As Akkia entered the audience chamber, he saw Ilay sitting at the central table. Seeing Akkia approach, he smiled brightly with his eyes curved into crescents.

“I couldn’t be happier to see you looking so healthy.”

Ilay, who was more effusive than usual, finally stood up from his seat. Then he approached Akkia and embraced him.

“My one and only brother, Akkia.”

The hand gently stroking his back hesitated for just a moment. There were rampant rumors that the sickly Akkia had undergone a complete transformation.

As if to confirm this fact, the emperor’s fingertips felt firm muscles. But quickly erasing his surprised look, Ilay smiled gently.

“After drinking that tea that day, I heard you had become like this. I was so shocked. You have no idea how I felt then.”

“…”

“The late Empress passed away so suddenly too. If anything had happened to you as well, I couldn’t have gone on living. Akkia.”

The emperor holding Akkia slowly stepped back. When the emperor mentioned the late Empress, a subtle crack appeared in Akkia’s expression.

It was such a small change in expression that others might not have noticed, but the emperor thought “just as expected” while outwardly maintaining a devastated look.

“We may be cousins, but we grew up like real brothers, didn’t we? You’re the only one I can rely on, Akkia. You can’t leave me over just one cup of tea. No, of course not.”

The emperor, now distanced from Akkia, returned to his seat. Then he gestured for the duke, who was standing stiffly in place, to sit down.

“Let’s talk sitting down. So, are you feeling better now?”

The emperor’s piercing gaze followed Akkia until the moment he sat down.

His searching eyes continued as if trying to uncover everything about the duke, until their gazes met in mid-air.

Clearly, rumors said the duke had regained his speech. Ilay wanted to confirm for himself if Akkia’s voice had really returned.

As the emperor’s expectant gaze fell on him, Akkia let out a small sigh.

“I’m fine.”

Ilay closed his eyes. Hearing Akkia’s voice for the first time in years sent a shiver through his whole body.

The deep, low voice lingered in his ears for a while.

Then he slowly opened his eyelids. He saw Akkia already meeting his gaze.

A sheen glowed on the golden hair that had been hidden by sickliness. Akkia’s brilliant blonde hair exuded the legitimacy of the imperial family.

Not only that. From his sturdy frame shone an aura befitting an emperor.

‘No. Perhaps even more than…’

Enough to make one think he might be suitable for the imperial throne.

Ilay was intensely irritated by the duke before him. His one and only cousin brother who was asserting his presence with his whole being.

But the more anxious he felt, the more Ilay raised the corners of his mouth.

“I’m so glad you’re alright. But it’s strange.”

“…?”

“The sun-killing herb tea was just a nutritional supplement, but you suddenly collapsed.”

The duke, who had been fiddling with his teacup, raised his head at the emperor’s continued words. No matter how much the toxicity was amplified by the sun-killing herb, it shouldn’t have been life-threatening.

Clearly, Akkia must have staged the situation.

Otherwise, how could he who had stopped breathing return so perfectly alive?

The emperor’s eyes, glinting between his curved eyebrows, scanned the duke.

After a long silence while touching the teacup, the duke let out a low laugh. The emperor’s face changed at Akkia’s sudden laughter.

“Your Majesty has always been one to overthink things, now as before.”

“What?”

“I was just thinking my weak body caused it. Were you considering even that far, Your Majesty?”

“…”

‘I’ve been outmaneuvered.’

With one sentence from the duke, the emperor who had raised doubts ended up looking foolish. The emperor was momentarily speechless at the duke’s response that caught him off guard.

Without knowing the duke was taking Polarium, it would be difficult to connect the sun-killing herb tea with Akkia’s collapse.

From Akkia’s counterattack, the emperor became certain of one thing.

‘So Akkia knew I deliberately gave him the sun-killing herb.’

Seeing the composed duke, Akkia clearly drank it knowing the effects of the sun-killing herb.

Perhaps he had already realized that the emperor had learned about his Polarium usage through Professor Rams.

‘I’ve underestimated Akkia too much until now.’

Akkia picked up the teacup and smelled the aroma of the tea. Then he set it back down regally without drinking.

Akkia, now looking at him, stretched his lips into a smile.

“Of course. I’m always thinking of you.”

Unlike before, the emperor’s smiling lips trembled slightly.

“Anyway, I’m going to give a big reward to the pharmacist who cured you. I’m curious about her face too.”

“…”

“So, I have a favor to ask you.”

Ilay made his request under the pretext of a “favor” so that Akkia could not possibly refuse.

Perhaps knowing he could not refuse the emperor’s request, the duke’s eyes wavered for just a moment.

But the duke quickly erased his flustered look and responded with a smile.

“Anything I can do.”

Ilay called for an attendant as if he had been waiting for that answer.

“Now bring in the pharmacist.”

The door opened and Leah, who had been waiting outside, walked in. Unable to face the imperial visage directly, she bowed deeply in greeting.

“I am honored to meet Your Majesty.”

And as Leah slowly raised her head and saw the emperor’s face, she gasped.

