“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but you nearly died. According to Aillan, half your brain would have been fried by now.”
“I… I am sorry.”
“It’s not like you got sick on purpose, so what are you apologizing for? Anyway, until Aillan says it’s alright to get up, just rest properly in your room.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, who is ‘Aillan’?”
Only then did Laslo realize he had been rambling about someone only he knew, and he wore a sheepish expression.
Edel found that look, which Laslo showed only on rare occasions, quite amusing.
“Aillan Cob. The quack doctor who treated you.”
When he said ‘quack doctor’ with such a straight face, a snort of laughter escaped Edel. She hastily covered her mouth, but added a comment just in case Laslo might take offense.
“He seems far too skilled to be called a quack.”
“…That he is.”
Laslo admitted it readily. He didn’t seem particularly offended.
“Anyway, just focus on resting and recovering. I’ll make sure the maid stays assigned to you for the time being.”
Edel considered thanking him and taking her leave, but she added one more thing, cautiously.
“I am deeply grateful for your compassion and generosity, Count. Should I report to Lady Bohen separately regarding my recovery period?”
“Don’t worry about what the housekeeper thinks. She is the one who has been praying most desperately for your recovery.”
“Pardon…?”
Laslo smirked at her follow-up question, which clearly carried the unspoken thought, *‘That’s impossible.’*
“I told her that if anything happened to the ‘Emperor’s gift,’ she wouldn’t get away with it. And that wasn’t an empty threat.”
“The ‘Emperor’s gift’… you say.”
“Ah, was that an unpleasant way to put it?”
Edel shook her head hurriedly.
She had been a little surprised to hear that phrase again so suddenly, but she felt neither insulted nor sad.
“No, not at all. Thanks to that, I am still alive.”
“Though that wasn’t exactly what I wanted.”
“……”
Edel was momentarily rendered speechless as she recalled trying to open the carriage door and jump out on her way here.
Back then, she had thought coming here would mean the unfolding of hell, but looking back, Laslo had actually saved her from it.
But what benefit did Laslo Krissus gain from that? No matter how much she thought about it, there didn’t seem to be any.
“You wouldn’t have… wanted a piece of spoils like me either, Count.”
“What?”
“It would have been better if you had received art or jewels from the ducal family like the others. His Majesty was quite mischievous.”
Edel smiled weakly, but she couldn’t hide the bitterness in her tone.
After living here for a few months, she had learned that Laslo had no interest in women, let alone the games of the nobility.
To such a man, how troublesome a piece of spoils must she have been—the wife of a traitor.
But Laslo just snorted.
“What are you talking about? His Majesty bestowed the most precious thing upon me as spoils just to save face.”
Her feelings were complicated.
His tone sounded like he was complaining, yet for some reason, Edel felt comforted by him.
“Thank you for saying so. I don’t know if this is rude, but if you hadn’t accepted me back then, I would have…”
Her words trailed off.
Edel couldn’t continue because she was imagining a different future that surely would have been horrific, but Laslo, perhaps misinterpreting her thoughts, said something strange.
“…Don’t even think about dying, if you can help it.”
“Pardon?”
“If you live long enough, good days will come. Of course, it’s still hard right now, but just try to endure a little longer.”
Edel was flustered.
She had come to thank him for saving her life, and she didn’t immediately understand why he was telling her such things.
However, she knew Laslo hadn’t said it with any ill intent. She tried to answer with something pleasant.
“Yes. If I live like this, someday… I, too, will live an ordinary…”
Why was it?
The moment the word ‘ordinary’ left her lips, tears suddenly streamed down Edel’s cheeks.
It was something she hadn’t expected at all, and she couldn’t stop them from overflowing.
“Oh, I—I am sorry!”
Turning her body quickly to wipe her tears, she expected Laslo to be flustered or annoyed. After all, the woman he had spent a fortune to save was now bawling her eyes out after coming to thank him.
However, his reaction was unexpected.
He hesitated for a moment before stepping closer and handing her a handkerchief.
“Well… I suppose being ‘ordinary’ is the hardest thing to be.”
At those words, the tears she had finally wiped away burst forth again.
All her life, Edel had wished for nothing more than an ordinary level of happiness. An ordinary family, an ordinary life, ordinary love and friendship.
