My Sister Took My Fiancé and Now I’m Forced to Marry the Ugly Duke

His Real Face

Ramilio was so overwhelmed by Lucrezia’s sincerity that he couldn’t say no.

‘If I show it to her, it will be the end. She’ll probably run away, too.’

Despite this thought, Ramilio couldn’t shake off Lucrezia’s hand.

Lucrezia put her hands on Ramilio’s hood and let it fall gently on his back.

“―!”

Lucrezia saw black spots, spreading from his eyelids to his forehead. The spots were a dirty shade and spread all over, making Ramilio himself want to look away.

“Your glasses….?”

When Lucrezia asked him that, Ramilio resigned himself to fate.

He took off his tinted glasses.

With the obstacle removed, he gazed squarely at Lucrezia with his naked eyes.

She was many times more beautiful and fairy-like than when he was looking at her through his tinted glasses.

Lucrezia’s shoulders suddenly began to tremble. The voice that leaked out was, no matter how you listened to it, laughter.

“Pffft, this is, the so-called ugly….! Hahahaha…..!”

Lucrezia laughed while clutching her stomach.

“I apologize for my rudeness. Oh, what a surprise! I knew you were a good-looking man, Ramilio-sama! Who said anything about you being ugly?”

Ramilio touched his eyelids in confusion.

He was born with numerous black spots on the whites of his eyes and eyelids.

These spots, which looked like the compound eyes of an insect, were said to look very creepy to people.

He was told as a baby that he probably wouldn’t live long because this was a pre-stage symptom of a tumor in his eyes, but he has lived to this age in good health without any incident.

“Does this not disgust you?”

“No? Not at all. I think Ramilio-sama just has more pigmentation than other people. Your hair and iris are all black.”

Lucrezia smiled.

“I am the exact opposite. I was born with a lack of pigmentation, so my eyes were pure white.”

Lucrezia’s eyes were a beautiful golden color as she said this.

“It seems that when the eyes are white, they don’t function as well. My grandmother told me that because I couldn’t see people’s faces when I was a baby, I must have missed the opportunity to learn. That’s why I seem to be less expressive than other people.”

It was an unexpected confession.

Somehow, he thought that this beautiful girl lived in a different world from his own.

“It is thanks to my grandmother’s pharmacy skills that the world has become more colorful for me.”

“Pharmacy….?”

Wasn’t she the daughter of a royal duke? It was unlikely that her grandmother was a pharmacist.

“I was sent to live with my grandmother until I was eight years old.”

Lucrezia looked up at the starry sky as if reminiscing about the old days. Before she knew it, the sky was full of beautiful stars to observe.

“I was told that it was because of this eye condition that I was entrusted to my grandmother in absolute secrecy. Even if I returned to the Duke’s house, I must never speak of it. She said it would be an ugly story for the nobility if they knew I had an eye disease.”

Indeed, a pharmacist was usually defined as an eccentric old woman selling medicinal herbs who lived alone deep in the mountains.

Their social status was also low.

As an aristocrat, they probably didn’t want to be involved in such a connection.

“I enjoyed every day of my life. There were a lot of people who came to see my grandmother, and some of them seemed to have the same disease as Ramilio-sama. As soon as she saw the spots in their eyes, she said they had “insect eyes”….”

Lucrezia leaned forward and put her hands on both of Ramilio’s cheeks. She looked straight into his eyes and said confidently.

“Please give me one month. I can heal your eyes, Ramilio-sama.”

Ramilio stared at Lucrezia as if dumbfounded.

He didn’t immediately believe her.

However, Lucrezia’s silver hair, seen without the filter of the tinted glass, was as beautiful as a goddess giving an oracle with a mixture of the bright indigo of night and the color of a bonfire.

Feeling bewildered, Ramilio opened his mouth.

“…. Is it true? These eyes…. the eyes that every doctor has given up on…. turn into a healthy color, like a normal person’s….”

“It will be cured. Please believe in me.”

Ramiro thought that a goddess had truly descended upon him.

“However, once we start the treatment, you will have to stay in a dark room for a month. Direct sunlight will be too much for you. You will have to stay like a blind man, heavily bandaged so that you won’t see anything. Can you free your schedule for a month, Ramilio-sama?”

Ramilio briefly thought of his schedule and nodded.

“If you can get it to coincide with the summer vacations, it can be one month or even two months.”

“Then, let’s start the treatment in the summer. I’m looking forward to it! I’ll be ready by then, too.”

Lucrezia cheerfully ended the conversation and went back to simmering the jam.

Ramilio was watching the work she was doing, as if everything was in a dream and he didn’t feel any sense of reality.