“Your Highness, Her Majesty is still unconscious.”
“I know. It’s not something Her Majesty needs to hear, so could you step aside for a moment?”
“It could be contagious.”
Pelarhar smiled bitterly.
“Even so, I won’t be unconscious and sick.”
Sophia looked at Pelarhar for a moment with a strange and complicated gaze.
No matter how hard Pelarhar tried to hide his feelings, he couldn’t avoid Sophia’s eyes.
“I have to keep cleaning Her Majesty’s body. It’ll only be for a moment. And I’ll leave the door open.”
“Yes, I understand.”
When Sophia took Sabnake and Anne and left, Pelarhar quietly entered the bedroom.
Although the door was open, the people were far away, so it felt as if Erdene and himself were the only two people there.
“Your Majesty.”
Pelerhar, looking down at Erdene lying with her eyes closed as if dead, muttered softly.
If it weren’t for the redness and flush on her cheeks and forehead, he might have thought she was already dead.
Erdene, who had always been full of energy, couldn’t even hear her breathing now.
“If I had been a little more vile or courageous, would I have run away with you somewhere?”
A faint smile appeared on Pelarhar’s lips as he looked at Erdene, who didn’t answer.
“I know you wouldn’t have listened to me even if I had told you to run away. It wasn’t the path you had intended to walk, but once you set foot on it, I know you won’t retreat, no matter where you go. Princess of Hirschsten, Erdene Badd, the name of the nine jewels.”
Pelarhar’s slightly bent fingertips came close to touching Erdene’s temple. However, he ended up not touching Erdene.
His handsome lips trembled, and the breath passing between them became ragged.
“I didn’t plan on doing this from the beginning. But when I realized it, it was after I gave my heart to you. I did you a favor so that you could use me as you pleased. I hoped that you would breathe a little easier because of me. But...”
Pelarhar’s hand slowly withdrew, smiling quietly.
No matter how hard he tried to grasp something that wasn’t here, something similar to a shadow or an illusion, only a vain pain remained.
A pain that wasn’t fatal, but fleeting and boring.
“But maybe all that meant nothing to you.”
It was okay if it was an illusion. Even if Erdene didn’t feel any feelings about his favor. He was satisfied with being able to look at her, and he was happy that he could grant her even the smallest of things she wanted.
“I believe that someone as strong as you wouldn’t fall over from this kind of wind.”
Erdene still didn’t answer.
Her feverish face was red and pale.
Strangely, at the moment when he thought that even the sight was so beautiful that it was embarrassing, Pelarhar knew that now was the time to say goodbye.
“Please be at peace.”
There was nothing left in the palm he was holding. Neither warmth nor touch. There was nothing he could have in the first place.
His heart was deepening with each passing moment. He had known that and had left it alone until now, but not anymore.
It would be best to disappear before he betrayed both Arkan and Erdene.
Pelarhar had even folded his heart with a clever calculation.
He left the royal palace of Vetor without anyone knowing. As usual, he had no one with him, and his only luggage was a light leather bag.
Thanks to Sophia, Anne, and Sabnake wiping Erdene’s body until the sun went down, the fever that had been raging had dropped to a comfortable level by the time night fell.
Even the faint sound of her breathing, which seemed like it would stop, had become much more gentle and stable, but Erdene still could not open her eyes.
“Your fever has gone down, so why are you still unconscious?”
Arkan asked as if questioning after hearing the report, and the palace doctor’s face darkened to the point of pity.
“Your Majesty, that is...”
“Tell me.”
Arkan urged him once more.
The palace physician, realizing that he could no longer keep his mouth shut, answered honestly with an expression that prepared him for a thunderbolt to strike.
“... I don’t know.”
A terrible silence flowed. It was a silence that could only be felt after a storm or a fire swept through.
Arkan, who had been glaring at the palace doctor without even making a sound of breathing, suddenly stood up from his seat.
“Your Majesty, you can’t!”
Arkan’s eyes flashed terrifyingly in the light.
“What do you mean you can’t?”
The court doctor, whose lips were quivering, said,
“Aren’t you going to see the Queen?”
“Isn’t that obvious? The Queen suddenly collapsed and hasn’t woken up yet, so who would go if I don’t?”
"Your Majesty, the Queen collapsed with symptoms similar to autumn fever, but it’s rare for her to lose consciousness even after her fever subsides.”
