Dimint had more vitality than expected. Of course, his head was split open, both legs were broken, and three ribs were gone, but at least he didn’t look like a corpse.

The doctor at Aeskis Castle, Hessen Oldenberg, was a seventy-year-old woman, tall and slender with a calm demeanor and short white hair.

Lili was moved to the dragon infirmary from Henry’s magic laboratory after finding no traces of magic except for the injury of broken wings.

Hessen moved with elegant motions between the knights’ infirmary and the dragon infirmary, caring for Dimint and Lili.

The knights’ infirmary was the place within Aeskis Castle that received the most sunlight and had the best ventilation. It had high ceilings, long windows for each bed, and the largest stack of clean towels and blankets.

“He can’t eat this yet.”

Hessen firmly rejected the food Lillian had brought from Aiba’s house.

“When he wakes up, even this won’t be enough.”

“Dame Lillian Hunts. Despite appearances, Dimint is a patient.”

“To my eyes, he just looks like he’s sprawled out sleeping.”

Lillian sighed and placed the bowl on the table beside Dimint’s bed.

On the opposite side of the bed, Dion stood with his arms crossed, looking down at Dimint. His sleeping form looked quite peaceful.

“You said he regained consciousness.”

“That was earlier. Don’t even think about waking the patient.”

Indeed, outside the window was already pitch black. Tonight, there were many clouds, so even the stars weren’t visible. It was a terrible darkness.

“When will he wake up again?”

“I don’t know. First, he needs to rest well. But since he regained consciousness once, his recovery should improve.”

“Did he say anything else?”

Dion spoke to Berche, who was standing at attention at the foot of Dimint’s bed. He had been by Dimint’s side all evening after finishing training today.

“Yes, he did. But even Dimint wasn’t certain who attacked him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The attacker wore a mask and black clothes. But he said they used an Akarti sword.”

“So the Akarti Kingdom really attacked?”

It was strange. Why attack secretly? Even a five-year-old child knew that the Ronakia Empire and the Akarti Kingdom had been at war.

Though questions remained about why they attacked that location, it meant their attacks were nothing new.

Moreover, Dion had directly heard from the Emperor that the Akarti Kingdom was secretly negotiating a ceasefire.

Were they planning to throw out a ceasefire and then stab them in the back?

“But when their swords clashed, he said the fighting style was subtly different from Akarti’s.”

Berche observed Dion’s expression with sharp eyes. As expected, Dion uncrossed his arms and showed an interested expression.

⁕⁕⁕

As soon as Clementina opened her eyes, she quickly changed clothes by herself and secretly went to the kitchen to gather supplies. Then, before the sun had risen over Dicon Mountain, she found the dragon’s nest first.

Jeremiah’s dragon Gerard was in a nest made of thorny branches. He was sleeping with his entire body sprawled out, with his legs extending outside the nest.

As Clementina approached Gerard’s nest, the highly sensitive dragon immediately rose and hid his belly.

Gerard had scales so dark that without a candle, he would be completely invisible. His scales had no shine, but rather than appearing dusty and dull, they looked like expensive fabric.

Gerard watched Clementina’s actions with his black eyes, not even blinking.

Clementina held a large basket in her hand. From the basket, she first took out a large glass bottle and placed a large wooden bowl beside it.

She poured the sugar water from the glass jar into the wooden bowl until it was full. Then she carefully placed it near Gerard’s mouth and whispered.

“Try this.”

Gerard glanced at the wooden bowl once, then turned his head away and lay back down.

Perhaps this method wouldn’t work with Gerard.

Clementina looked around for Mago. Mago was watching them from his nest, positioned diagonally from Gerard.

Clementina took out another wooden bowl, filled it with sugar water, and brought it to Mago. Mago quickly noticed and extended his tongue to lap up the sugar water.

“Goo.”

After finishing it completely, Mago lifted his head and made a thin sound toward Gerard. Gerard didn’t even look at Mago and remained motionless.

Mago made eye contact with Clementina and then settled back into his own nest.

Clementina left the wooden bowl in front of Gerard and closed the door to the dragon’s nest. It was still dark outside.

“Any progress?”

“Oh my!”

A low voice came from the darkness. Clementina was so startled that she fell to the ground, dropping the basket she was holding. Instantly, the items inside the basket clattered and scattered across the floor.

Dion, who had been leaning against the wall, also flinched at Clementina’s scream.

Nevertheless, Dion quickly regained his composure, approached Clementina, and bent his knee.

“Why are you so startled?”

“How could you sneak up on me like that?”

“I wasn’t sneaking up—I was just standing there.”

“Still, you scared me.”

Clementina hurriedly organized the mess from the fallen basket, not even noticing the hand Dion extended to her.

“There was no progress. How is Sir Dimint?”

“When I went to see him, he was sleeping. He did say something to Berche, but it only made things more confusing.”

“For Lili’s sake, Sir Dimint needs to wake up soon.”

“That’s right. A dragon rider is important to a dragon.”

“Gerard doesn’t seem well either.”

“How so?”

“Her mood seems very low.”

“I’m sure it is. Lili and Dimint are Gerard’s companions after all.”

“I don’t just mean his mood is low. It’s more like……. a state of lethargy. He’s depressed. Shouldn’t we have Hessen examine him?”

“You’re saying he’s sick?”

Dion took the basket Clementina was holding. It was quite heavy.

Where did she get all this at dawn? In Dion’s case, having spent much of his childhood outdoors with Leon, he was far from the typical nobleman accustomed to being cared for by others.

Yet Clementina, who seemed like she wouldn’t know how to do anything, was adapting to Aeskis Castle better than expected.

The problem was that Dion couldn’t tell if she was adapting as a duchess or trying to adapt as a worker. He received daily reports from Cherbest about how she was doing, but that didn’t seem to be the whole story.

“Where did you get this?”

“From the kitchen.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Alone?”

“……What are you curious about?”

“I’m curious about how you’re doing.”

“Haven’t you received all the reports from Cherbest?”

“That doesn’t seem to be everything. What exactly are you doing?”

“Now you’re curious about that?”

“I’m curious now.”

“Hmm……. Follow me.”

They walked along the path toward the main castle. Somehow, since yesterday, Dion kept appearing around Clementina unexpectedly. They hadn’t seen each other’s faces for twenty days, but now why were they running into each other so frequently?

As the morning sun rose, knights emerging from their quarters for morning training bowed their heads upon seeing the ducal couple.

Clementina walked ahead. She entered the castle and headed familiarly to the kitchen. When the ducal couple entered the kitchen together, the cooks and servants who were busy preparing breakfast stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads.

Dion waved his hand at them as if telling them to continue with their work. Clementina, apparently not a stranger to the kitchen, comfortably settled in a corner near the fire. She brought a large sack of sugar from the cupboard on the wall, poured it into a pot, and added honey from a wooden container.

“Now, this will make my arms ache, so Your Highness, please do this part.”

Clementina stirred the pot with a wooden spatula for a while before handing it to Dion.

“You need to keep stirring so it dissolves well. Put all your love and care into it. It’s for Gerard, after all. Keep stirring. Keep going.”

Clementina started nagging like a skilled chef.

“My, my arm hurts?”

“You can swing a heavy sword well enough, but your arm hurts from this little wooden spatula?”

“It hurts.”

“Then give it here.”

“No! I’ll do it. I said I’ll do it. But what is this anyway?”

Clementina smiled like a child who had just accomplished something. The surrounding cooks and servants looked at her fondly.

“Candy. I learned how to make it yesterday.”