As Marilyn kept tilting her head at Dorothea's unfriendly speech, Wood, who had been called, entered the room late.
Packing a few simple tools for disinfecting, a bandage, and ointment for the wound, he quickly and skillfully began to treat the bruise on Marilyn's arm.
“I am a commoner and cannot dare to treat the foot of a noble lady, so call the maid and ask her to bandage the wound. Since the wound is not serious, if you just apply ointment, it will heal perfectly within a few days.”
"Thank you."
Wood, who had nodded curtly at Marilyn's words, stood up, took a few steps back, and then suddenly turned his head in the direction of Dorothea.
His face was full of things to say, but his lips were tightly shut and did not open until he finally left the room.
After he left and some time had passed, Valerie, who had been dealing with other nobles, came to the room.
She smiled affectionately at Marilyn, who was hurriedly trying to get up, and gestured for her to sit down.
“There’s a commotion outside. What’s going on?”
“Sir Aiden found out about the hunting grounds late and said he would go check the forest for danger himself.”
“That forest...”
Marilyn's face turned pale.
“It’ll be okay. There won’t be any problems now.”
Dorothea glanced out the window where she could hear someone shouting, then nodded.
The opponent has already lost their 'prey' and even left behind a clue that could become a tail.
There is no need to look into it since there are no more threats to the forest...
“If my dear uncle were to walk around stirring things up, the other person’s guard would probably be even more alert.”
Any tricks to create unnecessary trouble around the castle could be prevented.
Since she left the hounds with Luke, there's less chance of them being stolen.
Would it be better to drag the opponent out after making them suffer enough?
She needs to reduce the annoying things so that they are not noticeable, and if possible, her 'real abilities' are not visible.
The Empress Dowager's eyes will surely be here too.
Dorothea, lost in thought, tapped the window frame with her index finger for a long moment, followed by a long silence.
“Thea.”
Valerie's soft call interrupted Dorothea's musings.
She woke Dorothea with her characteristically lonely smile.
“His Highness the Third Prince will go with Sir Aiden to inspect the forest since his face has been hurt. At least until evening, only a minimal number of people, excluding the servants, will remain in the castle.”
This meant that Dorothea had time to move around freely without worrying about the gaze of others.
Marilyn asked cautiously, her eyes rolling with anxiety.
“The man who came with me. Did you notice anything strange about the child’s condition?”
"Ah."
Marilyn's voice grew stronger with the brief affirmation.
“Can you fix that child?”
At that time, Raymond was a corpse, but now the child was a living, breathing person, albeit weak.
When asked in the hope that perhaps she might be restored to health, Dorothea chose to remain silent instead of giving a clear answer.
Naturally, the healer couldn't treat Marilyn's minor bruises, Dane's flesh ripped off by a beast bite, or Luke's injuries from an assassin's arrow.
Fortunately, Marilyn's wounds were minor, and the others were so used to getting hurt that they could heal minor wounds on their own, but if not, their skills would have been so poor that they would have been talked about a long time ago.
“The question is, why is everyone praising that stone-thrower?”
Everyone working in the castle looked at that man with great trust.
“The therapist woke up a grandmother who had been lying down for days, and even helped a child who couldn’t speak open his mouth.”
“More than anything, he is someone Count Kiel trusts very much.”
“Count Kiel.”
Dorothea nodded at the words that Count Kiel often called him when she had a headache and asked him to relieve the pain.
Indeed. That seems to be why he was able to endure it.
The man, without even knowing what he was doing, would have temporarily banished the negative and turbid energy that had been entangling Kiel.
Dorothea didn't really care what the healer did as long as it didn't get in her way, but Colin seemed a little different.
“What an insolent man. He only has his eyes open to making a profit without even knowing what he is doing.”
“Why? The healer thinks that all it will do is disrupt the mood.”
“Aren’t we making a mess of the ‘road’? What if the path the dead take gets disrupted in the middle? It’s all our fault that lost souls become strangers...”
Colin, who was speaking, suddenly frowned and shut his mouth tightly.
Only then did he seem to realize that he had broken away from what he called 'us' and was instead taking on a human body.
Dorothea changed the subject as if she could not read his stiffened expression.
“Well, it might not be of much help to us, but it might be quite helpful to ‘some’ people.”
Who can he be of help to when he is so incompetent?
Philip watched the back of the healer as he went to visit nobles who had never even set foot in a hunting ground while listening to Dorothea's enigmatic words as always.
He must have seen the state of the shabby-dressed man, but considering their status and appearance, he was not even treating them but rather approaching the uninjured nobles first.
“Philip.”
