Congenital mana deficiency.
It was a disease that seemed to be the exact opposite of him. When he read that far, Damian laughed. With the crazy thought that Lilian and he were born like this from birth.
It was stupid thought. He didn’t know what brought it.
Below that, in detail, the process of Lilian’s disease progressing and loss of vitality, and the symptoms leading to death were sporadically written here and there.
Various symptoms were noted, such as bleeding from the nose and mouth, pale complexion, easy bruising, inability to eat, fatigue, and fever.
The terrible thing was that each time Damian read each symptom, he could picture it on Lilian.
The more he read, the more Damian lost his smile. However, among them, the conclusion was as follows.
[An early death from this disease is like a destination to which one inevitably arrives at.
There is no way to avoid it.]
When he read that far, he heard the sound of Lilian arriving from outside. Damian reflexively raised his eyes. He held his breath in the dark and watched from the cracks in the door, from inside the study, where the light leaked through.
He saw Lilian’s profile as she entered the room. Then he felt even less real.
Die? This person?
And abandon me?
When he came to his senses, he was hiding in Lily’s bedroom.
Damian was terribly upset and at the same time, emotionally entangled and crying in a mess.
His emotions were running to extremes. It was a precursor to a mana runaway.
Looking at the sleeping Lilian, he even thought, ‘what if we die together?’
It seemed that if he continued to stand like that, he could really kill Lilian and die with her.
‘Shit.’
Damian gritted. Fortunately, he had one magic tool. It was a silver stiletto shaped object from the Magic Era with a spell engraved on it, so if stabbed with this, the opponent’s mana is temporarily sealed.
It was an item that Claude used to assassinate him but proved to be ineffective against Damian.
Still, it’s something that Damian always carries around since he realized that stabbing it into his body when he was about to run wild will give him time to calm down.
There was no room for hesitation.
If his emotions escalated just a little bit more, his mana could have blown up the whole area. Damian drew the dagger and pointed the sharp silver blade to his side without hesitation.
‘Ugh…’
It’s already been proven by using it several times that he wouldn’t die. Even though he deliberately stabbed the part covered by the clothes, the blood flowed down the hilt and left a mark on the sheet.
Not knowing what was going on, Lilian was still asleep. Damian stumbled back and collapsed onto a chair.
“Huu…”
He swallowed a moan through his teeth and drew out the knife. There was not a single piece of flesh on the enchanted tool.
As soon as he pulled it out, his mana counteracted the sealing magic and began to heal the wound. While the peritoneum, organs, blood vessels, and skin healed one after another, Damian, wet with blood and tears, breathed heavily, looking only at Lilian. Then, after he had calmed down a bit, he hurriedly left the seat, fearing that his body would frighten the sick woman.
Ever since that night that no one knows about, Damian has been in a state of going crazy like this all the time. He’s barely holding back, but the slightest provocation will make him explode like a bomb. As soon as he saw that scandalous article, he couldn’t stand it and went to visit Lilian.
Then, he taught Lily how to subdue him, but his stubborn and kind wife refused to use Damian’s method until the end.
So it’s impossible. With the hope that Lily wouldn’t step on a mine, he had no choice but to move so that at least she wouldn’t avoid him.
‘It’s a good idea that I came dressed up even if it’s a gamble.’
It would be breathtaking, but for the time being, he was thinking of covering it up with this kind of stopgap.
Damian groped his chest with his hand. A dagger like an ice pick, ready to pierce his heart at any moment, was touched.
He’ll be able to withstand it. He had to.
***
Lilian, who had finished her preparations, was pretty today as well.
Wearing an ivory colored shawl in a blue green dress like the sky, Lilian left the long skirt to her ladies in waiting who were walking ahead and behind, and was walking cautiously, examining her surroundings. To Damian.
Just the fact that she voluntarily walked towards him calmed Damian’s agitated mind to some extent.
It’s good news for the countless people living in the Imperial Capital Excelsior, especially those in the Imperial palace.
They don’t know, but the probability of dying without leaving a single bone fragment after being caught up in Damian’s mana runaway has slightly decreased.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Looking around, Lilian’s earrings, which were pink, had changed to blue, probably because she was planning to match Damian’s.
Come to think of it, today was the first time they’re attending a ball together.
Thanks to Damian’s sudden realization, the probability of catastrophe is now starting to come down to zero.
Lilian looked a little troubled as Damian held out his elbow. But soon her white-gloved hand grabbed his arm.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes.”
Lilian’s voice was calmer than usual, probably because her anger hadn’t completely subsided. It’s because her original nature is a gentle and kind person but she still had thorns.
‘If I say it’s cute, she’ll get angry.’
But to Damian, it was cute.
He knew she should be angry, but she couldn’t show it, so Damian felt like he was being tickled. That none other than Lily Islar is going through emotional turmoil because of him.
‘It’s thrilling.’
Damian moistened his dry lips with his tongue.
