Chapter 7. He Wants to But Cannot (2)

The Duke’s physician was summoned to Duke Elmano’s bedchamber very early in the morning.

After Kais explained that he hadn’t been feeling well last night and therefore couldn’t spend a satisfactory wedding night, the physician examined his body thoroughly.

After a while, the physician respectfully reported:

“Your Grace is in excellent health. However, even the healthiest man may fail to have a satisfactory night when his body is tired or excessively tense, so you must rest well and keep your mind at ease.”

Following the physician’s advice, Kais lit herbs said to help calm the mind and body, and spent the entire day resting comfortably in his soft bed. But nothing improved. That night, the next night, and even after several days passed, Kais couldn’t properly embrace Lariella, let alone kiss her lips.

Whenever he saw Lariella prepared for bed waiting for him, his perfectly fine stomach would turn and his head would throb with pain, driving him nearly mad. What made it even more maddening was that his c*ck, which showed no response at night, would stand er*ect and run wild during the day.

Just seeing the back of Lariella’s head, hearing her voice from afar, or even hearing servants say “madam,” the smooth n*ked body of Lariella he had seen at night would appear in his mind, making his groin ache. Yet when he lay beside Lariella, his stomach would suddenly churn, and his excitement would completely disappear.

“Your Grace is still in excellent health today. Perhaps excessive tension……”

“Shut up!”

Irritated, Kais drove out the physician who had been saying the same thing for nearly ten days. Then he brought in a new physician from a famous family in the capital known for producing imperial physicians for generations.

“Your Grace is very healthy……”

“Get out.”

But he too returned to the capital after five days, suffering the same fate as the previous physician.

Kais wondered if it was because he had exerted so much effort climbing those stairs. But the difficulty in climbing the stairs had only been on the first day; from the second day onward, he had been going up and down relatively easily.

He even considered whether biting the inside of his lip on the terrace might have been a problem, since the first night should be consummated with an unblemished body. But that wound had already healed completely without leaving a trace.

Kais spent all day locked in his office, pondering and pondering what the problem could be.

“Willis, suggest to Lariella’s maid that they might try changing her perfume.”

A man could only praise a woman’s adornments or decorations. Even if he didn’t quite like something, commenting on it would be quite impolite. But for Kais now, finding the reason for this incomprehensible situation was more important than etiquette.

However, that night, despite the clear change in the scent of perfume, Kais’s symptoms didn’t improve at all. Trying different perfumes several more times made no difference either.

He had thought that once the wedding was over, he would never again have to grip and stroke his own c*ck with his hand, but now he found himself taking out his menacing c*ck under his office desk and squeezing out his seed while secretly watching Lariella in the garden. The self-loathing was so intense it killed his appetite.

Kais didn’t usually put much faith in witches, curses, or magic. But the current situation seemed easier to understand if he blamed it on a very nasty curse cast by a spiteful witch.

Finally, Kais wrote a letter requesting help from the High Temple, accompanied by a heavy pouch of gold coins.

“Your Grace, he has arrived.”

Six days after sending the letter to the High Priest, a young priest known for his expertise in curses and magic arrived at Elmano Castle.

Guided by Willis into the office, the young priest lit sacred candles and prayed for a long time. After lying prostrate on the floor for half a day, the young priest respectfully addressed Kais, who was sitting with a bored expression.

“Your Grace has no magic or curse placed upon you.”

“Well, that’s good news.”

After sending a pouch of gold coins and waiting several days, this was all the answer he got.

The young priest smiled gently at Kais, who made no effort to hide his disappointment.

“Sometimes, an old burden hidden deep in the heart can exert greater power than a curse. Perhaps Your Grace should examine whether there might be some forgotten old burden in your heart.”

And that answer was closer than he thought.

* * *

“Willis, you must have something to tell me.”

The elderly head butler didn’t know where to put himself under the Duke’s piercing gaze.

“W-well, master. It’s nothing serious……”

This loyal head butler never questioned or hesitated at any instruction. But now he was wearing a troubled expression and mumbling his words.

Kais’s eyes grew sharper at this suspicious behavior.

“I’ll judge for myself whether it’s serious or not, so tell me anything that comes to mind.”

