“Ah!”

With her foot caught in the stirrup and her body tilting, she was about to take a bad fall—

“Miss!”

Reflexively shouting ‘Miss’ again, Rupert quickly launched himself to catch her.

Wow, that was close.

Feeling her heart pounding from the shock, Saena regained her balance.

“Ah, than–”

“That was dangerous… Miss?”

“……”

Saena stopped mid-sentence, and without even realizing she had stopped speaking, her gaze became fixed.

Constantine stood a short distance away.

As if he had just withdrawn his Guardian Spirit’s power, black energy was swirling and disappearing into him.

“Consta–!”

Saena called out to him with joy, but he suddenly turned away.

“……?”

Then he hurried away like someone who had spotted a debt collector nearby.

What was that?

‘Did he… just avoid me and leave?’

Unable to believe what she had just seen, Saena froze like a statue.

“…Miss Saena?”

“……”

“Why, why are you…”

“Ah… no, it’s nothing.”

Since it happened behind Rupert, he hadn’t seen it.

And she could hardly explain, ‘Constantine made eye contact with me but avoided me and left.’

“…I was just startled.”

Saena hesitated before adding.

“Oh dear, let’s get you inside. Hey! Could someone tend to the horse?”

By now, raindrops had begun to fall lightly.

“Yes, Sir! I’ll take care of it!”

Rupert quickly instructed the stable hand and urged Saena to enter the castle.

“Miss Saena, you’ll catch a cold. Let’s hurry inside.”

“Ah… yes.”

As she moved hesitantly with an empty feeling, someone approached.

“Madam.”

“……?”

It was the man who had been next to Constantine earlier.

Too shocked by Constantine’s avoidance to think about it before, she now realized it was the commander of the Kramer knights.

“Ah, Commander Wesley, right?”

“Yes, greetings to you.”

She knew his name from a brief introduction before.

She was about to leave, thinking he was just greeting her because their eyes met, but he hesitated and continued speaking.

“Pardon my boldness… but could you perhaps check on His Grace?”

“What? What do you…”

“His Grace has been injured.”

“Injured? Again?”

Didn’t he say not to worry about him getting hurt during subjugation missions?

Yet from what Saena had seen, this was already the nth injury…

“He usually doesn’t get injured, but lately there have been unusually frequent simultaneous appearances of high-rank demonic beasts that aren’t cluster types, making it difficult to handle.”

The Knight Commander explained the situation as if reading Saena’s doubts. His face was full of worry.

Not only has the number of demonic beasts increased, but there seem to be many strange phenomena. Why is this happening?

“But His Grace rarely calls for a physician…”

Could it be that he’s been living without calling physicians because of his back?

‘Shouldn’t there normally be at least one resident physician in a noble house?’

The Kramer family must have a resident physician just like the Debov family does. But Constantine was reluctant to show his body to others. Apparently, that included physicians too.

No doubt he’s just applying that blue-green potion and suffering alone.

Now she wasn’t sure if having such an effective medicine in the Kramer household was a good thing or not.

‘No. Having good medicine is always beneficial, regardless of the reason. The problem isn’t the medicine…’

“I understand. I’ll go check on him and help.”

“Thank you.”

Thank you? If anything, this was something she should do.

Though her courage was at rock bottom after being so blatantly avoided earlier…

Saena looked up at the cloudy sky where the raindrops were starting to get heavier, then entered the inner castle.

While riding, her hair had dried considerably, but it still looked damp overall.

“Miss Saena. You must wash with warm water first.”

“I know, Sir. You should rest too.”

Leaving Rupert behind, Saena quickly climbed the stairs toward the floor with the bedrooms.

However, contrary to what she told Rupert, the first place Saena visited wasn’t her room or bathroom.

The shock from Constantine’s avoidance earlier was pushed aside by the premise of ‘his injury.’ Though it wasn’t easy, Saena took a deep breath before entering his space.

She checked the bedroom first, but it was empty.

‘Has he not come to his room yet?’

Surely he hadn’t gone to his office first while injured?

Saena opened the drawer of the bedside table.

The potion bottle was there in its usual place.

Saena took out the potion bottle and left the room, returning to the Duke’s private reception room.

Now she noticed things scattered on the floor in front of the bathroom door. His sword, scabbard, and cloak were strewn about as if hastily discarded.

