It seemed I had become quite a source of concern for Rechel, in more ways than one. What could be better than that?

In the meantime, the noise that had been so loud gradually died down. I quietly opened the door, wondering if any handmaids might still be around, and confirmed the hallway was empty before stepping out quickly.

Perhaps because breakfast was not far off, the corridor that would normally bustle with activity held nothing but silence.

“Let’s go.”

Contrary to my expectation that even this would draw some complaint, Mary simply followed me in silence. Almost as though she were watching to see what I would do.

It was only when we slipped outside through the back passage that she finally spoke.

“Will you not take a carriage?”

“No one in this place treats me like a human being. So even if I were to take a carriage, there is no reason to think it would take me where I want to go. It might even be impossible to board one in the first place.”

For a brief moment, Mary’s eyes trembled almost imperceptibly.

“I see. Then you intend to walk?”

“Fortunately, this place is near the imperial capital.”

Not far from the house, there is a small clinic.

It was known for its sloppy practice.

I had heard that the doctor once enjoyed a fine reputation, but after going through something terrible, he abandoned his calling as a physician. The extent of it was bad enough that rumors spread about him writing whatever diagnosis a patient wanted, as long as they paid.

Of course, by now he only did it quietly for those who knew, so most people had no idea.

‘And I know that clinic well.’

Mother had used him to falsify even the number of months along my child was.

Thanks to that, Dertosse, who swallowed every word from the doctor and from Mother without question, came to suspect me, and in the end that certificate became the decisive evidence at the noble council trial that I had carried on with a man who did not even exist.

That is why I remember him. He issued a medical certificate claiming he had examined me without ever laying eyes on me. And if you paid him, he kept his mouth shut well enough. In the past, he played the role of pushing me into the pit, but this time, it would be the opposite.

“Is it far?”

“It is close, but since we are walking, it will take a while.”

“If it becomes too tiring….”

“I am fine. Are you worried about me after all?”

I looked at her with a faint smile.

“We are in the same boat. Of course I am worried.”

“It is the first time. Someone is worrying about me out of goodwill.”

“It is not goodwill. Simply because we are on the same side….”

“Even so. It feels good.”

For some reason, the wind was especially pleasant today.

A breeze drifting in cool and gentle on a day that was not too warm.

When I had lived as Evian in my previous life, I never had the luxury of feeling something like this. I was always trapped in that house, working inside a prison without bars. That was what they wanted from me, and I lived like someone who would die if she did not meet their demands. I longed so desperately for even a scrap of affection.

‘If I had lived without dying there.’

My child, too, could have felt this warm sunlight.

That thought came to me as well. For the sake of the child who suffered a more unjust fate than I did, who never received even the light of this world and was killed by its own father… perhaps I should spend the night with Dertosse.

But I did not want to sacrifice a child for my own desires. If that child could not receive the full love of a family, then it was better for a child to have no mother at all, one like me who lived only for revenge.

Useless thoughts kept rising to the surface, so I walked faster than before.

I had wondered if someone from the marquis’s household might come out looking for us, but no one followed, even after a long while, as though they had no idea we had left at all. Just to be safe, I had pulled my hood down low, but the moment we left the estate, the stuffiness got to me and I pulled it off.

“If I had known escaping was this easy, I would have done it long ago.”

“…Do you wish to run away?”

The words were little more than a murmur to myself, yet she had already moved to my side before I knew it.

“I do.”

“Then why do you not run? You could, right now.”

“…I do not want to flee from the future. Not anymore.”

I shook my head, knowing that facing it was the least I owed my child, and the greatest reward I could give myself for still being here in this time.

“There is much I cannot understand, but I will not try to force myself to. Following you is the fate my lord has given me.”

“Thank you. I will save that person, at least.”

I will be the one to save him.

I will make sure he can live the right way.

I tucked away the words I could not fully speak and walked on for a long while. After about twenty minutes, we arrived in front of a small shop that could only be described as wedged between buildings.

“This is the place.”

“……Is there really a clinic here?”

“There is.”

“But even with a doctor’s confirmation, do you think anyone will believe you are pregnant?”

“After the wedding we never spent a night together, but before it, we already had many nights together. If anything, saying I am pregnant would make it more believable that it happened before the wedding. The months would line up, too.”

Back then, Dertosse had come at me like an animal, every single day.

This life would be no different.

“Is that so? Then there is nothing to be done about it.”