"Yes."
“Don’t let the healer approach that ‘man.’”
Before Dorothea could continue speaking, exclamations of excitement were heard from the room the man had entered.
“Oh! The joint pain that I always suffered from has definitely disappeared today. This ointment is really effective!”
“No, what did you do to make my headache go away like this?”
The voice that sounded like Count Jubel's was full of admiration after admiration without the slightest hint of falsehood.
At this Philip's eyes glanced at Dorothea, but she seemed to have no intention of taking back her words and emphasizing them again.
“Don’t let them do anything stupid. Absolutely not.”
Philip nodded coolly.
Dorothea doesn't give out careless instructions.
If she 'really' emphasizes something, there must be a reason for it.
While his son nodded without a shred of doubt, Colin listened to the therapist's humble words leaking out from beyond the closed door with a very unpleasant look in his eyes.
Knock knock.
After knocking three times, Dorothea opened the door without asking permission.
Luke's cold eyes, which had just been changing the bandage on his shoulder, turned to the visitor who had come in without notice.
“Oh, you said you didn’t like showing your naked body. Okay, I’ll close the door so people can’t see.”
Dorothea smiled and entered the room, closing the wide-open door behind her.
“You go out too.”
“I plan to leave on my own once I’m done talking. Don’t worry.”
“...”
She still acted as she pleased without listening to people.
Luke just thought it was something she did when she was younger.
That arrogance seems to be just Dorothea's nature, as it doesn't change even after mastering etiquette.
He tried to pretend to be offended, but Luke knew that he wasn't really that offended.
And it seemed like the other person had already figured out that he was lying.
She approached him, humming a tune, picked up a cookie on the table, and took a big bite.
Luke's brow furrowed as cookie crumbs fell to the floor with a crunch.
“The scones here are even better than the cookies. If you’re looking for a snack, you should probably order those.”
“You can get all the calories you need from food. You don’t have to eat that kind of nonsense.”
Dorothea shrugged at his soft words, sat down on a chair, folded her hands on her knees, and looked at Luke.
“You’re the one who brought Marilyn here?”
“I was just granting that woman’s wish.”
Dorothea chuckled.
“You do have a lot of sympathy and compassion for Marilyn, but she has a stronger survival instinct than anyone else. She wouldn’t come down here just to help some poor passerby she met on the street.”
Moreover, he must have been reluctant to meet Dorothea herself.
When Dorothea pressed him, Luke simply admitted it without making any excuses.
“I need an excuse. This is Spencer’s Earldom, and I have a strained relationship with him.”
“Because it’s the Empress Dowager’s string?”
“That too. Some things don’t suit me well.”
Seeing him admit it so readily, it seemed like he had something he wanted from her.
Dorothea tilted her head, looking at the faint crimson glow beneath the bandages wrapped tightly around his shoulder.
“I have no intention of moving with you.”
“If it weren’t for me, your cousin whom you love and care for so much would already be dead.”
“Are you talking about the Dane you deliberately dragged into insurance to move me?”
Dorothea spoke slowly, playing with her hair.
“I guess my last warning didn’t work so well. I clearly told you not to force or threaten me then.”
Luke, perhaps reading the warning in Dorothea's quiet voice, remained silent instead of making the lame excuse that he had touched a 'bystander'.
Dorothea got straight to the point, determined to make the 7th Prince pay the price for messing with those around her so unnecessarily.
“That man mentioned the Kingdom of Rohen. You must have been curious about that clue and followed it.”
"Yes."
“If you will at least be obedient and follow my orders here, I will give you a chance when the time comes.”
Luke's ashen eyes stared intently at Dorothea.
Dorothea rose from her seat as if she had read the answer in silence.
For a proud beast, it was enough to just lower its gaze rather than its head.
She took the ointment out of her bosom and threw it on the table.
“This is the medicine that Valerie brought. It’s something blessed by the temple, so it should be effective if applied. It’ll be much better than that stone-thrower.”
“...”
“And one more thing. Don’t touch Kiel Spencer.”
At that moment, there was a glimmer of life in those gray eyes that had seemed to soften.
Dorothea's eyes were extremely cold as she looked at the 7th Prince, who was radiating such a strong aura that it was difficult to even breathe.
“He is a politician. He is busy taking advantage of the Empress Dowager’s backing to look after his own interests...”
“But because he is my benefactor.”
Luke's mouth twitched at Dorothea's interrupted story.
Dorothea looked at his discontented eyes and spoke as if she were teaching a child.
“Don’t you know the saying, ‘Even a single drop of grace must be repaid with an overflowing spring?’”
