“What are you thinking so hard about? Are you thinking of something else with me right in front of you?”

“No, I’m not.”

Maternal love. Is that too strange to say?

“What is it? Is it something you can’t tell me?”

When I didn’t answer, Ian asked as if urging me on. Seeing that, I burst out laughing.

When he acts so cute like that, doesn’t it make even nonexistent maternal love arise? It’s ridiculous and funny that I, who’ve never even had a child, let alone been in a proper relationship, am going on about ‘maternal love’, but I can’t help it. How can I resist when Ian acts so adorably?

“Are you going to laugh by yourself?”

“No, I just had a strange thought.”

“What kind of strange thought?”

“I had a conversation with Ileana this morning about various things. Ileana said she… views Claire like a daughter. Having been close for a long time, she worries and cares about her. So when the other person seems to distance themselves, she feels hurt. And the way I feel about Your Highness the Crown Prince is exactly like that.”

“You mean I’m that kind of existence for Jane? Something to worry about, care for, and feel hurt if I distance myself. Is that what you’re saying?”

I nodded at his words and added:

“I suppose I…”

“…”

It wasn’t anything extraordinary I was saying, but Ian’s face hardened and he swallowed hard. I thought it wasn’t something to be so tense about, but I told him:

“I think I see Your Highness as a son.”

He was extremely flustered. His voice was also slightly excited, as if he was somewhat angry.

“What? You think of me as what?”

“A son.”

This time, Ian’s expression hardened severely. Was ‘son’ too much? I quickly corrected myself.

“Alright. Son seems too much, so a younger brother. I feel like you’re a younger brother.”

As if it still wasn’t the answer he expected, Ian wore a dumbfounded expression. I shrugged my shoulders and explained.

“If you think about it, the age difference between Your Highness and me…”

“It’s only 4 years at most. In fact, I’m probably 2 years older now?”

It was a strange calculation, as if my age went somewhere just because I’m using Claire’s body.

“Who only considers current physical age? How much longer have I lived than Your Highness the Crown Prince? You can’t ignore mental age. And if we only consider mental age, it would be a 10-year difference, not 4.”

“I think my mental age is higher too.”

Ian did sometimes seem like an old soul, but in terms of mental maturity, I’m no pushover either.

“That’s nonsense. Anyway, maybe it’s because I’ve known Your Highness the Crown Prince since you were young. That’s the feeling I get. Don’t you feel that way? Have you never thought of me as an older sister?”

“Absolutely not! I’ve never thought of Jane that way! Not even for a moment.”

He was so serious that I felt embarrassed for no reason.

“If not, then not. Why are you so serious? You’re making the person who said it uncomfortable.”

“Because Jane is saying such nonsense.”

“Tch! Alright.”

Ian let out a deep sigh.

“Hey, there’s no need to sigh…”

“Just. It feels like Jane and I have a long way to go.”

Seeing his extremely despairing expression, I felt sorry for bringing up such unnecessary talk.

I thought I could start operating the medical office right away since I was assigned a building in the imperial palace, but more preparation was needed than expected.

The medical office was ready, but no medicinal ingredients were prepared at all.

“I just need to submit a purchase order, right? Regardless of price or quantity?”

Ian nodded.

He didn’t seem busy at all, sticking by my side all day and helping me adjust to the work of a palace physician in various ways. Looking for things to write the order form, pen and ink were on the desk, but paper was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is the paper…”

“Check the first drawer. The head servant always puts paper in the first drawer.”

I took out paper from the drawer to order medicinal ingredients.

‘How elaborate…’

Perhaps because it was paper used in the imperial palace, elaborate patterns were drawn on the top and bottom. The texture and thickness were completely different from what I usually used.

After briefly marveling at the quality of the paper, I organized the medicinal ingredients to order. Since I couldn’t order everything at once, I wrote the order form focusing on things to prepare sequentially and ingredients needed immediately to make Ian’s medicine.

“How long will it take for the medicinal ingredients to arrive after ordering?”

“I told them to bring what they can get, so if it’s from pharmacies within the capital, they should be able to fill it by tomorrow. Things that need to be brought directly from the source will take that much more time.”

I waved the list I had diligently written and asked:

“Even with this many types?”

“That much should be prepared without issue.”

