My lady, what are you doing?
Janice mouthed the words at me, and I shrugged.
Had I overdone it? But he really had looked like a big dog just now. See, even now he’s docilely pushing his head toward me. So he can’t be upset about it.
Belatedly, I looked at Lebert. The tips of his ears were red.
Was the room hot?
“That’s enough, let’s go now, my lady. You have to go see His Highness Cassion.”
I had been about to tell her to open a window when Janice hurried me. She took my hand, the one stroking Lebert, and pulled it down.
Lebert, stooped at the waist, wore a look of regret.
“Mistress…”
Lebert called me, his voice dripping with reluctance.
His manner was utterly unlike the one he’d had when he made the deal with me, or when he urged the medicine on me.
Such docile, protective-instinct-stirring behavior, impossible to believe in a sixteen-year-old boy, made my hand rise again.
After I patted him two or three more times, Lebert, apparently satisfied at last, straightened his back.
“Wait a little longer for the dissections. In exchange, as payment for the medicine today, I’ll get you whatever medicinal herbs you want. If you need anything, tell the butler.”
“That’s all right.”
Lebert drooped his shoulders, seemingly disappointed that he couldn’t do dissection experiments right away. Curling up his already thin frame made him look even more slight.
“Even if it’s all right, take them. I want to give you a splendid dissection laboratory, not mere herbs. I’ll arrange it as quickly as I can.”
I said something meant to cheer him up, but Lebert still looked low on spirits.
Why are Cassion and Lebert both so skin-and-bones?
Looking at Lebert, I thought of Cassion. Their atmospheres were different, but maybe it was because they shared the trait of being children hurt by adults.
Their appetites are completely different, though.
Unlike Lebert, who ate anything, the sharp-tongued, double-natured prince was picky about food too.
I’ll need to find a cook.
“Mistress, um…”
I was thinking about Cassion when Lebert called me.
“Oh, were you still there?”
Our business was already finished, so he could have gone. Seeing Lebert standing there as if being punished, I felt sorry.
“From now on, if you want to sit, sit, and if you want to leave, leave. After you’re done with me, I mean.”
I explained kindly.
“Mistress.”
“Hearing ‘Mistress’ out loud, it sounds awfully strange. Just call me ‘my lady’ like everyone else.”
Once I became Head of House I would have to get used to being called Mistress, but not yet.
“If that is what you wish, my lady, I will call you ‘my lady.'”
Lebert adapted to me quickly.
I liked how he accepted my proposals without asking why, so long as they did him no harm. I smiled with satisfaction.
“But, my lady. When you go out, what should I do?”
Why was he asking that? I tilted my head and answered anyway.
“Whatever you want. Rest if you like, and in exchange make the medicine. That effective painkiller I mentioned earlier.”
I made clear what Lebert had to do.
“Will the medicine I make truly be of help to you, my lady?”
Lebert could not easily believe he was truly of help to me. Reassuring him and making him believe was also my job, so I said it without a hint of annoyance.
If he wants, I’ll say it ten times, a hundred times. As long as Lebert makes proper medicine.
“Of course. Whatever you make, it will certainly help me. And you as well.”
I’ll sell your medicine with great gusto and set you on a bed of money.
Lebert seemed to catch on to my thoughts, because his eyes sparkled. As expected, nobody in the world dislikes money.
“And since you’re mine now, walk with your shoulders back. Oh, and I’ll get your younger siblings out from under the black-market dealer before long, too. Will you wait?”
Once Lebert’s worries were gone, he would throw himself entirely into research. Then he could develop that painkiller, the one that was supposedly like magic, even sooner.
“My lady…”
Lebert choked up.
He really cried a lot. But why was he crying now?
I looked for a handkerchief, then gave up. If I handed over my handkerchief every time he cried, I’d have none left for myself.
It was time to actually go.
“Lebert, I’m going to change my clothes. Will you keep standing there?”
“N-n-no!”
Lebert, his face red, rushed out in a panic.
“Let’s move quickly, Janice.”
Janice was unloading the food basket the mansion’s cook had packed from the carriage.
“There’s so much luggage. I told you we should bring more people.”
“To keep it from becoming big gossip, it’s better if only you and I go in and out. The back gate is narrow, too.”
I crept on tiptoe toward the back gate leading to the Third Prince’s Palace. This was the gate the palace’s maids and attendants used for their secret dates.
My past, in which I had wandered every corner of the palace with nothing to do, was paying off this way.
I picked up one of the baskets Janice had put down and was about to walk when Janice spoke to me.
“My lady, how long do we have to hide that we go in and out of that palace?”
“As long as possible.”
“Why?”
It was obvious how the news that the heir of House Irenber was in cahoots with the Third Prince would be blown up.
If that reached Dayson’s or Count Kolkos’s ears…
Ugh, horrible.
A shudder ran through my body. Dayson would try to kill Cassion. I still lacked the power to protect him. And I had no standing to openly take his side.
At the very least, I must not be found out until Cassion decided to marry me.
