A harsh screech echoed as the chair dragged across the floor, making the physician’s eyes widen in shock.
“S-Sir Steve…”
“…I’ll be taking my leave first.”
Although he had come to retrieve medicine, Steve left empty-handed.
Before the physician could react, Steve merely gave a curt nod and swiftly disappeared through the door.
Right hand.
I recalled the direction of the hand he had used so effortlessly to twist the doorknob and open the door.
Didn’t they say he was injured so badly by Dietrich that he couldn’t even go on a mission? But his wrist seemed perfectly fine.
Now, only the physician—his face pale—and I remained in the infirmary.
‘Lies.’
There was no reason to move the prince elsewhere when Dad was at home.
Even if such a thing did happen, it would be classified information.
Dad hadn’t even directly told me that the prince was in our house—there was no way he would carelessly reveal something that important.
‘I hope Steve acts according to my expectations.’
As I gathered my thoughts, I picked up Kiki, who had been yanked from my arms earlier by Steve with such force that the stitches on its neck had come undone slightly.
“This thing.”
At my sudden words, the physician flinched.
He had a timid and fragile demeanor.
When I silently stared up at him, he couldn’t even meet my gaze properly and only barely managed to steady his voice.
“W-What is it, Miss?”
“Is this thing something the butler prepared?”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m asking if it’s magical equipment.”
My vision swam, and red and blue dots danced before my eyes.
The floor seemed to rise and fall repeatedly.
I felt worse than when I had been completely drunk in my past life.
Just sitting up straight was taking every ounce of patience I had.
So I couldn’t tolerate the physician merely opening and closing his mouth without answering for long.
‘The trampoline was something the butler brought to our house.’
I clearly remembered that from the first day I saw Yasmin.
I had played with it for quite a while, but after the butler was locked in the punishment room, all the things he had brought from his home were searched, and the trampoline was removed from our house.
‘I never expected it to end up in the infirmary.’
I also never imagined it would be imbued with magic poison.
It had seemed completely normal when I played on it with Dietrich.
Did someone tamper with the trampoline?
Was it coated with a type of film that slowly released magic poison over time?
Or had someone deliberately spread magic poison on it?
‘Or perhaps…’
But why now?
For what purpose?
I wanted to think about it more, but my head was pounding as if it were about to split. I decided to quickly finish intimidating the timid physician.
“I-I don’t understand what you mean, Miss. That film was extracted from a beast that doesn’t carry magic poison. The other children have been playing with it just fine…”
“I don’t care about that.”
Whatever had been secretly done to it was truly irrelevant to me.
“As long as you stay quiet and behave while you’re in our house, you’ll leave in one piece. Just don’t do anything and keep to yourself.”
As I spoke clearly and deliberately, the physician looked at me as if he had seen a ghost.
Even though I had phrased it as a threat, I was somewhat sincere.
I didn’t know what tricks he was up to, but if he simply stayed still—if he didn’t mess with me, Dad, Dietrich, or the rest of our household—I really would let him go.
‘He seems weak-willed, so maybe a bit of intimidation will work.’
The knights remaining in our house were still recovering from their injuries.
For now, we needed the skilled physician who had been sent from the main house.
“Are you not going to answer me?”
“…I-I understand.”
The physician wiped the cold sweat from his forehead multiple times.
Seeing his trembling hand clutching a handkerchief, I rose from my seat.
I had seen everything I needed to see and said everything I needed to say.
There was no reason for me to stay in this wretched stench any longer.
“Ugh—!”
Trying to act as normal as possible, I walked out. But the moment I was far enough from the infirmary, I collapsed against a half-open window frame, rain splashing inside.
It felt like someone was scraping my insides with a sharp blade.
I had been exposed to magic poison longer than when I had seen the prisoners of war, and the headache just wouldn’t subside. I couldn’t move away from the window for a long time.
Through the splitting pain, one thought surfaced:
‘Dad has always endured this kind of suffering…’
I had yet to awaken my blessing.
And yet, just because I was born into this bloodline, I had to suffer like this.
If it was this unbearable for me, how much worse must it have been for Dad, who possessed exceptionally strong power?
And at least I hadn’t come into direct contact with the magic poison.
‘I just inhaled a little of it.’
Even that was enough to make my heart feel like it was being crushed.
I barely managed to stay conscious.
‘Dad, who led the northern army into war…’
There was no way he had been in a safe place, untouched by magic poison, simply watching from afar.
That was impossible.
Even in the brief moment I had held his hand, I saw how his fingers were covered in scars, woven together like a snake’s pattern.
He had fought and won despite unbearable pain.
And now, people were plotting against him?
‘I’ll never forgive them.’
Gritting my teeth, I lifted my head and glared at the blurred landscape beyond the rain-streaked window.
Don’t touch them. Not Dad. Not Dietrich.
Those people are… mine.
…
I listened to the sound of raindrops tapping against the window for a long time, but my mind refused to calm down.
***
Steve left the infirmary and quickly strode down the hallway.
‘Where was the room Peter was staying in again?’
Why take the prince away at this moment, of all times?
He had even deliberately thrown himself into a child’s swinging sword, pretending to be injured, just to keep watch over the prince and wait for the right opportunity.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
Grinding his teeth, Steve arrived at Peter’s room—only to find it completely empty.
He hurriedly placed his hand on the bed, but all he felt was the cool fabric of the sheets. It had been vacated long ago.
“Damn it!”
With his perfectly fine right hand, Steve slammed it down on Peter’s empty bed.
The annex was unusually quiet, as many knights had left all at once.
It seemed Peter had used the knights’ collective departure—caused by the damned prisoner transport operation—as a chance to slip away as well.
‘And I missed it.’
Steve clenched his jaw so hard it hurt.
He vaguely remembered hearing that Peter’s family home was in Calena.
Getting there in time was impossible, both in terms of logistics and justification.
The best course of action was to inform the ducal family as soon as possible so they could handle it.
‘But thanks to all the messenger birds being removed…’
Leopord must have caught on to something.
That man, who had once cared about nothing after losing his wife, was now taking personal action over a seemingly minor issue.
Because of that, Steve’s plans were thrown into disarray, and he cursed multiple times.
But cursing wouldn’t bring the messenger birds back.
His mind raced.
If he couldn’t send word via messenger bird, he had only one option left—sending a message through a trusted person.
‘Who’s available right now?’
The person his master had originally arranged for this sort of task was the butler.
But that idiot had failed at the simple job of securing control over the household and had ended up locked in the punishment room.
‘I need someone who can move freely and disappear for a few days without drawing suspicion.’
Steve thought of a servant who worked in the kitchen.
His master hadn’t assigned the man any major tasks—just simple rumor-gathering.
Someone like that could vanish from the household without causing any disruption.
Making his decision, Steve tore a piece of paper from Peter’s desk and quickly wrote a message.
He noted that the first prince was being moved, and that Peter’s home was being used as a secret safe house.
‘That fool might fail to deliver the message properly, so…’
Steve mentally mapped out the servants’ quarters.
This needed to be dealt with immediately.
‘If there’s even a small opening, I can’t see it…’
That little brat had said something like that.
Leopord’s daughter—barely four years old.
He had no idea where she had picked up on things, but if it hadn’t been for that foolish girl, he would have faced serious repercussions from Leopord.
Failing to monitor the prince was a critical mistake.
Steve arrived at the kitchen servant’s quarters and knocked precisely four times—slow, deliberate knocks.
It was a signal used among those from the main house who shared the status of spies.
“Who’s there…?”
A familiar voice responded from within.
