I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 9

“…What?”

Faced with the unexpected answer, Regita was rendered speechless. Arabella twisted her swollen face into something resembling a smile.

“Well then, I’m busy, so I’ll be going. There’s someone I have to go pick up.”

She bowed her knees in another polite curtsy, then turned around and hurried down the stairs. Her retreating figure looked almost ridiculously delighted.

 

***

 

“…You’re really taking me with you?”

Rattle, rattle.

Looking at the gladiatorial arena growing farther away outside the carriage window, Yusiliph asked with a bewildered expression.

“I told you. From now on, you just have to trust me. Here, here, let’s get this off you.”

I spoke confidently as I untied the ropes that had been wrapped tightly around Yusiliph’s wrists.

Regita had always enjoyed tying Yusiliph up like a dog and dragging him along on the way back to the Imperial Palace after his gladiatorial matches. It was a childish way of showing off that she was the owner of the formidable slave who had emerged victorious from the gladiatorial arena.

“The Princess wouldn’t have just let this go.”

Yusiliph muttered as he rubbed his bruised wrists.

It must have been a long time for him.

A long time since he had ridden in such a comfortable carriage, since he had been able to sit or lie down comfortably without being restrained somewhere, meeting someone’s eyes and having a conversation.

‘So please, Yusiliph, just forget the grudge you hold against me.’

I replied with the gentlest, most trustworthy expression I could manage.

“Of course she didn’t. But don’t worry. She won’t be able to take you away again. You’re legally my slave, after all.”

“I see. Your ‘property.’”

For a moment, Yusiliph’s gaze turned icy.

“That’s right. The only thing that’s changed is that ownership has been transferred from one side to the other. From my perspective, the situation is essentially no different.”

As he said this, he glared at me.

“Except that my new owner is an even more suspicious person whose intentions I can’t figure out.”

“What are you talking about?! Did you forget that I saved you earlier?”

“If someone heard you, they might think you helped me out of pure goodwill without wanting anything in return.”

His retort left me speechless.

Of course, I wanted a great deal from him.

I wanted him to let go of some of the grudge he held against me. I wanted him to protect me from any threats that might arise. And I wanted him to become even a little less broken than he was, so that when he eventually met Dorothea, he wouldn’t do something stupid and make a mess of his own fate for no reason.

That way, the apocalypse would be delayed as much as possible, and I would be able to survive a little longer.

And, actually, there was one more thing…

There was something I was hoping for from him, but that was still only a wish for now, so I decided to put it aside.

After making me completely speechless with his sharp observation, Yusiliph gave a small scoff and folded his arms before closing his eyes altogether.

‘Phew. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he really is an impenetrable wall.’

Looking at his stubborn face, where I couldn’t see even the tiniest crack to squeeze through, I shook my head.

‘How on earth am I supposed to melt that wall of ice?’

As I pondered this and carefully studied his face, I suddenly found myself becoming absorbed for an entirely different reason.

‘He’s even more handsome up close. He probably hasn’t washed for several days, so why is his skin glowing?’

Maybe protagonists really were born different.

His perfectly sculpted features and jawline, as though a legendary sculptor had poured his entire artistic soul into carving him; his broad shoulders and firm chest; his slender waist and thick thighs; even his long, straight legs.

I was so captivated by his face that I felt like I was staring at a celebrity right in front of me.

Then, all of a sudden, a migraine struck, as though someone were drilling into my temple with an awl.

The headache grew increasingly severe, and soon, along with intense dizziness, I began to feel an itching sensation all over my skin, as if it were on fire.

“Ah…”

As I groaned with a pale face and leaned against the backrest, Becky, who had been anxiously watching me from beside me the entire time, startled and placed a hand against my forehead.

“My lady. Are you all right? Goodness, your forehead is burning hot!”

“I’m fine, Becky. I’ll feel better once we get home and I rest.”

I said that, but I had to grit my teeth to keep a groan from escaping right then and there.

The sedative I had taken after having it prepared at the apothecary earlier had only temporarily eased the pain.

It seemed the aftereffects of the poisoning I had suffered in the Imperial Palace were finally beginning to hit me in earnest.

