On the way back to Talamand, the carriage wheels creaked and slid on the road.
Inside the carriage heading to the estate, the problem was that the biting winter wind kept seeping in through the gaps in the windows.
Odelia tried to endure it by tightening her cloak, but her body gradually heated up, and a cough kept rising as if squeezing her throat.
"Lady Odelia, are you alright?"
When the attendant asked urgently, Odelia shook her head slightly. Her strength had already been significantly depleted, so even answering was difficult.
Soon, the coachman stopped the carriage. As the horses stomped their feet in place, exhaling white breath, a cold silence flowed through.
"It will be difficult for you to go any further at this rate. There is an inn in a nearby city, so why don't you rest there?"
Odelia barely nodded at the servant's reasonable suggestion.
The procession passed through the city gates and rolled into the narrow streets. The market was bustling with the joyful festivities of the New Year, but to Odelia, all that commotion felt incredibly distant.
The carriage stopped in front of an old brick building that, despite its modest appearance, looked sturdy enough to shield against the winter wind.
Leaning on the hands of the servants hurriedly supporting her, Odelia was dragged along with heavy steps.
Orange flames flared up violently from the fireplace in the assigned room. Warm air rushed in, but Odelia's body was already drenched in cold sweat.
Before she could even take off her cloak, she sat on the edge of the bed, swallowing a cough, when a servant approached and laid her down flat.
Odelia rubbed her forehead and briefly reproached herself inwardly. If only she had been in Talamand at a time like this... she wouldn't have caused such trouble. Thinking of her companions who wanted to return and welcome the New Year with their loved ones as soon as possible, she felt a sense of guilt and helplessness even amidst her fever.
Odelia lay in a room filled with fireplace light for a long time, suffering.
Her body heated up like a ball of fire, and just as the sweat was about to cool, the heat surged again. She would fall asleep only to wake up immediately, so she tossed and turned on the sheets, gasping for breath.
As she repeated that time and her consciousness grew hazy, she suddenly asked herself. Had I ever been tormented by a cold this much before?
Even though she had endured harsh winters on the battlefield or in Talamand, the memory of being bedridden with such a deep illness was faint.
At the edge of her hazy thoughts, a familiar voice suddenly seeped in.
'Don't catch a cold.'
Seeing how her cold got worse as soon as he told jer not to get sick, it seems she won't be able to become a loyal subject.
Odelia let out a chuckle as she thought that. But then...
"I told you not to catch a cold."
"Oh no, now I'm even hearing hallucinations."
At the voice that seeped in through the hazy gap, Odelia squeezed her eyes shut and gasped for breath.
“It’s not an auditory hallucination.”
It had even reached the point where the auditory hallucinations themselves denied being hallucinations. Odelia pressed her already tightly closed eyes even tighter, thinking self-deprecatingly that she might have lost her mind due to the fever.
However, wouldn't a faint presence seep in through her trembling eyelashes? She eventually quietly opened her eyes.
"...I’m ruined."
What caught Odelia's eye was clearly the Emperor. A person who should not have been in this inn room, far from the imperial palace, was standing by the bedside as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Even when Odelia rubbed her eyes open again as if trying to chase away the illusion, waved her hands to check again, and no matter how hard she struggled to move her weary body, he was still there.
With arms crossed and the corners of his mouth turned up in his signature smile, leisurely, as if it didn't matter if she continued to dismiss it as an illusion.
Is it not an illusion...? Odelia stared blankly at the sight for a moment before realizing.
Ah, it's a dream.
It's not auditory or visual hallucinations; it's a dream. I must have fallen asleep again, right? It's definitely something like a lucid dream.
Odelia let out a shallow laugh from under the covers.
"It's a dream... so this much should be okay."
"Don't talk; your throat hurts."
Odelia took in the sight of him, slightly narrowing his eyebrows as if it were real, closed her eyes for a moment, and replied with a faint smile.
"I feel like I need to say it to feel a bit better."
With those words, she slowly raised her hand and reached out toward Calix. Her fingertips, weary from the fever, trembled, but this time, she had cast aside both shame and dignity.
