The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 87

Chapter 87. Without Him (3)

The drops of water that had stopped began to fall again. Louid’s face frowned once more.

‘Emilia, please stop. Just because I can’t move, you’re doing this?’

At first, he thought Emilia was crying again, but the water was a little too cold to be tears. It wasn’t ice-cold, but since it was being dripped repeatedly onto his face, it was extremely painful.

Even so, he didn’t open his eyes. Even if he did open them, his mouth was still paralyzed, so he wouldn’t be able to tell her to stop anyway. So he kept his eyes shut.

‘At this level, it’s stronger than a sword.’

There was no one in the world who could defeat him with a sword. Yet Emilia was tormenting the strongest man on the continent with just a few drops of water.

After dripping all the water from the glass, Emilia wiped his face with a dry towel and went outside.

When he heard the sound of Emilia leaving, Louid slowly lifted his eyelids. Then he quietly tried putting strength into his face. His cheek moved slightly, and he could even open his mouth a little.

Huh? Maybe it worked?

“Ah, ah.”

He tried making a sound. Strangely, a voice came out of his mouth. Maybe because it had been a long time since he spoke, his voice was hoarse.

Can I talk now?

“Emilia.”

He spoke the name he wanted to call the most. The pronunciation was a little unclear, but it came out as words. He didn’t know how many times he had called her name in his head just moments ago.

Emilia, please stop!

Today, he realized once again how often he ended up calling Emilia’s name.

So I can talk now.

He tried to move his hands and feet, but his body still wouldn’t move. It seemed his body would need more time before the paralysis fully lifted.

But there was definitely an effect.

He thought it was a pointless thing to do, but whether it was coincidence or not, the paralysis had eased, which felt strange.

‘But where did she go?’

She had been staying right by his side, but even after quite some time, Emilia didn’t appear.

At that time, Emilia was heading to the kitchen on the first floor. It was to make juice for Louid. She could’ve told Helen to do it, but she wanted to ask the head chef herself, and she also wanted to watch the process.

“You’re, Your Highness?”

Aaron, the head chef of the Grand Duke’s manor, greeted her respectfully when he saw her.

“You’ve been working hard. I have a favor to ask. Could you make some juice with refreshing fruit? Very sour fruit.”

“Yes, of course. This fruit has a very strong sour taste. It’s stronger than lemon. It’s called garner.”

Aaron held up a dark green fruit that resembled a lemon.

“Alright. That should work. Make it with that.”

“Yes, understood.”

In addition to the garner, Aaron added several other sour fruits and made the juice. Emilia took the large cup filled with refreshing juice and went up to the bedroom.

“Louid, try this.”

When she arrived at the bedroom, Emilia scooped up the juice with a spoon and put it into Louid’s mouth. She thought that stimulating his tongue might wake him up.

Blegh. What kind of taste is this?

It was bitter and sour, an intense flavor that was impossible to describe.

In the end, Louid’s eyes flew open.

“Oh my!”

Startled, Emilia opened her blue eyes wide and looked at him. Their gazes met.

“Emilia!”

Her name spilled from Louid’s mouth. He couldn’t pretend to be unconscious anymore. If he kept his eyes closed, Emilia would torment him even more.

“Oh my, Louid. You’re awake? Do you know who I am?”

When he opened his eyes, a small, delicate face was right in front of him, her blue eyes shining. It was amazing that eyes, a nose, and lips could all fit into such a small face.

How many days has it been since I last saw that face?

As Louid examined her closely, his mouth opened.

“You’re my wife.”

At the word wife, Emilia’s shoulders flinched slightly, then she broke into a broad smile.

“That’s right. You’re back, Louid. Thank goodness. Really.”

Emilia made a relieved expression.

Wouldn’t it be better for her if I didn’t wake up?

Louid looked at Emilia with a serious expression. She was the emperor’s niece. Since the emperor had no other children to inherit the throne and the emperor cherished her, if he didn’t wake up, it wasn’t impossible that Emilia could become the next emperor.

Why did she take such devoted care of me? I’ve never treated her well either….

“How do you feel? Can you move?”

While he was thinking, Emilia kept asking questions.

“No. My body still won’t move,” he answered in a hoarse voice.

“Now that you’ve woken up, the paralysis in your body will gradually go away too.”

“Yeah. I’ll get better soon.”

With a happy expression, Emilia pulled the bell cord. Helen came into the bedroom.

“Helen, call the physician. And please prepare some soup the Grand Duke can eat.”

“Yes, understood, Your Highness.”

Seeing that Louid had woken up, Helen hurriedly went to call the physician. A little later, the physician and Eddie and Alex came in one by one. All of them were relieved and happy that Louid had woken up.