‘That man…!’

He was the man she had encountered in the capital and the imperial palace. The emperor’s blue eyes sitting on the throne and looking at her were dazzlingly bright.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

Leah looked over the emperor while clutching her pounding heart. The man sitting on the throne was the knight who had saved her when she first came to the capital.

‘To think that man was the emperor.’

The man’s movements when saving her in the alley had seemed extraordinary, but to think he was the emperor.

While Leah was blinking in surprise at meeting the man in an unexpected place, Akkia’s face, which had never before shown distress, hardened.

Akkia interjected between the two and asked the emperor:

“Didn’t you say you had a favor to ask of me?”

“Ah, that. It’s not a difficult favor.”

Only then did the emperor’s gaze, which seemed unable to leave Leah, fall on Akkia. The emperor spoke with narrowed eyes:

“I want you to give me Leah.”

Akkia, who had been speechless at the emperor’s words asking for Leah, finally opened his mouth.

Akkia’s eyes were as deep and unfathomable as the depths of the ocean.

“…What do you mean by that?”

“What do I mean? I mean exactly what I said.”

Ilay took a step closer to Leah. Leah froze in place at the sight of the emperor gradually closing the distance.

The invisible tension between the emperor and Akkia was palpable on her skin.

“I’ve been overworking myself lately. My body hasn’t been well, you see.”

Ilay approached while looking only at Leah.

One step, another step. Now standing at a distance that could not be closed any further facing the emperor.

Akkia blocked Ilay’s path as he approached Leah. With a firm gesture as if telling him not to come any closer to Leah.

“Surely there are already more than enough excellent doctors in the imperial palace.”

Ilay’s eyes narrowed as he looked back and forth between Akkia and Leah. His puzzlement lasted only briefly before the emperor smiled at Akkia.

“It was your illness that even the imperial doctors couldn’t cure. And it was this pharmacist who saved you from the brink of death. I don’t think she’s any less capable than the imperial doctors. Don’t you agree, Pharmacist Leah?”

The emperor’s gaze fell on Leah, hidden behind Akkia’s broad back. Leah flinched, feeling as if the emperor’s sharp gaze could see right through her.

“I…”

Leah trailed off, looking back and forth between the two men at the emperor’s question directed at her. She couldn’t bring herself to agree outright.

‘What kind of situation is this?’

She was simply bewildered by the current situation.

It was surprising enough that the man she had met by chance in the capital was the emperor, but to suddenly ask her to work in the imperial palace.

Leah glanced cautiously at Akkia.

His tightly clenched jaw and eyes ringed with frost.

She knew what that expression meant. That the man was angrier now than ever before.

Leah sighed quietly at the palpable tension that seemed to squeeze her heart.

‘I don’t know what this is about, but I feel like accepting that offer would be a big mistake.’

As Leah’s mind began to race, searching for a way to politely refuse the imperial command.

“Surely you can do that much for your elder brother.”

But whether aware of the duke’s state or not, the emperor patted his shoulder.

With a look that seemed to say, ‘Surely you wouldn’t refuse such a small favor.’

Silence fell between the three for a long while. The duke, who had remained silent at the emperor’s question, turned around to meet Leah’s gaze.

“What do you want to do?”

“…I.”

Some might consider it an honor for their family.

An offer to work in the imperial palace was a great honor for a commoner, especially with the emperor himself calling it a favor.

But.

“I’m grateful for Your Majesty’s offer, but I…”

Just as Leah was about to voice a clear refusal. As if anticipating her rejection, Ilay cut off her words.

“Oh my, I didn’t give you time to consider. You don’t have to answer right away, so think it over carefully and let me know.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

‘Think it over…’

Leah bowed deeply in respect, at a loss in this difficult situation.

.

.

.

An awkward silence fell between the two on their way back to the mansion after leaving the imperial palace. And it was the duke who first broke the silence and spoke.

“You’re not thinking of working in the imperial palace, are you?”

The duke’s face was full of worry as he met her gaze. From the duke’s expression in front of the emperor, and now this question, it was clear.

The duke disliked the idea of her becoming the emperor’s personal physician. Of course, Leah also found the emperor’s sudden offer unsettling.

Unlike when they first met, there was something vaguely unsettling about Ilay when she encountered him today. She wasn’t sure if it was because she saw him confronting the duke.

Leah nodded toward Akkia.

“Of course not. The imperial palace is stifling. There are too many restrictions. Besides, you’re more important to me, Duke.”

Until they could treat the side effects that could manifest in each other at any time, she couldn’t leave.

At Leah’s soft voice filling the carriage, the duke whipped his head around.

‘I’m more important, she says.’

Doesn’t she realize people will misunderstand when she says such things with that innocent face?

But strangely, it was pleasant to hear. Enough to dispel the ominous feelings caused by Ilay.

Akkia’s lips, which had been gloomy the entire way back to the mansion, twitched.

“Don’t change your mind about that.”

And soon, a faint smile spread across the duke’s lips as he looked out the window.