Even after eating a warm soup to her heart’s content, Jade lingered for a long time, but when Axel turned off all the inner lights, there was nothing she could do.

She eventually gave a pitiful look and trudged into her room.

Of course, she left behind a regretful voice.

“Call me if you change your mind…. I really just need one candle lit….”

But somehow, seeing her purple eyes that had lost their usual sparkle and looked droopy, that was never going to happen.

Axel lit the candle again long after Jade had gone in and her room had fallen completely silent without even a rustling sound. The reddish light spread lazily around.

After briefly enjoying the silence, he somehow found this quietness unfamiliar and got up to find something to do.

He opened the top cabinet in the kitchen and grasped a bundle of envelopes in his hand. There were several envelopes, so they were quite thick.

Since that magician arrived, it’s been noisy every day, so there hasn’t been time to read letters. Finally got a chance.

While muttering inwardly as if making excuses.

He buried himself in the sofa and looked at the one on top. Seeing the name written on the envelope, he sighed.

Childishly pressed handwriting. Reiner.

“Still….”

It would be understandable if he came to kill, but to send letters with his name pressed like this.

Moreover, the paper described in detail various situations surrounding Reiner and the decisions made accordingly, to the extent that even Axel, who was stuck in the Athanase Forest, could roughly grasp the political situation.

Judging by the number of letters, he must have written at least one per month. How on earth, even in that busy schedule?

A large hand slowly rubbed the tightly closed mouth.

He couldn’t understand what his brother was thinking. If Axel had wanted it, if he had risen to that position after a long, long fight, for the sake of stability around him, first all the brothers….

Just as he was about to sink into thought, he heard a faint groan through the crack in the door.

“Ugh…!”

Thinking it was sleep talk, he ignored it once. He didn’t know if she usually slept quietly or snored, since she always fell asleep around the same time.

But the intermittent groaning continued.

“Ah, nya. Don’t… do it!”

Finally, even a faint scream was mixed in.

Axel got up and knocked on the door.

“Hey.”

There was no answer. It seemed to be a deep dream.

The best way to wake up injured knights on the battlefield was to call their names.

Axel naturally tried to call her name. Then he hesitated. Come to think of it, he had never called her name even once.

After hesitating for a long time, an unfamiliar pronunciation awkwardly popped out from the tip of his tongue.

“Jade.”

Calling a name at night somehow felt even intimate. Axel shook the door again, inwardly making excuses that he had a reason. Clank, clank.

“Magician.”

It was a step back in terms of address. Even so, by this point she should have woken up startled by the door noise, but only intermittent panting continued.

Eventually, Axel grabbed the doorknob and turned it.

It was dark inside. But even in the darkness, the large lump wrapped in several blankets was clearly visible like a shadow. The moment he reached out nearby, there was a strange heat coming from her without even touching.

Axel calmly swept from Jade’s forehead to her cheeks and nape, removing the blanket. She had a fever.

Yeah, I knew this would happen from when she was running around so enthusiastically.

It must not have been just today, so it was probably accumulated fatigue from a long period suddenly hitting all at once when the weather suddenly turned cold.

But it didn’t seem that high of a temperature, yet even when he shook her body, she couldn’t properly regain consciousness and just kept sobbing.

He frowned. He wasn’t very confident in nursing.

But he couldn’t go call Ollie at this time of night. Axel eventually picked up Jade with the blanket and laid her on the sofa.

He hurriedly poured firewood into the fireplace to increase the heat. Whether or not the contents of the magic potion pot hanging above it burned up. And he brought ice-cold water from outside and soaked a cloth.

When he placed it on her forehead, the groaning subsided a bit. However, the intermittent sobbing still continued.

It was definitely a nightmare. So vivid that it even blurred consciousness. No matter how much sleep was medicine, this kind of sleep wasn’t good. It seemed better to wake her up.

“Hey, come to your senses.”

Did she not like the firm voice? Suddenly the groaning mixed with panting intensified.

Axel was about to put the back of his hand on her cheek, wondering if the fever had gotten worse. And at that moment, the small hand that had been flailing in the air grabbed his long, jointed fingers.

Hot heat and seeping sweat.

“Don’t, do it….”

She wasn’t talking to him. She must be making a feeble resistance towards someone in her dream.

But somehow he felt like responding. Axel muttered softly to Jade, who wasn’t even properly conscious.

“Don’t do what.”

“I said… no….”

Now even crying was mixed into the intermittent voice.

Axel sighed. What a fuss in the middle of the night. But he couldn’t just leave her alone whether her fever went up or not.

