“……Medicine?”

Claude’s pupils widened like yellow flower petals blooming, then immediately returned to normal as if withering.

“There is no medicine.”

It had been 300 years since Herzol was cured.

In a land frozen half the year, the disease that once bound the Valmonde people like a curse now became an opportunity to receive a year’s tax exemption when a child was born.

The heads of House Valmonde throughout generations strictly instructed their successors.

No matter how poor or difficult things get, the ice baptism must not be stopped.

With such a great reward, there is no one who does not receive it.

For various reasons, if they reduce it to a half-year tax exemption, those who would definitely come decrease and it breeds laxity.

If Herzol starts again in that land, the number of domain residents decreases.

Bermonte knew from long ago that the power of a domain is determined by the number of people residing in it.

Herzol was not completely without medicine.

However, medicine was not needed for a controlled disease.

Expensive and difficult to make, hard-to-obtain ingredients disappeared on their own as no one sought them.

Most of the various传传传传 manufacturing methods that were passed down were lost.

“I really can’t stand it. Are you always so negative about everything?”

The voice of the man who had been observing her for days grew louder.

“It’s not being negative, it’s being realistic.”

“Ha. You really have a way with words. How did I put up with this until now?”

“Cough. Cough.”

She had also kept her mouth shut because coughing would occur if she spoke too much.

As she coughed, Kaian’s gaze towards her became fierce.

Claude pressed her chest to suppress the pain to avoid coughing up blood.

Whenever he saw her showing symptoms, Kaian would rage like an erupting volcano.

‘How dare the cunning Bermonte deceive Temnes!’

No matter how many times he chewed on it, the resentment towards his sworn enemy who had stabbed him in the back seemed unresolved.

‘You came prepared to die, but are you sparing your body? Isn’t this not enough when you think about the children who might be able to fill your stomach?’

Even after joining bodies several times, he couldn’t bear to look at her because of anger.

‘Death cannot be your resting place.’

He coldly rebuked as if he had read Claude’s mind.

Even though he knew she was sick, whenever he saw her coughing or holding back blood, it seemed like the anger he felt when he first learned of her Herzol was repeating itself over and over for Kaian.

She couldn’t understand.

Couldn’t he just leave her to stay in a corner of this vast castle?

Instead of coming like this to get angry.

When the coughing stopped, the room was no less brutal than the ice castle of Valmonde in the Ice Age.

Not daring to look at Kaian, Claude spoke softly without raising her head.

“It’s okay if I move rooms.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This is the Duchess’s room. Before I die here, to a guest room or somewhere else.”

If she were to die here, the next Duchess might not be pleased.

Claude even vaguely sensed who the next Duchess would be.

“That’s not funny at all! You really……”

Every time Kaian got angry, his red pupils became even more vivid, as if they were not human.

Like a demon who had risen to the ground through the flames of hell.

Or like a legendary fire dragon about to breathe infinite heat.

“I finally know for sure why I get angry every time I see you.”

What could it be?

Is there another reason besides being a Bermonte?

She was curious about that amidst her fear of him.

“Say whatever you want. Fearlessly in front of me.”

Kaian gritted his teeth.

“Thinking you can commit such acts and just die. I despise someone like you. You want to change rooms? Do you think you’re in any position to ask me for anything?”

He roughly grabbed her thin shoulders and shook her body, meeting her eyes.

“This is as far as you get to act as you please. Remember this.”

Kaian’s words were for her ears, but they seemed to be etched into her retina along with his terrifying expression now.

“That nothing in Rowen land goes against my will.”

As he stormed out of the bedroom, the coughing started again.

The coughing that started small lasted for a very long time.

As soon as he left the Duchess’s bedroom, Kaian let out a loud shout as if exerting himself.

“Aah!”

At the tremendous force of the shout, the sound of something breaking was heard somewhere in the castle.

He headed to his office, grinding his teeth.

“What good sight did I expect to see.”

Kaian found himself pathetic.

Every time he went to see Claude, she showed him one more of her hidden true feelings.

As if she no longer needed to hide them.

As if she was relieved that she didn’t have to deceive him anymore.

That woman was afraid of dying.

So he couldn’t just leave her alone.

Is there anyone who isn’t afraid of dying?

Kaian wasn’t afraid when he went to the battlefield.

He was confident he wouldn’t die.

Most people might find this strange or incomprehensible, but he was certain he would return alive.

Kaian had lived a life without failure.

He had never tasted bitterness and believed he never would.

Claude was the only one who caused ripples in that.

The marriage to an enemy, the death of that wife, was about to remain as the only blemish in his brilliant life.

But the woman he thought small and insignificant had removed her mask of indifference.

While speaking as if nothing was wrong, as if what was to come was natural, she was clinging to him.

Because she was scared, asking him to do something.

Yet she didn’t ask to be saved.

This was a first.

Those who faced Kaian with a sword begged for their lives, asking to be spared.

Then it was up to him whether to spare them or not.

He had lost the initiative with Claude.

The woman who had held the fear of death inside her alone for months had resigned herself to everything.

They say a drowning person will grasp at straws if anything is within reach.

Claude was an amazing woman who could turn the great and mighty Lord of Temnes, Kaian, into a mere straw.

She was clinging to the hem of her enemy’s clothes because she was scared and lonely.

“Change my grave? Move rooms?”