“Louid, eat your soup.”

“Louid, it’s your medicine.”

Even after Louid woke up, Emilia nursed him at his side all day.

Louid didn’t refuse and quietly accepted what Emilia gave him, like a newborn baby bird.

***

A few days passed after he woke up.

“Your Highness, you still can’t move?”

The physician spoke with a worried expression to Louid, who was lying in bed.

“No.”

“I gave you the strongest antidote possible, but this is strange. For an ordinary person, it would still be too much, but Your Highness should recover in a few days.”

An ordinary person wouldn’t even be alive.

At the physician’s words, Louid clicked his tongue inwardly. Up to now, because of Duke Berthe, he had nearly been poisoned to death many times. But this poison was the strongest poison he had ever suffered. It was probably a poison that couldn’t be obtained within the empire.

“I’ll get better soon. Don’t worry,” Louid said.

“Yes. You will probably recover soon.”

A little later, Eddie came into the bedroom and reported on work. While Louid was sick, he had been reporting on state affairs in his place.

“Your Highness, His Majesty the Emperor says you’re to enter the palace tomorrow. What should we do? We’ve postponed it several times already, so there isn’t a good excuse.”

Quite a long time had passed since they said he caught a cold, and in the meantime, they had kept postponing entering the palace with no particular reason. If he kept not going, the emperor would try to investigate what happened.

“Let’s enter the palace tomorrow.”

“Then will you stop with the act now?”

“Yeah. Where is the Grand Duchess?”

Louid looked around the bedroom.

“She seems to have gone to the greenhouse.”

“I see.”

“Then I’ll inform the palace that you’ll enter tomorrow.”

“Mm.”

A few days ago, the paralysis in Louid’s body lifted, but he told only Eddie and acted as if the paralysis hadn’t lifted. But now he could no longer postpone entering the palace.

It was a shame to stop, but it was time to quit the act.

That evening, Emilia was sleeping curled up near Louid’s waist, like she had been for the past few days.

Louid, who got up from his spot, picked Emilia up, laid her down straight on the bed, and covered her with a blanket. Stroking Emilia’s blond hair, he looked at her with a serious gaze.

‘She’s a woman who doesn’t know how to calculate.’

Unlike Duke Berthe, who was like a devil, she wasn’t shrewd, and she also had no greed. His face, which had sunk into thought for a moment, softened.

“Thank you, Emilia.”

Soft lips quietly touched Emilia’s forehead.

In the morning, when Emilia opened her eyes, she stared at the ceiling with a bewildered look.

‘Why am I lying down?’

Every night, she fell asleep sitting in a chair or slept curled up beside Louid, but today, when she woke up, she was lying in bed.

“…?”

As if something suddenly occurred to her, she looked to the side. The spot where Louid should have been lying was empty.

“Louid?”

Emilia sat bolt upright and looked around the bedroom. There was no one in the bedroom.

“Where did he go? Could it be?”

Did something happen to him while I was asleep?

An anxious thought came to her.

No. If that were the case, he would’ve woken me up.

She soon shook her head. If something had gone wrong with Louid, there was no way the servants wouldn’t have woken her.

She hurriedly pulled the bell cord, and before long, Helen came in.

“Helen, where is the Grand Duke?”

“His Highness the Grand Duke went to the imperial palace early this morning. He told us not to wake you, Your Highness.”

“What? How did he go to the imperial palace?”

Emilia’s eyes widened. A person who couldn’t even move, by what method did he go to the imperial palace, and what did he plan to do with a body like that? She couldn’t understand.

“His Highness said he’s fully recovered now.”

“You mean he walked there?”

“Yes. I saw it, and he walked with long strides, just like before he got sick.”

With an amazed expression, Helen told her what she had seen.

“Really?”

For a moment, Emilia’s face went blank. Even until yesterday, he couldn’t move, so how did he suddenly get up and walk? Her mind was in chaos.

“Would you like to have breakfast? Shall I bring soup?”

“Yes.”

At Helen’s question, she answered in a small voice, barely audible. She wondered what was going on. It was a good thing that he was fully recovered, but it was too sudden.

***

“Your Highness, the Grand Duke of Richert has returned from the inspection.”

“Is that so?”

A few days ago, at Ian’s residence, his aide was reporting on the situation at the grand ducal manor.

Then the Grand Duchess must have returned with him too.

“Emilia.”

Calling Emilia’s name, Ian smiled faintly. Ever since the first meeting at the imperial palace banquet, he’d kept thinking of Emilia. Her beautiful face never left his mind, not for a moment.