How long has it been since we exchanged such silly jokes?

Lancelot, excited by the flowing conversation, sat down in Clard’s rocking chair.

The rocking chair, no longer creaking, gently cradled Lancelot.

“Gustav! You’ve finally succeeded in your mission! That damn creaking sound was making me even more nervous.”

“It wasn’t me.”

The butler Gustav gave a lingering reply as he left, carefully tucking away the file of documents Clard had handed him while poking his stomach.

Lancelot glanced at Clard with a surprised look.

“There’s no way you would have stooped to oil it yourself.”

“Why are you so curious about my household affairs?”

“Did you already forget what I said earlier? Technically, it’ll be Eddie’s house in the future, right?”

“It’s not now. You have no right to speak either.”

Clard rested his chin on the table and exposed his face to the sunlight.

“Huh?”

Lancelot, who had been watching him with an amused expression, widened his eyes in surprise.

“What did you do?”

“Instead of picking fights, why don’t you go help tend the garden?”

“Your face!”

“I already know it’s hideous, you don’t need to say it again.”

“No, no, your face!!”

Lancelot hurriedly searched his pocket and pulled out a hand mirror to show him.

“Your forehead is incredibly clear!”

Lancelot exclaimed excitedly, as it was the first time he had seen Clard’s forehead looking merely sunburnt, though he had noticed the color fading gradually before.

Clard stared into the mirror for a long time as if it wasn’t his own face.

“Isn’t Peliesse amazing? I just met with the doctor, and he said your wife is incredibly attentive to your medication. The pain relievers are much more effective now, right? I heard the doctor graduated top of his class at the Academy, and if she can research alongside someone like that, your wife would have caused quite a stir if she had actually attended the Academy, don’t you think?”

Lancelot rambled on excitedly.

Since childhood, he had always teased that while Clard’s inner self was trash, his outer appearance was a treasure.

After Clard obtained what was close to a curse mark, Lancelot tried to joke about it as if it were nothing, but he always felt a heavy weight in his heart, as if a lead weight were tied to it, which is why he was even more excited now.

However, unlike the excited Lancelot, Clard’s expression darkened the more he examined his now fairly normal-looking forehead.

“What’s wrong? Do you have some kind of worry? Even though you’re always cooped up in your room?”

Clard bit his lower lip hard as if his pride had been hurt, then turned his gaze to the window with a deep sigh.

The sun was about to set.

Lancelot tilted his head, finding it suspicious that Clard was unnecessarily and suddenly getting anxious alone in his room.

And then.

“How do you make sure a woman doesn’t hurt during intercourse?”

Words that seemed unlikely to come from Clard’s mouth combined and flowed out.

Intercourse. Woman. Pain.

Closing his gaping mouth, Lancelot narrowed his eyebrows that looked soft in texture.

“It’s been over a month now, and she’s still in pain? The butler said your marital bliss was beyond words?”

“I never said it was about me.”

Clard’s feeble protest was futile.

Lancelot criticized him without a second thought.

“You have no consideration.”

Crossing his arms tightly and standing with one leg forward, Lancelot clicked his tongue as if he had witnessed a leaky basket leaking from the outside instead of the inside.

“It’s obvious. You probably didn’t outright mistreat her since she’s your wife, but coercion doesn’t have to be violent. It’s that cold gaze that prevents her from climbing up. It’s that damned tongue that acts as if it’s never heard or learned a kind word.”

“Your mouth is running without being helpful.”

“None of that matters.”

Lancelot, getting worked up, pointed straight at Clard.

“Consideration comes first! You need to keep asking if she’s in pain, and when you move that fit body of yours, you should only move when she says it’s okay. At that moment, you’re not a member of the imperial family, but your wife’s servant in everything! Huh?!”

“…”

“A clean body is essential. I don’t need to say this since all you do is eat, sleep, and bathe. Huh? Huh? That’s right, kill that heartless gaze that says ‘don’t climb up’!”

Lancelot made a gesture of plucking out Clard’s eyes with his index and middle fingers, his own eyes blazing.

“Lastly, the hotter the night, the more affectionate and sweet your lips should be.”

He couldn’t do anything except bathing.

He said this because he didn’t know that the moment their bodies touched after taking the medicine, it was as if someone had painted his memory pitch black.

Clard’s face darkened even more.

“Not answering, huh? Well. I wonder if your wife even expects such things from you.”

“…”

“If you’re not confident about performing well at night, at least do well during the day. Isn’t her effort admirable?”

