"Listen, little brother. Romance isn’t easy."
"That’s right. You need to listen carefully to your older sisters if you ever want to escape being single, got it?"
The two detestable people who shared my family register sat on the sofa, sipping beer and tapping my head with their feet.
"Ah, seriously, stop..."
"What?"
"Stop... what?"
Were these really beings who had come out of the same mother’s womb as me?
They’re demons... Demons.
"Your sister here is a romance-fantasy novelist, you know. So I’m going to give our youngest, who’s about to start university, some relationship advice..."
"Ha. More importantly, I’ve seen nearly a hundred relationships firsthand throughout university and graduate school, so my..."
For the record, the combined number of years the three single people present had spent single was eighty. I died the very next day.
That was the day before I was to enter university, after graduating from an all-boys middle school and high school, enlisting straight into the military, and then being discharged.
**
"Shurian. Let’s step out so the Grand Duke and the young lady can be alone comfortably."
"Waaah! Darling! I’m her attending physician!"
I reached out toward Jester as he dragged away Shurian, who had been assisting me at my side.
"Wait, Jester! How am I supposed to treat the young lady when I don’t have any medical knowledge?"
"Heh heh heh. It is all right, Your Grace. In fact, this is an illness for which having someone else nearby interferes with treatment."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You need to be alone with the subject. You were alone together at the previous tea time as well, correct?"
"Certainly..."
"Then we shall be on our way."
Surely I only imagined hearing Shurian’s wailing until the moment the door closed.
"...Hm."
I turned my gaze toward Cecilia, who lay in bed staring into empty space.
This is serious. If I mishandle this even slightly, she might go into a rampage...
Let’s be as cautious as possible.
"My lady. My lady."
"..."
"Lady Cecilia."
"Yes?!"
Cecilia startled back to her senses, her face red as a carrot.
"How are you feeling?"
"Uh... Well..."
"Your face is still red. And your heart? Perhaps the state of the mana within your body... Ah."
Idiot. What are you doing, Viktor, asking that in front of the patient?
"Haah, no. This isn’t the time to be asking about those things."
I recalled what Shurian had said earlier.
"[For twenty-four hours, stay beside her and nurse Lady Cecilia so she can develop antibodies. That way, she can build immunity against Red-Eyed... no, ‘Subject Trust Obsession Syndrome.’ Understood?]"
"[What exactly do I need to do?]"
"[Help her as though you were caring for someone with a cold.]"
"[Hm? That alone is enough?]"
"[Yes. It is enough. In fact, if you do more than that... Hm.]"
"[What is it?]"
"[Never mind. It doesn’t seem likely, so let’s leave it at that.]"
Shurian’s final remark bothered me somewhat, but this was not the time for that.
"My lady, please excuse me."
"Pardon?"
I placed my hand on Cecilia’s forehead to check her temperature.
"G-Grand... Grand Duke?"
Ignoring Cecilia as she stammered and stared at me, I nodded.
"Just a moment."
When I tried to place the cold wet towel I had prepared beforehand on her forehead, Cecilia shook her head.
"I-It isn’t a cold!"
"Ah."
Right. Because she said nursing care, I nearly treated it like a cold. The heat on her forehead was surely from blood rushing to her face.
That was what she had said.
"Then I shall put this away for now."
"Um... Grand Duke?"
"Yes. Speak freely."
"I’m having trouble understanding the situation. What exactly is this...?"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I had attempted to care for her without even properly explaining.
"My apologies."
"No, it’s all right..."
"This is the treatment for your illness, my lady."
"Pardon? This is?"
"This happened because I came into contact with you so suddenly. If I do not take responsibility..."
"I mean, what exactly is happening?"
I slowly began explaining to Cecilia the conversation Shurian and I had shared. After hearing my entire explanation, Cecilia finally nodded.
"I see. I collapsed because my immunity was lacking after that sudden contact."
"Yes. That is correct. I am sorry. If I had paid a little more attention, this would never have happened."
"...Grand Duke, please raise your head. If you had not saved me earlier, I would not be here right now. And if it is an illness that can be treated, then I am relieved instead."
"My lady..."
"Um, but..."
Cecilia’s face reddened as she hugged a pillow to her chest and buried her face in it.
"W-What exactly must we do to raise my immunity?"
"First..."
**
"..."
"Darling."
"No."
"Aww. I told you it’s fine for us to go back now."
"Why? Isn’t spending time together like this nice too?"
"Urgh..."
Sitting in her own physician’s office, Shurian puffed out her cheeks and thumped the back of her husband, Jester, who was handling estate affairs there.
"That’s unfair. Unfair. Ever since then, you’ve unfairly disarmed me by smiling like that."
"You were cute then, and you are cute now."
"Haah... Honestly."
Shurian sat on Jester’s lap and gazed at the face of the man she loved most in the world.
"Should I just gobble you up?"
"That’s what I should be saying."
"Hehe... Then..."
"I’m still working."
"If I cared about things like that, would I have seduced a man old enough to be my father?"
"Ahem."
"Oh my? Hehe, you’re cute too, just as..."
Bang!
"Father... No, Butler! Where is the Grand Duke right..."
Rushe burst through the door, then frowned at the sight of her parents, caught just before engaging in an intensely affectionate display before her very eyes.
"Mother..."
"Oh my."
"Ahem."
"I am seriously not okay with having a sibling more than twenty years younger than me."
"Oh, why not? When people love each other, there are bound to be results!"
