Chapter 88
“Izana?”
The moment Oscar turned his head at my voice, someone suddenly grabbed my shoulder from behind.
A cold, serious voice spoke,
“Young Lady, it’s time for your training. Where do you think you’re going?”
Oh no!
Sir Rad dragged me away while I stretched my hand toward Oscar, who stood frozen in place.
“You can’t just leave! You have to see me before you go!”
“Izana!”
“I have something really important to tell you!”
Oscar also reached his hand out, calling my name in despair.
But that was it—I was dragged off and had to play a game very similar to ‘Red Light, Green Light’ for about thirty minutes.
And I even had to be “it,” so I ran around like crazy.
“Huff… huff… Oscar, did you wait long?”
Oscar, who had ended up sitting at the training ground, had been watching me struggle to become a swordmaster with a confused but sympathetic expression.
“Wait? Not really. I don’t have anything else to do anyway…”
He helped me up, seeing I was close to collapsing, and gave me a faint smile.
As we walked out of the training grounds together, I said,
“I’m starving after all that exercise. Want to grab lunch together?”
Oscar smiled and nodded.
“If you’re inviting me, then of course I’d love to.”
So I got the chance to have a private lunch with Oscar in a room with two servings already prepared.
Oscar, cutting his steak like a proper noble, said,
“Izana, I heard you visited your family yesterday.”
“Huh? Oh… yeah, I did.”
“Did you go to see Boris Rohia?”
I shook my head, pretending it wasn’t a big deal as I chewed on my steak.
“I just felt bad for never visiting my mother after moving to the palace, so I stopped by to say hello. I only saw Boris for a moment.”
“I see…”
Oscar absentmindedly mashed the potatoes on his plate, looking a bit gloomy.
Seeing that shadow over his face, I decided to bring it up.
“Hey, Oscar… There’s something I wanted to ask you about that incident…”
But how should I ask?
I’d told Winter that Oscar would probably do anything I said, even drink water through his nose.
But now that I was face-to-face, it was hard to bring it up.
I felt bad making him relive a painful memory.
While I hesitated, Oscar suddenly slammed his knife down on the table.
“Izana, I think it was a mistake to tell you about that.”
“What?”
Oscar’s face twisted with a sad expression.
“I should’ve known it would bother you this much. I was careless. I hope you’ll stop thinking about it now.”
I was caught off guard. My lips trembled slightly as I looked around the room.
This isn’t what I wanted…
“Um… Oscar. I wanted to let it go too, but…”
As I watched his firmly shut mouth, I began to sweat nervously.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and a servant with light brown hair tied up high and icy blue eyes walked in, pushing a tea cart.
The servant didn’t care about the awkward atmosphere and quietly did his job—clearing the plates and setting out the dessert.
“Mm… mm…”
Huh?
Did I just hear a familiar little voice from under the cart?
The servant looked at me, smiled slightly, and brought a finger to his lips, silently saying, Shh.
He was clearly hiding something.
‘No way…’
He moved behind Oscar and whispered something in his ear.
Oscar, just hearing the words, slowly closed his eyes—and collapsed forward.
The servant caught the plate just in time so Oscar wouldn’t fall face-first into his cake.
I asked, “Are you… the Duke?”
The servant calmly said,
“Izana, I’ve noticed you’re a picky eater.”
I looked down at my plate.
The vegetables I had pushed aside were now drooping in the steak sauce.
I poked at them and replied,
“More importantly, what’s going on? Why did Oscar faint?”
“The fact that you’re a picky eater is more important than you think. If you keep this up, you won’t be healthy enough to survive the Northern Empire’s cold winters.”
The servant pulled back the white cloth under the cart, revealing… my tiny (former) sweet potato baby.
Holding the baby up like Simba from The Lion King, he said,
“This little one keeps refusing vegetable juice and only wants jam cookies. I think that’s your influence. Do you see these cheeks?”
Oh no—maybe I fed him too many flour-based sweets.
He had a red rash on his cheeks.
I immediately shoved the vegetables into my mouth and chewed, showing the baby how it’s done.
The baby looked between the vegetables and my mouth, tilting his head in curiosity.
“Duke, I think it’s time you explained what’s going on.”
Handing me the baby, the Duke (disguised as a servant) explained:
“I thought it would be hard to convince Oscar with words alone. From what I saw at the training ground, he has deep resentment toward Boris. Talking might only make it worse.”
I remembered how fierce Oscar looked during training.
If I hadn’t known he was usually kind, I might’ve thought he was just like Boris.
“The room is sealed and private, and no one is likely to come. It’s the perfect moment to extract the memory from Oscar and examine it.”
“…You mean, you’re going to look at Oscar’s memory of that day and then return it?”
“Yes.”
I looked down at the sleeping Oscar.
The servant placed a hand gently on Oscar’s head.
“Thanks to you mentioning that incident, Oscar must’ve recalled the memory.
So now I can pull it out without much effort—just the moment before he passed out will give us everything we need.”
After a brief pause, I sighed softly and nodded.
I felt bad for Oscar, but it was the best time to do this.
Oscar had been banned from training grounds, so he wouldn’t be dropping by casually.
The servant murmured something quietly.
From Oscar’s ear, a smoke-like mist started flowing and formed into a round orb in his palm.
He looked at me and said,
“Now I’ll check for errors in the memory. But until I wake up, no one must interrupt me. If someone comes in, please protect me.”
I couldn’t believe I was hearing Winter asking me to protect him.
I suddenly felt a heavy responsibility.
I leaned near the sofa by the wall and asked,
“What happens if we’re interrupted?”
“I might take longer to wake up,” he replied.
“Worse, the memory might become unstable. But if that happens, use this to calm things down.”
He gently grabbed my wrist and handed me Raglia (my talking bracelet).
I blinked at it.
Winter might not realize it, but he just triggered a huge red flag.
“Of course, that won’t happen,” he basically said.
And we all know that always means something will go wrong soon.
Nervously, I held onto Raglia.
Meanwhile, Winter muttered a few more words.
The orb in his hand slowly turned back into smoke and drifted into his ear.
His eyes turned cloudy, and his head drooped forward—now in a deep trance.
The room we were in was like a luxury hotel suite, clearly designed for more than just dining.
Paintings hung on the walls, and red wallpaper with gold patterns added elegance.
But being in that fancy room with two unconscious people made my arms feel goosebumpy and the mood a little creepy.
“This is taking too long…”
Winter had been in this state for over 30 minutes.
I felt like someone could burst in at any moment.
I carefully laid the (former) sweet potato baby somewhere safe and covered him with a cloth.
Winter was also hidden in a corner—but the real problem was Oscar, lying face-down on the dining table.
If someone suddenly came in…
How am I supposed to explain this?
Unexpected sneaky move on Winter’s part, but I definitely see his logic about Oscar.