The Terminally-Ill Duke Clings to Me Every Night - Chapter 66
Leah felt uneasy not knowing Dmitri’s true intentions. She would have preferred if he had simply criticized her table manners.
‘Is my soy allergy really such a good thing?’
She gave an awkward smile as the Duke of Belarus stared intently at her.
As the three continued their meal, Dmitri’s low voice was heard.
“How old is the young pharmacist?”
“I’m twenty-two this year.”
“Twenty-two…”
The Duke of Belarus seemed to mull something over in his mind, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Perhaps the duke’s daughter had died at a similar age to hers.
Leah felt solemn as the atmosphere suggested he was reminiscing about his deceased daughter while looking at her. The Duke of Belarus posed another question to her.
“What about your parents?”
She glanced briefly at Akkia and hesitated at the Duke’s question about her parents. It was such a personal inquiry.
But then, thinking there was no need to hide it, she spoke.
“Actually, I don’t know much about my parents. I was abandoned as a newborn and grew up in an orphanage.”
Akkia, who didn’t know the details of Leah’s birth, looked at her in surprise.
He knew she had grown up in an orphanage, but it was the first time he learned that Leah had been abandoned as a newborn.
Dmitri’s expression turned gloomy at the mention of the orphanage.
“Orphanage… Ah, you grew up in an orphanage?”
“Yes.”
Dmitri, sitting across from her, asked Leah in a low voice. But her unhesitating answer that followed darkened his expression.
Trembling lips. Dmitri’s wavering gaze fell on Leah. He was already certain that Leah was Ariel’s daughter.
Leah gave an awkward smile at Dmitri’s incomprehensible gaze and took a sip from the water glass in front of her.
Sensing the strange atmosphere between the two, Akkia interrupted the Duke of Belarus’s words first.
“More importantly, do you really intend to give up on the salt mine’s hot spring as it is?”
This was a matter that had already been concluded in a previous conversation with the Duke of Belarus.
But Akkia deliberately brought up the business topic to change the subject in the subtly flowing dinner conversation.
Dmitri glared at him, seemingly displeased that he had interrupted his conversation with Leah. The Duke of Belarus opened his mouth once again to convey his refusal.
“That’s already been discussed yester…”
“Hot spring?”
Leah’s eyes widened as she brightened up and asked the Duke of Belarus. Once again, he saw Ariel overlapping with that expression.
In life, Ariel had also greatly enjoyed the salt mines of Bialitskaya.
Bialitskaya, with its lakeside, was quite a spectacular sight with changing scenery each season, even without the salt mines. That’s why they used to go there for summer vacations.
‘She’s truly Ariel’s daughter, isn’t she.’
She seemed to have a great interest in Bialitskaya, just like her mother.
“Is a hot spring being created in the salt mine?”
“We don’t know if it will or won’t. It’s certain that there’s hot spring water under the mine, but if it’s not developed…”
Throughout the meal, Leah smiled awkwardly at the Duke of Belarus’s barrage of questions. She had been worried about choking from eating so uncomfortably.
But now, as she discussed the hot springs, Leah’s expression seemed much brighter. The Duke of Belarus’s rigid face softened as he watched her.
“Does our pharmacist like hot springs?”
“Of course. Who wouldn’t like hot springs?”
‘Our?’
Akkia deeply furrowed his brow.
‘When did we become ‘our’?’
Akkia let out a scornful laugh at Dmitri’s behavior.
He couldn’t understand why Dmitri was now showing friendliness to Leah, even using the word ‘our’.
Who was the Duke of Belarus?
He was the most authoritarian man among all the nobles Akkia knew.
In other words, he was the most uncompromising when it came to social status.
The Dmitri he knew wasn’t the type to treat a young commoner woman he had just met as kindly as a neighborhood grandfather.
‘Tsk. Has he gone senile in his old age?’
Akkia’s gaze sharpened as he watched the Duke of Belarus now looking affectionately at Leah.
Akkia, who had been watching with a disapproving gaze, downed the cold water in front of him in one go.
“Yes, so our pharmacist likes hot springs.”
“…”
“Barton.”
Dmitri, who had been stroking his beard as if pondering something, gestured to the butler waiting behind him.
The butler quickly approached him at Dmitri’s call.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Send someone to the capital right away to find a hot spring expert. A salt hot spring in Bialitskaya. Isn’t it quite a promising business?”
‘What?’
Akkia’s mouth fell open at the Duke of Belarus’s sudden change of stance. He hadn’t even pretended to listen when Akkia had listed the reasons why a hot spring was necessary yesterday.
‘Now he wants to do the hot spring business? Why so suddenly?’
He racked his brains over the situation he couldn’t understand at all. Then his gaze fell on Leah, sitting across from the Duke of Belarus.
Dmitri had shown an unusual amount of interest in Leah during the meal, enough to make Akkia feel strange.
