That’s when it happened.

“Here you are!”

A servant hurriedly came looking for Dr. Lambert. The servant, with a flushed face, shouted.

“Lady Rant has completely awakened! She opened her eyes!”

Delia put down her spoon completely.

There was no hope for finishing breakfast today!

Meanwhile, the servant who discovered the Crown Prince next to Dr. Lambert jumped in surprise and bowed. Then, upon seeing the Grand Duke of Tranade and his researcher also present, rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

Important figures gathered in the auxiliary palace’s dining room from early morning, and moreover, wasn’t it widely known throughout the palace that the relationship between the Crown Prince and Grand Duke wasn’t good? Still, it was fortunate in a way that all the people who needed to hear Lady Rant’s news were gathered in one place.

The servant delivered the joyful news again.

“Lady Rant has just awakened, they say.”

Niol raised his eyebrows slightly.

“That’s good news.”

A small relief passed across his face, but it was so faint that only Delia could notice it. Niol asked in a dignified tone.

“Shouldn’t Lord Tranade go see her right away?”

Indeed, Kaiel was already standing up.

The moment the servant delivered the news, Kaiel had jumped up from his seat, and now he finally let out a long sigh he seemed to have been holding for ages.

It must have been a moment he had been desperately waiting for.

Watching the relieved Kaiel, Delia felt a wave of guilt. In the original work, there was no story of Lady Rant recovering. She was poisoned with lapocia, suffered, and eventually died.

‘How difficult must it have been for Kaiel in the original work.’

Delia reached out and firmly grasped Kaiel’s hand. Whether he disliked skinship or not didn’t matter. She just wanted to hold his hand at this moment.

Kaiel, whose hand was grabbed, calmly turned his head to look at her. He neither pulled his hand away nor held hers back. However, Delia could read the sincerity in his eyes.

‘Thank you.’

His eyes were saying that.

Delia smiled warmly. Perhaps now she could somewhat prevent him from becoming enraged and causing bloodshed in the imperial palace as he had in the original work.

At that moment, Niol, who had been watching them, lightly knocked on the wall with his fist.

“Aren’t you going?”

Dr. Lambert hurriedly stroked his mustache and said.

“Grand Duke, let’s go quickly. You must be eager to see her.”

When Delia nodded, telling him to go quickly, Kaiel finally let go of her hand and took a step.

“Yes, I’ll go.”

As Kaiel left the dining room, he bowed his head to Niol who was leaning against the door, and whatever he said made Dr. Lambert, who was nearby, glance at Delia before quickly averting his gaze. At the same time, Niol curled up one corner of his mouth.

“What if I refuse?”

Dr. Lambert jumped up and hurried the Grand Duke along. Unable to actually push or pull him, he flailed about helplessly.

“Oh my, Grand Duke! Hurry, go! Lady Rant must be waiting!”

As soon as he left the dining room, Niol leisurely walked over to Delia. The sneer he had worn until just now had completely vanished, replaced by dimples.

“Shall Miss Averbit spend some time with me?”

His voice was a gentlemanly tone with a mix of playfulness. Rather than having actual business with her, it felt more like casual socializing.

“I……”

Meeting his eyes up close, Delia quickly turned her head away.

“……still have soup left.”

Every time she looked into his blue eyes, the memory of his death in the original work automatically came to mind, stabbing her heart with guilt.

The day Niol died by Kaiel’s hand. The sky had matched his eyes in deep blue, and his eyes that had held that sky quietly closed — she herself had written that into the original work.

Niol, who had no way of knowing what was in Delia’s mind, smiled brightly.

“You must really like soup.”

“It seems so.”

That’s when she heard the layered notification sounds in her ears.

Ding.

[Action detected helping villain ‘Kaiel’.]

[Minimal impact on villain ‘Kaiel’s’ life.]

[Maximum impact on story flow.]

[Plausibility score decreases by 80 points.]

Delia almost shouted in anger.

‘If you were going to do this, you should have said it would be 80 from the start! You said 10 to 80, why so extreme……!’

Moreover, perhaps because 80 points dropped so suddenly, dizziness soon overcame her and her vision blurred.

One thing she had realized from maintaining quite high plausibility scores recently was that her condition was very good and her body felt light.

When the score was low, she hadn’t noticed much since she was used to it, but after experiencing high scores the difference was stark.

As the dizziness cleared, Delia’s body became suddenly heavy and she shook her head trying to clear her mind.

“What’s wrong……?”

Niol immediately tensed and examined her condition.

Fortunately, thanks to having built up the plausibility score to over 120 points beforehand, there were no separate penalties now at 43 points.

