When Lutis went to the drawing room before receiving treatment, at the request of the child who was not throwing a tantrum.

“……”

“……”

Aeli and Noel were already sitting alone in the drawing room.

Why did Lutis go find him directly instead of calling the royal physician, and why did he send the child and Lutis alone instead of going together.

It may be puzzling, but there were reasons for it.

‘If we’re not advertising that we fought, going together is a bit… like that.’

Noel who looked fluffy and neat to anyone, and Lutis who was drenched in blood stains and covered in dirt.

Anyone would find that combination suspicious.

Of course, if the Sword Master came alone while injured and asked for treatment, that would be strange in its own way, but…

Anyway, it would be better than immediately spreading rumors about fighting.

‘Actually, going together wouldn’t be a big problem.’

It’s better not to unnecessarily make a fuss.

If people saw us together like that, they would imagine things whether they liked it or not, and if rumors spread, it would clearly become troublesome in many ways.

“…Hmm.”

Even if rumors spread, it wouldn’t be false – anyway.

That was the first problem.

The other reason was because of Aeli herself.

Right now, drawing attention was really burdensome for her, and there was nothing good about standing out even if she stayed still in this noisy situation.

‘Being seen with Noel or Lutis is one thing. I don’t like fully revealing my face now without the brooch.’

From the beginning, claiming to be a different person with the same face was not a welcome suggestion.

Although she understood and accepted the sentiment behind that suggestion – now that she knew the reason why Lutis was so eager to spread rumors about Aeli’s existence even at the cost of his own reputation, well.

Since he had already introduced her that way to the Pope, it was impossible to back out, so it would happen someday, but not right now.

‘If this gets headlined, it will practically become a topic of gossip not only among the nobility but throughout the empire.’

For that reason, naturally, a servant had to be called to summon the royal physician, so to reduce the number of times she would be seen even once, it was better to go find him directly.

Furthermore, since she would be exposed anyway whether she called him here or went to receive treatment – it was more ideal to just stay put.

“……”

“……”

But now that she thought about it, just going together might not have been bad either.

Aeli fidgeted with her feet and lowered her gaze at the awkward silence filling the drawing room.

It was fortunate that Noel couldn’t see her doing this since she was wearing shoes.

Staring blankly at the cooled tea in front of her, Aeli thought:

‘Uh, this is awkward.’

In the past, even when it was just the two of them, they would just do their own thing without minding each other.

Now, even breathing felt like walking on eggshells, making her want to run away. It’s wise to avoid what you can’t enjoy-

Bang!

“Kuh-heung… Hic.”

It was then that Aeli had that thought.

Lutis, who seemed to have finished treatment and changed clothes, entered the drawing room looking neat again.

The child nestled in Lutis’ arms, pressing his nose against his chest, still seemed dissatisfied and wouldn’t stop talking.

“It’s nothing serious, so stop crying. It’ll heal in a few days anyway.”

“But it hu-, khung! It hurts…”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“Tha- that’s a lie! The royal physician uncle was so shocked seeing the wound that he tried to sit on a chair but fell on the floor, I’m not stu-stupid!”

“……”

Lutis, who naturally came and sat next to Aeli, closed his mouth.

Silence is affirmation, so what the child just said was probably true.

‘No wonder the bleeding wouldn’t stop. The wound must have been deeper than I thought.’

It was natural for the royal physician to be surprised seeing the Sword Master show up covered in blood, but it didn’t seem like someone of the caliber of the Duke’s royal physician would collapse simply from that fact.

No matter how strong one is, as long as they’re human, they feel pain. So saying it doesn’t hurt was a lie, as the child said.

And the wound-.

‘…It will heal in a few days, but he’ll need to be careful for a while.’

No matter how he let himself get wounded, he probably made sure it was in a place that wouldn’t cause major problems or leave aftereffects even if it got injured, but it seemed like he would need to recuperate for the time being.

Come to think of it, Lutis hadn’t properly rested even after returning from rolling around battlefields for several years, had he?

This time, she was determined to make him take absolute rest.

Aeli rolled her eyes and looked at the child nestled in Lutis’ arms.

He had his body curled up to one side as if worried that the wound might reopen if touched wrong.

‘But he doesn’t seem to have any intention of getting down.’

He must have been quite shocked.

…It was understandable when she recalled Lutis’ appearance when she first encountered the child.

There was no point in saying more. Aeli softly asked the child who had his head buried in Lutis’ chest, sobbing.

“Adi,”

“N-, no…”

“……”

She hadn’t even said anything yet.

Aeli, who was unexpectedly rejected just by calling his name, clicked her tongue.

‘So this is how Noel felt.’

She wasn’t particularly curious, but unfortunately.

She still had things to discuss with Noel, but it didn’t seem like a conversation would happen at this rate.

But she also couldn’t forcibly separate the child who was crying, startled by his father’s injury.

She needed to comfort him, but with his face pressed against Lutis’ chest, he showed no sign of even lifting his head, which was troubling.

