Chapter 78

Chapter 78

“Wait…! You mustn’t eat that!”

From the tent where the ladies gathered, the masked knight standing behind the Grand Duchess shouted loudly at Min-ha in a hoarse voice. However, the small fruit had already entered her mouth. Startled by the shouting of the masked knight, she swallowed it without even chewing it.

Percival and Noah, surprised to see Min-ha coughing violently while hitting her chest with one hand, finally came to their senses and shouted.

“Are you all right, Duchess!”

“Sister-in-law!”

“…Ugh, I’m okay.”

“Here, water! Please drink it now!”

‘What is it? Why did he scream—’

Min-ha, who was startled and coughing continuously, was able to calm down only after drinking the water that Percival offered. She continued to drink the cold water, trying to get rid of the unpleasant feeling to calm her throat, which had become sharpened by her coughing.

‘Huh…?’

But, it was strange.

Although the cough had already subsided, strangely, her throat kept hurting and feeling uncomfortable. More than anything else, the pit of her stomach seemed to be hurting. She continued to drink the water Percival had given her to calm the feeling but to no avail… No, it felt like it was making it more difficult to breathe.

“Huk, haa—”

As she tried to stroke her chest with her two hands, Min-ha tried to ease her stuffy stomach. However, instead of getting better, her throat gradually hurt as if she had swallowed a fireball and her breathing became more and more difficult.

“…Euk!”

“Sister! Uuwahh!”

“Damn it, Duchess! …We can’t do this. Young Master Noah! Follow me, we’re going back to the annex now!”

“Y, yes!”

When Min-ha’s face turned red as she was suffering from being unable to breathe, the surroundings quickly became chaotic. Percival narrowed his brow and gnawed on his molars.

‘…Someone must have poisoned the Duchess!’

Or, perhaps the assassin was hiding.

Grabbing her body from the crowd and running to the annex, Percival constantly shouted at Min-ha, who was breathing heavily.

“Duchess! I’ll call the doctor right away! So, don’t lose your consciousness!”

“Ha, uuk…”

“They must’ve used tricks that could only harm the Duchess, damn it…!”

“…Per, Percival, what should we do? Because of me…”

“It’s not because of Young Master Noah. So, follow me. I’ll run a little faster.”

“…Y, yes.”

Min-ha took a deep breath as she felt her body floating and moving frantically somewhere.

‘It’s painful…’

Even though she wanted to respond to Noah’s crying voice and Percival, who was screaming urgently, she could not because her throat was stuffed.

‘It’s all right… I have to tell them that I’m fine.’

She wanted to come to her senses somehow, but maybe because of the sudden symptoms of an abnormality in her body, Min-ha fell into drowsiness so strong that she could not stand it.

It was a sunny day in late spring.

The trees were lush in preparation for the upcoming summer, and Acacia sent the brightly blooming petals to the wind one by one as if sending an invitation to greet the summer.

It was a very picturesque day. In the small forest attached to the white stone mansion, boys and girls in uniforms and dresses respectively, were playing back and forth in the forest. As the boy ran around loudly, raising their voices, the girl was chasing after him.

Suddenly, the boy stopped in front of a tree and asked, pointing to the small black fruit hanging from the branch.

“Oh, it’s mulberry!”

“What’s that?”

When the girl tilted her head and asked, he replied with a cute smile.

“It’s the fruit from the sycamore tree used as food for silkworms! I ate it when I went on a picnic with my nanny, and it was delicious!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Minase, would you like to try it too?”

“Good!”

The girl answered with a quick glance. At that, the boy quickly stretched out his arm and picked the fruit from the branch before putting it in her mouth.

“Wow! It’s sweet!”

The girl burst into laughter at the boy’s behavior as he was chewing the mulberry with a happy face and sticking out his black tongue.

“Kuk, kuek…!”

All of a sudden, a girl suddenly coughed and fell to the ground.

“Mi-Minase! Minase! Is there nobody here?! Here, here is Minase!”

“…Oh, my God! Young Lady!”

The grown-ups quickly rushed to the sound of the boy’s screaming and crying at the sudden appearance of the girl who had collapsed. They carried her into the white stone mansion, poured a potion into the fallen girl’s mouth, and called a priest for prayer.

The boy was by her side, crying and screaming until the girl came to her senses. When the fallen girl finally opened her eyes, he squeezed her hand with a tearful and runny nose.

“Sorry… I’m sorry, Minase. It’s all because of me.”

“…I’m fine, Rupert.”

“This will never happen again. I-I will protect you… I will protect you for the rest of your life. I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”

“…Yes.”

The girl replied with a shy smile at the boy’s perhaps slightly unseemly oath.

