Chapter 13

 "What are you doing up at this hour instead of sleeping?"  

"Well…"  

Karina pressed her free hand against her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart.  

"A-and what brings Your Grace here?"  

"Ah…"

At Karina’s question, Millian awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn't quite bring himself to say that he had unconsciously come here because he was concerned about her sudden silence after his unexpected visit.  

"Now that I think about it, I remembered that the temperature regulator in the annex was broken, so I came to check on it while getting some fresh air."  

Millian casually uttered the first reasonable excuse that came to mind.  

"Oh, I see."  

Under normal circumstances, she would have questioned why the duke himself had come to check on such a trivial matter. However, Karina was in no state for rational thinking at the moment.  

Nodding was the best response she could muster.  

Millian’s brows furrowed slightly as he glanced over Karina from a distance. He found it strange that she kept her distance and showed no sign of approaching.

As he took a step forward, Karina instinctively stepped back.  

Millian was now certain that she was hiding something.

He had an eye sharp enough to predict the direction of a beast's escape with the slightest movement. There was no way he would miss her awkward flinching.  

"What are you hiding?"  

At his words, Karina took another step back.  

She desperately wanted to turn around, dash into her room, and lock the door behind her.  

"My Lady."  

"…"  

"If there's a problem, say something."  

Karina pressed her lips together.  

She was the kind of person who could say "I'm fine" without the slightest change in her expression, even when she wasn’t. But when someone asked for her opinion, even opening her mouth to respond felt difficult.

"It's nothing," she finally managed to say.

As soon as Karina finished speaking, Millian closed the distance between them in just two large strides.  

He had immediately noticed that her breathing and voice were not normal.  

Karina gasped and tried to back away, but Millian was faster. His hand firmly grasped her wrist before she could escape.  

The moment he touched her, his expression hardened.  

Without a word, he led Karina toward the window, where the moonlight shone through.  

Under the soft silver glow, his narrowed crimson eyes carefully examined her face.  

"You're running a high fever."  

"I'm fine. I'll be better after some rest."  

"I should have realized when you said you’d been pushing yourself for two months."  

Millian muttered under his breath, his tone laced with self-reproach.  

Tsk. His tongue clicked in frustration.  

Karina looked at him in confusion.  

He had done nothing wrong. If anything, it was her fault for not saying anything.  

At last, Millian's sharp gaze locked onto Karina, intense and unwavering.

"If you're feeling unwell, you should say so instead of stubbornly enduring it. Only a foolish bear would do something like that!"  

"A bear?"  

First, it was a squid, and now a bear. Karina could only gape in shock.  

She stared at Millian with a bewildered expression.  

"If you hide your condition on the battlefield and something goes wrong, your head will be the first to roll! If you didn’t want to make things worse, you should have spoken up earlier."  

"…"  

"Am I wrong?"  

His sharp eyes bore into her, full of reproach.  

Karina opened and closed her mouth like a fish, then hesitantly nodded.  

She hadn't meant to make things worse, and she had even taken medicine from the doctor, but for some reason, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was some kind of criminal.  

"Did you do something wrong or not?"  

"Huh? Ah, I—I"  

Pressured by his overwhelming presence, Karina was about to admit her fault when she suddenly lifted her head in defiance.

Why was she suddenly being interrogated in the middle of the night?  

She was so dumbfounded that, for a brief moment, her previously blurry vision became clear.  

Millian let out a sigh as he observed Karina’s gaze. Then, he held up his fingers in front of her.  

It was the hand of someone hardened by battle, with well-developed muscles.  

And there were six fingers.  

“How many fingers do you see?”  

Karina narrowed her eyes, trying to focus.  

Usually, things appeared doubled to her in this state, so naturally, dividing that number by two should give the correct answer.  

Thinking simply, she opened her mouth.  

“Three.”  

Millian stared at her in silence. Then, lowering his gaze to his own fingers, he glanced back at her.  

Feeling confident that she had answered correctly, Karina straightened her shoulders.  

Millian let out a short, disbelieving chuckle.  

“You need to return to the main estate and get some sleep immediately.”  

“Huh? Why?”  

She lifted her head in protest, only to see three versions of Millian standing before her.

Six pairs of piercing eyes were staring at Karina.  

