As Irene tried to stand up, Jessie hurriedly supported her.

“You’ve been lying down for a long time, so you might be weak. Please be careful as you get up.”

A long time? Irene asked curiously.

“How long have I been lying down?”

“Today marks the seventh day.”

She thought it would be at most a day, but a week?

Irene gasped and opened her mouth wide at the unexpectedly long time.

“Was my condition that bad?”

Could there be some serious problem somewhere?

But for that, nothing particularly hurts.

My lower back aches a bit, but that’s probably from lying down for a week…

Jessie smiled and said,

“There’s no problem with your body, so don’t worry, young miss.”

“But I was unconscious for a week…”

“That’s because of the sleeping poison in Arachne’s spider web. We used an antidote, but the poison was very strong. And because your body was weak, it took a long time to detoxify.”

“Ah, I see.”

Finally understanding that there was sleeping poison in that spider web, Irene stretched her legs out of bed.

Perhaps because she had been lying down for a week, her legs didn’t have much strength.

She couldn’t walk properly, as if she had forgotten how to walk.

“I think I need to walk a bit… Can you help me?”

“Of course, young miss.”

Jessie willingly lent her hand.

Irene carefully took one step at a time, holding Jessie’s hand like a newborn baby practicing walking.

After circling the bedroom about three times like rehabilitation therapy, she felt extreme fatigue and hunger.

“I’m hungry…”

Hearing Irene’s mumble to herself, Jessie was startled and apologized.

“Oh my. You haven’t eaten anything for a week, so you must be hungry. I didn’t think of that. I’ll bring some food right away, young miss.”

“Ah, no. I should have said something. I’m sorry.”

“This is my role to attend to you, young miss, so you don’t need to apologize.”

Jessie seated Irene on the sofa, then left the bedroom, saying she would be right back.

Left alone, Irene looked around the bedroom.

“The place where I’ll be staying from now on…”

Until now, it was just a temporary place, but from the moment she decided to stay by Kalos’s side, it became a place to stay continuously.

After changing her perspective like that, the bedroom that had felt utterly unfamiliar became familiar.

Irene’s gaze, which had been imprinting even the patterns engraved on the walls in detail, stopped at the dressing table.

Could that be…?

Irene got up from her seat, approached the dressing table, and picked up the hairpin on it.

“It is indeed that hairpin.”

The hairpin received as a prize from the balloon dart game.

Although the blue jewel called the mermaid’s tear was missing from the hairpin, she could recognize it immediately.

I remember it flying far away when I was attacked by that giant spider-like monster, but they managed to find it.

But where did the mermaid’s tear go?

As she was fiddling with the hairpin, Jessie, who had gone to get food, returned.

“What are you looking at, young miss?”

“Ah, this.”

Irene showed the hairpin to Jessie.

“I was looking at it because the mermaid’s tear is missing from the hairpin.”

“Oh, I heard that it broke.”

“It… broke?”

“Yes. I heard it broke when you dropped it, isn’t that right?”

“Well…”

Irene trailed off, not knowing what happened after it flew away, and rubbed her thumb over where the mermaid’s tear should have been.

The only thing certain was that before it was lost, the mermaid’s tear was attached to the hairpin.

Come to think of it, Kalos appeared after the hairpin flew away.

They say that when the mermaid’s tear breaks, the person you want to see comes… Could it be that Kalos came because the mermaid’s tear broke?

“There’s no way that could be true.”

Thinking that it was all just a story made up by people,

and that Kalos appearing at that timing was just good luck, Irene put the hairpin back on the dressing table.

*

With the sole intention of not falling out of Kalos’s favor, the officials moved diligently.

Although buildings that had collapsed or roads that had been destroyed couldn’t be restored in a week.

They did their best to quickly assess the number of casualties and provide free treatment to heal people.

For those who lost their homes due to the rampage of the monsters, they made overall repairs to shelters for temporary residence and provided all necessary supplies for staying there.

Thanks to the officials sparing no support, the situation in Esper territory improved dramatically in just a week.

At least on the surface.

“…”

Standing in front of the western wall surrounding Esper territory, Kalos covered his face with one hand and let out a deep sigh.

At a glance, the wall seemed to have no problems, not even a scratch, but that wasn’t the case.

A hole large enough for two or three people to pass through had appeared in the barrier surrounding the wall.

If a hole appears in the barrier, those without Kalos’s permission could go out or come into the territory, so it needed to be repaired as soon as possible.

The problem was…

Kalos’s gaze went down to his left leg.

It wasn’t visible now because he was wearing long pants, but below the knee was ghost-like and translucent.

It was the price of recklessly using his power to find the missing Irene during the smoke screen incident.

Usually, it would return after resting for a day or two, but seeing that it hadn’t returned in a week, it seems he had overdone it considerably.