“Is there such a ridiculous calculation method? Only the most ignorant person in the world would do it.”
“I wonder if that’s true.”
The value of a piece of bread thrown to someone who is so hungry that he could die at any moment is not the same as the value of a piece of bread thrown to someone who is sleepy from having eaten a full meal.
“That person did me such a favor.”
When she was so destitute that she could barely control her own body, the glass of alcohol he lent her soon became her weapon, transformed into bars that she could use to capture and confine the grim reaper.
So she was able to have Colin by her side.
“So, at least until I repay that favor, I must be careful.”
Dorothea delivered her final blow to Luke, whose eyes were still rebellious as if he was not convinced.
“Isn’t it because you have received a favor from me that you are so kind to me?”
She has removed the bitter resentment that was hanging around his neck and helped him get rid of the nanny who was spewing poisonous words into his ears right next to him.
It may not have been a big deal to her, but it must have been very important to him.
The murderous aura that had filled the room suddenly disappeared.
The beast's gray eyes, which had been filled with fear as if they were raw, were filled with emotions that could not be expressed in words.
Dorothea left the room where silence had fallen and spoke politely to the soldiers guarding the door.
“I am concerned that His Highness the 7th Prince was injured while protecting my close friend and cousin. I first suggested that he ascend to the Imperial Palace, but he refused to do so, so I feel uneasy.”
One of the soldiers who exchanged glances carefully consoled Dorothea, who seemed heartbroken.
“Don’t worry, Young Lady. We will ensure His Highness’s safety even if it means adding more guards.”
“As you know, His Highness the Prince is a proud man who does not easily ask for help even when something dangerous arises... I am worried that if things get worse, the people in charge of security here will also be affected.”
Everyone nodded their heads at the deep thoughts of the affectionate and kind Young lady.
Some seemed genuinely touched by her depth of heart, which took into consideration even the positions of mere sentries.
“So, if His Highness the Prince makes any move, would you please secretly let me know?”
A single soldier could not stop the Prince's actions, but Dorothea, who was sent down here as the person in charge, could.
“Yes, I will definitely do that.”
Dorothea, who had gathered trustworthy allies who would inform her of the incompetent Prince's every move, finally climbed the stairs with a satisfied face.
The gaze of the healer, who had been courting the other nobles from afar, lingered on Dorothea, who was walking up the steps, ignoring him.
Packing a few simple tools for disinfecting, a bandage, and ointment for the wound, he quickly and skillfully began to treat the bruise on Marilyn's arm.
“I am a commoner and cannot dare to treat the foot of a noble lady, so call the maid and ask her to bandage the wound. Since the wound is not serious, if you just apply ointment, it will heal perfectly within a few days.”
"Thank you."
Wood, who had nodded curtly at Marilyn's words, stood up, took a few steps back, and then suddenly turned his head in the direction of Dorothea.
His face was full of things to say, but his lips were tightly shut and did not open until he finally left the room.
After he left and some time had passed, Valerie, who had been dealing with other nobles, came to the room.
She smiled affectionately at Marilyn, who was hurriedly trying to get up, and gestured for her to sit down.
“There’s a commotion outside. What’s going on?”
“Sir Aiden found out about the hunting grounds late and said he would go check the forest for danger himself.”
“That forest...”
Marilyn's face turned pale.
“It’ll be okay. There won’t be any problems now.”
Dorothea glanced out the window where she could hear someone shouting, then nodded.
The opponent has already lost their 'prey' and even left behind a clue that could become a tail.
There is no need to look into it since there are no more threats to the forest...
“If my dear uncle were to walk around stirring things up, the other person’s guard would probably be even more alert.”
Any tricks to create unnecessary trouble around the castle could be prevented.
Since she left the hounds with Luke, there's less chance of them being stolen.
Would it be better to drag the opponent out after making them suffer enough?
She needs to reduce the annoying things so that they are not noticeable, and if possible, her 'real abilities' are not visible.
The Empress Dowager's eyes will surely be here too.
Dorothea, lost in thought, tapped the window frame with her index finger for a long moment, followed by a long silence.
“Thea.”
Valerie's soft call interrupted Dorothea's musings.
She woke Dorothea with her characteristically lonely smile.
“His Highness the Third Prince will go with Sir Aiden to inspect the forest since his face has been hurt. At least until evening, only a minimal number of people, excluding the servants, will remain in the castle.”
This meant that Dorothea had time to move around freely without worrying about the gaze of others.
Marilyn asked cautiously, her eyes rolling with anxiety.
“The man who came with me. Did you notice anything strange about the child’s condition?”
