ALL NOVEL Chapter 20 - 7. Where Several Charming Men are (2)
“So, are you saying that the Duke will be cured if I get the ingredients listed here?”
“Yes, the most important ingredient is tea mint oil.”
“The combination is simpler than I thought.”
“Duke Jalier is not going to be completely cured because his disease is already in a serious state, but his coughing will stop.”
Aloken Jalier’s purpose was to make his father healthy again and have his father’s will amended under the observation of a lawyer.
The symptoms of the illness Duke Jalier suffered were weight loss and hemoptysis. In severe cases, brown and white spots appeared on their skin. The disease got worse the more you ate the fruit that was enjoyed by nobles, popira. From that information, you knew that he suffered from the same disease as Ronwe. .
As expected, Duke Jalier also suffered Gustav disease.
So what was the cure for it?
I don’t know if the death of Duke Jallier was the trigger, but did the treatment of Gustav disease suddenly start to be discussed after that happened?
An antidote based on the herbal tea mint was the key. The pharmacist who uncovered the secret of Gustav disease spread that information through various documents to inform his discovery. Fanora, who returned to the past, could know the treatment of course from there.
“Lady Celsius, what is the cause of the Duke’s illness?”
“The cause?”
“What is the name of the disease?”
“My promise is to extend the Duke’s life span, not to give an explanation.”
Clink.
Fanora lifted the cup of tea that was already chilled on the table to moisten her throat.
“How can you, as the astrologist, not know what kind of illness is that when the patient you treated is your future fiance’s father?”
“…”
“Can you tell me now? I am not as gentle as I look, and I have less patience.”
In that brief silence, Aloken’s face hardened. Fanora replied helplessly to his cold stare as if there was nothing she could do about it.
“My source of information is a wanderer.”
“…”
“That person traveled from kingdom to kingdom to learn about herbal medicine. That person explained that one day they treated a patient with the same symptoms as the duke. I even have a note written about it.”
“So, you don’t know the details because you only heard it?”
“Yes, it’s unfortunately like that. But the cause of the illness was real… That person called that illness ‘Painful Cough’.”
Fanora began to tell blatant lies as she opened her mouth. They were all excuses that had already been prepared for today.
I have to be careful. Otherwise, they will find out what I did to Ronwe.
She actually remembered most of the information about Gustav disease. It was because she studied the scholar’s thesis that would be published in the future with interest. But there was nothing to gain by revealing that knowledge here.
“Lord have already seen how effective the tea mint oil is. Is the source of information still important?”
“…”
“What I offer in our contract is that I will heal the Duke and help Lord with the succession problem with the time that has already been discussed before.”
Soon Fanora blinked her eyes with the face that I knew nothing more than that. Aloken only laughed at her actions.
“But please keep the things I have told Lord as a secret. It’s not good if there’s a rumor that a noble lady is being close with a wanderer.”
Fanora never treated Gustav disease patients by herself, and she used the story she had just heard to join hands with the Duke’s family. It was kind of a gamble. Nevertheless, she succeeded. In fact, as soon as Aloken listened to her advice, Duke Jalier, who had been told that there was no hope for him to recover, began to recover. Aloken had no choice but to acknowledge her boldness. Only then was Fanora certain that she knew about the future.
“I bet the Lord didn’t know how desperate I was and what the Duke’s illness was, but I risked my life well for that.”
Aloken then burst into laughter. “I never intended to marry an astrologist.”
Fanora didn’t reply to him and thought about it quietly.
Still, being labeled as an astrologist is better than a murder, right?
* * *
The schedule after that was simple. When the servants brought the ingredients, Aloken called a pharmacist and made the medicine on the spot. Then he carefully fed the finished medicine to his father, who groaned on the bed.
Now, all they have to do is wait for the medicine to do its job, so they leave the Duke’s bedroom. Their next destination was the backyard. There was a tea table there.
“Sit down.”
There was no tea nor refreshments on the table, so only a chilly breeze blew around. The words that came and went were businesslike, depending on the surrounding atmosphere.
“Once it is confirmed that the Duke is awake, I will return to my mansion. I have something else to do, so I have to leave in a hurry.”
“I put a lot of effort into the banquet, but it was a pity. It was the first banquet held with my name.”
After that, they briefly concluded discussions about their future relationship. It was about how many months the contract extension period would be based on when they got engaged. So, when the negotiations were almost settled, Fanora asked him, “Lord doesn’t ask me again the reason I chose you as my fiancé?”
Fanora had perfectly crafted excuses after much effort. But Aloken turned the question over as if it was unworthy of being heard. “The reason is obvious. Because there is a lot to gain if you stick to the powerful family.”
“…”
“And did you have any plan to threaten me?”
At his words, I murmured with a subtle expression on my face. “It wasn’t… a threat.”
Fanora wondered if she looked pitiful when she said that, who had been dignified up until now. Seeing that, Aloken smiled and stood up.
“It doesn’t matter. If you want something, you have to get it at any cost.”
“…”
“It would have been okay if we had lived as a couple if we had similar behaviors. Then get up, my fake fiancée.”
But a few hours later. It was time for an early dinner with a deer that was said to be hunted by Aloken himself.
“Lord, the Duke is awake!”
