Episode 50

***

After the commotion had subsided, Diana lay on my bed under Grandpa Gordon’s care.

Shortly after drinking the Povlata flower juice, the rashes quickly subsided.

“If it was this bad, she must have had trouble breathing. Did you handle the asthma?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you caught it quickly. There are cases where people go into shock and die without knowing it’s an allergy.”

Grandpa Gordon clicked his tongue and spoke in a dissatisfied voice.

“An apricot allergy, huh? Many people have died from eating the wrong food. Be careful.”

His tone was gruff, but Diana laughed as if she had heard a funny joke.

“Yes! Thank you, sir!”

“You should thank her, not me. She’s the one who saved your life.”

At his words, Diana paused and looked at me.

After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke slowly.

“…Thank you so much, Belze. If it weren’t for you…”

“…”

“But how did you know it was an allergy? I didn’t even know.”

Her question seemed to carry many implications, making me frown.

It sounded almost as if she was accusing me of deliberately feeding her the allergen.

Or perhaps she was questioning how I managed to identify and treat it so quickly.

I chose my response nonchalantly.

“Yes. I have a cucumber allergy! When I eat it, I get like you.”

“I-I see… Thank you so much. Belze, you really are my lifesaver!”

Despite having gone through a significant ordeal, Diana remained bright and beautiful.

She seemed more spirited and lovable than anyone else.

I looked at her with detached eyes.

Specifically, at the now-clear area around her neck.

As Grandpa Gordon said, without my healing potion, I might have believed she was poisoned.

I wouldn’t have been able to think quickly and provide immediate care.

‘…Like in my previous life.’

I realized today how terrifying trauma can be.

Of course, with Grandpa here, the allergic reaction would have been identified quickly.

But if the person who entered with Diana’s maid had been the Marquis of Barrelotte instead of Edwin…

‘Wouldn’t I have been slapped on the spot?’

 

“This commoner girl, blinded by jealousy, dared to…!”

Was it a memory or my imagination?

Unable to distinguish between the two, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“…Are you okay?”

Someone gently touched my shoulder.

Startled, I looked up to see warm golden eyes gazing down at me.

“…Edwin.”

“Your face is pale.”

Poke.

He poked my uninjured right cheek with his finger.

I hesitated before asking.

“…Very?”

“Yeah. You look a bit like dough.”

Why was it?

Normally, I would take that seriously, but his comment made me chuckle.

Seeing me laugh weakly, Edwin whispered in a firm voice.

“You know you’re not at fault, so be confident.”

“…Okay.”

“If anything happens, my father will take care of it.”

Of course, he would.

It wasn’t difficult for the mighty Calios to figure out that the pecan pie contained apricots.

But despite Edwin’s reassurance, I lacked confidence.

‘Will they really find out?’

That there’s a crazy person who would deliberately eat something that triggers an allergic reaction just to get me into trouble.

And that person is the heroine of this world.

‘This really is a messed-up story.’

Suddenly, a question arose.

‘Come to think of it, why did Edwin come to my room?’

Of all times, why then?

It almost seemed like he could have been caught in a misunderstanding as well.

Not everything felt coincidental, and a chill ran down my spine.

At that moment.

Bang!

“Diana!”

The door burst open, and a middle-aged man with brown hair rushed in.

“Marquis…!”

“Diana! My goodness, what happened? An allergy?”

The Marquis of Barrelotte, looking younger than I remembered, embraced Diana with exaggerated concern.

“I’m fine. It was nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious! Lily told me everything. You almost died from breathing difficulties!”

The Marquis of Barrelotte fussed over Diana as if he had witnessed his own daughter’s accident.

I wasn’t the only one who found the marquis’s unsightly display distasteful.

“Tut, such fuss…”

Grandpa Gordon muttered under his breath, barely audible.

He stood beside the bed, so the marquis certainly heard him.

“What, what did you say? You there! What did you just say? Fussing?”

“She’s not going to die just from eating a little. If people died from allergies, half the world’s population would be gone. The girl handled it immediately, so there was no real danger…”

Grandpa Gordon finished his words with a glance in my direction. It was his way of giving me some credit.

But it backfired.

“You, over there!”

The marquis’s eyes flashed as he spotted me standing there.

