“Your Highness, the wind is cold. Shall we go inside now?”

As Noah was staring blankly out the window, Rita quietly approached and said.

“……Already?”

Noah pouted and frowned. After being forbidden to go outside due to the effects of the poison, Noah’s recent pleasure was sitting in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window in the well-lit reception room, wrapped in a thick cloak and drinking hot tea.

Of course, Rita knew why the Grand Duke had suddenly started frequenting the reception room. She tried to soothe Noah’s grumpy expression.

“The head maid will be coming in soon.”

“Then I should go.”

Noah stood up from the chair without another word at that. But still seeming reluctant, he couldn’t easily leave his seat and kept glancing out the window. There was Amy, having tea at a table and conversing with former guard captain Morton.

These days, Amy had been meeting with people who had been in the Grand Duke’s residence for a long time, such as Melvin or Morton, as well as retired guards. Noah didn’t know why, but it seemed she had questions for them.

“Let’s go.”

Noah walked out of the reception room, looking gloomy. Rita followed behind him. As they were climbing the stairs, they ran into Melvin who was coming down.

“Your Highness, are you heading to your chambers?”

Melvin, who had hurriedly approached, smiled and asked Noah, who was looking much better, and Noah nodded and absent-mindedly climbed the stairs. As Melvin shrugged and was about to go back down, Noah suddenly turned and asked him:

“What did Amy ask you?”

Confused for a moment, he soon came to his senses and replied.

“……Ah, she asked about areas where foreigners frequently appear.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Noah blinked a few times and muttered to himself.

“Is it related to magic tools……”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Go about your business.”

“Yes……”

Melvin tilted his head and went down the stairs. Noah trudged towards his chambers. Behind him, Rita looked at him with concern.

“Your Highness, you’re not fully recovered yet. The physician said you shouldn’t be moving around like this.”

“I know.”

“If you know, why are you acting like this? It’s as if you don’t want to get better at all.”

Noah mumbled indifferently.

“Something like that.”

“What? What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Noah kept his mouth shut after that. Just when I thought he was answering well for once…. Rita shook her head, thinking ‘I should have known’.

Noah returned to his chambers and lay down on the bed. He then pulled back the canopy and stared endlessly at the door. As Rita was tidying up the cloak he had been wearing, she had the outrageous thought that the Grand Duke looked just like a dog waiting for its owner.

“Rita.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Still staring at the door, he mumbled glumly.

“Because I was poisoned…… Amy must have been worried, right?”

“Why are you asking such an obvious question? Of course she was extremely worried.”

“I see.”

Noah smiled slightly, recalling a secret known only to him.

In fact, he knew there was poison in the cup the Crown Prince had handed him. Or rather, ‘suspected’ would be a more accurate description.

‘It would be strange not to know when someone who was desperate to get rid of me offers it with sparkling eyes of expectation.’

He knew better than anyone the intentions of his half-brother to remove him from Amy’s side. Because that’s exactly how he used to look at the Crown Prince when he was in the Imperial Palace.

‘I took a gamble……’

It was successful. Amy had put everything else aside and clung only to him.

‘But I’m still anxious.’

Noah was far more obsessed with Amy than she vaguely imagined. He didn’t want to be apart from her for even a moment.

But sometimes Amy would gaze into the distance, especially to the south. As if it was a place she would return to someday. Noah was terrified of that.

‘Why, Amy?’

He had decided she was his final destination, so why did Amy seem to be thinking of flying far away? Their relationship was close, but in a way, also so distant. Noah suddenly felt a chill and shuddered.

Just then there was a knock at the door, and Amy, whom he had been eagerly waiting for, entered.

“Your Highness. You were lying down.”

Amy’s expression was bright, thinking he had been obediently staying in his chambers. Noah felt the darkness that had been stubbornly consuming his body and mind melting away. When Amy was by his side, the world was bright and warm again.

“Yes.”

Noah lowered his eyes docilely. To look harmless, to look weak. That way Amy would feel sorry for him and wouldn’t think of leaving.

As if his efforts weren’t in vain, Amy furrowed her brows and quickly approached him. Then she examined him carefully with a pitying expression. The beast crouching deep inside him let out a low growl of satisfaction.

“Oh my……”

Rita, standing some distance away, let out a short breath as if dumbfounded. While she was in favor of the two being together, having ulterior motives and cheering for the perfect couple, when she saw the Grand Duke’s obvious tricks that only the head maid seemed unaware of, she felt like she was committing a sin.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.”

At times like this, it’s best to leave. Rita, hugging the laundry, shook her head and walked towards the door. Amy sat down in the chair next to the bed and said:

“It’s almost time for your nap, so I came to see you briefly before then. I heard from the physician that you’re taking your medicine well?”

