The thought of Johannes smelling Antonio’s scent made Klaus feel unexpectedly uncomfortable.

“Didn’t you say earlier that no one should be by his side during the metamorphosis?”

Sensing Klaus’s guarded attitude, Johannes responded with a wry smile.

“Vampires are different.”

At Johannes’s confident statement, Klaus’s mouth was momentarily sealed.

Feeling irritated with his own powerless situation, where he couldn’t provide any help and couldn’t even stay by Antonio’s side, Klaus looked at Johannes, who spoke calmly.

“But even if I stay, it seems nothing will change. For now, let me leave.”

Upon Johannes’s words, Klaus, who had been drooping his head like a dejected lion, brightened his face.

Observing Klaus like that, Johannes released a firm grip like driving a wedge.

“Don’t forget what I said.”

The instruction not to have anyone by their side during metamorphosis.

“I understand.”

Though Klaus wasn’t sure why Johannes was asking him like a request, with those words, Johannes quietly left the mansion.

Watching his departing figure in silence, Klaus soon turned his gaze back to Antonio’s room with a heavy expression.

Klaus, who was flipping through unnoticed documents, nervously put them down.

His entire focus was directed towards Antonio’s room, and forcibly holding it there was giving him a headache.

Outside the window, the sun had dyed the sky orange without him noticing.

Despite it not being nighttime yet, Klaus, who had been contemplating, eventually left his study and headed towards Antonio’s room.

Between the partially open door, he could see the maids and servants nursing Antonio.

Antonio had been asleep without waking up once for almost a whole day.

Having fainted since yesterday dawn and continuing to sweat profusely, the maids and servants were wiping away the sweat with dry towels.

Standing by the door, watching Antonio closely, when Closet turned her head, sensing his gaze, Klaus approached cautiously.

“As the Marquis said, it seems painkillers don’t work.”

Looking at Closet’s expression filled with concern, Klaus, who carefully approached the bedside, looked down at Antonio.

Following Klaus’s gaze, Closet muttered softly, “To think Antonio is of the Raphelios bloodline… It’s still hard to believe.”

He felt the same way.

However, the scent emanating from him and his current condition clearly indicated symptoms of the Raphelios bloodline, just as Viscount Yukiliod had said.

Anxious and uneasy, but for now, he had no choice but to believe the Viscount’s words.

“Is it really okay to leave him like this?”

Responding to Closet’s worried tone, Klaus, in an unusual and tender tone to reassure her, said, “You can trust me.”
“It will be okay. Don’t worry.”

In Klaus’s calm voice, which seemed somewhat trustworthy, Closet sighed and looked at Antonio again.

Entering Antonio’s room, the persistent headache strangely subsided. Whether it was because of Antonio’s scent or the suppressed emotions that had been preventing him from entering this room, Klaus couldn’t be sure.

With a much-relieved expression, Klaus approached the window where the sunset glowed.

As he continued to gaze endlessly at the setting sun, he turned his head, and there he saw Closet, squatting by Antonio’s bed with her arms serving as a pillow.

Approaching carefully, Klaus, looking at the sleeping Closet, then turned his gaze back to Antonio.

Exhausted from continuous sweating, Antonio looked weary even in his sleep, and Klaus involuntarily tightened his fist as he looked at his grimacing figure.

It was a feeling of powerlessness that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

When his parents passed away, leaving Klaus and Closet alone, he had to endure and bear the helplessness of that time, even though he was not yet twenty. It was the first time since then that he felt such powerlessness.

After working tirelessly and making his way to where he was now, he thought he would never feel such emotions again.

Helplessness of being unable to protect a precious existence.

Nothing else made Klaus as uneasy as that.

Klaus’s expression as he looked at Antonio became painfully distorted.

“I wish I were the one suffering instead.”

Damn it, whether he was a vampire or whatever. Klaus just wished Antonio were a mere servant of a normal aristocrat, someone he could confine under his protection and watch over.

“Ah…”

Sighing deeply at the thought of becoming hysterical, Klaus eventually embraced the sleeping Closet.

Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since he last held Closet like this.

Around ten years ago, when Closet was around six, was the last time he embraced her. It didn’t even feel like a comforting hug back then, as she was light and small like a feather.

Excuses of being busy over the years prevented Klaus from turning his attention to Closet.

Ironically, thanks to Antonio and Roselia, he was able to pay attention to Closet again recently.

Now, with the realization that Antonio had seeped into every aspect of his daily life, Klaus embraced Closet once again and took another careful look at Antonio.