The Duke Stole Everything (1 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 16
Sharti silently sneered at the clear expression of not needing help.
‘There are no burst places, my foot.’
Anyway, since his upper body was already bare from the beginning, and his lower garments had shortened to the length of shorts, the check of his wound areas was already complete.
The abdominal or thigh wounds he was most concerned about had slightly opened.
‘That fast, and since he ran while holding me, it’s only natural.’
Fortunately, there was no problem even if he soaked in Sharti’s special herbal bath.
‘There’s gratitude and also apology, so I tried to help with washing.’
She had spoken those words out of consideration for him, in case he didn’t remember how to wash.
‘Look. Hesitating like that.’
Sharti shook her head at the man standing blankly without entering the bathtub.
As expected, he needed her help.
Sharti rolled up her sleeves.
‘I’ll wash his back first.’
It was perfect since he was showing his back. Sharti, about to approach the man, blinked for a moment.
The man’s earlobes were red.
‘……Uh, uh?’
Only then did she notice the man’s tense and taut back muscles.
Sharti rolled her eyes.
The bathroom filled with warm steam. A bare person and a person ignoring refusal.
It was a situation anyone would misunderstand. Sharti, whose face flushed red, quickly turned her back and left a note.
Sharti decided to respect his wishes.
Click. Sharti, who came out after closing the door, covered her burning cheeks.
In the hot summer village, men often went shirtless, and because she had become immune from treating bare men, she hadn’t realized.
‘I was too insensitive! I need to be careful.’
Sharti hurriedly left the front of the bathroom.
After a while, with no sound coming from the bathroom, the delayed sound of water was heard.
‘I need to quickly clean a place to sleep in this gap.’
The old log cabin where Sharti lived had a total of three large and small rooms. Excluding the room used as a herb room and the bedroom, only the middle multipurpose room remained.
‘Even though there’s a lot of luggage, I can make space to lie down.’
She gathered blankets and made a place for the man to lie in the multipurpose room.
‘Since he said the floor is comfortable.’
When Sharti finished organizing the multipurpose room and came out, the man also came out of the bathroom at that moment. The man with a towel on his head looked at her with a face full of things to say.
“The clothes, only this…… no.”
As if he couldn’t complain about receiving clothes, the man shook his head with the towel.
The clothes Sharti gave were relatively loose women’s pajamas. When he wore them, the length became short, and his figure stood out.
Unnecessarily recalling the bathroom situation from earlier, Sharti rolled her eyes here and there.
‘……Should I have given different clothes.’
He wasn’t even undressed, yet strangely, there seemed to be nowhere to look.
What was she conscious of? Was she suddenly tense because he was a stranger?
“I’m done washing.”
At his words, Sharti quickly grabbed clothes to change into.
“I want to wipe the place where I sat earlier. What should I use?”
The man pointed to the dirty floor and asked.
Unlike in the bathroom, he had returned to a calm face. Thanks to that, Sharti could also manage her awkward feelings.
“……Alright.”
Leaving the man more interested in the broom than the ointment, Sharti entered the bathroom.
First, taking off the hood relieved the stuffiness.
Rubbing her mud-smeared face with water, she untied the robe’s knot.
Knock knock.
“……!”
Startled by the knock, Sharti immediately covered her face with the hood.
“Thank you.”
At the voice heard from outside the door, Sharti paused.
Beyond the door that showed no sign of opening, the man’s voice continued.
“Everything……. Thank you.”
And the footsteps faded away. Sharti looked toward the door with a slightly dazed face.
The area near her chest tickled.
‘He said thank you…….’
Chewing over the man’s words heard through the door, Sharti continued to undress.
Soaking her right leg with hideous burn scars in water, she immersed her body in the bathtub water.
‘It’s warm…….’
The bathtub water she thought would be lukewarm was still warm.
Feeling the temperature of the warm water, Sharti curled up.
‘Did he consider the person washing afterward?’
She buried her face in her arm.
Recalling the man’s hair dripping water and even the water droplets flowing down his collarbone, Sharti shook her head in surprise.
‘I need to get used to it!’
At the sudden thought, Sharti chewed her lips.
From now on, she would see various sides of the man. While she was hiding him, that is.
‘……I never thought I’d live with someone.’
And never dreamed it would be with a man who had lost his memory.
Soaking half her face in water, Sharti rubbed her left hand. The scarred areas ached stingingly, but strangely, her mind was at ease.
‘I’m too lacking in vigilance. Grandmother would scold me if she knew.’
Sharti chuckled softly.
Even after being chased by soldiers, she felt a stronger sense of responsibility than wariness at the man’s short thank you.
Sharti spread her palm. The man’s large palm seemed to overlap.
‘I also…….’
Thank you.
Bubble bubble. The frog croak she couldn’t let the man hear spread in the water and disappeared.
Sharti diligently loosened the muscles of her right leg before leaving the herbal bath.
‘Umm, it still tingles a bit.’
Her left hand with spiderweb-like burn scars trembled finely, but it was bearable.
Even though 5 years had passed, the memories left on her body didn’t fade at all.
Unlike the man, at that time, she had neither a skilled doctor nor treatment.
‘I tried various things later, but it was ineffective.’
Famous doctors or treatments capable of removing scars to this extent were all in the imperial palace. Or she could find a mage using healing arts linked to magic.
But Sharti had neither high status nor enormous money to pay for treatment. Since even scars required chests of gold coins, she had to give up hope itself.
‘Come to think of it, from now on, I need to wear the hood even at home.’
