Chapter 14
Are you okay? It was a rather surprised expression.
‘Rachel’s never looked like that before.’
Moreover…
With disheveled hair and dressed in the same outfit as when training.
‘Oh, right. Rachel doesn’t know about my condition, does she?’
I haven’t revealed my illness to Rachel and the Duke yet.
My illness, which absorbs mana from the surroundings and forms a perfect balance with Rachel, would make it easier to enter the aristocracy if revealed.
The problem is, to reveal my illness, I would have to disclose that I know Rachel’s constitution.
‘Normally, if you say a child is sick, people tend to avoid them as playmates, so it makes sense to hide it…’
But Rachel’s constitution is extremely secretive externally.
If I were to say I know about it, I would become a suspicious character, so I kept it hidden.
‘I was planning to tell them once I gained the trust of the Duke and Rachel, to the point of knowing Rachel’s constitution…’
I thought I was going to collapse!
“I’m sorry, Miss. You must have been very surprised, right? But it’s not a serious illness. It’s been like this for a few years—”
“…You’ve been sick for a few years?”
In my rush to reassure the startled Rachel, I inadvertently blurted out, ‘Actually, I’ve been hiding an illness!’ and then realized my mistake and fell silent.
But the spilled water cannot be gathered again, the words had been said.
Glancing over, Rachel’s expression had turned cold and stiff.
‘I’m doomed…’
It seemed like she was angry at the fact that I had hidden my illness.
“So, do you faint like this every time?”
“Oh, no! Fainting is a first for me. Usually, I just feel a bit unwell and then get better. About 20 minutes…?”
The more serious my illness, the more I felt she would resent me for hiding it, so I added an explanation…
“…So, were you feeling unwell even before you came to me earlier?”
Rachel’s expression became even more serious.
In turn, I fell into a panic.
‘No! I can’t afford to lose my friendship here due to a stupid mistake!’
Just as I desperately tried to avoid the situation, Rachel spoke first.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling unwell?”
Only then could I read the emotions revealed in Rachel’s eyes.
Not annoyance, not anger…
“I thought you… were going to die because of me.”
Fear.
In those eyes wee filled with fear and guilt.
“This child was worried about me.”
No matter how much of a villain without blood or tears she may become, that is a story of the distant future.
A story that has not yet unfolded.
What exists before me now is simply the pure heart of a child worrying about a friend.
The moment I realized that fact.
Rachel was no longer a character in a novel to me but had become a ‘real friend’.
At the same time, before I collapsed, the words I wanted to say to Rachel came to mind.
Now was the time to say those words.
“In truth, there is something I want to say to you, Your Highness, so I’ve been patiently waiting.”
“…Something you want to say?”
I looked directly into Rachel’s blue eyes.
Sincerity can be conveyed through the eyes.
“I am not afraid of you, Your Highness. Even if I am the child of a traitor.”
“…”
“You haven’t done anything wrong, Your Highness. It’s unfair for you to be blamed for something you didn’t do.”
“…”
“If a friend has been wronged, instead of running away, you should believe and help them. So….”
I tightly held Rachel’s hand.
“I will stay by your side, Your Highness.”
So, this was my sincerity.
Setting aside the fact that my life was at stake, it was a sincere desire to comfort this child’s wounds.
Rachel stared at me with wavering eyes, then looked down at our joined hands.
But she did not pull away.
“Oh, right. I should tell you about my illness first.”
If a regular doctor had diagnosed me, they wouldn’t have been able to diagnose my illness.
It was an illness related to mana, so only a wizard could diagnose it.
So Rachel had been worrying without knowing what my illness was.
It was at that moment when I was about to explain my illness before Rachel could worry more.
Knock knock—
The voice of the butler came from outside.
“Miss, may I come in for a moment?”
“Come in.”
As the two entered the room, I tensed up.
“Is she going to scold me for hiding my illness?”
However, to my surprise, the butler first checked on my condition.
“I heard you fainted. Is your body okay, Vivian?”
“Yes. Thanks to Your Highness for quickly calling the doctor.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
The expression on the nanny’s face as she looked at me next to the butler seemed rather ominous.
“It feels uneasy for some reason.”
And that premonition turned out to be correct.
“It would be best for you to rest at home until you feel better. Pushing yourself when you’re unwell could make things worse.”
“So, are you saying I shouldn’t come to the mansion for the time being?”
“Of course, we intend to support you as much as possible so that you can come to the mansion as soon as you’re feeling better.”
My heart sank.
Although the butler spoke as if it was for my sake, the real purpose was to isolate me from Rachel.
“An ill child suffering from an unknown illness may not be good for Rachel’s emotions.”
If it turned out to be an infectious disease that was still unknown, it would be even more dangerous.
Only then did I understand why the nanny was looking at me with a confident expression.
However.
“If my illness can be of help to Rachel.”
Perhaps the doctor had not diagnosed my illness as I suspected, but once the Duke knew about my illness, he would probably want to keep me close to Rachel.
But there was one issue.
“They might not readily believe me, who is not an expert.”
The Duke would most likely try to definitively diagnose my illness, but I doubted if there was a magician who could diagnose an illness related to mana at the Duke’s disposal.
If there was no magician, I would have to go through the cumbersome process of bringing in an external magician to diagnose the illness.
“In the worst case, they might find the process too troublesome and just abandon me like this…”
Anyway, there was only one action I could take in this situation.
It was a fleeting moment when I opened my mouth to talk about my illness.
“Miss, I just checked the magical medical book—”
Suddenly, without warning, the door opened, and a man with glasses, who seemed to be the Duke’s personal physician, walked in.
I discreetly noticed that the doctor had come to examine me.
The doctor, upon seeing the butler and the nanny, seemed flustered and apologized.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just about to inform you of the child’s illness…”
Rachel, as well as the butler and the nanny, had widened their eyes.
“You’ve identified the child’s illness?”
“Yes. The child does not have an infectious disease.”
“So?”
“Mana Overload. It matches the symptoms.”
Internally, I cheered at the doctor’s words.
‘It’s fortunate that I needed an expert’s opinion!’
It was a stroke of luck for me, but not for one person.
The nanny’s expression twisted miserably.
Because…
“In other words.”
The fact that my illness was Mana Overload meant,
“We can treat this child’s illness.”
It meant a significant help to Rachel, who absorbs mana.