Lancelot suddenly recalled Yuan asking if her husband had killed her sister while shedding tears, but he tried to erase it from his memory for now.

Eddie still couldn’t shake off his wariness towards Yuan Peliesse, but Lancelot, who saw the couple more often than Eddie, thought differently.

Clard’s recent positive changes were miraculous.

Looking at Clard’s condition, there was no need to ask if Yuan had any intentions or if she still had such thoughts. Or if she had hurt Clard.

“The west annex has changed a lot lately.”

“?”

“Ah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

Lancelot slipped out of the room like smoke, cleverly smiling to make Clard curious.

“This one doesn’t have much time left,” said Hille, who had been hovering around while Yuan was erasing the black marks from the west annex.

Yuan paused her brushing for a moment and stared at Hille, who was making “ocho-cho” sounds to attract Oliver’s attention.

“Did you study veterinary medicine as well?”

“Not much, just as a minor for a bit. Ha ha, it was just a glimpse. Veterinary medicine was dozens of times harder for me than other majors, so I couldn’t finish it.”

Hille observed Oliver quite closely, who wouldn’t come near Yuan when he was around.

Yuan also looked at Oliver with a slightly hardened expression.

Oliver’s health had been concerning lately.

The food bowls that Hena prepared morning and evening showed barely touched traces.

He showed some interest in the venison jerky that Yuan had asked Chef Ralph to make, but even that he would chew a few times and then spit out repeatedly.

“I haven’t seen this dog for long, but usually, dogs don’t relieve themselves near where they stay. This one has been having frequent accidents lately. And the way he lies there listlessly, just looking towards the main building…”

Yuan had thought it was just a temporary phenomenon.

She thought that accidents could happen in life, that one could lose appetite, and that Oliver lying listlessly looking towards the main building was just because he missed his master.

Having never raised a dog before, she couldn’t think otherwise.

Yuan briefly examined the cleaned bricks and then tidied up the brushes soaked in medicine.

“I should look up some veterinary books. Maybe try to make some medicine or nutritious food for him.”

Yuan, who had roughly wiped her hands on the apron she got from the stable keeper Mazarin, finished closing the lid of the cleaning solution vial.

While she was finishing up her work, Hille was watching her with a complicated expression.

“Lady Hille?”

“Madam, I’m sorry to say this, but… that dog is already old, and treating him might not be meaningful.”

Yuan froze, hugging the large glass bottle tightly.

“But isn’t there any way? Even a little. Some kind of medicine-”

“Here, medicines and medicinal ingredients are scarce even for people, and maintaining life that way would be painful for the dog too. I learned that it’s wise to minimize pain and watch over them.”

“It can’t be.”

Yuan sighed briefly. Hille, too, looked at the old dog with sympathetic eyes, seemingly sorry that he couldn’t offer any better words.

“…I heard His Highness’s painkiller dosage has been greatly reduced.”

“Pardon?”

The wavering black eyes suddenly hardened.

Hille examined Yuan, who quickly regained her composure, with a surprised face.

“Yes. The painkiller we jointly modified has a more powerful effect-”

“I want to make a painkiller for the dog using the remaining ingredients, excluding those harmful to dogs.”

“!”

“Can you help me?”

The black eyes, seemingly having made a decision, looked straight at Hille.

Yuan began frantically making a painkiller suitable for dogs.

She removed ingredients harmful to dogs from the existing formula and added similar-effect ingredients that dogs could consume.

A process of experimenting whether these combinations would be poisonous or medicinal was necessary, but Yuan only judged if they were poisonous and quickly mixed the medicine into Oliver’s water.

She hadn’t noticed in detail before, but now Oliver wasn’t even drinking water properly, let alone eating.

The amount of water changed every morning remained the same even when checked before sunset.

Eventually, Yuan used her ability to absorb enough pain for Oliver to take medicine, food, and water.

Yuan gently stroked Oliver’s head, who no longer avoided her approach.

Even while alleviating his pain like this, she couldn’t stop Oliver’s body from dying.

She informed both Hena and the butler about this, but they, though dejected, said not to let Clard know.

“Why?”

“The master pathologically hates any life dying in this mansion.”

“But Oliver is…”

“There were no exceptions. Maybe the butler will take Oliver out of the mansion right after he dies, or take him to the hunting lodge outside the mansion before he dies.”

Hena whispered sadly.

Hena’s eyes, which had already cried a round, were swollen.