As Heila left the room after expressing her worries, Erina fell asleep and had a dream.

The original story she never wanted to face again appeared in her dream.

The original story began with the fateful first meeting of Peiron and Rose, ended with the villain Erina being driven out and the two having a grand wedding ceremony for a happy ending.

The exiled Erina helplessly watched them looking happy, and eventually took her own life.

Wearing the wedding dress that was the only thing left for her after having to give up so many things.

The original Erina was quickly forgotten, not even remembered by many.

In the dream, Erina cried as she saw herself dying alone and lonely behind the happily smiling couple.

Because it hurt that the original Erina, who had unwillingly become a villain because of the two, was not remembered by anyone.

She wept and cried loudly in the empty dream.

The grand final scene of the original story began to crack and slowly crumble.

As the seemingly happy Peiron and Rose crumbled and the shining magic stones between them lost their light, she felt the ground beneath her feet giving way.

Everything moved away from her sight and muffled voices echoed as if heard from far away.

“Erina!”

“Huh!”

Startled by the sudden clear voice and the urgent shaking sensation, Erina woke up from her dream and came to her senses.

Erina’s eyelids were so heavy that it was very difficult to open her eyes.

“Are you awake? Can you answer?”

Heila’s voice buzzing in her ear made her head throb and ache.

“My head…”

“Does your head hurt? You just took medicine, so it should be better soon.”

At Heila’s words, her head that felt like a boulder slowly began to clear as if by magic.

When she properly opened her eyes, she saw Heila’s face looking down at her with beads of sweat on her forehead.

“Hei, la?”

“Yes. You recognize me? Oh, I was so worried.”

“Why…”

“Your fever spiked after you fell asleep and you were unconscious for two days.”

She could feel that she was lying straight, but her body felt so heavy that even moving a finger was burdensome.

“They say it’s because you overdid it. Ah, the doctor here should be trustworthy. When that quack saw the young lady and immediately turned away saying it was malingering, I kicked him. I did well, right?”

Erina smiled along, seeing how refreshing Heila looked with her bright smile.

“Fortunately, the Marquis sent a doctor quickly. He must have been very worried, as there’s an informant nearby- oops, I wasn’t supposed to say that. Keep it a secret.”

Heila wiped Erina’s forehead once and carefully sat on the bed.

This grand household seemed to have mentally exhausted Erina, as her fever rose sharply as soon as she fell asleep after entering the Iols mansion.

Erina was groaning in pain without regaining consciousness, so Heila was shocked and turned the Iols mansion upside down that night.

When she yelled for a doctor, a surprised Peiron came to Heila.

When she asked for a doctor to be called because Erina was sick, Peiron made a strange expression and sent a servant to wake up and bring the sleeping doctor.

The doctor took one look at Erina, who was gasping with a flushed red face from the fever, and said just one thing with an unpleasant expression.

“It seems the madam is pretending to be ill again.”

Heila was so dumbfounded by the scene that she was at a loss for words.

Angered by the doctor’s conclusive statement, Heila couldn’t hold back and kicked the doctor in the shin.

“Ack!”

The doctor grabbed his sharply kicked shin and made a fuss loud enough to shake the mansion.

“What are you doing…!”

Heila glared at Peiron, who was just quietly watching the situation while the doctor was making a scene, and said:

“Does it really look like malingering to you, Count?”

Peiron looked at Erina, frowning at the doctor’s loud screams.

Her face flushed red and gasping for breath clearly showed she was ill to anyone who saw.

Watching Peiron staring intently at Erina, Heila suppressed her annoyance and politely requested:

“I will bring a doctor from outside. I cannot trust a doctor who calls it malingering after seeing her in this state.”

Peiron, who had been silently staring at Erina without averting his gaze, nodded and answered:

“Do so.”

Heila, who had been thinking of how to argue back in case of refusal, looked at Peiron with a strange gaze as he readily agreed.

Peiron stopped staring at Erina, kicked out the doctor who was still whimpering and clutching his leg in the room, and left.

After confirming that it was quiet outside the room, Heila took out a small magic stone and placed it on the thick silver bangle bracelet on her wrist.

As the bracelet absorbed the magic stone and began to glow, Heila spoke briefly:

“Critical, doctor.”

It was a bracelet Heila had brought from the Marquis’s mansion on Sandes’s orders when she left.

The bracelet was a communication artifact, not extremely powerful, but it had magic that could transmit short words to those with the same artifact.