That was then.

Suddenly, the world became bright and the space distorted as if a clock had been turned back quickly. Then, before she knew it, she could see the girl who was now grown up standing alone in the room. As she shed tears with a distorted expression, she caressed a book with a black cover.

[ “Maybe, that was it…The words that made me fall in love.” ]

[ “But, I shouldn’t have felt this way… if I had known that I would regret it this much.” ]

With those words, the world surrounding the girl suddenly turned black.

Her body felt terribly heavy as if it was cotton soaked in water. Perhaps, that was why Min-ha regained her consciousness, but she could only hear the voices around her since she could not even lift a finger.

“…So, what did he say?”

“Thankfully, the Duchess was given the medication quickly after symptoms appeared, so her life was not in jeopardy.”

“Then, why hasn’t she woken up yet?”

“He said that it’d take at least an hour for the drug to take effect. Please wait a little longer, Your Excellency.”

“You’ve already kept the servants and maids away from here, right? Since we don’t know who was bribed, we shouldn’t let anyone know her condition yet.”

“Yes. No one is allowed on the floor where this bedroom is located, even Mrs. Pompa.”

The first thing Min-ha heard was the voice of Seth, who seemed to be very angry. And, it seemed that the other person who replied to him with a gloomy voice was Bediviel. Perhaps, they were talking about her symptoms.

Bang!

Suddenly, there was a sound of someone banging something on the floor. The next moment, she could hear Percival’s low-sinking voice and the sound of Noah’s crying.

“…I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. Please, punish me for failing to protect the Duchess while I was there, Your Excellency.”

“N-no! Brother! It’s all my fault! Because of me, she ate what I gave her and sister-in-law…”

“It’s not the time to argue about who’s right and wrong right now. First of all, we’ll wait until she wakes up.”

Seth, who let out a deep sigh as if he was frustrated, approached the bedside where Min-ha was lying and sat down.

Then, he carefully pulled out her hand that was covered with the sheet and grabbed it tightly. Feeling his hand drenched in a cold sweat, her heart ached. She could feel his desperate heart, which he must have been struggling with, worrying that maybe he was doing something wrong.

‘I’m really okay now.’

She could not let Seth and the others worry any more. At the thought, Min-ha used all her strength and gently squeezed Seth’s hand, wet with a cold sweat, before slowly trying to open her eyes.

“…Are you awake?”

“Duchess!”

“Duchess, are you awake now?”

“Sister-in-law! Uuuawh…!”

At that moment, the people in the room rushed to the side of the bed as she tried to sit up.

Min-ha glanced at each of the people, who had genuinely anxious and worried faces, before gazing at Noah, who was crying and digging into her arms, and Seth holding her hand.

Seeing Seth, who was exhausted from worry and anxiety, there was no glimpse of the knight who had been imposing just a few hours ago. Seeing him staring at her with sorrowful eyes, she smiled as if to reassure him.

“Yes, Seth. I’m okay. Were you worried a lot?”

“…Did I worry too much? I thought my heart was going to fall.”

“Haha. Is that so?”

“Do you know how astonished I was to hear that you collapsed at the hunting ground? You don’t know with what feeling I came into this room where you were lying down after getting off the horse, or how I felt until you woke up… I should’ve been by your side. How much I regretted not being able to stay by your side, all that disgrace and declaration of conflict were truly nothing… Really, I wonder what would happen if I lost you like this…”

“…I’m sorry. It’s really nothing, but I’ve caused you to worry.”

Min-ha felt even more sorry to see Seth, who put his forehead to the back of her hand and poured out his feelings in a sorrowful voice. It was her who was not careful, though she made him so worried. Then, she smiled as brightly and widely as possible — in her mind, she wanted to ease his worries even just a little.

Seth’s eyes sharpened before he smirked.

“Ha… A person suddenly lost their consciousness because they couldn’t breathe. Is that not a big deal?!”

“…No, it’s true that it was a little difficult to breathe for a while though I didn’t fall unconscious.”

“….”

“Really…! How should I explain this? I got sleepy all of a sudden, so I just fell asleep.”

“Are you telling me to believe that now?”

“It may be hard to believe, but believe me. You know… I don’t lie to you.”

“Ha… Really.”

“So, please don’t say anything to Sir Percival or to Noah. I’m fine, and most of all, this happened because I was careless. Okay?”

At the following words, Seth sighed once again as if making the ground sink*. Min-ha smiled as she acted cute towards him, who still could not contain his upset and anger.

[ T/N: Mostly used as an idiom when someone sighs deeply—the manner of drawing a very deep and loud sigh. ]

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