There was a moment when he wondered what on earth was going through that small head of hers.

Now he knew for sure.

That Claude’s mind contained something very strange that common sense could not fathom.

As soon as he sat in his office chair, the butler announced.

“My lord. The doctor requests an audience.”

“Send him in.”

Shortly after, a middle-aged man with graying hair entered the office.

“I pay my respects to the great lord of Temnes.”

“How did the investigation go?”

“Well, that……”

Seeing the doctor’s hesitant attitude, unable to speak readily, he could guess.

Kaian had put up a huge reward for finding the cure for Herzol.

But there had been no significant results yet.

Herzol was a disease that only circulated in the coldest regions near Valmonde Castle, even within Valmonde territory.

They only speculated that it might be a constitution that develops from living in frozen lands for a long time.

Since there had never been a single case in history in warm southern regions like Rowen, there were limitations to researching the endemic disease of the north here.

Believing there was nothing money couldn’t solve, Kaian did it his way.

He had already raised the reward amount twice, and it was up to the few doctors he had hired to analyze or review the medicines brought in or reported.

However, they were all either false claims aiming for money or prescriptions so disappointing they were a mess, so there was still no way to cure Claude.

“You still haven’t found it. Then if we raise the reward again…”

“No, it’s not that. The acquisition process is a bit suspicious, but we’ve obtained a credible prescription.”

What nonsense is this? How can it be credible if the acquisition process is suspicious?

Kaian’s doubt was soon resolved.

“Well, the envelope had the seal of House Bermonte stamped on it.”

“What?”

“I’ve brought them for now, but there are many suspicious points.”

“I’ll meet them myself.”

Soon the doctor brought in an old man in shabby clothes.

As soon as he saw Kaian, he fixed his eyes on the floor, trembling with tension.

Unlike those who came boldly to receive the huge reward.

“Is it true you have the prescription for Herzol?”

“Yes. My lord. That’s right.”

“Show it to me.”

With trembling hands, the old man placed an old and worn-looking envelope on his desk.

Kaian picked it up and examined it from various angles.

Seeing the seal stamped on it, he instinctively frowned.

It was the seal of Bermonte, the enemy he could not stand even if he ground them up and ate them.

“Did you steal it?”

“No!”

“Then where did you get such an item?”

“Well, that……”

The old man wet his dry, cracked lips with saliva.

“Though I’m not much now, until a few years ago I ran a large herbal medicine shop.”

“Hmm.”

“Back then, there was someone who often came to sell herbs gathered from the mountains, and one day he handed me money and this prescription, asking me to obtain the ingredients for Herzol medicine.”

He kept trembling, seemingly afraid of Kaian’s gaze on him.

“Yet you brought an unopened prescription. Did you extort it?”

“Oh no, my lord. Absolutely not.”

The old man jumped up.

“Actually, a fire broke out in the village where he lived. I made inquiries but could never find him again. As I kept putting off the task, ten years passed.”

“You’re not lying?”

“No. No. That’s how it is.”

“And you must have pocketed that money.”

The old man’s wrinkled face reddened at the pointed remark about his shabbiness.

“I’ve never done anything shameful before heaven. Please believe me. The one who squandered our family fortune was my ill-raised son.”

He said, trembling.

“My wife has suffered much in her later years and is ailing. I thought perhaps I could receive the reward…”

“Butler.”

As Kaian gestured, the butler bowed his head at his master’s call.

“Pay double the reward.”

“Th-thank you. Thank you, my lord.”

The old man bowed deeply to him repeatedly, seemingly moved.

That’s when it happened.

Thud.

Something fell to the floor as if bouncing out of the inner pocket of his shabby clothes. It was some kind of ornament, a flat red jade carved into a circle with a strange pattern in the center.

Kaian’s eyes narrowed as he saw it.

“Are you a survivor from Plony village?”

The old man was terrified.

“No! I’m not! Th-this belonged to the person who entrusted it to me, so I ended up keeping it.”

“Leave that as well.”

The old man hurriedly put it down next to the envelope and stepped back.

“Keep quiet about this matter. I’ll give you triple.”

“Th-thank you.”

As soon as he withdrew, Kaian tore open the envelope stamped with the enemy’s seal.

Inside was a prescription.

Even the paper inside was the gold-leafed paper said to be used by House Bermonte for making official documents.

“This seems to be real.”

The doctor nodded.

“Gather the medicinal ingredients as quickly as possible.”

“But there’s a problem.”

He had a serious look on his face.

“It seems we won’t be able to obtain one of the ingredients.”

“Why is that?”

“Since it was only used for Herzol medicine, it’s not obtained at all now, so there won’t be any.”

The butler, who had been glancing at the prescription the doctor was holding, made an “Ah” sound as if he understood.

“The heart of a wild buffalo calf…”

Wild buffalo were the origin of the saying “can’t even salvage the bones.”

With bodies approaching 3 meters in size living in herds, their affection for their young was terrifying.

If a young buffalo was in even the slightest danger, they would get excited and trample the target of their attack until it became an indistinguishable pattern on the muddy ground.

Whether it was the king of the plains, a lion, or an armored knight on horseback.

They would completely crush it with hooves weighing over a ton until not a single bone fragment could be salvaged.

“There’s no way to hunt them now either.”

“You speak of impossibility before me?”

Kaian raised an eyebrow.

“Find it.”