Chapter 22

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 22

Chapter Title: The Reason I Get Angry Every Time I See You

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"...Medicine?"

Clodel's pupils dilated like yellow petals blooming, only to wither and return to normal just as quickly.

"There is no medicine."

It had been three hundred years since Herzol had been conquered.

The curse that had bound the people of Valmond like a plague in a land frozen half the year had now become an opportunity for families to have their annual taxes waived upon the birth of a child.

The lords of House Valmond had strictly warned their heirs through the generations.

No matter how much the house declined or struggled, they must never stop the Ice Baptism.

With rewards this great, no one turned them down.

If they reduced it to waiving only half a year's taxes for various reasons, fewer people would come, and sloth would set in.

Then Herzol would start spreading again in that land, and the population of the territory would dwindle.

House Vermonte had known since ancient times that a territory's power was determined by the number of people living in it.

There was medicine for Herzol, but not really.

The cure for the controlled disease was unnecessary.

Expensive to make, with hard-to-find ingredients that no one bothered sourcing anymore, it had naturally vanished.

Most of the handed-down recipes had been lost as well.

"I can't stand it. Are you always so negative about everything?"

The man's voice grew louder, as if he'd been watching her for days just to pick a fight.

"It's not negative. It's realistic."

"Ha. You really have a knack for saying the most infuriating things. How did I put up with you this whole time?"

"Cough. Cough."

She'd kept her mouth shut partly because too much talking would bring on coughing fits.

As the coughs came, Kaiyan's gaze turned murderous.

Clodel pressed her chest to suppress the pain and keep from spitting blood.

Whenever he saw symptoms of her illness, Kaiyan erupted like an active volcano.

'How dare these cunning Vermontes deceive House Temneth!'

No matter how many times he mulled it over, it seemed the grudge of being backstabbed by his sworn enemies hadn't faded.

'You came here ready to die, but now you're sparing your body? Aren't you forgetting the children you might need to nourish?'

Even as they'd shared his bed multiple times, seeing her filled him with rage he could barely endure.

'Death won't be your resting place.'

He snapped coldly, as if reading her mind.

Even knowing she was sick, even seeing her cough or taste blood, it reignited the fury he'd felt upon first learning of her Herzol—like it replayed endlessly for him.

She couldn't understand it.

Why couldn't he just leave her to stay in one forgotten corner of this vast castle until she left?

Why come storming in to vent his anger like this?

When the coughing finally stopped, the room felt as frigid and deadly as Valmond's ice fortress in the depths of winter.

Daring not to meet Kaiyan's eyes, Clodel kept her head down and murmured softly.

"I can move to another room."

"What do you mean by that?"

"This is the Duchess's chamber. Before I die here, I could go to a guest room or somewhere else."

If she dropped dead here, the next Duchess might not take kindly to it.

Clodel even had a faint inkling of who that next Duchess might be.

"Ridiculous! You really..."

Every time Kaiyan flew into a rage, his crimson eyes burned even brighter, inhuman in their intensity.

Like a demon rising from hellfire.

Or a legendary fire dragon on the verge of unleashing its infinite blaze.

"I've finally figured out exactly why you make me so angry every time I see you."

What was it?

Not just because she was a Vermonte? There was another reason?

In the midst of her fear, she couldn't help but wonder.

"Say whatever you want. Speak fearlessly to my face."

Kaiyan ground his teeth.

"After pulling this stunt, you think you can just die? Such a sly, cowardly plot. I despise the likes of you. Move rooms? You think you have the right to ask me for anything now?"

He seized her frail shoulder roughly, shaking her as he forced her eyes to meet his.

"Your recklessness ends here. Remember that."

His words pierced her ears, searing into her retinas alongside his terrifying expression.

"In Rowen lands, nothing goes against my will."

As he stormed out of the bedroom, the coughing started up again.

The hacking cough dragged on endlessly.

The moment he left the Duchess's bedroom, Kaiyan bellowed like he was psyching himself up.

"Aaaah!"

His roar echoed with such ferocity that something shattered somewhere in the castle.

Gritting his teeth, he headed to his study.

"What good could come of this?"

Kaiyan despised himself.

Every visit to Clodel revealed another glimpse of the thoughts she'd kept hidden inside.

As if she no longer needed to conceal them.

As if she no longer needed to deceive him and could finally relax.

That woman was afraid of dying.

That's why he couldn't just leave her alone.

Who wasn't afraid of death?

Kaiyan had never feared it on the battlefield.

He was certain he wouldn't die.

Most would find it baffling or incomprehensible, but he knew he'd return alive.

Kaiyan had lived a life without failure.

He'd never tasted bitterness and believed he never would.

The sole ripple in that flawless existence was Clodel.

His marriage to the enemy, and that wife's death, threatened to stain his brilliant life like an indelible blemish.

Yet the woman he'd dismissed as small and insignificant had shed her mask of indifference.

Casually speaking of her impending fate as if it were inevitable, she clung to him.

Help me somehow, because I'm scared.

Yet she never begged to be saved.

This was unprecedented.

Those who'd faced his sword begged for their lives.

