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Chapter 20
‘What should I do?’
After hesitating for a moment, Ronin walked toward them.
It felt incredibly awkward, but he had to pass that staircase to get back to his room anyway.
“What’s going on?”
The moment Ronin spoke, the servants standing together scattered in alarm.
Instead of answering, they slowly backed away from him.
Startled, Ronin looked around in confusion.
Then he realized it wasn’t just the people he had spoken to.
Everyone who met his eyes hurriedly avoided him.
As though he were carrying a deadly plague.
‘I… I shouldn’t have approached them…’
His face burned with embarrassment.
Just as Ronin was about to quietly leave—
“L-Lord Ronin…!”
A thin, trembling voice reached him.
Only then did Ronin realize that the person at the center of the circle was someone he knew.
His maid.
Pam.
And she was in terrible condition.
“Pam!”
Forgetting all about his embarrassment, Ronin rushed over to her.
In doing so, he failed to notice that the surrounding servants instinctively retreated another step.
At that moment, only Pam mattered.
Supporting her nearly collapsing body, Ronin asked anxiously,
“Pam? What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell—”
“My body… ngh… hurts… so much…. Ugh!”
At the same time, Pam vomited.
The sour-smelling vomit splattered across Ronin’s silk clothes.
Even in her dazed state, Pam apologized.
“…I’m… sorry….”
“Don’t worry about that!”
“My goodness… Since when have you been like this? Your forehead is burning!”
“Since… early this morning…. It just keeps… ugh!… getting worse….”
Pam’s voice became weaker and slower with every word.
Ronin didn’t hesitate any longer.
Turning toward the others, he shouted,
“Someone call a physician immediately!”
Since Ronin’s room was the closest—
And because no one was willing to bring the sick Pam into their own room—
She was carried into Ronin’s chambers.
Since no one else was willing to carry her, Ronin had to carry his own maid himself.
Oddly enough, all he felt was relief.
‘For once… not being an Omega is actually useful.’
Before he could fully process that thought, the physician arrived with an assistant.
Like Lady Wyndham before them, both had their noses and mouths covered with cloth.
Ronin waited anxiously.
He remained patient until he noticed the physician and his assistant exchange meaningful glances.
Only then did he move.
Clinging to the faintest thread of hope, Ronin asked.
Though the expressions on their faces had already given him half the answer, he still had to ask.
“Is Pam… my maid… going to be all right?”
“She was perfectly healthy yesterday.”
“Then suddenly she developed a fever and became like this.”
Perhaps because everything except his eyes was hidden behind the cloth…
Those eyes were painfully easy to read.
Filled with sympathy, the physician asked,
“Your Highness…”
“How much do you know about the North?”
“I’m trying to learn.”
“But… why are you asking that…?”
Ronin’s voice trembled.
As though he had already guessed what was coming next.
“I’m truly sorry to tell you this…”
The physician began a long explanation.
For generations, the North had always fought against the cold.
People from the Central Region thought of monsters whenever they thought of the North.
But for those who actually lived here…
The freezing cold that numbed their hands and feet was far more terrifying than the distant cries of monsters echoing across the wilderness.
That war against the cold lasted for over a hundred years.
Thanks to the efforts led by Duke Leofric, they eventually managed to overcome much of it.
Not completely…
But enough to survive.
The real problem began afterward.
At some point…
People started collapsing with high fevers.
Countless lives were lost.
No one knew why.
Once the fever appeared, people would weaken over the course of several days…
Then simply die.
Just as they had conquered the cold, the people wanted to conquer this fever as well.
But there were too few clues.
After countless sacrifices, they had discovered only one thing.
The number of victims increased dramatically every spring, when the snow melted and the weather grew warmer.
Nothing else was known.
Once someone became infected…
There was nothing anyone could do.
Most never stood up again.
That was why the people of the North feared the spring breeze more than the fiercest blizzard.
Far more people died from the fever than from freezing.
“…So, Your Highness… I believe you should prepare yourself.”
“This endemic illness can harm others through indirect transmission as well.”
The physician’s eyes darkened.
Sympathy.
Sorrow.
Helplessness.
All of those emotions swirled together within them.
And then…
Ronin finally understood.
‘Ah… so that’s why Lady Wyndham…’
Only now did he understand Lady Wyndham’s seemingly rude behavior.
And why none of the servants had shown themselves after hearing he had developed a fever.
‘They thought… I might have contracted the endemic fever.’
‘Of course they wouldn’t want to catch it….’
Now that he knew the truth…
Lady Wyndham seemed incredibly brave.
A cloth covering one’s mouth and nose couldn’t stop such a disease.
‘She knew that better than anyone.’
Even so…
She had still come to his room.
Because otherwise another servant would have had to come instead.
She had willingly placed herself in danger rather than risk someone else.
All for the North she loved.
For House Leofric.
Thinking that far, Ronin remembered someone else.
The very first person who had visited his room.
Calion Leofric.
The man who had unexpectedly stepped into his lonely bedroom when no one else would.
‘Perhaps Lord Leofric also…’
At last…
Everything became clear.
Why Lord Leofric, who had disliked him from the beginning and had no reason to visit him…
Had come to his bedroom that night.
‘He thought I might have contracted the endemic fever.’
‘He came to confirm it… and I had no idea….’
The disgraceful scene he had caused that night was impossible to forget.
The thought that he might have crossed a point of no return made his heart pound violently.
But that anxiety didn’t last long.
The young maid, having just learned she was doomed to die, suddenly burst into uncontrollable sobs.
“Sob… hic… I… I don’t want to die….”
“It hurts so much….”
“I don’t want… to die here….”
“I… worked… so hard… to come all the way here….”
“Cough—!”
“Pam!”
The sound of her coughing was alarming.
Forgetting all decorum, Ronin rushed to her side.
Then he saw it.
Pam was coughing up blood.
Seeing the blood she’d spat onto the floor, Pam’s face turned deathly pale.
No matter how one looked at it…
It was a terrible sign.
Watching her, Ronin’s own heart grew heavy.
Pam hadn’t exactly been kind to him.
Even so…
She was the only person from his family who had come with him.
If he lost Pam to this fever…
He would truly be alone in the North.
‘Besides… she’s still so young….’
Ronin looked at Pam’s youthful face.
Now it was pale with sickness.
But only yesterday it had been full of life.
There was no time to grieve.
Pam’s life flickered like a candle in the wind.
He had to find a way…
Before it became too late.
‘Think… think carefully….’
‘When exactly did Pam start feeling sick?’
‘What were her symptoms?’
She had definitely been fine yesterday.
Ronin remembered her leaving first thing in the morning, insisting she had work to do.
He desperately tried to recall the conversation they had shared then.
That had been the only time they had been apart.
If something had happened to her…
It had to have happened during those hours.
