It wasn’t enough time to do other things leisurely.

However, when Elia got another chance to tie up loose ends, she was honestly pleased.

Even though the place where she met the man she couldn’t properly apologize to was under a dim wall.

Elia, who had entered the alley looking for the medicine shop she had visited before, spotted a bear-like figure from behind and approached him with bright eyes.

“Excuse me.”

The man’s back flinched at Elia’s call.

With her hair still wet and unsettled, there was no way to mistake her identity.

The man had been talking with someone in the shadowy part of the alley, facing someone wearing a deeply pulled black hood.

“I’m sorry about earlier.”

The man’s back remained stiff and motionless.

“It seems your clothes are ruined, so perhaps……”

Elia was about to offer to pay for new clothes but closed her mouth.

What Elia had brought out now was just enough money to buy contraceptives.

Since illegal medicine shops in back alleys wouldn’t give credit, she had no money to give the man right now.

Elia briefly racked her brain.

Ah, that would work.

“If you go to the fountain square over there and enter the main street at 10 o’clock direction from the clock tower, the third shop on the right is a clothing store.”

Instead of the man, his hooded companion cast a gaze toward Elia.

Though not clearly visible due to the hood, it was somehow a gaze that felt oppressive.

She wondered why a stranger was looking at her like that, but Elia, who didn’t have much time, tried not to be conscious of that gaze and hurriedly elaborated.

“It’s where imperial palace staff get their clothes tailored, and knights often purchase clothes there too. You should be able to find clothes that fit your size. Please purchase clothes that fit you there and have it charged to my account.”

“Ah…… that’s not necessary……”

“No. It was me who caused you trouble. Just say that Financial Administrator Elia Weiss will bring the money later. Well then.”

Seeing the man’s reluctance, Elia quickly pulled out a piece of paper from her bosom, pressed it into the man’s hand, and quickly turned around.

The paper Elia had almost forcibly pressed into the man’s hand was a temporary bill that imperial palace administrators used like business cards when outside.

Elia also had to hurry if she wanted to pretend she had been quietly at home.

Only after she disappeared from view with a hurried air did the man’s companion, who had been leaning against the wall like a statue, move.

As he slowly pulled back his hood, glittering silver hair flowed down, brushing past sharp facial features.

Though it was a back alley where sunlight didn’t reach, his hair was emitting light as if pure silver had been refined and drawn out.

When his smooth lips parted, a baritone voice without inflection, not even emotion could be felt, leaked between those lips.

“Is that woman the one? The woman you said looked unusual with Count Kent earlier?”

At the question thrown at him, the large man who had bumped into Elia bowed his head in affirmation.

The silver-haired man’s green eyes sparkled with interest.

A crooked smile appeared on his face with perfectly sculpted delicate features.

“How long has it been since he married the woman he loved so desperately that he clutched her portrait even in the middle of battlefields, and now he’s boldly fooling around with another woman? And with an imperial palace official at that. I didn’t see Count Kent that way, but he’s quite a predictable man. Don’t you think so, Sedel?”

It was a tone filled with sarcasm.

The bear-like man called Sedel looked somewhat troubled at the hostility only he could understand.

“Your Maj…… no, Lord Pehiard……”

“Financial administrator…… The administrative exams of Aprion are notoriously difficult, but it seems such a smart woman who passed such a difficult exam doesn’t know shame. Well, it’s not my concern.”

The silver-haired man, Pehiard, who had snorted mockingly at the dark empty air of the back alley, pulled his hood down again to hide his conspicuous appearance.

“It wouldn’t be polite to ignore the kindness that was offered. A place where knights and administrators working in the imperial palace get their clothes tailored—it seems like a place worth visiting even deliberately, don’t you think?”

“That’s true, but you’re not planning to go personally, are you? If you happen to catch the attention of high nobles of Aprion, it might cause troublesome matters later.”

“Naturally, wandering around such places is your job. I’ll move in ways that won’t expose my face, so there’s no need to worry unnecessarily.”

“By moving in ways that won’t expose your face, you mean……”

Sedel started to ask a question but closed his mouth.

Pehiard had already closed his ears to the conversation with Sedel and was staring intently in the direction Elia had disappeared. Though his gaze was hidden by the hood, Sedel could guess from the time he had spent with him that there was unpleasant interest lurking in that gaze.

⁕⁕⁕

Elia groaned, feeling cold sweat beading and flowing down her forehead.

All illegal street drugs would be like this, but this medicine was far too harsh.

The contraceptive Elia had hurriedly obtained and taken before Count Kent returned from the temple showed its effects immediately.

