My heart sank.

I saw the Grand Duke breathing heavily beside the flickering firelight.

“Haah… What are you doing here?”

His low, boiling voice echoed ominously.

“Well…”

The only sound cutting through the silence was the crackling of burning wood, and though I knew I should say something, nothing came to mind.

It was because of the blood-soaked cloth the Grand Duke was holding.

There was no one else around him.

“Did you follow me?”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Then what?”

“Huh? Well… I woke up suddenly and saw you leaving at dawn, so I wondered why and got worried.”

The Grand Duke, noticing that what I was staring at was the blood-stained cloth, immediately threw it into the fireplace.

The crimson-tongued flames began to devour the cloth greedily.

“Um…”

Looking carefully at his robe, I could see that his chest, which rose and fell with each breath, seemed to be glistening with cold sweat.

“…Are you hurt?”

“Get out.”

“Where are you injured?”

When I unconsciously stepped inside, the Grand Duke immediately frowned and looked at me.

“I said get out.”

“Where are you bleeding from so badly?”

“Can’t you hear me telling you to get out?”

“I heard you. But you need to tell me where you’re hurt.”

“Mind your own business and leave, now.”

As he sat down in the chair, he suddenly gritted his teeth as if suppressing a groan of pain.

Now that I looked closely, the hair covering his forehead was also damp with cold sweat.

I took another step closer to examine him more carefully, when I suddenly remembered that he had been shirtless earlier.

So he couldn’t have injured his upper body.

“It’s your leg, isn’t it?”

“I said get out…”

“Stop telling me to get out and show me! Am I fire? Why do you keep telling me to get out!”

“What?”

“Your leg is injured, right? Which side is it? Can’t you just tell me clearly? Ah!”

As I crouched at his feet trying to examine him from different angles, the Grand Duke grabbed my wrist.

I was startled by his grip and almost let out a scream, but instinctively closed my mouth at the sight of his frightening eyes.

“Don’t touch me.”

“……”

“Do you understand?”

His deep voice echoed threateningly throughout the study, like a growl.

I stared at his icy blue eyes, then cautiously raised my gaze.

I looked at his hair, damp with cold sweat covering his forehead, his furrowed brow, and then down at the glistening muscles visible through his robe, clearly enduring pain, before meeting his eyes again.

“…Then can I tell someone else that you’re injured?”

His gaze faltered for a moment.

“You don’t want anyone to know you’re hurt, so you’re trying to deal with it alone. That’s it, right?”

“……”

It made no sense to me that someone of the Grand Duke’s stature would be suffering alone at dawn.

The man was the sole master of this castle, served by countless people.

Surely the grand ducal residence had a resident physician, and hundreds of doctors would come running at his call.

Yet his determination to handle this alone clearly showed his intention to hide his injury from everyone.

“I won’t tell anyone…”

“Have you not considered that speaking carelessly could get you killed?”

He gripped my wrist even more firmly and spoke harshly.

“I wouldn’t mind killing you right here.”

“If…”

“What?”

“If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already! You’ve had plenty of opportunities, right?”

The Grand Duke looked at me with an expression that couldn’t hide his bewilderment as I rapidly fired back, summoning all my remaining courage.

“You could have killed me anytime, but there’s a reason you’ve kept me alive until now, right? That’s why you’ve kept me around despite everyone here hating me.”

“You’re mistaken…”

“Whether I’m mistaken or not, let me see where you’re hurt!”

With my free hand, I quickly lifted his robe.

“Ah…!”

There was a long, deep wound on the outer side of his muscular thigh.

It looked like the flesh had been deeply cut by a sharp blade or spear.

“H-how did this happen?”

“What are you doing?”

“Stop trying to cover it and stay still!”

When he immediately let go of my hand and tried to cover himself with his robe again, I quickly stopped him and blocked his way.

“You need treatment first. Will hiding the wound from me make it disappear? It’s not going to heal on its own.”

“Do you think the wound is the only thing you’re exposing by opening this?”

“Of course? I’m only looking at the wound…”

As I tried to point to his wound, I suddenly realized he was wearing only underwear.

So above the wound was his rock-like muscles and above that was his enormous…

“Eek!”

“Huff…”

As I hurriedly covered my eyes, the Grand Duke’s complicated sigh echoed.

I slightly lowered my hands covering my face and looked at the cloth in the fireplace.

Though it had almost completely burned, it was clearly not gauze used for bandages or adhesive plasters, but a piece of fabric roughly torn from clothing.

“…How did you really get hurt?”

I asked the Grand Duke, who had put his robe back on, once more.

He still looked at me indifferently without answering, but after hesitating a bit, I opened my mouth again to ask.

“…Was it from that day you were attacked?”

“……”

“And you were trying to treat it with this again?”

I picked up and showed him the item placed on the side table next to the chair where the Grand Duke was sitting, wondering if it could be true.

There was another piece of cloth with visible signs of being torn, though it was clean.

