Giselle, who had been walking down the corridor, paused briefly before continuing on.

“Where are we going?”

Giselle gave no answer. He moved silently through the dizzying maze-like corridors before finally stopping in front of a door.

“I asked where this is.”

“Shh. There is a patient inside.”

“...”

Giselle’s attitude was slightly different from before. His strangely softened voice brushed unpleasantly against Ren’s ears. Ren barely resisted the urge to scrub at them furiously. When Giselle knocked twice, the door opened from inside.

Now that he looked closer, the emblem carved into the door was glowing faintly. Some kind of magic must have been placed on it. Ren was distracted by the sight when Giselle took hold of his hand and tugged lightly. The force was so slight that it would have been awkward to shake him off.

“This way.”

“...”

What now? Earlier he had pressured him, and now he was treating him gently.

The room was dark overall. It felt as though the lighting had been deliberately minimized. The lamp flames flickered, creating large and small shadows. The atmosphere was gloomy enough to seem like someone was about to perform a curse. The servants who had followed close at Ren’s sides as if blocking him in remained standing by the entrance and did not come inside.

As Ren followed Giselle deeper in, they arrived before a space hidden behind crimson carpeting. Looking closer, it seemed an entire wall had been covered with fabric. After murmuring something quietly, Giselle pulled Ren inside.

Ren, who had instinctively hesitated in discomfort, widened his eyes at the sudden brightness.

A luxuriously bright space appeared.

There was a carpet soft enough to sleep on directly, and cushioned single-person sofas arranged in a circle. A fireplace burned warmly. Beyond the terrace, Mount Geroa stood in full view, and one wall was packed with books.

Ren turned his head slowly, taking in the massive sofa and table large enough for more than a dozen people, the countless still-life paintings hanging on the walls—

Then he noticed the bed.

The blanket rose slightly, as though someone lay beneath it.

“The one lying there is the King’s Sixth Star, Verdi.”

“Ah...”

He had heard Verdi was gravely injured. Otherwise, this man too would have gone to the battlefield. Ren remembered the nobles scattering in utter panic.

“Is he all right?”

The moment he asked, Ren bit his lip.

Was he even allowed to ask that so casually? When he first heard Verdi had been injured, he had only felt hurt and resentful toward the people who had abandoned him and left. He had not cared at all about how serious Verdi’s injuries were. Was someone like him allowed to ask a question like that?

Giselle watched Ren’s darkening expression, then gestured for him to come closer.

A basin and damp cloths sat on the bedside table. Ren glanced sideways at Giselle before finally lifting his head to look at Verdi properly.

Dark navy hair.

A face pale with a bluish cast.

Ren barely suppressed the urge to step backward.

It resembled something he had seen once before. The sensation was similar to when he had looked down at the boy lying inside the coffin—

Shawn.

“He is not dead.”

“...”

“But his life is in danger.”

“But he’s a Hero...”

“Heroes are merely human as well. They only have one life, and one day it too fades away.”

Giselle’s gaze, which had been resting on Verdi, shifted toward Ren.

“I would like to ask you to care for Verdi.”

“...?”

The words that came from Giselle’s mouth were unexpected.

Care for him?

Wasn’t that the work of servants or physicians?

“What kind of care could I possibly—”

“I am asking you.”

“...”

Ren hesitated, unable to answer. He was not confident he could nurse anyone. More than that, he did not want to get dragged into something like this. But unlike before, Giselle was now treating him with a strange gentleness, and Ren found himself unable to lash out at him as viciously as earlier.

“Is this the thing I have to do as a Hero’s younger brother?”

Was this what Giselle had meant before?

Taking care of the King’s Sixth Star?

“No. We will discuss that gradually. It is something very important.”

“Then why are you leaving him with me? I don’t know how to take care of people. I don’t know anything about medicine. And I barely even know him...”

Even while speaking, his voice gradually grew quieter. He felt like a terrible person for refusing to nurse someone. But he still could not readily accept it. Being responsible for a patient hovering between life and death was an enormous burden. Verdi himself would surely prefer to be cared for by a physician more capable than Ren.

“That does not matter. I would like to ask you.”

“Why? There has to be a reason. I’m telling you, I don’t know how to care for someone seriously injured.”

“That is not a problem. A physician will remain here as well.”

“Why do you keep talking in circles?”

If Ren had struck his chest every time he felt suffocated, there would already be a hole through it. Giselle kept circling endlessly around the point.

“What are you curious about?”

“The exact reason you’re asking me to do this.”

Ren widened his eyes. Giselle stared at the long blond hair falling around Ren’s shoulders, then nodded as though willing to answer.

“Your aras is clear. It will help Verdi. Please care for him sincerely.”

Giselle lowered his head slightly and whispered close to him. His long hair spilled down like a curtain, brushing against Ren’s cheek. Startled, Ren froze as their eyes met.