She had shown her face to the man once, but it was fleeting, so she needed even more vigilance.
‘I have to live as if hiding even at home.’
In a depressed mood, Sharti pressed her cheek hard with the back of her hand.
[If you’re royalty, you have duties from birth. You’re the same, Sharti.]In the end, those duties always tightened around Sharti’s throat.
It was because of the shackles filled by her half-sister she met once, binding her like a spiderweb.
‘No……. It’s better to be careful.’
Sharti shook her head to shake off miscellaneous thoughts.
Finally, she put on a long cloak hood to cover her body and face.
‘Sleep first for now! Think tomorrow!’
Sharti resolutely grabbed the bathroom door handle, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
“……Ah.”
And the man in sight. Precisely, the man with the pajama buttons torn, his front open.
The button that fell from his chest rolled and stopped at Sharti’s feet.
At Sharti’s gaze, the man quickly turned his head.
“Th-that, I sat for a moment and stood up…….”
Sharti picked up the button.
Perhaps embarrassed, the man’s earlobes were red.
Sharti quietly pressed her lips together.
‘Anyway…… I need to sew first.’
Holding back laughter and promising tomorrow, Sharti sat on the sofa and started sewing.
The man with a spare robe over his lower garments sat far away for some reason.
To avoid looking at the freshly washed Sharti, the man silently applied only the ointment.
“……I just increased the work unnecessarily.”
Hearing Sharti’s small yawn, the man muttered with his head deeply bowed.
Glancing at the drooping broad shoulders, Sharti gave the man thread, spare needles, and remaining fabric.
“……Why give me this?”
“Hm?”
Sharti taught the man how to sew.
The man with large hands and thick fingers was clumsy even holding the needle.
“Is this…… the right way?”
He diligently followed Sharti’s sewing with clumsy hand movements. The man who was stitching crookedly gradually showed concentration.
Sharti smiled small and praised. Then, as if to Tain, she unknowingly stroked his head.
“……!”
The paused man’s head slowly moved to look up at Sharti. The moment she saw the slightly widened turquoise eyes, Sharti turned her body in surprise.
Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
“……It’s nothing much.”
The man focused on sewing again without much reaction. However, as if his hand was stiff, he kept making mistakes.
The herbal scent from her hand that had come close lingered at the tip of his nose.
“…….”
Sometimes, the small gaps Sharti showed, her pure actions shook him. As if bewitched by her, his eyes, head, and body were helplessly drawn to her.
Repeatedly pricking his finger with the needle while scolding his stupid self, but he felt nothing.
The subtle atmosphere that continued silently for a while ended with Sharti’s sewing.
“Got it.”
“Yeah.”
Sharti watched the man put on clothes and also checked the bandage he wrapped.
Unlike in the cave, the bandage around his abdomen was perfect.
‘Did he practice in that short time?’
Putting aside the brief question, the two entered their respective rooms.
Click. Sharti wriggled into the bed covers while wearing the robe and lay down. A deep sigh naturally escaped from her chest.
‘Ah, I need to feed him dinner…….’
But her body had already become one with the bed to leave the cozy covers. Her eyelids were already heavily closing, ignoring her will.
Hesitating and tightly hugging the blanket, Sharti pulled it up to her head.
‘Patients skipping meals…… is…… not…….’
As she chewed over the man’s meal worry more than her hungry stomach, sleepiness rushed in like waves.
In the end, in the cozy covers, Sharti’s consciousness cut off as is.
[This is the timeline separator]At the time Sharti fell fast asleep, the man sitting on the bedding prepared in the multipurpose room was lost in thought.
It wasn’t because the sleeping place changed.
“I can’t grasp it at all.”
Precisely, because of Sharti, his mind was complicated, unable to fall asleep easily.
“When she guards like an iron wall, and when off guard, she acts unexpectedly, really.”
Grumbling with his chin propped, the man chewed over Sharti’s actions one by one today.
She seemed innocent yet bold, looked fragile yet bold and unrestrained.
Since reactions were hard to predict, moving as expected was difficult.
Recalling moments he was dazed in front of Sharti several times, his nape was red.
“She seems to have a personality that can’t pass by the pitiful.”
But that standard was vague too.
Didn’t she hesitate even to take him at first?
“Haa…….”
He barely gained Sharti’s sympathy to continue receiving her help.
‘For a while.’
Though she didn’t give an exact date, he could guess the period Sharti set was short.
The day his body recovers, or the day he finds even some lost memories.
It was natural, but he planned to extend that period somehow.
“I need to stay here as long as possible, even if tied.”
Sharti was living alone in the mountains.
Just seeing her hide her face, he could roughly guess.
She was living in hiding.
‘Though I don’t know why.’
He had no intention to dig deeply.
It would be troublesome if she took it as a threat.
‘……Because I don’t want to see her scared appearance again.’
But realistically, it was better to hold Sharti’s weakness.
The man clicked his tongue and lay down sprawled.
“If I show an obedient attitude, at least she won’t secretly hand me over to soldiers.”
Roughly concluding, the man closed his eyes and forced sleep.
However, the outline of Sharti’s face seen under the moonlight kept flickering, so in the end, he had to stay up all night with eyes open.
[This is the timeline separator]Thud! Thud thud! Thud thud!!
Waking to the noisy sound, Sharti reflexively frowned at the morning sunlight brightening the bedroom. It was when she hesitantly pulled the robe hood deeply.
Bang!! Bang! Bang bang!! Startled by the continuous loud sounds, Sharti jumped up.
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
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