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Chapter 28
“Note”
She was sick for four whole days.
On the first day, she thought it was just a regular cold.
On the second, she feared she might die.
By the third, her throat was so swollen she couldn’t swallow, and by dawn, her fever rose even higher.
Even in a daze from the high fever, she had the feeling someone had been sitting by her side. Though she wasn’t sure if it was real.
Then, on the fourth day, the fever that had tormented her vanished like magic.
By the bed were a water bowl, a towel, and medicine packets—as if someone had nursed her all night.
“….”
She couldn’t say a word for a while.
It felt miserable to realize she had received more sincere care here as a hostage than she ever did at Piace.
“…Forget it. Stop thinking about it.”
She took a deep breath to shake off the feeling and left the room. While walking around the quiet castle, she recalled Mei’s strange expression.
Suddenly, she remembered something—had she said anything strange during her fever?
“I didn’t say weird stuff, did I? Well, if I had, I wouldn’t still be alive, right?”
Oddly enough, she was still unharmed.
In fact, Mei told her this morning that by the Grand Duke’s order, she was allowed to go anywhere in the castle except the top floor.
When Heidi looked surprised, Mei even asked if there was anywhere she wanted to go.
“So this is it—the Esperos family library.”
She now stood before the large building beside the main estate.
At first, she had no idea such a big library existed here. She’d only asked to visit a place like the library hoping to find a map of the castle layout before Zeros arrived.
Mei, surprised, explained that the building next to the main hall was the library. Though Heidi expected her to come along, Mei said she had other tasks and excused herself.
“Her face was kind of odd though.”
Trying to ignore Mei’s expression, Heidi gripped the doorknob.
The old, heavy door opened more easily than expected.
“Even the outbuildings here are well maintained,” she thought as she stepped inside.
“Wow…”
It wasn’t just a room. It was an entire building full of books.
Towering bookshelves—easily three times her height—were packed with volumes. There were at least dozens, maybe over a hundred of these shelves.
“I don’t know what the royal library looks like, but this might be just as impressive.”
“Will I even find what I’m looking for in here?”
She worried it might be impossible to locate the layout map she wanted.
* * *
“Library, huh.”
Carriaire muttered.
He had assigned to Heidi a maid who once served his younger brother, Shion.
“Brother, Mei is too kind. She can’t ignore someone suffering.”
He remembered Shion saying Mei had a soft heart. That’s why Carriaire initially didn’t want her attending to Heidi.
After all, Heidi Eliana was supposed to die miserably in front of Delphiann.
But it was Mei who had run up to him and insisted:
“Let me serve Miss Heidi. I can do it. Please let me!”
He ignored her countless times.
But Mei didn’t give up for six months.
Eventually, seeing it wasn’t about revenge, he allowed her to assist Heidi. Today was her sixth day.
Recently, the cold fire in Mei’s eyes had vanished.
Carriaire knew—Mei was starting to see Shion in Heidi.
“She really knows how to win people over,” he muttered bitterly.
Looking toward the library beside the castle, he narrowed his eyes.
Heidi Eliana… whatever she’s planning, it won’t work.
* * *
[The Esperos family shares its roots with the history of the Hestonian Empire. Aaron Esperos, the first head of the house, helped Emperor Jerome Hestonia establish the nation…]
“Much more powerful than I thought.”
Closing the book History of Esperos, Heidi leaned her head against the bookshelf.
She had planned to just skim through it but ended up reading deeply.
“I can see why the royal family might be wary of such a powerful house.”
She believed no book was truly objective—every author added their own feelings.
Even in this one, the writer clearly respected the Esperos family.
She stood and returned the book to its place.
“Why does Carriaire hate Delphiann so much that he’s willing to destroy such a grand family?”
“…If I knew it’d be like this, I should’ve read all of it.”
Regretting that she didn’t even finish Volume 1, she sighed and looked for the castle map again.
Then another book title caught her eye:
[On Esperos’ Local Disease: Kocher Disease]
“A local disease?”
She’d suspected her illness hadn’t been just a cold. Curious, she reached for the book.
It was within easy reach.
“….”
She sat with her back against the bookshelf and opened it.
Skipping the intro, she began reading the section on Kocher disease.
[Kocher disease, common in the Esperos region—called the ‘land given’ in Hestonia—is a type of endemic disease caused by weakened immunity or exposure to piercing cold winds.]
Below an underlined passage, someone had scribbled the word:
“Curse.”
Likely written by someone who’d read the book before—not the author.
She brushed it off and kept reading.
“So it’s just like the flu?”
That was her impression—Kocher seemed flu-like.
High fever, chills, muscle pain. Severe cases include vomiting and indigestion.
“Yep, flu with stomach symptoms.”
But the author treated it as some dreadful curse, claiming it would never disappear from Esperos.
Annoyed by the exaggeration, she went to return the book—when a piece of paper slipped out from between the pages.
“…Huh?”
She crouched and searched under the shelf.
The floor was dusty, but she reached out and retrieved what looked like a small note.
After brushing off the dirt, she unfolded it casually.
It looked like it was written by a child.
[Kocher Disease. Comes with fever and chills. Severe cases = vomiting, indigestion. Definitely caused by weather. But medicine DOES work. Not incurable. But: all those who died had no mana. Even if they took medicine, those without mana suffered more. In these cases, prevention > treatment.]
“A kid didn’t write this… did they?”
Though the handwriting was messy like a child’s, the content was too sharp.
More insightful than the author calling the land cursed.
Curious, she flipped the note around but found nothing else.
She slipped it back into the middle of the book and returned it to the shelf.
At the time, she thought it was just someone’s scribble—just a random reader’s thoughts.
