Her wife, Diana, is hospitalized at the Royal Bell Johnson Hospital. She fell down the stairs and sustained a head injury, and has been unconscious for several days. Boaz was also badly injured, but he survived.
Noah sat on a garden bench outside the hospital building and watched children in hospital gowns playing and munching on dogtooth grass.
“Count, your wife is still...”
From behind, he heard the voice of Commander Chelsea's daughter. Unlike her usual frivolous, high-pitched voice, which he disliked, it sounded cautious and a little lower in tone. It seemed she had come to visit.
“Yeah, still.”
“When will she wake up?”
“I don’t know.”
Since the doctor said he didn't know, there was no way for him to find out. Barbara, holding a bouquet of flowers, looked weeping. Over the past few days, many people had come to visit: the wife of the Chief Justice, the Marchioness of Wales, and several other ladies, a wealthy Hessian, the daughter of an unknown Viscount, and so on.
"She seemed like she didn't make any friends, but surprisingly, she had built up enough bonds to visit her in the hospital," Barbara said, caressing the lily in her arms.
"She's been looking depressed lately. Ever since the palace maid, who she was so close to and cared for, died. Ayla Delson, I think."
“Are you trying to say it was a suicide attempt?”
“No, I just wanted you to pay more attention when she wakes up.”
“You know it’s pointless meddling, right?”
“Yes, but I tend to meddle.”
She's still a one-sided person he doesn't like. He frowned.
Barbara, who had entered the private room, took Diana's hand and muttered a prayer, then spoke to her. He watched quietly and asked.
“Do you think Diana can hear that?”
"She might come back after hearing this. She might be bored, so read a book or something."
“Yesterday, Prince Hessen read a storybook about squirrels.”
“That’s what I’m saying, what if you don’t know more than the young Prince?”
Seriously, how rude. Niah stood close and watched her as she spoke. Her mumbling, like a spiritual ritual awakening, was nothing more than a trivial tale.
"...It's strawberry season soon, Madam. You've been waiting, haven't you? You have to keep your promise to go eat strawberry pie, strawberry tart, and strawberry cake, aiming for the extinction of strawberries. If you lie down any longer, you'll end up eating tasteless, out-of-season strawberries."
“Is that the right way to do it?”
“Yes. You didn’t tell me a secret you thought I wouldn’t hear, did you?”
Thinking back, he thinks he said something that sounded a bit childish.
Noah shook his head in clear denial.
“I don’t have that. I’m a model husband.”
"Yes, I think so. Your wife doesn't talk about personal matters, but I can tell from looking at you two that you love each other very much."
"Love?"
“You got married because you loved each other, didn’t you? It’s so new.”
Not really. He got married because he wanted to know what true love was, and he still doesn't. Noah pulled up a metal chair and sat down quietly next to his wife's noisy and rude friend.
“Have you ever been in love?”
Her cheeks flushed red, and she placed her hand on them and nodded.
"Yes. I fell in love with Mr. Ford the moment I saw him. He had beautiful cream-colored eyes."
"Ah."
He didn't think there was any need to hear more, so he just gave a vague answer. Barbara, who was decorating a vase with white lilies, spoke.
"Love's ending is precise, but its beginning is imprecise, isn't it? Everyone has a different starting point. Sometimes you feel love from the beginning, only to gradually neglect it. Sometimes you begin with doubts, only to deepen your love. Love has no reason."
“Shouldn’t there be a reason?”
"There are many things in this world that are easily changed. Things like material things and appearances, for example. If the reason disappears, love also ends. It's better not to have it."
“Are you a love expert?”
“I read it in a book. I think love begins the moment you say you love me.”
Noah pictured Diana, pale and ready to faint, saying she loved him in the forest outside of Frogen. Even though it was a lie, seeing as they ended up getting married, it felt like a fitting beginning. He loved hearing those words.
“Why are you talking so plausibly?”
“...Wasn’t it always like that?”
“Yeah. I was just talking nonsense.”
After Barbara, who had been chattering away for a while, left, Diana and Noah were left alone in the quiet hospital room. He spent a long time pondering what to say to Diana.