He tried to replace the cold cloth on her forehead with another one. But Jade showed no signs of letting go of his fingers she had grabbed. Rather, desperate strength was mixed in as if grabbing the only lifeline.

“Mom….”

Hearing those words, he finally gave up on pulling his hand away. Instead, he soaked the cloth in water with only his right hand, except for his trapped left hand. He couldn’t wring it out properly, so water pooled on Jade’s face, but it couldn’t be helped.

However, the water that had pooled and flowed down lingered around her eyes. Like tears.

It seemed like an ornament that didn’t suit her at all. Usually that place was where laughter resided.

Axel’s gaze lingered there for a long time.

At that moment, Jade whispered in a fairly clear pronunciation.

“Don’t bully me.”

The magician who fell into the Athanase Forest. He remembered the worries that were all over her face when she had just fallen.

But as time passed, such burdensome things slowly disappeared. Jade now smiled brightly in the sunlight as if she had shaken everything off. So bright that it could be described as a “white smile that clearly hadn’t experienced much hardship”.

But the reason why fatigue was dotted beneath those eyes must have been hidden in the darkness of the night.

It’s a story I was curious about in the morning too. What on earth happened? What kind of incident makes her calm about suspicions of murder against herself, yet have nightmares alone at night?

He didn’t want to ask when she was conscious. That would consume too much mental energy. If it was such a grueling thing that even caused nightmares, he would have to return that much interest.

Axel didn’t want to get entangled with Jade to that extent. This was just a very small curiosity.

So, cowardly, he decided to ask now. When Jade didn’t know anything.

“Who’s bullying you?”

At the quiet whisper, her lips, cracked from the fever, moved slightly.

“Gr, grandmother and… Fel, ix….”

She, who had never spoken when awake, answered rather obediently now that she was asleep. Although mixed with some groans, it seemed clear that her tormentors were family members.

“Why do those people bully you?”

“Greed….”

As he spoke to her, her groans and sobs actually decreased. She seemed to be somewhere in between being awake and asleep right now.

Perhaps that was better. It would be less difficult for her.

Axel changed the lukewarm washcloth again and asked once more.

“They covet what you have?”

Piecing together the scattered clues, even if not precisely, he could roughly guess.

Deceased parents. An uncle coveting the young orphaned niece’s wealth. A grandmother who only saw everything with disapproval. A child struggling to survive.

It was truly unexpected.

Gazing at the delicate lines enduring the fever, Axel murmured without realizing it.

“Smiling like that….”

Smiling without a single blemish or stain, to think that was actually the result of effort.

Axel decided to admit he had been prejudiced.

Apart from her being a bright and positive person, he had thought this magician simply missed the splendid outside world. He thought it was just that, which allowed her to quickly forget her worries and smile.

But if such things were waiting for her outside, the effort she put into living an ordinary daily life here must be tremendous.

Because it’s simpler to vent worries and anger than to suppress them.

It’s naturally not easy to smile here when the scene that unfolds in just three months might be a mess.

“Amazing.”

Quietly, he offered sincere admiration.

Unlike him, who entered this forest voluntarily without greed or will, her life must have been full of goals.

When young, she must have strived to survive, and when grown, she must have strived to escape her relatives’ oppression.

She even strived to leave this place, and now she was striving to forget the outside and focus on the present.

How could he not admire her? So different from his own listless life.

Axel knew someone who had lived similarly to her.

A young man who would now be sitting on a golden chair instead. Someone he could have helped at the most critical moment, but failed to offer comfort when it was most needed.

That had been the last lingering attachment left outside.

But now, here was someone who needed comfort right before his eyes.

Then, just a little.

“You don’t need to be hasty.”

Slowly, as if revealing a secret.

“Just being alive and healthy is enough. That alone will be enough to give that Felix fellow a good blow. He might be smiling in your dreams, but when you actually face him, despair will be etched on his face.”

Because the happy future he had dreamed of, expecting to take your wealth, would fall into the abyss.

There was no greater revenge than that. This magician just needed to be healthy.

“So just walk. Just escape. …Jade.”

The second time, it was a bit easier to pronounce. His tongue wasn’t uncomfortable.

His fingers were still caught in the hot heat, but somehow her furrowed brow seemed to have relaxed a little.

“It hurts….”

“That’s why I told you not to run around in the cold wind.”

“Hot….”

“Stop squirming and stay still.”

He kept nagging in response to her unconscious mumbling complaints.

Despite his words, Axel spent the night without pulling his fingers away, leaving them as they were. The washcloth on her forehead didn’t have time to lose its cold energy.