Is he joking?

Irena quietly stared at the man whose face she could barely make out through the blinding radiance of his looks.

She saves his life and he doesn’t even have the grace to be grateful, instead saying strange things with complete seriousness.

She was about to get angry at herself for nearly getting swept up in his seriousness, when Ikart quickly leaned back.

“See. I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”

He let out a small laugh, as though he had never expected her to.

The light chuckle carried no warmth whatsoever, as though this were not the same man who had been playing an unfunny prank just moments ago.

That manner of his looked so genuine that Irena found herself confused.

‘……For real? We had that kind of relationship?’

At the question of just when, the image of a house with a blue roof surfaced in Irena’s mind unbidden.

Her memories from before being adopted into the duke’s household were scattered and sparse, so the only time she could suspect was back then. Sometime during a happy childhood spent with her mother.

‘……Stop.’

She cut off the thought before it could deepen.

She did not want to be swayed any further by this suspicious man. Especially if he was someone who shared her past.

Irena opened her mouth in a stiff voice.

“Your Highness, the culprit who used the Haibick……”

Knock, knock.

Just as she began with a grave expression, someone knocked on the door. An urgency that said they needed to enter immediately was evident in the sound.

“Miss Irena, I am listening.”

However, Ikart behaved as though he had heard nothing at all.

He did not move his gaze toward Irena by even an inch. He merely pulled the corner of his lips up and waited for her next words.

Had she heard wrong?

“……The culprit is likely someone who knows the compounds well……”

Knock, knock, knock, bang.

That last sound was clearly something other than a hand striking the door. From the lower part of it, no less.

When she glanced toward the door, Ikart openly furrowed his brow.

“……Among the components of Haibick, the tricky compound formula……”

Knock, bang, bang, knock, knock, tap, tap, bang, bang.

“……”

The large door rattled little by little. Irena stole a glance at the man.

“Are they looking for Your Highness……”

“No.”

He swept his hair back with an irritated smile. She was just thinking that he seemed to have quite a bad temper when it happened.

“Oops! Oh, the door was open all along!”

The door swung wide open and a high, thin voice filled the room.

The man who entered had a frame that was enormous compared to his voice. His head looked as though it would brush the door frame at any moment.

“Ugh! Bad Norman! Terrible Norman!”

He knocked his own head with a fist the size of a small boulder. Somewhere, the sound of a rock cracking could be heard.

“I thought you were pretending not to hear on purpose because you didn’t want your sweet time interrupted, but it seems I was wrong. Bad Norman! How dare I suspect the boss! If I had known it would come to this…… ugh!”

The dark-tinted display of affection did not last long.

“Excuse me.”

Someone shoved Norman aside with considerable force and stepped in. The foot that deliberately stomped on Norman as it passed was merciless.

“Ugh! S, Sisein, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

The man with ash-grey hair neatly tied back pushed up his monocle and answered indifferently.

“Obviously.”

Sisein approached the bed and bowed his head deeply toward Irena.

“Good day, my lady. It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Sisein Reto, chief aide to His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

Irena was about to smile out of courtesy when a sharp, stinging sensation at the side of her face made her turn her head.

With his arms crossed, Ikart raised an eyebrow.

‘You’re going to smile? Really?’

That was what it seemed to say. Somehow, her smile froze stiffly in place.

“Today marks the third day since you collapsed, my lady, and I was greatly concerned about whether we would need to take other measures if you did not wake by today. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, but……”

“I am relieved. The fellow crumpled on the floor over there is Norman Shalute. He was exclusively in charge of your treatment.”

Wh, what?

“I must first offer my apologies for examining you without your permission, but despite how foolish he appears, his skills are quite good. According to Norman, this ordeal must have placed a considerable burden on you, and His Highness the Crown Prince will take full responsibility for any aftereffects going forward, so please do not hesitate to speak up if there is anything that troubles you.”

“What troubles me……”

Is far too much to list.

Once again, before Irena could even open her mouth, Sisein scribbled something on the documents he was holding.

“If you are willing, may I check on your current condition now? I believe it would be difficult to accurately assess your state at any time other than now.”

She was left speechless by the impeccable treatment and the clean, airtight progression of the conversation that left no room to interject.

This person…… is he doing this deliberately? It feels as though the conversation has ended before she could ask anything, quick as roasting beans in lightning.

“You may……”

“Norman.”