"Ah."
Marilyn's voice grew stronger with the brief affirmation.
“Can you fix that child?”
At that time, Raymond was a corpse, but now the child was a living, breathing person, albeit weak.
When asked in the hope that perhaps she might be restored to health, Dorothea chose to remain silent instead of giving a clear answer.
***
Naturally, the healer couldn't treat Marilyn's minor bruises, Dane's flesh ripped off by a beast bite, or Luke's injuries from an assassin's arrow.
Fortunately, Marilyn's wounds were minor, and the others were so used to getting hurt that they could heal minor wounds on their own, but if not, their skills would have been so poor that they would have been talked about a long time ago.
“The question is, why is everyone praising that stone-thrower?”
Everyone working in the castle looked at that man with great trust.
“The therapist woke up a grandmother who had been lying down for days, and even helped a child who couldn’t speak open his mouth.”
“More than anything, he is someone Count Kiel trusts very much.”
“Count Kiel.”
Dorothea nodded at the words that Count Kiel often called him when she had a headache and asked him to relieve the pain.
Indeed. That seems to be why he was able to endure it.
The man, without even knowing what he was doing, would have temporarily banished the negative and turbid energy that had been entangling Kiel.
Dorothea didn't really care what the healer did as long as it didn't get in her way, but Colin seemed a little different.
“What an insolent man. He only has his eyes open to making a profit without even knowing what he is doing.”
“Why? The healer thinks that all it will do is disrupt the mood.”
“Aren’t we making a mess of the ‘road’? What if the path the dead take gets disrupted in the middle? It’s all our fault that lost souls become strangers...”
Colin, who was speaking, suddenly frowned and shut his mouth tightly.
Only then did he seem to realize that he had broken away from what he called 'us' and was instead taking on a human body.
Dorothea changed the subject as if she could not read his stiffened expression.
“Well, it might not be of much help to us, but it might be quite helpful to ‘some’ people.”
Who can he be of help to when he is so incompetent?
Philip watched the back of the healer as he went to visit nobles who had never even set foot in a hunting ground while listening to Dorothea's enigmatic words as always.
He must have seen the state of the shabby-dressed man, but considering their status and appearance, he was not even treating them but rather approaching the uninjured nobles first.
“Philip.”
"Yes."
“Don’t let the healer approach that ‘man.’”
Before Dorothea could continue speaking, exclamations of excitement were heard from the room the man had entered.
“Oh! The joint pain that I always suffered from has definitely disappeared today. This ointment is really effective!”
“No, what did you do to make my headache go away like this?”
The voice that sounded like Count Jubel's was full of admiration after admiration without the slightest hint of falsehood.
At this Philip's eyes glanced at Dorothea, but she seemed to have no intention of taking back her words and emphasizing them again.
“Don’t let them do anything stupid. Absolutely not.”
Philip nodded coolly.
Dorothea doesn't give out careless instructions.
If she 'really' emphasizes something, there must be a reason for it.
While his son nodded without a shred of doubt, Colin listened to the therapist's humble words leaking out from beyond the closed door with a very unpleasant look in his eyes.
***
Knock knock.
After knocking three times, Dorothea opened the door without asking permission.
Luke's cold eyes, which had just been changing the bandage on his shoulder, turned to the visitor who had come in without notice.
“Oh, you said you didn’t like showing your naked body. Okay, I’ll close the door so people can’t see.”
Dorothea smiled and entered the room, closing the wide-open door behind her.
“You go out too.”
“I plan to leave on my own once I’m done talking. Don’t worry.”
“...”
She still acted as she pleased without listening to people.
Luke just thought it was something she did when she was younger.
That arrogance seems to be just Dorothea's nature, as it doesn't change even after mastering etiquette.
He tried to pretend to be offended, but Luke knew that he wasn't really that offended.
And it seemed like the other person had already figured out that he was lying.
She approached him, humming a tune, picked up a cookie on the table, and took a big bite.
Luke's brow furrowed as cookie crumbs fell to the floor with a crunch.
“The scones here are even better than the cookies. If you’re looking for a snack, you should probably order those.”
“You can get all the calories you need from food. You don’t have to eat that kind of nonsense.”
Dorothea shrugged at his soft words, sat down on a chair, folded her hands on her knees, and looked at Luke.
“You’re the one who brought Marilyn here?”
“I was just granting that woman’s wish.”
Dorothea chuckled.
“You do have a lot of sympathy and compassion for Marilyn, but she has a stronger survival instinct than anyone else. She wouldn’t come down here just to help some poor passerby she met on the street.”
