I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 154

Chapter 154

Black Doesn’t Wear Clothes

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A warm scent wafted in. It felt as if a soft breeze carried the fragrance of flowers, tickling the tip of her nose. Like the gentle petals of a spring day, a sense of calm and softness made her smile faintly.

A tender warmth clasped her hand. As a tight feeling filled her chest, she felt a tickle at her toes. Shyly, like a girl on the verge of her first love, she opened her lips.

“—…”

She softly called his name. When the familiar, kind response didn’t come, she hurriedly repeated his name over and over. But there was no reply. Just as her heart was on the brink of tightening with unease,

He smiled quietly and held her hand tightly. The warmth that filled the gap between them let her set aside her anxiety, even just a little. Just as her lips, which had drawn a line, were about to curl again into a smile…

She woke from the dream.

“Ugh…”

The Duchess groaned, feeling a stiff sensation as she strained to open her heavy eyelids. In her blurry vision, the familiar stone ceiling came into view. With a blank expression, she began to piece together her memory.

‘What was I doing—’

As she searched her mind, the memories before she fainted came flooding back. She remembered battling the being that had imitated her child, having her thigh pierced after being attacked from behind, and then—

‘…Could he… not have been an enemy?’

Even as her thigh had been pierced by a dagger, the image of the hand reaching out to save her hovered before her eyes. As her thoughts reached that point, the fog that shrouded her mind began to clear.

Her eyes moved, scanning her surroundings. Fortunately, no enemies were nearby.

“…!”

Her gaze stopped at the man with white hair sitting at her side, dozing off with his hand tightly holding hers. Only then did the Duchess realize where the warmth from her dream had come from.

Thanks to the divine power that had healed her wounds, although her stamina had been significantly depleted, her mind, which had been clouded as if blocked by a thick fog, was now clear.

The Duchess, who quickly grasped the situation, clicked her tongue softly and muttered under her breath.

“…What a foolish fellow.”

As she murmured, a small smile played on her lips—it was clear that she had grown fond of Lian. Quietly, she sat up, making sure not to disturb him. She wanted to lay him down comfortably so he could rest, but as she touched his shoulder, Lian woke with a start.

“Ah!”

“…!”

The Duchess couldn’t hide her surprise. Though Lian had comparable abilities to her, he had been defenseless, and she had deliberately hidden her presence.

The fact that he had sensed her presence and reacted so sensitively meant either his abilities far surpassed hers—or he had lived a life where he had no choice but to react sharply even to the faintest presence.

With her mind unnaturally clear, thanks to the divine power, the Duchess narrowed her brows slightly as she thought.

‘He acts as if he doesn’t value his own life… He’s not an angel after all, is he?’

White hair and golden eyes were traits of the Duchy, but also characteristics of angels. Because of this, there were once rumors that the Ducheline family were descendants of angels.

The Emperor and the Pope, wary of the rise in the Duchy’s prestige, joined hands to erase records and manipulate public opinion. As a result, very few people currently knew of this connection.

“Um, well… ahem, are you feeling alright?”

“…Was it you who healed my wounds?”

“Ah, yes! If you’re still in pain anywhere, please tell me. I’ll heal it immediately!”

His harmless smile resembled an excited puppy. The Duchess narrowed her eyes and glanced down at Lian’s thigh. His pants were torn, soaked in blood from where they had been stabbed by a sword. Even though the blood had dried and crusted over, it was hard to tell if the wound was healed or not.

One thing was certain—he hadn’t treated the wound.

“Did you… not tend to the wound on your thigh?”

“Huh? Wound?”

Lian tilted his head, confused as if he didn’t understand what she was talking about. Then, as he followed her gaze and looked down, he finally seemed to realize what she meant. His face immediately showed an ‘oops!’ expression.

“With everything going on, I completely forgot…”

As he said this, his apologetic expression jabbed at the Duchess’s conscience. She was about to apologize when—

“Fortunately, it tore cleanly, so it won’t show much once it’s mended. Ah—since I need to wash it before the blood dries, why don’t we get out of here quickly?”

Lian, who spoke so casually about sewing his clothes as if his own pain or safety didn’t matter as much as fixing his torn clothes, left the Duchess speechless.

She couldn’t muster an apology or even a word of thanks for his help, merely staring at Lian’s calm, smiling face.

