“Hmm……”
The doctor who was checking my wrist frowned.
Just like last time, after examining me thoroughly, the doctor kept shaking his head.
Right. That’s to be expected.
Since nothing has really changed from last time, the doctor must be wondering why he keeps being called here.
Moreover.
“Is there no problem?”
The Duke asked coldly, standing with his arms crossed.
“How is the Lady’s condition?”
Barhan asked politely.
“My Lady……”
“Our Lady, is, is she alright?”
Even Mari and Siena were strangely anxious.
Under the barrage of gazes, trying to examine a perfectly healthy person, the doctor must have felt quite uncomfortable.
The doctor shook his head a few more times, frowned, and then let out a sigh as if he couldn’t bear it any longer.
“…… She’s fine.”
“Is that true?”
At the Duke’s question, the doctor straightened his back and nodded.
“It’s true. Why would I lie? Really, except for her being a bit weaker than others, she’s fine!”
“See? I told you I’m fine, didn’t I?”
Feeling sorry for the doctor who looked so wronged, I chimed in as well.
But why are their expressions like that?
Somehow, they all had dubious looks on their faces.
No. When the doctor and the person in question say she’s fine…
I turned my head to Dante, giving him a pleading look.
“Don’t you trust me?”
Oh my. He can’t answer.
It seems that their trust in me has somehow hit rock bottom…?
Just as the corners of my lips were starting to droop in disappointment.
“I believe you. If you say you’re fine, then that’s good. I’m glad.”
Although it was a situation akin to receiving a deep bow, I was simple-minded.
Who cares who bows first as long as I receive the bow, right?
Yes. I told you I’m fine.
I shrugged my shoulders as a sign of satisfaction.
[This is the timeline separator]After the doctor left, Barhan, Mari, and Siena huddled together and whispered.
“… What could this mean, Sir Barhan?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. The doctor says the Lady is fine……”
“But it’s strange, isn’t it? That day, I clearly saw it with my own eyes. The Lady coughing up blood. Sir Barhan, you also said you saw blood on the Lady’s sleeve, didn’t you?”
The three fell silent.
It was truly a strange situation.
For the Lady, who was thin and pale, and even coughing up blood, to have nothing wrong with her.
Of course, it’s fortunate that she’s fine, but…
“Could he be a quack doctor?”
Siena’s cautious question was met with silence, suggesting the other two agreed.
“Or maybe we made some kind of mistake. Siena might have seen something wrong.”
Even in the silence, Siena stubbornly offered a second opinion.
Mari kept her mouth shut for a moment, then slowly nodded and spoke.
“… Yeah. I guess that’s it. It seems that way. The doctor examined her twice, and both times he said she was fine. I guess we saw things that weren’t there because we were too worried about the Lady. I’m sorry, Sir Barhan. Sorry, Siena.”
Mari’s smile was awkward.
And so, this incident was concluded as Mari’s mistake.
Although there were many strange points, no one added anything more.
This was also a kind of wish.
A wish that everything really was just Mari’s mistake.
But, a few days later.
“That doctor is a quack.”
The three found themselves huddling together again.
[This is the timeline separator]The incident began the day after the doctor left.
“… Ugh.”
Serpina, who was eating breakfast, dry heaved.
“My, My Lady?”
Mari, who was serving the meal, couldn’t hide her shock.
Unlike the Duke who skipped breakfast, the Lady always made sure to eat her breakfast.
And that’s not all.
From breakfast to dinner, she ate three meals a day diligently, not to mention morning dessert, lunch dessert, and dinner dessert.
It was to the point where one might wonder how so much food fit into such a small body, but for such a Lady to dry heave during breakfast.
“I didn’t sleep well… Breakfast isn’t sitting well. I’m sorry, but could you clear this away?”
In the end, Serpina sent away her breakfast tray.
It was the first time this had happened since she became obsessed with herbs.
But this was just the beginning of the ominous signs.
“I think I’ll go in early and rest today.”
Serpina said she would return to her room not long after going out to the herb garden.
She didn’t work in the fields, nor did she make desserts.
After roughly handling her duties as the lady of the house, she went straight to bed even though the sun was still up.
Then she read a book endlessly, skipped dinner, and fell asleep.
With these repeated unusual behaviors, not only Barhan, Mari, and Siena, but also Markops the gardener and Ena the chef began to worry about Serpina.
“Good heavens. She left her meal unfinished again today. I wonder what’s going on in this world…”
“Don’t even mention it. She even went back in saying she’d pull the weeds in the field tomorrow? Usually, she’d be all fired up to thoroughly search for not just weeds, but even weed grandfathers.”
