Three familiar people were in front of the child’s room.

A maid I had assigned to serve Chersion, the doctor, and Teacher Ernestine, who had recently become almost inseparable from Chersion.

“Oh, Duchess, you’ve come?”

Before I could greet them, Teacher Ernestine approached me first.

I instinctively realized there was someone else inside.

I thought it might be Sergei, but the doctor informed me.

“My lady, Count Alperon is inside.”

“…Lord Joseph?”

“Yes, he said he had something to say to the young master earlier. Though we told him the young master was sleeping, he said it would be fine and dismissed us.”

It was unexpected, as I thought he would surely be resting.

Well, it was evening now with the sun fully set, so he had time for sufficient rest…

But why?

‘What would be fine… Ah!’

As soon as that question arose, something suddenly occurred to me.

‘Previously, Lord Joseph said he could solve Chersion’s memory problem.’

At that, I felt like shouting for joy.

Joseph, having woken up from a good night’s sleep after a long time, changed his clothes while savoring a pleasant exhilaration.

It was already late evening. Then he could at least have dinner together with Lieselotte.

‘Ah, before that, I should resolve the matter of the fire at the Daiern Imperial Villa.’

As Lieselotte’s husband, that is.

For a moment, the man he faced in the mirror had a ridiculous expression like a teenage boy suffering from first love.

Joseph immediately pulled down his cheeks with both hands to compose himself.

It seems he had forgotten how to restrain his expressions after lying down for a week.

‘Right, it’s too early to call myself a husband.’

Then… a potential fiancé?

The mirror didn’t know anymore. Joseph decided on purple for today’s dress code.

Because he remembered that was the color of the jewel pinned to Lieselotte’s dress…

“…!”

At that moment, Joseph lost his balance. He had stepped on the hem of his clothes that flowed down to the floor.

Fortunately, he had almost superhuman athletic abilities.

Joseph barely managed to grab the table and avoid falling.

The problem was the items placed on the table.

Crash, clang!

“…Oh no.”

Joseph, who reflexively tried to use chronomancy, could only click his tongue in frustration.

After a moment, a servant who heard the loud noise came in.

“What’s the matt…”

The servant, seeing the messy dressing room, immediately said calmly that he would call someone to clean up.

Soon, palace servants arrived and tidied up the dressing room. Meanwhile, Joseph calmed himself by drinking tea.

“Are you perhaps still unwell? It’s the first time I’ve seen the Count make such a mistake. The Count I knew was always perfect.”

“Hmm, well…”

Joseph felt complicated by the servant’s words.

In reality, he was quite a sloppy person.

He was poor at organizing and had a habit of carelessly discarding used items.

After all, he wouldn’t lose things even if he did so.

As a result, he often made mistakes in areas outside his awareness, like earlier.

He never imagined he would step on the hem of his clothes that had flowed down freely outside his field of vision.

But until now, it was fine.

Whenever that happened, he could cover it up using chronomancy, and the brief headache from it wasn’t too bad.

But now it was different.

‘Since I promised not to use chronomancy…’

It seemed he needed to develop new habits. It would be best to graduate from the Joseph of the past from this moment on.

So, for Lieselotte’s sake too, since they would be using the same room…

‘Well, the servants will clean up right away anyway, so there shouldn’t be a problem.’

Still, it’s better to be perceived as a neat person if possible.

After all, they would be together forever, for life.

Above all, Joseph himself needs to be a perfect person to be a good role model for the children, right?

‘Ah…!’

At that moment, something important occurred to Joseph.

The fact that the children were suffering greatly after the accident.

Until now, he had been too consumed by his own problems to pay attention.

But now that his headache had cleared and he had enough perspective to look around, wasn’t the unresolved situation messily scattered about?

In an instant, things to do and problems to solve flashed through his mind.

Among them, the highest priority was Chersion.

Joseph suddenly stood up as he thought of the child.

