Chapter 9
“If this were a hospital where people come and go constantly, that would be one thing—but what do you think will happen if it’s revealed that you and I were alone together in this mountain hut with no maid or guard present?”
Freya hadn’t expected an answer, so she continued without pause.
“No matter how much we explain that it was simply a doctor and patient situation, people who love gossip will twist it into something vulgar, tear us apart with rumors, and turn us into a topic of scandal. Gossip is always the most entertaining kind of talk—people rarely praise others when they chat.”
“……”
“And scandals like that would be far more damaging to me, a woman, than to you. I haven’t even properly entered society yet. I have no intention of becoming the subject of such rumors and ruining my reputation.”
“I wouldn’t let such rumors spread in the first place—but even if they did, I could simply take responsibility for you, couldn’t I?”
“Take responsibility for me?”
Freya tilted her head, looking at him as if she had just heard something absurd.
“Yes. You are the benefactor who saved my life. And although it was for treatment, you saw my bare body. Not just that—you massaged my hands and feet, and even warmed my body with your own to bring down my fever.”
So he remembered all of that while unconscious? And yet he didn’t react at all, as if he weren’t conscious? Hah. He doesn’t look it, but he’s surprisingly sly.
“In other words, although nothing physical actually happened, you’ve already done nearly everything a man’s wife would do for him. Therefore, just as I must take responsibility for you, you also have a duty to take responsibility for me.”
“Ha!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Freya let out a disbelieving laugh toward the ceiling.
“Listen to you. By that logic, every man should be responsible for his nursemaid or maid who raised him, and those women should also be responsible for the men they raised.”
The man shook his head.
“That is a hasty generalization and a logical leap. How can you equate a young boy and an adult man as the same case?”
“It may be a bit of a stretch, but the general idea isn’t entirely wrong. Anyway, I don’t want you taking responsibility for me, and I certainly don’t want to be responsible for you. So don’t say such things again.”
Frankly, she had no intention of living off his handsome face alone. If she became entangled with this man, not only her life but also her family—and even her maternal relatives—could be dragged into trouble. Once she left this place, it would be wiser to cut ties as cleanly as slicing through paper with a blade.
“Are you making such a firm conclusion without even considering it because you dislike me?”
There is no such thing as a graceful rejection. The rejected are hurt, and the one rejecting also feels burdened. Even so, rejection when necessary could not be avoided. Freya spoke.
“I only assume you are a knight because you wear knight’s uniform. I know nothing else about you. How could I like or dislike someone I don’t even know?”
“Then I suppose I must tell you who I am. I am—”
Freya immediately cut him off.
“First of all, you are part of the knight order, correct?”
He nodded.
“And you will continue serving in the knight order?”
Another nod.
“Then there’s no need to tell me anything else. Leaving everything aside, I have absolutely no intention of marrying someone whose profession is a knight.”
“Even if I were the commander of the imperial knight order?”
“Yes.”
Freya nodded firmly.
“May I ask why?”
“My life goal is to live peacefully without major upheavals. And if I add one more thing, it would be to live not ‘short and intense,’ but ‘long and quiet.’ Of course, with someone I love. But being a knight is an extremely dangerous profession—you never know where or when you might lose your life.”
Knights, in a former-life sense, were essentially ranked military officers. So her assessment wasn’t wrong.
“Don’t bother trying to argue against that. I don’t even need to go far—the fact that you’re standing in front of me right now proves my point.”
The man looked at her silently for a long moment, his gaze unreadable. Then he finally spoke.
“Understood. I will do as you wish. Being forced to accept unwanted goodwill is a very uncomfortable thing.”
He finished speaking and dragged his wounded leg toward the door. Freya watched him with worried eyes.
“Are you seriously going outside? No. It’s cold, and it’s even snowing.”
“I have something to do.”
Hearing what that “something” was, Freya fell silent.
“Why isn’t he coming back? Don’t tell me he collapsed?”
Nearly ten minutes had passed since he left, and still he had not returned. Worried, Freya stepped outside.
He had not collapsed. Instead, he was sitting with his back against a log wall, staring quietly into the darkness.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming back inside?”
Even after her scolding, he did not move. Freya finally acted. Just as she grabbed his hand to force him up, she froze in shock—the man’s body temperature was abnormally high.
Thinking his fever had returned, she quickly placed her hand on his forehead. Just as she suspected—it was burning hot.
“Have you decided to die?”
Freya shouted at him in a sharp, angry voice.
“I didn’t decide that… but I do think it might not be so bad to die like this.”
His voice was hollow, as if he had lost his will to live.
“Stop talking nonsense. Do you know how hard I worked to keep you alive? If you’re going to die, do it with my permission. Your life is mine. Got it?”
At her fierce threat, the man let out a faint laugh.
“My life belongs to you?”
“Yes. If I had ignored you and left, you would definitely have died by that valley.”
At that moment, a harsh wind swept across their faces.
“Get up now. If you stay outside like this while burning with fever, you could really die.”
Without waiting for his answer, Freya used her strength to pull him up. Whether he truly had no intention of dying or was simply intimidated by her threat, he followed her obediently back into the hut.
“Warm yourself quickly. I didn’t go through all that trouble and delay my schedule just to have it become pointless waste.”
After seating him in front of the hearth, Freya prepared an antipyretic.
“Drink it.”
She held out the bowl of medicine. He took it, but only held it without drinking.
“What are you doing? Drink it already.”
She glared at him, and only then did he reluctantly bring the bowl to his lips.
“Now go lie down on the bed.”
After he emptied the bowl, Freya ordered him. Like an obedient child, he complied without resistance.
After watching him lie down, she cleaned up the bowl and checked his temperature again. As if nothing had ever happened, his fever had completely subsided.
“As expected, the medicine works amazingly. It’ll sell well.”
Freya smiled with satisfaction and nodded repeatedly. After all, she was the one who had created the antipyretic herself.