"You said there was war there too, but it was more peaceful than here, right? I'll make it that way here, too. And I'll become the ordinary person you were talking about."
In her sleep, he glimpsed a world only she knew. Diana's nights seemed to connect with another world. She spoke of words and objects he didn't know, and answered his questions. She even told him that the country she was born in was a warring, truce nation.
“Come back, my princess.”
Her small upper body rose and fell rhythmically. Only the faint sound of breathing could be heard, punctuating the still silence. He wondered if she had reached a moment of choice: whether to stay or return.
He never thought the world would be limited to this place. There are countless stars in the night sky, and if viewed from somewhere, this place would be one of them.
"The girl who lived deep in the forest was completely uneducated and completely ignorant, completely uninformed of culture. Her sponsor, Mr. Mark, felt the need to bring in a teacher to teach her, but the girl remained unfamiliar with the world and wouldn't even consider leaving her small cabin in the forest. She was timid."
He recalled a passage from the children's story "The Girl with the Dog and the Wolf," which Janet, a children's author, had submitted to a newspaper. It conveyed the idea that Diana needed education and was ignorant of the world. However, the story published after her kidnapping was quite different.
"One day, a timid and ignorant girl suddenly transformed into someone completely different. She could even tame a fearful wolf like a loyal dog. But she was more cunning than clever."
On the day of the kidnapping, Diana, whom he first encountered in the car, showed no signs of agitation, her eyes and expression betraying a premonition of what was to come. She simply sat quietly in the dark backseat, her face impassive.
“Who are you?”
She asked with a tone that seemed to already be already familiar. Her voice was a weary, deep, low note, and her intonation was curious. Noah found it as peculiar as her aloof appearance, but it possessed a strange allure, a captivating quality.
Diana seemed like a lazy queen, living a life of luxury. Even as a hostage, she confidently demanded what she needed and wanted, accustomed to being treated like a proud cat, as if she had come of her own accord. Moreover, she would often talk about things she wouldn't have known in her previous position.
"The lady asked me to bring her stollen (a traditional cake filled with dried fruit and almonds, marinated in alcohol) and wheat beer for a late-night snack. Did you see it in the book?"
“She is well aware of formal dining etiquette and cutlery order, so there is nothing I need to teach her.”
These were Molly's words as she watched and attended to her.
Although she felt somewhat awkward in high society and aristocratic culture, she quickly adapted, and the educational knowledge and common sense she occasionally displayed were on a level that surpassed that of children of noblemen who graduated from prestigious universities.
To his eyes, she seemed less ignorant and more like an explorer adapting to a new environment, or a visionary with a clear understanding of the ways of the world. Perhaps a strange and contradictory being.
Lost in his thoughts, Noah kissed Diana's cheek as she lay flat on her back and asked.
“Do you like me?”
'Yes, a lot.'
When he asked her while she was asleep, she always answered like this. Now, she doesn't answer or say anything.
He longed to hear her voice. Her elegant, refined, and coherent intonation and voice perfectly matched the epithet "my princess." He seemed to love everything about her.
“My one and only.”
His one and only everything, all the same one.
One of Diana's fingers, which she had been desperately holding onto, moved slightly as if in response.
Erita paced around the room, biting her fingernails. She muttered with a look of anxiety and impatience.
“A brooch... I just need to bring that.”
If her sin is revealed, her mother might abandon her.
The mere thought of the Queen's cold face filled Erita with fear. Her vision turned white, and she felt a ringing in her ears.
Noah must have already known about the existence of the brooch crafted by the royal chief designer. Yet, he took no action. The longer the suffocating silence dragged on, the more her fear grew.
Unfortunately, the Marchioness of Wales was away on vacation at a manor house in an Estrian resort town, far from the Marquis, so there was no one else she could trust to turn to for help. In fact, she couldn't make any decisions without her.
“Should I go there first?”
Erita stopped her busy legs and stood, blinking as she looked straight ahead. She thought she should go to Noah and tell him it wasn't her fault. What if she told him the truth—that Diana had thrown herself from the stairs—and promised not to touch her again?