“The herb cookies she ate every day, now that she’s not eating them, it feels a bit sad… No. It doesn’t seem sad. Never mind.”
Siena, who had been secretly eavesdropping on Markops and Ena’s conversation, walked down the corridor, sighing heavily.
Then, suddenly.
She stopped and muttered gloomily.
“Really. Could the Lady be sick somewhere…?”
There are things we try hard to ignore, but ultimately can’t avoid, aren’t there?
For her now, it was the Lady’s physical condition.
And that evening.
While carefully emptying the trash bin so as not to wake the early-sleeping Serpina.
“…!”
Siena had to bite her lip hard to keep from screaming.
Inside the trash bin, she saw paper stained red.
It was clearly a trace of someone hurriedly dealing with a red liquid.
Siena stared at the sleeping Serpina with vacant eyes.
“That… son of a… quack.”
Siena left the room immediately and went to find Barhan along with Mari.
The three were already like comrades in the ‘Lady’s Health Protection Association’.
In a solemn atmosphere, Siena opened the conversation.
“That doctor is a quack.”
When the other two remained silent in agreement, Siena continued, even more agitated.
“Have you seen the Lady’s complexion lately? Is that the look of a healthy person? Moreover, she’s getting thinner and thinner. I never knew a person could become so emaciated.”
“… And lately, as soon as she wakes up, she clutches her chest and frowns. She also dry heaves frequently.”
“Above all, do you know what I found in the trash bin today?”
Sigh.
Siena pulled out a paper she had stuffed in her pocket.
It was a terribly crumpled paper with dried red liquid on it.
Mari and Barhan’s eyes widened at the sight.
“So, what I saw that day…”
Mari couldn’t finish her sentence.
“What should we do now, Sir Barhan? Should we call the doctor again? No. We need to call him again. Right?”
Barhan nodded with a groan at Siena’s urgent question.
The problem was the Duke.
It hadn’t even been ten days since they last called the doctor.
“A doctor? Is my wife ill?”
Hadn’t he questioned with a terrifying face when they said they were calling a doctor last time?
They had managed to gloss over it then, but calling a doctor again wouldn’t be something they could gloss over.
So they would have to report about the Lady’s condition…
But Barhan’s worries didn’t come to pass.
“We should call a doctor.”
Dante ordered Barhan to call a doctor again first.
Barhan’s brow, which had been blank, suddenly furrowed.
“Could it be. Did you know?”
His voice, thick with regret, was trembling slightly.
Dante nodded lightly.
“How could I not know? We are husband and wife after all.”
Right. They are husband and wife after all.
A couple who shares a room, sleeps in the same bed, and eats meals together.
He had noticed Serpina’s changes long ago. He had just been quietly observing because she hadn’t brought up the doctor first.
In fact, he had wanted to call a doctor from the day Serpina’s complexion turned pale, but he worried it might be annoying her if she didn’t want it.
He occasionally asked softly if she was alright, but the answer was always the same.
Does she still not trust him properly?
Well. It seems like just yesterday she was trembling in fear…
So Dante waited.
For her to tell him first that she wasn’t feeling well. But even until today, Serpina didn’t say anything.
His sunken blue gaze turned towards the window.
The wide and desolate garden.
And the small herb garden that occupied a discordant space.
That small space had somehow become the most lively area in the Duke’s residence.
But.
Today, too, the area in front of the herb garden was empty.
It was evidence that Serpina had returned to her room early.
Somehow, it felt bitter and lonely.
The empty garden scene felt like his own heart.
So.
“Call a doctor as soon as possible. Before my wife withers away more.”
He wanted to see her moving about energetically again as soon as possible.
[This is the timeline separator]Another energetic and strong d…
“Bleurgh.”
Never mind.
As soon as I open my eyes in the morning, I start the day with dry heaving.
I quickly sat up and leaned against the bed, clutching my aching chest.
“Ah, my throat hurts too……”
My muttering voice was very hoarse.
It must be because of the constant rising of bile.
This stomach acid is no joke? It’s even dissolving my throat.
“Urgh.”
Meanwhile, another dry heave came.
Only after barely calming my stomach with the water prepared beside me did I come to my senses.
Hah, this wretched body condition.
I’ve been trying to ignore my physical condition because I’m always treated as a weak person, but now I have no choice but to acknowledge it.
Bile and dry heaving rising at all hours.
Throbbing chest pain and lost appetite.
Even my stomach that burns like crazy every morning.
All of these point to one thing.
That is…
“Damn. I really do have esophagitis, don’t I?”
It seems I’ve developed esophagitis.
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