Norman, who had been digging at the floor in the corner, leaped to his feet the moment his name was called and rubbed his hands together.

“Yes sir~! Norman Shalute, stepping up!”

Norman strode forward with large steps, then abruptly stopped dead in his tracks.

“……?”

Irena followed Norman’s frightened gaze. At the end of it stood Ikart, still with his arms crossed, shrugging his shoulders toward Irena.

‘What did I do?’ His smooth face wore an expression of complete innocence.

‘Did I see wrong……?’

Perhaps he was hesitating because she was a woman. Irena reached her hand out toward Norman.

“You may go ahead and examine me.”

“Eeek. N, no. I can see just fine from here.”

“……Pardon?”

“No matter how curious one is, there are limits. Being alive is the greatest thing. That’s right, even a dung heap is better than the afterlife.”

Norman waved a hand the size of a pot lid. Then he crouched down and took a thermometer out of his bag.

“For now, the temperature……”

But the thermometer barely grasped at its tip had not yet made contact when.

“No fever.”

Huh?

Question marks popped up one after another above Irena’s head as she waited quietly for the examination.

‘Why are you the one saying that?’

It was a reproachful look, but however he interpreted it, the man she met eyes with uncrossed his arms and gave a small wave.

Irena awkwardly wiggled her hand back in embarrassment…… or rather, that was not what happened.

“Indeed, no fever. Yes…… the thermometer is right here before us, but the boss’s hand would be more accurate, I suppose.”

Norman put the thermometer he had just taken out back into the bag. Then he took out something that resembled spectacles and put them on.

“The pupils are……”

“Clear and bright.”

Again, the answer came from elsewhere.

Norman flinched at the firm, unequivocal voice and awkwardly bunched up the corners of his mouth.

“I suppose so…… The expensive and precise instruments of the Eastern Continent are right here, but…… even at a glance, your eyes are healthy, my lady.”

‘Shouldn’t you not be looking at a glance?’

Bewilderment spread across Irena’s face.

After that, Norman took out various items from his precious medical bag, but not a single one managed to touch even a hair on Irena before being returned to its place.

Patient, guardian, and physician were all present, yet not one of them was fulfilling their proper role. It was a thoroughly chaotic examination.

“So then…… you are in good health?”

Having concluded the examination, Norman wore an expression even more baffled than her own, which was remarkable in itself.

“I……”

“Wonderful. Now that we have confirmed that you are in good health, my lady, there should be nothing lacking for your return home.”

Sisein, who had been watching in silence, put a period at the end of the bewildering examination show.

‘How does that conclusion come out of a conversation where nothing was actually established.’

Irena’s eyes were full of absurdity. But Sisein was busy adjusting his monocle and writing something down on his paper.

“Have you had all the conversations you needed, Your Highness?”

“Yes.”

As Ikart leaned his body to one side, his ill-tempered expression was plain to see. It was, cleverly, at an angle invisible to Irena.

Wrap it up quickly.

Even without hearing it, a voice seemed to linger vividly at her ear.

“The lady knows nothing, it seems.”

“Is that so?”

As if he had never expected otherwise, Sisein nodded and glanced down at the documents he was holding.

‘I want to go home.’

Clock out clock out clock out clock out

☆Tonight’s dinner menu★

The paper was covered in words that had been blacked out.

His Highness the Crown Prince is a son of a b***h

Sadly, it was the writing at the very bottom, with only its traces remaining.

Sisein, who had crossed it out once more with heavy strokes, rubbed his dark-rimmed eyes roughly.

The violent urge to give up and let everything go to ruin because everyone around him had gone mad, and the learned diligence of a working man, clashed fiercely within him.

Today, too, learned diligence ultimately won.

‘D*mn it.’

He recited in a voice thoroughly soaked in exhaustion.

“The existence of a spy planted within the Crown Prince’s palace and the fact that Her Highness the Empress Consort is suspected as the one behind it, the fact that despite the betrothal between the two of you being made official four years ago, you met for the first time two days ago, and the fact that by good fortune, the lady, being an accomplished apothecary, happened to be present at the scene and saved His Highness’s life. Understood.”

The information passed by in a flat, rapid stream without any rise or fall in tone.

“……”

Irena’s mouth, unable to process what she had just heard, opened and closed like a fish.

The exhausted working man, the runaway locomotive that was Sisein, did not stop.