“I’ll explain why later. There’s a lot of luggage, so let’s carry it first.”
Janice had many good points, but for now, the one I liked best was her simplicity. She did not even notice that I had changed the subject on purpose, and went straight to gathering the luggage.
Janice grumbled and followed me. The palace was right in front of us.
But why was it?
Today, the closer I got to the Third Prince’s Palace, the worse my feeling grew. The palace felt strangely, eerily silent.
With only Flack and Cassion living in that wide palace, it was always quiet, but today it was extreme.
Instinctively I knew something had happened to Cassion.
“M-my lady!”
Sure enough, Flack burst out, panting.
When I had somehow calmed Flack, who was sobbing with snot and tears all over his face, unbelievable words poured from his mouth.
“H-His Majesty…”
But Flack was gasping so hard he couldn’t even speak properly.
In the end I had to piece the situation together from Flack’s fragmented words.
The king had visited. And then Cassion had collapsed. For more than a full day he had not regained consciousness.
Cassion was frail to begin with, but he never slept deeply or for long. Because he knew the palace was not safe.
Given that Dayson had sent assassins before my regression, it was no mere worry.
Sleeping well is good, but not waking when he’s shaken is dangerous.
I climbed the stairs two or three at a time.
When I flung open the door, heat rushed over me. The stove was out, so this heat was the fever from Cassion’s body.
I hurried to Cassion. He looked like a quilt made of faded cotton. Stiff, bloodless, and so about to crumble to pieces.
“Your Highness Cassion!”
I grabbed Cassion and shook him. His body was a ball of fire. The area around his bedding was soaked damp. The traces of Flack’s efforts to bring his fever down.
“You should have contacted me!”
“I, I, I had no way…”
Flack lived beside Cassion like a ghost. He wasn’t free to move about, and he took care even over his breathing so as not to be found out.
I sighed. In my agitation I had blamed Flack, who had done nothing wrong.
“I’m sorry, Flack. It’s not your fault.”
After apologizing, I focused on Cassion.
“We need a physician.”
This was not a fever that folk remedies could treat.
“Shall I fetch Dallas?”
Janice asked carefully. I shook my head.
“Lebert.”
“Pardon?”
“Go to the mansion and bring Lebert. Right now!”
Lebert, summoned all of a sudden, proved a physician remarkable from the very start. Without any particular questions, he palpated Cassion.
Then he poured herbs into the mortar he had brought and started grinding. Watching medicine come out of his huge bag without end, my own mouth went bitter.
“Brew it.”
Janice took the bowl Lebert held out and ran off with it.
While the medicine brewed, I changed Cassion’s wet cloth. Flack did his best at my side, running one errand after another.
Four of us are rushing about for Your Highness’s sake. So please, pull yourself together.
I thought this as I dipped the heated cloth into a basin of cold water.
I hoped for the miracle of him hearing my heart and opening his eyes, but Cassion kept them tightly shut.
After a while, Janice came into the room carrying a tray with the medicine. A bitter smell filled the room.
“What medicine is this?”
I took the medicine and asked Lebert.
“It brings down the fever and protects the organs damaged by it, my lady.”
I trusted Lebert, but now that I was to give it to Cassion rather than take it myself, I was truly afraid.
“May I try it first?”
“No. If someone without a high fever drinks it, the fever will drop rapidly and they may collapse.”
Lebert waved his hands. I held the bowl of medicine, hesitating.
What if there were even the slightest problem with the medicine, and as a result Cassion never regained consciousness?
Setting revenge aside, wasn’t it too terrible for a child to lose his life so suddenly?
I bit my lip hard.
“Ugh…”
As I hesitated, I heard Cassion’s groan. I looked down at the suffering Cassion. With his face gone white and cold, sweat clinging to him, he seemed to need the medicine desperately.
Lebert is a genius. I have to trust him.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Flack, lift His Highness Cassion up.”
Flack came quickly and slipped his hands under Cassion’s armpits. Cassion’s limp body followed as Flack moved.
Flack sat beside him and propped him up so he would not fall.
Cassion kept moaning throughout.
“Lebert, I trust you.”
This trust was for Lebert’s sake, but it was for mine as well. I took a deep breath and poured the medicine into Cassion’s mouth.
As I handed the emptied cup to Janice, I caught a passing glimpse of Lebert, the tips of his ears red.
“Ugh… ugh…”
A rasping sound, like something scraping a throat, jolted me awake.
“Cassion?”
I opened my eyes and checked on him. Cassion’s long lashes quivered, and his eyelids moved up and down. I waved my hand over and over in front of his face.
“Your Highness, are you conscious? Your Highness?”
Snap.
Before he even properly opened his eyes, Cassion caught my wrist. The strength was faint, but I was relieved that he had recovered enough to lift his arm.
“Stop… fluttering. It’s distracting.”
His mind seemed perfectly sound, too. Venom the moment he opened his eyes.
Isn’t there a medicine for speaking nicely?
I glared at Cassion, but the truth was I didn’t resent him in the least.
Because I was grateful just that he had opened his eyes.
