I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 27

“You can’t work as a maid for the rest of your life, either, you know? If you want to get your own little shop and become independent while raising your younger siblings, you’re allowed to be a little more shameless.”

Tears welled up in Becky’s eyes again. Honestly, this girl was far too easily moved.

After patting Becky reassuringly, I placed the envelope containing the letter in her hands.

‘I wonder how the Countess will react?’

I fell into thought as I watched Becky carefully tuck away the thick envelope.

According to the memories of Arabella that remained with me, she had never been a good mother.

Even when young Arabella was practically banished to the countryside under her grandparents’ care, she merely stood by and watched. Even throughout Arabella’s lonely life in the countryside, she rarely visited or even sent letters.

After Arabella returned to the capital, the Countess’s attitude became even more ambiguous. It wasn’t as though she openly mistreated her, but at the same time, it was difficult to say that she went out of her way to care for her.

She even occasionally avoided Arabella openly, which made her feel all the more hurt.

Then, not long ago, she had left the capital altogether under the pretext of tending to Arabella’s younger brother, Lucas. She had left her daughter alone despite the important Crown Princess selection ceremony being just around the corner.

‘…I wonder if I’m just stirring up trouble for no reason.’

I shrugged at my reflection in the mirror.

‘Either way, it’s worth a try. I need someone who can keep Greham in check so he can’t run wild here.’

Knock, knock.

Just then, a neat knock came from the bedroom door.

“Who is it? Shall I go?”

At Becky’s question, I shook my head.

“It’s probably the butler. I called him because there’s something I want to ask about the management of the estate’s finances. Tell him to come in.”

“Come in!”

At my words, Becky called out loudly, and the door slowly opened.

But the person who entered the room was not the butler, contrary to my expectations.

The moment I saw the broad-shouldered man staring intently at me, I swallowed for no particular reason.

“Yu… Yusiliph.”

As always, he was expressionless and beautiful.

The only thing different from usual was the handkerchief tied around his left upper arm. Perhaps because he had washed and retied it, the handkerchief had returned to its original white color, and judging from the way he moved, his arm also seemed almost completely healed.

While Yusiliph remained as composed as ever, my heartbeat shot up the moment I saw him.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

And that wasn’t all.

The moment our eyes met, that strange sensation left behind by last night’s dream came rushing back.

There was a tingling sensation around my lower abdomen, and my legs suddenly felt weak. I even felt as though my mind were growing hazy for no reason.

Flustered and unsure of what to do, I accidentally knocked against the vanity and sent a container of face powder tumbling to the floor.

Clatter. Thud.

“Oh my, My lady. Are you all right?”

Startled, Becky quickly picked up the container and asked me.

“Yes… I’m fine. Sorry.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’ll go get a broom to sweep up the powder. Just wait a moment!”

Without giving me a chance to stop her, Becky cheerfully ran out of the bedroom.

Click.

The moment Becky left, Yusiliph closed the door behind him as though he had been waiting for her to leave.

This wasn’t the first time we had been left alone in a room together, yet for some reason, I felt unusually nervous.

I fumbled for words and awkwardly greeted him.

“Yusiliph, um… your arm. Is it all right?”

“It’s fine. It’s already completely healed.”

“But it must still hurt.”

“…How do you know that?”

“Hm? Well, you were hurt that badly. Of course it would still hurt.”

According to the original story, wounds on his body healed almost immediately, but the pain didn’t disappear. Instead, it lingered over his skin for a long time, like phantom pain.

“When it’s healed this much, there’s no pain. You don’t need to worry.”

A lie.

I stared at Yusiliph’s face as he calmly lied to me, then deliberately composed my expression.

“I see. That’s a relief.”

So you still don’t trust me. You probably don’t want me to know your weaknesses.

“……”

What I couldn’t understand was that despite this, he had helped me again.

I lowered my eyes and carefully chose my words.

“And… I think I owe you again for last night, so I should probably thank you.”

“……”

“Even if your wounds regenerate right away, it couldn’t have been pleasant to deliberately injure yourself and bleed… Thank you, truly. But you don’t have to do that from now on.”

“I don’t have to?”

Yusiliph tilted his head as though he had heard something completely unexpected.

