The usual Arsen wouldn’t have gotten angry about a bitten finger, but answering that she could bite harder wasn’t like him.

‘Is he sick? Did he hit his head somewhere?’

Lydia wanted to check if Arsen had a fever.

Because even after finishing tea, Arsen continued acting strangely.

“Ask me to escort you to the temple.”

“What?”

“If I were the emperor, you would have begged me to escort you.”

“That’s true, but you’re very busy.”

Above all, Arsen was enthusiastic about the scheme. Though he hadn’t been passive until now, today he was particularly active. Exceptionally so.

“I’m not particularly busy. Then, I’ll bring the horse since you’ve asked to be escorted, so please wait here.”

See, this active.

He acted without Lydia even speaking, assuming she had asked.

Arsen disappeared with long strides and soon returned leading his horse.

Having completely missed the chance to refuse, Lydia headed to the temple riding Arsen’s horse.

Although traveling comfortably was nice, what was this strange confusion?

As Lydia tilted her head in Arsen’s embrace, his horse also shook its head back and forth.

“Oh my.”

And soon a short sigh escaped from Arsen.

“Raindrops are falling.”

Arsen seemed to contemplate whether to quickly ride to the temple or temporarily shelter from the rain, then guided the horse under a large tree.

As soon as the horse entered under the tree, whoosh— rain poured down as if the sky had been punctured.

“It’s a sudden shower. Let’s wait it out.”

“I saw dark clouds hanging over there earlier, I guess that’s why it’s raining now.”

Dismounting from the horse, Lydia went to the end of the branches to look up at the sky before quickly backing up to the tree trunk.

Leaning against the tree, she stroked the horse’s muzzle as it pressed against her.

“But the weather turned chilly so quickly with the rain. Summer must be almost over. Ah, we’ll hear news of the victory celebration soon.”

Hmm, why do I feel like I’m talking to myself?

Lydia turned to look at Arsen amid the silence seeping between the sounds of rain.

Right, she had to feel that way. Because Lydia really was the only one talking.

Arsen stared at Lydia like someone in a trance, then visibly flinched when their eyes met.

With a face like someone caught doing something wrong, Lydia wanted to tease him.

“Why are you glaring at me? Are you picking a fight?”

Lydia lightly punched Arsen’s chest while demonstrating she wasn’t an easy opponent.

“You’re not even worth a single bite.”

“A single bite? Aren’t you underestimating me too much?”

Lydia crossed her arms and lifted her chin arrogantly.

“For your information, I made Richard surrender to me. He even said I was scary.”

And he even begged me to stop, saying there had never been such a persistent leech.

Since Richard begged, it meant Lydia won.

It wasn’t really a match, but why shouldn’t she count it as one?

Lydia decided to count it as her win.

“That’s because the emperor was weak.”

Even though the emperor wasn’t here, how could he say such things? But it wasn’t entirely a lie.

If it came down to pure strength alone, Richard wouldn’t even be a match for Arsen.

“The little bite that kept following me around was cute though, what’s so scary about that?”

“Cute? Ah, you mean ridiculous?”

Like last time, Arsen made the same mistake again this time.

Perhaps calling those who weren’t even worthy opponents ‘cute’ was just a habit of his?

“No, I meant it literally.”

“……What?”

“I meant cute, not ridiculous.”

“Uh……”

This was strange. Definitely strange.

Lydia could only stare blankly up at Arsen, unable to give any response.

Cute? What did that even mean?

She didn’t have the courage to ask what he meant, and the timing was off too. The downpour that had been falling like a waterfall chose that exact moment to stop.

Arsen helped Lydia back onto the horse as if nothing had happened.

When he returned after dropping her off at the temple, he seemed no different than usual.

Even long after sending him off, Lydia wondered if she had heard things wrong.

‘Not only did he insult Richard for being weak, but he also called me cute.’

Was that Arsen’s ghost instead of Arsen himself?

To call someone cute when they followed him around like a leech… Did Arsen have strange tastes?

“Why am I getting hot?”

Oddly enough, the more she recalled what happened earlier, the more her body heated up.

Had she finally gone mad? Lydia was at a loss for words at her own ridiculousness.

