99.

Norma wasn’t avoiding Aisa out of fear of being scolded.

In fact, as soon as he returned to the estate, his first thought was to go to her. He didn’t expect her to greet him—she was always busy—but he fully intended to head straight to her office.

Even if it inconvenienced her, it couldn’t be helped. Norma was desperate. He wanted nothing more than to hold her hand, even for a moment, and silently tell her how he hadn’t hesitated for an instant when faced with Igor’s call.

But things didn’t go as planned. On the way back, Norma felt an unfamiliar warmth rising within him.

At first, he dismissed it as nothing. But by the time he dismounted his horse, the truth was undeniable—he had a fever. Though mild, it was unmistakable.

For someone like Norma, blessed with innate divine power and rarely ill, this was a startling occurrence.

Not that it was his first illness. The only other time he had fallen sick was shortly after Nicholas was born, following his mother’s passing. It had been a grave illness back then.

This, however, was the first time since. And as the fever refused to subside, Norma grew increasingly disoriented.

It reminded him of his childhood, when priests and healers alike had failed to bring down his fever. Once it started, it seemed unstoppable.

Norma hesitated, wondering if it was wise to see Aisa in this state. After all, he was still actively courting his wife.

‘Falling into the water, plagued by hallucinations, and now unable to handle even a simple fever.’

With that blunt assessment of his condition, Norma sighed bitterly and decided to retreat to his room.

He knew Aisa would likely find him pitiful if she saw him now. And while she was always rational, she might even feel sorry enough to let him stay near her. That wasn’t the worst outcome.

But Norma didn’t want pity—he wanted to be someone she admired. He wanted to be the object of her affection, not her sympathy.

Norma was certain that Aisa already thought of him as someone mentally fragile.

It wasn’t just the fever; his appearance was equally unsuitable for meeting her. Knowing how resolute her emotional barriers were, Norma had recently made a habit of presenting himself as meticulously as possible, aware of her weakness for beauty.

Looking down at himself, he saw his clothes were soaked and muddy in places.

The answer was clear. Norma let out a small sigh.

‘Fine. Just wait a little longer. I’ll get cleaned up, and by then, the fever will have gone down.’

Using his appearance as an excuse, he quickly fled. He couldn’t have imagined that Aisa might actually come to greet him herself.

Had Norma gone straight to his room from the stables, word of Aisa’s approach would have reached him, and he would have had no choice but to meet her, disheveled and all.

As it was, Norma made it to his room unnoticed. There, he soaked himself in warm water and changed into clean, dry clothes.

Fortunately, the fever seemed to ease somewhat. It wasn’t entirely gone, but he felt confident Aisa wouldn’t notice.

Finally reassured, Norma left his room with a spring in his step, heading toward Aisa’s office. Escorting her to dinner would provide the perfect excuse to see her.

But fate intervened again. He learned that Archie, feeling under the weather, wouldn’t be attending dinner.

Feeling that Archie’s condition was entirely his fault, Norma changed course and went to the boy’s room instead.

“Uncle!”

Archie, confined to bed under the strict orders of his physician, Jan, was overjoyed to see his uncle. His face lit up as he greeted Norma with unrestrained happiness.

Seeing Archie’s exuberant smile, Norma felt a twinge of guilt for even considering going to Aisa first. It made him feel like a terrible person.

He sat by Archie’s bedside, chatting and laughing with him for some time. Before long, dinner time had arrived.

“Thanks for coming… See you later, Uncle,” Archie said reluctantly, his disappointment evident.

Norma chuckled softly and placed a hand on the boy’s forehead.

Archie, watching the hand approach, thought it moved slower than usual. When it rested on his forehead, he blinked and realized something was off.

“By the way…”

“Hmm?”

“Your hand is a lot hotter than my forehead.”

“Hmm…?”

“And now that I look, your face is kind of red, and you’re slower than usual. Are you sick?”

“I’m not… sick, exactly.”

“You’re not happy enough for it to be excitement.”

Archie recalled Norma’s playful remarks during teatime.

‘It seems this fever isn’t going away so easily,’ Norma thought.

The boy’s sharp observation left Norma with no choice but to smile faintly.

“Should I call Jan?”

“It’s probably just from being in hot water for too long. Don’t worry. I’ll stay with you a little longer. Now, get some rest.”

Norma knew that escorting Aisa during dinner was his responsibility. But he also knew he wouldn’t make it through the meal.

Swallowing his pride, he decided to skip dinner altogether.

By the time Norma left Archie’s room, his condition was still manageable. To anyone untrained in sensing divine or martial energy, he appeared perfectly fine.

However, his skin was noticeably warm—anyone who touched him would immediately notice.

When the time for their shared bedtime finally came, Norma’s fever had spiked dramatically. He felt lightheaded and weak.

In the end, he made the difficult decision to announce, for the first time, that he would sleep in a separate room.

Given that Aisa had expressed no enthusiasm for frequent shared nights, Norma assumed she wouldn’t mind. His fever-clouded mind didn’t consider the possibility that she might imagine something far worse.

Using the private room for the first time since their marriage felt strange. Norma lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Eventually, he noticed movement from the adjacent shared room.

The private quarters of the McFoy couple were connected by a shared bedroom, meaning the movements he heard could only be Aisa’s.

The sounds didn’t fade quickly, and Norma found himself staring at the wall, knowing she was just on the other side.

‘I should have gone to her first without worrying about how I looked.’

His fevered mind drifted. Though he felt exhausted, he couldn’t fall asleep. The thought of closing his eyes and hearing Igor’s voice again was unbearable.

