“Are you still in a lot of pain?”

“To be honest, the pain has gotten a bit worse than before.”

The Emperor answered Arabel’s question with a slightly exaggerated grimace.

As soon as she entered the Emperor’s bedroom, Arabel’s body began to move busily. She supported the Emperor to sit at the head of the bed, went to the bathroom next to the bedroom to bring water in a basin, and carefully washed the wound on his shoulder.

She diligently ground the herbs she had brought and carefully applied them to the torn area, not forgetting to blow on it with her mouth, ‘Ho, ho’.

Every time her ticklish breath touched him, the Emperor’s long Adam’s apple bobbed, but Arabel, thinking it was due to the pain of the wound, blew even more diligently.

However, Arabel, who was completely focused on the Emperor’s injury… didn’t notice that the chest area, which he said was injured while riding a horse, was fine, nor did she notice that every time her touch reached him, his broad pectorals swelled and subsided repeatedly.

No, originally, Arabel wouldn’t have even been able to meet the Emperor’s eyes when she came out of the bathroom, as he sat waiting for her at the head of the bed, his tunic off.

Arabel treated the Emperor’s wounds as carefully as if she were healing an injured beast. Looking down at the small crown of her head moving busily, the corners of the Emperor’s mouth turned up gently.

However, he soon had to grit his molars to ignore the change below his navel that was rapidly becoming sore. Honestly, the discomfort in his lower body had started from when he brought Arabel on horseback.

Only after wrapping the wounded area with clean cotton cloth did Arabel breathe a sigh of relief.

As the gentle touch was withdrawn from his body, the Emperor’s eyebrows furrowed. Without realizing it, the Emperor reached out and firmly grasped Arabel’s wrist.

“Why, are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

As Arabel’s large eyes grew even larger as she asked, the Emperor nodded weakly.

“I think I’m more injured than I thought. I might have internal injuries.”

“It doesn’t seem like such a severe injury…”

“That’s why I’m saying I might have internal injuries. Wounds that can’t be seen from the outside can sometimes be more fatal.”

“Then I should call for a doctor. I’ll go quickly.”

The Emperor shook his head urgently, not letting go of Arabel’s hand as she stood up.

“Didn’t I tell you? Calling the wrong doctor could make things worse. That’s why even within the palace, we keep quiet when the Emperor is injured.”

Arabel had no reason to doubt the Emperor’s words. Sitting back down next to him, Arabel reached out and placed her hand on the Emperor’s forehead.

“You seem to have a fever too. Your hands and face are warm.”

That’s because his body was heated for a different reason… The Emperor thought as he glanced at Arabel, who was examining his face with worried eyes, but he didn’t say it out loud.

“Indeed. I feel chilly even though I have a fever.”

“Please lie down for now. I’ll cover you with a blanket.”

Like a good child, the Emperor obediently lay down on the bed, and Arabel covered him with a thick blanket.

It was a warm touch he had never felt in his life. Something he had never experienced, so he hadn’t even missed it. The Emperor’s gaze deepened as he watched the small hand that patted him after pulling the blanket up to his neck.

“I’ll go downstairs and bring some warm tea.”

“Prepare the tea later, more importantly…”

The Emperor, holding Arabel’s hand again as she stood up, spoke in the weakest voice he could manage.

“I need to receive treatment before the internal injury worsens.”

“I’m sorry… There’s no more treatment I can provide you.”

Arabel lowered her head, distressed that she couldn’t even call for a doctor. At that moment, the Emperor’s low voice reached her ears.

“Didn’t you heal me before?”

Not understanding the Emperor’s words, Arabel raised her head to look at him. As if he had been waiting for this, his red eyes captured her gaze.

“Have you already forgotten? The fact that you completely healed the beast’s wounds in the cave.”

“That… I don’t know how the black panther’s, I mean, Your Majesty’s wounds healed. When I woke up in the morning, the wounded area was cleanly gone. It wasn’t me who healed you.”

As Arabel’s round eyes drooped at the corners as she answered, the Emperor shook his head.

“No, it was clearly because of you that the black panther’s wounds healed. I can tell that from an animal’s instinct. That’s why I’m bringing you to the palace.”

“But I didn’t do anything.”

“If you think carefully about what you did that night, you might find a clue. What did you do first?”

As the Emperor pressed his bandaged shoulder, as if emphasizing that he was a patient, Arabel began to think deeply.

“I poured the medicine my father made…”

“That shoddy fake medicine made my wound worse.”

At the Emperor’s words, Arabel’s cheeks flushed red, seemingly apologetic. She continued speaking intermittently, as if tracing her memories.

“And… I didn’t do anything special… I’m sorry. It wasn’t me who healed you. I think you might have had self-healing abilities when you were a black panther.”

“No. Although it wasn’t a major injury, I had been injured frequently before. I had never healed myself. I was clearly dying that night.”

The Emperor added, narrowing the space between his eyebrows.

“Try to remember what else you did in the cave.”

Arabel tilted her head and began to list one by one what she had done.

