“There are conditions.”

“……”

Shiloh paused and folded her hands in her lap, waiting quietly for what came next.

“The conditions are that you take no other investors, and that you don’t mention my name to anyone outside.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want people saying an imperial physician is paying attention to anything other than the emperor.”

Shiloh nodded as if she understood.

“That makes sense.”

“If you fail to keep the conditions, the investment is cancelled and I’ll demand a penalty of twice the investment amount.”

“I’ll be careful.”

Kyle’s gaze flicked briefly toward her.

“Is there anything you want on your side of the contract?”

Shiloh had been drifting in thought and hesitated before speaking.

“You’ve been so accommodating that there’s nothing more I need to add. I just wasn’t sure how much I should consult you on……”

“I’ll interfere very little. Just document how the investment is being used. And……”

He touched his forehead as if remembering something.

“I will be somewhat involved in your health.”

“My health?”

Kyle looked at Shiloh’s wide eyes.

“Do you know Bread Johnson?”

“Bread…… Johnson?”

Shiloh stared at Kyle with a blank expression.

“Ah. Since you haven’t joined the baker’s guild, you might not know.”

“……”

“He died of overwork recently.”

He said it in a low, even voice.

“Pardon?”

“You’ve probably heard of bakers collapsing.”

When Kyle’s narrowed eyes carried a flash of something sharp, Shiloh froze for a moment.

“I’m telling you to take care of yourself if you don’t want to die.”

Shiloh’s face went pale, and as she processed his words, she slowly understood his meaning.

‘He’s just wishing me good health.’

Realizing it wasn’t a threat, she pulled the corners of her mouth up awkwardly.

“Thank you. For worrying about me……”

“I’m worrying as an investor. The ‘medicinal herbs’ for fatigue I gave you last time, are you brewing and drinking them regularly?”

“This morning, as soon as I woke up……”

“Let’s sign the contract right now.”

“Right…… now?”

Kyle pulled two pre-written contracts from inside his coat and held them out, and Shiloh’s eyes wavered.

“There’s nothing to amend, so you just need to stamp it.”

Kyle pressed the seal he had taken from his br*ast pocket onto the paper as if he had been waiting for this.

“My seal is in the attic.”

“I’ll wait.”

Kyle sat with his arms crossed and tilted his chin toward the attic stairs.

Shiloh hurried up to the attic, retrieved her seal, and came back down.

Press.

“Good. We’ll each keep one copy.”

“……”

Everything had moved so fast that Shiloh felt her head spinning.

Kyle glanced at her and said.

“If there’s anything you want to revise in the contract, you can bring it up later. I’m fairly open to it.”

“……”

“The license will come through soon, so if anyone gives you trouble in the meantime,”

“……”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take responsibility.”

“Thank you.”

Kyle reached into his inner pocket and pulled something out, setting it on the table with a quiet thud.

“Signing fee.”

“……”

Shiloh checked the contents of the silk pouch while watching his expression, and her mouth fell open.

She pressed her hand over it and tried to collect herself.

Twenty thousand gold. More than enough to pay off the two thousand five hundred gold she had borrowed from the pawnshop and still have plenty left over.

“This is much more than I expected.”

“Use what’s left to invest in the bakery. You’ll need to hire staff eventually.”

“Staff?”

“I saw in the business plan earlier that you’re planning a discount sale on a special day. You mentioned selling bread cheaply next week too, for Fat Tuesday.”

“That’s right.”

The Amondi Empire had a day known as ‘Fat Tuesday,’ when people ate heartily to stock up on nutrition before a fasting period. Food consumption would be at its peak then, so she had planned a special discount sale to accelerate her promotion.

Kyle stroked the tip of his chin with a grave expression and spoke.

“If customers flood in that day, you won’t have enough hands, and it’s a bit tight on time to hire staff now. It might be better to push the discount sale to another occasion……”

“You’re right. I can’t just take anyone in a rush. I can handle it myself.”

Kyle paused at her stubbornness.

“You’ll end up sick.”

“I’m sturdier than I look.”

Shiloh lifted the corners of her mouth, and Kyle let out a long sigh.