On top of that, the vivid memory of the day Igor betrayed him still haunted him, playing in his mind like a waking nightmare.

It wasn’t a night for sleep.

Norma’s burning eyes stung as he stared into the darkness. He felt pathetic, but at least he had made the right decision to sleep separately.

‘Her seeing me like this would have been worse,’ he thought as he lay there.

Then, he noticed Aisa’s movements again. This time, they headed for the door. She must be going to her private room.

Though Norma had initiated the separation, the idea of her moving farther away left him feeling unexpectedly forlorn.

But just as he was wallowing in that thought, her steps stopped outside his door.

Norma froze, his fevered mind hyper-focused on her presence. Then he heard her voice.

“It’s me. I know you’re not asleep, so open the door.”

All other thoughts vanished in an instant. Fueled by nothing but the anticipation of seeing her, Norma bolted to the door faster than even Antoinette could.

Impatient as I was, I opened my mouth again.

“I’ll open the door and come in—”

Before I could finish, the door suddenly creaked open. Not entirely, but just enough to reveal a narrow gap, barely wide enough for a face to peek through.

But that was enough.

* * *

Through the small opening, I saw it—golden eyes slightly clouded with moisture, damp hair plastered to a forehead glistening with sweat.

Startled, I instinctively wedged my foot into the gap, preventing the door from closing. Pushing my way inside, I found Norma stepping back quietly, holding the door as if to steady me.

Though I had managed to enter his private room, the interior was pitch dark, with not a single candle lit. It was difficult to make out his expression as he retreated farther into the shadows.

As I moved closer to get a better look, Norma acted first.

Before I could take a step, he abruptly turned his back on me.

A surge of anger shot through me, and I could feel my face twist into something monstrous.

Had he ever turned his back on me like this before? The gesture filled me with an unsettling sense of dread, as though he might leave me at any moment.

“Wait. Stop right there,” I demanded, my voice sharper than intended.

His rejection hit me harder than I expected, and worst-case scenarios immediately took root in my mind, growing with alarming speed.

“What’s this about?”

I muttered, half to myself, disbelief evident in my tone.

So it wasn’t just words when he said he thought of me as a refuge? I had believed that by staying close, I could help him overcome whatever aftermath or scars he bore. But had he decided that wasn’t the case, that I wasn’t enough, and felt disappointed after all?

In mere moments, my worst fears had taken on vivid, tangible shapes.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

“Aisa, I’m just—”

“You said I wasn’t just a refuge.”

I cut him off, my words sharp and unwavering.

Norma’s eyes widened in surprise at my interruption, but I was too worked up to notice.

I began advancing toward him, my words firing off like bullets.

“You said you’d stay by my side even if I told you to leave. So what does it mean when you turn your back on me? Has it only been a month of marriage for you to start regretting it? Well, I told you—this was your choice.”

Finally, I stopped just short of him, so close that our hands could almost touch. Now that I was near, I could see his face clearly—a face filled with sorrow, like a lost puppy.

For a moment, his pitiful gaze made me falter, but I quickly steeled myself, keeping my expression stern. Truthfully, I was the one who felt wronged.

“That look won’t work on me.”

“Aisa. Whatever you’re thinking right now, you’re wrong,” he said calmly, waiting for me to finish before speaking.

But his composure only deepened the frown etched on my face.

“Wrong? You think I don’t know what I’m seeing? Do you think I don’t notice you avoiding me? Turning your back on me means you can’t even stand to look at me, doesn’t it?”

Though I knew I was being unreasonable, seeing him hesitate, his hands hovering as if uncertain, sent another wave of frustration through me.

My eyes were drawn to his hands, still lingering awkwardly by his side. They, too, seemed to be avoiding me, and it drove me mad.

*Go ahead, keep living in your delusion. Do you think I’ll let you go just because you make that face? Don’t be ridiculous. Do you know who I am? You’re not going anywhere now.*

“Aisa, it’s not that. Actually, I have a fev—”

“It’s too late.”

My body moved on its own, and before I knew it, I had grabbed his hand.

“…?”

The moment my fingers wrapped around his, I hesitated, unsure if I was holding a human hand or a furnace. The heat radiating from his skin was almost unbearable.

I glanced down at our joined hands in shock. Slowly, I raised my gaze to meet his face.

Norma, looking utterly defeated, opened his mouth and murmured in a strained voice, “…I have a fever.”

It almost seemed as if steam was rising from his head. The sight was both pitiful and, in some ways, embarrassingly undignified.

“How… how can you have a fever? What’s the point of divine power if you can’t even manage this?”

I couldn’t hide my disbelief as I processed the unexpected revelation.

But my surprise quickly gave way to alarm as I instinctively reached up to touch his face. Everywhere my hands landed—his cheeks, his forehead—felt like burning coals.

*How could his fever have gotten this bad without anyone noticing?*

Looking closer, I realized his entire body seemed flushed. The memory of him turning his back on me suddenly felt far graver.

“Jan!” I yelled, my voice booming as I called for the physician.

Norma, startled, quickly clasped my hands in his and began speaking in a slow, almost pleading tone. “It’s not a cold. This happened once before, when I was young. Neither divine power nor medicine helped then, either.”

I froze at his words. His sluggish speech wasn’t just my imagination; his fever was clearly taking its toll.

“It just needs time. I’ll be fine by tomorrow. It was the same back then,” he added, as though trying to reassure me.

“That’s… ridiculous.”

I stopped short of asking if he thought he was dying. As much as I hated to admit it, I had a sinking suspicion about what might be causing his fever.