As I turned around, I saw a young man with blond hair running towards me.

He was the man who had been glancing at her from the corner all along.

She was used to strangers not being able to take their eyes off her, so she didn’t pay much attention…

“Nice to meet you, madam. My name is Glyn Glasscock.”

The man introduced himself first, bowing his head slightly.

“I’ve been attending these gatherings for a few months now, but this is the first time I’ve seen you, my lady.”

Delphine immediately noticed that his manners were strangely awkward.

Has he just made his debut in society? He doesn’t look that young though.

“…Yes. Nice to meet you.”

Delphine smiled slightly with a face that didn’t hide her wariness, and the man’s face honestly turned red.

As expected, he wasn’t someone skilled in social interactions.

“Haha. Well… They said you were beautiful. Sometimes rumors turn out to be an understatement rather than an exaggeration.”

Speaking with a friendly tone, the man carefully examined her eyes.

Then, as if he had made a decision, he suddenly looked around and whispered in a very low voice.

“Um… I know this might be surprising to hear so suddenly.”

“…”

“Ioan Pryde. Be careful of that man.”

Delphine’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You’re just a victim, my lady. So, um… be careful.”

“What do you… Wait! Hey!”

“That’s all I can tell you.”

The man quickly moved towards the door.

His steps were so fast that Delphine, wearing an outdoor dress, couldn’t possibly catch up.

“Hey…!”

Before Delphine could grab him, the man slipped out between the turning walls.

“Always be on your guard!”

He shouted faintly just before his body completely disappeared.

When Delphine hastily opened the wall door and went out, the man was already gone.

There was only a doorkeeper holding a newspaper in the hallway.

Delphine stared blankly at the empty hallway with a bewildered feeling.

He was a strange man.

Delphine boarded the carriage alone, ignoring the support of the escort knight.

“Shall I take you to the mansion?”

As soon as the carriage door closed, the thoughts she had been suppressing overwhelmed her.

Her father’s inexplicable rebellion.

The man who cut off her father’s head and demanded marriage to her.

The missing forbidden book. The suspicious warning to be careful of Ioan Pryde.

“…My lady?”

At that moment, the coachman called her with a puzzled voice.

“Shall I take you to the mansion?”

“Ah, yes.”

Snapping out of her thoughts, Delphine opened her mouth with a pale face.

“To the mansion…”

At that moment, the image of the blood-covered mansion flashed before her eyes.

The place that was once the Pembrook mansion and now the Pryde mansion.

Feeling her stomach twist violently, Delphine quickly wrapped her arms around her abdomen and bent over.

It seemed her nervous gastritis was acting up again.

She tried not to show her pain and commanded in a deliberately dignified tone, speaking slowly:

“No… Not the mansion… Go to Portlint Grove in District 2.”

“Oh my. You seemed fine for a while. Were you so ill that you didn’t have time to call me to the mansion?”

The elderly doctor with glasses asked worriedly, looking at Delphine’s pale face.

The place Delphine had rushed to was a high-end clinic that mainly served nobles and wealthy merchants.

Delphine, feeling somewhat calmer after taking the medicine he prescribed, smiled bitterly.

“I was just passing by and dropped in.”

“You must have run out of stomach medicine, so I’ll prescribe you some more.”

The elderly doctor asked while scribbling something on a white paper.

“Is there anywhere else you’re feeling discomfort? I couldn’t visit the mansion last month because I was busy…”

The doctor, being used to dealing with nobles, was quick to pick up on things.

So much so that he blamed himself for not being able to do a check-up due to the incident of her father’s rebellion.

Looking at the doctor, Delphine hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Actually, I’ve been having some sleep issues lately.”

The doctor peered at her face closely over his glasses.

“…Are you having trouble falling asleep?”

“Well, it varies from day to day.”

Delphine explained in an anxious tone.

“Some days I sleep like the dead, other days I can’t fall asleep properly.”

The doctor nodded as if he understood something.

“I see. Hmm… Are there any other symptoms?”

“And…”

Delphine hesitated for a moment.

However, the elderly doctor who had been her personal physician for a long time was trustworthy.

As he mainly dealt with nobles, there was no worry about him gossiping.

