Was this a complaint about buying the blacksmith shop and increasing their work?

Listening to Mallan’s continuous nagging, Lydia’s guess seemed to be correct.

This was definitely a complaint. Or a small revenge.

“No, it’s because she hasn’t been eating well! If you ate properly every time, you’d be fine even sleeping outside with just a pillow.”

Mallan’s complaint-like nagging was cut off by Nella’s appearance.

“Now, move aside.”

Nella approached the bed with a tray full of food.

“Nella, why so much……, and what’s that?”

As if the food Nella brought wasn’t enough, Maria also came in carrying a tray.

“Did you prepare dinner in advance too?”

“What kind of joke is that.”

It wasn’t a joke though. Lydia suspected if Nella was plotting to kill her by making her stomach burst.

“It would be nice if Priest Byron could eat together with me.”

No, she desperately hoped he would eat together.

How could she eat all this food from two full trays by herself?

“Priest Byron is praying.”

“Still?”

“Still.”

Maria quietly added that he would probably continue like that until the priestess got better.

Everyone was being ridiculously excessive.

Even the Marquis and Marchioness Evansi of hadn’t made such a fuss over Lydia’s summer colds.

They just assigned one physician and one maid to attend to her through the night, and that was it.

She had never felt disappointed about that. It was just a cold, after all.

She thought it would be more annoying if people made a big fuss over a cold.

That wasn’t the case. The nagging, the commotion raised over just a cold, Lydia welcomed it all.

“If I get seriously ill, priest Byron might collapse too.”

“Oh my, don’t talk about getting busy twice over and hurry up and eat. Special medicine has been prepared for you, priestess.”

At Wellington’s nagging disguised as concern, Lydia burst out laughing and picked up her spoon.

If she ate well and took her medicine well, wouldn’t this kind of cold get better quickly?

However, for some reason, her cold symptoms got worse as time passed.

Lydia, who had dozed off as the sun was setting, couldn’t wake up even after dinner time had passed.

Her labored breathing and fever burning like a fireball told of her condition.

“Wellington.”

An openly displeased voice addressed Wellington.

“You said it was a mild cold.”

Wellington, who had suddenly become a major criminal, checked Lydia’s temperature with an obviously troubled expression.

“It clearly showed symptoms of a mild cold. But the priestess is too weak to fight it off. Was she always this sickly?”

No one could answer his question.

“I don’t know about that, but she recently drank poison. It was a small amount and immediate emergency treatment was given, but she didn’t receive proper treatment afterward.”

“Poison? What kind of poison?”

“I don’t know.”

I don’t know anything. Arsen didn’t know any of the important things about Lydia.

Neither about her catching colds every summer, nor what kind of poison she drank.

“Hmm, it seems her body has weakened because the treatment  for the poison wasn’t properly completed then. First, we’ll bring down the fever with antipyretics, then prescribe medicine to strengthen her body. It would be better if we knew what kind of poison it was, please ask her when she wakes up.”

“I will.”

After Wellington left the room, Arsen pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down.

His mouth went dry at the sight of her lying there pale and weak.

It wasn’t the first time he’d seen Lydia in bed, nor was it his first time seeing a sick person, yet why was he so anxious?

It was his fault for not paying attention to her health. He knew she hadn’t properly recovered after drinking the poison, yet he had dragged her from the Eastern count’s territory all the way here to the borderlands.

He should have had her examined again while they were at the marquis’s castle.

Arsen let out a troubled sigh as he pulled up the blanket that had slipped down from Lydia’s tossing and turning.

“Mmm.”

“Lydia?”

At that moment, Lydia, who had been deep in sleep, hazily opened her eyes.

This was the moment. Arsen quickly brought the antipyretic that Wellington had said to give her when she woke up.

“Wait, just take this medicine and go back to sleep.”

“Water……”

“Water first? Alright.”

Arsen held a cup of lukewarm water to Lydia’s lips.

Her warm palm, hot with fever, held the back of his hand and tilted the cup.

“It’s not refreshing at all.”

“Cold water isn’t good for someone with a cold.”

The water seemed to help clear her mind a bit as Lydia slowly sat up, straightening her back.

