The Plan of the Terminally-Ill Wife's Divorce (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 106

“The first time I went on a domain inspection tour, I was twelve years old.”

Darius looked at Anette, whose small hands tightly clasped his own, with wistful eyes as he spoke.

“For an ordinary child, that’s an age young enough to have just begun accompanying a knight as a squire. But precisely because I was so young, I couldn’t avoid going on the tour. I had to stand in for my ailing father and demonstrate that the House of Inkheart remained strong….”

Anette nodded repeatedly. Her eyes reddened as she pictured the young Darius, his tiny frame leading a retinue of towering knights through treacherous mountain passes.

“The cold weather wasn’t as chilling as the way people looked at me. ‘Can that child really handle this?’ they’d wonder.”

“Darius….”

“I’d hide my injuries, not even daring to seek treatment, just to keep others from finding out. ‘It’s fine,’ I’d tell myself. ‘It’ll heal on its own.’ Lying alone in the barracks bed, I felt terribly lonely… Ah, if only Anette had been by my side back then… Cough, cough.”

“Darius!”

Unable to contain her sorrow, Anette leapt into his arms.

Darius, who had been feigning illness while lying in bed, let out an exaggerated groan as though the wounds from his childhood had suddenly flared up again.

“Oh! That old injury from back then… Because it wasn’t treated properly, it still aches whenever the weather turns bad…!”

“Oh no! Did I hurt you by accident? I’ll go call a doctor right away!”

“It’s alright. Just holding your hand makes the pain vanish, Anette… So, would you mind holding it a little longer?”

“What’s so hard about that? Of course I’ll keep holding it. Still, shouldn’t we call a doctor? You have so many injuries.”

Apple, Anette’s maid, began wondering whether revealing the truth to her mistress might actually be the most loyal thing she could do—seeing how Anette never stopped worrying over the Grand Duke, tears constantly brimming in her eyes.

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