“It’s just as you said! I… deduced it!”
Having managed to shout that with my whole body shaking, I gasped for breath.
Hwah. I thought I was going to die.
Still, I think it’s a little better now…?
I stole a glance at Cain. Sure enough, the presence that had been as sharp as an awl a moment ago had settled.
Sob. Thank goodness. Just now I really thought I’d suffocate.
I’d known he would be angry, of course, since I’d poked at a sore spot first. I’d even prepared what to say to explain myself.
But actually facing his fury, I’d been so completely overwhelmed that my mind had gone blank. The words wouldn’t come out properly.
So this is why they’re called Dragonbloods.
I understood in an instant why the original had described him as someone to be feared.
I’d drifted into my own thoughts for a moment, and I hurriedly pulled myself together. The situation might have calmed down, but it was still too soon to relax.
“Explain.”
Cain’s voice was low, as if he were giving me one last chance.
Reading the mood, I carefully opened my mouth.
“I realized the state Young Master Jayden was in a few days ago.”
That was the very day I’d realized I had been reborn as an extra in a novel.
The moment I knew the flow of the original story, I became certain as a matter of course that Jayden had Tamutar disease.
Because there was an early episode where Melody helped with Jayden’s treatment.
After that, Jayden came to cherish Melody like his own little sister.
An episode placed near the beginning that had left quite an impression.
But that didn’t make my claim to have deduced it a lie.
Because I’d already noticed Jayden’s condition even before I realized I’d been reborn.
“As you’ll know from my résumé, I ran an apothecary in a country village in the south. So naturally, I dealt with herb gatherers a great deal. But not long ago, I heard that someone of high standing was buying up spikeleaf at a steep price. I thought that was strange.”
Spikeleaf grew only in certain parts of the south, which made it rare, but it was also treated as a useless weed. All it did was stop bleeding a little, so there was hardly any demand for it.
But that’s only what most people know.
“It isn’t widely known, but spikeleaf is actually the only herb that can suppress a dragon’s power.”
That was something I’d read in an old book at the marquis’s house.
Old knowledge was always dismissed as outdated and stuffy. So most people would ignore a dusty old book, but…
With no teacher of my own, I used to read every book in that house I could get my hands on.
Sometimes they laughed at me for wasting my time.
Who knew it would help like this?
I went on explaining in a clear voice.
“So the house of Asheln came to mind right away. And at the same time, I thought someone there must have Tamutar disease.”
It was an extremely rare illness that only Dragonbloods could catch.
A disease that came about when the body’s growth couldn’t keep pace with the dragon’s power raging inside it.
In other words, it only struck while a child was still growing.
And that was enough information to guess who was sick.
“Your Grace is already a grown man, and Young Lord Noah is attending the Academy. So naturally, I inferred that Young Lord Jayden had Tamutar disease.”
…Well, that was all the story I’d prepared.
Would he believe it?
Of course, if he didn’t, there was nothing I could do about it.
I certainly had no intention of claiming I’d read it in the original.
Nervous, I carefully studied Cain’s expression.
“…”
The pressure that had been bearing down on me was gone, but he went on looking down at me with a frown for a long while.
Sob. I’m nervous, so please say something instead of just staring at me…
“Truly. You’re claiming you figured all of this out from that little information alone?”
I answered firmly.
“…Yes! If you still have doubts, you’re welcome to have me investigated.”
“If you’re a spy, I’ll grant you that much confidence, at least.”
“Surely not. I’m only being honest…! If I were a spy, I wouldn’t have shown my face to you at all. I don’t have the nerve to even think about deceiving the Duke…”
I’d meant it sincerely, but Cain let out a small scoff, though I couldn’t imagine what was so funny.
I feel like this happened before, too…
Whatever the case, the mood wasn’t bad. I looked up at him again and spoke in a clear voice.
“Your Grace, you’re welcome to doubt me as much as you like. If you decide I’m of no use, you can throw me out at once. Just… give me a chance.”
“Can you truly help with Jayden’s treatment?”
“Yes. I can. No—I really want to.”
I’d sought Cain out knowing it was dangerous, and not only for my own sake and Melody’s.
Jayden might be older than Melody, but even so, he was only six. Having learned from the original that he’d spend a long time yet living in pain, I couldn’t just look away.
“What I ask in return is simple. Please protect the Saintess candidate and me from other powers.”
“You’re asking me to protect you from the Temple.”
“Yes.”
He nodded as if he understood what I meant, but then paused. As if he still had something to ask.
“…But I still don’t understand. Why go this far to protect a Saintess candidate?”
“The candidate is still very young. And can’t speak—aphasia—so there’s no telling how the Temple might use a child like that. Especially when the Saintess’s seat has stood empty for over twenty years…”
I clenched my fists.
A Saintess was someone who bore the god’s crest. And that crest only revealed itself when a particular holy relic was held to it.
So for now, I called Melody a Saintess candidate and clenched my fists tight.
“At least until the candidate can protect herself, I want to protect her—I’m the adult here.”
I meant it, without question.
The original’s genre was the parenting story.
So its protagonist, Melody, had struggled desperately just to hang on and survive, the way heroines in any novel did.
It’s strange. It was a fun story when I read it in a book.
But still…
Being reborn had changed my mind.
Melody was no longer a character in a book; to me, she was a real person.
A perfectly ordinary child you might actually run into in real life, who beamed when you gave her a macaron and snored softly when she was sleepy.
Of course I know she’s the Saintess. And that she has holy power far beyond any priest’s.
With a destiny so extraordinary from birth, it was nearly impossible for her to live the same life as everyone else.
But be that as it may, to me, Melody was just an ordinary child.
Once I realized that, the original and everything else stopped mattering.
It might be a parenting story, but I wished the children would stop having such a hard time.
Children barely have enough time as it is to play and laugh and chatter.
The adults ought to take care of the headaches!
That was why I couldn’t help being desperate.
“So please, make a contract with me.”
Looking straight into Cain’s red eyes, I said it one last time, clearly.
Cain looked down at the woman without a word.
Viola.
At first it had been simple curiosity.
But the more he talked with her, the stranger the impression she left.
She was transparent, and yet hard to read at the same time—a kind of person he had never met before.
She was bold enough to make him wonder if she’d lost all sense of fear, and yet it wasn’t as though she truly felt none.
And what she wanted, after going so far as to gamble like this, was neither gold nor jewels, nor great power.
Only protection for a young Saintess candidate and herself.
A Saintess candidate…
Did she mean her little sister?
Cain recalled what he had seen in the plaza the day before.
Priests, who carried the same holy power, would not be able to tell, but he, as a Dragonblood, could sense it.
There had certainly been an extraordinary power about that little child, young as she was.
He understood perfectly well now why the woman was calling her a Saintess candidate. Judging by that overwhelming power, there was a good chance she was the true Saintess.
Taking such a child under his wing and protecting her would make an enemy of the Temple, but…
That hardly matters. We were never on friendly terms to begin with.
Noble houses generally tried to stay close to the Temple, but House Asheln alone was the exception.
Did she know even that when she proposed this contract?
It was, in truth, a question with only one answer.
She was clever enough to work out Jayden’s condition from an absurdly small amount of information. She must have approached him knowing everything.
In every respect, there was no reason not to make the contract.
At last, Cain spoke.
“We’ll proceed with the contract.”
