29 - I Got Engaged to a Blind Duke
Eyeless Duke and Fiancee - Episode 29
"Mandelesong. Investigate everything."
Kay nodded slightly and disappeared silently.
Gerald took in the cool scent emanating from his face as he sank into thought.
He found her reaction amusing, so he teased her, latching onto her words.
Help, she said. What help could he possibly receive from her?
He decided to consider it the price for teasing her and let her do as she pleased.
He was slightly surprised by the unfamiliar sensation of someone touching his hair, but he didn't show it.
Soon, he felt a cloth covered in herbs touch his forehead and eyes.
The cool scent he had smelled yesterday. And the fresh, youthful scent of her skin as she drew near.
He was familiar with her scent, having smelled it once before.
The sensation of something touching his eyes always caused him pain, but he decided to think of it as repaying his debt for teasing her and ignored the impending agony.
Soon, he was engrossed in the fairy tale she was reading.
This fairy tale was quite interesting, without much to nitpick.
Lying to survive, but a crow repaying a count's kindness.
He was so engrossed in the story that he listened until the end, but as time passed, he sensed something was amiss.
His eyes… didn't sting.
The herbs had slowly seeped through the cloth covering his eyes and had long since touched his eyelids, but they didn't sting.
Gerald was overcome with shock.
Ever since he had lost his sight, the reason he covered his eyes with a black cloth was because they had become extremely sensitive.
If there was skin on his eyeballs, it felt as if the raw flesh was exposed, constantly stinging. Whether his eyes were closed or open, any small stimulus caused them to sting.
But today, for the first time, his eyes didn't sting.
Mandelesong. What on earth was that flower?
He was so preoccupied with the flower that he lost track of time.
Before he knew it, he smelled Kay's scent.
"That's a poisonous plant?"
As his eyes didn't sting, he could, strangely enough, control the other senses that constantly tormented him.
With a clear mind for the first time in a long time, Gerald listened to Kay's explanation and sank into thought.
His body was immune to most poisons unless they were extremely potent.
Poisonous plant. Spy.
Could she really be a spy?
It was a funny thought. If there were spies as clumsy as Imsi, he would have rooted out all the spies in the Duke's Castle long ago.
"Summon Olive and Zero."
"……."
Kay answered with silence, disappearing like the wind.
Soon after, Olive's neat footsteps and Zero's heavy strides, who apparently hadn't transformed into a child today, echoed in the hallway.
He opened his mouth just as they reached the door.
"Enter."
The door swung open, and Zero grumbled in a voice full of discontent.
"Duke. Even if you don't need sleep, I do. Why are you calling me at this hour?"
Zero, who roughly swept back his long silver hair that reached his waist, glared at the Duke with a displeased look.
"Zero-nim. Please lower your voice."
Olive, who was standing next to him, glanced at the Duke.
Zero took off the glasses perched on the tip of his nose, wiped them roughly with his nightgown, and put them back on.
"He's blind, not deaf."
"Zero-nim!"
As Zero sneered, Olive called out to him with a pale face.
When Zero was in his child form, he had an angelic appearance and a gentle tone, but when he returned to his adult form, he spewed venom with an angelic face, raising his thorns.
"Ah- I got it. It's always dark here. You might as well live in a cave. This place is no different from a cave."
Zero manipulated the bracelet on his wrist, and a bright light spread from it, illuminating the surroundings.
As an alchemist, he had many amazing talents.
"Are you done?"
"Do you think I'm done?"
Olive, who had been watching the two of them bicker from the side, swallowed a sigh.
The two of them, who had been friends since childhood, seemed to have a good relationship, but also a bad one.
"Then I'll wait until you're done."
"Hey. I'm saying this as a very kind person, but calling people out in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping is crossing the line, you know?"
Zero stood askew on one leg and glared at the Duke with icy blue eyes.
"Is it okay to call the Duke 'hey'?"
Gerald, who had his arms crossed, leaned back leisurely in his chair.
"Fire me if you don't like it."
"I'm the Duke, you know?"
"I'll inherit the dukedom when I go home too."
"Do you think they'll really give that position to a runaway son?"
As Gerald sneered coldly, Zero raised his eyebrows in dissatisfaction.
"Should I show you the letters begging me to just come back?"
Olive, who had been watching the two of them bicker childishly, let out the sigh she had been holding in.
"What's with the sigh?"
"Why?"
The two of them asked Olive at the same time.
They were so similar in this way.
Olive stepped forward slightly and reported Zero's condition.
"Your Grace, Zero-nim has been staying up for three days straight, so he's very edgy right now."
"……."
As the Duke listened silently, Olive continued.
"He's been developing a new medicine to cure Your Grace's eyes……."
"Olive!"
Zero hurriedly tried to cover Olive's mouth, but Olive, who had a smiling face, quickly dodged Zero's hand.
"……so he's been staying up all night and is being cranky."
Even though Zero spoke harshly, everyone in this place knew how hard he was working for the Duke.
"I feel like making that guy into olive oil."
Zero glared at Olive with a frustrated look, huffing and puffing.
"Your dedication to your employer is admirable."
Gerald praised Zero in an exaggerated manner, as if teasing him.
"Just ask what you want to ask quickly. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to sleep right now!"
Zero, who scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, pretended not to hear Gerald's words and went to the wall.
Then, leaning his back against the wall, he stared intently at the back of Olive's head.
"Tell me about Mandelesong."
If they had met after a long time and he had immediately gotten to the point, Zero would have been even more difficult.
Gerald, who had appropriately accommodated him, asked the question he wanted to ask the most.
"Oh ho. There are a lot of people curious about that weed these days?"
Zero, who took his body off the wall, adjusted his glasses and his eyes sparkled.
"Who is that person?"
Similarly, Gerald, who took his back off the chair, frowned.
"Why are you curious about Mandelesong?"
"Could it be Imsi?"
The two people who answered a question with a question stopped talking for a moment.
Zero, who frowned slightly after looking at the cloth covering the Duke's eyes, spoke first.
"Imsi, huh……."
"Why are you showing interest in Imsi?"
"So that's how you call her, huh?"
Curiosity filled Zero's blue eyes, who had taken off his glasses.
"……."
Gerald frowned unhappily. Whenever he had a conversation with this guy, the story always went somewhere else.
"Mandelesong."
Gerald gritted his teeth and returned to square one.
"Ah, Mandelesong is just a common weed that's lying around outside."
Zero answered readily with a bothered face.
"I heard that weed is listed in the poisonous plant book you wrote."
"That's both true and not true. Do you need a laxative?"
As Gerald frowned at his sudden words, Zero shrugged and continued his explanation.
"Even if you call Mandelesong a poison, no matter how much you eat, the only big deal is that you get diarrhea."
"You said it was a poisonous plant?"
"Some unfortunate people die from dehydration after having diarrhea."
Olive, who had been listening to their conversation from the side, focused on the story with a serious face. She didn't know that diarrhea was such a dangerous disease.
"Could…… those symptoms appear even if you don't eat it?"
Gerald hesitated before adding.
"Puhahaha. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life."
Zero grabbed his stomach and burst out laughing.
"……Get out."
At Gerald's displeased tone, Zero, who put his glasses back on, grinned.
"By the way, I like her, give her to me."
"……Imsi is not an object."
Gerald retorted after a long time with a displeased voice.
"You don't even call her by her name, but you say things like that so well."
Zero, who drew a sneer on his lips, sneered while carefully examining Gerald's expression.
"You don't understand what I'm saying."
"There's no way I, a genius, can't understand what you're saying……."
"I'm saying Imsi is already mine."