When the young priest had spoken to him earlier, Kais hadn’t missed the anxious trembling in Willis’s eyes beside him.

Willis had been working at Elmano Castle even before Kais was born. He had witnessed from the closest position the tragedy of Kais’s great-uncle, who had been an excellent Duke of Elmano, the atrocities of the scoundrel Drake, and the frustration and recovery of young Kais. No one knew the major and minor affairs of Elmano Castle better than he did.

If such a person had suddenly recalled something upon hearing the priest’s meaningful words, it certainly wouldn’t be something trivial.

Urged by Kais, Willis wore a hesitant expression and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Well, you see…… when Master Drake was here.”

Drake had his dukedom confiscated posthumously for the atrocities he committed during his lifetime. Therefore, he was referred to by name rather than as “the late Duke.”

When his father’s name came from Willis’s lips, Kais’s eyebrows twitched thickly. He nodded slightly, indicating for him to continue.

“……There was someone who committed suicide at Elmano Castle because of Drake.”

That wasn’t particularly surprising or new information.

“Such people weren’t few in number.”

Kais replied indifferently.

There had been a knight who jumped from the castle wall after returning from a territory inspection to find that his wife had been taken and abused by Drake during his absence. There was also a time when the parents of a fallen nobleman’s daughter hanged themselves in front of the castle gate after Drake brought their daughter, promising to make her his second wife, only to play with her thoroughly and then discard her.

Just recalling incidents off the top of his head, there were more than five or six, so why hide it?

But Willis shook his head with a sorrowful expression. He knew how shocked his master would be when he heard this story.

“The thing is, it wasn’t just anyone but……. the daughter of the wet nurse who raised Your Grace……”

Kais was momentarily stunned.

He stared at Willis with narrowed eyes, seemingly unable to understand what he meant. Then, like a drum that sounded after a beat’s delay, his blue-gray eyes belatedly filled with shock.

“……What?”

Despite his numerous affairs, Drake had only one child, Kais, and he had endlessly doubted whether Kais was truly his son. Yet Kais resembled his handsome brothers too closely to be someone else’s seed. In fact, he resembled them more than his father.

So Drake thought his wife might have been unfaithful with his brother or his younger brother, or perhaps both. It was laughable that Drake, who would be offended if called second in filthiness, would suspect his wife’s infidelity, but he truly believed it and therefore hated and envied Kais from childhood.

With a father who was jealous of him and a mother too helpless to care for him, young Kais followed his wet nurse’s daughter, Gladys, who was three years older than him, like an older sister.

But Gladys, who had been a good companion, became increasingly obsessive and clingy toward Kais as they spent more time together.

‘Kais, why did you smile at Beth? I told you not to be kind to her because she has ulterior motives. You should only smile at me!’

‘I didn’t smile at Beth, nor was I kind to her. Please stop this, Gladys.’

Gladys wouldn’t overlook any woman lingering around Kais, whether an older maid, a young servant, a nobleman’s daughter, or a merchant’s daughter. Whenever Kais tried to talk to someone, she would become tiresome with her anger and jealousy.

Then, as she grew older, she began making increasingly unreasonable demands.

‘I’ve been taking care of you since you were little. I taught you many things. So no other woman will do. I will be your first woman. I’m the only person in the world who deserves that right!’

‘That will never happen, Gladys. I won’t live like my father. My only woman will be my wife. My wife will be my first and only woman.’

Not only was it unlikely that Gladys, the wet nurse’s daughter, would marry Kais, a nobleman’s son, but above all, Kais had never once thought of her as a woman. Doing such things with her, who was closer to family than a friend, was something he had never even imagined.

‘But you’ll need a bedchamber maid. Then you can accept me as your bedchamber maid. I’m fine with anything, as long as I can be with you.’

In Bayaroman noble houses, it was not uncommon to provide a mature woman as a bedchamber maid to young masters when their manhood ripened, both to confirm proper s*xual function and to teach them how to have intercourse. For noble young ladies, a few elegant words were the extent of s*x education, but young masters would experience and learn firsthand.

But that made even less sense. If he took the unmarried Gladys as a bedchamber maid, her future was all too predictable. At best, she might become a mistress or lover to noblemen, and if not, she would be sold around, serving in the bedchambers of various men.