Because I was Terminally Ill, I Married the Male Lead's Brother, and Now He's Obsessed with Me

Episode 10

“Lady.”

“Please trust me. Okay?”

I looked at him with an earnest gaze, my thoughts filled with conviction.

Still, his eyes held no sign of me, and he seemed to not believe me.

“Lord, you might think I’m probably like them. That I’m just using you because I want to survive…”

“Lady, you are not like them.”

“What?”

“Lady, you are absolutely not like them. So, please don’t say that.”

“Tha… thank you.”

With a relieved expression, I managed to express my gratitude in response to his outburst of anger.

The space fell silent once again, like a tomb.

Our gazes continued to meet and clash, and in that moment, I was certain.

The fact that his eyes held no sign of me was my own misconception.

For some reason, he was favorably disposed towards me.

‘Just a bit more persuasion…’

Thinking that, I was about to break the silence and speak when he suddenly reached out and enveloped my hand. Before I could react, Lloydin spoke.

“Will Lady really be alright if we touch like this?”

I hadn’t expected him to reach out to me first, and suddenly, everything I had thought just moments ago seemed to disappear. My mind went blank, and my body’s pulse thudded throughout my body.

Why was my heart racing so erratically?

Is this also one of the symptoms of the treatment?

My heart pounding forcefully is a sign that I’m alive, right?

“…Yes? Oh, yes, it really is.”

Drawing the conclusion that his energy was flowing into me, I managed to maintain my composure and offered an awkward smile towards him, one that anyone would find strange.

“So, my power is flowing into Lady.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

“Is a full recovery possible?”

Lloydin’s question about whether my illness could be fully cured was met with my response, which was more of a conjecture than a conviction.

But I knew.

With his power, my illness could indeed be completely healed.

In the novel, the female lead was completely cured of her illness by the male lead, Ian Blighton.

During the few years at the academy when she had no physical contact with him, her disease only progressed slowly. But as an adult, shortly after they became lovers, her illness disappeared as if she had never had it.

So, I could confidently say it was possible, but I deliberately didn’t give a definite answer.

“I suppose it might take about three years.”

Marriage might involve doing more intimate things as a couple, but I felt repulsed by the idea of seeking a cure without genuine affection, even if it was for my own sake.

So, I didn’t want to force myself on Lloydin, especially when I didn’t feel like it.

Physical contact doesn’t necessarily mean just mixing our bodies together.

Holding hands like we were now or maybe even becoming a bit closer might lead to hugging, too.

‘But wait, I almost got carried away there.’

I realized that I had nearly gotten distracted from the current situation.

After making that judgment, just as I was about to reconnect the strings of my thoughts, which had been cut off, because of Lloydin suddenly holding my hand, a question, the most difficult to answer for both family and Lloydin, came out of his mouth. My mind turned as blank as if I had been ambushed unexpectedly.

“However, how did you come to know that my power can help you?”

“Well…”

My heart started pounding fiercely again, as if someone were holding my ear and whispering the sound of my heartbeat.

As I sensed tension coursing through my entire body, I made a strong effort to regain my composure. I thought it would be easy to pass this question without it being significant, but that wasn’t the case. The reason I found it difficult to answer this question was solely one.

The answer I had to give was a lie, a complete falsehood from beginning to end.

I had anticipated that he would eventually ask this question; it was the starting point of my visit to him.

Once the question was asked, there was no escaping it, so I had to provide an answer.

Fortunately, since I’d been thinking about this since I remembered my past life, I had a prepared response. But despite being prepared, there was no avoiding the anxiety.

I organized my thoughts as calmly as possible within the tension and began to speak like reciting from a prepared script.

“I heard someone talking as I was walking down the street.”

“In the middle of the street?”

“Yes. I was walking along the street for a short break from the cramped carriage. Then I heard someone talking loudly. They were saying that they suddenly got rid of their long-standing sleep-inducing disease. They believed that the monsters that were lurking where they used to sleep had cured their illness, and they were joking about it.”

Honestly, even as I was speaking, it sounded like a vague and unbelievable story.

However, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a perfect, well-rounded lie, so in the end, this was the best I could do.

Therefore, I planned to tell the same story to my family.

“I thought about it after hearing that story. I wondered what I haven’t tried to cure this illness. I’ve met countless healers on the continent, tried various medicinal herbs that claimed to cure all kinds of diseases, and even attempted healing with the most potent divine power. I’ve done everything I could to cure this disease. There was only one thing left undone.”

I gave a slight squeeze to the hand that I had been holding since earlier.

“Magic…”

“Yes, that’s right.”

When Lloydin muttered quietly, I responded, matching his tone.

“People generally think of magic as something harmful. But in reality, it’s not always the case. Magic can also be a power to heal.”

“So, you came to me for my magic?”

“Well, since I can’t go looking for monsters.”

I tried to add some humor to lighten the mood, but it seemed to have no effect on him.

His expression remained as stern and unfazed as ever.

“All right.”

And it seemed like he was taking the joke seriously.

“However, do you believe it right away just because you heard it?”

The response to my statement was not as expected; it was Lloydin who raised this question.

‘I guess he won’t believe it that easily.’

I decided to appeal to his emotions rather than relying on logic, as this was a matter that couldn’t be accepted through rational judgment.

“As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t believe it at first. I thought it was just a story made up by a charlatan. But, you know, if you’re someone who’s been in pain, even the slightest glimmer of hope makes you cling to it. I was so desperate to live. I had the firm desire to keep living.”

I revealed exactly what I had been thinking.

While speaking, I became emotional, and without realizing it, tears welled up, adding a more dramatic touch to my words.

“I desperately wanted to live, and knowing that there might be even a slight chance, I would pick up anything, even a stone lying on the side of the road, and eat it. That’s how desperate I was. Whether or not what that person said is true was something I could judge later.”

With that statement, I closed my mouth and stared at him, while he remained silent, listening intently to what I had to say.

I waited for him to speak, keeping the conversation open. After a short period, he nodded his head slightly.

It was a sign that he understood my words.

I smiled brightly at him.

“By the way, I hope my family will believe me as well.”

While family would probably be more easily convinced than Lloydin, I couldn’t be sure.

As I thought of my family, I realized that I had spent quite a long time here.

“I asked my mother to have dinner together before leaving the mansion earlier.”

I looked out the window, noticing that the sun, which had been high in the sky for a whole day, was now setting, casting the surroundings in a reddish hue.

I thought that if I wrapped up my conversation with Lloydin and hurried back, the timing would work out.

“I think it’s time for me to return home.”

“Already?”

Lloydin, who had been gazing out the window in the same direction as me, released my hand that he had been holding until now.