The Terminally-Ill Duke Clings to Me Every Night (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14
– Thud.
The moment the butler entered the room, the cabinet door shut. Leah helplessly collapsed between the duke’s legs.
If they’d been even a moment later, the head butler would have caught them together. Leah, who had barely managed to hide herself by a hair’s breadth, felt as if her heart might burst.
– Miss Leah?
She heard the butler’s voice calling for her from outside the cabinet.
‘Why did this man pull me in?’
If he needed to hide, the duke could have hidden alone.
This is the apothecary! Of course an apothecary would be in the apothecary!
In the pitch-black darkness of the cabinet, she saw the duke. Perhaps realizing he’d acted on impulse, he avoided Leah’s gaze.
‘Why on earth did you do that, Your Grace!’
Leah had to swallow the question she wanted to demand aloud.
“Shh.”
The duke pressed his index finger against her lips, signaling her to stay quiet. Then, he carefully braced both hands against the cabinet wall.
This was entirely different from when he’d leaned on the desk earlier. The man’s body was now so close she could almost feel his nose brush against hers.
– Thump, thump, thump.
The moment she realized this, her oblivious heart began pounding wildly.
‘We’re too close.’
She and the duke were pressed together as if magnets had pulled their entire bodies together—so close she could feel each other’s heartbeat through their skin.
– Gulp.
Leah unconsciously swallowed hard. Every time the duke’s breath touched her forehead, heat bloomed there like a flower.
And on top of that, his heavy, musky scent had been teasing her nose since earlier.
He’d clearly seemed frail before, but at this very moment, he felt more robust than any man she’d ever known.
– Leaving the candle lit and wandering off somewhere… Did he go to the privy?
Perhaps he was searching for something. Leah heard Bayern rummaging around the room.
‘Please don’t come here…’
But as always, the more desperately one hoped, the less likely it was to happen. The sound of footsteps stopped right in front of the cabinet. And then—
– Click.
Just as Bayern placed his hand on the doorknob, as if to open the cabinet, the door creaked open slightly on its own.
– Eeeek.
The rusty cabinet groaned open with a spine-chilling screech.
‘Oh no!’
Seeing the sliver of light seeping into the dark, cramped cabinet, Leah squeezed her eyes shut tight. How on earth could she possibly explain this situation to the head butler?
Just as a jumble of panicked thoughts flooded her mind—
– Ah, there it is.
Bayern muttered to himself, then closed the cabinet door he’d started to open. Fortunately, having apparently found what he was looking for, Leah heard him close the apothecary door and leave.
As the head butler’s footsteps faded away from the apothecary, both of them finally exhaled the breath they’d been holding. Their breaths tangled together in the narrow confines of the cabinet.
Yet perhaps due to their extreme tension, neither of them had yet realized their bodies were pressed flush against each other.
“You’re sure he’s gone, Your Grace?”
Leah whispered softly, and he nodded.
“Seems so.”
The duke, evidently just as tense, finally released his hands from the cabinet wall. As the tension eased, Leah felt a surge of resentment toward him.
She never needed to enter this cabinet in the first place. Why had he dragged her in and caused this mess…?
She felt unfairly distressed, as if she’d needlessly worried herself sick.
“You startled me by yanking me in so suddenly! Why did you have to pull me in too?”
“I wanted to see what the head butler was up to in here.”
At Leah’s bold, reproachful words, he let out a chuckle, sounding utterly exasperated.
“But you nearly got us both caught!”
It was fine to keep watch on the butler, but if anyone discovered the duke had been here, all their hard work would crumble to dust.
“In the end, we weren’t caught, so it’s fine. Besides, the butler never needed to open the cabinet in the first place.”
“What? So you knew what he was looking for?”
“Yes. I have a rough idea. But before that…”
He jerked his chin toward the door and said,
“Shall we open the door now?”
Leah jumped in surprise at the duke’s words. She’d become so absorbed in their conversation she’d forgotten they were still inside the cabinet.
“Oh! Sorry!”
Strangely enough, whenever she spoke with the duke, she always found herself unintentionally getting too immersed in the moment.
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Leah pushed against the cabinet door.
But—
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Huh…? That’s strange.”
Leah tilted her head briefly, then tried pushing the door again with more force. Even with greater effort than before, the door didn’t budge.
– Clack, clack. Thud, thud!
“The door won’t open…”
“What?”
The duke asked in disbelief. From behind Leah, who was pushing the door, his long arm reached out.
– Bang, bang!
Even when the duke pushed with all his strength, the cabinet door refused to open.
“It really won’t open, will it?”
She’d wondered if it was because she was weak, but seeing the duke’s grim expression, it was clear he couldn’t open it either.
“…Why is this? Are cabinets normally impossible to open from the inside?”
Akia asked Leah in a voice thick with bewilderment. His usually haughty crimson eyes flickered restlessly.
“I—I wouldn’t know! I’ve never tried opening it from the inside before!”
Leah fumbled her hands along the door, trying to inspect the lock mechanism.
“What do we do? It seems to have a double lock—you can only open it from outside!”
Then again, when would anyone ever need to open a cabinet door from the inside? In hindsight, it made perfect sense that it only opened from the outside.
