Chapter 7

‘Surely I must have heard him wrong just now.’

Their eyes met, and Ludwig smiled pleasantly.

“I heard from the doctor. He said your internal injuries are quite serious.”

That was only natural. After all, she had actually coughed up a huge amount of blood.

“You may be able to move around now thanks to the painkillers, but in truth, Miss Lydia, your condition is nowhere near good enough for you to be walking around like this. It would be better if you didn’t overexert yourself.”

“But…”

Was going home really considered overexerting herself?

Staying here felt much more dangerous!

However, before Lydia could argue, Ludwig spoke again.

“That ring from before. It was illegally modified, wasn’t it?”

Lydia flinched.

“Under Imperial law, unauthorized modification of supernatural ability weapons is illegal. You know that very well.”

“Well… strictly speaking, it’s not completely illegal. It’s more like… I identified a loophole in a weak law and took advantage of it… You could call it a kind of legal workaround…”

“So it’s illegal.”

Lydia could no longer argue and firmly shut her mouth.

It wasn’t illegal.

But it wasn’t legal, either.

If the Grand Duke, who could manufacture a crime that didn’t even exist, called it illegal, then it would become illegal.

Ludwig spoke in a gentle, soothing tone.

“I’m not blaming you. Nor do I intend to hold you accountable for it.”

Of course, Lydia didn’t believe him.

“However, we don’t know what kind of effects it may have had on your body, so it would be better to observe your condition for a little longer. Stay here for the time being.”

“Actually, the physician responsible for our family is quite capable…”

“Is that so?”

Those three words alone were enough to crush Lydia’s motivation.

No matter how competent their family physician was, in front of the Grand Duke’s personal physician—the best elite medical professional in the Empire—he would probably be little better than a quack!

“The doctor said you were planning to stay here until tomorrow. Think about it a little longer. I’m not forcing you.”

His voice was gentle enough.

And yet, for some reason, the moment Lydia looked at Ludwig, a chill ran through her entire body.

‘Something about this feels strange…’

But his words were so reasonable and logical that she had almost no grounds to refute him.

In the end, Lydia reluctantly nodded.

“…Then I’ll just go out for a little while. I’ll take my younger sister home and come back.”

Yes, wasn’t Sylvia the important thing anyway?

If she could simply get Sylvia out of Ludwig’s sight, then her most important objective would be accomplished. She could be satisfied with that much for now.

As for Lydia herself…

Surely nothing would happen to her, right?

But at that unexpected moment, Ludwig suddenly spoke.

“Go out?”

Lydia hid her confusion and asked,

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

‘What’s wrong with his expression?’

It wasn’t particularly obvious, but Ludwig’s face had subtly changed from before.

His brows were drawn together ever so slightly, as though something displeased him.

But soon, he smiled again.

“Very well. Hurry back.”

The corners of his eyes curved into a smile that was incredibly charming.

However…

‘…I think I just said something wrong.’

For some reason, Lydia felt as though she had stepped on a land mine, leaving her with an uneasy feeling.

“Yes, I’ll be back. Then, if you’ll excuse me…”

Lydia quickly bowed her head and hurried away from Ludwig.

And so, she didn’t know.

She didn’t know that Ludwig continued watching her until her back disappeared completely from sight.

After leaving the mansion, Lydia took Sylvia and quickly returned home.

“So, Big Sis, how long are you going to stay there?”

“I wonder…”

Hearing Sylvia’s innocent yet brutally blunt question, Lydia sighed.

In the end, she still hadn’t figured out what Ludwig was planning.

She had only briefly speculated that perhaps he had captured her as bait before making a move on Sylvia.

“I’ll get my treatment and come right back. Don’t worry too much.”

“Then we’re not going to prepare a discharge party?”

“No. We’ll do it later.”

Sylvia immediately pouted in disappointment.

Lydia patted her younger sister and comforted her before sending her into the mansion.

Then she gave strict orders to the butler and head maid.

No matter what happened, they were absolutely not to take Sylvia to the Grand Ducal House.

Furthermore, they were to discourage Sylvia from going outside as much as possible.

‘If that were enough, Sylvia wouldn’t have gotten herself into so much trouble in the first place.’

What else could she do?

She had to at least try.

Still, Lydia was relieved that Ludwig didn’t seem particularly interested in Sylvia yet.

