Chapter 96: The Result of the Bet

I don’t know what possessed me to go to my room. Maya was waiting there to greet me.

“My lady, you’re back?”

“Yes.”

I returned to my room without energy and lay spread-eagled on the bed.

“About that bet, I asked Xavier directly.”

Maya, who had been cleaning, quickly rushed to my side.

“What did he say?”

“Maya, I won. Prepare three gold coins.”

“What? You mean I was wrong? That can’t be.”

Maya was flustered and kept repeating that it was strange, that it couldn’t be possible.

I recalled Xavier’s words from earlier with a bitter inner smile.

‘I… I just had bad eyesight back then.’

What were you hoping for, Yuria, when you already knew?

“I’ll deduct it from your wages.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I said unnecessary things… But the Duke truly loves you, My lady, so please don’t be too disappointed.”

Maya probably can’t imagine that our marriage is just a contract.

“Right. …I think I need to get some rest because I’m tired. Don’t let anyone in.”

I turned over on my side.

“Yes.”

Maya left the room without making a sound.

I stayed lying on the bed until she left, then got up. I took out three gold coins from a pouch in the bedside table drawer and opened the side door attached to the bedroom.

It was a small space that Maya used. Though she had her own room elsewhere, she spent time here during her breaks while attending to me.

I put the gold coins in the pocket of the apron Maya usually wore.

I never actually intended to deduct the bet money from her wages.

“Making pointless bets like this, it only makes things difficult.”

Did something get in my eye?

I had to look up at the small ceiling several times to keep myself from crying.

*

Instead of going to Yuria’s bedroom, Xavier returned to his own quarters.

“Damn it!”

Uncharacteristically cursing, he threw his glasses carelessly on the floor. He roughly loosened and removed his cravat. Still not satisfied, he punched the wall with his bare fist. The expensive framed painting on the wall shattered with a crash, and blood flowed from his hand.

‘Are you perhaps jealous?’

He couldn’t even answer yes to her question, hiding behind excuses. Because he knew that if he confessed his feelings, there would be no going back.

Lucas’s note crumpled in his pants pocket felt like something stuck in his throat.

He reached into his pocket and unfolded the damned note again.

[You must never let Yuria go to the Cursed Land. This is the cure I’ve decoded: ‘The Saintess must willingly sacrifice everything precious to her for the curse to be lifted.’]

Not only would she be hurt if she went to the Cursed Land, but she would have to sacrifice everything!

Though he had worried about this, having it confirmed made his heart even more painful.

“At this rate, I’ll end up leading Yuria to that damned place.”

Xavier despaired. Because he loved Yuria too much for that.

He knew all too well that his love bordered on obsession.

If he delayed any longer, he might end up hurting her in the name of love.

“Yuria…”

Despair pressed down on his shoulders. His knees gave way onto the carpet.

He tried to embrace the illusion of Yuria that appeared before his eyes, but it slipped through his fingers like smoke.

All that remained was the vivid red carpet visible between his spread fingers.

Someone was watching the suffering master through the doorway, his face buried in his hands.

“Master.”

It was Albert who had come running at the sound of breaking glass. He entered the room carrying a first aid kit.

“Leave. I want to be alone.”

“You can tell this old man what’s troubling you.”

“……”

Albert quietly closed the door and knelt on one knee beside Xavier.

“…I don’t want to make Yuria end up like Mother. I don’t want to make her die.”

“That won’t happen, Your Grace.”

“But!”

He lifted his face from his palms. In Albert’s eyes, there was not Duke Xavier Auguste but a man writhing in the agony of love.

“The previous master, your father, was truly a good man.”

“Stop it, Albert. Even if it’s you…”

“But there was one thing he did wrong. I dare say this.”

“……”

“He didn’t try to protect her. Though he loved her enough to die for her, he didn’t go all the way to the end.”

“!”

“What if he had told the truth to the Duchess, your mother? Though it would have been painful, there would have been no regrets or resentment. Don’t you think so?”

The butler smiled as he met his shocked master’s eyes. The weariness, joy, sorrow, and pain of the years seemed etched into every wrinkle on his face.

Weren’t wrinkles traces of time? Did they also bring wisdom?

His wrinkled hand took Xavier’s. Albert silently took out bandages from the first aid kit and wrapped his master’s hand while adding one more thing.

“If you love her, you should go all the way. The lady might want to go all the way too.”

“All the way?”

Albert left a gentle eye-smile and stood up to pick up the broken picture frame.

