This Life, I Will Save The Duke (20 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 62

Strange yet subtle days continued.

Ever since that day when he told her not to be considerate, Kaius had established new rules, invoking the sixth clause of their contract to make it impossible for Ariel to refuse.

It was that she must accompany him on his evening strolls—which he’d previously taken alone—and that at night, she must stay awake and wait for him until he arrived.

[But still… isn’t this going too far? It’s as if we’re some affectionate married couple. We’re not like that…]

[Even if you dislike it, I’d appreciate your compliance, my lady. Pretending to be an affectionate married couple is also one of a duchess’s duties.]

Just as the belated regret—that she should never have tried avoiding him—deepened like the hues of sunset, Kaius waited for her at the mansion’s front entrance. He took Ariel’s hand firmly in his and walked silently along the lakeside path at a leisurely pace. The whole affair felt so strange that once, she tried spending that time in the greenhouse instead—but that night, she had to endure a trial as fierce as a storm.

[If this is what you truly desire, you don’t have to join me on evening walks at all. I actually prefer this to strolling anyway.]

In the deep hours of dawn, as he stroked her hair and whispered those words, Ariel resolved to strictly follow the rules he’d set.

From that day onward, his odd behavior only intensified.

Kaius’s questions centered entirely on her childhood—matters that offered him no benefit whatsoever. Her appearance as a child, when she first discovered her special abilities, whether she’d ever shown her healing powers before others, and when she’d begun to love plants. One question each day.

She must have been around ten years old?

Carelessly forgetting her parents’ warnings, she healed a noble injured within the palace. Not long after, Ariel was kidnapped and locked away in darkness for over a month. Each day, she cried herself to sleep—until her father came personally to rescue her. Edward had accompanied him. That was when she began relying on Edward as family. Ever since she’d recounted that long-forgotten incident to Kaius, he’d simply held her close and fallen quietly asleep. Whether that truly was the reason, she couldn’t be certain.

Meanwhile, winter arrived.

Though the snow she’d been waiting for still hadn’t fallen, Ariel found herself increasingly eager for it—the cold, soft flakes.

Wrapping a thick shawl around her shoulders, she stepped out through the terrace door, and the chill winter air enveloped her completely. Perhaps because the sky was overcast, the scent of winter felt stronger than usual—that scent belonged to that man, Kaius. She didn’t know what else to call it; it simply was.

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