I Unintentionally Cured the Grand Duke’s Insomnia - Chapter 83

42. — Between Mockery and Salvation (1)

An unannounced visit from Cain had me out of bed after three days.

Lily watched us while holding her breath before turning around and wiping away tears when she saw me sitting down reluctantly. Cain, who had been silently observing me turning my head away from the cold soup and his gaze, handed a tray to her and spoke.

“Could you make the meal again.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

As if she had been waiting for those words, Lily briskly took the tray and left the room. In the meanwhile, I opened my mouth with a muffled voice as I watched him taking a seat across from me.

“…I would’ve been dressed up if you had contacted me.”

“I suppose you would.”

“….”

“We almost had to hold a funeral before we even got married.”

I could sense the anger barely concealed in his voice.

As I gazed at him quietly, I found myself smiling without realizing it. It was because, now, I finally understood why he had fallen asleep so easily every day every time I read my book to him. His insomnia, which was said to be untreatable by any medicine, hadn’t been fixed by me distorting the original work. It was simply boring.

It was just that my book was boring and dull enough to overcome his severe insomnia.

“Adelia.”

At the sight of me smiling weakly, a faint wrinkle formed between his brows. Thinking tears might flow, I turned my head away as I heard a knock.

In the meanwhile, Cain, who was about to call for me, let out a shallow sigh as he watched Lily enter the room with a freshly brewed bowl of soup. She entered with the soup and briskly placed the bowl on the table. Lily constantly glanced at my complexion with concern and hesitated for a moment before finally withdrawing from the room at his gesture for her to leave.

As the door closed with a soft thud, he pointed to the soup with his eyes.

“Eat first, and then we’ll talk.”

“…I won’t eat.”

“….”

“I don’t want to eat.”

After my repeated words, he sighed and massaged his forehead. His gaze upon me turned sharper as if a veil had lifted.

“Why?”

“….”

“Now that the people who used to adore your book are now mocking it, did the fact that you’re the author now become embarrassing?”

His words pierced my chest sharply.

I stared at him disdainfully and bit my lip. Seeing me in such a state, a slow smirk formed at the corner of his mouth.

“I’d rather see such a face than a face that looks like you’re dying.”

“Your Highness doesn’t know anything, so you’re saying that.”

“….”

“That’s why you can say such a thing.”

I knew it was my fault.

I had no reason to be angry with him and that he wasn’t at fault. In the end, I turned my head away, avoiding Cain’s gaze as he looked at me silently. The guilt of venting my anger unnecessarily on him, who had done nothing wrong, came to me belatedly.

“I’m… sorry.”

“Isn’t it natural for me to know nothing about Young Lady?”

“….?”

“Then, how much does the Young Lady know about me?”

As his nonchalant words continued, I pursed my lips and replied.

“…I probably know more than Your Highness realizes.”

“Is that so?”

He leaned back against the backrest of his chair, his expression showing interest in my words. As I nodded my head with a faint sigh, he looked at me, mischief flickering in his eyes, and asked.

“So, does Young Lady even know what I had for dinner last night and what kind of tea I had this morning?”

“Yes?”

“Do you even know what thoughts I had during that meal, or who I shared conversations with while drinking that tea?”

“Your Highness.”

“Answer me, Adelia. Do you even know what I ate for that meal, who I had the tea with, and what conversations were exchanged?”

“How am I supposed to know that?”

His playful question stirred frustration within me.

His behavior, trying to engage in trivial wordplay without understanding the situation, left me feeling upset and disappointed.

“Yes, I guess you wouldn’t know. That’s only natural.”

“Your Highness.”

“If you don’t tell me, neither your maid, who has been rolling her feet outside the bedroom door with swollen eyes, nor would I, who barged into the Count’s residence from morning to meet the fiancée who won’t even show her face, would know.”

His lowered voice resonated through the quiet room.

Cain stared at me, who had no answer, and added with a firm tone.

“The same goes for those who talk nonsense about your books. They also don’t know what kind of book it is, so they are just saying that. They derive pleasure from tearing it apart and demeaning it for fun, without even considering that their words might hurt someone.”

“But, but it’s the same for Your Highness as well. You don’t know. It’s not my book, it’s what I did wrong…!”

Cain’s consolation was a statement that could only come from someone who didn’t know my ugliness, which I didn’t want anyone to discover. It was something he could say because he didn’t know how low I had sunk. If he were to know that I had plagiarized someone else’s book and published it, I didn’t know if he would still like me.

I didn’t know if he might come to detest me.

That was why I was afraid.

I was afraid of confessing my sin and afraid that he might hate me.

…I was afraid of what would come out of his mouth and afraid of the expression on his face as he looked at me, so I closed my eyes tightly.

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