Not long after swallowing the medicine, pain as if her insides were being torn apart overwhelmed her. Her stomach quickly turned and her belly hurt so much she couldn’t even stand.

Count Kent, who returned from the temple to Elia’s house not long after, was startled and rushed over upon seeing Elia clutching her stomach with a pale face.

“Elia! Elia, what’s wrong with you?”

“I’m…… fine…… ugh.”

Seeing Elia dry heaving while looking anything but fine, Count Kent clicked his tongue.

He could guess what had happened without hearing an explanation. This stubborn girl, when he told her to wait quietly, she just had to!

But there was no time for scolding.

Count Kent lifted Elia and ran to the carriage.

At Count Kent’s pale-faced urgent request to return to the imperial palace quickly, the coachman hurriedly whipped the horses.

When the carriage reached the imperial palace, the moon was hanging brightly in the sky.

At that time, Casiel was taking a walk in the grand garden that carriages entering and leaving the imperial palace passed through once.

Casiel, who had been pacing for over an hour while waiting for the two, approached the carriage with steps that couldn’t hide his joy at the return of the carriage he had deliberately provided.

However, his complexion, which had brightened enough for anyone to notice, changed completely as he caught Elia collapsing like a falling tent when the carriage door opened.

“What on earth is this……!”

Casiel’s face hardened instantly as he was about to question Count Kent after seeing Elia’s drooping condition.

The hem of her skirt that he held was damp.

The seat where she had sat and her skirt were already covered in blood from massive bleeding.

“…… The court physician, the court physician! Bring him immediately! Right now!”

It was the time when the gray-haired court physician was just about to go to bed. The elderly court physician was summoned from his bed to the emperor’s bedroom as if being dragged.

At the emperor’s fierce anger, shouting about what this was when she had been fine until just a while ago, the court physician bowed his head deeply.

Since it was extremely rare for the always cold emperor to raise his voice, the court physician couldn’t help but shrink instinctively from survival instinct.

“It seems she took some wrong medicine, but I need to know what it was……”

All eyes turned to Count Kent in place of Elia, who was unconscious and groaning in pain.

The court physician’s desperate gaze, the head maid’s bewildered gaze, and Casiel’s gaze that seemed ready to slaughter someone at any moment.

“That……”

Swearing on his beloved wife, Count Kent truly wanted to protect Elia.

He felt sorry for Elia, who must have been shocked by the sudden situation, and could fully understand her desire for contraception.

Thinking of the aftermath if the emperor found out Elia had obtained and taken back-alley contraceptives, he was very, very determined to keep his mouth shut.

However, seeing Elia collapsed in front of him, bleeding and drooping in a confused state while breaking out in cold sweat, his sense of duty and mission to save a human life first raised its head.

The anxiety that she might be in serious trouble made him open his heavy lips.

“It seems…… she obtained and took…… contraceptives.”

Casiel’s eyes widened.

The court physician’s complexion brightened noticeably with hope of finding a clue to escape the emperor’s interrogation.

The physician began questioning Count Kent thoroughly about whether she had taken illegal drugs and where she had purchased them.

While Count Kent sweated and answered everything he knew to the best of his ability, Casiel’s face remained expressionless throughout.

The court physician, who had been writing down Elia’s symptoms and Count Kent’s story at length on paper, finally made his diagnosis.

“With such symptoms from that kind of medicine, it must be a drug that forcibly brings on menstruation early.”

“Then……”

“The bleeding will continue for several days, but once it stops, the body will be in the same state as after menstruation. There will be some pain for a few days, but that’s something one must endure when using such drugs…”

At the court physician’s words that though it was difficult now, there wouldn’t be side effects or aftereffects to her body, Count Kent finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his lord.

The moment he confirmed the gaze of Casiel, who had been standing like a motionless statue until then, waves of belated regret surged in Count Kent’s heart.

He thought he should have spoken carefully to the court physician alone rather than speaking rashly in front of his lord, no matter how urgent the situation was.

But it was already spilled water.

⁕⁕⁕

Chirp chirp. Chirp.

Unknown bird sounds could be heard faintly from afar.

‘It’s warm.’

Elia, who had gently opened her eyes with a languid feeling, unconsciously curled up her body seeking warmth.

“Ugh.”

It was after that when she heard a suppressed groan-like voice from above her head.

‘Huh?’

Her eyes, which had been closed with a faint smile, snapped open.

Only then did Elia feel the solid muscles of long arms embracing her body.

“……!”

At the same time, she realized that someone’s bare chest was right in front of her nose.

When she carefully raised her head, her eyes met jewel-like pupils that had been gazing at her intently.