“Hic?”

Rita, who was pulling the doorknob, suddenly gasped. Just this morning, she had begged, coaxed, and even got angry, but failed to get him to take the medicine….. And that’s not all.

When he would pointedly pour out the medicine the physician had carefully brewed to Rita outside the window, she really felt her fists trembling with the urge to hit something, reminded of her youngest sibling’s rebellious teenage years.

‘He finally drank two sips when I threatened to tell the head maid……’

And yet here he was, proclaiming with such an innocent face that the head maid was right.

‘A deceiver limited to the head maid.’

Rita shook her head and left the chambers, closing the door. Seeing Rita’s poor complexion as she made strange noises, Amy worried if she wasn’t feeling well. But Noah just happily asked back:

“You asked the physician about my condition directly?”

Even though it was natural for her to worry and take care of him as the head maid, every time he received confirmation of her interest in him, his heart raced without any sense of propriety.

“Yes. He said you’re recovering smoothly. I know you must be frustrated not being able to go outside, but please bear with it a little longer.”

“Alright.”

Noah nodded excitedly. Amy took out a small bottle of medicinal decoction from the small basket hanging on her wrist.

“I brought the medicine myself. Please drink it all and then rest.”

“……”

Noah’s smile cracked. Amy poured the steaming medicine into a cup and held it out to him.

“You’re taking the bitter medicine so well, you’ll really get better soon.”

“……Is that so?”

Noah forced a smile as he took the cup. Then he stared at the medicine with cloudy eyes, which smelled as if all the dirty and nauseating things in the world had been squeezed together.

“It would be troublesome if you don’t. When Jack and Dwayne return from their mission, there’s somewhere we need to go together.”

As Amy frowned slightly, Noah’s eyes widened. Going somewhere together with Amy?

He quickly put the cup to his lips and gulped down the slimy, thick medicine in one go. His stomach rebelled and churned, but he endured it, remembering Amy’s words.

Amy, who had heard from the physician that it was truly an unpleasant medicine to take, was genuinely delighted to see Noah swallow it without complaint in one go.

She popped a sugar-coated jelly she had prepared in advance into Noah’s mouth and then sucked the sugar off her finger with a loud smack.

“!”

Noah’s eyes widened so much they looked like they might fall out. Seeing him with his mouth agape, unable to chew the jelly that had entered his mouth, Amy tilted her head.

“Isn’t it bitter? Do you not like jelly?”

As she was thinking maybe she should have brought preserved fruit instead, Noah finally came to his senses and mumbled with a red neck:

“……No, I’ll eat it.”

Noah chewed the jelly diligently and swallowed it with a gulp, not knowing where to put his eyes as they rolled around. Amy had a satisfied expression.

“You ate it well, Your Highness. Now lie down. You need to sleep.”

“Okay.”

As Noah obediently lay down on the bed, Amy pulled up the blanket to cover him. Noah stared at her intently and opened his mouth.

“Amy.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

A long, white hand came out from under the blanket and lightly touched Amy’s fingers. As Amy flinched and tried to withdraw her hand, Noah whispered softly.

“When I was young…… Did my mother do this for me too?”

Surprised by the unexpected words, Amy’s movement stopped. She hesitated for a moment before giving an ambiguous answer.

“……I’m not sure.”

Among the rumors spread in the Imperial Palace was that the Empress, Second Prince Noah’s mother, suffered from severe depression until her death. When Amy was the Crown Prince’s head maid, she only saw Noah once or twice a year at most, but even then she didn’t get the impression that he was receiving attentive care.

Noah raised his eyes to look at her intently.

“Amy, how did you feel when you were cared for when you were sick?”

“……”

Amy looked at Noah with a strange expression before answering calmly.

“I don’t know.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I’ve never been cared for when sick.”

This time Noah was taken aback. He quickly half-raised his upper body and asked:

“Never? Not even when you were young?”

“No. I don’t remember it either.”

Noah just blinked with his mouth open before slowly averting his gaze. Then he lowered his eyes as if thinking about something.

Amy quietly looked at Noah and thought. At least he took his medicine well in front of her, which was fortunate.

‘He probably doesn’t know that the physician witnessed him throwing out the medicine.’

Rita chattered on about unnecessary things, but she kept quiet about truly important matters.

Even if Noah had tried to silence her, since it was related to the Grand Duke’s health and must have caused her great worry, if Noah had continued to refuse the medicine, she would have inevitably informed Amy….. Anyway, that’s why Amy personally brought the medicine today.

As if he had finished thinking, Noah raised his head and looked directly at her.

“Then let’s do this. Since Amy took care of me, next time Amy is sick, I’ll nurse you.”