“When do you usually buy your baking ingredients?”

“Every other day I go to the market and pick things out carefully one by one. For harder-to-find ingredients, I buy them all at once at the night market. There’s a night market in two days, so I was planning to go. Cough. Cough……”

Shiloh trailed off and shrank her shoulders as she coughed.

She turned her head and coughed so hard her whole body shook, and Kyle’s brow drew together.

“You’re not ill, are you?”

Kyle’s eyes shifted with unease.

Shiloh covered her mouth in case she spread anything and explained.

“Ill? My bed is right against the window, so cold air drifts in while I sleep. My throat’s been ticklish since this morning…… I think I’ve caught a cold.”

“Why not move the bed?”

“It’s too heavy.”

“We can move it now.”

Kyle stood up.

“Ah…… my room is a bit shabby……”

“Other people’s affairs don’t interest me.”

“Ah, yes…… then……”

Shiloh smiled awkwardly.

She wondered if this was his way of expressing that he had no interest in her as a woman.

*

Shiloh’s bed was an old piece of furniture made from oak.

The mattress was stuffed with a mix of straw and feathers, and the cushioning was terrible.

It was so heavy that Shiloh had tried to move it on her own and given up.

So she was grateful that he had stepped forward to help.

He insisted he could move it alone, but Shiloh couldn’t just stand there watching, so she grabbed the other end and lifted with him.

With much grunting and straining, the bed was moved to the opposite wall, as far from the window as possible.

Creak.

Kyle confirmed the bed was against the wall, caught his breath, and pushed his disheveled hair back.

“You worked hard. Thank you so much.”

“Let me check.”

Kyle hesitated briefly, then sat down on the worn bed.

The creaking sound the bed made under his weight was embarrassingly loud.

“I wonder if the cold draft reaches here.”

Kyle held the back of his hand toward the window to test the air.

“I think I’ll be able to sleep much warmer here.”

“Good.”

Kyle rolled his neck and looked around the room carefully.

The only furniture was the bed and a cabinet.

A broom leaned at an angle in a bare corner of the wall.

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

Kyle rose to leave, and at that moment Shiloh noticed the medicine box on the top shelf.

“Just a moment. Since you’re here, there’s something I wanted to ask.”

“What is it?”

Shiloh turned and brought him a white box.

“It’s a box of medicines from the house before I moved.”

A short while later, the two of them sat side by side on the edge of the bed with the lamp lit.

The floor around the bed was bare earth, and there wasn’t so much as a single chair, so the bed was the only place to sit.

Shiloh sat to Kyle’s left and opened the lid of the box.

“I can’t tell what any of them are. Since you’re an imperial physician, I thought I’d ask.”

The medicine box held various ointments, vials, and bandages.

Kyle hesitated, then picked up the medicine she handed him with a stiff expression and stared hard at the faintly visible writing in the lamplight.

“This is a painkiller for headaches……”

“Are there any side effects?”

“I don’t know every medicine there is.”

Kyle let his voice trail off.

“Of course.”

“I’ll answer what I can.”

“Thank you.”

Shiloh handed him a small vial about half a hand’s length.

“What is this?”

“The label on this one seems to be written in a foreign script…… do you happen to know it?”

Kyle held up the vial and narrowed his eyes.

“It’s a medicine made from Belmaen herbs.”

Shiloh’s eyes lit up.

“Belmae…… that’s the country where I supposedly learned to bake, according to my license……”

“It’s also a major producer of medicinal herbs and botanicals.”

Shiloh spoke again.

“My mother told me to carry this with me at all times, but I was too busy to ask her what it was. She’s at the convent now, so I can’t ask her……”

“Silkworm intestines combined with various medicinal herbs……”

Kyle’s face grew progressively redder as he read the label carefully.

“What kind of medicine uses silkworm intestines?”

Shiloh blinked with bright, curious eyes and tilted her head toward Kyle.

Kyle mumbled.

“It’s a contraceptive.”

“Ah…… a contraceptive……”

Shiloh smiled with embarrassment and let her voice trail off.

“A morning-after pill, from the looks of it. It says to take three drops within twenty-four hours.”