And he decided whether to grant it.

With Clodel, she'd stolen the reins from him.

The woman who'd harbored the terror of death alone for months had now resigned herself completely.

Like a drowning man grasping at straws.

Clodel was the astonishing woman who could reduce the great and mighty Lord Kaiyan of House Temneth to a mere straw.

Scared and lonely, she clung to the hem of her enemy's robes.

"Move my grave? Change my room?"

There had been a moment when he'd wondered what thoughts filled that tiny head of hers.

Now he knew for sure.

Her mind harbored something utterly bizarre, beyond the reach of common sense.

The moment he sat in his study chair, the butler reported.

"My lord. The doctor requests an audience."

"Send him in."

A short while later, a graying middle-aged man entered the study.

"Greetings to the great lord of House Temneth."

"Any progress on what I asked?"

"Well..."

From the doctor's hesitant mumbling, Kaiyan could tell.

He'd posted a massive bounty for a Herzol cure.

But there'd been no real results yet.

Herzol was a disease unique to the frigid areas around Valmond Castle, the coldest part of Valmond territory.

They could only speculate it came from living too long in frozen lands.

In the warm, mild south like Rowen, there'd never been a single case in history, so investigating northern endemic diseases from here had its limits.

Believing no problem couldn't be solved with money, Kaiyan proceeded in his own way.

He'd raised the bounty twice already, and analyzing tips or brought-in remedies fell to the doctors he'd assigned.

But every one was either a money grab or pathetically useless, so no cure for Clodel yet.

"Still nothing, then. Raise the bounty higher."

"No, it's... the acquisition was suspicious, but I obtained a credible prescription."

What nonsense? Credible despite suspicious origins?

Kaiyan's doubt cleared up soon enough.

"It came in an envelope stamped with House Vermonte's seal."

"What?"

"I brought it anyway, but there are many dubious aspects."

"I'll see it myself."

The doctor soon returned with a raggedly dressed old man.

Upon seeing Kaiyan, the old man fixed his eyes on the floor, trembling in terror.

Unlike the bold types chasing the bounty.

"Is it true you have a Herzol prescription?"

"Yes, my lord. It is."

"Show it."

With shaking hands, the old man placed a worn, ancient-looking envelope on his desk.

Kaiyan picked it up and examined it closely.

The seal on it made his eyes narrow instinctively.

It was the seal of House Vermonte—enemies he'd gladly devour.

"Did you steal it?"

"No!"

"Then where did you get such a thing?"

"Th-that..."

The old man moistened his parched lips.

"I'm of no account now, but until a few years ago, I ran a large apothecary."

"Hm."

"A man who gathered herbs from the mountains often sold to me. One day, he gave me money and this prescription, asking me to procure ingredients for a Herzol medicine."

Fearful of Kaiyan's gaze, he kept trembling.

"Yet you brought back an unopened prescription. Did you extort him?"

"Oh no, my lord! Absolutely not."

The old man jumped in protest.

"Truth is, a fire broke out in his village. I searched everywhere but never found him again. Time dragged on, and a decade passed."

"No lies?"

"No, no. None."

"You probably pocketed the money, though."

Pointing out his shabby state, the old man's wrinkled face flushed.

"I've never done anything shameful under heaven's gaze. Please believe me. The one who squandered my fortune was my own fool of a son."

He trembled as he spoke.

"My wife suffers in her old age. I thought, just maybe, if I claimed the bounty..."

"Butler."

At Kaiyan's gesture, the butler bowed.

"Pay him double the bounty."

"Th-thank you. Thank you, my lord."

The old man bowed repeatedly in gratitude.

Then.

Thud.

Something tumbled from the inner pocket of his threadbare clothes to the floor. A flat red jade disc, carved round with a strange pattern in the center—like an ornament.

Kaiyan's eyes narrowed at the sight.

"A survivor of Florny Village?"

The old man panicked.

"No! Not me! It belonged to the man who entrusted it—I just kept it."

"Leave that too."

The old man hastily placed it beside the envelope and backed away.

"Keep silent about this. I'll make it triple."

"Th-thank you."

The moment he left, Kaiyan tore open the envelope stamped with his enemy's seal.

Inside was the prescription.

Even the paper was gold-leafed stock, like what House Vermonte used for official letters.

"This seems genuine."

The doctor nodded.

"Gather the ingredients as fast as possible."

"That's the problem."

His face turned grave.

"One ingredient will be impossible to find."

"Why?"

"It's only used for Herzol medicine, so no one's sourced it in ages. None exists."

The butler, glancing at the prescription, let out an "Aha."

"The heart of a wild water buffalo calf."

Wild water buffaloes were the origin of the proverb "not even bones left."

Nearly three meters tall, they lived in herds fiercely protective of their young.

If a calf was even slightly threatened, they'd frenzy and trample the offender into unrecognizable paste on the dirt.

Be it the king of the plains, a lion, or a knight on armored horseback.

They wouldn't stop until a ton of weight on their hooves crushed every last bone fragment.

"No way to hunt one now."

"Are you telling me it's impossible?"

Kaiyan raised an eyebrow.

"Find it."