“How could you manage the food supplies so poorly that Diana ended up like this?”

He pointed an accusing finger at me.

He probably thought I was the easiest target. And perhaps he also wanted to belittle me, since I was the one who ended up healing Joshua instead of Diana.

‘Managing food supplies? That’s a new one…’

As I pondered how to respond, someone else spoke up.

“Why would she be responsible for managing food supplies?”

“Young Duke, return to your room! This is a matter to be discussed directly with the Duke! A child shouldn’t be meddling…”

“A child, you say?”

Edwin cut off the marquis’s words coldly.

“Have you not heard that I recently inherited the Novellius territory?”

The Marquis of Novellius was Edwin’s great-uncle, who had no children of his own. Thus, his inheritance naturally passed to his cherished grand-nephew.

It was one of the many titles Edwin held in my previous life.

Though he was still young and hadn’t formally taken on the title, having a territory to govern granted him associated authority.

In other words, even if the Marquis of Barrelotte tried to belittle Edwin by calling him a child, legally, there was no issue with Edwin standing his ground.

“I would appreciate it if you showed some respect while I’m maintaining your dignity, Marquis of Barrelotte.”

“Ugh…!”

The marquis’s face twisted with humiliation at Edwin’s polite but firm tone.

His face turned red as he grumbled, but he couldn’t find any words to retort.

And I watched the exchange between Edwin and the marquis with sparkling eyes.

‘He’s so cool…!’

Being a marquis at such a young age!

Even though I had felt it before, nine-year-old Edwin was strikingly impressive.

It made things increasingly difficult.

How could I send such a cool, powerful, handsome, kind, wealthy, and influential Edwin to a crazy heroine who eats apricots to trigger her own allergy?

My heart grew heavier with the thought.

Looking at Diana with conflicted eyes, I saw her belatedly trying to calm the marquis.

“I-I’m fine, Marquis! Please don’t blame Belze.”

“But you almost had a serious accident! Are you hurt anywhere? How is your holy power? Can you still use your healing abilities?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Diana nodded with a troubled expression.

Watching her, I felt incredibly strange.

‘I heard she might be an illegitimate child…’

The marquis’s concern was ultimately about her healing abilities, not Diana herself.

Even the fact that she was still wearing the same shoes she wore at the temple…

I had thought she would be treated with utmost care at the marquis’s household. This was shocking to me in many ways.

Moreover, seeing them together like this made it clear…

‘They really don’t look alike at all.’

The Marquis of Barrelotte had common brown hair, eyes that were narrow like a weasel’s, and a plump build.

In contrast, Diana had mysterious white hair, large purple eyes, and a slender figure.

There wasn’t a single feature they shared.

Why did everyone so firmly believe that Diana was the marquis’s illegitimate child?

“Even if you’re fine, we need to get to the bottom of this! How can the servants be so poorly managed that they don’t even apologize…!”

“Are you talking about our household?”

It was then.

A tall figure, a head taller than the enraged Marquis of Barrelotte, appeared behind him.

“Gasp! D-Duke…!”

The marquis turned pale as he looked back.

He had been caught bad-mouthing the host directly by the host himself.

The duke stepped into the room and stood behind Edwin and me.

Thunk.

Suddenly, I felt a heavy weight on my shoulder.

When I looked up, the duke wasn’t looking at me.

But his large hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder was enough to calm my anxious heart.

“I don’t understand what you’re asking them to apologize for.”

The duke spoke coolly.

“No one forced her to eat. Are you trying to hold someone accountable for something that happened while the children were playing?”

“Of course! Diana almost died; we must determine responsibility!”

“Then if Belze had encountered a problem instead, would that mean it was the Barrelotte family’s responsibility?”

The marquis’s mouth fell open at this seemingly illogical statement.

After gaping like a fish, he shouted,

“That’s absurd!”

“What’s so absurd about it?”

“The incident happened because of the food provided at your residence. How could we be responsible?”

“Unfortunately, our kitchen is also blameless.”

The Marquis of Barrelotte frowned deeply.

“What do you mean by that…!”

“My second son also has an apricot allergy.”

The duke shrugged lightly.

“Therefore, no food containing apricots is supplied to our house at all.”