“Rose!”

Rose had collapsed on my lap. If Sylphid’s words about time not passing were true, Rose had just lost consciousness.

The green lights that had been tormenting Rose were now gone. Even the forest seemed different from its eerie atmosphere earlier. Perhaps it was the effect of the Spirit King’s magic disappearing.

“Rose, wake up!”

Though unconscious, fortunately Rose was still breathing faintly.

I called out desperately to the Sylph circling around me curiously.

“Sylph, isn’t there anything you can do?”

The Sylph avoided my gaze.

The words Sylphid had said stung:

“I, I need to ride a horse.”

Now that the magic protecting this forest had disappeared, we should be able to exit normally. So if we hurry to the castle for treatment…

Rose breathed laboriously. I was afraid it might stop at any moment.

“Hold on a little longer, Rose Temery. It’s all over now.”

Just as I was struggling to lift Rose onto the horse.

“Lady Anette! Miss Rose!”

“Anette!”

I heard the voices of knights searching for us in the distance.

“Here, here! Rose is here! It’s me, Anette!”

My heart pounded at the sight of the blazing torches. We’re alive. We’re alive, Rose.

“Anette!”

He came running, pushing through the trees. Not caring that his body was scratched by protruding branches, riding his black horse like the wind.

“Anette Porche!”

The male protagonist of my story ran towards me.

“Darius.”

Darius, Darius. The male protagonist of this novel who can overcome any dire situation.

The warmth of his embrace was intense. Trapped in his firm arms, I finally felt this long night coming to an end.

“When I lost you, I was so…”

Whoosh, his scent washed over me. What a reassuring smell.

Darius, I found the legendary northern treasure. And I received a Sylph from the Spirit King…

I wanted to say that, but the Sylph had already disappeared. It was because I no longer had even the minimum spirit power to maintain the Sylph’s form.

“Darius, please take care of Rose. You must save her.”

With those final words, I lost consciousness in his arms.

* * *

“She’s collapsed! Quickly, get a doctor!”

Darius returned carrying Anette in his arms. His loud voice echoing through the grand castle as he called for a doctor sounded somewhat desperate.

“Lay her down here. We’ll take care of the lady. She’ll be alright.”

“Her temperature and pulse are normal. The lady has merely fainted from exhaustion. It’s Miss Rose we’re more worried about…”

And so the chaotic night passed.

“Your Grace, please go and get some rest. We’ll watch over the lady.”

“No, I will tend to her myself.”

Darius received a wet cloth from the maid. Though he must be unaccustomed to such tasks, his touch was meticulous as he wiped Anette’s forehead.

“Anette…”

Darius couldn’t bring himself to hold Anette’s hand. After all, he had let go of her hand when she disappeared into the forest.

Her surprised expression was still vivid in his mind.

“This is all I can do for you.”

Throb. Darius’s chest ached.

* * *

Tweet tweet tweet. The morning birdsong woke me.

“Lady Anette, you’re awake!”

Apple, who was bringing in a fresh basin, looked at me with glistening eyes.

“You gave us such a fright. You left like that and then returned unconscious!”

As I tried to sit up, I realized my hand was held captive somewhere.

“His Grace tended to you all night. We offered to do it, but he wouldn’t listen. He just fell asleep moments ago.”

The hand holding mine was gripping tightly. As if never to let go again.

His hand that wielded a sword was rough, with calluses here and there.

‘There’s a wound.’

The fresh red scratch on his arm must have been from rushing to me last night, scraping against the trees.

“Shh, he just fell asleep, let’s not wake him.”

I carefully untangled our fingers. Darius made a disgruntled sound in his sleep.

“I never knew His Grace could be so gentle. He seems like the type of man who would treat his wife very well.”

“Is that so? By the way, how is Rose? She was in such bad condition, is she alright now?”

There were two things worrying me now. What had become of the treasure I found last night, and the condition of Rose who had fainted.

Feeling it wasn’t right to ask about money before people, I inquired about Rose’s condition first.

“Ah, um, about Miss Rose…”

But Apple’s expression darkened, and she struggled to answer.

A moment later, after hearing Apple’s words, a terrible cry escaped my lips.

“What?!”

* * *

“I will now begin the procedure.”

The bearded doctor stood before Rose, holding a razor-sharp blue blade. Beside the doctor, an assistant held a large basin ready to collect blood.

