Pain-filled groans could always be heard from the room at the far right of the second floor in the Marquis Descartes’ mansion. It was the sound made daily by the household’s precious young master.

The Marquis and his wife spared no means or methods to save their son.

They brought in expensive medicines daily and searched the kingdom for renowned physicians. However, when his condition showed no signs of improvement, one day.

With the appearance of one woman, their son rose from his sickbed.

And now, groans began to be heard from another room.

“Ugh…”

Painful groans echoed through the dimly candlelit room. Through the translucent canopy, one could occasionally see the figure of a woman writhing in pain. It was none other than Ines.

“Haa, ugh!”

Her entire body had long been drenched in sweat.

Her mind was hazy, and she could barely remember why she was here. That’s how terrible the continuous pain was.

It was the result of transferring the pain from the Marquis’s son, who had been suffering from an unknown illness, to Ines herself.

Soon, she slowly blinked her eyes. As the pain subsided slightly, her consciousness began to return. If she could endure just a little longer, this hell-like pain would completely stop.

Hoping for this dream-like respite, Ines looked around. It was a room in the Marquis’s mansion that had become familiar to her.

Here, she would treat the Marquis Descartes’ son. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t treatment but merely transferring the pain to her own body.

Staring blankly into space, Ines recalled the past.

‘As I said before, I cannot transfer your son’s illness to my body, but… I can transfer the pain he’s feeling to myself.’

That was the best solution she could offer.

The Marquis, who had been disappointed that she couldn’t cure the illness, immediately brightened at the mention of eliminating the pain.

‘Once transferred, he’ll be free from pain for several days. But it won’t last forever.’

And so the deal began, with Ines periodically transferring the pain felt by Descartes’ son to herself. The one fortunate thing was that because she received others’ condensed pain, she didn’t hurt all day. It lasted anywhere from four to six hours at the shortest, and up to twelve hours at the longest.

In other words, while the Marquis’s son would be fine for four days, Ines would only suffer for less than half a day. Of course, even this was no ordinary ordeal, but it was better than carrying a lifelong wound.

Just as she finished this brief reminiscence, Margaret approached Ines’s side.

“Are you feeling a bit better now?”

Margaret wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief as she continued speaking.

“My goodness, look at all this sweat. You seemed to be in more pain today than last time…”

Margaret’s voice trailed off as though she was truly worried about Ines. It was an attitude that could make one mistake her for being genuinely concerned about the queen.

“People are really too cruel. To curse such a person with remarkable abilities as a villainess. Why don’t you reveal this ability to the world? You might even be revered as a saint instead of a villainess.”

“…”

“Ah, but that might be even more terrible than now. I heard the Pope is suffering from severe syphilis. If he learns of Your Majesty’s ability, you might spend the rest of your life locked up in Vernar, bearing the pain of syphilis.”

Ines, who had been letting Margaret’s words go in one ear and out the other, stared at the ceiling with empty eyes. Such provocations no longer had any effect on her.

Because she no longer had any expectations from Margaret. Instead, Ines just tried to remember how many times she had visited already. Just as she was unable to recall how many times she had repeated this ordeal.

The door suddenly burst open and someone entered. Margaret rose from her seat at the sudden appearance of a man.

“What brings you here, young master?”

“Ah, you haven’t left yet. That’s fortunate.”

It was Alfredo, the son of Marquis Descartes.

As soon as he entered the room, he approached the bed where Ines lay.

“I just got hurt while horseback riding.”

He extended his hand in front of Ines. Her gaze naturally turned to the man. Upon closer inspection, his palm was torn, perhaps from glass when he fell.

“…”

She knew well why he was showing her his injured hand.

He probably wanted her to heal his wound.

“Won’t you do it quickly? This is my first time having such a wound, and I want it healed right away.”

Alfredo grabbed Ines’s hand as if even experiencing pain briefly was too much for him.

But Ines was too exhausted. The pain never became familiar, and after days of this repetition, her body and mind were reaching their limit.

So she barely managed to speak, gathering what strength she had left.

“It looks like a wound that would heal quickly with just medical treatment. For something like that, you should go to a doctor…”

At Ines’s suggestion to see a doctor, Alfredo tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“Why should I do that when Your Majesty is here?”

To this, Ines spoke again with a thoroughly cracked voice.

“The pain is particularly severe today. If I take on that wound too, recovery will be slow and it will be too much strain on my body.”

“That’s why it doesn’t matter. I know that pain well. Taking on one palm wound won’t make any difference.”

At these cold words, Ines stared at Alfredo’s face. He had inherited his father’s cruel traits perfectly.

At first, when his pain disappeared, he had hugged her and rejoiced greatly. He said he had never felt so light before, and thanked her for saving his life.

But that was only momentary. As these sessions repeated, he showed neither gratitude nor remorse toward Ines. He treated her merely as a doll that temporarily made him forget his pain. She felt like a living painkiller.

“Hurry up.”

When Alfredo urged her again, Ines finally resigned herself and took his hand. After all, if she refused here, he would bring his father and force her to use her ability.

Having given up everything at last, Ines used her ability once more.

“Ungh…”

With a short groan, the man’s wound transferred to Ines. The man, satisfied with looking at his now clean palm, ordered Margaret.

“Make sure to treat Her Majesty well.”

“Yes, understood.”

With those words, Alfredo turned away indifferently.

Just as the pain she had taken from him began to subside, now the pain of a torn palm was added to torment her.

She was so tired and exhausted. It felt like experiencing a living hell.

She thought it might have been better when her father was alive.

“Show me your hand. I’ll treat it.”

Margaret sat beside Ines and began treating her hand.

Looking at her hand being cleaned of blood, Ines was gripped by anxiety.

Alfredo, who had been cautious at first, was gradually treating her more and more like a tool without hesitation. He considered a torn palm a minor injury and didn’t even send for a doctor.

Ines was very anxious about this situation. She stroked her belly with her other hand.

‘What if I lose the baby?’

Though she didn’t physically contract illnesses, she was living in terrible pain every night. She couldn’t take painkillers for fear of affecting the baby, and she had lost a lot of weight from not being able to eat properly.

‘If Carlos were here… or if Father were still alive.’

She never dreamed she would come to miss her dead father. At least he wouldn’t have done this to her while she was carrying the king’s child. That’s how dire her situation had become.

‘Next time, I’ll try to come a bit later, making some excuse.’

Right now, both Ines and her unborn child desperately needed rest.

Just as she had decided to take some rest by making excuses for a while.

“Oh right, the Marquis said you need to come here tomorrow too.”

Ines, who had frozen stiff, barely parted her lips.

“…What? What do you mean?”

Tomorrow wasn’t supposed to be a visiting day. After taking on this much pain, Alfredo should have been fine for the next four days, so tomorrow was too soon.

“The Marquis has an important trading partner. They’re like close friends. Well, it seems their daughter recently broke her finger in an accident. She’s apparently crying because she can’t do her favorite embroidery.”

“You mean… you want me to take on someone else’s injury too?”

“Yes, of course. You promised to share your power with the Marquis, didn’t you? And a broken finger is just a minor injury.”

Margaret answered with a smile. As Margaret said, a broken finger was a minor injury compared to what she had endured so far. But the size of the wound wasn’t the issue. The problem was using her ability for people other than the Descartes family.

‘And what if next time they demand not a finger but a leg? And if they demand something even worse after that?’

Ines’s face turned pale.

It had been naive to think they would use her ability only for his son.

The Marquis planned to exploit this ability to gradually build his influence. Just like her father had.

As this realization dawned on her, Ines’s body began to tremble.