Chapter 6
The room where the Emperor slept was filled with hazy smoke.
Chloe hesitated as she absentmindedly considered opening the window for ventilation. It was due to the stern admonition from the physician not to wake the Emperor under any circumstances.
“Don’t make loud noises or open the window. Please, even at times like this, we need to ensure he gets his sleep…”
Insomnia, was it?
For those in power, it was a common chronic ailment. Frankly speaking, for someone who had lived worrying about assassination since their teenage years, not having insomnia at all was even more surprising.
However, the physician’s stern expression made it seem more serious than she had initially thought…
“He seems to have a more serious case of insomnia than I thought.”
She glanced down at the Emperor, who seemed more unconscious than asleep.
She couldn’t compare to him in terms of looking frail on the surface, deliberately avoiding the sun for the past three years. But whether it was due to the poison or not, droplets of sweat were starting to form on his pallid face.
“…Still handsome. As ever.”
And there was no sign of him coming to his senses.
She was the one who had to guard him until the overworked physician regained consciousness, but honestly, it didn’t seem like he would wake up anytime soon.
Intoxicated, poisoned, detoxified…
If he were to wake up in this state, he’d be more like a bear than a human…
“…!”
Chloe suppressed the urge to scream for a moment. The cold fingers, twisting around her arm like a snake, gripped it so tightly that it hurt.
“Your Majesty…”
At her barely audible call, his tightly closed eyes furrowed. She tried to release her arm from his grasp before he fully opened his eyes, but his grip only grew tighter, causing her arm to ache even more.
Suppressing a groan of pain, she finally met his gaze as his eyes opened slowly.
His cloudy silver eyes were fixed on her.
“Don’t go.”
Mixed with the metallic sound, Chloe couldn’t be sure if she had heard him correctly. Her trapped arm was excruciatingly painful. If she waited a moment longer, it felt like her arm would break under his hand.
Confirming his gaze, which seemed out of sorts, Chloe quickly struck his hand away.
But as she forcefully removed his hand, the man, who had just been limp like a corpse, suddenly sat up. His shoulders gripped her forcefully, making her previous struggles seem insignificant.
“Ugh!”
It happened in an instant. The moment the man threw himself onto her body on the bed.
Without any consideration, Chloe felt suffocated by his weight pressing down on her. His massive frame, made of muscles, alone was threatening enough.
“I told you not to go.”
The man’s slurred words, uttered with a muddled pronunciation, still carried a foggy haze. His eyes, although fixed on her, seemed to be staring at someone else.
“I… told you not to go… so many times…”
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry, but you need to rest now—”
“Chloe.”
Even though she knew he wasn’t calling her, Chloe held her breath.
“Chloe, my love…”
The tender tone he used to call her when they were lovers flowed from his lips. It felt like a dream from those days.
His murky eyes, groping through the air, distorted into a smile or a cry—it was impossible to tell.
“You said… you love me. You… said that.”
As if experiencing a headache, he let out a low groan and leaned his forehead heavily against her shoulder. Reflexively, she tried to support his shoulder, but his hand pressed hers down under his.
Keeping her body restrained, he murmured.
“If that’s the case, then don’t go. Anywhere.”
To family, or anywhere else…
His words trailed off as if he would fall asleep any moment.
“You can’t go away… forever.”
Even if you die, you can’t go anywhere.
Gradually, with regular, low breathing, the Emperor slipped back into unconsciousness.
Slowly, she pushed the man who had collapsed on top of her away. As she peeled off his intertwined fingers one by one, she tried her best not to think about anything.
There was no need to be swayed by the nonsensical ramblings of an irrational man.
After all, they were just a repetition of the lies he had told her in the past.
—
“Was this requested by Your Majesty?”
Chloe alternated her gaze between the pile of medicine in front of her and Ralph, the Royal Physician. With her skeptical eyes, Ralph nodded wearily.
“As far as I know, this… this seems to be a medicine used for trapping animals in hunting grounds…”
“Yes. Lady Edant requested it.”
“This isn’t even a sleeping pill… It’s more like a paralysis drug, or rather, it’s not a medicine but poison.”
Ralph chuckled at Chloe’s expression, which seemed to say, “What kind of nonsense is this?” Half of the medicines he spread out were not intended for human use, and among them, half were not even used for sleep purposes.
“She seems to have developed tolerance to the medicine. She keeps demanding stronger ones.”
“Still, you should have provided sufficient explanation for these potentially life-threatening medications.”
I did! I did say it! Ralph forced a smile while swallowing the words that were almost jumping out of his throat. As he glanced through the resignation letter in his hands, he felt somewhat relieved.
“I did provide a sufficient explanation, but…”
This seemingly innocent and frail woman surprisingly had a strong will. It wasn’t just stubbornness, but why did she know so much about medicine in the first place? If she couldn’t convince herself, she would relentlessly press on, reminiscent of an old retired mentor.
“But prescribing such medications is not the duty of a physician.”
