The Terminally-Ill Duke Clings to Me Every Night (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16
Butler Bayern entered alongside a man with a dignified air. The man, lifting his monocle, slowly surveyed the room.
‘Could that be the physician sent from the Imperial Palace?’
Leah recalled the rumor that the Emperor had personally dispatched his own royal physician to care for the Duke, his cousin.
But why? This inexplicable anxiety rising from deep within her. Just as Leah was watching the two men with wary eyes—
“Why is Miss Leah here?”
Bayern sharply raised his eyes and demanded.
“His Grace suddenly took ill. I was examining him.”
“His Grace?”
At Leah’s words, the imperial physician standing beside the butler approached the Duke. After checking the Duke’s condition, the physician barked at Leah.
“What on earth has the attending physician been doing all this time to let His Grace deteriorate like this?!”
Leah carefully tucked the empty medicine bottle she held into her sleeve and replied.
“I’m sorry. It seems His Grace’s chronic illness has flared up again. I’ll go prepare the treatment right away…”
“Treatment? Don’t be absurd. His Grace was doing well until recently—whose fault do you think this is?”
Bayern, who had quietly drawn near, cut her off abruptly.
“For now, we have the imperial physician sent by His Majesty himself. You may step aside.”
With no choice, Leah took a step back, and the imperial physician Jacob began his examination.
“Hmm. As you said, His Grace’s chronic condition has indeed worsened. I was reassured by the butler’s report that His Grace had been feeling better lately.”
He clicked his tongue disapprovingly and pulled a vial of bluish liquid from his bag.
“What is that medicine?”
“A remedy made from Saber Cat Grass. A secret formula I specially prepared.”
“Saber Cat Grass…?”
“His Grace’s chronic ailment stems from vascular issues—a persistent condition caused by poor blood circulation. That’s why I specially developed this new treatment using Saber Cat Grass.”
Jacob answered confidently.
“You may not know this, but Saber Cat Grass—the main ingredient in this remedy—is a rare medicinal herb found only in the East. It thoroughly cleanses the blood vessels.”
Unlike Jacob, however, Leah’s eyes widened in horror.
‘Impossible! Using Saber Cat Grass as a remedy?!’
Though extremely rare—and thus unknown to most—it was far too toxic to be used as medicine.
It didn’t merely cleanse blood vessels—it could dissolve them entirely. And yet the imperial physician had brought it as a “treatment”?
‘Is he out of his mind?!’
Leah spoke urgently.
“Wait! Saber Cat Grass is practically a poison! How can you use it as medicine? His Grace could be in even greater danger!”
At her cry, Jacob’s eyebrows twitched.
“Tsk tsk. To be so ignorant despite being an apothecary.”
Ignoring Leah’s protests, Jacob forced the Duke to take the medicine.
Leah tried to stop the physician, but Bayern blocked her path, rendering her efforts futile.
Several minutes had passed since the Duke took the medicine. The Duke, who had lain deathly still on the bed, began to grow even paler.
And then—
– Cough!
Akia began convulsing violently, spewing bright red blood.
“Look! His Grace is having a seizure…!!”
“Nonsense! This is merely a healing crisis!”
‘What? A healing crisis?’
It was utterly outrageous. To claim the Duke’s condition was improving while he convulsed and coughed up blood?
Unable to hold back any longer, Leah finally shouted at the physician.
“Don’t talk nonsense! You’re killing His Grace right now!”
But Leah could protest no further—Bayern, who had been blocking her, slapped her across the face.
– Slap!
A cold silence fell over the room, accompanied by the sound of flesh meeting flesh.
“How insolent! Who do you think you are to lecture us like this?”
Leah’s head snapped sideways from the butler’s blow, her cheek instantly reddening.
Bayern stared at her with contempt and wiped his hand with a handkerchief.
“I don’t know who you think you’re blaming for driving His Grace to ruin. Until I summon you, the apothecary is not to enter this room under any circumstances!”
At Bayern’s command, the servants outside dragged Leah away. Even as they pulled her out, her eyes remained fixed on Akia.
[This is the timeline separator]Leah paced anxiously in the apothecary. After much deliberation, she had discreetly sent word to Rikel, hinting that he should come to the apothecary.
‘What if Rikel doesn’t come?’
She believed Rikel would understand her intent, yet the urgency of the situation made her heart race with worry.
“What a quack.”
Calling the Duke’s seizure—a reaction to incompatible medicine—a “healing crisis.” The more Leah thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and she swallowed a bitter laugh.
If the Duke didn’t receive proper treatment after the seizure, his life couldn’t be guaranteed. Leah’s gaze wavered helplessly as she looked toward the moonlight leaning against the window.
Saber Cat Grass wasn’t classified as a poisonous herb—because the herb itself wasn’t inherently toxic.
‘Saber Cat Grass… even Alpharadia won’t work on it.’
