“Is there anyone outside! Someone bring some fever medicine from the medic!”

By the seaside where part of the Pergos Empire’s army had set up camp.

It was a time when the shock of the vice commander returning in a tattered dress had not yet subsided.

Outside Commander Caleb Sanders’ tent, soldiers were startled by his shout and rushed to get the medic.

Before the medic could bring medicine, Caleb brushed back Vice Commander Rudbeckia’s forehead, which was a mess of sweat and hair.

— Tsk….

Then he gently pressed his lips to her forehead.

— Smooch, …tsk

Urgently yet carefully, Caleb’s lips persistently pressed against Rudbeckia’s forehead and pulled away repeatedly.

When he finally heard the medic approaching, he withdrew his lips far away.

“I’ve brought what you needed. How is the vice commander ‘s condition?”

“The assassination target was a magic knight. It seems she received a terrible nightmare when taking his life.”

“What? That can’t be! If it’s m-magic, will a fever reducer be enough? We need a healing priest!”

The medic was startled and couldn’t put down the medicine bottle in his hand.

The medic could treat wounds or administer medicine, but magic was beyond his domain.

“It’s fine. The vice commander has resistance to such things. She’s not the vice commander  for nothing. On your way out, please call for Sir Zeno.”

“Yes, sir!”

Thanks to Caleb’s casual dismissal, making it seem like nothing serious, the medic quickly turned and left.

“Yes, a nightmare…… A terrible nightmare of wandering through one’s own memories.”

No, if it were merely a nightmare, it would disappear the moment she woke up.

The disease and curse that only she possessed couldn’t possibly be cured by a mere ordinary fever reducer.

The fever reducer was only given to prevent dehydration caused by the high fever.

His hand gripping the medicine bottle trembled uncontrollably. His unsettled emotions were plainly visible.

During the days when Rudbeckia had left the unit to assassinate Magic Knight Noah using the honey trap strategy, Caleb hadn’t had a single night of peaceful sleep.

Rudbeckia appeared before Caleb in many forms in his dreams.

In some dreams, she was being chased by the Fabio Kingdom’s guards; in others, she was safely returning after completing her mission. And in yet others, her head was in the square after being caught during the mission….

No matter what dream he had, Caleb would wake up convulsively, drenched in cold sweat.

How many worst-case scenarios had he imagined about Rudbeckia, who hadn’t sent a single letter until the mission was over?

“Caleb.”

Just as the blood drained from Caleb’s hand, turning it white, Zeno, the platoon leader and his childhood friend, entered. He was perfectly dressed as if he had sensed the summons from the moment the ship arrived.

“Zeno. Let’s prepare to move to the main camp as soon as the sun rises. Make sure there’s space in the wagon for Rud to lie down.”

“Sure. We can be ready to depart in three hours. We’ll leave immediately, regardless of sunrise. But what about the barrier?”

“It must be gone. If she had failed a mission she volunteered for, she wouldn’t have returned at all.”

“How is Rud’s condition?”

“Haah. She’s fine. She’ll probably regain consciousness before we reach the main camp.”

After the worried-looking Zeno left, he once again kissed Rudbeckia’s forehead.

Once… twice… how many kisses would it take to lower her dangerously high temperature?

He closely observed the minute changes in her condition, checking her forehead and the clock until the departure preparations were complete.

“It’s because I wasn’t good enough…… Rud, I’m sorry.”

Although he had longed for the day to see Rudbeckia again, this wasn’t the reunion he had hoped for. Seeing Rudbeckia unconscious felt like his heart was being torn to shreds.

The dignified voice of the military’s chief commander who led his soldiers had dissipated, and only the anguished voice of a man worried about his beloved filled the tent.

— Grip

Holding her hand tightly in his, though it was covered with calluses but still soft, he began to pray earnestly.

Just as earnestly as when he first met her.

* * *

“Mommy, mommy, my head hurts. It hurts. I’m hot.”

