IBVM 16

Chapter 16

“Your mind is all over the place.”
Cassion pushed me away.
I didn’t care; I continued fussing beside him.
Even gruff Cassion was a welcome sight. I was simply glad he had woken up.
It was painful to watch a child, who should have been receiving care, groaning unconscious.
And since I already carried guilt toward Cassion, it made me feel even worse.
In my past life, I had turned my back on him. I hadn’t done it deliberately, but seeing his state made the guilt unavoidable.
I visited Cassion because of the marriage, but underneath it all, there was also an attempt to atone for my sins.
“It’s not like I can confidently say it wasn’t intentional.”
I knew Cassion was inside the palace, and that Julia and Daison didn’t take kindly to him.
“I was the same.”
I had also inflicted violence on Cassion. Turning a blind eye to violence is just another kind of violence.

“How’s your body? How do you feel?”
I asked as I replaced the wet towel that had fallen from his forehead. Cassion remained silent for a while.
Had he fallen asleep again?
His eyes were tightly shut.
I carefully reached out and removed the strands of hair sticking to his forehead one by one. Each time my fingers accidentally brushed his forehead, his eyebrows twitched.

“You can’t fool me by pretending to sleep. Should I not talk to you? Is it annoying?”
“…No…”
Cassion replied belatedly.

“Have you been here long?”
Cassion’s eyes opened properly, and his voice cracked as he asked. I straightened in the chair and smiled.
“About half a day?”
The sun had already risen. It had been nighttime when I arrived. Somehow, I had ended up spending the night in Cassion’s palace.

“Did you nurse me?”
“I changed your towels and gave you medicine. I guess you could call it nursing.”
“Medicine?”
Cassion immediately became alert. Even though he would have realized it wasn’t poison once he regained consciousness, he raised his guard like a cat meeting a stranger.

“It’s medicine to reduce fever and protect your body. And judging by the fact that you woke up, it definitely worked.”
Cassion looked amazed that there was a medicine that worked on him. Then, with an unreadable expression, he muttered,
“Thank you.”

“Excuse me?”
Did I just hear that correctly?

“I’m not saying it twice.”
Judging by Cassion’s reaction, I had heard correctly.

“You just said thank you, right?”
The tips of Cassion’s ears reddened as he pressed his lips together.
How cute. Even though he was too embarrassed to say it twice, he still thanked me?
It felt like being a mother who had painstakingly taught a child who couldn’t do simple math to get a perfect score.
Ah, so cute. Should I at least pat his head?
I reached out my hand, then withdrew it. Cassion was different from Lebert.
Unlike Lebert, who enjoyed being doted on, Cassion made a face as if he had swallowed spoiled milk every time I showed affection.

“I did something worthy of your thanks. I hired an incredible doctor for you. I stayed by your side all night, changing your towels.”
“You didn’t sleep at all?”
Cassion glanced at me, his concern subtly showing, which made me snicker.
I was two years older than Cassion, but I was still just a child. And if a child had stayed up all night, it was natural for anyone with a conscience to worry and feel guilty.

“No. They say beauties are heavy sleepers. I tried not to sleep, but I couldn’t help it. I slept in short bursts. Right beside Your Highness.”
“What? Beside me? My bed? Here?”
Cassion sprang up like a spring. Despite being sick, his movements were agile.

“No. Here.”
I gestured seriously to the chair I had been sitting in. Cassion’s bed was wide and empty, but I wasn’t shameless enough to claim the patient’s bed.
Cassion exhaled in relief, perhaps too much.
Is he really that opposed to sharing a bed? He seems unexpectedly possessive of his things.

“Anyway, are you really okay?”
I had to ask the question I’d asked before.
Leaning against the head of the bed, Cassion ran his hands over his body and slowly nodded.
“Yes. Strangely enough.”
Lebert’s medicine worked extremely well. I’ll have to tell him when I get back.

“Can you talk now?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
Cassion drank water. He had requested cold water to fully wake up, but I made him drink lukewarm water instead.

“Your Highness, do you usually lose consciousness like this?”
“Sometimes.”
Cassion answered casually.
“Sometimes for more than a day?”
Cassion nodded.
That’s not a trivial matter!

“I try to be careful, but unexpected things happen…”
“What happened?”
If he loses consciousness when unexpected things occur, then something happened just before I arrived. I needed to know what it was.

“But why did you take care of me? You could’ve just left me sleeping.”
Cassion subtly diverted the question, though that wasn’t important.

“How can I leave a sick person alone? What if they die? Last night, Your Highness could have died at any moment.”
“So what if I die?”
“Good heavens! Listen to what you’re saying! Death is natural for everyone, but isn’t experiencing it at our age a disaster? Your Highness, consider your age.”
An eleven-year-old talking like an old man who’s seen the world. My tone, scolding him, didn’t even sound thirteen-like.