It was a life she had wished for out of humility, but as it turned out, that was a grand ambition.
Being ordinary was the most precious and the hardest thing to obtain.
Money, status, her father’s greed, and the scrutiny of high society were all excessive, while affection and stability were far scarcer.
She hadn’t expected Laslo to understand that.
“I am sorry. I don’t even know why I am crying… I think maybe my judgment is clouded because of the fever.”
“You don’t have to thank me anymore, so go back and cry some more.”
“Pardon…?”
*Cry some more?*
Edel asked again, thinking she had misheard him.
“It’s an order.”
Laslo didn’t correct his words; he hammered them home by calling it an order.
He grabbed Edel by the shoulders, turned her around, and spoke as he pushed her toward the door.
“Once you’ve cried your fill, call that young maid and have her bring you a hearty dinner. Eat your fill, don’t think about anything else, and sleep soundly. That is my order.”
“But…”
“Don’t talk back. Go now.”
The office door slammed shut behind her as she was pushed into the hallway.
“What on earth was that…”
What just happened?
Edel was left standing alone in the hallway, completely bewildered.
However, the ‘order’ Laslo had whispered in her ear melted her heart like warm soup. A courage, the source of which she didn’t know, seemed to spring up inside her.
*‘Right, he said it was an order.’*
Edel wiped her still-damp cheeks with the handkerchief Laslo had given her and started walking.
Just as he said, she returned to the guest room, threw herself onto the bed, and wept her heart out.
It was the first time she had cried this much since she had married into the Lancaster Ducal Family.
But it was a strange thing.
As she wept for a long time, the bitterness that had been knotted inside her felt as if it were gradually diluting. Eventually, she even thought, *‘Why am I even crying?’*
After that, she felt a sudden surge of hunger.
*‘I’m so hungry.’*
She felt like eating everything in sight, just as Laslo had commanded. Edel called out for Daisy, who had been waiting in the maid’s room attached to the guest room.
“Unni! What’s wrong? Why were you crying?”
Daisy was so shocked to see Edel with her eyes swollen from crying that her face turned pale. However, instead of explaining, Edel made an urgent request.
“Daisy, I’m so hungry. I’m sorry, but could you bring me as much food as possible?”
“You’re hungry? You must really be getting better! Please wait just a moment!”
Daisy, delighted to see Edel showing an appetite, ran to the kitchen.
A short while later, the tray she brought contained an amount that the Edel of before would never have been able to finish.
“I brought everything I could. Potato soup, rye bread, butter, three slices of ham, a boiled egg, roasted chicken, and an apple. And this is shredded carrots and shallots—they taste good if you put them inside the bread. And these are cookies I bought earlier today.”
The food piled high on the plate looked delicious. Perhaps it looked that way because Daisy’s earnest desire to feed her well was added to it.
Edel thanked her and began to eat ravenously. It was the first time she had ever been this hungry.
The simple flavors of the food spread in her mouth, inviting even more hunger.
“Wow… It’s my first time seeing you eat this much, Unni.”
“It’s my first time eating this much, too.”
Edel laughed sheepishly and diligently polished off the food as if pushing it into her stomach.
“Haa… I don’t think I can eat even a drop of water anymore.”
A strange sense of satisfaction washed over her as she cleared the plate, not leaving a single crumb behind.
Only then did she realize she couldn’t quite remember why she had been crying earlier.
All that remained in her mind were Laslo’s words.
“Good days will come as you live your life.”
It was a common enough comfort, but when layered with his voice, it felt special.
*‘It’s strange. When he says it, it feels like it might actually happen.’*
After all, Laslo Krissus was the man who had pulled her out from the greedy clutches of the Lancaster Ducal Family and those like them.
Suddenly, a memory from her time at the ducal residence surfaced.
It was dinner, the first one she had attended a week after suffering from a severe cold.
“Oh? You’re already recovered? They said it was a bad cold, but I suppose it wasn’t much of anything.”
“The mealtime was quite pleasant for a while, too. Tsk.”
The atmosphere felt as though they were genuinely disappointed that she had fully recovered. It had always been that way, but that evening, the dinner table was so uncomfortable that she couldn’t taste a thing. It felt as if she were swallowing grains of sand, and she barely managed to force down enough to avoid appearing impolite.