While Marina was cleaning up the bathtub and handing it over to the servants, Brody, who had gone up to respond to the call from the newlywed’s room, returned after quite some time.

“Why are you so late?”

Brody answered the question.

“I was escorting Dr. Lorenson back.”

For a moment, Marina was speechless upon hearing those words, but after a while, she opened her mouth.

“…Did you say you escorted Dr. Lorenson to the young lady’s newlywed room?”

“Yes. Lord Arthur asked for the attending physician…”

Marina’s expression gradually became strange as she silently stared at Brody.

“…”

“Marina? Why that expression?”

Marina muttered.

“Does Dr. Lorenson know?”

“Know what?”

In response to the dumbfounded question, Marina lowered her voice and exclaimed.

“The one next to Lord Arthur as his wife right now isn’t our young lady! Dr. Lorenson would surely realize it’s not Lady Christina as soon as he sees her. Is it okay to send him up?”

“!”

Brody stopped her hand, widened her eyes, and dropped the cookie she was about to put in her mouth.

* * *

Are my eyes getting blurry these days?

Dr. Lorenson, the family physician of the Julius family, stared intently at the young lady, blinked once, and pushed up his glasses.

Next, he narrowed his eyes to look at ‘Christina’.

“???”

He frowned and this time wiped his glasses. He even rubbed his eyes once.

The young lady seems somewhat different from usual.

“Pleased to meet you, Doctor.”

Arthur extended his hand to the physician from the side.

“Ah! Lord Arthur.”

Lorenson quickly took his gaze off the young lady and shook Arthur’s outstretched hand with both of his own.

A wide smile naturally spread across his face.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Alvin Lorenson, the family physician of the Julius family. Congratulations on your glorious return. Sincerely.”

“Thank you.”

“Please speak comfortably. You’re family of the Marquis’s household, aren’t you?”

Arthur responded with a gentle smile.

The physician beamed with an emotional smile, his eyes shining.

He felt overwhelmed and his heart ached.

To think such an outstanding son-in-law would enter the Julius family.

Having worked for the Julius family for over thirty years, Dr. Lorenson had his own affection for the family.

But if you asked whether that affection included loyalty or respect, it wasn’t quite like that.

It was closer to the feeling of a parent looking at a foolish child, thinking, “I have to embrace my incompetent child, what else can I do?”

After going through the family’s tumultuous history for a long time, it just naturally became that way at some point.

Dr. Lorenson, grinning from ear to ear, firmly grasped the hand of Arthur, our beautiful and proud son-in-law.

As the exclusive physician of the Marquis’s household, his duty was to care for the Julius family,

but since the Julius family consisted only of the Marquis couple, their one daughter, and the Dowager Marchioness living far away in a villa, he actually spent more time looking after the servants of the mansion than the Julius family members.

His patients were mostly servants like a maid who had been hit with an ashtray by the Marquis, or a servant who had been whipped by the young lady.

Generally, a family’s exclusive physician would care for the family members and their closest confidants,

but in reality, looking after just the Marquis couple and the Marquis’s daughter made the position of an exclusive physician rather leisurely.

Moreover, since the Dowager Marchioness had started managing the family’s image from the previous generation and instructed to have a resident physician at the mansion to take good care of sick servants, it was possible.

He was also respected by the servants for treating the employees working in the Marquis’s household, and Julius paid him generously separately, so it was a win-win situation for Lorenson.

In fact, the reason why all the servants, including Lorenson, the exclusive doctor of Julius, received generous salaries was officially for employee welfare, but in reality, it was for maintaining secrecy.

Thanks to this, Julius was barely maintaining a good public image.

Although he had to deal with cleaning up after Julius’s mishaps along with Head Maid Mrs. Hurst and Head Butler Jim, it still felt rewarding, like seeing a troublesome son finally starting to stand on his own feet after struggling to raise him.

It was great that the proud son-in-law, hailed as the century’s triumphant general, would continue this family line that had been worried about having no son, and that the whole world was praising the century’s couple, the beautiful Christina and the hero Arthur.

Our young lady is indeed pretty.

Though her temper is a bit nasty.

Dr. Lorenson smiled contentedly.

I was worried about who could handle this young lady, but with such a warrior, I can rest assured.

Even that formidable young lady won’t be able to act recklessly with such a husband.

Moreover, he was an incredibly handsome man.

He matches well with the young lady.

How beautiful will the children born between these two be?

In Dr. Lorenson’s mind, the next generation of Julius family children he would care for were already starting to appear.

Arthur spoke.

“The reason I called you is that I think I might have pushed my wife too hard last night.”

Dr. Lorenson was secretly shocked.

No, I may be a doctor, but this could make the young lady uncomfortable.

Dr. Lorenson deliberately avoided looking at the young lady and listened to Arthur’s words.

The rumor that Lord Arthur had personally carried the exhausted young lady in his arms into the mansion at dawn, with an atmosphere suggesting a passionate night ahead, had already spread throughout the entire estate.

Dr. Lorenson had only heard the rumors without seeing it directly.

Even so, he had thought it was an exaggerated rumor and couldn’t believe it, but to think it was actually true.

Wasn’t it said to be a political marriage where they had to separate right after the wedding ceremony, having only just met face to face?

Anyway, it’s fine. It’s a good thing for a married couple to be affectionate.

Arthur continued.

