Her feverish body was soaked in sweat, emitting a hot heat with each labored breath.

Akiya, anxiously watching her, asked Frankenstein as if poking him.

“How is she right now?”

The bed was stained with red blood, vividly demonstrating the urgent situation. Frankenstein, who had finished the emergency treatment, rose from his seat with a grave expression.

“The wound isn’t as severe as you might think, despite losing quite a bit of blood. However…”

There was a wound on Lea’s side, about two fingers wide, but it wasn’t deep enough to endanger her life.

“There was poison on the tip of the knife.”

“…Poison?”

“It’s a toxin extracted from a poisonous mushroom called the Black Bunch. Highly venomous.”

At first, I thought she had lost consciousness due to losing a lot of blood.

However, looking at her lips turned blue and her nails stained black, I realized that she had been poisoned.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, Lea had taken an antidote to spider venom with detoxifying effects.”

Listening to the man’s words, Akiya, who had been silently listening, cast a wary glance at him.

“Do you know Lea?”

“Yeah. We met in the Bellarus territory. She asked me about the side effects of spider venom at that time.”

Akiya’s mind briefly flashed back to Lea’s words about seeking advice from the renowned doctor Frankenstein.

“So, you are Dr. Frankenstein.”

“Yeah. Given the circumstances, let’s skip the greetings.”

Professor Frankenstein wiped the sweat off his forehead. Then, he gently tapped Akiya’s slumped shoulders.

“Lea’s fate hangs in the balance tonight. If the spider venom in her body works detoxifyingly at the right time, she should be okay.”

“…”

“So, let’s wait and see how it goes.”

Frankenstein said further detoxification was meaningless. The only way for Lea to recover was for her to expel the poison herself. After saying that, he left the examination room.

Once Frankenstein left, a cold silence settled inside the room. Akiya, with a pained expression, sat down by Lea’s bedside, like someone who had collapsed.
“Lea…”

Eventually, the Duke of Bellarus’s concerns became a harsh reality.

“I didn’t bring you here.”

It wasn’t to meet you.

It wasn’t to whisper love to you.

Everything entwined with Lea turned into intense regret, tightening his breath.

If only, if I could turn back time… If only…

“If I could go back to when I first met you.”

From the beginning, I shouldn’t have opened my heart to you.

I should have kept pushing you away. If I had, you wouldn’t be wandering in such misery today.

“I…”

He had no right to protect something precious. As Akiya recalled the events at the square, his heart burned as if it would burst.

To see her collapse like a wilted flower, as if he were a fool.

If Frankenstein hadn’t appeared, Akiya wondered what would have happened to Lea. Just the thought of it, even without making a sound, was dreadful.

“What should I do now… without you…”

Akiya stared blankly into the emptiness as if he had lost his way.

The sound of weeping insects seeped through the window. It was a night when pitch-black darkness descended, as if it would swallow the whole world.

In the quiet room filled only with a heavy silence, a faint sound of bedding tearing was heard. Lea’s fingertips twitched slightly.

Akiya, who had momentarily dozed off while holding her hand, opened his eyes at that small movement.

Soon, a familiar voice was heard.

“Your Excellency…?”

The eyelids of Lea, which seemed like they would never open again, gently rose. The eyes that used to seem as if they emitted a fresh scent of grass now had a withered light.

“Lea!”

“Where is this…?”

“Dr. Frankenstein’s clinic.”

Akiya sighed with relief at the news of Lea regaining consciousness. However, that relief was short-lived, and he spoke to her, restraining the resentment that seemed to burst out.

“Lea. Go back to Bellarus Duke’s mansion immediately. And don’t think about coming out again.”

Thinking about her collapsing at the square, Akiya couldn’t bear it. Dr. Frankenstein’s words about Lea already being dead if she hadn’t taken the medicine echoed in his ears.

“What are you talking about? The completion ceremony of the hot spring is just around the corner.”

Lea, who had suddenly changed her attitude due to Akiya, struggled to sit up from the bed.

“I decided to attend the ceremony with you, remember?”

“You are stepping out of this matter. No, you should quit your job as my apothecary from now on.”

Akiya said firmly. The time Lea spent wandering in misery seemed like an eternity to him.

Knowing that she was the Duke of Bellarus’s protege was extremely rare. Not just Akiya himself, but only Bellarus Duke, Lea, and Akiya himself knew.

That meant, this incident might be related to…

“Illery.”

It had to be Illery, or Lord Leorode’s doing. Targeting Lea, it was a warning message they sent.

“Don’t proceed any further.”

Akiya clenched his fists until they turned white. He had sworn not to lose another precious person.

Lea was a fragile being that had to be kept in his arms. Such a person had been attacked with a killer’s knife. And it was because of him.

His eyes became hot, and soon they turned red. Lea, who looked up at the Duke’s eyes filled with crimson blood vessels, slowly raised her hand.

“Your Excellency…”

The eyes of Lea, wiping his face, were moist, probably because of the deep sense of self-blame spreading over Akiya’s face.

The moment she saw that, Lea sensed it. That the reason she was stabbed by a knife this time might be related to the hot spring project.

“I’m okay. I’m much stronger than what Your Excellency thinks.”

“…?”

“I want to help Your Excellency. Please let me stay by your side.”

She reached out, and Akiya embraced her. Like Lea, he didn’t want to let her go.