Chapter 31

The next morning. My head was heavy and my ears were muffled.

I barely lifted my eyelids and got up, but I was not feeling well.

“Ack, ack.” (Coughing sound)

It seems that the problem was that I stood in the cold snow yesterday for too long.

After going to work, I thought I would say that my body hurts.

“Oh my God, Sir Yves. What’s wrong with your complexion?”

On the way to Theodore’s office, the fellow knights saw me and asked with concerns.

“It’s a mild cold.”

Every time I said something, my throat was hoarse.

At my hoarse voice, the colleagues asked with worried faces.

“Aren’t you supposed to rest today?”

“I’m going to tell His Majesty and go see a doctor.”

I guess I didn’t look very good in their eyes either.

Knock. Knock.

When I knocked and went inside, I saw Theodore who was working and not looking at me.

I looked at his profile, who was quietly concentrating on his work.

Was it because I was not feeling well?

When I saw his face, my heart ached.

“Your Majesty.”

I called him in a cracked voice, and he lifted his head and glanced at me.

“What?”

“I’m not feeling well, so I’m going to have to rest today, cough! Cough!”

I couldn’t finish the sentence properly and coughed, his face frowned.

“I’m sorry… ah…… .”

The moment I spoke, my head spun.

Whoops—!

As I was about to stumble and fall, he grabbed one of my arms.

“Ah, thank you…”

As I was about to say thank you to him, I heard a click of his tongue above my head.

“Who’s the boss, who’s the escort?”

His annoyed voice rang in my ears.

If it had been the same as before, he would be worried about me, even the slightest cough.

However, I seemed to have gotten used to his unkindness, and a faint smile spread. Looking back, how hard was he to hide his true nature? It must have been very difficult.

Theo… You really liked me a lot.

You really loved Yvonne a lot.

Looking at his face that no longer smiled at me through my hazy vision, but suddenly he stopped.

“You…”

He still grabbed my arm with one hand and placed his other hand on my forehead.

“Your body is too hot.”

It was just such a common concern that anyone could say.

When I woke up in the morning and on my way to this place, I heard countless such worries from fellow knights.

However, my heart ached at his worry and tears came to my eyes.

“Theo….”

Maybe I was out of my mind because of the heat.

“I’m so… it hurts… .”

If it wasn’t for the fever, I wouldn’t say anything like this out of my mouth.

“It hurts so much… so… so…”

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

His face, with his brows narrowed, I thought of the friendly image of him who had nursed me all night, worrying about me with a cold.

The tears that had been welling up in the corners of my eyes from a while ago fell.

“It hurts, it hurts so much. It hurts so much……”

I grabbed his collar and screamed in pain.

It was when he showed a puzzled expression in my vision blurred with tears.

“Your Majesty, Miss Katarina has visited. I escorted her to the parlor, what should I do?”

“Ah….”

In an instant, a color flashed over his face.

His hand that was holding my arm fell off.

My hand that was holding his collar fell down helplessly.

“I’ll go.”

He left me and walked out the door.

I stared blankly at his back.

‘No, don’t go.’

Those words came up to my throat.

Did the words I was shouting in my heart reach him?

He took a step out of the door, stopped and looked back at me.

“Go see a doctor. No more escorts today.”

The short anticipation that he would come back to me soon faded.

Theodore left me there and went to Katarina.

After being left immobile for a while, I slowly walked at the urging of people around me to go see a doctor.

However, a cold sweat came up gradually, and breathing became difficult.

The moment my eyes fluttered, I stumbled forward and fell forward.

“Yves….!”

It sounded like someone’s anxious voice was calling me.

But I couldn’t check the opponent and I closed my eyes.

****

***

Meanwhile, the time when Yvonne collapsed.

Theodore was just facing Katarina in the parlor. Everyone was sent out. Katarina eventually cut off her hair, which had been messed up by Yvonne the previous day and wore a wig.

But Theodore had no interest in her, so he just glanced at her changed hair.

“How is it?”

Theodore’s voice was desperate when he asked the question without even a light greeting.

“Did you find it?”

“Sorry, the one you were looking for was no longer at Ferdinand.”

At those words, Theodore groaned in pain.

Katarina found out that Yvonne was the same person as Yves, but she never intended to tell him.

Because she knew Theo wouldn’t need her by his side anymore once he found Yvonne.

Of course, Theodore promised to help her become Ferdinand’s headmaster, but there’s no way the filthy Emperor Theodore would keep such a promise.

And Katarina was just as distrustful as Theodore.

It was not difficult to manipulate the evidence into a distorted story.

“Did you check what I sent you yesterday?”

“….”

At her question, Theodore stopped and looked at Katarina.

Katarina gave a brief snort inwardly as she saw the painful expression on his face.

“How was it?”

“… it had turned black.”

“After all, it’s black magic.”

“The crystal ball is wrong…… .”

“Oh, never. If you’re concerned, you can find a wizard and experiment with it. It’s definitely meant to respond only to black magic.”

The wooden box she sent to Theodore contained a small crystal ball.

It was a crystal ball that turned black in response to the traces of black magic.

And the crystal ball darkened in response to Yves Llewellyn, who carried the box containing it yesterday.

So, Yves Llewellyn had traces of black magic.

Theodore, who had always suspected that Yves Llewellyn was suspicious, but when he got the confirmation right in front of his eyes, his heart sank even more.

“The caster of black magic must have been Benjamin. He was the closest to Yves Llewellyn. I don’t know what kind of magic he drew, but didn’t Your Majesty find anything strange?”

There were too many strange things.

… The moment he saw Yves for the first time, she resembled Yvonne so much that he was mistaken. Had it not been for his divine powers he left behind in their childhood, he would have believed Yves was Yvonne.

It would have been better if it was just a face resemblance, but there were times when she suddenly reminded him of Yvonne.

Even though Yvonne in Theodore’s memory was a child around the age of ten.

Just a little while ago.

She murmured nonsense with a feverish state of mind, and it was strangely distressing.

If he had been his usual self, he wouldn’t care if his subordinates were sick or not. Because Theodore was originally an emperor with no sympathy.

Involuntarily he grabbed the woman who was staggering. And after he felt her hot temperature, he almost picked her up and took her to a doctor.

If he hadn’t been distracted by the news of Katarina’s visit, he might really have made the same mistake.

“Your Majesty must have sensed something strange too, right?”

“….”

Theodore didn’t answer.

No, he couldn’t answer. He couldn’t confirm she was the woman who came here to deceive him.

“Anyway, be careful. It has to do with black magic, and she might be Benjamin’s hidden lover.”

“Wait.”

Theodore, who had been silently thinking, suddenly asked in a sharp voice.

“Yves Llewellyn is Benjamin Ferdinand’s lover? It’s the first time I hear this.”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you this?”

Katarina looked startled and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Benjamin especially cherished her. Yves Llewellyn and Ferdinand’s headmaster.”

“Ah, yes, it sure was.”

A mysterious smile appeared on Katarina’s lips.

“So, the relationship between the two is not that Benjamin Ferdinand had a one-sided heart..… .”

“Benjamin cared for her, and she enjoyed it too,” Katarina replied in a straight voice. Yves Llewellyn was a dangerous woman to have by the Emperor’s side.

By any chance Theodore had to nip off the bud before he had any likable feelings for her.

“I’ve seen Yves Llewellyn come out of Benjamin’s bedroom every night.”

****

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