“We will drain the bad blood to restore Miss Rose’s vitality. This is the only option left now.”

Rose’s mother cried out in anguish.

“This doesn’t seem right, this can’t be right! Even if it’s a last resort, how can you cut into a young girl’s body!”

“Please calm yourself, madam.”

“The reason Miss Rose has such a high fever now can only be due to an excess of unnecessary blood. Is she not speaking nonsense about feeling cold while her body burns with fever? Once we drain the blood, these symptoms will improve.”

They had watched over her for a night, but Rose’s condition showed no signs of improvement. The eminent court physician staying at Inkhart Castle had proposed bloodletting. The idea was that there was too much bad blood in her body, and draining it would make her better.

“Bloodletting is too dangerous! It’s life or death!”

Seeing the glinting blade before her eyes, Rose’s mother embraced Rose, insisting this couldn’t be right. Rose reacted weakly to her mother’s touch.

“Cold, it’s so cold, Mother… Ah, Brother… Ugh.”

“Madam, Miss Rose is already in a critical condition. We need to make a quick decision.”

The doctor looked at Lucian. As if the knight and eldest son should pull himself together at a time like this.

Lucian embraced his mother weakly.

“Rose will return to us. Please wait outside. I’ll stay here with her.”

Whatever the outcome of this procedure, Lucian was determined not to let Rose face the blade alone and desolate.

“I’m sorry, doctor. Please begin the procedure.”

Lucian firmly requested, restraining his sobbing mother who was crying that this wasn’t right.

The doctor took a deep breath and raised the blade once more. Given the patient’s poor condition, they needed to drain as much blood as possible. That’s when it happened.

“Are you mad? Stop this at once! What? Bloodletting? After I went through so much to save her!”

Just before the sharp blade could touch Rose’s skin, the Duchess arrived at the operating room, red-faced and shouting at the top of her lungs.

* * *

“My lady, we must treat Miss Rose quickly! There’s a proper time for treatment! Please step aside!”

“Stop them, stop them, stop them! Bring a broom! Lock that door!”

Bang bang bang. The doctor and Lucian, who had been driven out, pounded on the locked door in bewilderment.

“My lady, please help with my sister’s treatment!”

“Yes, well said! That’s exactly what I’m doing! I’m keeping that crazy quack out of here for your sister’s sake, Lord Lucian!”

“My lady!”

Bloodletting, of all things.

I had underestimated this damned medieval medicine. The medieval medicine that considered pulling out all the teeth and cauterizing the palate as health practices, and believed that illness was caused by too much bad blood circulating in the body.

When I heard from Apple that Rose showed no improvement and the doctor had decided to try bloodletting as a last resort, I was horrified and rushed out.

Worried that my words alone might not be persuasive enough, I led a group of maids to immediately occupy the room.

There were many normal people who wondered why draining blood from a healthy person was considered treatment.

The problem was that those who thought that way were ordinary people, while those advocating bloodletting were doctors. To think that the conclusion reached after studying the most advanced medicine of the time was bloodletting, how absurd.

‘Where did they find such a quack to be the castle’s physician? I’m sure Lady Egritte brought him in for money.’

I cursed while guarding Rose’s room. Even a healthy person could die from bloodletting, let alone someone as weak as she was now. They might as well be telling her to die.

“You can’t do this, Lady Anette! Lady Anette!”

Bang bang bang. Outside, ignorant people were blaming me.

“What should we do now, my lady?”

“Thank you, thank you so much, my lady.”

A middle-aged woman thanked me from Rose’s bedside.

“I’ve heard so many stories of people dying from bloodletting that I absolutely didn’t want it done. But he and Lucian said it was the last hope… I couldn’t stop them!”

Even royalty in this era often died from bloodletting as treatment for epidemics.

She sobbed as she touched Rose’s forehead.

“Her fever hasn’t broken all night. And though her body is so hot, Rose said she felt cold.”

“My lady, we can’t leave Miss Rose like this.”

Stopping the foolish doctors was just a temporary measure. If we couldn’t rely on Rose’s natural healing ability alone, we needed to cure her.

In truth, I had no solution either. My major in my past life wasn’t nursing.

‘Think. There must be something, anything from modern common sense that’s better than medieval practices.’