Arkan strode through the living room, passing the court doctor without even finishing his sentence as if he didn’t want to hear anymore.
Even Plat didn’t dare to stop Arkan in the face of the cold, but the court doctor who followed behind blocked Arkan’s path again.
“Can’t you get out of the way?”
The voice was so angry that it seemed as if the ceiling would shake. However, the court doctor, with his pale face, refused to back down.
“No, Your Majesty. We need to check to see if the Queen is suffering from another illness.”
“A different illness? Are you trying to joke with me right now? Why didn’t you say that earlier!”
“Ah, I just thought it was a fever earlier! I thought she would regain consciousness once her fever went down and her body temperature returned to normal. However, Her Majesty has not yet woken up. If this is not the autumn fever, or if it is a disease that is spreading in the empire, then this is no small matter.”
Arkan’s lips trembled as he closed his eyes tightly. It was a display of great patience that he did not kick away the palace doctor in front of him.
“...So what are you going to do? Are you going to just sit back and watch until the Queen wakes up?”
“No, Your Majesty. I... I will do my best to make sure Her Majesty regains consciousness. However, Your Majesty, please do not see Her Majesty for the time being. If by any chance you become infected, and Your Majesty collapses, who will lead the government?”
He pushed the palace doctor’s shoulder so hard that his body swayed, and then he left as if he was going to break down the door.
“Your Majesty.”
“Shut up, Plat. If you keep talking nonsense now, I won’t let you off easy.”
“Your Majesty, just a moment. Please listen to me, even if it’s just for a moment.”
Arkan stopped walking and took a deep breath to calm the heat rushing to his head.
“What? Tell me quickly.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t think the palace doctor’s words are completely nonsense. After all, he has worked in the palace for more than several decades. However, since he has only worked in the palace, he would not know much about diseases outside the inland. So how about looking for someone outside who can treat the disease?”
“Outside? Outside the palace?”
“Yes. If Her Majesty regains consciousness before that, that will be fortunate, but if not, that will be a big problem. So send people to the entire kingdom, as well as the nearby Duchy of Stradhog and Blatcherd. The place famous for making good medicine is Vinotin, but it has to pass through the border region of the Kingdom of Kensilom, and the damage suffered during the last war will not be very good for Her Majesty.”
Plat had already ordered people to the duchy and the kingdom of Femens to get yellow apples and to get good medicine for fever along with them.
However, now that things had come to this, fever was no longer the only problem.
Arkan said.
“First, send an official document to the administrators. Prepare as quickly as possible so that you can arrive in all regions by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. And in the duchy, there is Pel...”
Arkan’s lips were tightly shut as he stopped talking.
Pelarhar was very close to the Grand Duke of the Duchy of Stradhog.
If Arkan were to ask him, he could quickly find the most skilled doctor in the duchy, but... He had already left the palace.
When Arkan heard the news, his whereabouts were already unknown.
“...Send someone to the duchy again and have him explain the situation to the Grand Duke.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
Arkan, who was looking across the corridor where only the guards stood like stone statues, suddenly had the absurd thought that the palace seemed empty.
It was so quiet. Like a tomb.
'Was it like this when my brother died?'
Arkan thought. No, when Crown Prince Iris died at the age of ten, the entire palace was in an uproar.
His mother cried that she would die with him, his father seemed to be in despair as if the world had collapsed, and even the officials could not hide their sadness and cried in front of the small coffin.
But now, it was quiet.
Arkan felt sorry for Erdene.
It was as if he had created this situation where no one was worried about her and came running. As Arkan headed back to the Queen's palace, the servant who had been watching carefully opened the door.
At the same time, the bedroom door opened and Sophia came out.
"No, Your Majesty."
Judging from her eyes, it seemed that she had already heard the words from the palace doctor.
Arkan continued to walk with the same expression he had been staring at Sophia.
“Your Majesty!”
“Would you leave an unconscious Queen alone just because you’re afraid of such a small illness? Sophia, tell me. Is that the kind of companion you think I'm?”
Sophia, who had been standing upright, slowly closed her eyes and opened them, looking at Arkan again.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I dare say that’s the way a wise King should conduct himself. If Your Majesty were to lose consciousness like Her Majesty, who would the officials and citizens of Vetor trust and rely on? What would you do about the chaos in the royal family?”