“Yes. Of course I’m incredibly grateful! But your regenerative power is so astonishing that… I don’t think I should get used to living like this. Somehow… I feel like it could be dangerous if I became addicted to it.”

“If you became ‘addicted’… it would become ‘dangerous.’”

Yusiliph repeated my words in a peculiar tone.

“Do you really think you could become addicted? To my blood?”

He asked in a strangely intrigued tone, causing me to falter instead.

“It’s not exactly that I think I’d become addicted. I’m just saying I’m afraid that might happen. You know my situation now, so I’m telling you this, but I’m going to keep collapsing from exhaustion like I did yesterday. If I end up relying on you and asking for your help every time that happens… wouldn’t that put you in a difficult position?”

At my question, Yusiliph stared into my eyes for a moment before giving an ambiguous answer.

“Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not.”

“What…?”

“More importantly, is what you said yesterday true?”

“What?”

“What we talked about yesterday. That you’re living on borrowed time.”

I hesitated for a moment, but decided to answer honestly.

It was a little earlier than the point I had planned to tell him, but Arabella’s condition was also far worse than I had expected. Even if I denied it, it was something that would eventually come to light anyway.

“Yes, it’s true. I really am.”

Perhaps I should have said it more solemnly.

After hearing my almost anticlimactic admission, Yusiliph immediately began asking more questions, as though he had prepared them in advance.

“How can you be certain? If it’s a disease, there may be some treatment somewhere. Perhaps it’s simply that a cure hasn’t been discovered yet.”

“What I have isn’t an ordinary illness. They call it a curse passed down through the generations of House Maiona, and it’s not just some ridiculous superstition.”

Yusiliph listened intently to me without blinking.

“They say that ever since the first Count Maiona, one person from each generation has died young without fail. Before even a year has passed after turning twenty.”

“You said twenty? Wait. How old are you now…?”

“I turned twenty not long ago.”

“What? Then… are you saying you have less than a year left to live?”

“That’s about right.”

I answered as I rose from the vanity and plopped down onto the sofa.

My body had definitely felt light enough to fly this morning, but as time passed, it was beginning to feel subtly heavier.

If I had to put it into words, it felt as though my body were covered in hairline cracks like a shattered piece of porcelain, with my strength slowly leaking out through them.

With a bleak, helpless feeling, I leaned back against the sofa and stared at the ceiling.

Then I felt someone’s gaze upon me.

When I turned around, Yusiliph was glaring at me with an expression that somehow looked angry.

“Why… are you looking at me like that? Are you angry because I didn’t tell you I was living on borrowed time sooner?”

Feeling strangely guilty, I jumped ahead and said what he hadn’t even asked.

But upon hearing my words, Yusiliph furrowed his brows even more fiercely.

“You’re asking if I’m angry? How do I feel about the issue right now? You’re telling me that you have less than a year left to live.”

His unexpected reaction left me speechless.

‘Is that… really something for you to get this angry about? In the original story, when he heard that I had died, he said it was good that I was dead and that he regretted not being the one to kill me.’

I tried to figure out exactly what had upset Yusiliph.

‘Ah… Could it be that he’s worried I’ll die before I can rescue Alin from the Magic Tower?’

I slapped my knee in realization and gave him a bright smile as if to tell him not to worry.

“Don’t worry, Yusiliph. Regardless of how little time I have left to live, I’ll keep every promise I made to you.”

“Hah. That’s not what I meant. And you’re saying you don’t have much time left to live as though it’s nothing. How can you say something like that so casually?”

Yusiliph glared at me with an incredulous expression.

But how strange.

His gaze no longer felt threatening or frightening to me.

Trying to cheer him up, I deliberately smiled foolishly and said,

“I mean it. It’s not something I’m bragging about, but I’m a woman who considers the promises I make with my own mouth as precious as gold. Here, look. Of the promises I made to you, you’ve already been freed from slavery, and if you keep training as hard as you are now, you’ll soon be able to become a Swordmaster, too. So all that’s left is rescuing Alin, right?”

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about…”

“Hey, I told you not to worry. I won’t die, even if it hurts enough to kill me, until I rescue Alin.”

“Do you even hear yourself saying that…!”