"Please have some restraint! How have you two been acting like newlyweds for twenty years?!"
Jester cleared his throat, seated his wife in a chair, and approached Rushe.
"Rushe, what is it?"
"Ah, I came to report that the investigation into the person who attacked Lady Cecilia has concluded, but I couldn’t find the Grand Duke."
"I will report it to him myself. Good work, Rushe."
"Ah, right. Rushe."
"What?"
"Ran has the day off today, so take her out to eat and have some fun."
"..."
Shurian gave an awkward smile at Rushe’s glare.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like I said earlier, I am seriously not okay with a sibling more than twenty years younger than me..."
"It’s not like that... Well, if it happens, it happens, but anyway!!"
Leaving behind the argument between his beloved wife and daughter, Jester looked at the family name written in the report and adjusted his glasses.
"[An initial, S, was confirmed in the written orders found on the attacker’s corpse.]"
"S..."
**
"I sincerely apologize for my rudeness earlier."
"Earlier... Ah..."
When Cecilia recalled Viktor’s hand holding hers earlier, the heart she had only barely managed to calm began pounding madly again.
"Uuugh..."
"Shurian said that I needed to stimulate you quickly to increase your immunity, so I acted as I did. There were absolutely no ulterior motives behind my actions."
"Ah... I see. No ulterior motives..."
Prick!
Huh?
Her pounding heart stopped, replaced by the sensation of a sharp needle pricking her chest. Cecilia was puzzled.
"My lady?"
"Ah, it’s nothing. But, Grand Duke."
"Yes. Then I shall begin the first stage of treatment immediately."
"The first stage?"
"We will have a conversation alone together. Just as we did during the previous tea time."
"Ah, then..."
"But you must not run away this time. To build your immunity, I will remain by your side for twenty-four hours."
"What?"
Cecilia doubted her ears, wondering if what she had just heard was a hallucination. From Cecilia’s perspective, listening to Viktor—a man utterly bound by duty and responsibility—her heart was under such strain that it felt as though it might burst.
"T-Twenty-four hours... alone together in the same room..."
Cecilia clutched the pillow so tightly that feathers poked out from within it.
"That is what Shurian said. She said that immunity would build only if I, the subject, remained beside you, so do not worry."
His red eyes were as calm as a placid lake, without the slightest hint of doubt.
Those eyes... Those eyes again...!
Viktor had no idea that those eyes drove Cecilia mad.
"Um... Grand Duke?"
"Yes. Please speak."
"No matter what, you must have work to do as well, so please do not worry about me..."
"Do not say such things! It is my responsibility that you ended up like this. Therefore, for the next twenty-four hours, I will remain at your bedside!"
"Uh... Uhh..."
Viktor pointed at the flowers in the vase on the table beside the bed.
"What kind of flowers are those?"
"Ah."
Cecilia turned to the white flowers Viktor had indicated and smiled softly.
"They are marguerites. The gardener from the ducal estate’s garden gave them to me. They are my favorite flowers."
"Come to think of it, you are very fond of flowers, my lady."
"Yes. As I studied medicinal herbs and poisonous plants, I naturally came to study flowers as well."
"Their beautiful white petals resemble the color of your hair, my lady."
"I-Is that so?"
At Viktor’s compliment, Cecilia blushed and lifted the vase.
"Do they... resemble it?"
"..."
Viktor stared blankly at Cecilia before turning his head away.
"Ah..."
"Yes."
"..."
"They do resemble it."
"Hngh."
It was merely an ordinary compliment, so why did her heart pound so hard at words Viktor spoke?
This illness really is frightening. I did not even look into the Grand Duke’s red eyes, yet now even his voice and compliments...
"...My lady, could you wait a moment?"
"Pardon?"
When Viktor opened the door and left, Cecilia lay back on the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
"...Haah."
With a deep sigh, Cecilia murmured,
"Foolish Cecilia... He is diligently treating me with no ulterior motives whatsoever, and you... what on earth are you..."
Creak.
As the firmly shut door opened again and Viktor entered, Cecilia sprang upright as though she had been launched by a spring.
"Grand Duke... You have ret..."
The bouquet Viktor held as he stood in the doorway was...
"Marguerites..."
"I asked the gardener in charge of the greenhouse for them."
"Pardon? Why...?"
"It is my gift to you, my lady, for all that you have endured since coming to the north. Please accept it."
The green, sweet fragrance of the bouquet Viktor set down at the foot of the bed filled the room.
The dreary room had somehow become a small greenhouse for the two of them alone.
"And..."
Viktor cleared his throat several times and looked at Cecilia.
"I have heard that regardless of the illness, an environment in which the patient feels at ease is important. If you are surrounded by flowers and fragrances you like, my lady, your treatment may proceed more quickly..."
Seeing Viktor scratch his head in embarrassment, Cecilia burst into laughter without realizing it.
"Pfft."
"My lady?"
"Hahaha... You are right."
"W-Why are you laughing?!"
The awkward, innocent side shown by the man she had thought curt and wintry.
Haah... What a truly strange man.
"Are you truly all right?"
"Yes. Grand Duke... But, Grand Duke."
"Yes."
"If it is all right with you, could you call me by my name... rather than ‘my lady’?"
"...Pardon?"
Cecilia’s eyes curved gently as she smiled. One petal fell from the marguerite in the vase. At the same time, the petals of the marguerite within Cecilia’s heart began falling away one by one.
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