She blinked blankly and lowered her gaze to look at the fingers again.  

So, it was actually two.

Her eyes filled with a sense of defeat.  

“You didn’t say two or four, but three, which means you originally saw six.”  

Millian’s voice was sharp.  

Karina pressed her lips together.  

“You really are a handful.”  

She flinched at his words, her gaze darkening further.  

“I’m fine,” she muttered out of habit.  

She didn’t want to be a burden. She just wanted to rest in the farthest, quietest place possible.  

A sigh sounded above her.  

Before she could react, Millian had already slid one arm under her knees and the other around her back, lifting her effortlessly.  

“This place isn’t suitable for someone who’s sick. Rest at the main estate.”  

“But…”  

“I know you don’t particularly like the idea, but at least don’t make me the villain here.”  

At his words, Karina finally closed her mouth.  

As she silently gazed at Millian, he shifted uncomfortably, casting her a sidelong glance as if feeling awkward under her scrutiny.

"I’ll call someone to look after you, so get some rest."  

“No. Don’t call a doctor.”  

“What?”  

“Absolutely no doctor. Do you understand?”  

Karina’s heavy eyelids fluttered open and shut as she cautiously asked.  

Millian opened his mouth to say something but, seeing how exhausted she looked, he closed it again.

“Just rest for now.”  

“You promised.”  

She hadn’t even been properly laid on a bed, yet the moment her body was positioned horizontally, drowsiness took over.  

As she drifted back into a deep sleep, she faintly heard Millian’s low sigh.  

The warmth enveloping her seemed to soothe her shivering body, calming it as if in reassurance.

***

After being sick for quite a while, Karina felt as though her head had cleared up a bit.  

She blinked once. The thick fog that had clouded her mind seemed to have lifted somewhat.  

An unfamiliar ceiling, a soft and cozy blanket, yet her body was still shivering from the cold.  

The bed was damp from the cold sweat she had shed.  

"Are you feeling a bit more aware now?"  

"Your Grace?"  

Her voice came out hoarse and strained.  

She quickly pulled the blanket up to cover her mouth, but there was no taking back the voice that had already escaped.  

As she rolled her eyes around, her gaze landed on Millian, who was leaning against the window, reading documents under the moonlight.  

Startled, she quickly turned her head, causing the damp cloth on her forehead to slip off and fall onto the bed.  

Karina's eyes widened in surprise.  

As she slowly grasped the situation, she hastily tried to sit up.  

Her body, heavy like waterlogged cotton, resisted her efforts.  

With a short sigh, Millian waved a hand dismissively.  

"Your fever hasn’t gone down at all, so just stay lying down."  

"Why are you… here?"

"You insisted on not calling for a doctor, and the timing was too awkward to summon someone else to care for you. So, I decided to stay by your side until morning."  

It seemed she hadn't been able to fall into a proper sleep again.  

As she remained in an awkward position, neither fully lying down nor sitting up, Millian rose from his seat.  

He strode over with firm steps and gently pressed her shoulder, urging her back onto the bed.  

Her eyelids trembled slightly at his touch, not out of fear, but sheer bewilderment.  

Until now, whenever she had woken up sick, the only person who had ever been there to change her water was a maid.  

And from the way he spoke, it almost sounded as if he had been the one caring for her.

"Have you been here the whole time?"  

"Why else would I be here instead of my perfectly fine office?"  

"Why?"  

Karina asked in a drowsy, hoarse voice, pulling the blanket up to her chin as her eyes rolled sluggishly.  

Watching her, Millian dragged a nearby chair over and sat beside the bed.  

"With no doctor around, how could I just leave an ill person unattended?"  

"But isn’t it a hassle for you?"  

"What does hassle have to do with taking care of a sick guest? You’re a guest, and I’m the host. The moment you settled here, the terms of the agreement you proposed were fulfilled, so you’re free to act like a proper guest."  

Karina stared at Millian’s crimson eyes for a moment before breaking into a foolish, sleepy smile.  

Perhaps it was the relaxation of muscles caught between reality and dreams, but more than that, just hearing those words made her feel inexplicably happy.

T/N: from now on i will change the term physician to doctor because i think it’s more suited to call it that > <. Also, please enjoy the story as much as I do hehehe.

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