“I will ask you once more. Answer me. What do you want? Why did you approach me?”

The Cahilid before her eyes seemed like an entirely different person from the one who had shown warmth to her hideous self in her previous life.

Just as he had said that his sword could cut down anyone, he seemed only merciless, cruel, and terribly frightening.

Ihis thought she understood, at least a little, where this behavior of his came from.

Because she had touched his reverse scale.

“Before… Father once brought dogs and cats to me.”

At Ihis’s somewhat sudden words, Cahilid frowned slightly.

“I had been training little by little, you see…… until I could heal people.”

“And?”

“He beat a dog in front of me, and wounded a cat. But perhaps even those children knew that one wrong move could kill them…… because even in front of Father, who was so much larger than them, they screamed with all their strength and bared their claws.”

“……”

“In my eyes…… you look the same, Lord Cahilid.”

Ha.

Cahilid let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.

“So, in a situation where you cannot trust House Erbereje but still have to use it, are you being this sharp toward me because I noticed your weakness?”

It was a mistake.

Cahilid had not known Ihis was a woman this perceptive.

Of course, he had known she was called the witch of Erbereje, and he had known she possessed healing power.

But he had thought that was all.

Mahie’s puppet.

Someone who moved and thought only as he ordered.

“I……”

Ihis, who had been about to continue, paused briefly.

How much should she say, and where should she begin?

Should she say that although it had been in her previous life, he had been the first person to show pity after seeing her hideous appearance, and that she had been so grateful it had nearly brought her to tears?

That she wanted to help him and escape from her father, and then live an ordinary life like everyone else?

That she knew he was trying to use House Erbereje to return to the Imperial Palace, and that she could give him information?

If she said all of that, it was obvious she would only earn his suspicion rather than his trust.

Like someone fighting a war all on her own, Ihis tightly shut her mouth, squeezed her eyes closed, then opened them again.

And slowly, moving her dry lips, she answered.

“I will not cause you any harm, Lord Cahilid. That much…… I can promise you. Truly.”

Ihis’s blue eyes, filled entirely with Cahilid, shone pitifully.

As if there was not a single lie in what she had just said.

“You make quite a tempting face.”

Cahilid gave a small laugh.

“I never thought I would hear such words after being compared to a dog or a cat.”

“I-it was just an example. I did not mean that you were a dog or a cat, Lord Cahilid.”

“You still have not answered my question, have you?”

What she wanted from him.

If she set aside her desire to help Cahilid, the reason she had come to feel that way, and everything else—

There was only one thing she could tell Cahilid right now.

“I want House Erbereje……”

Ihis could not continue.

Because of the polite—

And somehow urgent—

sound of knocking.

Cahilid seemed to wear a rather irritated expression, then rose from his seat and unlocked the door.

When the door opened, the person who appeared was, as expected, Mahie.

Mahie’s face had been stiff, but the moment he faced Cahilid, his expression quickly softened.

With a look full of concern, he parted his lips.

“My apologies. I was worried whether the treatment went well.”

A lie.

He must have been worried that I had let something else slip.

“It went well. Your daughter’s healing power is quite exceptional.”

“That is a relief. Then may I take my daughter with me? She is a frail child, you see. After using her healing power, she needs to rest.”

Is that so?

Would a man capable of showing such mercy and consideration have reduced his own daughter’s body to that state?

Cahilid did not voice his thoughts aloud.

He merely smiled and looked back at Ihis.

“Thank you, my lady. Thanks to you, I even feel as though my condition has improved.”

“I’m glad I was of help.”

Even as she answered, there was only one thought in Ihis’s mind.

If she parted from Cahilid like this, without tying up anything between them, there would be no next chance.

And that would be even more true if she had failed to earn his trust.

Father will keep watching me.

I will be dragged back into that cramped room again, forced to save tortured people over and over……

Those horrible things, all over again……

“You said so earlier, Duke.”

Just as Ihis was sinking into despair, deep and thick as a swamp—

“Now we are no different from family. So…… shameless as it may be, I would like to continue receiving help from my family.”

Borrowing the words Mahie had spoken earlier, Cahilid made an unexpected request.

“What do you mean by that?”

“To be honest, I have something of an illness.”

Could this be related to what his subordinates had said—that there were times when Cahilid disappeared for about two days?

Mahie’s gaze reflexively turned toward Ihis.