They rushed to the Duke Jalier’s bedroom when they heard that Duke Jalier had regained consciousness.
“Al-Aloken…”
“!”
When they arrived, a middle-aged man was blinking in sweat. Finally, brightness returned to the Duke Jalier’s eyes.
“Father…!”
The scene that followed was the tenderness of the son holding his father’s hand tightly and welcoming him. Fanora realized something as she watched the scene from the side.
Hmm, he rarely used the word ‘father’ until now.
Aloken right now was really similar to the Aloken that she knew. He was a human benign who wouldn’t hesitate to act for achieving what he wanted.
“I’m glad that the Duke is healthy. So should I go back now?”
It was a waste of time to watch Aloken Jalier’s act. Having made that decision, Fanora politely opened my mouth. Then an unfamiliar voice came from the other side.
“Ahem. That child… who is she?” The voice came from Duke Jalier, who rose from his bed, asking for her identity. He looked at Fanora with a frown on his brow as if he wasn’t in good condition yet.
“This is the lady from the Count family, whom I mentioned when you woke up the other day. The Celsius family, Father.”
“Aah…”
“She is very kind-hearted. When she heard that father had collapsed again, she sank in anxiety, so she had been coming to Sangtepul for about a month. She always prays for your well-being.”
Aloken spread out lies without batting an eye. The fake sadness in his eyes had gone away over time, but Duke Jalier didn’t seem to notice it because he had been wandering through death for a long time.
“Her prayer… seems to have worked. Come here, Lady Celsius. What is your name?”
“It’s Fanora.”
“Fanora… yes. This year is the first social season for my son, who was confined in the Northern region… I heard you treated him very well.”
“…”
“And I’m grateful that you’ve come to visit me at my news. Please continue to be good friends with Aloken.”
Fanora looked at Aloken for a moment. Then Aloken spoke with the face of a good son who respected his father, “Father, I’m sorry but… Lady Celsius is not my friend.”
She was wondering what he was saying with that face.
“I was going to tell you when you’re fully recovered…”
“Um?”
“Lady Fanora is the person I want to have as my companion, so please correct how you addressed her.”
Companion? Duke Jalier was puzzled by the words from Aloken’s honey-sweet voice. Even Fanora had a look that was similar to Duke Jalier’s expression. It was Aloken who kept smiling at that situation.
* * *
“W-What? You mean that you want to marry that child? You didn’t say anything in the meantime…”
“I will explain it to you one by one, Father.”
Creek, thud.
Fanora opened the door and left the room behind, which was noisy with the topic Aloken brought up. After eavesdropping on the conversation between father and son over the door for a while, she saw the young man with black hair coming out and stopping acting.
“Let’s find a suitable place to talk.”
This was the first sentence Aloken said when he found her outside the door.
“You did a good job today.”
“…”
“It exceeded my expectations. I didn’t expect that man to jump up.”
Aloken once again changed the way he addressed his father since it was only the two of them left.
‘That man’ and ‘Duke’ are words with a sense that he’s not close with his family.
Even this trivial choice of words showed that he didn’t really like his father. But Fanora didn’t dig more about it.
That’s right. I called my father like that too, over and over, but I didn’t even get an answer from him.
More than that, it was important that they achieved the terms of the deal that had been proposed in the contract.
“Congratulations on doing your job well. I will pretend to be your fiancé for a moment as you wish. It’s not difficult to persuade the Duke, so there won’t be any setbacks.”
“Yes.”
“If you want, would you like me to send a messenger to your family and start the engagement process right away?”
“Pardon? No, it’s not necessary.”
Whether he was so happy to hear that his father had become healthy, Aloken tried to fulfill the terms of the deal quickly. Thanks to this, Fanora received a promise to hold an engagement ceremony before summer ended this year.
I’m glad things went well.
So now Fanora is done with treatment matters. She got in the carriage and prepared to return to her mansion.
As expected, the devil who gave me a second chance is taking good care of me.
However, Aloken unexpectedly followed her to see her off. Fanora glanced at him in front of the carriage and said, “Can Lord discuss the engagement procedure directly to the Count without me? Wouldn’t it be faster like that?”
Aloken’s amber eyes were squinted to hear the sentences that seemed stiff. Then he made his distinctive smile. “Even though it’s a show-off event… How about your choice of dress or location?”
“It’s all up to the Lord. You don’t have to ask me. After all, it’s troublesome even for the Lord too, right?” Fanora lowered her voice as the coachman approached from afar.
On the other hand, Aloken said without changing the expression on his face, “Lord… If you still call me with that title while you said we fell in love at first sight and promised to get married, a person named Naverius would find it strange.”
“Then what should I call Lord in front of others?”
Fanora thought that his words were undoubtedly true. So, she kept thinking about how to address him for a while, but after hearing the answer that followed, the problem was clearly solved.
“Call me Aloken. Without any additions,” he said with a perfect smile.
Fanora had brief thoughts as she watched him treat her with respect.
Honestly, I can’t trust him. His greed for the title is so big that he may have really killed his brother in the future.
Aloken was certainly an attractive fiancé, but he was not trustworthy. But what’s wrong with not believing in Aloken? Although fake, she was promised her social status as a prospective duchess.
Fanora, who had been deprived of everything, gradually began to increase the things in her hands.