t visible. She said,
“I never imagined it. If only I had stopped her then.”
“If you had tried, Lewine, you might have been killed as well.”
Arcadia responded dryly.
Arcadia…
In the video, the lady entered a secret passage.
Hesitant at first, the Steward eventually followed her into the passage after waiting for a while.
There, she saw the lady conversing with the Red Caterpillar.
“Show me again if you’re really loyal to me, what you did to me then,” the lady demands.
“Once more, just let me be with my mother and father.”
At that moment, Arcadia’s shoulders twitched.
The Duke turned his head away.
The Red Caterpillar hypnotizes Julia.
“Julia Nugent, who am I?”
“My friend.”
“Yes, you foolish girl.”
The Caterpillar insulted the lady, handed her something, and tucked another object into his sleeve.
They both enter the secret passage, and the Steward quickly hides on the opposite side.
What followed in the video was horrific.
“Ah… please.”
Lewine’s groaning voice permeated the video.
Despite her plea, when Julia scattered something from the Caterpillar, two knights fell asleep.
‘Sleeping gas!’
I clenched my teeth in anger.
The Red Caterpillar, this bastard.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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.]