“Actually, sometimes… I see what seems like hallucinations. Like, a mansion stained with blood…”

Delphine couldn’t bring herself to say that she suspected her husband’s identity, or that no one remembered the beaten slave boy who used to be in the Pembrook mansion.

She thought that even what she had already said was enough to be treated like a crazy person.

However, the elderly doctor nodded calmly without showing any surprise.

“Yes. Yes. That can happen. It’s not strange at all.”

“…It can happen?”

“Of course.”

The doctor put down his quill pen and looked at her intently, resting his chin on his hands.

His eyes were filled with genuine concern.

“In my opinion, madam, you might be suffering from ‘trauma’ right now.”

“Trau…ma?”

Delphine repeated the unfamiliar word in confusion.

“Yes. According to a medical book I read, our minds have a profound effect on our bodies.”

“…”

“You’ve gone through a difficult time, with your family falling from grace overnight, haven’t you?”

“…Are you saying I’m crazy?”

“Oh no, not at all!”

The elderly doctor hurriedly waved his hands at her question, asked with trembling eyes.

“It’s different from that. This is clearly an illness. Just like our arms break when we hit something, our minds can also become ill when faced with difficult events.”

I’m ill? In my mind?

Delphine muttered with a confused expression.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing…”

“Because the wound is so painful, our brain creates illusions. To forget reality, even if just for a moment.”

The brain creates illusions?

…Is that so?

She had lost her family, her father, and even her noble title overnight.

Was it because she couldn’t accept this fact that she created her own illusions?

Hating the man who saved her from the brink of death as her father’s enemy, and suspecting him of being the disappeared slave boy?

Or was the slave boy Ioan an illusion created by her lonely self from the beginning…?

“There’s actually no specific medicine for mental illnesses. Not at present.”

The old doctor looked at her with pitying eyes, as if looking at a young granddaughter, and said:

“Just let go of your complicated thoughts and focus on resting well.”

Let go of complicated thoughts…

Delphine nodded weakly and suddenly asked:

“By the way, how do you know about these things?”

At that question, a strange passion flashed through the old doctor’s calm eyes.

“Well… Will you keep this a secret, miss?”

He calls her miss, not Lady Pryde.
It was a request to keep the secret for old times’ sake.

When Delphine quietly nodded, the old doctor took something out of a safe in one corner of the examination room.

It was a book written in unique letters, not the imperial language.

“Wait. Is this, perhaps…”

“I recently obtained a book from the Northern Continent through a black market merchant.”

The Northern Continent referred to all the other countries said to be beyond the barrier.

Books imported from there were unconditionally designated as forbidden books, regardless of their type.

It was illegal not only to read them but even to possess them.

Delphine looked at the old doctor in shock.

“You…”

“Hehe. This old man is a scholar too. The thirst for knowledge was simply irresistible.”

Delphine turned around with an anxious face to check if the door was closed properly.

There were two imperial guard knights standing outside that door.

She was already the daughter of a traitor.

It seemed the old doctor’s confession of his secret to her was not without such calculation.

After all, violating the imperial order and looking at a forbidden book was as disadvantageous to her as it was to him.

Delphine unconsciously lowered her voice and asked secretively:

“Where did you learn the Northern Continent language?”

“Self-taught. It’s surprisingly not difficult. The sentence structure and even the spelling are similar to the imperial language.”

The old doctor whispered.

Even at a glance, Delphine could see the letters were very similar.

“Moreover, miss. There’s an astonishing amount of knowledge in here. It’s 50… no, 100 years ahead in medical knowledge.”

“What? …Surely not.”

Delphine looked at the doctor with a doubtful expression.

Beyond that barrier is full of monsters retaining ancient powers.

The reason for building the barrier in the first place was to prevent the invasion of monsters and barbarians.

So she had learned that the Northern Continent was no different from a primitive society…

“It’s true. As proof, look at this!”

The old doctor quickly took out another strange object from the safe.

It was an object that looked just like a telescope.

With glass like spectacles attached to the end of a long body.

But it was too small to be a telescope, and there was an unknown transparent crystal embedded in the center of the body.

The old doctor quickly whispered:

“Looks strange, doesn’t it? I bought this along with the book, but I still haven’t figured out what it’s used for.”

“…You’re saying this is an object from the Northern Continent?”

“Yes! Look at this delicate craftsmanship! Could barbarians possibly make something like this?”