Since it wasn’t poison, she couldn’t rely on Alpharadia’s antidotal effects.
“For an imperial physician to use such an herb…”
Just then, as another wave of anxiety washed over her and she nervously chewed her lip while pacing near the door—
– Knock knock.
A knock cut through the quiet silence. Before even asking who it was, Leah flung open the apothecary door.
“Rikel!”
“You must’ve been waiting for me a long time, huh?”
He closed the door behind him and grinned playfully, his eyes curving as usual.
“Why are you so late?”
“Me? I had no reason to come to the apothecary when I’m not even sick.”
When she’d passed the message in the kitchen, she’d specifically asked him to come straight here after sunset. Given the Duke’s critical state, she’d expected Rikel to arrive immediately.
As he sat down indifferently in a chair, Leah’s heart began pounding. ‘Could I… have misjudged him?’
‘No.’
Her sharp instincts, carried over from her past life, told her this gamble was worth taking. Leah prayed her choice wouldn’t prove wrong.
“Tell me—did you come because the head chef said you wanted to see me, or…”
“……”
“Did something happen that you needed to report to me?”
Rikel’s lips curved slightly as he voiced his two guesses. Leah, staring at him blankly for a moment, slowly opened her mouth.
“As you know, His Grace is in critical condition.”
“Hmm. I heard as much. I also heard you argued that the palace physician’s prescription was wrong and got yourself thrown out.”
He gestured toward Leah’s swollen left cheek as he spoke. Leah clenched her teeth, remembering the palace physician and Bayern who’d driven her out of the bedroom.
‘At least I would never play games with someone’s life.’
Bringing a rare Eastern herb as a “treatment” must have been done with her inexperience as a novice apothecary in mind.
They probably assumed that with smooth talk, she’d be forced to concede.
But they hadn’t known Leah was so well-versed in herbology that she had entire textbooks memorized.
After all, it was precisely because she’d memorized every herbology text that Leah, an orphanage graduate, had earned her apothecary license.
A palace physician prescribing poison… She didn’t know the full story, but the Duke was in danger.
‘And now I’m in danger too.’
It wasn’t just about money.
If anything happened to the Duke, she would be held responsible.
‘They planned to pin it on me from the start.’
That was why the palace physician could remain so calm despite giving a faulty prescription. Leah wasn’t some naive twenty-two-year-old apothecary.
Having endured countless incidents and betrayals in her past life, she was thoroughly sick of such political manipulation.
“Rikel, listen carefully. The physician’s prescription really is wrong.”
“……”
“The palace physician claims His Grace’s seizure is a healing crisis—but it’s not! If we leave things as they are, His Grace will truly be in danger.”
Rikel, who had seemed indifferent, frowned at the mention that the Duke might die.
“Saber Cat Grass doesn’t help vascular disease—it’ll dissolve all of His Grace’s blood vessels. And if that happens…”
“If that happens?”
Leah swallowed the words she couldn’t bring herself to say. The thought of death looming so close to the Duke made her dizzy.
Rikel remained silent for a long while after Leah’s lengthy explanation. After several seconds, he finally spoke, breaking the long silence as he gazed steadily at her.
“Leah. Hearing what you’ve just said…”
His low voice called her name.
“It seems you didn’t summon me to report something—but because you need my help to treat His Grace.”
Rikel’s dark violet eyes instantly deepened as he fixed his gaze on Leah. Under that piercing, penetrating stare, Leah gulped.
“Yes.”
Leah barely steadied her trembling voice. Rikel had been the very reason she’d been agonizing breathlessly since morning.
Though she’d been acting as a double agent for the Duke under orders, she still couldn’t tell whether Rikel was an enemy or an ally to the Duke.
‘If he wanted the Duke dead, he wouldn’t have assigned me—a mere apothecary—to report to him. He’d have given me a different task.’
Like poisoning him—perhaps slipping a trace amount of toxin into the treatment to cause gradual poisoning. Leah was in the perfect position to kill the Duke.
Yet no such special orders had ever come.
So Leah had thought—perhaps the powerful figure paying Rikel that enormous sum to spy might actually be on the Duke’s side.
It was reckless, but she had no other choice.
Bayern had sealed off the bedroom; no one except the butler and the imperial physician could enter.
The only way to save the Duke’s life now was through “that person” standing behind Rikel.
“The report starts now, Rikel. The noble you serve instructed me to watch over His Grace, didn’t he?”
“……”
“His Grace is in critical condition right now. If that person wishes for His Grace to die, I’ll stay here quietly.”
Rikel’s face showed no emotion as Leah continued. He simply listened in silence. To Leah, this was no different from gambling.
“But if His Grace must be saved, I need to treat him immediately. So please, make your decision.”
Leah’s leaf-green eyes sparkled with resolve.
‘So I can treat His Grace.’
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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