Although she was a Peliesse, Yuan was no longer a person of the Peliesse family.

As Yuan hesitated for a moment, Hena abruptly interjected.

“Lady Hile! You heard, didn’t you? It’s Madam Yuan Peliesse from the Peliesse Count’s family!”

“To think that I would be able to care for someone from the Peliesse family! What an honor!”

Hile quickly rose from where she had been sitting and bent her waist almost halfway.

Considering the influence Peliesse had on medicine throughout Yufris, this behavior wasn’t incomprehensible.

After all, anyone who studied medicine at the academy would have used textbooks made by Peliesse or read their papers.

Hile’s face lit up as she began to comb her upswept hair with her fingers and then neatly tied it.

“I will serve you with all my heart! Lady Yuan! No, Ma-Madam!”

“Oh, Lady Hile, how wonderful! You’ve been looking so gloomy after being repeatedly turned away by the master for consultations!”

“I’ve been busy in my own way. Making painkillers, and this time I’ve been rummaging through the entire herb storage to make frostbite medicine!”

Hile explained with a flushed face.

Indeed, as he said, there were quite a few scratches on his hands, likely traces of hastily making various concoctions.

Yuan’s eyes widened with concern for him.

“It seems you’ve hurt your hands.”

“Ah, yes. From directly trimming that elm tree… Haha. I’m just a parasite eating away at food, so I should at least do such menial tasks.”

He meant that he had been injured while hurriedly making medicine for Yuan.

Yuan looked at those wounds with wavering eyes.

It was nothing serious, but it was the first time since Louise that she had seen someone get hurt for her sake.

“You’re making too much of it! I, for one, twisted my back this morning while tidying up this room! Ah, I’m not trying to show off, Madam.”

“You are showing off! I, on the other hand, am just stating the facts as they are, not showing off!”

Yuan watched the two start arguing about who was in more pain, then quietly spoke up.

“Doctor. May I use your medical bag?”

“Do-Doctor…!”

Hile, who had been heated up, suddenly handed over his medical bag with a face that looked as if he had been struck by rain of emotion.

For a doctor, their medical bag is as precious as life itself, but Peliesse was an exception.

“Doctor, to think that she called me doctor. A person from the Peliesse family calling me doctor.”

Hile mumbled as if in a dream.

With Hile’s help, Yuan picked up a jar of famous ointment called ‘all-purpose ointment’ with her hand that wasn’t bandaged.

It was an ointment used for various purposes, from bruises and scratches to sprains.

Doctors often used this ointment as a base, adding other herbs to create new ointments, so the frostbite ointment applied to Yuan’s hands was probably made with this all-purpose ointment as a base.

“It seems you got hurt because of me, so let me take a look.”

“That’s not necessary!”

“Madam! You should just let Lady Hile handle such things!”

“I’ll take a look at Hena too.”

At first, Hile was surprised, saying, “To think that I would receive treatment from a Peliesse!” But then Hena was shocked when Yuan said she would treat the maid, her eyes widening in surprise.

Unable to resist the strangely bubbling emotion, Yuan applied the ointment to the painful areas of Hile and Hena.

The pain seeping through her fingertips was at a level Yuan could easily bear, and even that was just a slight bit she had taken on.

Louise never allowed Yuan to use her ability on herself, and other times Yuan had used her ability were all by her uncle’s orders.

So this was Yuan’s first experience of choosing to take on pain herself.

“Rubbing it counterclockwise seems to work better. I’ve learned a lot, Madam.”

“I-I’ve never shown my body to a doctor before, Madam. You are a doctor too… right?”

“The Peliesse family has been an honorable family of medical scholars for generations. They study medicine much more deeply than most doctors!”

“I’m just saying thank you, why are you making such a fuss, Lady Hile?”

The pain of small cuts stinging at her fingertips. The aching pain in her back.

The pain I choose to take on, as much as I can handle, doesn’t feel too bad after all.

Yuan looked at the flushed faces of people expressing their gratitude with sparkling eyes.

Although her body was tired, for the first time in her life, she thought that it wasn’t so bad to feel a little pain if it made others happy.

***

When she woke up after a short nap, this time a hearty meal was laid out.

“Oh my. What’s with all these greetings again.”

“His Highness has brought someone here personally for the first time! How could we just send out food without a proper welcome?”

The kitchen chef, with plump cheeks, was an elderly man.

He was short but his plump body looked quite sturdy, and with a reddened face, he began to explain how special this soup was as a patient’s meal.

Yuan, supported by Hena, sat at the makeshift table and looked into the steaming potato soup, soon blushing as her stomach growled.