At first, he thought it might be because she resembled the deceased duke’s daughter and he missed her.
But he realized that the fact that she resembled his daughter wouldn’t be enough for the Duke of Belarus to reverse his words to this extent.
‘If it’s not because she resembles the duke’s daughter?’
With a feeling of his heart turning ice-cold, Akkia tightly gripped his water glass.
‘How dare that senile old man…’
Sparks flew in his eyes as he looked at the Duke of Belarus.
.
.
.
“It was an honor to be invited to the meal.”
“Yes, did the food suit your taste?”
“Yes. Everything was excellent.”
The eventful dinner had ended.
Leah, who had been uncomfortable with Dmitri at the start of the meal, was now conversing comfortably, as if her earlier unease had disappeared.
‘He’s a much nicer person than I thought.’
Leah gave a faint smile as she looked at Dmitri, who was wearing a benevolent smile.
‘I heard he was a stern and frightening person in the rumors.’
Her guard had dropped against the Duke of Belarus, who was speaking warmly to her as if she were his granddaughter.
“Miss Leah. Now that we’ve had our meal, why don’t you join me for a cup of tea?”
“Tea?”
Leah cautiously looked at Akkia, as his mood had seemed not so good for a while now.
And sure enough, he was quietly sending her a warning with a chilly gaze.
‘Don’t.’
Leah, sighing shortly as if there was no choice, said.
“I… I’m sorry, but what should I do? I have some urgent matters to attend to.”
“Then it can’t be helped. An old man shouldn’t take up the time of busy young people.”
“Thank you for understanding. Then we’ll be…”
As Akkia was about to hurry out of the dining room with Leah, Dmitri quietly murmured, lowering the corners of his eyes.
“The weather is so nice today. When Ariel was alive, we used to stroll in the garden on days like this…”
Though it was a quiet murmur, it was clearly heard by both of them. Moreover, it was a mournful voice that could touch anyone’s heartstrings.
Leah’s heart softened at Dmitri’s words, and she met the duke’s gaze. Her eyes seemed to ask if they were really going back to their room like this.
‘Damn it.’
Akkia inwardly cursed.
“Alright. Then shall we go for a walk with…”
“Duke Haidern.”
Just as Leah was about to suggest going for a walk together with the Duke of Belarus, the butler Barton approached Akkia.
“What is it?”
“There’s an urgent matter you need to attend to.”
“…For me?”
“Yes.”
What urgent business could there be for him, a guest, in this place? Akkia’s face twisted unpleasantly.
“Oh my, it seems you have an urgent matter. Then you can join us later. I’ll just go for a walk with Miss Leah.”
The Duke of Belarus also seemed very pleased with the situation, stretching his lips into a smile.
Was it an illusion that Akkia’s expression froze coldly at the sight of Dmitri, who was like a cunning old fox?
“No. Butler, I’ll come soon.”
Akkia muttered, letting out a deep sigh.
“What? But they say it’s urgent. You should go.”
Akkia let out a dry laugh at Leah’s words, which were driving in the nail without even realizing his feelings. In the end, he had no choice but to follow Barton.
“I felt it last night too, but the garden is truly beautiful.”
“My daughter really loved roses.”
The two were standing in the rose garden. The Duke of Belarus watched fondly as Leah buried her nose in a rose and inhaled deeply.
“The Duke of Belarus’s daughter must have been very happy in life. Having such a caring duke as a father.”
“Unfortunately, it seems my daughter wasn’t so happy, considering she left my side… This mansion, and I, might have been suffocating for that free-spirited child.”
“Your Grace…”
As if recalling old memories, shadows fell across the Duke of Belarus’s face.
Seeing Dmitri’s eyes suddenly becoming moist, Leah took out the handkerchief she was carrying and held it out to the duke.
“Oh my, I’ve shown an unseemly side in front of a young lady.”
“It’s not unseemly at all. I don’t mind.”
Leah waved her hand, saying it was fine. As if touched by her gesture, the Duke of Belarus wore a pleased smile.
“To think a young lady could be so kind-hearted.”
He gazed intently at Leah as he wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes with the handkerchief.
“So, I have a small favor to ask of you, Miss Leah… Could you perhaps stay at the mansion a little longer?”
“Pardon? At the mansion?”
“Yes.”
He asked Leah with eyes that were impossible to refuse.
“…I…”
Knowing that the duke was seeing his dead daughter in her, Leah couldn’t answer hastily.
What did it matter that he was once a duke who had ruled the empire?
Now he was just a pitiful father left alone after losing his child.
The paternal love she felt from him for the first time. Is this what the warm love of parents feels like? Leah’s heart grew heavy.
‘Yes. A few days should be fine, right?’
Leah, her heart softened, gave a faint smile towards Dmitri.
“I’ll talk to the duke about it.”
*
Save yourself from story hunger — the novel below will blow your mind!
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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