Today’s banquet hall was not the main palace, but the western detached palace and its backyard. Lilian told him where to go and Damian suddenly said, ‘um…’ and grabbed his chest. Lily looked at Damian, puzzled.
“Do you have any problems?”
“No, rather than a problem, should I say that the memories are deep?”
Damian shrugged and laughed.
“It’s nothing to worry about. Looks like we’ve arrived.”
Compared to the splendid and large main palace, the western detached palace built with pure white marble was decorated like a simple flower garden.
The attendant guarding the entrance looked at the Grand Duke and his wife and had a desperate expression for a moment, then hurriedly drank water. Lilian involuntarily said this out of pity.
“Take it slow.”
“Ah, yes…!”
The attendant blushed at the unexpected kindness. Then, louder than usual, he announced the arrival of the Grand Duke and his wife.
“I hope you have a good time.”
The good looking Grand Duchess smiled and said, “Thank you” and went inside. The moment the servant’s mouth was about to rise, the Grand Duke’s cold eyes pierced him.
As soon as their gazes met, an intangible pressure oppressed his whole body.
“Your Highness?”
When Lilian asked questioningly, seeing Damian not following her, the energy that had been strangling the attendant’s neck quickly dissipated.
“Yes.”
Damian responded to Lilian with an angelic smile. Lilian tilted her head.
Weird. She just thought this person looked a bit creepy.
It’s because the probability of a catastrophe occuring in the Capital Excelsior increased slightly from 0, but Lilian couldn’t think that far.
“I was wondering what you’re looking at all of a sudden.”
“It was nothing.”
Something was strange, but she couldn’t ask any more. Because as soon as they entered the venue, numerous eyes focused on the Grand Duke and his wife.
‘I thought I was prepared to some extent with the experience of attending with Matteo.’
Lilian didn’t express it, but she was a bit surprised. The attention on them was different.
She had no choice but to think so. People were actually looking forward to this scene from day one.
Damian had the perfect conditions for debauchery, such is the honor he won by his overwhelming force and rare beauty.
He could change partners on a weekly basis if he wanted to, but there’s never been a scandal about that.
It’s not just there’s no scandals, he attends very few social gatherings. Even if he barely attended, it’s all about scratching the Emperor’s nerves rather than mingling with others.
However, they don’t see him as a person with a clear sense of chastity. It was a truly unique case.
People have said this unanimously.
“His Highness the Grand Duke…”
“He’s a bit inhuman.”
To say that such a person got married on a whim without any experience in the relationship between men and women was bound to be an exciting story for the nobles.
What kind of woman married Damian Rupenwein?
“Will she be beautiful enough to match his beauty?”
“Or she could be a woman so ordinary that you wouldn’t even recognize her existence if she stood next to the Grand Duke.”
“She’s 19 and hasn’t made her debut yet, so she might have something wrong.”
“What did the people who went to the wedding say?”
“They said it was fun.”
“Do you have fun on someone else’s wedding?”
It was an incomprehensible topic. In any case, with so few clues, all speculation had gone to extremes. Then the story went too far and rumors of premarital pregnancy came out.
Of course, the Grand Duchess, who appeared on the first day, completely put an end to such rumors. It was thanks to her calm and elegant appearance, as if she was born to be royalty.
The Grand Duchess was a much nicer person than is known. It’s to the point that if you’re going to find fault, you’ll never see it on a 19 year old. They didn’t go blind, her atmosphere was just overly mature.
“If I had known that such a young lady was hiding, I would have put a marriage certificate in Turin earlier.”
“Arthur. They say that Cedric Islar has a younger sister he couldn’t live without.”
“Anyway, she seems like a really nice person.”
Everyone tilted their heads. The Grand Duchess herself seems to be a good person. However, they couldn’t imagine her with Damian, a man who was alluring even just by standing still.
“Do they look like a married couple when they stand together?”
“They look so different in personality.”
As if to ridicule the explosion of curiosity, both couples were absent from the banquet on the second day.
And today, they finally showed up as a couple. And their appearance.
“Don’t they suit each other better than you think?”
They didn’t put much energy into matching the outfits to the point of being obvious at a glance, but the two of them with opposite auras looked like a couple that went well together.
It was an unexpected harmony, so people’s eyes couldn’t leave the two.
In the midst of such attention, Lilian tried not to show it as much as possible, but she couldn’t completely hide her slight discomfort. It wasn’t so much that the others noticed, but not to the extent that Damian, who was right next to her, didn’t notice.
“Are you very uncomfortable?”
“A little bit…”
“Hm.”
Then let’s see.
Damian raised his head and took a quick glance around. It wasn’t a very threatening action, but if a Tier Infinity glared, no one would look back. With just one glance, the gaze that had been obsessively following them disappeared in an instant.
Damian asked with a proud face.
“Is it fine now?”
He was like a puppy begging for praise.
“Fine…did you do it?”
Even though it was a flimsy compliment, Damian looked happy. He took Lilian’s hand and even kissed the back of her hand.
“If my wife wants, you can use me as much as you like.”
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