“My lady, please bear with it just a little longer. We’ll be at the estate soon. Oh, goodness, what are we going to do with our poor lady…?”

Becky rubbed my hand, which had gone pale and clammy with cold sweat, her face crumpling with worry.

“Noble young ladies really are dramatic. Are you carsick or something?”

Yusiliph had apparently opened his eyes at some point and spoke sarcastically.

Before Becky could stop herself, she snapped at him.

She seemed to have quite a lot built up after the way he had treated me all this time.

“Don’t talk carelessly when you don’t know anything! Our lady really is sick! My lady, if you’re having a hard time, lean on me. And if you have trouble breathing like earlier, tell me.”

“Hmph.”

Yusiliph snorted as though he found it ridiculous.

“You’re making an awful fuss over nothing. Once we reach the estate, your personal physician will take care of you anyway, so what’s with all the commotion?”

“I told you not to speak carelessly!”

Becky shouted indignantly.

“You idiot. Our lady is—”

In an instant, I stretched out my hand with all my strength and barely managed to cover Becky’s mouth.

Becky seemed to realize that she had almost revealed her master’s secret, because she lowered her head deeply with an apologetic expression.

Ignoring Yusiliph as he looked suspiciously back and forth between Becky and me, I desperately tried to steady my consciousness as it kept fading in and out.

That’s right.

Arabella Maiona had one more secret.

She was living on borrowed time.

The rumors the nobles had been gossiping about earlier in the Imperial Palace—the “curse of House Maiona”—were not simply baseless rumors.

Among the direct descendants of House Maiona, one child in every generation was destined to be born with an incurable disease.

And any child born with the disease would inevitably die within one year of reaching adulthood.

The one who had inherited the incurable disease in this generation was Arabella.

And she had only reached adulthood two weeks ago.

Which meant I had, at most, barely more than a year left.

 

***

 

Arabella had been weak since she was a newborn, and she frequently vomited even after being fed milk.

She learned to walk a full year later than children her age, and she was also slow to learn how to speak and read.

‘A child who will die anyway.’

That was how the members of her family treated her.

They didn’t exactly abuse her, but no one expected her to grow into a useful member of the family, either.

Arabella was raised almost as though she had been abandoned.

Before she could even form an attachment to her mother, her grandparents forcibly took her away from her mother’s arms and brought her to the countryside.

They had decided it would be better for a child who could die at any moment to grow detached from the Countess and her younger sibling from an early age.

Her father, Roderick, genuinely cared for her, but he was constantly away at war and rarely had the chance to visit her.

Even so, the letters he sent were her only source of joy.

But a year ago, even those letters suddenly stopped coming.

Then, six months ago, news arrived that Roderick had suddenly died.

Her grandparents had also passed away one after another the year before, leaving Arabella completely alone in the world.

The estate in the capital, where she returned after more than a decade, felt unfamiliar, and her mother and younger sibling felt like strangers.

Her uncle, who was temporarily acting as head of the family until her younger sibling came of age, treated her as though she didn’t exist.

She had only one hope left.

It was a story Roderick had once whispered into the ears of a crying Arabella, who had been torn from her mother’s arms at an early age and forced to endure the pain of her frail body.

Roderick, who had spent more than a decade wandering battlefields and protecting the Empire, had apparently received a promise from the Emperor.

The promise was that his daughter would be taken into the Imperial Family as the Crown Princess.

And the Imperial Family possessed an elixir created by the only saintess in the Empire.

A miraculous potion said to be capable of curing any illness.

She had to become the Crown Princess.

Entering the Imperial Palace and obtaining the elixir was the only way she could prolong her life.

So she used every means at her disposal to curry favor with the Imperial Family, throwing away her pride and remaining loyal to them like a dog.

But the result was as futile as could be.

She was cruelly eliminated, and I happened to inhabit her empty shell of a body.

I had one year at most left.

The only resources at my disposal were the hollow title of a count’s daughter and the original male protagonist, whose personality had become twisted beyond recognition.

In a situation like this, could I really extend my life safely and prevent the end of the world?

Rattle, rattle.

In the deep darkness inside the carriage, I secretly watched Yusiliph’s indifferent profile as he didn’t even turn his head toward me.

With a sorrowful heart, I swallowed my feverish breath.