They had glared at each other countless times already, but somehow this felt like the first time they had truly looked at one another.

Giselle’s eyes were not as vicious as Ren had imagined.

They were pale blue...

Clear eyes.

Someone with eyes like that had pressured him earlier?

While Ren stood dazed, caught by that gaze, Giselle straightened again, left a few final instructions, and departed.

Ren was free to go out as he pleased, but he was asked to remain beside Verdi for at least four hours each day. It was phrased as a request, but it was no different from an order. Ren hurried after Giselle and stepped out into the hallway, but the servants who had not entered before blocked his path.

“Four hours have not yet passed.”

With lowered eyes, they all repeated the same thing.

In the end, Ren had no choice but to return to the room.

Feeling suffocated, he headed toward the terrace.

Giselle had asked him to care for Verdi, but sitting unmoving at his bedside was too burdensome...

Too frightening.

Whenever he looked at that pale face, he remembered standing before the coffin, and sorrow welled up inside him. The people left behind had all said Shawn would be all right now, but there was no way to know whether Coco truly was. Seton and Hugh as well...

They were people who never spoke of their own pain.

Should he say it to this man too?

That the ones left behind would still somehow be all right?

He did not know.

“Leaving someone waiting to die in charge of nursing a patient. Isn’t that completely stupid?”

Grumbling under his breath, Ren leaned against the terrace railing.

Trying not to think about anything at all, he quietly stared at Mount Geroa.

Caw. Caaaw. Caw.

“Huh? Ah— You!”

Ren looked up at the sound of the crow and remembered the greenhouse garden. It seemed to be the same bird that had circled high above the greenhouse ceiling.

Without realizing it, he pointed at it with delighted surprise. The bird slowly flapped its wings and landed on the end of the railing.

Ren’s cheeks flushed faintly as he stared at the creature’s massive body, black eyes, and glossy black feathers shimmering like flowing silk.

“You’re the one from earlier, right?”

Caw.

The crow tilted its head sideways and cried out. Resisting the urge to walk over and pet it, Ren studied it closely. Its eyes were so black and glossy they looked as though obsidian had been embedded in them.

“You’re amazing.”

Caw. Caaaw.

“What does it feel like to fly in the sky?”

Caaaw. Caaaw.

“What does Giselle want?”

At some point, Ren was no longer truly looking at the crow.

He had tried to shake off the unease inside him, but it was not easy.

It felt as though the kind of dangerous situation Peruan had warned him about repeatedly had finally arrived. Peruan had looked so worried when he warned him, repeating the same cautions until they rang in Ren’s ears. Ren had thought he was worrying too much.

If not for Peruan’s advice, Ren would not even be struggling with thoughts like this.

Even if I’m being used... I want to know I’m being used.

What exactly Giselle wanted from him.

What he intended to do with him.

Because if Ren remained completely ignorant, one day he might become Temar’s weakness.

“Lord Ren.”

“—! Ah, when did you get here?”

Ren barely swallowed the scream that almost escaped him.

Directly behind him stood two servants and a middle-aged man with streaks of white in his hair.

“I am Physician Zenno.”

“Ah... right. I’m Ren.”

“Though... who exactly were you speaking with just now...?”

The physician trailed off, glancing toward the terrace. Startled, Ren turned toward where the crow had been.

The railing was empty.

“I was just talking to myself.”

Ren brushed it off vaguely and stepped back inside.

“Don’t you give him medicine?”

“Because we do not know what poison he ingested or what exactly injured him, we can only take minimal measures.”

It had already been three days ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) since Giselle entrusted him with the task.

Ren only remained in Verdi’s room for the exact four hours Giselle specified. On the first day, he had not gone near him at all. On the second, he merely glanced at Verdi’s complexion before sitting on the sofa and flipping through a book he was not truly reading.

But by the third day, Ren had begun paying attention to Verdi.

More precisely, to how he was being treated.

Neither the physician nor the servants seemed to do much of anything. They simply stayed by Verdi’s side, checking whether he was still breathing.

Judging only by the number of attendants, it was hard to believe the man lying there was one of the kingdom’s great Heroes.

And that was not all.

Even at a glance, the wound looked badly infected, yet the physician merely wiped it with clean cloth and wrapped fresh bandages around it.

“Even so, shouldn’t you at least try something?”

Ren’s voice rose slightly.

“Lord Ren. This is the best we can do.”

Zenno answered as though too tired to explain further, then closed his mouth.

When mealtime arrived, the physician briefly left the room, leaving Ren alone with one servant. Seeing Ren still frowning deeply, the servant approached carefully.

“Um... please don’t be too upset.”

“...”

When Ren gave no answer, the servant hesitated before speaking again.

The servant’s face had turned bright red.