Chapter 50
She hadn’t slept a wink.
Elodie blinked with a hollow, exhausted face.
Her eyelids kept drooping shut, but by sheer willpower she endured—and after a full fifteen days, she finally managed to finish An Introduction to Herbal Medicine for Our Child.
Although she’d failed to grow closer to the third young lord, at least this had yielded solid results, so that was a relief.
They said understanding people’s hearts was harder than studying.
It really was hard. So hard.
Just facing someone was difficult enough—building goodwill was even harder.
Weren’t beastfolk supposed to feel an instinctive fondness for members of the Ratson family?
And yet, this was the Basilisk bloodline that had kidnapped and cursed a Ratson—so did that mean they didn’t bow to instinct at all…?
‘Anyway, now I can really do light treatments.’
Not only that—she’d also made potions to boost courage, incense candles to chase away bad dreams, and then…
“Snrrrk…”
“Oh my.”
Squarrel gasped when she saw Elodie, who had been nodding off, finally bonk her head against the table.
“You didn’t sleep again last night?”
She carefully gathered the softly snoring child into her arms and laid her on the bed.
Elodie, unable even to think about opening her eyes as sleep washed over her, answered with a vague “Mmm…”
She’d been like this for days now.
Squarrel murmured worriedly.
She was still so young—perhaps the change in environment was making it hard for her to sleep.
That thought made Squarrel’s chest ache.
“Would you like to see Physician Packer?”
Physician Packer?
‘That sounds familiar.’
Elodie half-opened her eyes, curiosity briefly floating to the surface of her fading consciousness.
“Who…? (Who’s that?)”
“Well, originally, he was the previous duke’s personal physician.”
The previous duke’s physician?
But he was still alive?
“Oh—currently, he’s His Grace’s daughter. The mother of the young lords.”
“Ah…”
Liana Valkyrisen—Aizen’s daughter, and the mother of the three young lords, including Edmund.
Not long after inheriting her title, she had died in an accident.
Along with her husband.
That was why her children were now called “young lords.”
Counting back from now…
‘She died about five years ago.’
At the time, the eldest young lord had been only ten years old, so their grandfather Aizen had no choice but to put the duke’s mantle back on himself.
That must have been why the duke’s daughter was referred to as the “previous duke.”
Squarrel’s gaze darkened as if recalling the previous duke, but she soon shook it off and continued.
“Anyway, I heard that Physician Packer treated the eldest young lord’s insomnia.”
“Edumnt can’t sleep? (Edmund can’t sleep?)”
“He couldn’t sleep because of nightmares. The physician used a unique sleep therapy, and after that he stopped having nightmares. These days, he sleeps well.”
Chasing away nightmares was something Elodie could do too.
She thought of the incense candle she’d whipped up just yesterday.
‘But what kind of method did that physician use to chase away nightmares?’
Dreams were the human subconscious.
Touching them was said to be the domain of the gods.
That was why priests often received divine revelations through dreams.
Unless you were a Ratson, you shouldn’t be able to directly interfere with dreams…
“Apparently, just having Physician Packer nearby puts him at ease.”
If you found emotional stability, nightmares naturally disappeared.
Elodie yawned at the rather mundane conclusion.
‘If that’s the case, he’s just a normal physician who’s good at his job.’
Then why did the name Valkyrisen Physician sound so familiar?
Unless he was some famous figure who shook up high society, there was no reason she’d have heard of him.
‘Did he become renowned as a miracle doctor? Or develop a new medicine?’
Elodie tried to dig through her memories, but in the end, she could only surrender herself to the overwhelming tide of sleep.
“Y’ don’ hafta tuck me in… I’m sleepy…”
“Oh my, go to sleep.”
She carefully pulled the blanket back up over Elodie, who had kicked it off almost immediately after falling asleep.
“Head maid.”
That was when it happened.
A servant knocked and entered, walking straight up to Squarrel.
“The second young lord is asking for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes. He specifically requested that you be called.”
“That’s unusual… What could it be…?”
Since it had never happened before, Squarrel was puzzled—but that also made her judge it to be urgent.
“I’ll be right back.”
She kissed the sleeping child’s forehead and stepped out.
“Hey. Hey!”
“Ugh…”
“Hey, you rat bastard!”
At the sound of someone calling her, Elodie reflexively snapped her eyes open.
And immediately locked gazes with a pair of vivid yellow eyes.
Even in the darkness, they were so clear it was as if a light had been lit—and like a predator’s eyes, they made her flinch.
“You awake? Then hurry up and get up already.”
“Edumnt?”
When Elodie called his name, the boy’s face instantly hardened.
No—wait a second.
‘Gentle Edmund would never use such cheap, threatening language.’
Was this a dream?
Still groggy, Elodie stared at the boy standing there in the darkness with his arms crossed, then rubbed her eyes.
But the sharply glaring face didn’t disappear.
‘What—this isn’t him. It’s someone else.’
Their hair and eye color were similar, so she’d gotten confused.
As she woke up more, she realized that while he resembled Edmund quite a bit, his impression was completely different.
He was also younger, smaller in both height and build.
Edmund was tall and open, with eyes that tilted up sweetly like a cat’s.
‘But this one’s eyes droop downward.’
And yet, despite that, he looked anything but gentle.
People said downturned eyes gave a puppy-like impression—but no matter how you looked at him, this was the face of a mad dog.
Ah. A mad dog.
Elodie finally realized who the boy was.
‘It’s that lunatic.’
The second young lord—Zenobia Valkyrisen.
Elodie had seen him several times at the Silberia royal palace.
Because he occasionally crashed banquets.
Why “crashed”? Because there was a high probability he hadn’t been invited.
They couldn’t openly throw him out, given that he was the second young lord of Valkyrisen—but still.
‘He definitely wasn’t sane.’
Suddenly bursting into loud laughter, smashing champagne bottles and swinging them through the air.
Guzzling alcohol while muttering to himself, then picking fights with perfectly still people because he didn’t like the look in their eyes.
Sometimes he’d talk calmly like a normal person, only to suddenly snap and throw a punch.
Elodie recalled the young man who caused chaos whenever a banquet was held, eventually landing himself on a watchlist.
Thinking back, when she first saw him at the palace, he’d been rough around the edges—but not that insane.
‘From what the nobles said, he was apparently a promising swordsmanship prodigy when he was young.’
At some point, he’d become like this.
‘Can madness be cured?’
Elodie thought of the abilities of the Ratson family.
They said that with enough talent, even mental illnesses could be cured…
‘Someday, maybe.’
But at the very least—not now.
Until she was confident she could cure him, Elodie decided she should never provoke the second young lord.
‘Who knows what he’d do to me.’
The childhood of a mad dog was never going to be normal.
With that in mind, she slowly sat up in bed.
The boy immediately strode toward her, without hesitation.
As if he’d been waiting for this.
“I don’t know if this castle’s a place for people or an animal kingdom, but now you’ve even dragged in a rat-sized little pest?”
Those damn beastfolk.
The boy gagged theatrically, then looked down at Elodie with disgust.
“Hey—you’re different from the other beastfolk, right? Your parents were desperately looking for you, weren’t they? You weren’t abandoned. You’ve got somewhere to go, don’t you?”
As if he truly couldn’t understand, and oddly angry, he continued.
“While I’m being nice, get the hell back to whatever beastfolk land you came from.”
“……”
“You think I’m joking?”
Ah. So this was…
Racial discrimination?
Beastfolk hatred? Something like that?
‘Well, this is new.’