“Rud, mommy will give you a kiss to make it stop hurting. Is your forehead very hot?”

Adele, her mother and the Queen of the Glimm Kingdom, would keep her lips on her precious daughter’s forehead for a long time whenever she suffered from headaches.

“Rudbeckia…… so it has finally appeared in you too. Mommy should have found the ring……”

Memory surge.

The curse of the Glimm royal family that manifested when Rudbeckia turned four.

A curse that only manifested in princesses, never in princes. Adele had escaped the curse after giving birth to Rudbeckia.

A cursed disease where everything experienced through the five senses remains as memories that never fade from the mind.

Thanks to this, Rudbeckia and the princesses of the Glimm royal family had exceptional memory that rivaled great sages even at a young age.

“It’s okay now, Rud. Mommy is giving you kisses, see? What did we say mommy’s kisses are?”

— Smooch, tsk… smooch…

“Medicine. Medicine that makes the pain go away.”

“You remember so well. Who does our Rud take after to be so smart?”

However, if she didn’t receive regular treatment, those memories would burst forth randomly and devour her.

The memory surge brought unbearable headaches and fevers that made Rudbeckia lose consciousness, and in severe cases, it would leave her hovering between life and death for three or four days.

There were only two ways to suppress the memory surge: a ring and a kiss. According to the will passed down through generations, wearing the royal treasure called the Heart of Light would prevent the memory surge from manifesting no matter what.

However, that object had been lost hundreds of years ago, and now only kisses filled with affection could suppress the surge and help her escape the painful headaches and fever.

‘Mother…..’

It’s a dream. So the memory surge has finally made me lose consciousness.

After losing consciousness due to the “memory surge,” Rudbeckia would see her memories sequentially as if in a dream. Until the warmth of affectionate lips seeping through her forehead into her brain suppressed the surge.

Since the memory surge showed her first memory from when she was four years old, it meant that until she woke up, she would have to relive all the terrible things she had experienced as vividly as reality.

So vivid that she would feel the emotions and pain she had felt then.

“Mommy. Quickly, quickly waaah… it’s hot……”

“Sob. I should have solved this! I should have suffered in your place, sob.”

“Stop whining!”

Adele Glimm was the only daughter and only child of the Glimm Kingdom’s royal family.

The ministers urged the king to take several wives to continue the lineage, but the king made Diego his son-in-law and passed the throne to Adele. While he was alive, Diego was an excellent son-in-law and advisor.

Diego was also a key contributor to protecting the Glimm Kingdom by proposing various diplomatic and military strategies against the Pergos Empire.

However, after the king died and he ascended to the throne, Diego became the worst person both as a king and as a father. As if this had been his true nature all along.

“What’s there to be proud of in giving birth to such a monster that you cry all day! Tsk, at this rate, I’ll spend my whole life supporting this pathetic small country.”

Whenever Rudbeckia couldn’t bear the pain and screamed, Diego would blame Adele, the queen. The reason why he, who had been merely a son-in-law, behaved this way was clear.

He wanted the vast “Pergos Empire” more than the small “Glimm Kingdom”!

His plan was simple. Have a daughter with his beautiful wife Adele, whose beauty was renowned even in the Empire, and marry that daughter off to the Empire. When his daughter’s husband became Emperor, he would become the Emperor’s father-in-law.

He thought that men lose their reason when they fall for a woman’s charms, so manipulating an emperor of a son-in-law who was infatuated with his daughter would be easier than eating cold porridge.

But his grand dream crumbled miserably when the memory surge manifested in Rudbeckia.

From then on, Rudbeckia was called a half-wit, a monster, “that thing,” and was abandoned by Diego.

When the king showed contempt, the servants followed suit and looked down on Rudbeckia, calling her the monster princess. But she was fine. Because her mother, Adele, who could suppress the memory surge, always loved her consistently.

However, was there no god for the mother and daughter?