Chapter 39: CH 38

“It’s nothing much. I just wanted to mention that the cows that suffered from cowpox before won’t catch the disease again. That’s why we need to keep the cows exposed to cowpox steadily for the vaccine.”

Until there came a time that technology would advance and virus preservation was possible, people would need to manually take samples of the illness from the cows one by one.

“I see. I’ll send a report to His Majesty then.”

“But what were you going to say, Ethan?”

After she finished making enough rehydration solutions for all the patients in Thurn Village, Reina turned her head to look at him. In turn, Ethan sat on top of the desk and stared straight back at her.

“Do you intend to continue calling me ‘Ethan’ from now on?”

“……”

Actually, because Ethan was a marquis, he needed to be respectfully called as such—it was even in the imperial law. It’s the same for everyone, even with his peers amongst the nine households.

Since he hadn’t been saying anything all this time, Reina just tried speaking informally. But why did she continue calling him that way? Was it just because he didn’t say anything about it? Well, Reina just kept referring to him as ‘Ethan’, not ‘Your Excellency Gerard’.

Reina herself was aware that it would be crazy for her to call him ‘my love’ in this situation. But at the same time, calling him ‘Your Excellency’ sounded… too distant.

‘But he’s pointing that out now. I knew it, it was presumptuous of me to just call him by his first name.’

“Um… Should I call you Your Excellency? Or Deputy Director?”

As Reina looked up at him like a discouraged puppy, he tilted his head to the side slightly.

“I think you’re misunderstanding me.”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, calling me ‘Your Excellency’ wouldn’t be appropriate while I’m on official duty. What I’m asking is about what you usually call me.”

“Ah… ‘My love’?”

Hearing the nickname she hadn’t mentioned for a long time, Ethan flinched.

‘What the. You’re the one who brought it up, but you’re reacting so strongly like that. Why are you even asking?’

Reina jokingly uttered the nickname again.

“Do you want to hear me call you ‘my love’?”

He flinched again. Bursting into a peal of laughter at the sight, Reina turned around and spoke in a light tone.

“We’re working right now, you know. That’s why I’m not calling you that.”

As she answered, she heaved the basket full of water bottles into her arms with a small grunt of usshaa—!

“I don’t have enough hands. Please open the door for me, Ethan.”

Spaced out for a moment, Ethan soon came back to his senses and opened the door after being asked to do so. Reina then walked through the door with the water bottles in her arms.

Ethan stayed rooted at the spot as he stared into the direction she disappeared to.

* * *

“Oh my goodness, Jay. Thank you. I heard that it’s all thanks to you.”

Osborne, the animal hide tanner, unmounted his horse and ran to Reina’s side, grasping her hand.

“Have you been well, Osborne?”

“Yes, of course. But if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been alright at all.”

When the Thurn village’s residents safely got up again after being bedridden, the vaccination began to take place in all nearby villages under the emperor’s approval.

And the result was a huge success.

“No, I just happened to come across the solution.”

It was uncharacteristic of Reina to be so humble, but she’s been saying the same thing these days.

It was with God’s guidance.

It was a coincidence.

I’m not too sure myself.

She became so frantic in fear that her close friends would die, so she actively stepped forward back then. But as soon as the situation calmed down little by little, she felt like she had spoken too much.

“At this rate… I haven’t even graduated from the Academy, but isn’t this the same as already stepping into public office?”

Again, Reina’s goal in this life wasn’t to be a ‘great and subservient ant of society,’ but a ‘pathetic grasshopper who wouldn’t even try at all’.

Yet she had been too forward.

That’s why, though belated, she began to defer to Ethan and the other health officials.

“Reina, all vaccination drives have been carried out successfully.”

Just in time, Ethan arrived. And she asked him furtively.

“I see. But Ethan, if the vaccination drive has been completed until this place… The only job left is to assign people who’ll be managing the cows that caught cowpox, right?”

Whether he understood the underlying meaning of that question or not, Ethan answered by pointing towards the busy health officials over there.

“They’ll take care of that, so you can go back to the capital now, Reina.”

He no longer spoke to her in a stiff tone that could usually be heard only in the military. It also seemed like he had taken down the walls he had set up around him before.

Reina glanced up at him. She realized that the distance between them had suddenly narrowed down.

‘Hm… Maybe this much is alright now. I think we can get engaged soon.’

Diving straight into her delusions for a moment, Reina giggled a little. This made Ethan glance down at her with a subtle look.

“Ahem, ahem. Then, what about you, Ethan?”

“I’ll finish up here first before going back.”

The epidemic had been completely cleared up and her mind was more relaxed now. Was that why? The words ‘my love’ were starting to sneak up to the tip of her tongue.

“Tch, I wanted to go back with you.”

“I also feel that it’s a shame.”

But the problem was that she suddenly lost her momentum when Ethan gave an unexpected reaction.

“Eyy, don’t be that wa… Eh? You also feel the same way, Ethan?”

“Yes.”

Uh… Why?

“Why do you feel that way, Ethan?”

Saying something like that… Wasn’t it supposed to be Reina instead of Ethan?

It’s quite flustering to see him respond to her positively.

“We’re going the same way, but it’s a waste of resources to take two carriages separately.”

“Ah…”

‘So that’s what you meant. Again, I…’

She almost got excited again for no reason. Well, what else could she expect from a man made out of wood and stone. It’d just be faster to make the first move.

“I’m going to miss you, my love.”

Flinch—

He flinched so visibly after the surprise attack that you could almost see the cartoonish lines bordering his stiff figure.

And then, right after.

“I’m being called over there. So I’ll… go first.”

No one called him, and he was pointing at an empty space, yet he insisted that someone’s calling him.

“Huh? Where?”

Reina’s hearing was especially sensitive, yet she heard not even an ant’s murmur anywhere. Still though, she feigned innocence and looked at him perplexedly.

Then, he uttered out a ridiculous line as he disappeared in an instant.

“…Someone silently mouthed my name over there. Then, bye.”

And he soon disappeared without giving her a chance to catch him.

Left alone at that spot, Reina burst into giggles as she watched his hurriedly retreating figure.

“What the heck? Did you avoid me because you got flustered?”

What’s with that.

That’s so cute.