The list in my hand was over three pages long. The densely listed medicinal ingredients, though I wrote them myself, were enough to make one dizzy just looking at them.

Nevertheless, he nodded as if it was no big deal. Is this how a medical office can be set up overnight? It’s an incredible capability.

“If there are any other items you need, just request them.”

“You won’t reject it later saying there’s insufficient funds, right?”

“There’s absolutely no chance of that happening before the national treasury runs dry.”

“Many medicinal ingredients are unexpectedly expensive. There are quite a few that are more valuable than gold and rare. What if the national treasury really does run out?”

Of course, the national treasury wouldn’t really run out just from buying some medicinal ingredients, but I felt self-conscious about using the country’s money.

“Don’t worry. The treasury of the Callovanian Empire is more impressive than you can imagine. Think of it as an inexhaustible cornucopia.”

“Wow…”

Ian smiled contentedly at my amazed reaction.

“I think I’ve fallen in love just now.”

“With me?”

“No. Not with Your Highness the Crown Prince, but with the financial power of the Callovanian Empire. Money really is the best. To be able to order medicinal ingredients without worrying about the amount.”

All the troubles I’ve had due to the cost of medicinal ingredients flashed through my mind like a panorama.

I thought the work of a palace physician would be similar to the pharmacist work I’ve been doing, but it wasn’t. Not having to use my own money for medicinal ingredients was revolutionary.

“It’s the same thing. Don’t forget that wealth comes from me.”

“How does it come from Your Highness the Crown Prince? It comes from the national treasury.”

“I’m soon to be the owner of the Callovanian Empire. So it’s not wrong to say it comes from me.”

He spoke as if it was a given fact that he would be the next owner of the Callovanian Empire. It wasn’t wrong either. He was the Crown Prince.

There was his younger brother, Prince Daniel, but I heard he had little interest in politics or the emperor’s position. Barring any unexpected events, he would be the next owner of Callovan.

I grumbled with my mouth, but inwardly I was grateful to him.

It was thanks to him that I was receiving such treatment. If he hadn’t proposed the position of ‘palace physician’, it would have been difficult in many ways to set up a medical office.

Before, even though I inherited the pharmacy my grandfather ran, it wasn’t easy. But if I had to start from scratch with nothing, there was a high possibility I wouldn’t be able to open a medical office even after a year of preparation.

By the way, I wonder what happened to my old pharmacy.

I did stop by in front of the pharmacy recently to see people mourning my death, but I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. It probably wouldn’t have much left inside anyway, given how thoroughly it burned.

“Has Your Highness the Crown Prince been to the pharmacy? After the fire?”

Ian nodded in response.

Well, from what I heard at the banquet, Ian visited there almost daily after I died. Even if there was some exaggeration in her words, he must have gone there that often.

“Were there any items left there by any chance? Like ledgers or books…”

It wasn’t just the medicinal ingredients I had carefully managed and preciously kept that were lost when the pharmacy burned down. The information about patients who had visited me and my grandfather’s notebooks were incredibly precious and valuable to me.

In Ian’s case, no records are kept at all for security reasons, but when running a medical office, there is information that must be recorded. Especially information about people with chronic illnesses that I need to care for consistently.

How long they’ve been ill, what medicinal ingredients they’ve been prescribed and for how long, whether they had any other past illnesses, if there’s any family history, and so on.

No matter how good my memory might be compared to others, I couldn’t remember all of that, so I had records left in my own way.

My grandfather’s diary was the same. Grandfather wasn’t sentimental enough to keep a diary, but he always made sure to record new herbs or disease symptoms he learned about.

Even just before he passed away, perhaps worried about me, he meticulously organized what he knew for my sake. It was precious data that would be hard to find anywhere else.

Even endemic diseases that are being forgotten now were recorded in detail. Sometimes when there was a disease difficult to diagnose, grandfather’s notebook became an important reference.

If only grandfather’s notebook remained…

“There were no documents or books left inside the store that could be salvaged because everything was completely burned.”

“It’s regrettable, but it can’t be helped.”

Paper items would have been easy to burn, so it’s natural nothing remained.

“Do you remember anything about that day?”

“Well…”

“The night of the fire. Anything strange? Or seeing someone you hadn’t seen before…”