Delia shook her head.

“Food coma.”

But it was one problem after another. Checking the status window that appeared next, Delia’s blood ran cold.

Ding.

[Searching for expected results from changed flow……]

[Calculating unhappiness index that protagonist ‘Niol’ will receive……]

‘This isn’t right……!’

The score dropping for helping Kaiel was one thing, but there was no mention of calculating an unhappiness index for Niol!

Delia started thinking about what could possibly make Niol unhappy from helping Lady Rant. Meanwhile, she didn’t stop raging at the system.

‘Not even warning me! Backstabbing me! Say something, you damn system!’

As if mocking her, the system responded.

Ding.

[Calculation complete.]

[Plausibility score will additionally change based on unhappiness index that protagonist ‘Niol’ will receive.]

[Plausibility score decreases by 40 points.]

A total decrease of 120 points.

‘This is bad.’

The moment Delia thought this,

Ding.

A notification rang.

[Penalty will occur due to decreased plausibility score.]

Before the status window could disappear, sharp pain shot up through her solar plexus.

Crash!

As she suddenly braced herself against the table, the glass above fell to the floor and shattered.

“Oh my, are you alright?”

Niol immediately raised his hand to block the glass shards from flying and tried to help her up.

However, Delia just shook her head while curled up tightly.

“Miss Averbit.”

Seeing her body trembling severely, Niol sensed the situation was not normal.

And right after Dr. Lambert had left!

“Get the doctor, now!”

Niol turned and shouted sternly. After giving orders to the waiting servant, Niol knelt down with a worried expression to meet Delia’s eyes.

“Can you tell me where it hurts?”

Thump, thump, thump.

With each heartbeat, the pain spread through Delia’s entire body along her blood vessels.

She tried to open her mouth to say something, but it felt like her lungs were compressed and no voice would come out.

Only labored breathing burst forth.

‘How, how can it hurt this much? Is this normal?’

It would be better if she just fainted, but unlike her whitening head, the pain wringing her entire body became increasingly clear.

“Ugh…… save…… save me.”

She had just thought the system and penalties were too much, but hadn’t expected them to be such terrifying entities.

None of the penalties she had experienced until now had been this strong. Her current plausibility score was just 3 points. She had never had the score drop this low since entering the novel.

‘So this is what penalties are like.’

The system was driving her to complete her mission, making it impossible to live without killing Kaiel.

Delia’s face was already covered in tears and sweat.

Niol, who had been examining her condition, carefully lifted her body into his arms. Perhaps trying to somehow relieve the pain, her hands desperately clutched at Niol’s clothes.

“Niol…… please……”

Niol’s eyes narrowed slightly at being called by name in that tearful voice, but that expression quickly disappeared.

“Guide us to the bedroom.”

The auxiliary palace servants hurriedly guided the Crown Prince to her bedroom. Even in that short time, Delia’s condition continued to worsen.

Entering the bedroom, Niol slowly laid her on the bed. As soon as the cold blanket touched her, Delia curled up again. Her long hair spread across the bright blanket seemed almost like bloodstains, as she trembled in pain.

Niol kept watch with eyes mixed with confusion and pity. Shortly after, he asked a servant in a voice quite different from his eyes, calm,

“The doctor?”

Just as the servant opened their mouth to answer, the bedroom door burst open with a bang.

“I’m here! I’m here……! What in……”

Dr. Lambert ran in through the opened door.

Having run so hard, Dr. Lambert removed his fogged glasses to wipe them while catching his breath.

Kaiel appeared behind Lambert.

Niol’s expression twisted into a smile in an instant.

“Ha.”

As Niol stepped aside to leave through the door, he placed his hand on Kaiel’s shoulder. Applying subtle pressure with his hand, he spoke with a sneer in a voice barely audible,

“How strange that everyone who gets close to the Duke seems to fall ill.”

A vein popped on Kaiel’s forehead. However, he couldn’t be bothered with dealing with him now. Kaiel passed right by Niol and headed for the bed.

“Delia.”

The face twisted in pain and drenched in sweat struggled to open its eyes. Green eyes looked up at him. Her dry lips parted.

“It hurts…… I think…… I’m dying……”

Kaiel placed his hand on Delia’s pale forehead. Then he slowly lowered it to cover her eyes.

“You won’t die.”

After a moment he continued,

“Because I’m here, you won’t die.”

Under the dark, warm hand covering her closed eyes, Delia soon slipped into sleep darker than her blackened vision.

The pain wrapping her entire body gradually faded away.

* * *