Henry left the drawing room with Tanya and the maids who were pouring tea.

“Please, have a seat.”

Calm down, Adel. You have to stay calm.

Adel muttered a silent mantra as she calmly offered a chair. Then she quietly sipped her tea, like an elegant lady.

Stay calm, Adel. Wait for him to speak first.

Fortunately, Marvin opened his mouth first.

“Forget about yesterday. I merely tended to some patients briefly when a friend suddenly left the clinic. If you could forget it cleanly, I too…”

“You’ll forget meeting me there too?”

“Of course.”

“It’s neither illegal for me to go there nor punishable.”

“What?”

Adel set down her teacup with a cool expression.

“But what if it becomes known that the imperial physician performed illegal surgery at a Helvalley tavern? Especially if His Majesty finds out…”

Marvin cried out with a pale face.

“Miss Adel, that’s!”

In negotiations, the side that gets excited or impatient loses. A fact Adel had learned from always losing in negotiations with Christine.

“So don’t forget. That you have a weakness with me.”

Marvin stared hard at Adel and then nodded, seemingly giving in.

“Sigh, so what do you want from me?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Adel opened her mouth with difficulty.

“Can you remove a tattoo?”

At the unexpected word, Marvin doubted his ears.

Noble ladies’ reasons for visiting Helvalley’s clinics were usually obvious. So he had assumed Adel was the same. But then…

“A tattoo… you say?”

“Yes. Can you erase it cleanly, without a trace?”

“That’s impossible. Unless the skin is peeled off.”

“The skin?”

“If it’s a large area, other skin tissue may need to be grafted. And there will be scars. A tattoo can’t be perfectly removed.”

“Burn it off?”

He doubted his ears again.

“You want to burn the flesh to remove a tattoo?”

Adel got up and began to unbutton her dress, filled to the collar.

“Miss Adel, what’s this!”

Startled, Marvin glanced at the door.

She was the betrothed of the Viscount Byce. If someone came in and misunderstood, it could mean death.

Meanwhile, Adel turned her back and pulled down the top of her dress, and slid her chemise off her shoulders.

Her back was now fully exposed to Marvin.

Her skin was noticeably elastic and smooth to the eye. Her snowwhite complexion caught the light from the window and dazzled.

That made the two letters, branded on her beautiful skin like a stain, all the more grotesque.

“Who did this…!”

Marvin’s eyes narrowed involuntarily.

It felt like seeing a flaw in a perfect work of art.

But in a way, he understood. Sometimes when you see something too perfect, you want to mar it.

“Tell me your medical opinion. Would it be better to peel the skin, or to burn it off?”
자신의 치부를 드러내 놓고도 아델의 목소리는 건조했다. 하지만 그녀는 사실 아까부터 바싹바싹 타들어 가는 입술 안쪽을 짓씹고 있었다.

Soon after, Mavin, who had regained his consciousness, closely examined the tattoo engraved on his back and spoke his professional opinion.

“First, let’s try to peel off the skin as thinly as possible. But it will take quite some time to heal.”

“That’s fine. Thanks to you, I have more than ten days.”

“Ten days won’t be enough to fully recover.”

“I’ll handle that myself.”

Adel tidied her clothes again and then spoke quietly.

“I say this without malice, but only the two of us know about this tattoo. If what we talked about here leaks out, I won’t be able to keep even the military secrets.”

At her stern warning, Mavin quickly nodded.

“Don’t worry! My mouth is very heavy.”

“That’s fortunate then.”

“So when would be a good time for the surgery?”

“As soon as possible.”

“Understood. I will bring the necessary tools tomorrow.”

And then Mavin simply finished the examination and left.

Thud!

Only after the door closed did Adel feel like she could finally breathe properly.

Yes, everything will be resolved. It has to be.

(This is a time divider.)

Yan was surveying the riding arena with several nobles.

The workers were all over the place with lastminute checks for the horseriding competition in a few days.

“All the competitions held this year are planned to be grand. The war has ended, so everyone should play happily, shouldn’t they?”

“Of course! It will be an opportunity to show Calaime’s vitality to the outside world.”

“Exactly. Would the Calaime Empire have been damaged even a little by that petty war?”

Seeing the sycophantic nobles around him, Christine sneered.

If the war had lasted a year longer, Calaime would have gone bankrupt. Did they really not know that fact? Or were they pretending not to know?

“Will you participate in this horseriding competition, Viscount Bice?”

At Yan’s sudden question, Christine answered gracefully.

“My duty is to escort His Majesty. I am content just watching the competition.”

“What a pity. If you were to participate, victory would be guaranteed.”

Christine agreed with that part and therefore didn’t modestly decline.

“So I must concede to others.”

Everyone laughed loudly at his confident answer. They were envious inside, but it was not a wrong statement.

“But you must participate in the autumn hunting competition, Viscount.”

Among the people’s laughter, Yan’s voice reached Christine’s ears. When he looked at the Emperor with a cold gaze, the Emperor showed a meaningful smile.

“The Viscount excels in hunting rather than riding.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“What can’t the Viscount do?”

The nobles who knew nothing chimed in to match the mood of the Emperor and Christine.

Then Yan murmured in a languid voice.

“When I watch you, you seem like a beast. As if you might lunge and bite the neck.”

Christine pulled his mouth up thinly.

“A beast doesn’t just bite the neck indiscriminately. Maybe if its survival is threatened.”

The nobles were a little puzzled by their strange atmosphere. It was clear that they were exchanging meaningful words that only they understood.

“Abamama!”

Just then, April approached the Emperor’s party from a distance.