159 - I Got Engaged to a Blind Duke
BaniBani chewed the flower and swallowed it.
Weren't you a carnivore? Ah, you were originally a vegetarian. So are you an omnivore now?
"Bunny. I need that flower too."
BaniBani turned and hopped away. Marin followed closely behind.
The moonlight, which had been hidden by the clouds, was revealed, making the surroundings a little brighter.
Soon, the Mandelesong colony appeared.
Flowers with different colored petals were abundant on the blue grass.
The colorful flowers looked exactly like the Great Demon Flower.
Only the size was as small as a finger joint.
Marin stopped dead in her tracks. Her mind raced.
Could it be that ordinary Mandelesong flower seeds flew here and turned into various colored flowers? And these flowers will evolve into Demon Flowers later?
When she lightly touched the colorful petals, they were no different from ordinary flowers.
Gerald had clearly said that he had destroyed all the Demon Flowers.
Hadn't she seen it clearly with her own eyes? The moment the Great Demon Flower died, the other Demon Flowers died at the same time.
Marin narrowed her eyes and looked around.
Monsters evolve according to their ecological environment.
Marin swallowed hard, remembering this.
Even as she continued to look around, BaniBani, as if deciding to go completely vegetarian, picked flowers and put them in her mouth as she saw them.
Marin stared blankly at BaniBani eating, then her eyes widened.
BaniBani's wounds were healing quickly.
Treating flowers with flowers. Her prediction was correct.
Yes. Right now, treating the Duke was the priority.
Marin hurriedly picked the flowers. It was a flower between Mandelesong and Demon Flower.
She thought this would cure his poison.
As she picked the flowers, she saw transparent grains inside the flower. It looked like the seeds of the flower.
Could this help too?
She picked flowers with both hands and returned to her original spot.
BaniBani was standing guard next to the Duke, having arrived sometime earlier.
"Thank you, Bunny."
Marin approached Gerald and whispered softly.
"Lord Gerald, I will definitely cure you."
She had seen BaniBani get better, but the bunny was a Monster.
It could work differently on humans.
She decided to experiment on herself first before feeding it to the Duke.
It might act as a poisonous herb rather than a medicinal herb for humans.
Marin took a deep breath and chewed the flowers she had brought with a determined look on her face.
When she bit into something that looked like a seed, water burst out.
Marin swallowed it and waited.
Fortunately, time passed and she didn't have a stomach ache or anything.
Marin looked at the Duke lying down with a determined look.
She wanted to wait longer to see if there were any problems, but she didn't know when the poison the Duke had ingested would take him to his death. His pulse was gradually slowing down.
Marin lifted the Duke's shoulders and forced him to sit up. Then, she bit down on a handful of flower seeds in her mouth to create water.
She couldn't feed the Duke anything other than water, as his whole body was stiffening.
Marin looked at the Duke with trembling eyes.
The day would come when she would kiss the Duke first.
Marin closed her eyes tightly and carefully touched his lips, then dripped the seed water into his mouth.
Fortunately, she could feel him drinking it.
"Good job."
The first time was awkward, but it was easier from then on.
Marin diligently made seed water and put it in his mouth, and he ate it.
After doing that for a while, she laid him down again and put her face on his chest.
She could feel his slowly beating heart picking up speed. Her treatment was working.
Marin felt tears welling up, but she tried to hold them back.
"I'll be here for you like this for the rest of my life. I will protect Baines."
Marin deliberately made her voice playful.
Hoping that he could smile for a moment after hearing her voice.
She didn't want the Duke to have a hard time. He must be the one having the hardest time right now.
Marin wanted to give the Duke the strength to overcome it.
His chest rose and fell. It felt like he was telling her that he was still okay, so Marin swallowed her tears.
Marin took out her notebook and began to read a fairy tale in a soft voice, hoping that Gerald would fall asleep without pain.
\ \ \
A day had passed since the Duke had collapsed from the poison.
Marin diligently cleaned around the Duke and settled down there.
She couldn't leave the Duke alone in the forest to bring someone, nor could she take the Duke, who was much bigger and heavier than her.
Above all, the colorful flowers were effective, so staying here and treating him was the best way to save him.
BaniBani had a high recovery rate, so her wounds healed completely in just one day.
So she had BaniBani fetch long branches.
Perhaps because it was a dense forest, there were many long branches.
She added the branches around the Duke in a triangular shape and covered the area with large leaves.
From a distance, it looked roughly like a leaf house.
She wanted to build a nice house made of wood, but she lacked the skills.
She picked fruits, squeezed the juice, and fed it to the Duke, and often fed him seeds and water.
Marin lay down next to him whenever she had a chance and whispered.
"When I read books when I was young, the young ladies looked at me like I was a strange person. Then I would look back at them with the same look."
Talking about her past when she was bullied.
"My dad was so affectionate. He carried me on his back until I was 10 years old. Mom tried to stop him, but I liked being carried by my dad."
Talking about her affectionate memories with her father.
"When I first saw Lord Gerald. I thought he was really handsome. Didn't you know that? Hehe. Actually, maybe it was love at first sight?"
Talking about her intense first meeting with him.
"Are you listening to me now? You're listening to everything, right? You're not leaving me alone like this, are you?"
Talking about her worries that the Duke would never wake up.
"Please, wake up. I love you, Lord Gerald."
Confessing her love.
That's how the days passed with the Duke, who couldn't move.
\ \ \
"Bunny. I'm going hunting, so take good care of the house."
BaniBani, who was chewing on a flower, snorted at her words.
Marin straightened her shoulders proudly without being intimidated.
"I caught a fish three days ago."
BaniBani tapped one foot and glanced sideways.
Following the bunny's gaze, there was a pheasant and a wild chicken that BaniBani had caught being grilled deliciously.
BaniBani, who had realized the taste of the world, now only ate grilled meat.
Jeromian's Bracelet, which could use fire at any time, was great in many ways.
"I'll go get some water."
When she said this, showing the water bag, BaniBani finally looked at her with eyes telling her to go and come back.
When Marin arrived at the waterfall, she squatted down and filled the water bag with water.
Marin looked up at the sound of the cool waterfall. The time she had spent with the Duke here felt like a dream.
It had already been ten days since she had been living in the forest.
The Duke still hadn't woken up, as if he were sleeping.
"Sleeping Beauty... no, not the Duke. I kiss him every day. Shouldn't he wake up as soon as he gets a kiss? Why isn't he waking up? I miss him..."
Marin grumbled, then said what she wanted to say the most at the end.
She had been hugging him tightly every night, but she missed his eyes looking at her, his deep, low voice, and his big, reliable touch so much.
"I miss you, Lord Gerald..."
She tried not to cry in front of BaniBani, but she cried when she was alone like this.
That's why she deliberately left the bunny and came to get water.
Because her crying could be swallowed by the sound of the waterfall, so she could cry as much as she wanted.
\ \ *
Due to the poison of the Demon Flower, he couldn't speak at first, then his body stiffened, and then he couldn't see.
His mind was clear, but there was no sensation coming into his body.
Nothingness.
It felt like he was trapped in a black world and falling further and further down.
Every time, her voice pulled him back up. Only her colorful stories saved him like a lifeline.
At some point, he could no longer hear her voice whispering beside him.
But he couldn't give up because of the fact that she was beside him, trying to save him.
He tried to move even just one finger.
He never knew that moving one finger would be so difficult in his entire life.
And finally, he did it.
"Haa. Keuk."
