Hertian becomes the Crown Prince.

That’s what it means.

It’s like taking away the position that Serdis has been certain of until now. Most people will probably think it’s being taken away. Because Hertian is not of legitimate birth. It’s a scenario I hadn’t even considered.

‘If Hertian becomes Crown Prince, we can avoid the territory issue and the Empress’s check.’

Just being appointed Crown Prince makes him untouchable.

The very act of attacking the Crown Prince constitutes treason.

Among the nobles currently holding the Empress’s hand, how many have the guts to commit treason?

Probably none.

‘Of course, there’s more than one or two problems with this assumption.’

I sat alone in the room Betty had left, carefully recalling the contents of the original work.

In the original, Hertian never took a Grand Duchess. He never built his own faction, so he didn’t even covet the throne, let alone the Crown Prince position. He just lived quietly in the north, like a mouse.

That means the Empress didn’t torment him to the end. Unlike now.

“He might have changed the original by marrying me.”

A shallow sigh escaped.

I thought it was a marriage that would benefit him, but now I realized it could be poison in some ways.

‘Is there a way to persuade him nicely?’

The path for Hertian to become Crown Prince is thorny. Pushing out Serdis runs into Violet. Convincing the Empress that he’s not a threat is nonsense.

I thought of two people I didn’t want to lose.

Hertian and Violet.

Then I vaguely recalled an anecdote.

‘The two of them had met before.’

The scene that came to mind was so awkward I wondered if my memory was wrong.

There was a time when Hertian had helped Serdis. Because of Violet’s persuasion.

Violet made him an ally rather than an enemy, helping Serdis in his crisis, and she established her position as the male lead’s helper and partner.

It didn’t go into detail about what prompted him to help. This book was just a love story between Serdis and Violet, and Hertian as a supporting character was merely a tool to nurture that love.

“Then should I tell Hertian to help Serdis to avoid being checked?”

It’s the best way for neither to be harmed. Of course, I hate the idea of getting involved with Serdis. But I didn’t want to put Hertian in danger because of my issues.

‘Besides, I don’t want to lose Violet who loves Serdis.’

I didn’t have the confidence to turn even the female lead into an enemy, let alone the male lead.

The problem is that I don’t know how to persuade Hertian like Violet did. Moreover, after even getting into a contract marriage to avoid Serdis, would it be convincing to now tell him to side with him?

No.

He’ll think I’m crazy.

“… Then what should I do?”

Meet Violet and seek an answer?

As the female lead, she would surely know the answer.

“Let’s ask Hertian’s opinion first.”

No matter how much he dislikes it, he probably doesn’t have as deep a grudge against Serdis as the Empress. That’s probably why he helped in the original.

I left the room with a bit of hope.

By now, long shadows of the sunset stretched across the corridor.

‘He’s probably not still talking with father.’

Instead of the reception room where I last saw him, I turned my steps towards the couple’s room. It was the room mother had personally prepared upon hearing of our return.

Not far from my room. As I opened the door adorned with flower decorations that anyone could tell were hung by mother, I saw Hertian’s back sitting on the couch.

I knocked on the door a couple of times to make my presence known before entering.

“Hertian, it’s me.”

He showed no reaction to my call.

‘Is he sleeping?’

He had reason to be tired. He couldn’t have relaxed for a moment while in the capital.

I looked around the room and brought a neatly folded blanket, moving quietly. So as not to wake him from his deep sleep.

How tired must he have been to fall asleep sitting up?

Thinking how pitiful it was, I approached the couch where he was sitting.

That’s when I heard it. A hot breath and rough breathing. The sound came from Hertian’s mouth.

“Hertian?”

His condition was strange.

Not only was his whole body covered in cold sweat, but his face was flushed red and he was struggling to breathe properly with his eyes barely open.

“Wake up!”

What’s going on here?

Why is a healthy person suddenly like this?

I slowly laid him down and took out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead. But that didn’t bring down the fever.

In a hurry, I poured water from the table directly onto the handkerchief and wiped his face again. Only then did he seem to come to his senses from the cold sensation, slowly opening his eyes to look at me.

“…Anette?”

He called my name.

My eyes trembled at the unfamiliarity of hearing my name from his lips for the first time.

“No, wife.”

But only for a moment. After taking a few breaths, he changed to his usual way of addressing me.

“Yes, it’s me. Are you coming to your senses?”

He groaned and lightly closed his eyes before opening them again.

“What’s suddenly happened to you?”

“That…”

His voice was clearly hesitant.

The answer was obvious even without hearing it.

“Don’t tell me it’s the Empress? She sent people to our home to drug you?”

Anger that had been held back until now surged.

“I can’t take it anymore. Forget about helping or whatever! I’m going to push away the Empress and everything else!”

Harsh words poured out, mixed with unbearable emotions.

The deliberations I had before meeting him shattered.

How could they reduce a person to this state?

For the first time, he who had always strongly devoted himself to me had collapsed. The shock of it caused my barely holding together mind to crumble.

‘Why is every day a thorny path for us?’

Suddenly saddened by that fact, tears burst forth. I cried loudly.

“Why… We just want to live ordinary lives, why do only we face such trials?”

The world is so unfair.

Some people live well even while doing evil.

Why do we keep suffering even though we live so fiercely?

Just because we’re mere supporting characters?

But this is too much.

Having to live a life of running away from the shadow of death, not knowing when we might die.

I buried my face in his stomach and sniffled, squeezing out tears and snot.

“I’m really upset… Why do I always have to die early… I have so many things I want to do too.”

After lamenting about reality, I started lamenting about my possession.