“If you’re injured this badly, you should get treatment. Why did you leave it untreated? From when I hit my head, it seems like there are medicines and treatment methods available here.”

“It’s not a serious injury.”

“It is serious! And it must be very painful.”

“……”

“Do you not know how to treat it? Is that it?”

“……”

“That’s it! That’s why, right? You got hurt and just ignored it, then when it kept bleeding, you just tied it up… Is that what happened?”

“You’re noisy.”

“If you don’t answer me, I have no choice but to keep asking!”

He looked at me with a cold gaze, seemingly exasperated by my response.

“I mean it. This needs treatment. You need to call a specialist. I’m really good at making noise. You saw earlier, right? If you don’t let me call someone right now, I’ll… mmph!”

He easily covered my mouth with his large hand.

He also firmly held the back of my head with his other hand, preventing me from escaping.

“Mmph! Mph!”

As I stomped my feet and struggled, the Grand Duke frowned with an irritated expression.

“Are you slow to understand?”

When he asked, I tried to shake my head vigorously.

However, his hand covered almost my entire face, making it impossible for me to move my head as I wanted.

Watching me trying to shake my head weakly, he spoke again.

“I’m telling you to shut up and leave. Is that so difficult?”

When I tried to shake my head again, he distorted his eyes even more.

“You won’t leave?”

When I blinked my eyes instead of moving my immobilized head, he closed his eyes tightly in irritation.

“Imagine what will happen if you refuse to leave.”

“……”

“Think of the most horrific scenario.”

“……”

“It would be fortunate to die without anyone knowing, compared to how horrific…”

Since I couldn’t answer with my mouth covered, I grabbed and shook his robe sleeve instead, causing him to pause.

He looked suspiciously back and forth between my hand gripping his robe and my face, then furrowed his brow again.

Then he twisted one corner of his mouth upward in a frighteningly languid manner.

“…Your face doesn’t look scared at all.”

He looked down at my face heavily before speaking in a calm tone.

“You seem convinced I won’t threaten you.”

I tried to shake my head quickly, but his hand didn’t budge.

“What do you mean?”

When I stomped my feet again, he narrowed his eyes and made a puzzled expression.

He seemed frustrated, unable to interpret my response.

“Mmph mmph!”

Seizing the opportunity, I pointed at the Grand Duke’s incredibly large hand.

The Grand Duke’s gaze gradually settled.

“…If I let go, will you stop making noise?”

I nodded quickly and drew a large circle above my head, and he slowly removed his hand.

“But why are you trying to do this alone? You could just call a doctor.”

“Didn’t you agree not to make noise?”

“That’s why I’m speaking. Quietly.”

“Haah…”

The Grand Duke ran his hand through his hair and frowned deeply.

“Is it something no one should know about? Everyone?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Even the butler? He seemed trustworthy…”

“I don’t trust anyone.”

His jaw muscles suddenly locked as he replied indifferently.

He seemed to be suppressing pain.

He’s injured like that and still refuses proper treatment?

“…Haven’t all the staff worked here for a long time?”

“Yes.”

“And still?”

“And still I was attacked.”

He looked at me coldly as he spoke.

“Ah…”

At a loss for words, I looked at his expressionless face and recalled the original story.

This castle strictly limited the entry of outsiders, allowing guests to stay only in designated places like the guest garden, reception rooms, and annexes. Because of this, it was said that for a long time, not even minor conflicts with the outside world had occurred, let alone intrusions.

However, since someone had figured out the castle’s internal structure and the Grand Duke’s movements to launch an attack, it made sense that he could no longer trust anyone.

Was he planning to endure for a few days like this, and if it didn’t improve, seek a doctor in disguise?

Or was he planning to silently endure in such a miserable state…

Of course, the person who had recorded the castle’s structure in letters sent outside and informed about the time and place to lure the Grand Duke to the tea room was Lea Azanie from the original story.

But I couldn’t exactly tell him, “The one who leaked that information was ‘Lea’ before I transmigrated into this body”…

“Still, you can’t leave it like this. The wound will get worse.”

“Don’t concern yourself.”

He said as he sat in the chair and picked up the cloth placed on the side table.

“Are you just going to tie it up again like that?”

I was about to say I would find some medicine, but his hair soaked in cold sweat bothered me.

“Wait a moment.”

Just as I quickly approached and tried to place my hand on his forehead, the Grand Duke froze like a statue.

“Remove it.”

Well, I could clearly tell from his reaction that he’d rather die than let my hand touch him.

“Ha, look at this…”

“Where do you dare to put your hand?”

“Look. You have a fever too. If the deep wound is infected, it could be serious.”

“……”

“You could get even more seriously injured.”

The reason the Azanie mother and daughter had backed away without readily thrusting their knives of revenge at me was solely because the Grand Duke was in good health.

How many days had he endured with such poor treatment?

I was among those who would be in trouble if his illness became known.

“We need to ask for medicine. The butler must be a good person. I’ll go find… Ah!”

As I turned away from him, he roughly grabbed my wrist and pulled me, causing me to fall straight into his arms.