Around the time Lutis’ clothing was getting soaked from the child constantly sobbing…

“Hic, hic! Uwaah…”

“…You shouldn’t cry like that when you’re all grown up. Stop.”

“…?”

Aeli’s eyes widened.

It wasn’t just because Lutis, who let out a small sigh, lifted the child’s face and wiped it with a handkerchief.

‘He… He’s not the type to do that?’

No, more importantly, Adi was only five years old, so what did he mean by all grown up?

She wasn’t sure whether to be moved that he had advanced from just patting his back to firmly comforting him with a resolute voice, albeit clumsily, or to nitpick him for telling a five-year-old child to stop crying because he was all grown up.

Regardless, the child blew his nose on the handkerchief Lutis held to his nose and mumbled.

“Dunno… I’m still a baby, khung.”

“Your words keep changing, even though you said you were all grown up before.”

“…But I’m still daddy’s ba- baby. So I’m gonna cry! Hic…”

“……”

“He-, he’s not even letting me go yet. I’m really upset- uwaah!”

Noel, who went from ‘you’ to ‘he’, flinched and turned his head.

It seemed like it would take a lot of effort to regain a proper form of address no matter what happened in the future.

Just as Aeli was pondering what to do with this chaos that wasn’t quite chaos…

‘Ah, that might work- no, hmm.’

She hurriedly reached out for the teacup that caught her eye, but hesitated.

The thought had flashed that having him drink something might calm him down a bit, but the tea had gone completely cold for that, too cold.

Although it was a new one that hadn’t been sipped at all, due to the nature of black tea, the cooled one seemed like it would taste very bitter to a child.

‘Wouldn’t it be okay if I added milk or sugar cubes? He seemed to drink those well.’

Hmm.

Hmph.

‘…No.’

She didn’t feel good about giving him something cold.

Moreover, if he drank something cold in that state, there was a concern that he might choke.

If that was the case, it would be better to call a servant and prepare new tea.

‘I’ll just keep my head down and count the patterns on the floor carpet- no, I need to comfort him a little right now…’

It was the moment when Aeli, who quickly gave up, was hesitating and constantly looking after the child.

“…Huh?”

When she turned her head, steam was rising from the teacup that had been completely cooled until just now.

Aeli glanced at Noel, feeling like she knew who the culprit was that warmed the tea without even needing to say it.

His face looked hateful as he nodded his head nonchalantly, but she didn’t dislike him as much as she did now.

‘…Was it very obvious that I was having a hard time?’

It wasn’t exactly that, but because she couldn’t keep her fingernails still the whole time she was worrying, but Aeli had no way of knowing the unconscious behavior that came out.

Perhaps Noel’s eyes darkened at the gestures that matched the habits of the Aeli he remembered.

Without even having room to pay attention to that, Aeli put milk and sugar cubes in the black tea and placed it in the child’s hands.

“Adi. Shall we try drinking this a little?”

“N-, no,”

“Your throat will hurt if you cry too much. I’m not telling you to get off Daddy’s lap. Let’s just take one sip, okay?”

“……”

Noel quietly watched the scene with a stiff face.

Of course, he didn’t completely believe such a nonsensical claim. He just took a step back thinking it was worth reconsidering.

“Wow- Adi is so brave? That’s amazing!”

“…Really?”

“Of course! If you keep this up a little more, you might even beat Daddy?”

For some reason, he had a bad feeling.

Perhaps it was because the image of Aeli as a parent that he had imagined and the scene before his eyes were quite similar.

He thought that.

“……”

Lutis, who had been silently gazing at Noel like that, soon averted his gaze – which no one noticed.

“Do you think he’s calmed down a bit now?”

“Uh-huh…”

The child, who had successfully continued to occupy Lutis’ lap, slightly nodded his head while holding the teacup with both hands.

Fortunately, his tears had stopped.

Noel, who had been staring intently at the child, opened his mouth.

“-Anyway. I’ll send a messenger tomorrow or the day after, so keep that in mind,”

“No! No, I said no!”

“……”

Just when they thought they could have a conversation again…

As expected, the three adults sighed at the child who shouted again as soon as he spoke.

Aeli made eye contact with the child and asked.

“Adi. Can you tell us why it’s not okay?”

“……”

“If you just say it’s not okay without a reason, Daddy and Uncle won’t understand. You have to tell us so we can think about it together.”

Aeli gently admonished the child.

She was worried that this would take up a lot of time again, but she didn’t want to make the child who had just stopped crying cry again.

The child, fiddling with the teacup he held in both hands, spoke with a sob.

“I-, I said I won’t go…”

“……”

“When I come here, Mommy and Uncle wear black clothes and cry. So- hic…!”

So it’s not okay.

The child burst into tears again, barely holding back.

Aeli, Lutis, and Noel flinched at the sight of him just shedding tears without even the energy to cry out loud.

…Huh?