“Ah…”
It wasn’t surprising. In that castle, the name ‘Lilian” was like a master key that nullified all taboos.
The news that her older brother, who loved his sister too much, had committed another unprecedented act, made her momentarily miss him.
Lilian struggled to control her mind.
An explanation from Shaw followed.
“I’ve been thinking about it ever since Master found medicinal smoke in Isharel and bestowed it on Her Highness.
I’m not sure but I thought that there might be a record in it that could be helpful for the condition of the disease…”
Shaw lost his voice. Lilian felt it.
“You’ve figured something out.”
“Yes.”
Shaw sighed heavily.
“I haven’t told Master yet. Do you know what this means?”
“…the situation is serious and would greatly upset my brother.”
“Yes, can I be direct?”
Lilian thought for a moment and nodded her head.
“I referred to ancient texts. According to the literature, there’s no way to permanently improve the young lady’s constitution. Infusing mana now is just a temporary measure.”
It was a doctor’s sentence.
“The case of finding a matched donor of mana is helpful only if even a small part has mana. There will come a time when, like the young lady who has no mana at all, the attempt to hold on to vitality will not work. Then…”
Shaw pursed his dry lips. As a doctor, he was the one who had seen, diagnosed, and confirmed countless deaths, but his lips didn’t fall as much as he’s doing now.
In the end, Lilian said the words.
“I will die.”
“Yes.”
Shaw closed his eyes then opened them.
Then, he barely made eye contact with Lilian, who was looking at him unfazed. He carefully measured Lilian’s gaze.
Is she desperate?
No.
Is she heartbroken?
He didn’t know.
Lilian looked a little sick, but also sympathizing with Shaw for the burdensome truth.
‘How can a person be so calm?’
Shaw was puzzled. No one was unconcerned in the face of death. A person had to go through several steps to accept death.
But now, Lilian seemed to have predicted all of this from the beginning.
“You worked hard to figure it out.”
Denial, anger, compromise, depression, she seemed like someone who had already been through it all a long time ago.
“Let me ask you a favor. I’ll tell my brother myself, so why don’t you just say ‘I haven’t found any clues’?”
Um. Shaw nodded his head. In fact, he knew Lily would come out like this.
“All right. But keeping it a secret for too long…”
Lily suddenly burst out laughing and shook her head.
“Your Highness.”
“Sir, I am no longer a Turin maiden. I am the Grand Duchess of Rupenwein, and I am a witness and hostage for the alliance between Turin and His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“…”
“There are many people who would be happy to hear that my life is at stake. But it has not been revealed yet. Do you know what I mean?”
“…understood, miss.”
Shaw took out a bunch of very old books and papers from the bag he had brought with him and put them away.
“I brought it because I thought I shouldn’t leave it inside. It’d be good for you to keep it.”
“Thank you. Are you going straight to Turin mansion?”
“Yes, Master will be coming soon, and the managers are there too.”
Shaw, who was packing his bag, suddenly sighed.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
As a doctor, he felt terribly incompetent. He had been Lilian’s doctor for over 7 years and he was ashamed to hear her call him doctor.
“It’s not doctor’s fault.”
“I’ll go now. Please take care.”
After Shaw left.
Lilian looked down at her own hands. Ironically, she was trembling a little.
She’s afraid.
It’s scary. But not despairing. Her mind was just quiet. Lilian was afraid, but she found herself convinced.
‘I thought it would be like this…’
She only changed the future a little bit, but things turned out so much better than expected.
Considering the amount of luck allocated to her, this situation was unlikely to continue.
That was the correct answer.
On one hand, this made her feel at ease. There’s no need to worry and be afraid of when something will happen to balance the joys and sorrows of life.
“Better to meet it directly than a hidden trap.”
Lilian calmed herself by reciting an old imperial proverb. The tremors in her hands subsided after a while.
Confirming that the tremors had subsided, Lilian turned to Rita.
“Your Ladyship.”
“Can you go and call Sir Ivan?”
She couldn’t hesitate any longer.
There was no time now.
***
The Grand Duchess broke her self-confinement.
When he was told to come up with all the documents he sent before, Ivan, half dubious, followed the instructions.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think of Damian, who ordered not to talk to her without him, but Ivan, who hates being pushed the most as a natural administrative worker, didn’t worry for long.
