Chapter 13 – Part 2

“My Lady. It’s Lenci.”

It was Lenci.

“My Lady, are you alright? ”

Lenci knocked but didn’t open the door right away, instead asking if Kristin was alright.

Kristin felt relieved that there was at least one trustworthy person in this mansion.

She closed the box that held the honorary medal and spoke to Lenci.

“Lenci. I’m alright. Come in.”“Yes. Understood. I’ll come in then.”

The door opened cautiously, and Lenci appeared with a tray.

There was soup, lamb steak, a salad, and a cup of warm water.

Lenci, who had prepared a cup of Kristin’s favorite tea, spoke as she entered.

“The atmosphere seemed bad earlier. I thought you might be uncomfortable having dinner with the others, so I brought it separately. It seemed like you didn’t have a proper meal at the duke’s residence today.”

“Is that so, Lenci? ”

However, Kristin had no appetite for dinner.

She had no desire to eat anything.

Looking at the tray filled with food, Kristin sighed softly.

Facing the truths she didn’t know in her second life was a painful ordeal.

Seeing this, Lenci put down the plates from the tray on the desk and cautiously spoke.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how you feel, but you must eat regularly. You’re already very thin, and you even collapsed in the palace garden. This is the second time I’ve seen it, so I’m really worried.”

With a face about to cry, Lenci spoke as she finished setting down the food.

“Even if you don’t feel like it, please eat everything. If you finish, put it outside, and I’ll clear it. Your clothes must be uncomfortable, should I help you change? ”

“No matter how weak I am, I can change a dress by myself, Lenci.”

Kristin finally noticed the luxurious dress she was wearing.

The hem was slightly muddied from walking by Lake Matheo.

But when she looked at her shoes, a genuine smile appeared on Kristin’s face. It was a sincere smile.

Though she was in no mood to smile, just having visited Lake Matheo brought her some comfort. Seeing a place she loved and shared with her mother brought an involuntary smile.Kristin, thinking of her mother, felt grateful to Raphael for the first time. If not for his kindness, today might have been an unbearably difficult day.

As Kristin sat down and lifted her dress to take off her shoes, Lenci exclaimed in shock.

“What, what is this? My Lady, why are you wearing such dirty shoes? Who gave you these shoes? Take them off quickly.”

Startled, Lenci began to take off Kristin’s shoes as she replied, finding Lenci’s reaction endearing.

“You must have been curious; I went to Lake Matheo today. It’s a place I’ve loved for a long time. My shoes are high-heeled, so Duke Raphael ordered me to get proper shoes, but I refused and took them from the coachman instead.”

“Really?”

Lenci, who was listening to Kristin, tilted her head while looking at the shoes.

She seemed to be deep in thought, prompting Kristin to ask.

“What’s on your mind? ”

“I might be overstepping, but I think Duke Raphael genuinely cares for you. He told me not to mention it, but he was very worried while you were unconscious. The doctor at the duke’s residence examined you and said it seemed too much, so they administered an IV.”

“An IV? ”

At the mention of an IV, Kristin looked at her wrist.

When she opened her eyes, there was no IV line connected to her hand or wrist, so she hadn’t realized she had received one.

However, there was a slight bruise on her wrist that ached, but she thought it was from hitting the ground when she collapsed.

“Yes. The Duke said to spare no expense and to give you the best possible treatment. He stayed by your side all night. He had to attend to some business briefly, and that’s when I was in the hallway and saw you wake up.”

So that’s what happened.

Only then did Kristin realize that Raphael had cared for her all night.She began to wonder why he had gone to such lengths.

“Did the Duke stay by my side all night?”

Kristin asked again in a tone of disbelief, and Lenci, with wide eyes, replied.

“I don’t think he got any proper sleep. Becky, a servant at the Duke’s residence, said he was entirely different from his usual self. She mentioned that she had never seen him care for someone so much.”

“Really? I had no idea. I must have been too out of it.”

Kristin tried to guess the reason for Raphael’s change, but no answer came to mind.

In the past, he had been quite capricious.

If he had indeed stayed by her side all night, it must have been because he wanted something. Otherwise, it didn’t make sense for him to nurse her all night when he hadn’t even looked after her properly when she was sick before.

“Anyway, that’s what happened. Please make sure to eat, and after you’re done, put the tray outside and rest well. Should I prepare a bath for you too?”

At Lenci’s words, Kristin nodded.

“I’ll have the bath ready by the time you finish your meal.”

With that, Lenci gave Kristin a bright smile.

It was such a pure and bright smile that Kristin couldn’t help but smile back. At that moment, a thought flashed through her mind.

Dr. Finn Declan must still be in the capital.

There was no guarantee that he would come if she just sent him a letter.

What if she made it so that he had no choice but to come?

As Kristin sat in her chair, she glanced at the folded imperial newspaper in one of the drawers and realized something.

A newspaper might be the perfect way to reach him.

Sometimes, newspapers publish the obituaries of nobles. When a funeral was to be held, they would announce it through the post office.

However, notifying by mail often led to delays or lost letters.

Moreover, with Elena grinding her teeth, she would likely tell her stepmother to keep a close watch on Kristin.

There was a risk that a letter sent might disappear before a reply could be received. Choosing the postal service was a risky method.

Having decided, Kristin resolved to go to the newspaper office to publish an obituary.

The obituary would be for none other than Finn Declan.

If he were still within the Empire, he would have no choice but to come to the funeral.

* * *

The next morning, Kristin spoke to Lenci.

“Lenci, I need to go out. Could you call a carriage for me?”

Lenci hurriedly prepared the carriage upon hearing Kristin’s words.

While Lenci was getting the carriage ready, Kristin packed a black dress into a bag. She placed a coat over it to ensure that Mrs. Rose, Elena, and the other servants wouldn’t see it. With the dress hidden well, Kristin changed into an outing dress and slowly descended to the first floor.

There, Rose, with a disapproving look, spoke up.

“Where are you going? Did spending the night at Duke Raphael’s residence make you miss him? You’re going out in such a pretty dress.”

Next to Rose, Elena, who had been glaring at Kristin with folded arms, suddenly smiled brightly and spoke to her.

“Oh my, I thought you weren’t interested in men, but you were just hiding it all along?”

Kristin, unfazed by their mocking, walked towards the entrance with a neutral expression.

As she ignored Elena and passed by, Elena, feeling snubbed, stepped forward and spoke again.

“Are you ignoring me now? You’re not even going to say where you’re going. Are you disregarding Mother now?”

Despite the situation, Kristin smiled at them.

Then, showing her bag and coat, she replied.

“If you have eyes, you can see I’m going out for something. Do I have to explain everything to you? Elena, I didn’t know you were that stupid.”

“What? That’s not what I meant! Just tell us where you’re going.”

Kristin found the situation amusing and gave a small glance towards Lenci waiting by the door, then shrugged.

When Vernon, who had been reading the newspaper in the drawing room, came out, she saw it as an opportunity and spoke to Rose and Elena.

“I didn’t know my little sister worried about me so much. Elena. I’ll bring back some desserts for you. I’m meeting an acquaintance at the shopping district today.”

“You have an acquaintance? You’re not lying, are you?”