Tamed Monster - Chapter 18
No matter how knowledgeable the doctor was about monsters, he had never encountered one capable of transformation.
So he simply assumed the Duke was deeply poisoned by monster blood, which explained his irregular heartbeat and strange behavior.
“Just to be safe, I’ll prescribe an antidote. Take it once daily for a full fifteen days.”
The Duke was clearly abnormal now, but as mentioned before, the doctor couldn’t say such things openly in front of the patient. So he explained the situation indirectly.
Sylvia, nodding eagerly, asked the doctor about the cost.
“Twelve gold… no, fifteen gold should cover it.”
Meanwhile, the doctor, who had inflated the price, couldn’t help but glance intently at the Duchess’s slender neck as she summoned a servant without hesitation.
* * *
In the middle of the night, Sylvia woke up after tossing and turning.
It was already the fifth night since she’d shared a room with her husband. It had become routine for her to fall asleep alone while he lay awake beside her, staring blankly at the ceiling, eyes wide open and seemingly not sleepy at all.
After roughly tidying her tousled hair with her fingers, she quietly sat up.
The terrace door was wide open, and her husband leaned on the balcony railing outside, gazing blankly at something. The winter wind swept sharply into the room, making it very cold inside.
Sylvia called out to him.
“Duke?”
As expected, he didn’t turn around. His slight shoulder twitch meant he heard her, but like a cat named Leo she once raised long ago in her homeland, he responded with proud indifference, unwilling to obey no matter how she called him.
Sylvia sighed, got fully out of bed, slipped on her robe, and crossed the balcony door before she could finally look at and speak to her husband.
“What are you doing out here?”
Unlike her shivering in the chilly air, he seemed used to the cold, wearing only a thin tunic and appearing calm as if it were familiar weather.
“Recharging.”
He answered simply while staring at the dim, cloudy new moon. Following his gaze to the moon, Sylvia couldn’t understand.
What moon recharged his energy? She still thought of him as human, so she took his words as a joke.
“While looking at the moon?”
“Yes.”
“…I didn’t know you meditated. Cough! Especially on such a cold night.”
She coughed loudly once, but he still kept his gaze fixed on the moon. Sylvia was mesmerized by the sculpted side of his face. Perhaps it was the eerie moonlight filtering through the fog that made his pale face shine.
Today, he looked especially captivating. His blue eyes were particularly beautiful. It seemed they had deepened in color since returning from the swamp…
“Wife.”
“…Ah, yes?”
“Why are you so startled? Can I ask you something?”
Only then did her husband turn slightly toward Sylvia. He kept his left arm fixed on the armrest away from her but freed his right arm to face her, revealing the sharp contours of his chest and abdominal muscles beneath the thin tunic. Sylvia swallowed hard before speaking.
“Please ask.”
“Why did you marry me?”
The question pierced her heart like an awl. Sylvia lost her breath for a moment.
Even though her husband was someone she held no affection for, there was no need to be unsettled by such a question. Yet the reason she was visibly flustered wasn’t because of him. It was because of others she recalled.
Four years ago, she had accepted a marriage to Duke Alexander without hesitation after Lady Rossa proposed to protect her family, who had fled their fallen homeland and sought refuge in the Kolnas Empire.
Rossa’s sole reason for wanting her, who had lost royal status, was clear. If Sylvia married the Duke, most of the kingdom’s treasures would pass into their family’s possession. All the treasures Sylvia once owned were now stored in the Empire’s treasury, sacrificed by Rossa to the imperial family.
‘Promises kept.’
Having foreseen such a future, Sylvia had let Rossa handle the precious relics of her homeland as she wished, for Rossa had steadfastly kept her promises until now.
Perhaps it was for the best. Sylvia had neither the means to hide such immense treasures safely nor prevent them from being stolen. Thanks to this, even the imperial court treated Sylvia with at least some courtesy. Especially the Crown Prince, who was overly kind to her.
“…”
“You’re taking a long time to answer.”
Her husband watched her carefully with his keen eyes as she struggled to steady her breath.
