It was the next morning when Ludmila, who had collapsed, opened her eyes.

Thanks to the doctor who was urgently called late in the evening and came to examine her, Ludmila was able to recover quickly.

“The pulse is normal and the breathing is steady, so you can be at ease now.”

The doctor, who let out a sigh of relief while putting his tools into his house call bag, turned his gaze to Ludmila.

She, who had been staring blankly at the ceiling with her eyes open, painfully furrowed her brow.

This was already the third time she had collapsed recently.

The first time was after eating food. The second time was due to a cold. And now, this last time.

Ludmila had never once thought that she was frail or in poor health.

Although people would say she looked sick because her skin was pale and dry, she hadn’t actually suffered from illnesses that much.

Rather, she couldn’t have imagined that she, who had hardly ever been prone to minor illnesses, would collapse like this.

‘Is there some problem?’

She worried that she might have a serious illness.

She came all this way because she didn’t want to die, but if she fell ill and couldn’t live long, that would be laughable in its own way, and she couldn’t just laugh at the thought that she might not be able to change a fate that would ultimately end in death.

The one fortunate thing was that Aden hadn’t seen her in this state.

If he had seen her collapse, that man would surely have stayed here instead of going to the capital, or he would have worried the entire way there. She couldn’t cause him such trouble.

“How is it, doctor? Is there any problem?”

Beressa, who had been watching the situation, came closer and carefully asked.

As Ludmila’s gaze rolled to the side, Beressa quietly smiled as if to say not to worry, then looked back at the doctor.

The wrinkled old man looked back and forth between Ludmila and Beressa, then said, “Could you step out for a moment, please?”

Beressa, who had expected to hear an answer, showed a surprised expression at the request to leave, but soon nodded and calmly withdrew.

When the door closed and silence fell, the doctor let out a small sigh and rubbed his face.

“Is my condition very bad?”

Ludmila, who calmly spoke in the lengthening silence, sat up in her bed. The doctor, who had been staring intently at her red eyes, shook his head lightly.

“No, your physical condition is healthy. As I felt before, compared to others of a similar age, there’s nothing particularly lacking.”

“Then why did I collapse? Has my cold gotten worse again?”

“Your cold should be fully recovered. As for the collapse…”

The doctor trailed off, pausing for a moment before raising his chin with a long sigh.

“I think it’s a good sign.”

“…Good, you say?”

How could collapsing be good? As Ludmila made a bewildered expression, the doctor smiled gently.

“It seems your symptoms of addiction are easing.”

“…Addiction?”

“Have you perhaps been suffering from insomnia recently?”

Ludmila calmly nodded. In fact, it was a question that didn’t need much thought. She had been feeling anxiety and insomnia continuously since coming here.

“Insomnia, cold sweats, pale skin, sunken eyes, blue lips. As soon as I saw Ludmila’s collapsed state last night, I was certain she was addicted to something.”

“By addiction… do you mean poison?”

“It could be poison, or it could be a highly addictive drug. However, fortunately, the fact that you’re collapsing like this or having cold sweats actually means that you’re being separated from the substance and your symptoms are improving.”

“Collapsing means I’m getting better?”

“Yes. Otherwise, you would have died.”

Ludmila swallowed hard at the sight of him saying such brutal words with a smiling face. The doctor stood up and took out a medicine bottle from his house call bag, holding it out to her.

“This is an antagonist. Since you probably don’t know what drug it is, I brought an opiate for now. It shouldn’t have any major side effects on your body, so please take it. Make sure to eat your meals regularly, and I’ve prescribed some separate nutritional supplements, so don’t skip those either.”

The doctor, who had stood up, looked at her and bowed politely.

“Well then, I hope you take good care of yourself.”

With those final words, the doctor turned and left the room. Confusion filled Ludmila’s eyes as she blankly stared at his retreating back.

As the door closed, a long sigh escaped through her lips.

‘…Addiction?’

Drugs, he said. This was the first time she’d heard of it.

She had vaguely heard stories of some nobles using highly addictive drugs.

But that was just rumors and about others. She had never once thought it applied to Ludmila herself.

Addiction…

‘Did Kedilen feed me drugs and get me addicted?’

That man who pathologically hated anything that harmed himself or his family did such a thing to her? To be honest, she couldn’t believe it. Then, if it was someone else…

‘The chandelier.’

Ludmila recalled the day she had died again.

When she first died, Ludmila had been certain it was Kedilen’s doing.

But as time passed and her reason gradually returned, she revised her thinking that Kedilen had killed her.

