Rikeil was stunned by the bold idea.

‘Her way of thinking is different.’

For someone like himself who always considered numbers first, this would have been too costly to even consider.

“Is that even possible?”

To Rikeil’s question, the chief physician nodded.

“Yes. We’re just waiting for the launch order.”

“Really? With reduced prices?”

“Yes.”

Leah chimed in.

“This is all thanks to Helix creating a manufacturing method that lowers the cost.”

Her brothers looked at Leah with mixed feelings of pride and discomfort as she smiled brightly while praising Helix.

Pop.

Helix subtly infused mana into Leah’s elbow. He mouthed silently, urging her.

Let’s get going.

Dating Leah had unintentionally made Helix more perceptive about dealing with her doting family.

“We’ll go ahead and check on the patient rooms.”

“Then I’m counting on you, brothers!”

***

Having dumped all the work on her brothers, Leah walked along the riverside holding hands with Helix.

“Leah, are you getting enough sleep? Your eyes look drowsy.”

“I can still manage.”

Leah squeezed Helix’s hand firmly.

“It’s been so long since we’ve had time alone like this.”

At her words, he smiled and gently squeezed her hand back.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Clear mana poured into her through her tingling palm. A healthy flush rose to Leah’s cheeks.

“…”

Helix’s hand stopped as he gazed down at her face.

“Hm? Why did you stop?”

“You’re becoming too beautiful. It’s troublesome.”

Helix gripped Leah’s hand strongly.

“I’ll give you more when we’re truly alone.”

“We are alone right now.”

“No, we’re not.”

Helix firmly stated while glaring toward the bridge. A group of men who had been stealing glances at Leah hurried their steps, intimidated by his aura.

“…You’ll shoot mana from your eyes at this rate.”

“Hmm. I might be able to do that.”

“No, you don’t need to go that far. You’re already intimidating enough!”

“Is that so?”

At Leah’s words, Helix clenched and unclenched his free hand.

“I can’t quite grasp whether my power has truly returned.”

“But things have definitely changed, right?”

Helix nodded.

Even to his own perception, mana was gathering around him like a broken dam.

“I knew my power was gradually returning, but it’s different now that the seal has started to break.”

“I was amazed watching you detoxify patients at dawn. Instead of touching each patient individually, the waves from treating one person spread to others nearby. Eventually, everyone in the room was detoxified without you even touching them.”

“That was possible because the poison concentration was relatively low and they hadn’t been poisoned for long.”

Helix turned to look at Leah.

“Come to think of it, aren’t there other poisoning victims besides those at our research institute?”

“Yes. I heard there are some in other hospitals… and many in the slums too.”

Helix nodded.

“When more of my power returns, I should be able to go through the slums and detoxify people.”

“Wow, really?”

This meant they might be able to save everyone suffering from the fake medicine and poison incidents. Leah’s eyes sparkled.

“What do we need to do to help more of your power return?”

Helix pondered for a moment.

“…I need to truly understand what it means to protect.”

“Isn’t that already done? You’ve been protecting me so diligently.”

He glanced at Leah. Her upward gaze overflowed with affection and trust. Helix suddenly felt uncertain.

‘Does it mean I shouldn’t mix in feelings other than protection…?’

What was he supposed to do when she was so breathtakingly beautiful? What if the seal wouldn’t break because his feelings weren’t pure enough?

His inner concerns deepened.

***

“The Swordmaster would win, I’m telling you!”

“Come on, the Mage would win, don’t you see?”

In a tavern in the bustling district of the Kingdom of Peiren’s capital, two drunkards were pounding opposite sides of a table, getting heated.

“As they say, experience matters in fighting! Lord Ruyan, who went from Kingdom’s Best Swordsman to Swordmaster, would be overwhelmingly superior!”

“You’re so narrow-minded! Now that magic has returned, battles aren’t decided by just swordsmanship anymore! What good is swinging sword energy when wind magic can block it? And what about offensive power? There’s no answer against fire magic shot from a distance!”

Bang! The female owner who placed large beer mugs in front of the two drunkards cut them off.

“Quiet down already. Why are you making such a fuss over something so pointless?”

“Pointless?!”

“It is pointless!”

In response to the drunkards’ protests, the owner put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes.

“That fight wouldn’t make sense in the first place!”

“Why, why?”

“Would Lord Ruyan Piert ever shoot sword energy at Lady Leah Piert or swing his sword at her?”

Suddenly, the two drunkards had looks of realization.

Other customers who had been watching the owner burst into laughter.

“Hahaha, that’s right! That sister-doting Ruyan would never try to harm his little sister!”

“Exactly! He treats her like gold and diamonds!”

“I’d be the same with a sister like that. Beautiful, spirited, and a mage who helps her brother.”

