I’m Not Doing This With A Friend Chapter 125

 

The truth was unbelievable.

 

Carson would have given his life for Leen without a second thought.

 

‘…Now that I think about it, I suppose that would be true of my father as well.’

 

Suddenly, resentment surged through him, along with anger at himself.

 

‘Why don’t I get morning sickness, especially since I love Leen!’

 

Carson was in the middle of a rant.

 

While Leen was stunned by the unexpected silence, Sylvia, who had quickly regained her composure, grabbed both of his hands and spoke.

 

“Just know that it’s not that Caon doesn’t love you, Leen.”

 

“…What?”

 

All of a sudden?

 

Leen’s eyes widened, and Sylvia quickly changed the subject.

 

“By the way, when are you planning to get married?”

 

‘Better get married before the ship comes out.’

Sylvia swallowed hard and smiled.

 

Something about the word marriage made Leen pause, and then she slowly spoke.

 

“Marriage is…”

 

Leen paused, and all sorts of delusions arose in the minds of the attentive Duke’s servants.

 

‘I think I’ve lost my mind for a moment, but I can’t marry Carson.’

 

‘I can’t raise my child in a duchy full of psychos like this!’

 

‘What? Marry him? Carson is someone to date, not someone to marry, isn’t he?’

 

But fortunately, the words that came out of Leen’s mouth didn’t match their delusions.

 

“I’d like to move forward as quickly as possible.”

 

“I see.”

 

Leen said, unaware that her words had swept everyone’s hearts away.

 

“That’s how I feel, but there’s actually a mountain to climb… I’ll have to think about how to handle it first.”

 

“What is that mountain, I’ll break it down.”

 

Leen smiled awkwardly at the Duke’s words.

 

“Actually, my aunt and uncle don’t even know that I’m in a relationship with Caon.”

 

Yikes…

 

Sylvia sneakily pinched the Duke’s side.

 

The Duke was mortified. How was he supposed to know that the mountain was his in-laws?

 

He thought it was the wall of status or that dastardly begonia bastard.

 

Leen looked away and began to apologize.

 

“They… they care about me a lot, so I thought they’d be disapproving after hearing about Caon’s rumors.”

 

Sylvia said in a soothing voice, “There’s no need to be alarmed, Leen. I fully expected some opposition from your family.”

 

“Fully expected?”

 

What family could refuse to marry the Duke of Lysianthus?

 

Not even the Empress of the Empire would have been able to say no so easily.

 

“I’ve thought about it before, but I think perhaps I’m too lowly for the Duke and the Duchess.”

 

No status, no power, no wealth, no strength. They are untouchable.

 

As she thought about it, she realized how small she seemed compared to Lysianthus, and her voice trailed off.

 

“If anything, I’m the one who should be asking for permission to marry…”

 

Sylvia raised an eyebrow and shook her head, “Oh, don’t say that. We can’t tell you how happy we are that you’re going to be Caon’s wife.”

 

“…Perhaps I would have preferred you as a daughter rather than a daughter-in-law.”

 

Sylvia pinched the Duke’s side again. This time, however, it was Leen who witnessed the scene.

 

She couldn’t help but laugh at how cute the two of them looked.

 

Her giggling voice echoed through the dining room.

 

The people of the Duke’s household watched every detail of the scene.

 

And thought to themselves

 

‘I’ll protect that laugh for the rest of eternity.’

 

🍃

 

Today was the long-awaited blind date.

 

I was looking forward to it, even though Carson wasn’t really into it.

 

Not because I thought I would get along with him, but because I was curious to see who this person was that my aunt raved about so much.

 

Someone whose status, face, personality, and youthful age were all perfect.

 

Even I, a mere humble person, wouldn’t say that Carson was perfect…

 

Of course, if we’re limiting the personality part to myself, he was perfect.

 

I stared at Carson, his lips pursed in front of me. He was still making demands of me.

 

“Whenever you’re in danger, you call me, okay? No, even if it’s just something simple.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Call me if anyone looks at you for more than three seconds.”

 

“That’s a little…”

 

“I’m still nervous, so no. I’ll follow you.”

 

“Three seconds could be a fluke, so let’s settle on five seconds.”

 

“…Okay.”

 

I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

 

“Bye then.”

 

Just then, Carson, who had been unexpectedly attacked with a kiss, stumbled back.

 

“Caon, did you hear me say I’m leaving?”

 

“Uh, yeah. Have a nice day.”

 

‘See ya.’

 

He was so focused on being kissed that he didn’t seem to realize what he was saying.

 

I shrugged once and climbed into the carriage. How hard it was to stop Carson from insisting on teleporting to take me.

 

In truth, it wasn’t a big deal for me to have him take me. In fact, I’d rather he did it.

 

If there was a problem, it was with my blind date’s life…

 

So I told Carson to stop following me.

 

After a few days of arguing, it was Carson who raised the white flag.