Leah stared at the duke with a dazed expression.
“What are we going to do now? If no one opens it for us, we can’t get out… And then we’ll have to explain why Your Grace and I were in here together.”
Panicked, Leah squirmed in an attempt to escape the cabinet. At first, she hadn’t felt too claustrophobic, assuming they’d get out easily.
But the moment she realized they were truly trapped in this narrow, sealed space, her breath caught in her throat.
At Leah’s restless wriggling, the duke’s expression darkened sharply, and he murmured quietly,
“Stop moving.”
“Huh?”
The cabinet shook each time she moved, making it hard to hear him. Trying to turn toward him to listen better, Leah caused the duke to let out a low groan.
“…I said, stop moving.”
“Why? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
His low, strained voice sounded ominous. Wanting to check properly, Leah turned fully to face him.
“That’s… Just stay still if I tell you to.”
“Are you hurt somewhere, Your Grace? This isn’t the time to stay still—we have to get out before someone comes!”
The duke’s face was deeply furrowed, but he didn’t seem to be in actual pain.
Leah couldn’t understand why he’d tell her to stay still in a situation where they should be breaking the cabinet down to escape.
At Leah’s bold remark, the duke swept back his sweat-matted hair and spoke even more quietly than before.
“Ugh… You keep brushing against it.”
“Huh? Brushing against what? What’s been going on since earlier…?”
In that instant, she felt an unfamiliar sensation she hadn’t noticed until now.
A heavy pressure against her. A distinctly foreign touch that kept prodding her.
‘Ah…? Could it be…?’
A cold bead of sweat rolled down Leah’s forehead.
‘Is it really what I think it is…?’
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, as if denying the reality unfolding before her. She even thought it might have been better if the butler had caught them.
Perhaps it was from that moment onward that Leah’s movements drastically slowed.
Not only her movements, but her words, too, dwindled. A heavy silence settled between them, their faces flushed even redder than Leah’s crimson hair.
Inside the small cabinet, barely large enough for two people,
the distance between the trapped pair was exceedingly close, and their night stretched long.
[This is the timeline separator]“Sigh…”
Early morning. Dark shadows hung beneath Leah’s eyes, betraying her sleepless night.
Eventually, the two had managed to escape the cabinet—though the door was now so badly damaged it couldn’t be repaired.
“What should I even say to the butler…?”
The duke had simply told her to “handle it however you like” before returning to his room, leaving all the aftermath squarely on her shoulders.
And something else occupied her thoughts more than worrying about being scolded by the butler.
[Stop moving.]A deep sense of shame washed over her, so intense she wanted to kick off the blankets right then and there. Leah began grappling with the practical dilemma of how she should even look at the duke now.
‘Ugh. I really don’t want to go for the medical checkup right now.’
If only the checkup existed, she could have taken the day off. The item the butler had taken from the apothecary yesterday was none other than the duke’s most recent medical record.
She had a report to deliver, so visiting the duke was unavoidable. As Leah walked slowly toward his bedroom—
‘What’s going on?’
From the first to the third floor, maids bustled about tidying the mansion.
It wasn’t even a scheduled deep-cleaning day, yet the maids cleaned with such determination it seemed they wouldn’t leave a single speck of dust behind. Leah found it puzzling.
‘Is someone coming? They’re cleaning the guest rooms?’
Moreover, she saw them cleaning guest rooms that weren’t even in use. As Leah strolled down the corridor, she called out to a maid approaching from the opposite direction.
“Is a guest expected? The mansion seems unusually busy.”
“Oh! Yes. Guests from the imperial palace are coming tomorrow.”
“Guests?”
From the imperial palace? The maid added, seeing Leah’s wide-eyed surprise,
“Yes! The imperial physicians will be coming—it’s the duke’s scheduled examination day.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
She’d heard there was an annual checkup, and apparently, it was scheduled for tomorrow.
Before she knew it, Leah had arrived at the duke’s bedroom and entered after a light knock.
She spotted the duke sitting at a distance. Seeing him instantly brought last night’s incident to mind, and Leah quickly hastened her steps.
She wanted to finish her business swiftly and leave before any strange thoughts crept in again.
Since taking Alpharadia, the duke had begun eating fairly well. Seeing that about a third of his bowl was empty again today, Leah felt quietly proud.
Approaching the duke, Leah offered him a cup of sanjoin tea.
“Your Grace, I’m glad your appetite has improved.”
“Nonsense. Did you confirm it?”
Frowning slightly as if telling Leah to stop her chatter, the duke asked.
“Yes. I checked, and as you said, it was indeed the medical record—your most recent one. The butler seems suspicious. I’ll keep an eye on him.”
As Akia sipped his sanjoin tea, he silently nodded at her report—a sign of permission.
‘Then that matter is settled.’
About to pull out her examination tools for a brief checkup, Leah spoke up.
“Oh, right. I heard guests are coming from the palace tomorrow? It must be your scheduled examination.”
“…”
“Did you already know… Your Grace?”
She’d assumed he obviously knew, but Akia stood frozen in place, still clutching his teacup.
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.”
_____
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