In truth, it was an unfair situation for her. She had simply called Diana to tell her to break up with Noah, and she simply wanted to see Diana humble herself and beg. Erita called her attendant in a hurry.
“Please prepare to go out. I plan to visit the patient.”
Erita got into the car and headed straight to the Royal Hospital.
Even though it was evening and well past visiting hours for non-guardians, she was able to enter Diana's hospital room thanks to her privilege as a member of the royal family.
In the spacious single-person ward, Diana lay unconscious, alone. Erita dismissed the maids who had accompanied her. She was also ordered to wait in the lobby and not to enter without permission. Erita's lips twisted into a grimace as she gazed at the woman lying on the bed with IV drips.
"If you die, I'll be in trouble too. You're not joking, are you?"
She pinched the back of Diana's hand painfully with her fingernail, but there was no response. Seeing her breathing, perfectly even, and the serene, closed eyes, her pale face, unmoving even slightly, Erita saw this as an opportunity to vent her anger. She raised her hand as if to strike Diana's cheek.
"Get up. Tell me the truth, that you jumped yourself. Why are you making me feel wronged?"
“Are you upset?”
Erita's back stiffened at the sound of a voice coming from behind her. Noah, who had returned to the hospital room, was looking at her.
“What, what is it? When did you get here?”
“Is this the right time to ask me that?”
Noah, who had been questioning with a blank expression, lowered his gaze to the back of Diana's hand. His eyes narrowed sharply as he saw the red, nail-marked pinch. His sharp blue eyes then turned to Erita's arm. He noticed a subtle difference in the thickness of the fabric beneath the long sleeves.
"Ah!"
Erita's screams of pain, her arm tightly gripped by Boaz, were muffled and swallowed by Noah's hand. He asked in a low voice.
“Are you trying to get caught?”
Erita's face turned bright red as she barely managed to endure the pain of pressing her fingertips against the wound. Seeing her shaking her head with tears welling up in her eyes, Noah removed his hand from her mouth and smiled.
“I think you got bitten. Did you get tetanus treatment?”
Noah sat on a garden bench outside the hospital building and watched children in hospital gowns playing and munching on dogtooth grass.
“Count, your wife is still...”
From behind, he heard the voice of Commander Chelsea's daughter. Unlike her usual frivolous, high-pitched voice, which he disliked, it sounded cautious and a little lower in tone. It seemed she had come to visit.
“Yeah, still.”
“When will she wake up?”
“I don’t know.”
Since the doctor said he didn't know, there was no way for him to find out. Barbara, holding a bouquet of flowers, looked weeping. Over the past few days, many people had come to visit: the wife of the Chief Justice, the Marchioness of Wales, and several other ladies, a wealthy Hessian, the daughter of an unknown Viscount, and so on.
"She seemed like she didn't make any friends, but surprisingly, she had built up enough bonds to visit her in the hospital," Barbara said, caressing the lily in her arms.
"She's been looking depressed lately. Ever since the palace maid, who she was so close to and cared for, died. Ayla Delson, I think."
“Are you trying to say it was a suicide attempt?”
“No, I just wanted you to pay more attention when she wakes up.”
“You know it’s pointless meddling, right?”
“Yes, but I tend to meddle.”
She's still a one-sided person he doesn't like. He frowned.
Barbara, who had entered the private room, took Diana's hand and muttered a prayer, then spoke to her. He watched quietly and asked.
“Do you think Diana can hear that?”
"She might come back after hearing this. She might be bored, so read a book or something."
“Yesterday, Prince Hessen read a storybook about squirrels.”
“That’s what I’m saying, what if you don’t know more than the young Prince?”
Seriously, how rude. Niah stood close and watched her as she spoke. Her mumbling, like a spiritual ritual awakening, was nothing more than a trivial tale.
"...It's strawberry season soon, Madam. You've been waiting, haven't you? You have to keep your promise to go eat strawberry pie, strawberry tart, and strawberry cake, aiming for the extinction of strawberries. If you lie down any longer, you'll end up eating tasteless, out-of-season strawberries."
