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Chapter 43
Why Are You Doing This to Me?
Despite thinking he would toss and turn all night, Stefan slept soundly without waking even once. Even after waking up, he lay around in bed for a long time—something unusual for him. Tired from the long journey, the baroness also couldn’t get up from the bed easily. She pulled the blanket up to her neck and buried her face in the soft pillow.
“Dear, I want to sleep more. I won’t leave this bed for a few days.”
“Of course, you should. Didn’t the doctor say you need to rest and not overdo it?”
“Yes. The doctor’s name is Anton, and he was so kind. He seemed like a good person, and he knows a lot about medicine.”
“That’s a relief. I’m glad there’s a real doctor in this remote place.”
They both wanted to be lazy, but Stefan remembered the stack of papers the duke gave him yesterday.
Stefan sighed deeply and forced his tired body up.
“I have to get up now. The duke told me I have to finish twenty-two tasks by the end of the year.”
Matilda, still lying in the pillow, pretended to be shocked.
“Twenty-two? Oh my. I guess he really plans to work you hard. You shouldn’t have impressed Count Chamberlain so much! This is all because you’re just too smart.”
Stefan smiled and nuzzled into his wife’s neck.
“Didn’t you say you liked that I wasn’t a foolish noble’s son, Baroness Boild?”
“Kyaa! Stefan, stop it! That tickles!”
Matilda laughed so hard she almost ran out of breath. After a long kiss, she finally calmed down and smiled at her husband.
“Stefan, I have a good feeling we’ll be happy here. The duke doesn’t seem as scary as the rumors say, and most of all, the duchess—don’t you think she’s so cute?”
“She is.”
He still wasn’t sure what kind of person the duke was, but Stefan could agree that the duchess was cute.
“I can see why people in the past called women of the Hakborn family saints. If I saw a woman who looked like her hundreds of years ago, I’d probably say she was either an angel or a witch.”
“It’s really sad. Is it true that all the women in her family die young? Maybe that’s just an exaggerated rumor?”
“I’m not sure.”
Stefan remembered something his respected professor at Celeno University had said about the Hakborn family:
“There’s no such thing as a curse. That family doesn’t have a curse; it’s just that only the women get a certain illness. It’s like how you inherited brown hair from your father, and I got green eyes from my mother.”
So, maybe the stories were exaggerated, but the illness was real.
“She really does look sick. It’s amazing she’s walking around at all.”
“I thought so at first, too, but after talking with her, not at all. She’s so lively and cheerful. I probably shouldn’t say this about the duchess, but she reminds me of a fluffy little puppy. I wanted to have her as a little sister.”
Stefan’s expression softened as he stroked his wife’s thick blond hair.
“I’m glad you like it here. And our baby is holding up well too. Maybe the child will be brave like you.”
“I hope our child will be as brave as their father, who came all this way to live in the land of the emperor’s mad dog to protect his family.”
Even the emperor’s mad dog would understand wanting to be lazy after such a long trip. Stefan cupped his wife’s cheek and kissed her again, even longer than before.
Eek!
Dominic was entering Marian Hall when he quickly hid behind a pillar. Heinrich, who didn’t notice Dominic, hurried past the pillar.
“What’s up with him? He hates sweating and won’t even run.”
Even though Heinrich was the son of a frontier lord and used to battlefields, he acted like he couldn’t stand getting dirty. Even when he was a prisoner hanging from a tree, he hated having dust on his face. The main reason he hated wars in the summer was because he hated how sweaty clothes stuck to his body. There was nothing normal about Heinrich Updike.
Dominic only left his hiding spot once Heinrich was gone. He’d never liked him, but the real reason he avoided Heinrich was after Daniel’s marriage was arranged. When Heinrich visited Daniel in the capital, he started complaining right away.
“That empress dowager must be senile. Daniel, ignore her nonsense. If she keeps bothering you, let’s just deal with her. The Updike family is on your side…”
Heinrich would say crazy things loudly in Celeno, a place full of the empress dowager’s spies. Dominic once had to cover Heinrich’s mouth and got bitten—his finger still hurt when it rained. And that wasn’t all. Three years ago, when Daniel fell into a coma, Heinrich was even worse.
“Dominic, what were you doing? Why did Daniel have to risk his life for you? No, this is all those Nottingen bastards’ fault. I’ll catch them and rip them apart…”
Dominic didn’t want to remember it in detail. Shaking his head, he walked up the stairs, only to bump into Muriel coming down. She looked anxious and upset.
“Is something wrong? Or are you just still hungover from last night?”
“Dominic, have you seen Lady Frida?”
“She’s not in her room?”
Why would the duchess be anywhere except her bedroom at this hour?
“She’s not there. She said she felt heavy after returning from Scadi Hall, so she went straight to bed. But when I checked this morning, she was gone. Where could she have gone?”