“I brought wild berries in case you were thirsty, and knowing that the black panther didn’t have the strength to chew, I chewed them myself and made you drink. Then, feeling sorry that the black panther was dying, I just hugged its neck and cried. As I said, I didn’t do anything special.”

Red eyes sparkled in the pupils full of sympathy.

“Then one of two things is certain.”

“…?”

The Emperor brought his face close to Arabel, who couldn’t grasp anything at all, and whispered.

He brought his long fingers to Arabel’s eyelids and slowly traced them.

“What healed my wounds was either your tears or…”

The fingers tracing her trembling eyelashes moved down her cheek and stopped at the center of her lips.

“The liquid inside must be it. Or perhaps both.”

Arabel’s eyes widened in surprise. As she habitually tried to bite her lower lip, the Emperor’s finger entered along with it. It looked as if she was seductively biting his finger.

Startled, Arabel spat out the Emperor’s finger and tried to answer calmly. Her cheeks turned red due to the persistent red gaze following her eyes.

“You, you must be mistaken. I don’t have any healing abilities, nor have I ever heard of healing using the liq-liquid from a healer’s body. Usually, healing energy from the body is transmitted through the hands.”

“That could be true. However, given the urgent crisis in the empire, shouldn’t we consider all possibilities?”

A situation where his shoulder was injured by a falling branch had now become an urgent crisis for the empire. Arabel believed the Emperor too firmly to doubt his words.

In her eyes, Emperor Maxwell was the most benevolent and excellent emperor in the world… one who threw his whole body to save her from falling off a cliff, saved a dying fawn, and restored a forest burned down by evil arsonists.

The Emperor opened his mouth, staring intently at the kind eyes that were being persuaded. His dry voice didn’t contain a single drop of self-interest.

“We have no choice. We’ll have to experiment directly.”

The Emperor reached for the fruit plate placed on the bedside table.

He picked up the most luscious and sweet-looking ripe peach and brought it to Arabel’s lips.

“Let’s take a bite and experiment. Time is of the essence, so let’s not delay any further.”

The Emperor’s expressionless face was dead serious. It was as if he was conducting an important scientific experiment, to the point where even feeling embarrassed seemed strange.

As she watched the Emperor grimace slightly and hunch his shoulders as if in pain… Arabel slowly took a bite of the peach in the Emperor’s hand.

“Who, who are you? Do you dare know who I am?”

Prince Eric, returning to the empire with the delegation on a ship, shouted as they encountered pirates.

The delegation and his knights were helplessly thrown into the sea by the pirate gang. Prince Eric was crouched in a corner, his whole body trembling, unable to even think of fighting.

“I… I am the un-uncle of Emperor Maxwell of the Helterd Empire. When His Majesty the Emperor learns of this, you will not be safe.”

He tries to invoke the name of Emperor Maxwell, who usually doesn’t even make eye contact with him, while tears are welling up…

But it was useless against the pirate gang who had their entire faces covered except for their eyes. Whoever these lowlifes were, they didn’t even flinch at the name of the emperor renowned throughout the continent.

Prince Eric, pale as a sheet, tightly closed his eyes as he watched his soldiers collapse before him. They were soldiers who had guarded him since he was young.

Thump, thump, as the pirate’s footsteps drew closer, Eric fell to his knees and bowed his head. Pleading with his hands clasped together.

“Sp-spare my life… I’ll give you any compensation you want… Please, sob, sob.”

While enjoying a happy study abroad life with beautiful young ladies in a foreign country, he received news like a bolt from the blue.

It was the Emperor’s order to subjugate the Northwestern Alliance. The only sword he had ever wielded was against knights who had prearranged matches with him to show off in front of the young ladies. Yet now he was given the position of deputy commander.

Dragged along by the delegation, he boarded a ship to return to the empire, only to now encounter a band of vicious pirates.

He was about to lose his life before even reaching the battlefield. Could there be a more unjust life than this? It was already a lifelong regret not to have become Emperor, but now to close his eyes without even getting married.

This is all because of that damned Maxwell. That unlucky bastard who stole my throne. Tears falling, Prince Eric cursed his nephew Emperor Maxwell.

The tip of a sharp blade entered his downcast gaze. As if giving up everything, Prince Eric wrapped his head with both hands.

Swish.

The leader of the pirate gang sat down next to him, folding his legs, and whispered in his ear.

“Calm down. The Empress Dowager sent us.”

Cold black eyes with an unpleasant smile entered the confused prince’s eyes.

“If you don’t want to go to the battlefield, shouldn’t you be properly injured when taken hostage? We’ll escort you for a while, so don’t worry, Your Highness.”

The leader of the pirate gang raised his hand holding the scabbard with exaggerated grandeur.

With a dull thud, the prince was struck on the back of his head and collapsed onto the floor.

“Take him away.”

At the leader’s order, a large man easily lifted the prince onto his shoulder and disappeared.

“Tell the Empress Dowager. We’ve succeeded.”

The pirate gang’s leader sneered as he stepped over the bodies strewn across the floor.

“To divert her son from war, she even discarded his loyal guards like dogs. Indeed, the imperial palace is a more brutal place than the sea. Not that I’m complaining, since I’m getting paid handsomely.”