“Ihis, Lord Cahilid is suffering from an illness?”

Even under that sharp gaze, she had no idea what she should say.

The only problem was his rampaging magic.

Surely he did not want to reveal that.

What illness could he possibly have aside from that?

If one excluded his magic, Cahilid had a body that would survive even if he were thrown into a monster’s den.

“Since you have become my family, Duke, I will tell you honestly without hiding anything.”

The one who answered was not Ihis, but Cahilid.

“The truth is, I have had this illness since I was young, but no matter what physician I called, none could figure out what it was.”

“……”

“It is nothing serious. I simply end up bedridden for a few days now and then, as if suffering from body aches.”

“Is what Lord Cahilid says true?”

Ihis paused for a moment, then quickly parted her lips.

“Ah, yes. While I was healing the wound you received earlier, I examined you…… and it seems something similar to blood congestion has formed throughout your body.”

“Blood congestion?”

“I-I have heard that cases like this happen from time to time. If someone suffered a serious illness as a child, or was badly injured in an accident, the congestion that should have disappeared naturally may fail to do so and begin clashing within the body……”

She no longer even knew what nonsense she was saying.

At the lie she had wrung out with all her might, Cahilid seemed to smile faintly before adding,

“That is correct. I have suffered a grave illness before, and I have also been seriously injured. As expected, your skill truly is remarkable, my lady.”

Mahie gave no answer.

He merely looked back and forth between the two of them with green eyes full of distrust.

But Cahilid did not back down.

“With things being as they are, I would like you to allow me to receive the lady’s help whenever necessary……”

In that instant, Mahie’s face hardened like stone.

“Where is the room the lady is staying in within this mansion? As the one receiving treatment, it does not seem proper for me to summon her here every time.”

“The place where Ihis is staying……”

Mahie muttered in a strange voice, like a mouse whose tail had been stepped on.

It was only natural.

After all, he could not openly say in front of Cahilid that his own daughter was living in an old detached annex separated from the main building—and in the most insignificant place, closest to the underground prison.

“House Erbereje is one of the most renowned noble families in the Empire, so I assume our youngest lady is also staying somewhere worthy of that status.”

“As I said earlier, Ihis is not in good health, so she lives a little apart from the rest of us. We judged that to be better in many ways……”

“Then you can simply move her.”

Cahilid answered with an expression that seemed to ask what the problem was.

“I would prefer it to be somewhere as close to my room as possible. That way, whenever I go to receive treatment, I can check on the lady’s condition as well. Would that not mean we are helping each other?”

Mahie was doing his best to control his expression, but Ihis saw it clearly.

Beneath his sleeve, his slightly hidden hand clenched into a fist with all his strength.

Strangely enough, it felt satisfying.

“As she is the daughter of a noble family, that is a little……”

“Surely you do not think I would do anything vulgar to the precious youngest daughter of House Erbereje. I trust that is not what you are worried about.”

“……”

“Are we not now in the same boat, a family who must undertake a great endeavor together? In a situation like this, if something serious were to happen to my body, you would be troubled as well, Duke.”

At Cahilid’s words, which continued as cunningly and subtly as a snake, there was only one answer Mahie could give.

“……Very well.”

In that moment, Ihis’s blue eyes trembled briefly.

“What matters most right now is Lord Cahilid’s health…… so I will do as you say.”

Really?

I can leave that room?

Aside from the times she went to and from the underground prison, she had never once left it in her entire life……

Faced with a situation she had never even dared dream of, Ihis stared at Cahilid in a daze.

Cahilid seemed to meet her gaze, then continued in a very friendly yet courteous voice.

“I will be in your care from now on.”

Unlike earlier, when he had felt nothing but forceful and oppressive.

“Then I will see you again.”

“……”

“Seeing as my condition is still not very good even now, I feel I may fall ill again soon.”

Ihis could not give any proper answer.

Still dazed, she merely nodded.

Cahilid stared intently at Ihis’s back with an intrigued gaze as she left the room with Mahie.

✦ ✦ ✦

Ihis was unable to return to her room.

Instead, she entered Mahie’s study on the second floor of the mansion.

To be precise, it was closer to being dragged there.

“……”

Filled with rage, Mahie glared at Ihis, who stood before him, as if he wanted to kill her.

Ihis looked back at him without much of a reaction.

Slap!

With a sharp, resounding sound, Ihis’s face whipped to the side.