Well, he did search the entire territory as if looking for a mouse.

“…”

Kalos furrowed his brow and looked at the hole in the barrier again.

If this hole in the barrier was the only one, he would have repaired it even if it meant pushing himself further.

The problem was that this wasn’t the only hole in the barrier.

He had identified at least 5, and no one knew how many more might be discovered.

Since only Kalos, the lord of the underground, could see this barrier, he had to go out and search for them himself.

How much power would be needed to repair all the holes discovered so far?

Giving up the right leg wouldn’t be enough, would it?

“…”

He couldn’t wait until his power returned because he didn’t know when that would be.

But he couldn’t leave the holes in the barrier as they were either.

Should he just repair the barrier even if it’s a bit dangerous?

“How about receiving help from the young miss?”

Kalos, who had been seriously contemplating, turned to Dewey at his suggestion.

“Receive help from that woman?”

Dewey nodded his head vigorously and replied.

“Yes. A new flower must have bloomed, so if you receive help from the young miss, wouldn’t your left leg return to normal?”

Kalos looked down at his leg again. The translucent leg hidden by his pants was clear in his mind.

As Dewey said, if he received help from Irene, his left leg would quickly return to normal, just as it had until now.

To be precise, it’s not receiving help but unilaterally taking it.

Because he hadn’t told Irene anything about what he would take or if it was okay to take it.

Anyway, the reason Kalos didn’t implement this method to quickly restore his translucent left leg, even though he knew how, was because he didn’t want to.

Irene was already unconscious for over a week because of the new flower blooming.

…If he took from her on top of that, she might never wake up.

That’s why he hesitated to take, but who knew so many holes would be discovered.

Seeing Kalos’s troubled expression, Dewey carefully added,

“If you’re concerned that completely recovering might take too much from her, how about taking just a little? That way, it shouldn’t put too much strain on the young miss’s body…”

Kalos turned to Dewey and asked,

“How much is a little that won’t strain her body?”

“Pardon?”

“I thought this much was a little, but what if it strains her body and she never wakes up?”

“…”

Bewildered by the barrage of questions, Dewey closed his mouth.

Kalos sighed a bit irritatedly and looked back at the wall.

“I have no intention of embracing future anxiety just to solve the problem right in front of me. So don’t talk about such things until that woman wakes up.”

Then how will you repair the barrier in the meantime?

What about your left leg?

Even though you made a fake leg with shadows because you can’t walk due to your left leg becoming transparent…

Although all sorts of questions swirled in Dewey’s mind, he swallowed them all and nodded.

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

Kalos traced the barrier that only he could see.

“For now, the hole here is the largest, so let’s start repairing this one. I’ll decide whether to push myself to repair the rest after observing the situation.”

*

That was delicious.

Irene leaned back lazily against the sofa, savoring the feeling of fullness she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

She felt so full that she thought she could skip lunch and even dinner.

Jessie asked while clearing away the dishes,

“Would you like to take a bath, young miss?”

Ah, come to think of it, I haven’t bathed in over a week.

Despite that, her body was clean, but there was still a lingering mental discomfort from not having washed.

“I would like to.”

“Then I’ll draw the bath water. You don’t need assistance with bathing this time either, right?”

Irene nodded.

“I understand. Then while you’re bathing, I’ll go inform the master that you’ve woken up… Oh, I just remembered he’s not in the castle right now.”

Jessie let out a short exclamation as she belatedly recalled that Kalos had left the castle to check on the barrier.

On the other hand, Irene, who knew nothing about this, asked in confusion,

“Where did he go?”

“He went to inspect the damage to the territory.”

Jessie lied skillfully as she put the empty plates on the tray.

It was also a lie when she said that Irene had slept for a long time because there was sleeping poison on the spider web.

She couldn’t say it was because a new flower had bloomed on the flower branch tattoo.

Anticipating that Irene would ask such questions when she woke up, she had prepared an excuse in advance.

“I should tell him at lunchtime then.”

It’s 10 AM now, so he’ll be back around 12, is that right?

Irene, who was estimating when Kalos would return while looking at the table clock, casually said,

“Would it be alright if I went out to greet him?”

The hand that had been diligently wiping the table stopped at those words.

What did I just say?

Irene was also surprised and covered her mouth with both hands.

A somewhat awkward silence fell over the bedroom.

When Jessie looked at her with a strange expression, Irene unconsciously made excuses.

“It didn’t mean anything. I just thought it might be better to show him directly that I’m fine rather than having you tell him…”

Jessie’s eyes curved prettily as she watched Irene fidgeting and making excuses.

“That’s a good idea, young miss.”

“Re-really?”

“Of course. You had a really good idea.”

Irene’s cheeks turned slightly red at the unexpected praise.

“Then I’ll help you dress up beautifully, so let’s go out to greet the Grand Duke.”