“You and I have already given up being children, haven’t we?”
Cassion’s bitter tone wiped away all my efforts to keep the mood light.
I lightly brushed aside the stray hairs on his forehead.

“Right. You wanting revenge, me wanting to protect my family—neither of us is going to remain a child. But if you’re sick, you should say so and rest. So today, rest a bit.”
This little one.
I pressed my finger gently on Cassion’s forehead. He frowned and looked at me with his eyes.

“Lie down. Or shall I lie down with you? Shall I sing a lullaby?”
“No!”
Cassion shrank into the blanket, flustered.
He can act like an old man, but at moments like this, he’s still a child.

“Your Highness has returned,” Cassion finally spoke, as if he had decided to talk.
“Yes.”
I replied nonchalantly. I didn’t want to show too much interest, or he’d shut his mouth again.
And I didn’t want to unnecessarily dredge up his painful memories, fearing he might lose consciousness again.

“You don’t have to say anything. Focus on resting, Your Highness.”
“…Can I ask something?”
Cassion interrupted me.
“Yes?”
A thin voice came from the blankets.

“Can… you buy me a house?”
“…!”
Cassion said something I could hardly believe. He was asking me to buy him a house!
This was an opportunity.
I wanted to hear why he was asking, but first, I had to seize the chance.
Even if it was difficult, I had to accomplish it. I clenched my dress and smiled brightly.

“I can buy you ten houses.”

Even though I confidently told Cassion this, he couldn’t immediately get the house he wanted.
The house he requested was the one he had lived in with the late queen mother—known as the Twilight Mansion.
After Cassion entered the palace, the mansion, which had been neglected, unexpectedly went up for auction.

“I heard the queen has her eye on it.”
And Julia, Daison’s mother and the current queen, was aiming for it.
If she dislikes Cassion, why would she want to buy the Twilight Mansion where he lived as a child?

“The process by which the Twilight Mansion went up for sale is suspicious.”
Cho continued as she leafed through papers. Her files contained information she had investigated about the mansion.

“And you too. Why suddenly decide to buy the Twilight Mansion?”
According to Cho’s report, the Twilight Mansion was a historic property, but buying it would bring no profit. Its location was inconvenient as well.

“It’s an engagement gift.”
“What?”
“I told you. I’m marrying Cassion. He wants that mansion.”
Cho exhaled and slumped into the chair, wiggling her legs as she watched me.

Ignoring Cho’s gaze, I examined why the mansion had gone to auction.
The mansion left by the late Queen Violetta would automatically be inherited by Cassion when he became an adult. Yet it suddenly went up for auction.

“Queen Violetta left a huge debt at the bank? Even though the palace continued supporting her living expenses?”
Violetta was deposed because she couldn’t bear a child. This happened less than a year after King Karman obtained Daison from Julia.
Violetta’s family neglected their abandoned daughter. The deposed queen faced isolation with no support from her family.

As her life plunged toward destitution, King Karman intervened.
He changed the law to provide the deposed queen with living expenses.
“Did His Majesty truly love Queen Violetta?”
The law changed suddenly, and Cassion was born after she was deposed. It was sufficient evidence that King Karman loved Violetta.
“Then why did he get along with Julia?”
But I still didn’t understand Karman’s actions. I set aside questions without answers and reviewed the report again.

“She wasn’t extravagant by nature…”
“That’s right. She tried to save even the meager allowance from the palace, using very few servants.”
“So why did she need such a large sum?”
“Prince’s medicine?”
That wasn’t the answer either. Cassion’s medicine costs were covered separately by the palace.
Though born from the deposed queen, Cassion was still a royal prince, so the palace took responsibility.

“She must have needed it for something.”
Cho dismissed it casually. I felt a hunch that I needed to dig deeper here.

“This is strange, aunty. I need to investigate this first.”
“Are you really going to buy the Twilight Mansion?”
“Of course.”
“The queen won’t stand idly by. Didn’t I tell you about Queen Julia?”
I had, one night when I seriously told Cho I would marry Cassion.

Cho had subtly suggested I might consider marrying Daison instead, as he was Julia’s descendant and the marriage would help preserve the family.
I refused. I didn’t want to answer why, but Cho had brought up Julia.
Her temperament was extraordinary.
She doted on Daison excessively.
She acted as if Daison were already the designated king.
People around her disappeared without reason.
She was beautiful, but a poisonous flower.

From reliable sources to exaggerated rumors, all pointed to one fact:
Julia was cruel, and confronting her would only harm me.
And knowing this well, neither Daison nor Julia could even be considered alternatives.