Lydia took the painkillers she had received from the Grand Ducal House at the appointed time and climbed back into the carriage.

“Shall we return to the Grand Ducal House?”

“No. There’s somewhere I need to stop by first.”

Lydia gave the coachman familiar instructions.

Soon, the inconspicuous, modest carriage began moving smoothly once again.

A little while later—

“I’ll be back within an hour. Wait here.”

After stopping the carriage near a busy market alley crowded with people, Lydia quickly walked away.

‘Phew. I finally feel like I can breathe.’

In fact, the environment here was objectively much worse.

The swarms of people, ear-piercing noise, and chaotic atmosphere…

A noisy market could hardly be better for a patient than the comfortable, luxurious bedroom at the Grand Ducal House.

But simply having neither the suddenly deranged Ludwig nor the slightly strange Sylvia in front of her made Lydia feel as though her nervous stomach pain had completely disappeared!

‘…Still, I should finish what I came here to do and hurry back. Otherwise, he’ll get suspicious.’

Remembering Ludwig’s subtly displeased expression earlier, Lydia quickened her pace.

And then she realized something.

‘Why am I worrying about what that bastard thinks?!’

There was absolutely no reason for her to do so.

“Oh.”

Just then, Lydia arrived at a familiar alley and stopped.

She stood before a shabby door attached to an ordinary-looking building.

After quickly glancing around, Lydia knocked hard on the door with her fist.

“I told you not to knock so hard!”

Someone grumbled from behind the door as it creaked open.

“We’re already short on research funding these days! What are you going to do if you break the door again?!”

Lydia quickly pushed the person inside by the back.

“Okay, okay. I’ll bring more money, so just get inside for now.”

At the promise of more money, the person obediently shut their mouth.

Bang.

The door closed again.

‘Ugh. Looks like I’m in for another lecture.’

The inside of the building was much larger and more comfortable than it appeared from outside.

The floor was spotless, without a speck of dust, and the desks were neatly arranged in a row.

And there was an enormous amount of cutting-edge equipment.

‘My babies are doing well!’

Seeing the state-of-the-art equipment she had secretly gathered through blood, sweat, and tears, Lydia was once again filled with emotion.

“Why are you late again this time? You were supposed to come yesterday!”

At that moment, Pipi, who had somehow reappeared, glared at Lydia and scolded her.

“I had an accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“You know that ring you developed last time?”

“Don’t tell me you used it?!”

Pipi shrieked in horror.

“I haven’t finished testing it yet!”

“Yeah. No wonder my stomach felt like it was turning inside out after I used it.”

At this point, a brief explanation was in order.

The person standing before Lydia was Pipi.

In short, she was an extra character from the original novel.

In the original story, Pipi possessed an extraordinary genius for supernatural ability research. However, the villainess Lydia became jealous of her and caused her to suffer an unjust death.

‘Why would I let a talent like that go to waste?’

Now, she worked as the sole researcher in this laboratory.

As soon as Lydia entered the military academy, she immediately scooped Pipi up and made her her personal research slave.

In exchange for supporting Pipi so that she could freely pursue the research she loved, Pipi was required to help develop purifying agents and various other things Lydia needed!

“Uuuugh! I specifically told you not to use it recklessly unless it was a finished product!”

“But you’ll never make a finished product. At that level, it already passes all the national standards. Your standards are just too high. I keep telling you to get over your perfectionism.”

“That’s not something you get to say after ignoring me, using it however you wanted, and getting yourself injured!”

Pipi snapped back before rummaging through her desk.

“Here. At least take this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a set with the previous ring. This one isn’t for attacking. Instead, if you wear it, it should help calm the flow of purifying power inside your body.”

“Ooh.”

Lydia picked up the ring.

Neither Pipi nor Lydia had any particular interest in jewelry, so they had done their research using whatever rings happened to be lying around. As a result, this one had a different design from the previous clunky ring…

‘It looks exactly like a couple ring.’

It was unnecessarily sparkly.

“Thanks. I’ll put it to good use.”

Well, if it had been expensive, Pipi would have sold it long ago, so Lydia figured she could just use it without worrying.

She slipped the ring onto the ring finger of her left hand and thought indifferently.

“What is that? Is that a ring?”

At that moment, someone walked out from the room deeper inside the laboratory.

Lydia and Pipi simultaneously turned their gazes toward the man.