 

I watched him through the carriage window. He was still staggering as we left the Duke’s mansion.

 

I wondered if he’d fallen.

 

It had been a long carriage ride.

 

The coachman’s voice announced that we had reached our destination.

 

Realizing that I still had quite a bit of time before my blind date, I wondered if there were any places around to kill time.

 

Suddenly, I remembered Nancy’s letter from the other day.

 

“I thought you said you were working at a healing center around here. I’ll stop by for a visit.”

 

I stood up and prepared to get out of the carriage.

 

Oh, but not before.

 

I stumbled out of the carriage, pretending to step wrong on purpose.

 

Then, from out of nowhere, someone picked me up with a sharp intent.

 

“Leen!”

 

Carson’s surprised face comes into view.

 

‘I knew it, you bastard.’

 

Straightening myself up, I grin, nonchalantly removing his hand that’s holding me up.

 

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Caon?”

 

Something about my demeanor and laughter made Carson stumble backward in embarrassment.

 

I stepped as close to him as he was away from me.

 

“Hmph, that’s odd. Why is Caon in front of me, surely he promised me he wouldn’t chase me?”

 

“Leen, it’s, um, it’s… I didn’t intend to follow you, my body just moved automatically.”

 

“Since you broke your promise, I assume you’re ready to be punished?”

 

“…I’ll take whatever punishment you give me.”

 

“I won’t eat for a day.”

 

Then Carson, who seemed to take anything in stride, burst into a fit of rage.

 

“Leen, how could you punish me so cruelly? I would rather you beat me. Please, just starve me instead…!”

 

‘Come on, he’s making such a fuss, you’d think he was a child.’

 

The way he’s pleading with me makes me feel better.

 

If it were me, I’d be nervous and sneakily follow Carson if he told me he was going on a blind date.

 

…though I wouldn’t have thought of killing his date.

 

“Well, since you put it that way, I’m going to cancel my fast and consider it a slap in the face.”

 

Carson’s face lit up with color.

 

“Thank you…!”

 

“It’s a weak spot, will you be okay?”

 

“I can take it if you poke me in the eye.”

 

‘Dude, that’s too much.’

 

I shook my head and prepared to punch him. Then I picked my target and lunged without mercy.

 

Oh, and for the record, my target was his lips…

 

My lips were also the tool I was going to use to punish him, to the side.

 

One slap was not enough, so a few more.

 

Smack, smack—

 

When I’d beaten him to my satisfaction, I pulled away from him.

 

Contrary to his claims, the damage was too much for him, and he went rigid.

 

I left him there, patting him on the back and walking away.

 

“If you come after me again, Caon, you know I won’t eat anything.”

 

🍃

 

Stopping by the healing center where Nancy was working, I quickly spotted her.

 

With her hair pulled up so that not a stray hair was visible, her face was visibly scarred.

 

And as I remember her, she was energetic and bright.

 

Now, her eyes were, if anything, dead. She even looked a little sympathetic.

 

“Nancy.”

 

Nancy looked up from her frowning pages of charts. Her eyes widened at the sight of me, and a quick smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

 

“Leen? Wow, what are you doing here? You’re not sick, are you?”

 

“I had some errands in the neighborhood and I thought of you, so I stopped by. I’m not sure if I should come if you’re busy.”

 

Nancy shook her head quickly.

 

“Don’t bother, you’ve come at the right time. It’s a bit quieter now.”

 

“I’m glad it’s a good time to come.”

 

“Leen, you came to see me…! I’ll have to brag about it the next time I see the kids from Leli-Club.”

 

“Haha, you’ve graduated, and you’re still a Leli-Club girl?”

 

I asked with a faint smile, then a bit of worry in my voice.

 

“More than that, don’t you think you’re pushing yourself too hard, your face looks quite battered.”

 

Nancy scratched her cheek and laughed awkwardly at the comment about looking hurt.

 

“Well, you look like you’ve been living in a sanitarium all day.”

 

“… Living? That’s bad for the health.”

 

“For the money. It’s a good thing they’re short-staffed, so I can keep working.”

 

I wondered. I remembered that they weren’t rich, but they weren’t desperate enough to have to work for it.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

“My father is not able to work right now, so I’m the head of the family. I have to feed my siblings.”

 

“Oh.”

 

It was a sad story.

 

“What’s bothering you?”

 

If only there was something I could do to help.

 

Then Nancy’s face contorted as if she were holding back tears.

 

“I didn’t even get to see the doctor.”

 

“…Because you don’t have the money?”

 

But since Nancy herself works as an assistant at the clinic, she should be able to ask the doctor for a favor.

 

Nancy’s eyes twitched slightly and answered, “It’s not just the money.”

 

She hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath as if deciding something, then spoke with difficulty.

 

“I’ll tell you this because it’s you, Leen. I can’t be sure, but I think my father has monstera.”

 

Monstera. The plague that had been raging in Abascanthus.