‘Oh well, you only live once. Would he really kill me?’
The preceding sentence and the following sentence were in complete contradiction.
“Ivan sees Her Ladyship.”
“Welcome.”
Lilian had left only one table empty and prepared a set of pens and inks.
“You must be busy, so I apologize for wasting your time. Can you explain something I haven’t heard before?”
“Ah! Yes, of course.”
At the expression of her intention to take care of the work, Ivan quickly nodded, wondering if this is the right thing to do.
“I already informed you about the title of Imperatrix before.”
As he put the papers aside, Lilian’s hand pulled it up.
“I thought it would take a while to sign it. It’s not polite, but I’ll listen while doing it.”
Her stance was shockingly cool and quick. She’s polite and direct, and since he himself is a blunt person, Ivan started to get excited.
“Yes, then I’ll stack this up in front of you.”
A pile of papers was placed in front of her. Lilian opened a tortoiseshell case and took out her glasses then put them on. She then put the tip of nib, which Rita had cleaned, into her pen holder, and dipped it into the inkwell to make a smear of ink.
Lily, who pushed her glasses gently with the tip of her pen, began to leave her signature. It was a familiar and unstoppable skill, as if she had done it often.
“This is related to the transfer procedure of the Cantacun villa owned by His Highness, but as you know, Cantacun is a property belonging to the Imperial family, and the rental process for land and buildings is quite complicated. The first thing you should see is this, this and this…”
Quickly, classified documents piled up.
In the meantime, Lily, who had signed with a single stroke “Grand Duchess of Rupenwein, Lily Mariestad Islar Rupenwein” immediately accepted a copy of the new contract offered by Ivan.
Like a master and servant who have been together for about 10 years, their breathing was in perfect harmony.
“This part is a bit complicated, but you must look through this part and sign it so that you can proceed with the application for permission to transfer the land to the palace. Normally, it takes about three months to process, but please understand in advance that the time may be delayed if the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not cooperate.”
“Hmm.”
The order in which they were organized was clear at a glance, and the skill of attaching annotations whenever necessary was neat. She almost rubbed her eyes when she organized the management expenses that go out every year into a table.
‘The art of dealing with official documents is far better than Turin’s though.’
It was. Ivan Isaac was a man who did well when he does something.
The reason why he was able to be moderate despite his lack of respect for his superiors and his habit of making fun of them at will was because he was a genius in espionage warfare and administration.
Even though such a great person had already filtered it out, there were still so many documents.
For a while, the two put their heads together and looked at the documents. When it was almost finished, Lilian said.
“Looking at it as a whole, it seems that the Grand Duke’s housekeeping has been operated without distinguishing between inner and outer households.”
“!”
At the unexpected words, Ivan was surprised and bewilderedly affirmed.
“H-how did you know that?”
Lilian shrugged at the puzzled Ivan.
“I just looked and saw it.”
That’s right. In the time when the Grand Duke’s hostess was absent, and even Damian, the final decision maker, was indifferent.
It happened because Ivan had no choice but to exercise the right to decide on this or that because he was the henchman. However, it worked somehow, and recently, as Damian inherited Hemenlinna as the Elector, the scale increased explosively, and the royalties were called administrative hell.
There was no time to establish order and appoint a person in charge. Everyone rushed in and had to do whatever they could.
Ivan looked at Lilian with new eyes. She was going through the papers with a cold look in her eyes like never before. Then Lilian suddenly frowned. It was a sign that a headache was coming.
She tried to call Rita but someone’s actions were more agile.
“Sleep.”
The pipe touched her lips. Everything was prepared.
“Your Highness?”
“I didn’t know you were working. Here you go.”
“Ah, yes…”
Aside from the fact that they were still awkward with each other and had a distance in their hearts, the three days of living in the bridal room inevitably created some familiar habits for the two. To use a misleading expression, it could be said that the body became closer before the mind.
Lilian didn’t hesitate and drank the smoke from the pipe Damian was holding. A cloud of smoke spread.
“When did you come?”
“A little while ago. Am I in the way?”
There was a bone in those soft words.
Ivan shuddered, but fortunately, Lilian shook her head and denied it.
“That can’t be. Rather, it would be better for His Highness to be here.”
“…”
Damien’s eyes widened slightly, then he slowly smiled.
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