“The siblings have such good rapport. It’s nice to see.”

People even praised Ruyan’s sister-doting tendencies.

They said it made the Swordmaster with the angelic face who swings sword energy and destroys buildings seem more human—the way honey drips from his eyes when looking at his sister, and how he listens to whatever she says.

The atmosphere was quite different from the recent time when Ruyan was accused of attempting to murder Baron Durford.

‘Can’t a man express himself? Being so emotional about his sister’s affairs.’

‘Indeed. A knight wielding a sword should be much more level-headed, yet such a sister-doting man is the Kingdom’s Best Swordsman…’

Back then, his sister-doting personality was considered a major flaw, but now it had transformed into human charm.

This was thanks to the changed status of the Piert ducal family in the meantime.

“Really… how close were we to disaster?”

Everyone nodded at someone’s sigh in the tavern.

The fake cold medicine incident that occurred during this cruel season, made worse by the harshest cold snap in years. And the many poisoning incidents that followed.

How many people had suffered and nearly lost their lives?

But the Piert ducal family had finally resolved the issue and revealed the truth.

‘It was all plotted and directed by Count Trow!’

‘Ever since the Oken crown prince proposed to Lady Leah Piert, the Flame of Peiren, Count Trow has been cooperating with suspicious imperial men to plot evil deeds!’

The flood of testimonies from Count Trow’s soldiers and knights!

The Trow family had already had their misdeeds exposed once during Baron Durford’s attempted murder trial. Now a second string of evil deeds had been revealed, like sweet potato vines being pulled from the ground.

“Persistent bastards. Not dead yet and still plotting such things?”

“What would have happened without the Piert ducal family? They exposed everything, both last time and this time!”

They didn’t just expose the truth.

In the process, the capital’s residents became more deeply captivated by the Piert siblings.

Leah’s magic. Ruyan’s swordsmanship. Their exploits were heroic tales worthy of being recorded in storybooks.

Additionally, rumors about Helix, who stood beside Leah, spread.

‘They say he just touched them, and all the poison was cured!’

‘My goodness! Something even the healing clergy couldn’t do!’

His saintly behavior and solemn aura combined with extraordinary beauty. His humility in responding to any praise with “…I am merely a guardian.”

He was precisely the saintly hero figure people yearned for.

And what about Viscount Rikeil Piert? The blue cold medicine that Viscount Rikeil had released to the market was not only highly effective but also affordable for the poor.

It was natural for the Piert ducal family to rise as the saviors of Peiren.

“Whew. Let’s toast to the Piert ducal family!”

“May the goddess protect the Piert ducal family!”

“Drinks are on me today! My daughter’s flu was completely cured after taking the blue cold medicine!”

***

While the Piert ducal family was enjoying explosive popularity, Count Trow was confined to his mansion.

A two-legged dragon flag fluttered at the top of the lone remaining building of his estate.

“Isn’t that the Oken crown prince’s flag?”

“After committing such terrible deeds, he must have had someone backing him!”

Passersby spat in disgust.

The area around the mansion was like a garbage dump because the rest of the original estate had been completely reduced to construction debris.

“Sigh…”

Count Trow swallowed hard as he sat in his office.

The countess had taken their daughters and gone to her parents’ home. His second son studying abroad in the Empire and his third son undergoing training at the Order of Goddess Temira were both unreachable.

“I’ve sent so many letters asking them to come back and help their father in these difficult times…”

The count trembled with rage.

“These brats acted like filial sons when they wanted tuition and allowance! And now they return their father’s letters?!”

The emotionally charged Count Trow grabbed the back of his neck.

“Father, please calm down.”

Lord Trow, who was at least by his side, tried to stop him. The count looked at his son with surging emotions.

“My firstborn… I have only you left!”

Yan Trow’s expression soured without him realizing it.

***

‘My firstborn, my *ss.’

Lord Yan Trow thought to himself.

Since childhood, he had desperately craved recognition from his strict and demanding father. It was something he had dreamed of his entire life, but now it brought him no joy.

‘Sigh.’

He felt exhausted instead.

‘Did I go through all that trouble just to end up like this?’

Lord Trow was the one who truly felt like crying.

Though his own father, Count Trow was honestly a viper of a man.

When he manipulated people by exploiting their dark desires and greed, it was chilling enough to make one wonder if he was a demon who had spent decades in hell.

Despite knowing what kind of person his father was, Yan’s desire for recognition and ambition to establish himself as the heir to the count’s family made him endure the dismissal and mistreatment, helping his father devotedly as his own business.

He had nearly died in the duel with Duke Seigan—a duel his father had pushed him into for his own survival.

‘And now look at the state of our family.’