“Is that the right way to do it?”
“Yes. You didn’t tell me a secret you thought I wouldn’t hear, did you?”
Thinking back, he thinks he said something that sounded a bit childish.
Noah shook his head in clear denial.
“I don’t have that. I’m a model husband.”
"Yes, I think so. Your wife doesn't talk about personal matters, but I can tell from looking at you two that you love each other very much."
"Love?"
“You got married because you loved each other, didn’t you? It’s so new.”
Not really. He got married because he wanted to know what true love was, and he still doesn't. Noah pulled up a metal chair and sat down quietly next to his wife's noisy and rude friend.
“Have you ever been in love?”
Her cheeks flushed red, and she placed her hand on them and nodded.
"Yes. I fell in love with Mr. Ford the moment I saw him. He had beautiful cream-colored eyes."
"Ah."
He didn't think there was any need to hear more, so he just gave a vague answer. Barbara, who was decorating a vase with white lilies, spoke.
"Love's ending is precise, but its beginning is imprecise, isn't it? Everyone has a different starting point. Sometimes you feel love from the beginning, only to gradually neglect it. Sometimes you begin with doubts, only to deepen your love. Love has no reason."
“Shouldn’t there be a reason?”
"There are many things in this world that are easily changed. Things like material things and appearances, for example. If the reason disappears, love also ends. It's better not to have it."
“Are you a love expert?”
“I read it in a book. I think love begins the moment you say you love me.”
Noah pictured Diana, pale and ready to faint, saying she loved him in the forest outside of Frogen. Even though it was a lie, seeing as they ended up getting married, it felt like a fitting beginning. He loved hearing those words.
“Why are you talking so plausibly?”
“...Wasn’t it always like that?”
“Yeah. I was just talking nonsense.”
After Barbara, who had been chattering away for a while, left, Diana and Noah were left alone in the quiet hospital room. He spent a long time pondering what to say to Diana.
"You said there was war there too, but it was more peaceful than here, right? I'll make it that way here, too. And I'll become the ordinary person you were talking about."
In her sleep, he glimpsed a world only she knew. Diana's nights seemed to connect with another world. She spoke of words and objects he didn't know, and answered his questions. She even told him that the country she was born in was a warring, truce nation.
“Come back, my princess.”
Her small upper body rose and fell rhythmically. Only the faint sound of breathing could be heard, punctuating the still silence. He wondered if she had reached a moment of choice: whether to stay or return.
He never thought the world would be limited to this place. There are countless stars in the night sky, and if viewed from somewhere, this place would be one of them.
"The girl who lived deep in the forest was completely uneducated and completely ignorant, completely uninformed of culture. Her sponsor, Mr. Mark, felt the need to bring in a teacher to teach her, but the girl remained unfamiliar with the world and wouldn't even consider leaving her small cabin in the forest. She was timid."
He recalled a passage from the children's story "The Girl with the Dog and the Wolf," which Janet, a children's author, had submitted to a newspaper. It conveyed the idea that Diana needed education and was ignorant of the world. However, the story published after her kidnapping was quite different.
"One day, a timid and ignorant girl suddenly transformed into someone completely different. She could even tame a fearful wolf like a loyal dog. But she was more cunning than clever."
On the day of the kidnapping, Diana, whom he first encountered in the car, showed no signs of agitation, her eyes and expression betraying a premonition of what was to come. She simply sat quietly in the dark backseat, her face impassive.
“Who are you?”
She asked with a tone that seemed to already be already familiar. Her voice was a weary, deep, low note, and her intonation was curious. Noah found it as peculiar as her aloof appearance, but it possessed a strange allure, a captivating quality.
Diana seemed like a lazy queen, living a life of luxury. Even as a hostage, she confidently demanded what she needed and wanted, accustomed to being treated like a proud cat, as if she had come of her own accord. Moreover, she would often talk about things she wouldn't have known in her previous position.
"The lady asked me to bring her stollen (a traditional cake filled with dried fruit and almonds, marinated in alcohol) and wheat beer for a late-night snack. Did you see it in the book?"