“I know. It’s not something Her Majesty needs to hear, so could you step aside for a moment?”
“It could be contagious.”
Pelarhar smiled bitterly.
“Even so, I won’t be unconscious and sick.”
Sophia looked at Pelarhar for a moment with a strange and complicated gaze.
No matter how hard Pelarhar tried to hide his feelings, he couldn’t avoid Sophia’s eyes.
“I have to keep cleaning Her Majesty’s body. It’ll only be for a moment. And I’ll leave the door open.”
“Yes, I understand.”
When Sophia took Sabnake and Anne and left, Pelarhar quietly entered the bedroom.
Although the door was open, the people were far away, so it felt as if Erdene and himself were the only two people there.
“Your Majesty.”
Pelerhar, looking down at Erdene lying with her eyes closed as if dead, muttered softly.
If it weren’t for the redness and flush on her cheeks and forehead, he might have thought she was already dead.
Erdene, who had always been full of energy, couldn’t even hear her breathing now.
“If I had been a little more vile or courageous, would I have run away with you somewhere?”
A faint smile appeared on Pelarhar’s lips as he looked at Erdene, who didn’t answer.
“I know you wouldn’t have listened to me even if I had told you to run away. It wasn’t the path you had intended to walk, but once you set foot on it, I know you won’t retreat, no matter where you go. Princess of Hirschsten, Erdene Badd, the name of the nine jewels.”
Pelarhar’s slightly bent fingertips came close to touching Erdene’s temple. However, he ended up not touching Erdene.
His handsome lips trembled, and the breath passing between them became ragged.
“I didn’t plan on doing this from the beginning. But when I realized it, it was after I gave my heart to you. I did you a favor so that you could use me as you pleased. I hoped that you would breathe a little easier because of me. But...”
Pelarhar’s hand slowly withdrew, smiling quietly.
No matter how hard he tried to grasp something that wasn’t here, something similar to a shadow or an illusion, only a vain pain remained.
A pain that wasn’t fatal, but fleeting and boring.
“But maybe all that meant nothing to you.”
It was okay if it was an illusion. Even if Erdene didn’t feel any feelings about his favor. He was satisfied with being able to look at her, and he was happy that he could grant her even the smallest of things she wanted.
“I believe that someone as strong as you wouldn’t fall over from this kind of wind.”
Erdene still didn’t answer.
Her feverish face was red and pale.
Strangely, at the moment when he thought that even the sight was so beautiful that it was embarrassing, Pelarhar knew that now was the time to say goodbye.
“Please be at peace.”
There was nothing left in the palm he was holding. Neither warmth nor touch. There was nothing he could have in the first place.
His heart was deepening with each passing moment. He had known that and had left it alone until now, but not anymore.
It would be best to disappear before he betrayed both Arkan and Erdene.
Pelarhar had even folded his heart with a clever calculation.
He left the royal palace of Vetor without anyone knowing. As usual, he had no one with him, and his only luggage was a light leather bag.
***
Thanks to Sophia, Anne, and Sabnake wiping Erdene’s body until the sun went down, the fever that had been raging had dropped to a comfortable level by the time night fell.
Even the faint sound of her breathing, which seemed like it would stop, had become much more gentle and stable, but Erdene still could not open her eyes.
“Your fever has gone down, so why are you still unconscious?”
Arkan asked as if questioning after hearing the report, and the palace doctor’s face darkened to the point of pity.
“Your Majesty, that is...”
“Tell me.”
Arkan urged him once more.
The palace physician, realizing that he could no longer keep his mouth shut, answered honestly with an expression that prepared him for a thunderbolt to strike.
“... I don’t know.”
A terrible silence flowed. It was a silence that could only be felt after a storm or a fire swept through.
Arkan, who had been glaring at the palace doctor without even making a sound of breathing, suddenly stood up from his seat.
“Your Majesty, you can’t!”
Arkan’s eyes flashed terrifyingly in the light.
“What do you mean you can’t?”
The court doctor, whose lips were quivering, said,
“Aren’t you going to see the Queen?”
“Isn’t that obvious? The Queen suddenly collapsed and hasn’t woken up yet, so who would go if I don’t?”
"Your Majesty, the Queen collapsed with symptoms similar to autumn fever, but it’s rare for her to lose consciousness even after her fever subsides.”
