CH 75.1

“Your Highness, are you alright?” Isabella asked cautiously when his arms around her loosened.

His bloodshot eyes were still wet from the tears.

Isabella waited for his response as she held herself back from wiping the Archduke’s tears.

“How did you do that?”

“What?”

“What have you done to me?”

“Are you angry because I hugged you without your permission? I apologize if I shocked you, Your Highness. I just wanted to calm you down. ”

“I stopped crying because you hugged me?”

Isabella guessed that the Archduke didn’t even realize that she hugged him.

After all, he was acting like he couldn’t hear anything, as if his mind was in another dimension.

What terrible nightmares did he have to act like this?

“Yes, I think so.”

Duke Kyar laughed.

“This is absurd. I can’t believe you brought me back to my senses after hugging me.”

“Maybe, it was one of the methods that will calm you down after the nightmares. And even if it wasn’t specifically a hug, what if  physical contact will help you remember something buried underneath your consciousness?”

“The royal physicians have already used that method, but it didn’t work even if they held me down and shook me, so I don’t know why–”

At his scrutiny, Isabella gave him an awkward smile.

“Perhaps, we will know more about it the next morning. Come to my bedroom at night.”

“What? To your bedroom?” Isabella asked, perplexed.

“Why? Do you think I’ll attack you while  you sleep?”

“Oh, no. I don’t think you would do that.” Isabella shook her head hastily after remembering what the Archduke had told her in the past.

Duke Kyar was adamant about saving his purity before his marriage.

“You sound like you know me well.”

Isabella watched him bitterly.

She was aware that the Archduke wasn’t the man she used to know.

In his mind, the time they had spent together in the past didn’t exist.

“I’m sorry for saying the wrong thing, Your Highness.”

“All right, come to the bedroom by ten in the evening.”

He spoke curtly as if he could not be bothered to talk to her any longer.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She couldn’t understand the Archduke’s decision to let her enter his bedroom every night, but she simply nodded in agreement.

Isabella knew Duke Kyar wasn’t someone who would do this without reason.

**

She returned to her room and closed her eyes to sleep the remaining drowsiness away, but she woke up later when Seria invited her to eat lunch.

After having lunch and taking a walk in the garden, Isabella returned to her room and formulated new medicines for the Archduke.

If Duke Kyar had a problem with nightmares,  it would be ideal for creating some medicine that would help him sleep better.

Judging from the Archduke’s condition this morning, not giving him tranquilizers was for the best.

Isabella wrote down the herbs she had known to calm the nervous system one by one.

She pondered at the list of herbs written in her notebook that would cure the Archduke’s condition until night came.

It was time.

Isabella headed to Duke Kyar’s bedroom while carrying her pen and notebook.

She knocked on the door nervously and heard Duke Kyar’s voice telling her to come in.

Upon entering the room, Isabella saw him sitting on the bed.

“You’re early.”

He said while staring at the wall clock.

Isabella smiled in response.

The Archduke pointed to the sofa across him with a blanket.

“What is it, Your Highness?”

“I don’t think you should sleep on a chair two days in a row.”

Did he think she would be more comfortable on that couch?

“No, I’m fine.”

Isabella replied, waving her hand in dismissal.

“Why are you refusing the offer? If you’re not worried that I’m going to attack you, should I be worried that you will attack me?”

Isabella’s face blushed the more he stared at her.

‘No. You don’t have to be concerned about that.”

“If not, just stay there.”

She pursed her lips.

If Isabella insisted that she didn’t want to stay on the couch, the Archduke might consider her a pervert who tried to attack him while he was asleep.

“I’m just curious to know if I could finally stop crying again. If you sleep here, I’ll also be able to sleep here.”

“Yes, but… Your Highness.” Isabella called him cautiously.

The Archduke stared at her without a word, one of his eyebrows slightly raised.

“Don’t you remember anything about your dreams? Knowing what kind of nightmares might help me make the perfect medicine for you.”

“I don’t remember a thing. I’ve tried to remember them, but the more effort I put into it, the more painful it gets. I tried calling a hypnotist, but it didn’t work. My nightmares feel so real to me.”

A nightmare that he couldn’t even remember?

Isabella had never heard of such a thing.

“Since when did you have these symptoms?”

“About a year and a half ago.”

Isabella had turned back the time a year and a half ago.