Chapter 10

“…I think I took it?”

Lydia answered reflexively, flustered.

In truth, Lydia still hadn’t gotten used to Ludwig’s attitude.

‘Why would he ask me that?’

As if he were actually worried about her.

The Ludwig Lydia knew—from both the original novel and her own experiences—wasn’t someone who worried about other people. And if that person was Lydia, even less so.

“I did take it once before I left, though.”

“You should have an evening dose as well.”

“…What do you think I did with that?”

Ludwig smiled pleasantly.

“…I’ll take it right away.”

Lydia was more frightened by his smiling face than his expressionless one, so she immediately backed down. Seeing her reaction, Ludwig spoke gently.

“If it’s difficult to take, just tell me. I can feed it to you myself.”

Absolutely not.

Lydia resolved never to skip her medicine again.

“Thanks to you, I’m feeling much better. Thank you very much.”

In the end, Lydia finished all her medicine under Ludwig’s watchful eye and bowed her head in gratitude.

‘Just thank him appropriately and end the conversation quickly.’

She still didn’t know what Ludwig’s true intentions were, but regardless, she found him uncomfortable to be around.

“First of all, I think I feel much better now than I did earlier. The Grand Ducal House’s physician really is skilled. I definitely feel like I’m recovering much faster here.”

Lydia continued talking by herself.

She didn’t know whether it would work, but she hoped that if she acted sufficiently submissive, he would let her go sooner.

“So, actually, I’ve recently become quite interested in the Red Oranges from Mount Frellin in the west. Not only do they taste good, but they also have excellent commercial potential. I’m certain that if they could be transported all the way to the capital without spoiling, they’d sell quite well in the market…”

She continued rambling on, eventually spouting completely useless nonsense, when—

“Over there.”

“Yes?”

“You have another ring.”

Only then did Lydia realize that Ludwig had been staring at her left hand throughout their entire conversation.

“Oh, this is…”

Lydia was about to answer without thinking when she suddenly stopped.

‘Wait. Isn’t this another illegally modified weapon?’

Strictly speaking, this ring wasn’t intended for attacking, but since it was part of the same set as the previous one, it could easily be treated the same way.

“Uh, well… Yes. That’s right.”

Lydia vaguely glossed over it.

‘I absolutely cannot let him find out!’

“I brought it back when I went home. It’s an important item.”

“Ahh, an important item.”

Was it just her imagination, or did Ludwig’s voice sound strangely cold as he repeated each word as though savoring them?

Lydia instinctively sensed danger and clamped her mouth shut.

Soon, Ludwig smiled again.

“It suits you. Your fingers are so slender.”

Yet this time, his eyes weren’t smiling at all.

“Thank you…?”

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m seriously screwed.

Lydia broke out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—Ludwig didn’t ask anything more about the ring.

Instead, he returned to his gentle tone, asked about Lydia’s condition, and rose from his seat.

“It’s gotten quite late. I’ll escort you to your room.”

“No, there’s no need for you to—yes. Thank you. Of course. I’ll follow you right away.”

In the end, Lydia was escorted back to her assigned room by Ludwig himself.

‘What the hell was that?! What did I even do wrong?!’

Even after Ludwig left, Lydia spent quite some time sitting on her bed and pulling at her hair in frustration.

The next day.

“You’ve improved quite a lot overnight.”

The physician examined Lydia’s condition and tilted his head.

“Strange… The medicine shouldn’t have that much of an effect.”

Unable to tell him the truth, Lydia could only give an awkward smile. After gauging his reaction, she asked,

“Then, could I perhaps go home now?”

“No. Don’t let your guard down yet. Your symptoms aren’t ordinary, so I think it would be best to observe your condition a little longer.”

The physician was remarkably firm.

‘Anyone would think he’s deliberately trying to keep me here.’

Lydia grumbled inwardly for no particular reason.

Still, one thing she could be grateful for was that Ludwig wasn’t actually locking her up.

As long as she told him in advance that she intended to go out, he readily gave her permission.

‘Come to think of it, that’s only natural. Why am I even grateful for this?’