“She is well aware of formal dining etiquette and cutlery order, so there is nothing I need to teach her.”
These were Molly's words as she watched and attended to her.
Although she felt somewhat awkward in high society and aristocratic culture, she quickly adapted, and the educational knowledge and common sense she occasionally displayed were on a level that surpassed that of children of noblemen who graduated from prestigious universities.
To his eyes, she seemed less ignorant and more like an explorer adapting to a new environment, or a visionary with a clear understanding of the ways of the world. Perhaps a strange and contradictory being.
Lost in his thoughts, Noah kissed Diana's cheek as she lay flat on her back and asked.
“Do you like me?”
'Yes, a lot.'
When he asked her while she was asleep, she always answered like this. Now, she doesn't answer or say anything.
He longed to hear her voice. Her elegant, refined, and coherent intonation and voice perfectly matched the epithet "my princess." He seemed to love everything about her.
“My one and only.”
His one and only everything, all the same one.
One of Diana's fingers, which she had been desperately holding onto, moved slightly as if in response.
***
Erita paced around the room, biting her fingernails. She muttered with a look of anxiety and impatience.
“A brooch... I just need to bring that.”
If her sin is revealed, her mother might abandon her.
The mere thought of the Queen's cold face filled Erita with fear. Her vision turned white, and she felt a ringing in her ears.
Noah must have already known about the existence of the brooch crafted by the royal chief designer. Yet, he took no action. The longer the suffocating silence dragged on, the more her fear grew.
Unfortunately, the Marchioness of Wales was away on vacation at a manor house in an Estrian resort town, far from the Marquis, so there was no one else she could trust to turn to for help. In fact, she couldn't make any decisions without her.
“Should I go there first?”
Erita stopped her busy legs and stood, blinking as she looked straight ahead. She thought she should go to Noah and tell him it wasn't her fault. What if she told him the truth—that Diana had thrown herself from the stairs—and promised not to touch her again?
In truth, it was an unfair situation for her. She had simply called Diana to tell her to break up with Noah, and she simply wanted to see Diana humble herself and beg. Erita called her attendant in a hurry.
“Please prepare to go out. I plan to visit the patient.”
***
Erita got into the car and headed straight to the Royal Hospital.
Even though it was evening and well past visiting hours for non-guardians, she was able to enter Diana's hospital room thanks to her privilege as a member of the royal family.
In the spacious single-person ward, Diana lay unconscious, alone. Erita dismissed the maids who had accompanied her. She was also ordered to wait in the lobby and not to enter without permission. Erita's lips twisted into a grimace as she gazed at the woman lying on the bed with IV drips.
"If you die, I'll be in trouble too. You're not joking, are you?"
She pinched the back of Diana's hand painfully with her fingernail, but there was no response. Seeing her breathing, perfectly even, and the serene, closed eyes, her pale face, unmoving even slightly, Erita saw this as an opportunity to vent her anger. She raised her hand as if to strike Diana's cheek.
"Get up. Tell me the truth, that you jumped yourself. Why are you making me feel wronged?"
“Are you upset?”
Erita's back stiffened at the sound of a voice coming from behind her. Noah, who had returned to the hospital room, was looking at her.
“What, what is it? When did you get here?”
“Is this the right time to ask me that?”
Noah, who had been questioning with a blank expression, lowered his gaze to the back of Diana's hand. His eyes narrowed sharply as he saw the red, nail-marked pinch. His sharp blue eyes then turned to Erita's arm. He noticed a subtle difference in the thickness of the fabric beneath the long sleeves.
"Ah!"
Erita's screams of pain, her arm tightly gripped by Boaz, were muffled and swallowed by Noah's hand. He asked in a low voice.
“Are you trying to get caught?”
Erita's face turned bright red as she barely managed to endure the pain of pressing her fingertips against the wound. Seeing her shaking her head with tears welling up in her eyes, Noah removed his hand from her mouth and smiled.
“I think you got bitten. Did you get tetanus treatment?”
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