He felt guilty enough to wonder why he had been so immersed in his own suffering until now.

“I need to go out for a moment.”

“Count?”

As always, Joseph hurriedly left the room, leaving the servant behind.

The doctor prescribed a sedative for Chersion.

It was because the child suffered from panic attack symptoms and complained of extreme pain when awake.

Thanks to that, Chersion was in a deep sleep when Joseph visited.

At first, the doctor tried to turn Joseph away, explaining the situation. But Joseph paid no heed.

After all, what he was trying to do had nothing to do with Chersion being asleep.

No, should he rather be glad?

In the end, the doctor, servants, and Ernestine had to be driven out of Chersion’s room.

“Hmm…”

As soon as he entered the room, Joseph surveyed the surroundings.

The interior was very cold and dark, as it was already late afternoon with the winter sun having set.

At least the flames blazing in the fireplace and the small chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and walls were illuminating the interior and sharing warmth.

Crackle, crackle, breathe, breathe.

In the warm and quiet interior, Chersion’s breathing could be heard softly. It was an extremely peaceful scene.

But Joseph frowned and glared at the fireplace.

In an instant, the flames burning the firewood disappeared, and the warmth vanished.

Joseph also extinguished all the flames illuminating the chandeliers and wall lights.

He thought it was enough stimulation for a child who showed symptoms of seizures due to flames.

Instead, light holding heat was generated at his fingertips.

With one gesture as if gently pushing away, the light flew to the fireplace, expanded in size, and began to emit heat.

It was lighting that neither burned firewood nor created ash.

Using a similar method, Joseph lit the chandeliers and wall lights, finally relaxed his expression, and approached the bed where Chersion lay.

Sitting in a chair, he touched the child’s forehead, and a cute sound of “Uung” escaped as a sleep-talk.

“Ahaha.”

Joseph’s voice created a small laugh as his heart tickled for no reason. However, that smile could not last long.

There were traces of dried tears at the corners of the child’s eyes.

Although it seemed the servants had wiped them well, it was enough to know how much Chersion was struggling.

“I should have come earlier…”

My apologies. Embarrassed, Joseph cleared his throat with a “Ahem” and smoothed his cracked voice.

Then he slowly began to caress Chersion’s senses.

‘Carefully…’

The easiest way to solve Chersion’s problem was to manipulate memories.

If painful memories were erased and agonizing memories were blurred, Chersion could easily escape from the current situation.

However, that wasn’t what Joseph intended to do.

Memory manipulation magic inevitably leaves side effects on the subject.

The most common is suffering from the sensation of having one’s mind ransacked, emotions remaining even after memories are manipulated, and in severe cases, it can cause mental breakdown.

It was unavoidable.

After all, memory manipulation is about overturning memories, and when an ordinary person detects contradictions in their memories, they go mad.

Therefore, this magic could be rather fatal for people with memories like Chersion or Joseph.

So…

‘I have no choice but to use a more complicated method.’

Eventually, Joseph gently removed his hand from Chersion’s forehead.

At the same time, the child’s closed eyes slowly opened.

However, the eyes of Chersion, who woke up and looked at the ceiling, were not the deep yellow amber color.

“…Ung?”

“You’ve woken up, young master Chelsea.”

Chersion, who had just woken up, blinked his bright red eyes.

Then, feeling something strange, he started looking around.

Suddenly sitting up, Chersion inhaled sharply and stammered.

“L-Lord Joseph. The world is strange. The air is sparkling… Oh! Lord Joseph, your eyes are a beautiful teal color!”

“Please calm down. It’s because I’ve lent you my senses for a moment.”

“Your senses, Lord Joseph?”

“Yes. A magician’s senses.”

“…!”

Only then did curious light appear in Chersion’s eyes.

The child quickly realized that the light illuminating the fireplace and chandeliers was magic, not flames.

Thanks to this, he could avoid reflexively recalling the fire at the mansion when looking at the fireplace or wall lights.