TPWSM 58

Chapter 58

“I’m not exactly sure, but it seems like a mixture of tree sap and several types of mushrooms.”

“Will it be easy to identify if we investigate?”

“You’ll need at least a month. We have to observe if the color changes over time. Judging by how fresh it seems, it looks like it was made recently. I’d guess it was cultivated nearby.”

Then I’ll have to search every farm in Yorka’s lands. To find out where that mad crown prince is growing whatever he’s growing.

“Understood. You may leave.”

The royal physician placed the bag of stimulant powder and stepped back.

Sir Julio, who had been dozing beside me, was also sent home.

Even Korong, the cat who had snuck into the room, left after growling near the grand duke’s bed. It seemed worried about its new owner who had disappeared for a few days and just returned.

Now, it was just the grand duke and me in the bedroom.

I pulled the call cord and had a maid bring warm water. I diluted the stimulant in the water and spooned it into the grand duke’s mouth. Though he might taste bitterness, he swallowed it obediently.

All the while, he kept staring at me.

The reason I haven’t left this bedroom for three days is entirely because of the grand duke.

Whenever I tried to get up and walk to the door, he would rise from the bed and grab my wrist.

I wondered how he could do this even in such an unconscious state. His grip wasn’t particularly strong, but I couldn’t leave him like that.

I thought keeping me close might be instinctual. Perhaps he subconsciously recognized that I was the only person who would protect him. He seemed genuinely anxious about being separated from me.

But I desperately needed sleep.

For days, I had neglected the estate work and the pawnshop to stay by his side. The only sleep I got was a few minutes lying by the bed. Since the grand duke kept his eyes open, I couldn’t sleep either.

My eyelids were heavy, and I could barely hold on. I had only washed my face roughly with the water the maids brought, and my body, unwashed for days, felt sticky and uncomfortable.

…If the stimulant works well, he should return to normal by tomorrow morning.

I needed at least a little sleep to survive.

With half-closed eyes, I tried to leave the bedroom, only to lock eyes with the grand duke’s guard who had been watching the room.

“Your Grace, you must be very tired. I’ll keep watch at the door tonight.”

“Thank you, Sir Kirill.”

Thud!

As I crossed the threshold, his rough, calloused hand wrapped around my wrist again. His hand, hardened with calluses, gripped me.

Sigh, he followed me all the way to the doorway again.

The moment I turned to look at his face, a wave of dizziness hit me. I rested my forehead on my chin and closed my eyes. Cold sweat covered my palms. I rubbed my eyes to regain focus, but I couldn’t. It felt like the ground beneath me was sinking.

I pulled my wrist free from his grip. Instantly, he grabbed my other arm.

Why was he so desperate? He wasn’t even conscious, yet he acted as if he had some urgent business.

“Then why… did you leave… if you don’t want to be apart from me?”

I asked him with a sigh.

As expected, the grand duke didn’t answer. He just looked at me silently, his beautiful face like a marble sculpture. The faint shadows under his eyes and his languid purple irises gave off a decadent aura.

I stared at him blankly.

This man always looks different and handsome every time I see him, making it impossible to become immune. It’s almost like a magical trick that charms people. It’s irritating just to watch, as if I’m being unconsciously swayed by that perfectly sculpted face.

“David Mikhail. If you have something to say, say it. Stop holding onto me all the time.”

I was irritable from lack of sleep, so I snapped even in my tone.

Immediately, I regretted it. What am I doing, talking to someone who can’t even respond?

I felt guilty leaving this man, who silently clung to me so pitifully, alone in the room.

Maybe a goodnight kiss would make him let go.

I pressed myself close to him and rose onto tiptoe. I placed my lips gently on his now-thinned cheek and pressed briefly. With a tiny sound, our lips separated.

It was a very brief contact. I set my heels back down and looked up at him.

Had his pupils slightly dilated, or was it my imagination?

“I’m sorry, Your Grace. Please wait a little. Rest well tonight, and I’ll return by morning.”

Perhaps understanding my words, the hands that had been entwined around my wrist like vines slowly loosened.

I forced a small smile and hurriedly left his bedroom.

I firmly shut the door behind me. Behind me, there was a thud.

I staggered back to my bedroom and fell asleep as if fainting.

The grand duchess had left, and the door closed before him.

David was now completely alone in the confined space.

Plop.

He sank to the floor and stared blankly at the closed door.

A faint warmth lingered on the left cheek where the grand duchess’s lips had touched. From there, his sense of touch returned. David muttered, pressing his palm to his cheek.

“Don’t… go…”

His consciousness, which had been sinking, finally reached the depths.

“Don’t… lock me away…”

“David, I’m sorry, Mother. Just sleep here tonight, and I’ll open the door in the morning.”

Yorka’s harem, surrounded on all sides by tall walls.

Every night, when the king visited late, David’s mother would take him to the cramped, dark solitary room. She slept with young David every night, but on nights when the parents were together, he had to be isolated like this.

To pacify young David, who whimpered at being alone, his mother kissed his cheek.

Leaving her sobbing child alone, she closed the door. She only reopened it the next morning.

One day, David realized the door wasn’t locked. In the deep early morning, he approached his mother’s bedroom. Her sharp, pained groans seeped through the door.

David, overwhelmed by an inexplicable shock, returned to the solitary room. It felt strange. He swore never to go there again.

Even on the day his sister Melania was born, his mother locked him in the solitary room. Despite her waters breaking and dripping beneath her skirt, she placed David in the room, kissed his cheek, and slammed the door.

She probably didn’t want her son to see her suffering.

David could only leave the room when his mother’s breath neared its end.

Half a day later, a maid who had been attending the birth urgently opened the door. Seeing the mother of the poor prince dying, she was allowed to witness her passing.

David ran into his mother’s bedroom. There, he saw it drenched in blood…

“Gasp…!”

David snapped back to reality.

He drew shallow, rapid breaths, like someone surfacing after being submerged underwater for a long time.

Heaving. Whew. Huff.

His heart pounded violently, as if a spring heated in fire had been placed in his chest. It throbbed as if it might burst through his ribs at any moment.

Finally, he was completely brought back from his subconscious. He had climbed up from the deepest, darkest, most painful depths.

David clutched his chest and took several deep breaths.

As his heartbeat stabilized, his senses gradually returned.

The carpet beneath him. The faint oil lamp by the bedside. Moonlight seeping through the window.

Now able to see, he looked around and realized the space he was in.

“…It’s a bedroom.”

Why am I here like this?

David propped himself against the nearby wall and recalled his last memory.

He had been riding a horse somewhere. Soldiers charged him with swords; he countered with his own. After subduing them, the governor’s knights attacked. While fighting several alone, the horse’s neck was suddenly cut. Frozen in shock, he was captured and taken somewhere.

After that, his memory went dark.

As he pieced together the broken fragments, a fundamental question arose: Where was I going? Why did I do that? Why did I have to fight them?

The most important purpose remained hazy, like fleeting dreams that fade completely after waking.

He had acted with a clear intent, but that intent seemed to have melted away.

David clenched his fists. He had to remember, somehow. Only then could he explain the scenes now surfacing.

Still panting heavily, he opened the door connecting the bedroom to the study.