It was a portrait of Xavier’s father, the previous duke. After brushing off the glass shards with his hand, Albert took the picture out of the frame and handed it to Xavier.

“Albert, why are you suddenly handing my father’s portrait…?”

Without answering, the butler turned over the portrait, handed it over with a respectful bow, and backed out of the room, closing the door.

Xavier’s gaze, which had been staring blankly at the butler’s retreating figure, settled on the back of the photo.

His pupils dilated as he tensed. On the back was a short letter written in elegant handwriting.

[My dear, how I wish you had told me more about yourself before going to your final battlefield. Then I wouldn’t have lost you so helplessly without being able to do anything… These days, such thoughts come to me.]

It was his mother’s handwriting.

Xavier tightly clenched his bandaged fist.

*

After that day when I had to stare at the small ceiling to hold back tears, my life became even busier.

I had to hire a new maid to replace Rosetta who might return at any time, and I had to be Daniel’s test subject as he was buried in his research.

I decided to focus my energy on making the storage devices for now, putting aside the matter concerning Rosetta.

Today too, I was just leaving the dining room to go to the rear palace laboratory after breakfast.

“Yuria!”

“Xavier?”

As I was about to enter the passage leading to the rear palace, Xavier stopped me. He had returned to not wearing glasses. I noticed the bandages wrapped around his hand but deliberately ignored them.

“Let’s go together.”

“Together?”

“Didn’t we agree to do so last time?”

“Ah.”

I remembered Xavier’s words from the day I lost the bet, telling me not to go to the laboratory alone.

“Alright. But don’t interfere or nitpick unnecessarily.”

“Do you take me for an immature person? That will never happen.”

Eventually, I took Xavier to Daniel’s laboratory. Daniel seemed tense the moment he saw him.

“D-Duke, you r-really came?”

“Right.”

“It’s fine, right? The great doctor says he wants to watch your research up close.”

I smiled as brightly as I could while blinking at Daniel.

“Ah, y-yes. I understand.”

I forced myself to reassure him despite his uncomfortable expression and had him start the research. Xavier sat cross-legged in the doctor’s desk chair with his arms folded.

“Well then, begin in front of me.”

“Y-yes, Your Grace.”

“If you do anything to harm my wife, you’ll have to face the consequences.”

“Y-yes, yes, Y-Your Grace.”

Daniel, who didn’t stutter while researching, started stuttering again because of Xavier.

“Xavier.”

I smiled and gave him a look asking what he was doing.

“Don’t mind me and proceed comfortably.”

Though he said to proceed comfortably, he was glaring at Dr. Daniel Origin with hawk-like eyes. Because of that, Daniel came toward me with a round patch the size of a lens, looking even more nervous.

“M-My lady. Did you p-prepare what I mentioned?”

“I did.”

I took out a glass flask that I had brought in a paper bag. Inside the flask was a small amount of tears I had barely managed to collect over the past few days. This peculiar flask connected with a glass funnel was something Daniel had sent to me through a servant.

“What is that?”

Xavier stood up, placing both hands on the desk and unfolding his arms. Daniel glanced at him once before answering.

“J-just a s-simple experimental t-tool.”

“Hmm. I hope it’s nothing that will harm the Duchess? Even if you’re a genius, I can’t allow everything.”

Daniel briefly met Xavier’s eyes in confrontation. He neatly swept his brown hair that covered his forehead to the side and his green eyes flashed.

From what I could see up close, his expression was a bit stiff and his tightly pressed lips seemed twisted.

“…No.”

And then he muttered something short but incredible.

What a nag.

“……”

“……”

Since I heard it, Xavier must have heard it too.

Daniel turned his back to Xavier and took the flask I brought with both hands.

“Well done. Let’s take a look, shall we?”

Perhaps because he was absorbed in his research, Daniel was no longer stuttering. I was also speechless watching Daniel look at the flask so nonchalantly.

‘He called the Duke a nag but his expression didn’t change at all.’

I could see Xavier standing in front of the desk with a dumbfounded expression over Daniel’s shoulder.

Daniel held the flask in one hand and pushed up his slipped glasses with his index and middle fingers.

“Hmm.”

His eyes flashed seriously behind the round lenses.

Xavier called out to Daniel at the same time.

“Hey, Doctor!”

However, Daniel only alternated looking between me and the flask without moving. From that moment on, he began thoroughly ignoring Xavier.

This person’s got quite a temper too.