Klen, realizing his fate, asked quietly, but she only offered a faint smile and did not reply.
“Why do you make something like that?”
“It is my hobby.”
“…”
“…”
That probably didn’t mean her hobby was making foul-tasting medicine.
But strangely, it sounded that way to my ears, and a wry smile lingered on my face.
The efficacy would likely be good, as she claimed.
“I have confirmed Lord Adrian’s condition, so I will be on my way now.”
She organized the necessary medicines on one side, put the rest in her pouch, and stood up.
“I apologize for calling you for something that wasn’t a major emergency.”
“Not at all. Please call me anytime you feel unwell. I’m glad we could quickly shake off the ominous energy that depleted Lord Adrian’s vitality this time, but leaving it alone could harm your body. You should take the tonic three times a day for two days.”
And she did not forget her final instructions.
After sending the healer away, I immediately faced Klen.
The light returned to his eyes, which had been rolling sideways as if something was bothering him, and he looked toward me.
He stared directly at me without avoiding my gaze.
“Didn’t she say you can’t recover that way?”
“I was only going by something I heard, so I wasn’t certain.”
“…”
Come to think of it, he did say he couldn’t be certain until he tried.
He certainly dug himself a nice escape route.
“I didn’t expect you to directly confirm it with the healer. Isn’t that much alright? We are married.”
“…”
He came closer, seeming to have changed his strategy to outright shamelessness.
And the problem was that I couldn’t refute him because he was right.
How many times had we done it already?
And I couldn’t suddenly get angry over a kiss between a married couple.
I reached out and picked up one of the medicine bottles on the table.
“Drink this instead.”
And I pressed the healer’s medicine—the one whose taste she hadn’t cared about—against the lips resting right nearby.
Klen’s face, having looked down to see it, hardened.
When I pressed the bottle against him again, still motionless, a soft sigh escaped his lips.
He then snatched the bottle from my hand and opened the cap.
“…”
“…”
Our faces wrinkled simultaneously. Just the smell was enough to numb the tongue with bitterness.
It felt as if the taste of the medicine was carried on the air and flowed into my mouth, though I hadn’t drunk it.
Klen stared directly at me.
He put his mouth to the opening and gradually tilted the bottle without averting his gaze.
As the strangely colored liquid entered his mouth, his pupils instantly shook rapidly.
But he neither removed his mouth nor spat it out, managing to swallow it with difficulty.
The bobbing of his Adam’s apple showed extreme distress.
Finally, as soon as he put the bottle away, I quickly wiped the corner of his mouth.
“Hah. What if a kiss with you only brings up the memory of a bitter taste?”
“…?!”
It wasn’t always like that, and we had eaten raspberries after that.
Still, the combination of intensely bitter medicine and a kiss left a strong impression on my mind.
Should I feed him a sweet dessert next time?
A memory of a bitter kiss.
I don’t like that very much.
‘Whoosh—’
While I was deliberating, the window burst open, and a blue bird zipped inside.
It flew directly in front of us and bounced its body lightly.
[Hmm?! What method did you use? Your mana seems quite recovered~]
I held out the empty bottle in front of Aren.
Perhaps the smell clinging to the inside and the tiny amount of medicine left at the bottom reached him, as he flew high into the air as if ambushed.
But it seemed the most reassuring place was only one, as he landed on my shoulder.
[What is that! Is it perhaps something imbued with a curse? Did you mean for me to purify it?! Give it to me! I will immediately…!]
I gently stroked Aren’s head, who was chattering loudly.
“This is the mana recovery medicine Klen drank, though.”
[……What?]
“Perhaps Aren mistook it for poison?”
I chewed on a honey-soaked raspberry, which I pulled out from somewhere, and placed a new one on my palm.
Aren immediately flew to it, grabbed the raspberry, and tossed it into his mouth.
It was clearly a highly effective medicine.
Yet, the reaction was extreme.
I had to firmly press the cap back onto the empty bottle.
The next day, we headed to the dining room for a meal that was, for some reason, prepared late.
[Oho.]
Then, Klen and I stopped at the entrance as if we had planned it.
In the dining room, there was a whole roasted wild boar.
It wasn’t on the table, but beside it, already partially cooked and placed over a brazier, seemingly to finish it and keep it warm.
But there were not one, but two of them.
“Quite something for breakfast.”
A voice of admiration flowed from right beside me, suggesting it wasn’t Klen’s command.
Judging by their massive size and form, which would be difficult to carry, they weren’t part of the castle’s reserves either.
“Could it be that Brother hunted them?”
“…You could say that.”
The reply was strangely ambiguous.
[Doesn’t he possess quite good skill? As expected of my master’s older brother.]
“But where did Brother go?”
“He said he was going to change his clothes and return.”
Linda said she would go and prepare, heading toward the kitchen.
Since we couldn’t just stand around, Klen and I sat at opposite ends of the table.
And just as Aren settled down in front of me, Brother finally entered the dining room.
“Oh.”
Brother was here. But it wasn’t just my Brother.
Klen’s older brother, Fabian, stood next to him.
And Nesser was following behind him.
Why were the two of them entering together?
They couldn’t have known each other before.
Klen, sitting on the other side, also blinked in confusion.
The two brothers sat facing each other in the center.
Even sitting face-to-face, they showed no sign of discomfort.
Nesser did not sit down but stood behind Lord Fabian.
“Nesser, why don’t you sit and eat too? There is a lot of food.”
“It is alright. My role is to guard Lord Fabian, not to dine with him.”
There was no wavering in the resolute knight’s words.
Since Lord Fabian said nothing, it must mean persuasion was useless.
The meal proceeded in that awkward and quiet atmosphere.
While the whole roasted wild boar was cooking, the food came out sequentially, starting with soup, but I had to be so tense that I couldn’t tell what anything tasted like.
One wrong word here could make all my accumulated acting go to waste.
“But how did the two of you come together?”
“I went hunting this morning… and ran into him there.”
“Wow~ His skill is better than I expected.”
Fortunately, neither of them brought up anything unusual.
All I could gather was that both had gone hunting independently and seemed to have noticed similar areas, running into each other while tracking prey.
The result was this, with each of them hunting the best catch, seemingly conscious of the other.
And since the hunting was for food, not sport, there appeared to be no major issue.
When the main course was ready, the two brothers came forward, following the hunting ground custom that the person who hunted the meat serves it.
Holding long forks and knives, they boldly carved the meat.