Heila used the magic stone without hesitation, which she was told to use generously in case of emergency.

Although it had the ability to transmit regardless of distance, it was very inefficient as it required using a magic stone larger than its capacity.

But in urgent situations like this, the artifact’s ability shone.

As soon as Sandes heard the location of the magic stone mine from Erina, he quickly mined a few and gave the magic stones to Heila before getting off the carriage.

Heila confirmed that the words were transmitted properly and prepared a wet cloth to put on Erina’s forehead.

Not long after that, a doctor Heila had seen a few times before urgently visited the mansion and examined Erina.

The doctor said it seemed like she had come down with the flu due to overwork and lack of sleep.

He said the fever could last a day or two, gave her medicine, and left the mansion saying he would stay nearby and to call if she didn’t regain consciousness.

Heila smiled at Erina, trying hard to forget what had happened. There was no point in telling the patient the details.

“Thank you, Heila.”

At Erina’s response, Heila gently stroked her pale forehead where the fever had subsided.

Though she was a married woman around her own age, she felt like a younger sister.

She kept feeling concerned, as if she was someone who still needed care and endless affection.

“When you were sick… was it always like this?”

At Heila’s soft question, Erina opened her eyes wide and then smiled quietly.

The concern in her fingertips made her heart tingle.

She couldn’t even remember the last time she had received such a touch.

“It’s nice. Having someone worry about you when you’re sick.”

Heila quietly held Erina’s hand as she smiled, avoiding answering.

Erina and Heila looked at each other and smiled.

‘Knock knock knock knock-‘

Their touching moment was brief as someone knocked loudly and quickly to an unpleasant degree.

“Hey, Erina!”

The door flung open as a voice called for Erina.

Heila was startled by the truly ill-mannered entrance and stood up from the bed to stand at the bedside.

Erina also raised her heavy body to sit up as her mother-in-law Mirea entered.

It was remarkable that she had managed to raise her ailing body, but Mirea seemed displeased that Erina was still sitting on the bed and snapped at her:

“Are you sitting in bed when your mother-in-law has come?”

Heila’s mouth fell open.

She couldn’t gather her wits due to the shocking entrance followed by such infuriating words.

“I’m a bit sick.”

“Tsk tsk, even if you’re sick, it’s probably just malingering. What do you even do that you’d be sick?”

Erina just felt like laughing at Mirea’s words that didn’t deviate at all from her expectations.

“Are you laughing? Is what I’m saying funny?”

“Yes.”

“Wh-what?”

When Erina answered yes to the question of whether it was funny, Mirea was shocked and pointed a finger at Erina.

“This is why your husband doesn’t love you, because you act like this!”

Heila, who had been quietly watching from the side, finally couldn’t stand to hear more and said through gritted teeth:

“Lady Iols.”

Mirea, who had been yelling loudly, looked Heila up and down as she quietly stepped forward.

Seeing her neat, unobtrusive attire and unfamiliar face, Mirea considered her an unimportant figure.

“What’s this?”

“Heila Bentel, the lady’s maid.”

Heila introduced herself as she approached from where she had been standing at a distance.

She naturally stood between the two, blocking Erina from Mirea’s sight.

“Maid? Ha, how could someone like you have a maid…!”

Before Mirea could finish pointing at Erina and yelling again, Heila spoke:

“I received great help from the lady and voluntarily came as her maid.”

As Heila’s cold gaze turned towards Mirea, she faltered.

It was because Heila’s height was taller than expected up close, and the hostility filling her bright red eyes was fierce.

“Mo-move!”

Mirea raised her voice even more, not wanting to admit that she had been intimidated.

“I apologize, but the lady has only just woken up.”

“So what? Are you saying I should leave?”

Heila stood silently without saying a word.

Feeling the silent affirmation, Mirea’s face reddened as she began to raise her voice:

“Move! Move right now!”

“I’m sorry, Lady Iols. The doctor has diagnosed that she needs sufficient rest.”

Heila finished with a seemingly polite smile and a slight bow instead of the words that should have followed.

Mirea stepped back at the piercing gaze in Heila’s eyes, which remained high even as she bowed her head.

Erina looked at the reliable back that shielded her from the stressful figure.

Whether it was because her sick body had dulled her emotions, her heart fluttered.

But she had to compose her weakened emotions at the continued unpleasant shouting.

“Erina! Get up and come out right now! Hey!”