“Lord Chamuka?”

Leticia softly called out to the boy who seemed to be burning up with fever.

As if her voice was a trigger, Chamuka opened his eyes.

“….”

“….”

While they were quietly staring at each other, Leticia was the first to come to her senses. Looking at Chamuka’s lips which were parched from the fever, she spoke.

“Aina, some water please.”

“….”

Holding the glass of water, Leticia asked in a troubled tone to Chamuka, who was still lying down with just his eyes open.

“Can you drink? If you could just sit up a little…”

“Are you alright?”

Chamuka mumbled while carefully examining Leticia’s hand with his fingers.

“I’m sure I saw it turn completely black…”

His golden eyes blinked slowly as if having trouble focusing, and he brought his face close enough to almost press against Leticia’s palm.

As his fine silver hair fluttered above her palm, Leticia unconsciously placed her hand on Chamuka’s head, just as she would with Tan.

Chamuka froze, and just as Leticia was about to withdraw her hand in embarrassment.

“Oh?”

The child who had been behind Leticia suddenly sprang forward and pounced on Chamuka. Then, while sitting on top of Chamuka, the child suddenly bit Leticia’s hand.

“What is this…”

Stunned by the sudden turn of events, Leticia stared blankly at the child who was licking her fingers, then quickly panicked and pulled the child away.

“Get down right now! What are you doing on top of a patient!”

The child she pulled away clung tightly to Leticia.

Ignoring this, Leticia tried to check if Chamuka’s wounds had reopened, and Chamuka suddenly sat up and lifted the child from Leticia’s arms.

“What is this?”

“Lord Chamuka, your wounds, your wounds!”

“Grrrr…”

The child growled like a beast. As if trying to be threatening, he even bared their teeth.

Leticia, afraid that Chamuka’s wounds might reopen, tried to grab the child’s waist to distribute the weight.

It was absolute chaos.

“Lord Chamuka, put him down!”

“Auu, woo!”

“…Could this be…”

Chamuka said with disbelieving eyes.

“Tan?”

At that moment, the door opened.

And the person who could end this chaotic situation in an instant appeared.

It was the Grand Duke, who they said had just awakened, the master of this castle.

“What are you doing, Chamuka?”

Apart from his usually neat attire being somewhat disheveled, he looked not much different from usual.

Leticia was relieved to see that the Grand Duke showed no signs of illness.

The Grand Duke looked at the chaotic scene on the bed, and first pulled out the two silver-haired individuals who weren’t the bed’s rightful owner.

After lifting one child in each hand, he passed them to the knights behind him and ordered.

“Take them to their respective rooms.”

“Father!”

Before any protest could be made, Ferik waved his hand dismissively.

The knight holding Chamuka quickly left the room.

Meanwhile, the knight holding Tan spoke in a troubled tone.

“This person is…”

No one knew Tan’s identity, who had been in the coffin all this time. Even Ferik was seeing Tan’s face for the first time.

If it weren’t for Hilda’s testimony about taking Tan directly from the coffin…

Ferik glanced at Tan’s face.

Actually, even without Hilda’s testimony, anyone could see the faint traces of Astrid in the child’s features that clearly marked them as their offspring.

However, to the knight holding Tan, this was just an unfamiliar child, nothing more, nothing less, so Ferik briefly responded to the knight’s troubled tone.

“Second floor, central room.”

It was a room that had been prepared even before Tan was born. Though unused for the past five years, it has been consistently cleaned and maintained, so it should be fine to use.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

After the knight carrying Tan withdrew as well, Leticia was left alone on the bed.

Ferik lifted Leticia, blanket and all.

“…?”

With a questioning expression, Leticia was carried in Ferik’s arms.

While Aina followed behind calling “Your Highness? Your Highness?”, she couldn’t keep up with Ferik’s quick, long strides.

Ferik swiftly climbed to the highest floor of the mansion, passed through the crowd of people gathered there, and entered the bedroom inside the Grand Duke’s chambers.

He placed Leticia next to Astrid, who was lying on the bed.

“Why am I…”

As Leticia just blinked in confusion, Hilda, who was sitting by the bed, criticized Ferik.

“So you brought him here after all. Couldn’t you just let him rest?”

“He’ll be more comfortable resting here.”

“His body might be comfortable, but his mind… well.”

At those words, Ferik turned to Leticia and asked.

“Are you uncomfortable here, Your Highness?”

If asked so directly, how could anyone say they were uncomfortable even if they were?

Hilda seemed to have similar thoughts, as her expression turned sour.

“More than being uncomfortable… I just don’t understand why you brought me here…”

“Your Grace, don’t tell me you brought him here without any explanation?”

“You’d be more accurate in explaining than I would.”

As he said this, Ferik interlocked Leticia’s hand with Astrid’s, making them hold hands tightly.

Leticia flinched at Astrid’s ice-cold hand.

The bloodless pale face and cold body temperature.

‘…Really like a corpse.’

She involuntarily shuddered slightly.

Seeing this, Ferik asked.

“Are you cold? We should bring in a heater. We’ll need to change to thicker blankets, and clothes too…”

“It’s almost summer, what are you talking about? Even if His Highness has a weak constitution, he wouldn’t be cold enough to need that in summer. It must be because Lady Astrid’s body is cold.”

“…I thought she had gotten warmer than before.”

“You shouldn’t compare her to how Her Grace was before, but to other humans. She was essentially dead before, after all.”

Ferik stared at Leticia and Astrid’s clasped hands for a moment before standing up.

“I’ll look for an artifact with warming effects.”

With those final words, Ferik left, and Leticia finally relaxed her tensed body somewhat.

Despite recognizing the Grand Duke as a good person, his unique pressure often made Leticia tense.

Leticia rolled her eyes around before carefully speaking.

“Hilda, what’s going on?”

The tower had crumbled, and her body felt as though it had burned all over again. The Grand Duke and Chamuka, though caught in the tower’s collapse, had miraculously escaped with non-life-threatening injuries. Astrid was still asleep beside Leticia, and…

‘Who was that child in my bed? He looked like Lord Chamuka.’

“Are you feeling alright, Your Highness?”

Leticia nodded. Hilda’s eyes narrowed.

“You can’t be fine. I’ve experienced it too, but the feeling of your body being reconstructed is so horrible I never want to experience it again. The aftereffects lasted for days too.”

“Reconstruction?”

“Your Highness has now awakened to magical power. You’ve passed the most basic stage of becoming a magician.”