“She probably went for a walk. If I see her, I’ll let you know.”
Dominic tried to calm Muriel, but he knew that couldn’t be right. The lady of Munheim Castle never wasted time on something as useless as a walk. She hated wearing all those heavy clothes to protect her fragile skin from the sun.
Standing outside Daniel’s bedroom, Dominic reached for the iron doorknob, then knocked softly with his knuckles. Daniel usually woke up earlier than anyone, so maybe he was still asleep. Knock, knock. Even if Daniel was sleeping, he’d definitely hear this. But no sound came from inside, so Dominic slowly opened the door.
“….”
There really are times when you’re left speechless. Peeking inside, Dominic closed the door even more quietly than he had opened it. Should he tell Muriel where the duchess was? He couldn’t decide. It was a tough morning.
“Mmm…”
Frida sat up, her eyelids heavy.
“I thought I heard something…”
As she blinked in confusion, the sturdy wooden door at the far end of the room came into focus.
“Maybe I heard wrong?”
She mumbled to herself and looked down. Daniel was lying quietly on the bed, his head just barely touching the edge of the pillow. If he wasn’t softly breathing, Frida might have worried he’d lost consciousness again like three years ago. Last night, he’d kept complaining of a headache. She could still picture the pain on his face.
‘If you’re in pain, you should have told me. You’re not really strong—you just pretend to be.’
She had thought Daniel was recovering quickly, but now she realized she was wrong. Seeing her husband’s sleeping face after so long, she felt both unfamiliar and sorry for him.
“Don’t tell me… did he really pass out?”
Frida carefully put her ear to Daniel’s nose. His regular breathing tickled her ear, telling her he was only deeply asleep.
“Phew. Thank goodness.”
Frida pulled the blanket up to cover Daniel’s shoulders and whispered softly,
“I should have taken better care of you. I’m sorry.”
She remembered putting him to bed and patting his back as he suffered. But she couldn’t remember when she’d fallen asleep herself. Did he suffer alone after she slept? Feeling bad, she kept staring at his sleeping face. Sunlight stretched across the bed as the sky cleared outside. Frida worried the sun might wake him up, so she quietly got out of bed and pulled the curtains closed. Daniel didn’t wake up even with all her quiet movements. Frida lay on the bed again, resting her chin on her arms, and watched her handsome husband sleep.
It felt like she had gone back to the days before he woke up, when she often lay like this, just watching him. The memories of their time together came back and made her heart ache. At first, she’d barely slept on the edge of the bed, not used to having someone next to her. After a month, she’d started talking to his unmoving body, even greeting him in the morning. She’d tell him all about the gossip from the servants and the progress of her projects, then look down at his face just like now. Sometimes she worried he would never wake up. She even stayed up all night, worrying about things that hadn’t even happened yet.
A lock of her hair brushed across Daniel’s forehead with each breath he took. Frida carefully brushed her hair back so it wouldn’t touch his skin. With Daniel’s forehead now clear, she tilted her head.
“That’s odd. Why does he look different?”
It hadn’t even been two months since he woke up, so nothing much should have changed. Maybe his jawline was sharper, or maybe his expression had changed. Somehow, even while sleeping, Daniel’s face showed all the emotions he usually kept hidden—sometimes strict, but mostly kind and gentle.
‘He can be annoying sometimes, though.’
Frida smiled but then grew serious again. Even after checking his breathing, she worried because Daniel didn’t move at all.
“Is he still in pain?”
Maybe she should have brought Anton last night. Daniel’s headache had seemed so bad. What if it was after-effects from his accident? What if he never woke up again? Getting swept up in these bad thoughts, Frida carefully climbed onto the bed and shook Daniel’s arm.
“Duke, please wake up. Duke…”
She suddenly remembered his request to call him by his name.
“Daniel, wake up.”
She called Daniel and held his shoulder.
“It’s morning, Daniel. Dani—oh!”
Daniel, with his eyes still closed, grabbed Frida’s slender wrist.
“Daniel, are you awake?”
Even after grabbing her wrist, he didn’t open his eyes. It took a few more moments before his eyelids finally lifted. His deep, reddish-brown eyes focused directly on her. Surprised, Frida tilted her head to meet his gaze.
“Are you okay? Or do you still hurt? Should I call Anton?”
Daniel only looked at her, blinking slowly. He was as quiet as when he was sleeping.
“Daniel… why are you like this?”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
His deep, heavy voice finally broke the silence.
“Daniel?”
He suddenly pulled Frida’s wrist, making her fall into his arms. Her pale hair spilled across the bed.
Daniel’s eyes, which had been calm a moment ago, now looked desperate, like someone at the edge of a cliff as he cupped her cheek.
“How am I supposed to handle this?”
