Maris General Hospital was thrown into commotion by the sudden visit of an unexpected guest. On the contrary, the room where the guest stayed was silent, filled with a breath-stealing tension.
“It seems she fainted due to lack of oxygen. She has also been suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, likely due to not eating properly.”
As the hospital director spoke about the diagnosis, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat flowing down his forehead. Throughout the examination, he had to concentrate as if performing surgery. This was because of the intense gaze of the Duke, who was watching closely.
“Fortunately, there’s no significant harm to her life. Once she stabilizes, she just needs to regain her strength.”
“You’ve done well. You can leave now.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
In response to Kairon’s words, the hospital director, with an expression of amazement, deeply bowed his head. The hospital director, too, had hastily conducted the examination due to the unexpected hospitalization of the Duchess. Having completed the examination safely, the relieved hospital director left the room.
Gregory, who had been watching closely, also relaxed his stiff expression. After rescuing the kidnapped Duchess and bringing her, unconscious, to a nearby hospital, he could finally exhale. However, Gregory’s gaze, filled with concern, shifted from the recovering Duchess to the Duke, who was solely focused on her.
“Your Grace, since the Duchess seems to be safe, would you like to take a moment to rest? I’ll call a maid to watch over her.”
“No. I’ll stay. Everyone else, go out.”
Despite Kairon’s advice to take a break since the Duchess went missing, he shook his head as if refusing.
“Understood. We’ll be waiting outside the room.”
In the end, following the Duke’s command, Gregory left the room with a solemn expression. Left alone in the room, Kairon approached the bedside, sitting on the chair placed nearby.
His gaze, filled with affection, gently descended onto the face of the woman lying down. Despite the lack of color in her pale skin and the delicate features of her face, the combination resembled a porcelain doll.
“Idel…”
With a soft, subdued voice, Kairon called her name, delicately bringing his hand over her cheek, careful not to disturb the woman. Beneath his hand, he felt a faint warmth and heartbeat.
Certainly, she was alive. Despite directly confirming this and hearing the diagnosis that there was no significant harm to her life… for some reason, his mind wasn’t easily relieved.
Perhaps it was due to the shock he felt when he discovered her collapsed and motionless in the hidden chamber onboard. It seemed like the uneasiness wouldn’t dissipate until she opened her eyes.
Lowering the hand that had wrapped around her face, Kairon reached down and took her left hand lying on the sheet. From beneath his palm, he retrieved the engagement ring, a gift from the Duchess, and gently placed it on her ring finger.
As Kairon looked down at the now calm face, a sudden distortion appeared in the corners of his eyes. It was due to the bandage wrapped tightly around the delicate wrist. Beneath the bandage, there were bound to be scars, etched from being tied to a rope for several days.
‘How dare they…!’
The anger towards those who kidnapped and threatened her surged within him again. Along with it, his eyelids painfully twitched, as if the scars left on her wrist were inflicted on him as well.
Even in the midst of the kidnapping, Idel did her best to request rescue and behaved bravely. However, the time she spent enduring alone must have been fearful and arduous.
‘The reason she fell into danger…’
The reason was clear. It was because Idel was by his side as the Duchess. The blades of Douglas’s revenge, not directly aimed at him but at the Duchess, were proving to be highly effective. Ever since she was kidnapped, he felt as if every minute and second was drying up his blood for the first time.
Anxiety, restlessness, anger, despair, fear… As he recalled the emotions he had felt for the first time during the time she was missing, he lowered his head and clenched his teeth.
Although he had safely recovered her, he found himself ensnared by a different kind of threat. It was due to the weight of her absence, a realization that struck him.
‘The reason for keeping her by my side…’
The reason was also clear. It was to freely indulge in her scent that shook his senses and stirred blind desires.
Certainly, he thought that if she stayed by his side, her presence would soon become familiar and eventually fade away. If that happened, he believed there would no longer be a presence that would disturb him.
‘But… it wasn’t like that.’
He realized that her presence, which delved into him, paradoxically grew even more. Through this recent kidnapping, when she momentarily left his embrace, the sense of loss paradoxically felt overwhelmingly profound.
Eventually, he had to admit it. Her existence was, at present, his unique weakness.
‘There is no guarantee that such incidents won’t happen in the future.’
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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