“The wind was cold all night, and she was only wearing a thin dress. Standing on the shaking carriage must have been tough too. My wife says she’s fine, that she was just tired, but I’m worried because she suddenly collapsed. I’d like to request an examination.”

Ah… So that’s what it was about?

Right, they had the victory ceremony all night. What was I thinking?

Anyway, Dr. Lorenson was also worried that the young lady had suddenly collapsed. That had never happened before.

In any case, Lord Arthur seemed to be a considerate person, which was satisfactory.

“I understand. I’ll examine her.”

“And there’s a wound on my wife’s forehead. I’d like you to look at that first.”

“A wound?”

What wound? A wound on a noble young lady’s face?

Dr. Lorenson was startled and quickly shifted his gaze from Arthur to look at the young lady.

Arthur gently lifted the right side of the young lady’s bangs with his hand, revealing the wound on her forehead.

Dr. Lorenson hurriedly approached, lifting his glasses to rest on his head, and looked closely at the area Arthur was pointing to.

“?”

And again, he was struck by a strange sense of déjà vu.

Did the young lady always look like this?

Dr. Lorenson lowered the glasses from his forehead and put them on again. Then he lifted them up again.

“?”

It certainly looked familiar, but somehow it didn’t seem like a face he often saw…

“!!!!”

Dr. Lorenson suddenly gasped and his eyes widened.

W-what’s this?

How did this happen?

This, this child…!

Dr. Lorenson was shocked.

The ‘young lady’ was sweating profusely and avoiding his gaze, not knowing what to do.

There was no doubt.

Five years ago. A maid who had been accidentally hit by an ashtray from the Marquis, whose wound he had tended to.

He couldn’t remember the name, but anyway.

Dr. Lorenson’s hands trembled.

‘This isn’t Lady Christina!’

He wanted to doubt his own eyes, but.

Next to the new wound Arthur had asked him to look at, there was a clear crescent-shaped scar from five years ago, which he had stitched himself.

* * *

With a bright red face, Alvin Lorenson stomped through the corridor.

Servants and maids who were about to greet him cheerfully with “Dr. Lorenson” looked at his face with startled rabbit eyes.

It was rare for him to make such an expression, as he was usually gentle and kind, commanding the respect of all the mansion staff.

Alvin Lorenson abruptly flung open the door to the study where the Marquis couple was.

“My Lord and Lady!”

In the study were the Marquis, sitting in a chair with his hand on his forehead, and the Marchioness, pressing between her eyebrows with the tip of her fan.

Also present were the ever-stern-faced Head Maid Mrs. Hurst and Head Butler Jim, who looked like he had aged ten years in just two days.

In front of them stood two maids with anxious, restless expressions.

One of them was the maid who had come to call him earlier.

Dr. Lorenson immediately grasped the situation from their variously chaotic expressions.

They all know. I was the only one who didn’t!

“Alvin…”

Dr. Lorenson firmly blocked the study door, turned around, and lowered his voice to bark.

“What on earth is going on here! Where is the young lady!”

“…”

The Marquis, who was slumped in his chair like a painting, only moved his lips to mutter.

“Please don’t say anything. I’m the one who’s going crazy here.”

* * *

‘….’

Reina awkwardly touched her forehead while looking in the mirror.

Back when she was hit by the ashtray thrown by the Marquis…

Even then, Dr. Lorenson had been kind to her, a mere maid, beyond what was necessary.

But still, the treatment a noble young lady received and what a maid received were different.

She definitely felt that he had used much better medicine and applied it more meticulously.

He even left her with ointment to apply to the wound frequently.

Dr. Lorenson had said he would pay special attention to prevent scarring and that he would come every day.

As if it were a matter of great importance.

He had said that if managed well, there might not be any scarring.

It was strange to hear that such a thing was important.

Five years ago, when she was injured, that hadn’t mattered.

Although it was in a place not easily visible, the wound Reina had received five years ago remained as a small scar on her forehead.

“…”

It should be okay, right?

Dr. Lorenson is known for being tight-lipped…

If that hadn’t been the case, the honor of the Marquis’s family would have been long buried.

“…”

Reina clearly felt it.

There was definitely a moment when the physician recognized her.

But the experienced Dr. Lorenson quickly regained his composure and showed remarkable calmness and quick-wittedness, treating her respectfully as ‘Lady Christina’ without making a single slip of the tongue.

By now, he probably would have gone to see the Marquis and his wife… and might have learned even more than the maids.

“…”

It’ll be alright. It has to be alright.

Reina unconsciously kept touching her wound nervously and repeated to herself.

…Nothing will happen.

I’ll be able to return to grandmother…

“I told you not to touch it.”

Arthur gently removed Reina’s hand that was touching her forehead.

Startled, Reina shrank away from him, her body curling up like a snail’s eye retreating into its shell.

“…”

One of Reina’s hands remained in his grasp, not fully escaping.

Reina, as if unable to even dare look at that, shifted her gaze awkwardly here and there.

“…”

Arthur, who had been quietly watching her, chuckled and asked with a smile in his eyes.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to be alone?”

He deliberately interlaced their fingers.

“…!”

Reina nearly jumped up.

“Now that it’s as you wished, you’re avoiding me.”

Arthur pulled on their interlocked hands.

Reina was helplessly drawn towards him and fell into Arthur’s arms as if stumbling.

Firm arms and a broad chest.

The faint scent that wafted to her nose was dizzying.