After frantically fanning herself, Lydia eventually opened every window in the room.

However, at this point, Lydia should have realized.

It wasn’t because Arsen called her cute, but because she was coming down with a cold.

* * *

Lydia caught a summer cold that even dogs don’t catch.

It was a cold she caught every year like clockwork, and even though she knew it was time for her annual bout, she had let her guard down.

‘This is all Sir Arsen’s fault for saying unnecessary things like cute and whatnot, making me lose my mind.’

Groaning with a high fever, Lydia blamed Arsen.

But then thinking about it again made her face heat up.

How silly, really. Wellington clicked his tongue beside the grimacing Lydia.

“Priestess, how could you sleep with all the windows open when it’s cool and rainy?”

“What else could I do when my body was burning up and I couldn’t sleep?”

“You should have come to me, your physician. I’m right next door.”

Ah.

Unable to win against Wellington’s logic, Lydia subtly turned her head away, claiming she had a headache.

“You’ll get better after resting for a few days. I’ll prepare some medicine.”

“Okay. What about Priest Byron?”

“He’s praying for your swift recovery.”

“Come on, why pray over just a cold?”

Lydia didn’t know. Byron’s fussing wasn’t just fussing.

The door to Lydia’s room opened and closed every ten minutes.

Only after Maria, Nella, the commander and vice commander of the Black Wolf Knights, and even the merchant had all barged in did Lydia regret not keeping her cold a secret.

It started lightly with Maria and Nella. Maria wiped Lydia’s face with a cool towel while Nella went to the kitchen, saying she needed to prepare something to eat.

“Really, what have you been eating all this time?”

Nella returned in too short a time to have cooked anything.

With a ladle in one hand, she looked quite angry.

“She’s been eating raw vegetables or pieces of bread.”

The answer came from Wellington, who had many complaints about the temple’s diet.

“No wonder you caught a cold when you eat so carelessly!”

Lydia felt wronged. She caught colds every year even when she ate luxurious meals at the marquis’s mansion.

“We had no choice since there’s no one who knows how to cook.”

It was a timid excuse. But it was true.

Lydia and Byron were people who didn’t know the first thing about cooking.

At the labor camp, they received rations, so neither Byron nor Lydia from her past life needed to cook.

Before being dragged to the labor camp, they both lived noble lives, so they had never even held a kitchen knife. So cooking was out of the question.

Lydia and Byron would sometimes go to the market to buy bread and eat it with jam, or eat raw vegetables as salad without dressing.

“My goodness, you should have come to the mansion then.”

“How could I go there every time? That’s too bothersome.”

“If eating is bothersome, how do you breathe? Is that bothersome too!”

The wrong answer triggered Nella, and Lydia had to endure a storm of nagging while lying sick in bed.

After complaining for a while, Nella left for the Edis mansion to get ingredients.

And when she returned, she brought not just ingredients but also Arsen, Kedrick, and Mallan in tow.

“Did you catch this from the rain yesterday?”

When Arsen saw Lydia lying in bed, he looked like he was seeing someone with a serious illness.

There was also a hint of guilt in his furrowed brows.

“When you said you were cold yesterday, I should have given you my jacket.”

“Sir, you weren’t wearing a jacket yesterday.”

Having come straight from his office work, Arsen was just in his shirt.

Was he saying he would have given that to her and walked around with his upper body exposed?

It would have been nice to look at, but it would have been different if Lydia in her priestess robes was in his embrace. She was certain Byron would have fainted at that sight.

“But why isn’t there any firewood here?”

Kedrick suddenly asked while looking around Lydia’s room.

“Why would we need firewood in summer?”

“Summers on the border……”

Arsen, who was about to explain how short the borderlands’ summer was and how quickly the cold came, decided to just go get firewood himself later and closed his mouth.

Mallan continued the next round of nagging.

“Priestess, your blanket is too thin. And there are no curtains either. This is why you caught a cold from the cold wind at night.”

She tried to explain that she caught a cold because she slept with all the windows open, but Mallan didn’t listen at all.

“You should have bought blankets, curtains, and a canopy in Count Wonde’s territory instead of a blacksmith shop.”