Again, the image of someone who used to sacrifice himself for others overlapped with Lian’s face. The Duchess’s gaze drifted somewhere in the past, her eyes clouded as if wandering through distant memories. Words surged up to the tip of her throat, but in the end, she couldn’t say a word.

The person who had once listened to her thorny pleas was no longer in this world, so she swallowed her burning words, as she had so often done.

“…Do you know the way out?”

“I fell down from above, so I’ll have to find the exit from here. But, um, how did the Duchess—”

“Wait, how do you even know who I am?”

If he lived near the Duchy’s estate, he might have recognized her face, but Lian’s distinct appearance was too striking. Even if he had been hiding, rumors would have spread, so she was curious and questioned him.

Lian then proceeded to explain everything in detail: the sudden disappearance of the Duchess, the panicked butler, the knights running out in search, the group being scattered by a mysterious phenomenon, and how he had been swallowed by the ground and fallen underground.

After listening quietly until the end, the Duchess eventually thanked him.

“I am deeply grateful for your help. And—”

Her gaze shifted to Lian’s thigh.

“Though it was a misunderstanding, my actions were careless. I sincerely apologize.”

As she bowed her head slightly, Lian panicked and waved his hands wildly.

“No, no! It wasn’t a big deal at all, hahaha!”

At those words, the Duchess’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“You are…”

“Yes?”

“No, never mind. By the way, what is your name? I am Cyprien, head of the Cyprien family.”

“Oh, my name is Lian! I don’t have a family name.”

“…”

She silently looked at Lian’s face once more. His pure white hair and brilliant golden eyes—traits identical to those of the Duchy.

‘It’s no wonder I’d mistake him for my own blood.’

If she didn’t know her own child’s gender, she could easily mistake Lian for her own. His coloring and presence were so nearly identical to those of the Duchess’s family.

‘Is he from a distant branch?’

If he wasn’t an angel, he was likely a distant branch of the Duchy. The closest branch families had long perished, so in a sense, they were practically strangers now.

‘It’s said such cases can occur sometimes.’

She mentally clicked her tongue, thinking that Lian’s parents probably had entirely different colors than his. Being born with a color so different from one’s parents often became a source of familial discord.

His attitude of treating his injuries as trivial, his skill that exceeded his apparent age, his non-human recovery rate, and his alien coloration that likely made him an object of suspicion in the past.

The pieces that came together were not pleasant conclusions. She silently looked at Lian, deep in thought.

‘If it’s this child—he wouldn’t be bad to take in as an adopted son.’

He was a pitiable existence that reminded her of ‘him,’ as well as her savior.

Besides, even if he was from a distant branch, the Duchy’s blood likely flowed in his veins, so there would be no problem with the justification. As she pondered these thoughts, Lian was panicking internally.

‘Ah… She’s so beautiful and intimidating that I feel like I’m going to stutter.’

[This is all due to a lack of training. Had you trained with me daily, you wouldn’t feel fear from something like this!]

‘I don’t need that!’

[Over time, your shyness will vanish.]

While the cursed sword was going on and on, Lian begrudgingly admitted that maybe he did need to build up some tolerance toward women.

The girls he once saw as younger siblings had all grown into ‘women,’ so it was now hard for him to even make eye contact. Especially Jess and Iris, who had been so physically affectionate with him since they were young—it had become awkward.

With his head turned away from the Duchess, Lian thought about it further.

‘Training is fine, sure, but can we do it with clothes on?’

His cursed sword promptly shattered the compromise he had devised with a shocking statement.

[Why are you so obsessed with clothes? If that’s what you’re thinking, I’m still naked, after all.]

‘Aaaah! I didn’t hear that! I don’t know!’

Expecting someone not to think of an elephant when told not to imagine one, the image of his cursed sword’s past form popped back into Lian’s head. The sword, fastened haphazardly to his waist by a leather strap, shifted slightly and tapped against him.

[Was it not you who left my scabbard in the cave? Therefore, it was you who made me naked, partner—]

‘Gargandoa! You can make your own scabbard!’

[Drawing on one’s own body does not make it clothing, does it? How distasteful.]

The cursed sword, once held hostage by threats over meals, now saw a perfect opportunity and relentlessly teased Lian. His face flushed red, and his brows furrowed deeply.

Just when Lian was about to offer another retort—

Swoosh.

“…!”

“Do you have a fever?”

The Duchess approached without hesitation and placed her cool hand on Lian’s forehead. Her breathtaking, sculpted beauty, now right in front of him, left Lian frozen on the spot.

End of Chapter