Arkan strode through the living room, passing the court doctor without even finishing his sentence as if he didn’t want to hear anymore.
Even Plat didn’t dare to stop Arkan in the face of the cold, but the court doctor who followed behind blocked Arkan’s path again.
“Can’t you get out of the way?”
The voice was so angry that it seemed as if the ceiling would shake. However, the court doctor, with his pale face, refused to back down.
“No, Your Majesty. We need to check to see if the Queen is suffering from another illness.”
“A different illness? Are you trying to joke with me right now? Why didn’t you say that earlier!”
“Ah, I just thought it was a fever earlier! I thought she would regain consciousness once her fever went down and her body temperature returned to normal. However, Her Majesty has not yet woken up. If this is not the autumn fever, or if it is a disease that is spreading in the empire, then this is no small matter.”
Arkan’s lips trembled as he closed his eyes tightly. It was a display of great patience that he did not kick away the palace doctor in front of him.
“...So what are you going to do? Are you going to just sit back and watch until the Queen wakes up?”
“No, Your Majesty. I... I will do my best to make sure Her Majesty regains consciousness. However, Your Majesty, please do not see Her Majesty for the time being. If by any chance you become infected, and Your Majesty collapses, who will lead the government?”
He pushed the palace doctor’s shoulder so hard that his body swayed, and then he left as if he was going to break down the door.
“Your Majesty.”
“Shut up, Plat. If you keep talking nonsense now, I won’t let you off easy.”
“Your Majesty, just a moment. Please listen to me, even if it’s just for a moment.”
Arkan stopped walking and took a deep breath to calm the heat rushing to his head.
“What? Tell me quickly.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t think the palace doctor’s words are completely nonsense. After all, he has worked in the palace for more than several decades. However, since he has only worked in the palace, he would not know much about diseases outside the inland. So how about looking for someone outside who can treat the disease?”
“Outside? Outside the palace?”
“Yes. If Her Majesty regains consciousness before that, that will be fortunate, but if not, that will be a big problem. So send people to the entire kingdom, as well as the nearby Duchy of Stradhog and Blatcherd. The place famous for making good medicine is Vinotin, but it has to pass through the border region of the Kingdom of Kensilom, and the damage suffered during the last war will not be very good for Her Majesty.”
Plat had already ordered people to the duchy and the kingdom of Femens to get yellow apples and to get good medicine for fever along with them.
However, now that things had come to this, fever was no longer the only problem.
Arkan said.
“First, send an official document to the administrators. Prepare as quickly as possible so that you can arrive in all regions by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. And in the duchy, there is Pel...”
Arkan’s lips were tightly shut as he stopped talking.
Pelarhar was very close to the Grand Duke of the Duchy of Stradhog.
If Arkan were to ask him, he could quickly find the most skilled doctor in the duchy, but... He had already left the palace.
When Arkan heard the news, his whereabouts were already unknown.
“...Send someone to the duchy again and have him explain the situation to the Grand Duke.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
Arkan, who was looking across the corridor where only the guards stood like stone statues, suddenly had the absurd thought that the palace seemed empty.
It was so quiet. Like a tomb.
'Was it like this when my brother died?'
Arkan thought. No, when Crown Prince Iris died at the age of ten, the entire palace was in an uproar.
His mother cried that she would die with him, his father seemed to be in despair as if the world had collapsed, and even the officials could not hide their sadness and cried in front of the small coffin.
But now, it was quiet.
Arkan felt sorry for Erdene.
It was as if he had created this situation where no one was worried about her and came running. As Arkan headed back to the Queen's palace, the servant who had been watching carefully opened the door.
At the same time, the bedroom door opened and Sophia came out.
"No, Your Majesty."
Judging from her eyes, it seemed that she had already heard the words from the palace doctor.
Arkan continued to walk with the same expression he had been staring at Sophia.
“Your Majesty!”
“Would you leave an unconscious Queen alone just because you’re afraid of such a small illness? Sophia, tell me. Is that the kind of companion you think I'm?”
Sophia, who had been standing upright, slowly closed her eyes and opened them, looking at Arkan again.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I dare say that’s the way a wise King should conduct himself. If Your Majesty were to lose consciousness like Her Majesty, who would the officials and citizens of Vetor trust and rely on? What would you do about the chaos in the royal family?”
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