Anyway, Lydia had come to her own conclusion.

Even though Lydia had once been a cadet at the military academy, she was now a civilian.

A civilian had vomited up a considerable amount of blood right in front of him, so it was understandable that Ludwig would be concerned. An officer of the military, who had a duty to protect the people of the Empire, couldn’t simply ignore an injured person right in front of him.

If he had acted a little faster, Lydia wouldn’t have been injured in the first place, would she?

Of course, strictly speaking, the problem was that Lydia had attacked the Creature first without giving anyone a chance to intervene.

But Lydia decided to conveniently forget anything that worked against her.

‘All right. Time to go.’

After receiving her examination from the physician, Lydia finally finished getting ready and immediately left the mansion without delay.

Today’s goal was to obtain an invitation to the Imperial Palace banquet.

She had wanted to take things a little easy since she was injured, but there wasn’t much time left before the banquet, so she needed to act immediately.

Of course, she could also attend as Ricardo’s partner, just as he had suggested yesterday.

‘If possible, it’s better not to use that option.’

Last time, Lydia had made it sound as though the problem was Ricardo’s relationships with women, but the truth was that it wasn’t that simple.

In the original novel, Ricardo’s family, the Marquisate of Werner, would later become involved in the Demi-Human incident and find itself on the verge of ruin.

To explain in detail—

Why did the Demi-Humans, who possessed intelligence equal to or greater than that of humans, send Creatures through the Rifts?

It was part of their process of scouting human civilization before launching their full-scale invasion.

After learning about humanity through hundreds, even thousands, of Creature invasions, the Demi-Humans eventually made their decision around this time.

They would make this Empire their own.

And the one who fell perfectly into the Demi-Humans’ scheme was Ricardo’s pathetic second older brother.

After the war against the Demi-Humans ended and Ricardo and the Marquisate of Werner learned the truth too late, they suffered tremendously in the original novel.

‘If I get dragged into this by association, I’ll be finished too.’

This wasn’t just any crime.

It was collusion with the Demi-Humans.

In the future, this would be treated as high treason equivalent to—or even worse than—rebellion.

In other words, it was a crime serious enough to get one’s head chopped off.

Ricardo was a male lead, so he would somehow manage to survive, but Lydia couldn’t afford to be so carefree.

It was only common sense to keep her distance from a family that would become a family of future traitors!

‘Those who want to live have to survive.’

Of course, despite being so cold about it, Lydia had no intention of actually letting Ricardo die.

That might have been the case when she had first realized she had possessed this body, but by now, she had grown quite attached to Ricardo.

For the time being, however, she intended to hide her connection with the Werner family, at least outwardly.

Just in case.

“We’ve arrived, Miss.”

At the coachman’s words, Lydia looked out the window.

A pointed spire.

A magnificent, old-fashioned building.

It was the largest Grand Temple in the capital.

“Thank you. Go back first. I’ll return on my own once I’m done here.”

Without even waiting for a response, Lydia got out of the carriage and hurried toward the Grand Temple.

‘There really are a lot of people even on weekdays.’

Even though it wasn’t a week with any special events, the temple was bustling with all sorts of people.

Whenever Lydia encountered a priest, she gave a quick greeting according to proper etiquette before swiftly making her way deeper into the temple.

‘There should be a prayer room farther inside that’s reserved for people who have made large donations.’

Because it cost a great deal of money to use, the room was mostly frequented by high-ranking nobles.

Of course, Lydia hadn’t officially been granted access because she’d poured every bit of money she could have donated into developing the purification agent.

So how did she get inside?

Naturally, she sneaked in.

‘This should be a good place to wait.’

At last, Lydia reached her destination.

Rather than entering the prayer room itself, she stopped a little distance away.

A short while later—

“I really want to stop this already. How long am I supposed to keep doing this ridiculous nonsense?”

At last, people began walking out from inside the prayer room.

A middle-aged woman with heavy makeup shook her head from side to side.

Her face was etched with exhaustion.

“Calm down. It’s only been three months, hasn’t it? I’m sure you’ll see results soon.”

“Exactly. You’ve put so much effort into this, Madam!”