Moreover, he must have been reluctant to meet Dorothea herself.
When Dorothea pressed him, Luke simply admitted it without making any excuses.
“I need an excuse. This is Spencer’s Earldom, and I have a strained relationship with him.”
“Because it’s the Empress Dowager’s string?”
“That too. Some things don’t suit me well.”
Seeing him admit it so readily, it seemed like he had something he wanted from her.
Dorothea tilted her head, looking at the faint crimson glow beneath the bandages wrapped tightly around his shoulder.
“I have no intention of moving with you.”
“If it weren’t for me, your cousin whom you love and care for so much would already be dead.”
“Are you talking about the Dane you deliberately dragged into insurance to move me?”
Dorothea spoke slowly, playing with her hair.
“I guess my last warning didn’t work so well. I clearly told you not to force or threaten me then.”
Luke, perhaps reading the warning in Dorothea's quiet voice, remained silent instead of making the lame excuse that he had touched a 'bystander'.
Dorothea got straight to the point, determined to make the 7th Prince pay the price for messing with those around her so unnecessarily.
“That man mentioned the Kingdom of Rohen. You must have been curious about that clue and followed it.”
"Yes."
“If you will at least be obedient and follow my orders here, I will give you a chance when the time comes.”
Luke's ashen eyes stared intently at Dorothea.
Dorothea rose from her seat as if she had read the answer in silence.
For a proud beast, it was enough to just lower its gaze rather than its head.
She took the ointment out of her bosom and threw it on the table.
“This is the medicine that Valerie brought. It’s something blessed by the temple, so it should be effective if applied. It’ll be much better than that stone-thrower.”
“...”
“And one more thing. Don’t touch Kiel Spencer.”
At that moment, there was a glimmer of life in those gray eyes that had seemed to soften.
Dorothea's eyes were extremely cold as she looked at the 7th Prince, who was radiating such a strong aura that it was difficult to even breathe.
“He is a politician. He is busy taking advantage of the Empress Dowager’s backing to look after his own interests...”
“But because he is my benefactor.”
Luke's mouth twitched at Dorothea's interrupted story.
Dorothea looked at his discontented eyes and spoke as if she were teaching a child.
“Don’t you know the saying, ‘Even a single drop of grace must be repaid with an overflowing spring?’”
“Is there such a ridiculous calculation method? Only the most ignorant person in the world would do it.”
“I wonder if that’s true.”
The value of a piece of bread thrown to someone who is so hungry that he could die at any moment is not the same as the value of a piece of bread thrown to someone who is sleepy from having eaten a full meal.
“That person did me such a favor.”
When she was so destitute that she could barely control her own body, the glass of alcohol he lent her soon became her weapon, transformed into bars that she could use to capture and confine the grim reaper.
So she was able to have Colin by her side.
“So, at least until I repay that favor, I must be careful.”
Dorothea delivered her final blow to Luke, whose eyes were still rebellious as if he was not convinced.
“Isn’t it because you have received a favor from me that you are so kind to me?”
She has removed the bitter resentment that was hanging around his neck and helped him get rid of the nanny who was spewing poisonous words into his ears right next to him.
It may not have been a big deal to her, but it must have been very important to him.
The murderous aura that had filled the room suddenly disappeared.
The beast's gray eyes, which had been filled with fear as if they were raw, were filled with emotions that could not be expressed in words.
Dorothea left the room where silence had fallen and spoke politely to the soldiers guarding the door.
“I am concerned that His Highness the 7th Prince was injured while protecting my close friend and cousin. I first suggested that he ascend to the Imperial Palace, but he refused to do so, so I feel uneasy.”
One of the soldiers who exchanged glances carefully consoled Dorothea, who seemed heartbroken.
“Don’t worry, Young Lady. We will ensure His Highness’s safety even if it means adding more guards.”
“As you know, His Highness the Prince is a proud man who does not easily ask for help even when something dangerous arises... I am worried that if things get worse, the people in charge of security here will also be affected.”
Everyone nodded their heads at the deep thoughts of the affectionate and kind Young lady.
Some seemed genuinely touched by her depth of heart, which took into consideration even the positions of mere sentries.
“So, if His Highness the Prince makes any move, would you please secretly let me know?”
A single soldier could not stop the Prince's actions, but Dorothea, who was sent down here as the person in charge, could.
“Yes, I will definitely do that.”
Dorothea, who had gathered trustworthy allies who would inform her of the incompetent Prince's every move, finally climbed the stairs with a satisfied face.
The gaze of the healer, who had been courting the other nobles from afar, lingered on Dorothea, who was walking up the steps, ignoring him.
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