‘It’s unfair.’

One life of dying from illness is enough. That’s why I died quietly. But why, after going through the trouble of possessing me, are they trying to kill me again?

“Is there really a god in this world? If there is, it’s an X god, an X god!”

Forgetting that Hertian was there, overcome by the surging resentment, I ended up cursing.

Only after cursing enough to deserve divine punishment did I come to my senses a bit. Only then did I see Hertian groaning and suffering.

“Ah, Hertian… Wait. I’ll treat you.”

As I was about to get up from my seat, wiping my tear-stained face, a large warm hand suddenly grasped my wrist.

“Don’t go…”

“If I leave you like this, you’ll be in pain all night.”

Sniff.

I answered in a nasally voice, swallowing my runny nose.

But even with his weakened hand, he wouldn’t easily let me go.

“I don’t want to see you in pain… So please let me treat you.”

Tears welled up again. Seeing someone in pain was always distressing. It’s enough that I’m in pain, but Rian also died so painfully. Seeing that tore my heart apart so much that even now when I close my eyes, his image appears vividly.

“Misunderstanding…”

“I don’t want to see my precious person in pain anymore.”

I cut off his words and turned my body abruptly. Thanks to that, he didn’t see my weak, tearful face. I left the room like that and ran to my herbal research lab.

Herbal research lab.

The top floor of the Count’s mansion that I hadn’t entered in a long time. The place where all the windows were covered to prevent the herbs from deteriorating in sunlight was dark and smelled damp.

I fumbled around to find matches and lit a fire. Despite the long absence, my body remembered where everything was. The feeling of returning here wasn’t very pleasant.

It felt like I had wasted time uselessly. I hadn’t found the cure for the disease that killed Rian, and even though Rian told me to live happily and joyfully, I hadn’t been able to do so.

“Where did I put the antidote…”

I need to stop sniffling and pull myself together now.

I wiped away the remaining tears with my sleeve. Then I opened the drawer where I kept the antidotes. There were over twenty types of antidotes neatly arranged.

Why did I make antidotes when I was supposed to be curing diseases, you ask?

I didn’t make them on purpose.

I just found antidote formulas while doing research.

“Here it is.”

What Hertian ate was probably an aphrodisiac.

Not meant to kill, but to intimidate.

The Empress isn’t foolish enough to openly kill someone.

“Let’s quickly take this to Hertian.”

Just in case, I took two bottles. And I turned off the lights in this place full of unpleasant memories. As I was hurriedly moving my feet, wanting to escape quickly, a candlestick bumped my shoulder and fell to the floor with a loud noise.

“Why did they put a candlestick here…”

I blamed the candlestick for no reason and looked for the fallen candle on the floor. There was still an ember at the end of the candle that had fallen into the corner. As I was stamping out the faint ember stuck to the wick end, I saw something next to it.

“A note?”

It was a note with no signs of having been opened. When I blew on it, the dust stuck to one side of the note scattered like smoke.

I wanted to open it, but didn’t have the courage to. I felt like my mood, which had hit rock bottom, wouldn’t recover. I ended up leaving the research lab, taking the note along with the antidote.

“Hertian!”

I immediately returned to the room where he was.

And as I rushed straight to the couch, I almost fell on my backside in surprise at the sight of him.

“Why are you suddenly naked?”

Unlike earlier when he was wearing a shirt, he was now in a cool half-naked state. His shirt was either torn or strewn on the floor.

‘He must have taken it off because his body was very hot.’

He’s the type to walk around thinly clothed even in the north because he runs hot. With his fever rising, he must have felt very stuffy.

I tried to calmly assess the situation and approached him.

As expected, his body was covered in cold sweat. Enough to not just dampen his body but to drip.

“This won’t do. Let me wipe off your sweat first.”

I brought the towel I had used to wipe his body earlier. I continued wiping his body. Why is his body so firm? The sweat made his clearly defined muscles shine, creating a sensual physique. And his chest rising with each breath…

‘Was I a pervert? What am I thinking about a sick person?’

This is a body I’ve hugged and slept with every day. There’s no reason to be newly impressed now. Yet my eyes kept being drawn to it, and I decided it was simply because it was a good-looking body.

“Ugh…”

Hertian, who flinched and groaned every time I wiped off his sweat, looked truly precarious. He seemed pitiful yet strangely alluring.

‘I’m fine, but others might misunderstand if they saw this.’

They might think he’s not sick but excited.

I gently covered his chest with a blanket folded in half. Then I focused on diligently wiping off his sweat. Thinking the fever seemed to have gone down compared to earlier, I wiped his body thoroughly and meticulously. Now it was time to wipe his stomach and sides.

“S-stop…”

Hertian twisted his body greatly and pushed away my hand. But his condition, which had been improving, suddenly became more serious.

“Huh. Are you okay?”

His face down to his neck was flushed apple-red. It was much worse than when I first saw him. He crumpled his face in pain and curled up his body.

“Hertian! Just try to stay conscious for a moment. The antidote, drink the antidote.”

I hurriedly took out the antidote, but he remained motionless as if he had lost consciousness.

“Wake up!”

I forcibly opened his mouth and pushed in the antidote. The antidote flowed right out of his parted red lips. He was so out of it he couldn’t even swallow what was in his mouth.

“I should have given the antidote first… What should I do?”

It would take too long to call for a doctor now. And if I told my parents, I’d have to explain the whole situation. I didn’t want to say anything without discussing it with him first. Or cause unnecessary worry.

‘I guess there’s no choice.’

There’s no other way. Only this method.

I made a firm decision and poured the remaining antidote into my mouth.