Her eyes, sharp as a freshly cut lemon, stared at him sharply, and Ralph heard a phantom voice saying, “Stop making excuses.”
This woman… Her personality… isn’t good.
Being a physician required highly developed intuition. Therefore, he no longer fell for her innocent facade.
“Yes. So, I was actually considering resigning as the Royal Physician, but I couldn’t bring myself to mention it until now, with this sudden turn of events…”
Ralph didn’t want to be tormented by the Emperor, who might end up dying from drug overdose and ruin his own life. Plus, there were also the Emperor’s attendants, who looked at him with eyes that seemed to say, “If you dare make a mistake, I’ll kill you.”
“I heard you became the Royal Physician just six days ago.”
“It only takes a day for someone to realize their place, Lady Edant.”
With a compassionate smile on Ralph’s face, Chloe remained silent for a moment before asking, “How long did the previous physician work?”
“Fifteen days.”
“Are you sure?”
“He’s my close friend, so I’m sure. Technically, he applied for resignation after ten days, but he couldn’t find a replacement… Yes, he saved me and left after fifteen days.”
Seeing Ralph, who seemed likely to follow his friend soon, Chloe was speechless. She had no idea how Luke had been living for the past three years. Since Gideon never relayed any messages, she just assumed he was living well.
But, of course, she couldn’t have done anything even if she knew. Still…
No wonder the child’s condition seemed so bad…
“It seems Your Majesty is, uh, quite a difficult patient.”
“Well, he doesn’t even consider himself a patient.”
It was impressive how she could turn a deaf ear to someone who simply wouldn’t listen. Chloe admired Ralph’s eloquence.
Yeah. He spent his teens in revenge and his twenties in civil war, so it must have been difficult to maintain a healthy and sane state of mind.
But what Chloe expected was just the petty quirks that most people in power have.
Like being obsessed with establishing authority or not wanting to share their belongings. Well, insomnia was within the expected range to some extent, but…
“I didn’t realize it would be this severe.”
Most of the symptoms Ralph mentioned were caused by extreme insomnia. Just by listening to him speak or looking at the prescribed medications, it was evident. Luke wasn’t just having trouble falling asleep. He couldn’t sleep at all. It wasn’t sleep; it was more like anesthesia.
He couldn’t sleep unless he took medication or alcohol, or pushed his body to the brink of exhaustion until he passed out. It was more like anesthesia than sleep. It wasn’t a psychological refusal to sleep, either. Could someone really be unable to sleep to this extent? Judging by the potency of the medications prescribed, it seemed like there was an intense desire for sleep.
“Have you ever considered curses or something along those lines?”
“Curses? Wouldn’t it be more likely to be poison than a curse?”
Unless they were children believing in fairy tales, people knew how insignificant curses cast by shamans were. In ancient times, when there were no letters, shamans were revered as kings and priests who could move mountains, split rivers, and resurrect the dead. But in reality, their curses amounted to whether the other person would lose a fingernail or not after sacrificing their life.
Why would shamans resort to being back-alley fortune tellers to make a living?
Chloe knew it, Ralph knew it, and probably any normal adult citizen of the empire would know it too. Even if every shaman in the empire risked their lives to curse the Emperor with insomnia, it would have ended with the Emperor suffering from insomnia for about a month. They were that incompetent.
Chloe already knew, but she reconsidered the possibility. Then what? Why can’t the child sleep?
“Well, if the process of falling asleep is impossible, wouldn’t it be better to prescribe drugs that induce unconsciousness forcibly rather than sleep aids?”
“When it’s serious, they say people sometimes force themselves to faint by pressing on their throat or the back of their neck… But that’s even more dangerous, so we have no choice.”
“Drugs that induce unconsciousness forcibly?”
“Paralysis poison has a similar effect and is being used for that purpose.”
“What’s the exact combination of ingredients?”
Ralph was about to say something but stopped himself. After an awkward silence, he hesitantly replied, glancing at her.
“That’s something I can’t talk about freely… I’m sorry, Lady Edant.”
Although he had shared some of the medications used on the Emperor for treatment since the Emperor had ingested poison and collapsed, anything beyond that was confidential. In fact, Ralph felt uncomfortable with why a woman named “Marie Edant” was so interested in the Emperor’s insomnia.
Realizing his discomfort, Chloe tried to hide her confusion.
In a way, it was fortunate. The urgent emergency treatment was over, and she didn’t need to intervene further. She shouldn’t have intervened in the first place.
That was a reminder given by the physician in front of her.
“I apologize for the intrusion.”
Chloe quickly got up from her seat. She felt ashamed. Chloe Langsher had no right to interfere in Luke Olfenster’s life, not even a fraction of it.
She should be grateful just to be alive, even if she was sacrificing her life. How dare she.
But…
That night, Chloe made all kinds of sleeping pills and discarded them all.
Gideon didn’t stop her. He only ordered her not to take a single step outside the bedroom.
It was definitely an order.
For the first time since meeting Gideon Edanth, Chloe experienced a mixture of coercion and persuasion.
