What I Gained by Giving My Body - Chapter 1.7

A voice as soft and dense as thick velvet slowly continued.

“Seeing as your nature hasn’t changed at all, I suppose I can assume that point is the same as well?”

Caitlyn looked up at him defiantly. At this point, it became clear. Archduke Akbar wasn’t confusing her with a total stranger; he wanted to toy with her. He thought she would obediently offer her body for mere money or jewels.

Ha! Though the scale was somewhat large, it wasn’t the first time she had experienced this as a girl born with a pretty face into a humble family. The countermeasure was also clear.

‘Men like this…… want me to embrace them willingly.’

If so, Caitlyn would never give Archduke Akbar what he wanted.

“I am not that kind of person.”

A hand with protruding knuckles touched Caitlyn’s chin. It seemed her protest hadn’t even been heard.

“Tell me. Since you can give anything just like back then.”

Caitlyn replied stiffly. While inwardly thinking that Archduke Akbar was arrogant beyond measure.

“You won’t be able to give it to me.”

The Archduke’s eyebrows twitched. This time, it seemed her words had reached his ears.

“Why?”

“Because even Your Grace the Archduke won’t be able to cure my brother’s illness.”

In that moment, Caitlyn saw it. A ghastly smile appearing on the Archduke’s perfect face.

“I can grant that much as much as you want.”

Caitlyn thought. Has the Archduke truly gone mad? Even if he couldn’t see the future like her, it was common sense that the incurable disease her brother had could not be treated. But soon, at the words that flowed from the Archduke’s mouth, she doubted her ears.

“As long as you return my power that you snatched away.”

A heavy silence settled. Caitlyn looked up at the man with a dazed gaze.……Was there a rumor that Archduke Akbar was crazy?

Seeing as she had never heard it, he seemed to have managed his image well during that time.

“You don’t believe me.”

Archduke Akbar’s voice was utterly bitter.

“Are you saying you really can’t believe it even though you harbor such a powerful authority?”

Her heart began to race. It was because the word ‘power’ the Archduke spoke of wasn’t something she had no thoughts about. No, the problem was that it came to mind too clearly. Caitlyn barely squeezed out the words.

“……When you say power, you mean.”

A gaze that seemed to completely pierce through a person was fixed right on her.

“The Goddesses of Fate have left, but your foresight must be the same. Isn’t that why you ran away after seeing me?”

“……!”

Caitlyn covered her mouth. She tried to maintain her composure, but she simply couldn’t. Her entire body began to tremble. A man she just met acknowledged the prophecy that everyone else had denied even when she spoke it truthfully and publicized it. He didn’t just acknowledge it; he believed it blindly.

When no one had believed her all this time……!

“Look at me. Look at me with your power.”

As if drawn by an irresistible force, Caitlyn looked at the man. Her mind’s eye, which saw the past, future, and present, woke up and rushed toward the man. But, this time too…….

“I can’t see anything.”

Caitlyn replied in a trembling voice.

“Really, nothing at all…….”

Her body trembled on its own. Because now, not only her instinct but also her reason was screaming that the man was dangerous.

If she had felt only a vast darkness when she saw him in the ballroom, now, the ominous aura lurking beyond that darkness overwhelmed her.

“Naturally so.”

Archduke Akbar softly stroked her cheek. Caitlyn closed her eyes tightly. Even though her eyes were closed, she could clearly feel the gaze that seemed to pierce through her eyelids. Caitlyn thought.

Archduke Akbar wasn’t looking at the person named Caitlyn Hardick; he was looking at the power lurking between this skin, flesh, and bone. He was a man who would surely rip her skin and pick her bones to get his hands on that power if it were possible.

“It was originally mine…… so there is no choice but to be unable to see your master’s future.”

Caitlyn dazedly repeated the Archduke’s words.

“……You said it was Your Grace’s.”

“Yes.”

The Archduke slowly continued.

“At that time, I wasn’t an Archduke, and you weren’t that ridiculous name either.”

“……!”

Her heart thundered. The man was certainly speaking the truth. The truth that she had questioned yet couldn’t approach all this time……. If so, she might finally be able to find out.

Why, of all people, did only she come to have this power that was close to a curse? Why only her…… why did she inevitably have to be a loner?

“……What is your true identity?”

Archduke Akbar laughed out loud.

“Have you become so dull that you don’t know who I am, Cathy?”