It had been nearly 10 years since someone had personally prepared a meal for her.

At the Peliesse mansion, no one properly took care of her meals, so Yuan and Louise always had to sneak into the kitchen when everyone else was asleep, throw all the leftover ingredients into a pot to make soup, or swallow hard bread that was about to grow moldy with water.

Yuan took a bite of the delicious-smelling soup with trembling hands.

The taste of rich meat broth moistened not only her mouth but also her stomach.

As she chewed the mashed potatoes for a long time, savoring the taste, Yuan finally realized that she hadn’t eaten or drunk properly for days.

Only after she had cleaned out the small bowl of soup, that is.

“Ah, it’s been so long since I’ve had something this delicious…”

Yuan blushed, wondering if she had eaten too ravenously, and looked at the kitchen chef.

But the old man with a bushy beard like a mountain bandit was covering his gaping mouth, looking even more moved than Hile had earlier.

“Um… did I do something wrong?”

“In all my years since coming to this mansion, this is the first time I’ve seen someone enjoy my food so much.”

The kitchen chef, looking somewhat out of sorts, burst into tears, blew his nose into a handkerchief, and then stuffed it into his pocket.

Then he opened the lid of the soup pot he had brought on the trolley and filled a large bowl generously.

“Eat up! This Ralph has no mercy for those who complain about food, but for those who eat well, I can cook until they’re about to burst!”

“Grandpa Ralph! What nonsense are you speaking to the Madam!”

“Ah, Madam this, Madam that! In this mansion, anyone who enjoys my food is no different from a grandchild I need to fatten up!”

Hena, turning pale, tried to stop the kitchen chef Ralph.

Yuan looked at Ralph’s thick hands visible through the rising steam of the potato soup that was filling the bowl as large as a washbasin.

Ralph’s hands, covered in orange hair, were also full of crudely applied bandages.

“Did you get hurt while cooking?”

“Madam! Don’t worry about such things! He probably got those injuries from being overly careful while making food for the new Madam, when he usually does things carelessly for the master’s meals!”

“You ill-mannered little brat. How much food have I made for you since you were little? That plump belly of yours is my creation!”

“Don’t talk about a lady’s belly so casually! Grandpa Ralph!”

“Lady my foot. You’re not even of age yet, you little potato…”

Even as they were making a fuss, Yuan drank the soup that was warming her heart.

She felt her frozen body and mind warming up.

Yuan personally moved the clean empty bowl to the trolley that kitchen chef Ralph had brought, then grasped Ralph’s arm encouragingly as he stared blankly at the sight.

“Thank you, chef. It was the most delicious soup I’ve ever had in my life.”

Some of the pain from his injuries while working for Yuan seeped into her fingers and wrist.

‘He must have been burned too.’

Yuan sincerely expressed her gratitude to the kitchen chef who had worked hard for her, someone he was meeting for the first time.

The warmth in her heart was almost unbearable.

Kitchen chef Ralph, who had already shed a few tears earlier, hugged the empty bowl Yuan had finished to his chest and disappeared, vowing to make new patient meals every day.

***

Over a short period of time, the servants of the black mansion came one by one to greet Yuan.

Mr. Mazarain, the coachman and stable keeper who diligently managed the few horses, and Monica and Canary, two young maids. And a few elderly servants who glanced at Yuan with stern faces, then shyly disappeared.

After brief greetings, Yuan lay on the bed, blinking her eyes while listening to the sound of the wind blowing outside.

Wheeee-. It was the sound of the winter wind that had been knocking on the carriage door as if urging her to cross the river of death.

The sound was faint now.

As if it was no longer relevant to Yuan.

“Clard Yufris.”

Yuan finally tasted the name of her husband, who hadn’t shown even a strand of hair all day.

What kind of face did that man have?

It was backlit, and she was half out of her mind, so there was no room to gauge his mood.

A tall figure as big as the black iron fence that had blocked the carriage, with shadowed under-eyes.

Nothing came to mind except something like the shadow of broad shoulders.

And a seemingly unwelcoming air.

But one thing was certain.

This black mansion, close to ruins, that Yuan had so desperately wanted to enter.

The man was the mansion itself.

So much so that it overshadowed any precious gem-like hair or features.

An aura close to black and white.

The impression of the ‘husband’ she met for the first time was intense but very lonely.

The rumor that looking directly into his eyes would rot your whole body and shrivel your limbs was just a wild rumor.

Rather…

Once you got past the face rumored to be hideous, only a normal face came into view.

Come to think of it, was it a somewhat sensitive expression?