That man couldn’t kill her. No, he had no reason to kill her.

Leaving her alone would benefit the family, so why would he need to touch her?

Moreover, if he had intended to kill her, he wouldn’t have tried to embrace her saying he wanted to have a child.

Then someone else had killed her. The evidence of the murder was confirmed by the fact that the chandelier rope had actually been cut.

“Haa-.”

Clearly, someone had been trying to kill her for a very long time.

She couldn’t know who it was or if it was the same person, but it was clear that they were in a position where they could put drugs in her food for a long time without any suspicion, very close to her.

And the person at the top of that suspicion.

“Emma…”

The suspicion that the person who had killed her, and was trying to kill her, might be the nanny she had loved and trusted so much made Ludmila’s head even more complicated.

Wariness and contempt. Gazes full of insult and insignificance.

These were nothing special to Aden. Havertz was a cancer and an object of avoidance to the imperial nobles. It was only natural that they would be displeased with such a person frequenting the imperial palace.

“You seem quite used to this kind of place.”

Aden looked at Benjamin while calmly deflecting the gazes fixed on him. Benjamin, who had been looking ahead, turned his gaze with an uncharacteristically businesslike and cold face.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m impressed that you can remain unfazed while receiving such contempt and disregard every time. Well, I suppose it’s that level of shamelessness that allowed you to not even blink when the former Count Turval said he wouldn’t give you his daughter even if dirt entered his eyes.”

“I don’t understand why you’re bringing up my past stories.”

It doesn’t seem like you don’t understand. Aden stared at Benjamin, who was putting on a brazen expression, and tilted his chin.

“Do you know what kind of fault they’ll find this time?”

“As always, it will mainly be formulaic and businesslike questions.”

“In short, you mean there’s no point and they’ll be busy picking fights, is that right?”

Benjamin didn’t bother to refute Aden’s sarcastic words. Because his words weren’t wrong.

Swallowing a low curse, Aden turned his head and stopped walking at the scenery outside the window.

Benjamin, who had been walking ahead, turned with a puzzled face and approached Aden to check the scene he was looking at.

For a moment, a wry smile appeared on Benjamin’s lips.

They say people die when they do things they’re not used to. If that saying was true, Aden should have already become a corpse.

The barbarian, who had been far from aesthetic things, let alone flowers, all his life, was distracted by flowers for the second time in two days.

‘And you say there’s nothing between you and that woman?’

Although they had been friends for 20 years, at times like this, Benjamin couldn’t understand Aden at all.

Aden, who could just live peacefully married to a decent woman, was putting a knife to his own throat.

He was courting danger to embrace a butterfly full of poison.

Aden claimed it was just a contractual relationship, but Benjamin didn’t believe it.

While the relationship between the two might not have progressed to what could be called a typical couple, it certainly wasn’t just a contractual relationship. That was for sure.

“Shall I look up the names of those flowers for you?”

“No. Not the flowers, that.”

What Aden pointed to with a tilt of his chin was the pergola placed behind them.

Aden looked back at Benjamin, who was frowning, and twisted the corner of his mouth slightly.

“There doesn’t seem to be a pergola like that in the Black Wall. I’d like to install a nice one, and that looks just right.”

It’s not just right, it’s beyond your means. That pergola was something the previous Empress had personally ordered to be installed in the Empress’s Palace.

It had simply been moved here after being replaced by another pergola over time, but the beauty and meaning embedded in it remained unfaded.

“I’d like to make something similar to that.”

“I’m sorry, but as far as I know, the Black Wall’s budget isn’t flexible enough to create something similar.”

“Not at the moment, perhaps.”

“Pardon?”

As Benjamin made a puzzled expression as if to ask what he meant, Aden gave a dry laugh.

She was a woman who advocated for her own value more actively than anyone. It wouldn’t hurt to do this much for her who was trying to do more than the contract.

“Ah, if there’s not enough time, we could just move that one as is. I wonder how much that would cost?”

“…Your Grace. Have you finally gone mad? You’re joking, right?”

“Well? Whether it’s a joke or not…”

Aden’s gaze seemed to pass by Benjamin and fix on something behind him as his words trailed off. Benjamin, frowning, followed Aden’s gaze this time, and his breath stopped.

“It depends on how they react over there.”

A man walking from the opposite direction. A high-ranking nobleman with a neat smile.

“Duke Havertz.”

“It’s been a while, Marquis Erdi.”

Kedilen approached and greeted with a polite smile.