He was undoubtedly behind that tightly closed door.

‘Is he… in a state where he can wash himself?’

Now knowing he was in the bathroom, her courage diminished somewhat.

But since he was injured…

‘I should… check.’

After lingering at the doorway for a while, Saena knocked.

Knock knock.

“……”

But there was no answer.

“…Duke?”

She knocked once more while calling him. Still no response.

‘…He’s not deliberately ignoring me because he knows it’s me, is he?’

Remembering how he had turned away earlier, she wondered if she should just leave.

‘But still, just in case…’

Finally, Saena decided to try opening the door.

But to her surprise…

“……”

The door wouldn’t open. It was firmly locked. She suddenly felt extremely perplexed.

Could he have anticipated even this situation and locked the door? Was he hearing all this but refusing to open?

‘Then, I should… retreat?’

While Saena stood there helplessly, having lost her judgment again, she heard a familiar bark.

“Kyang.”

“…Yolly?”

Had he followed her when she came here directly earlier?

She seemed to have been completely unaware, with her attention entirely focused on Constantine.

He now boasted quite a large body. When he stood on his hind legs, his front paws reached past the doorknob.

Yolly somehow managed to push the door handle with his bear-like paw. The door slid open.

‘…It was definitely locked, though?’

Yet the door opened.

“How… did you do that?”

“Kyang?”

Yolly made a ‘What did I do?’ expression while playing innocent, then peered into the bathroom and shook his head.

“Kyu…”

Then he walked away with heavy steps.

As if he had really just come to open the door…

Though she wanted to grab Yolly by the scruff and demand ‘What exactly are you?’, there was something more urgent.

Saena looked into the bathroom.

“…Constantine!”

And she was shocked.

He had apparently lost consciousness while washing, draped over the edge of the bathtub like wet laundry.

How severely injured must he have been to faint while bathing?

‘Did he get into the bathtub with wounds that weren’t even properly stopped from bleeding?’

Does he have any sense at all, or not?

It was only natural that he had fainted. His large body seemed as if it had been soaked in blood, perhaps due to the blood seeping from his wounds.

One arm hung outside the bathtub, and his armpit area was draped over the edge of the tub in a limp state.

The sight was not just unpleasant but even horrifying, making Saena feel a chill run down her neck.

“Constantine!?”

She hurriedly checked his pulse. Though slow, it was definitely beating.

“Wake up, please wake up!”

Perhaps due to blood loss, he showed no signs of waking despite being known as an extremely light sleeper.

Yet calling for help wasn’t an option due to his markings…

‘I should first find the wounds and stop the bleeding.’

While it would obviously be better to get him out of the water first, she didn’t have the strength to lift his enormous unconscious body.

‘So let’s start treating what I can reach.’

After placing a blue-green potion vial from the bedside drawer nearby, Saena unwrapped the cloak from her body. She took off her riding jacket, set it aside, and rolled up her sleeves.

He probably wouldn’t welcome her touch, but that wasn’t the important thing right now. He needed to be conscious to express his preferences anyway.

She decided to start with the forearm wound that was most visible.

Saena gently cleaned the wound area with a sponge soaked in water, then wiped it again with a clean towel rinsed in fresh water. The wound appeared not to be from a sword or weapon, but rather strangely crushed as if pierced by something.

It looked quite painful, so she quickly opened the potion and poured some into her palm. As she gently massaged the potion into the wound, Saena was slightly startled.

‘Why is his skin… so cold?’

Does it get colder when in pain? She remembered his skin being quite cold during his previous injury as well.

What was stranger was that he was in a hot bath.

Yet his body was this cold…

Saena examined him with an even more serious expression than before.

She checked his temperature by running her palm over various places like his back and arms. Following the feeling of her hand sliding down his skin, she felt small wounds that weren’t easily visible due to the markings on his back and being submerged in water.

Saena memorized each location while checking the temperature.

‘…The areas with markings seem oddly colder.’

This chill must be… related to the Guardian Spirit.

‘I feel sorry for even having envied the Covenant’s master.’

The more she learned, the more it seemed there were more downsides than benefits. While she wasn’t sure if other dukes’ Guardian Spirits were like this, this one called ‘Caligo’ seemed particularly troublesome.