My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 283: Living Corpse

Chapter 283: Living Corpse

It felt bittersweet for Leonor to see her room which had been neglected for much of her teen years suddenly spotless with candles lit and a fire roaring in the small fireplace along the wall.

While she was glad she hadn’t seen it in the state the guards did, it felt awful knowing she had to throw her title around to get respect. How she wished she had a sensitive father who, despite having his wife taken from him, remained happy with what family he had left and was willing to do anything for them.

Her thoughts drifted to her mother whose old storybooks sat on Leonor’s shelf untouched but dusted unlike they used to be. In turn, her thoughts drifted to the man she ran into before leaving the palace.

Braulio de Marro.

Blue eyes, neat dark hair, and pale skin. His military uniform was spotless but, unlike other military officers, he had a warm smile and gentle eyes.

The way he reacted so strongly to seeing her, Leonor couldn’t help wondering if he was the man her mother loved before she was forced to marry her father. It made her want to seek him out and ask. Yet how could she do that to someone who cared about her mother so much? It was so cruel to be reminded of something someone couldn’t have or lost.

With those thoughts burdening her, Leonor still managed to get into a nightgown and find sleep. She lifted the blankets to her nose and found them scented with whichever soap the maids were using those days.

It was unfamiliar to her to be taken care of even an iota in that place especially without Francia there to do it.

The next morning it was the same stifling feeling.

She had to go downstairs after getting into her clothing and bathing without help. They never asked if she wanted breakfast, she had to force them to notice her presence which was met with embarrassment. It was as if the night maids didn’t bother telling the morning ones that her arrival had happened at all.

Again, she kicked everyone into gear until her breakfast was ready. There she ate alone, trying to stomach the food given to her despite the lingering scent from her father’s wing of the manor sticking to her whenever she left her room.

After replenishing herself since she skipped dinner the night before, Leonor was ready to face what lay with her father. Would seeing him so sick and weak feel like anything at all?

It was familiar, dragging herself to that wing of the manor and being disgusted with the scent that took up every bit of stagnant air in that space. However, unlike the evening before, she was met with no resistance as she walked towards the master’s chambers.

Her sister seemed to still be in her room that day and Leonor crept past silently.

Deciding to be polite and knock, she wasn’t surprised when no one responded. A few seconds later, she pushed the door open and was met with the very place she avoided after her mother’s death.

It felt eerie.

It wasn’t that it reminded her of her mother because Jara lived in a separate bedroom from her father. The feeling of being unwanted somewhere was enough to keep a young girl weary of someplace.

The scent was concentrated in that room. It gave her a bad feeling as goosebumps rose on her back and arms. The curtains were shut giving the place no bit of sunlight.

Leonor debated it for a while but, with her knowledge of healing magic, she had never heard of mana that was disturbed with natural sunlight considering the innate healing the sun could provide. The day was mostly cloudy but it would still offer more light than before.

After she opened the large curtains, she could finally see her father. He seemed so small and unassuming lying there with his eyes tightly closed.

With further inspection, his cheeks looked sunken in and there were certainly dark circles underneath his eyes. She had seen him a couple of weeks before at the winter ball and he looked much healthier during that time even though he still wasn’t at his best even then.

However, sitting next to him was making her feel terrible. The scent that was heavy in the air was emanating from him.

For a moment she had a horrifying thought that he was dead and decaying right in front of her. Without hesitance, she pulled back his blankets that were up to his chest and saw nothing out of the norm underneath the blankets. The color of his hands seemed fine even though his hands didn’t seem relaxed and were in fists.

Even though the thought of touching the very hand that had beat her as a child, she still reached out to touch it and make sure he wasn’t ice cold.

There was only a little bit of relief that he was still alive. Her heart and mind were in an argument about whether or not she should care that someone so cruel still clung to life.

His being sick had dragged her back to that place so she was determined for him to be well again just so she could escape. Her sister clearly wasn’t ready to take over a household or be passed the title of Baroness.

It seemed Leonor’s duties to her family were not quite over yet even if they were undesired.

As the duchess searched around the room for any sort of incense or medicine that might be making such an awful stench, Leonor decided there would be no harm in placing another blanket over her father and letting it air out for a few moments.

Thinking nothing of it, she went towards one of the windows that would open easily but she heard scurrying and a force met her back. She was pressed against the glass and a shield erupted from her hands as she pushed whoever it was away.

However, she found the shield weaker than she normally would have been able to produce it. It felt like it was being strangely blocked, but she blamed it on the fact that stressful situations often impacted one’s mana production.

"How dare you disturb Father’s healing!" Anna screamed. "It’s like you want him to die! You’re not his heiress anymore, Leonor!"

Leonor turned to see her sister seeming unkempt in a nightgown as if she had just woken up. The putrid scent was particularly strong coming from her. It was enough that Leonor gagged and placed a hand over her mouth.

Despite being screamed at, Leonor couldn’t help herself.

"What in God’s name is that smell, Anna?"

Her younger sister reeled in horror.

"How dare you!?" she screamed but then she ran off.

It reminded Leonor of the night before when Anna seemed suspicious of something but she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. Something was amiss and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. There was a likelihood it had to do with whatever was going on with her father.

Was he sick with something only Anna knew about? It made Leonor wonder if his will was not complete and if Anna was going through strange methods to keep it alive while she figured it out.

Considering the lock on her sister’s door, Leonor knew that was where she needed to go.

It was only a couple of days later that the opportunity presented itself to Leonor. The maids told the duchess her sister had gone out and would be back in a few hours.

Leonor penned Stephano a letter bringing up her concerns and sent it using a messenger. If he at least knew what was happening in Burien, he may be able to offer insight she wasn’t seeing because she was so emotional.

She didn’t have much other choice considering her familiar would return soon after giving her letter to Desmond.