Mary’s expression was one of clear displeasure as she kept scanning the surroundings, but I stepped inside without a moment’s hesitation.

The jingling of a bell rang out, yet no one came. Instead, the sharp, nose-stinging smell of medicine filled the air, the only sign that this was indeed a clinic.

“It does not seem like anyone is here, my lady.”

“I doubt that.”

Just then, as though he had heard our voices, a doctor came shuffling out, scratching his belly.

“Who’s there?”

“……A patient.”

“Yawn. A patient. What brings you in. Looking at you, you don’t seem sick.”

The man yawning widely made it plain to anyone watching that he found this a bother. Mary looked ready to step forward, unable to hold herself back, but I took her hand. Then I drew a large gemstone from inside my clothes.

“Even someone who does not look sick can look sick, can they not?”

Whether it was the brilliance of the stone that caught his eye, the man’s expression shifted and he stepped toward me.

“You look very ill indeed. What do you need?”

His voice had gone stiff enough to pass for a machine’s, but his face was full of a greedy smile.

“Wrap my whole body in bandages. And write me a medical certificate.”

“Oh ho. A medical certificate.”

He looked puzzled, but his hands already held four rolls of bandages.

“And where shall I wrap them?”

“My arms and legs. Everywhere that shows.”

“Of course.”

His eyes fixed on the gemstone in my hand, he wound bandages around my arms and legs in no time at all. He even pressed a large piece of cloth near my neck.

“And what sort of medical certificate do you need?”

“One that says I am pregnant.”

“Huh?”

“Do not ask why. Just write it.”

“Well, I can write it, but… I take no responsibility.”

“Do not worry. There is no proof it came from here anyway.”

At that, the man gave a heavy nod. Doctors in this world do not fake examinations like this just for money. It is not a profession that pays well, and it is one built on honor and conviction, which makes it all the more so.

But he was already a fallen man. If someone came to him in secret asking for something like this, he did it. And so, without much resistance, he wrote the medical certificate, then pressed the imperial seal that the crown issued to physicians firmly onto the paper.

“Thank you.”

“Thank me for what? There will be no trouble for me, will there?”

He hesitated a little, still worried about what might come later.

“No. You have nothing to worry about.”

“…Then here.”

And so I exchanged the gemstone I had taken from my mother-in-law’s room for it.

“I was never here today.”

“I never received anything like this. Do not come back.”

“Do not worry. After today, there is no reason for us to meet again.”

I walked out as though nothing had happened. The moment he saw me heading for the door, the male doctor turned and went back inside.

The moment I stepped outside, Mary looked at me with a deeply uneasy expression.

“Hah. At least there will be no troublesome business for a few days.”

“…….”

“On top of that, we can even prove that Mary beat me more zealously than anyone in order to educate me.”

I smiled and looked down at my bandaged arms and legs.

“Even setting the body aside, showing that will make them suspicious right away. Have you thought about what comes after?”

“Well. For now, proving Mary to Mother is the priority.”

“…I can handle myself….”

“This is for Mary’s sake, but it is also for mine.”

“I have not yet placed any trust in you, my lady. That is why I cannot make sense of what you are doing now, and….”

I looked at her quietly.

“Mary. You do not have to trust me.”

“But….”

“Besides, the world is full of things that make no sense. Sometimes you have to accept things even when you do not understand them. What we will be doing from here on is exactly that.”

I did not yet fully trust her either. Not even Isen.

But even so, I had to keep showing them that I meant no harm. I needed them to carry out my revenge.

“…Understood.”

“Then let us head back. Mary, can you clearly see the bandages on me?”

I had deliberately worn a dress with a lower neckline for today. My legs were not very visible, but my arms and neck were.

“Anyone would think you were someone in pain, my lady.”

“Good. Then let us go.”

The performance started now. There was no telling who might be watching where.

So I limped and grabbed Mary’s arm. She looked at me in brief surprise, then naturally extended her forearm toward me.

“I am not sure I fully understand, but you look like someone to be pitied, my lady.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You look like someone forcing yourself to hold on, forcing yourself to live, with no hope left in life.”

“…That is not true. I want to live more than anyone.”

Her words pricked something in my chest, and I fumbled for a moment.

What would become of me once I had finished all my revenge. Revenge had been my hope, my reason to live. I could not picture what lay beyond it. But there was no need to say that out loud.

“Do not worry. You do not need to worry about me.”

“…Understood.”

It was then.