Suddenly, a warm sensation enveloped her fingertips. Odelia thought it was a rather vivid dream. It was only natural. After all, the other person couldn't possibly be here.
"Capt..."
"..."
"It was clearly just Capt..."
"..."
"How on earth did I end up with you..."
"..."
"I'm the one who caught a cold because of you, so take responsibility."
As Odelia spat out a denial, Calix subtly raised his eyebrows and quietly asked.
“Why is it because of me?”
Odelia closed her eyes and caught her breath. She muttered in a low voice.
"Since you keep unsettling me... I know it's not right, and I know I'm still not good enough to be greedy..."
The end of her words grew fainter. Words she would never have uttered under normal circumstances flowed out involuntarily, intoxicated by fever.
Calix did not reply. He simply gripped Odelia's hand even tighter and silently accepted the confession.
"... So, I'll forget everything after I wake up from the dream."
At the words that flowed out like a breath accompanied by a faint laugh, Calix quietly reached out and gently stroked Odelia's hair. The spot where his hand passed over her forehead, where her sweat-soaked hair had clung to her, felt cool, at least for a moment.
"You still have to take your medicine, Odelia."
A low, calm voice seeped into her ears. Odelia mumbled with her eyes half-closed.
"I'll eat after I wake up... After I wake up, I'm too tired right now."
Her words crumbled, and her breathing gradually slowed.
As her consciousness drifted into a hazy state, not long after, she felt something cold touch her lips.
She flinched in surprise for a moment, but having already lost all strength, she could not move an inch. Soon, bitter medicine flowed in through her slightly parted lips.
Odelia struggled to swallow, but her feverish breaths kept getting caught. Just then, with a sensation of someone settling beside her, their breaths met deeply.
Suppressed breaths came in one after another as if pushing medicine in, and following those breaths, the medicine slowly traveled down the throat.
Odelia's heart pounded as the rapid breaths overlapped. She couldn't tell if it was due to the heat or the overlapping of their breaths. Their breaths were close and continued almost mingled.
Odelia barely managed to lift her heavy eyelids. However, all she could see in her blurry vision was a silhouette; his face was obscured by light and shadow.
Only breath and warmth were so closely intertwined.
Odelia closed her eyes again and quietly exhaled, as if accepting the heat as it was. She could not distinguish whether this moment was a dream or reality.
Her breathing gradually slowed, and even the fingertips stiff with tension relaxed. As if relieved even amidst the vivid heat that felt like a shadow, Odelia slowly drifted into a deep sleep.
***
Around midday, Damian, Herse, and Captain Philip arrived in front of the inn after running through the snow-covered streets.
The three of them had come out to greet Odelia a little earlier, assuming the New Year's banquet would be over, but rushed over upon hearing the news that Odelia was sick and slowing her pace to stay at an inn.
"Here, where is the room where Lady Odelia is staying?"
Philip asked. Then the innkeeper suddenly sprang to his feet, straightened his shoulders, and stood up straight.
"It is the fourth room from the right on the second floor!"
Philip raised his eyebrows in surprise at the answer, which was laced with a battle cry that he would never have imagined hearing normally.
"... Why is it so perfectly angled?"
The three people, sharing the same doubt, tilted their heads and went straight up to the second floor. And the moment they entered the hallway, their footsteps came to a halt.
Imperial soldiers stood in lines not only in front of the door but also on both sides of the corridor. Silver spearheads gleamed in unison, maintaining a state of alert with not even the slightest gap.
"What is this...?"
Philip let out a low sigh, and Damian also let out a small groan, unable to hide his embarrassment.
He had come out early to greet Odelia and visit her in the hospital, but the scene unfolding before his eyes was such a solemn atmosphere, as if he had stepped into the very center of the Imperial Palace.
This is a regular inn, right? It definitely was. No, then what is this? The three exchanged glances, mulling over their reality.
As if cutting through the silence, the door opened, and a massive figure emerged into the light.
"I will let you sleep a little longer."-
A deeply subdued voice; it was the master of the Imperial Knights, Emperor Calix.
He appeared, his shoulders slightly slumped as if he had been keeping watch inside, bearing the very trace of having sat all night.
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