“Why am I like this? Chief Royman.”

“I apologize, Your Highness. I apologize!”

“No, I’m not blaming you. My body feels like it’s going crazy.”

“Have you taken the medicine prescribed at the medical center?”

“The vomiting has stopped. But my body doesn’t feel like my body. At least it wasn’t like this when the Chief burned the herbs.”

“That procedure is not possible from now on, Your Highness.”

Greyon stretched his body with difficulty. It was then that Duke Rocard came.

Hwinid left, and Duke Rocard approached the languid Greyon and sat down. Greyon’s condition was tough even to joke about.

“Are you having a hard time?”

“Rocard.”

“Speak.”

“I’ve messed up.”

Duke Rocard’s voice was soft and affectionate.

“With this body?”

“I told His Majesty that I would attend the hunting party.”

Duke Rocard leaned back, drooling, not even bothering to hide his stiff face.

“His Majesty called me to the meal and said he would hold a hunting party. You, Your Highness, tried to leave me out as if it were a matter of course. ‘You should rest more, Greyon,’ he said.”

Greyon couldn’t bear to be ignored, and the First Prince touched on exactly that.

But if he didn’t show his prowess as a winning commander at the hunting party, the word would begin to spread.

That the Second Prince’s injury is not trivial. That the war might have ruined him.

Duke Rocard jokingly asked.

“So you said, ‘No, Your Highness’?”

“I haven’t been hunting for so long that my body is itching like crazy, so I said I’d catch a fox and rest the rest.”

“The aftereffects are severe, but if you receive Chief Royman’s treatment that morning….”

“I will camp out in the royal forest for the night. I’m grinding my teeth if it’s a camping, but they still play it at the palace.”

Whether the First Prince was trying to catch a fox or his younger brother, this was a trap.

“……”

“So just get me up and about for just two days, Rocard.”

Duke Rocard bent his upper body and pulled his hair with both hands, then straightened his hair and stood up.

They were a community of fate. When one was weak, the other had to be strong.

“If it’s not possible, I’ll even break your leg for you.”

“……I’m moved by your loyalty. But I would rather find a clever way.”

Solve an unidentified illness that the royal medical center could not solve in a few days.

Coming out of the bedchamber, Duke Rocard wondered if my father also overcame such trials and held the position of the first lion. But it was a fact that he thought there might not have been such a thing.

But whatever the answer, this was his share of the trial, and it was just the beginning.

He went straight to Hwinid’s laboratory and squinted his eyes and said.

“Chief. The Second Prince must be fully recovered in a few days, what should we do?”

Having lived in the palace for a long time, Hwinid understood the threat, or rather the pressure, of Duke Kaidel.

Hwinid stood up quietly and came back with a glass jar covered with cloth.

He smiled simply at Duke Rocard’s skeptical gaze and replied.

“It’s His Highness’s vomit. Would you like to see?”

Duke Rocard quickly grabbed Hwinid’s wrist, who was about to uncover the cloth.

“No, I don’t need to… It’s fine, Chief.”

“Um. Seeing it directly will help you.”

Duke Rocard tried to gauge whether Hwinid was serious or trying to outsmart himself with an impossible lie. But Hwinid was not a weak character.

Duke Rocard let go, and Hwinid uncovered the cloth. When he shook the glass jar a little, white threadlike things swimming among partially digested food chunks were visible. They were swimming alive.

“Parasites.”

“Ah……!”

“Type you can’t see among the Imperials. Probably from the Amata tribe. Perhaps my treatment angered these creatures. They are suppressed during the treatment, but when the effect of the medicine wears off, they become more furious.”

“My goodness.”

“They probably felt threatened by external stimuli and accelerated their breeding rate. That’s why His Highness’s condition has rapidly worsened now.”
It was an utterly disgusting story, but Duke Rocard thought it was hopeful news nonetheless.

“Since we know the cause, we can quickly find a solution, right?”

“Parasitic infection has clear solutions, but with only a few days… we are currently testing the empire’s medications one by one, but it’s not working. It would be best to turn it over to the medical institute. Many gathering to discuss it might…”

Duke Rocard firmly shook his head.

The royal doctors were the ones brought by the empress. He had been suspicious all along whether they were unable to treat the second prince at the royal medical institute or simply not treating him.

Moreover, a parasitic infection in the war hero, the second prince, was a subject of ridicule until death.

But the small sun must never become a subject of ridicule. Who would fear one bothered by mere insects as a future emperor?

After a moment of silence, Finid spoke uncertainly.

“Can you allow me access to the royal archives? There might be records. Now that we know what to look for.”