Arsen held out the cup containing the antipyretic to her.

Lydia took the cup with the antipyretic while exhaling hot breaths, then put it back down.

“Why are you putting it down again? Drink it all at once.”

“The smell is too strong, is it spoiled?”

She seemed well enough to joke, but there was no compromise when it came to medicine.

Seeing Arsen’s firm expression, Lydia had no choice but to pick up the antipyretic again.

The taste was as awful as the smell. Her face, flushed with fever, scrunched up terribly.

“There’s just one sip left.”

“I can’t drink it.”

Lydia pushed away Arsen’s hand offering the cup of antipyretic again and pouted her lips. At that sight, Arsen was reminded of an animal with fluffy pink fur.

“Winter rabbits are not this weak.”

“I’m not a winter rabbit. And you should call it a rabbit-type demonic beast.”

Is he trying to provoke someone who’s already heated?

Amid her dizziness, Lydia became genuinely curious.

“But do you really think I’m cute?”

She was asking if the winter rabbit, that hideous animal resembling a demonic beast, was cute.

But Arsen had said that rabbit was cute, and he had also called Lydia cute.

What was cuteness to him? Was being called cute by him actually a compliment?

“You?”

Arsen asked back at the question without an subject, then spoke without waiting for Lydia’s answer.

“Today you’re not cute.”

“Why? Because I’m lying down without washing?”

“No, because you left medicine.”

Arsen was still holding the fever reducer within Lydia’s reach. Lydia firmly turned her head away and lay back down.

“Lydia.”

When that firm, low voice landed in her ear, Lydia pulled the blanket up to just below her ears and muttered.

“On second thought, I think I should stop being cute now. What if I become too cute after taking that?”

A cool laugh from Arsen was heard by the bedside.

What a pleasant sound. She thought she had woken up, but as she lay back down, sleep came pouring in.

“And then, mmm, if you really fall for me……”

Lydia fell into sleep without even knowing what she was saying.

The fever and medicine were too strong to hold onto her escaping consciousness.

As Arsen put down the fever reducer and positioned the sleeping Lydia comfortably, he sneered that she was worrying about unnecessary things.

What if he really fell for her if she became cuter.

That matter had already been concluded long ago.

* * *

The fever reducer Wellington had given must have worked well, as Lydia woke up feeling refreshed.

Morning sunlight filled the room, and even breathing sounded pleasantly.

“……”

Lydia quietly gazed at Arsen, who had fallen asleep while leaning deeply against the back of the chair.

It seemed he had nursed her all night long.

The caring voice she heard while half-asleep must have been Arsen’s, not a dream.

A voice so kind it brought tears to her eyes, asking if she was cold or hot, if she was thirsty.

So kind she suspected it might be an auditory hallucination.

Why are you so kind to me?

Lydia’s gaze trembled slightly as she looked at Arsen, who had fallen asleep cramming his large body into a small chair.

What is it, why? Questions bubbled up like a spring.

Even though he only brought her here because she was a surveillance target, why make someone so confused?

Tsk, Lydia clicked her tongue briefly but couldn’t take her eyes off him.

Perhaps what confused Lydia wasn’t Arsen’s attitude but his appearance.

Clean, slanted eyes with a high nose bridge, and strong masculine lines that weren’t coarse.

A moderately tanned skin and a firm chest visible through the open buttons.

Arms that bulged as if about to burst when folded…

“Hmm?”

As Lydia examined Arsen’s physique, she couldn’t shake the feeling that he seemed to have grown bigger.

She couldn’t pinpoint exactly where, but his entire body seemed to have gained more muscle.

Building more on that frame.

Is he planning to hunt demonic beasts with his bare hands instead of a sword from now on?

Still, thanks to his long limbs, there was no sense of bulkiness at all.

A bit more threatening and, how to put it, a bit more masculine.

It was a body she wanted to be embraced by at least once.

Come to think of it, she had been embraced often.

Especially when she’s riding a horse with him. Whenever Arsen touched her back, she would turn around once to check.

And she’d wonder if Arsen had secretly put on armor under his shirt.

But it was just that he was hard.

‘When we go to the capital, there will be an overflowing amount of women approaching Arsen, right?’