Not everyone is like this, but children with illnesses generally have a bad temperament. How can a child who is in the prime of their life, but is bedridden due to illness and has to take tasteless medicine, have a good temperament?

Moreover, Peter was even more so because he had been alone throughout his illness.

His body, which couldn’t control magic, always wrecked the surroundings, and Peter had to be isolated in a room protected by preservation magic whenever he had seizures.

At regular intervals, food and medicine were left outside the room. The boy picked it up with his own hands.

Sometimes, when a tray was placed next to him, he could tell that the Sun Emperor had come while he was asleep.

Only the Sun Emperor could withstand the boy’s magic in the palace.

I heard that the emperor’s consort received some of the emperor’s magic and life, making them similar in constitution. If Peter’s mother were still alive, she would have surely been able to watch over the boy.

“I miss my mother.”

But Peter’s mother left him when he was young. What remained for him were the inhumane temper of his father, who was even going mad. Even so, Peter was comforted by the fact that his father sometimes came to visit when he saw the tray next to him. He felt comforted just by the fact that his father was looking for him.

He felt that he wasn’t alone.

So when Peter was sent to Hessen Viscountcy, he was in severe depression.

“My father abandoned me in the end.”

He said that his father sent him because he needed care, but would there be facilities and doctors better than the palace in Hessen Viscountcy? Peter thought that his father had completely abandoned him under the pretext of nursing. In Peter’s mind, he even imagined himself spending his life alone and dying alone in this place.

But, there was a preservation spell on the mansion. Moreover, the place where the servants stayed and where the boy stayed were completely isolated.

Even so, since it was called nursing, he hoped that this place would be a little different, but his heart froze when he saw the inside of the mansion, which was as vast as it was cold. Even if he had a seizure or babbled with a high fever, no one would know.

“Darn it.”

Peter lay on the bed and chewed on the forbidden curse silently. His etiquette teacher would be shocked if he found out.

While being angry at the fact that he might have to spend his whole life in such a place, on top of that, he felt dizzy with poison or residual poison accumulated in him during his journey here.

He felt boiling magic, just like boiling fever. Apart from the throbbing pain in his head, his heart sank deep, and he wondered if this was the depression he had seen in books.

The moment Peter gritted his teeth and tried to sleep, someone knocked on the door.

“…No! You shouldn’t come closer!”

“Oh dear, why can’t I? What’s so dangerous?”

There was a commotion outside. The voices were getting closer.

One was a steward who had followed Peter, and the other was the voice of a girl who seemed quite stubborn.

“Just let me in for a moment. Is it really that dangerous to go in for just a moment?”

“No, Miss! The disease Master is suffering from makes the surroundings painful, especially for a sick girl… Miss!”

Right after the steward’s pitiful shout, footsteps could be heard, and the door opened with a creak.

In front of the open door was a girl with black hair. The girl, who looked about ten years old, smiled widely when she saw herself and then ran toward him.

Since it happened so suddenly, neither Peter nor the steward could stop the girl. Everyone crossed a line that had never been crossed before because of a girl they had just met.

Entering the room was one thing, but if she got too close to him, she would surely be harmed by the magic.

“S-s-stop! Don’t come any closer…”
Peter hurriedly pulled the blanket and tried to shout for her to stay away.

However, the girl was a step ahead.

“What’s wrong? It’s not a big deal!”

“…What?”

“Look at this, mister! It doesn’t hurt at all!”

The girl shouted cheerfully, then looked at the steward standing dumbfounded in front of the door and laughed mockingly.

“Haha! Mister, you’re a scaredy-cat!”

Thanks to her, the steward had a bewildered expression. He couldn’t enter, and he didn’t know what to do.

In the meantime, the girl approached Peter, who was broken down like the steward, and reached out her hand.

“Hello? I’m Rowell! What’s your name?”

“Pe…ter.”

For a moment, he almost said his full name. He briefly forgot that he had to pretend to be a noble young master here. His father had admonished him to hide his status, as revealing the existence of nobility could lead to assassination attempts.

“Peter? Nice to meet you!”

The girl shouted like that and energetically took Peter’s hand. It had been so long since someone had grabbed his hand like this that Peter was surprised without even realizing it.