* * *
“It shouldn’t be time for my medicine yet. What’s going on?”
Whenever it was time for Locke to arrive, I usually made a habit of escaping to the garden or the bathroom.
But today, he appeared earlier than expected, and I couldn’t avoid him in time.
I had no idea why a guy who followed his routine like clockwork would suddenly change his schedule.
“I have brought your medicine.”
While I was hesitating, he opened the door and entered.
He had a bluish bruise on his face.
Approaching with a deep bow, Locke set down a glass of water and a plate with two pills on the table.
I sat there stiffly, tense with the fear that a system window might pop up, when my eyes suddenly fell on his hands.
There were quite a few small scratches on them.
“Are you applying the medicine I gave you?”
Only after confirming that no system window appeared did I find the courage to speak to him.
“I have recovered much thanks to you.”
“But the bruises and scratches haven’t disappeared at all.”
Locke hesitated before bowing his head deeply again.
“It felt like a waste, so I only used it on the deep wounds.”
“Use it generously, I said. Use it all. If you run out, I’ll bring you more.”
Perhaps my kindness was still awkward for him; Locke simply bowed his head once more.
At that moment, his gaze briefly brushed past the roses on the table.
…No way.
Even as I thought that, the scratches on Locke’s hands—looking very much like they were from thorns—bothered me.
“Is it possible…”
His thick, downcast eyelashes curled upward beautifully.
Within them, two burning suns stared straight at me.
In contrast, my own pupils dropped instantly.
Even though I kept telling myself I didn’t need to be, I felt a sudden surge of fear whenever I faced Locke.
‘Ah… it’s still difficult.’
I tried hard to forget, but the image of the tyrant who had dragged me to the bottom and killed me cruelly was still vivid.
It wasn’t my mind, but my body that remembered.
It felt like my cells reacted first to even his smallest actions.
Could I ever truly forget this memory?
It felt impossible.
After my lips hovered several times, I finally managed to open my mouth.
“Could we… maybe talk with your eyes lowered a bit…?”
Because it’s too scary for me when you look at me like that.
At my shrinking voice, Locke lowered his head.
Yet, for some reason, he looked like someone who was disappointed.
‘Disappointed? Why on earth?’
“Please ask your question, Young Master.”
“…Ah, it’s nothing much. I just wondered if you were the one who brought these roses.”
Disappointment? I must have imagined it.
I tried to brush it off as nothing, but those two suns turned toward me again, shining with a mysterious light.
“Why did you think it was me?”
‘Was it really Locke who brought them?’
Looking into his eyes, which were full of hidden schemes, I felt uncertain but answered honestly.
“Well, I complained to you a bit that day. So I just wondered. …Is it really you?”
At my question, Locke quietly shook his head.
This time, a shadow fell over his face clearly enough for me to tell he was definitely disappointed.
“It was not me.”
“Really?”
His reaction was suspicious, so I asked again, but he firmly denied it.
I thought so.
“And here I thought you might have felt some sympathy for me.”
“How could I dare to harbor such feelings for the Young Master?”
“No, you don’t have to go that far…”
I grumbled, “Anyway, I’m dying to know who it is,” and immediately tossed the pills into my mouth.
“Ugh!”
No matter how many years I took it, I could never get used to the bitter taste of the medicine.
I felt a reflexive urge to gag.
I quickly pulled a tin out of my drawer—the one I received as a gift from Eclat—and popped a candy into my mouth.
Nom, nom.
The sweet grape flavor spread quickly from the tip of my tongue.
Thanks to the deep, rich scent filling my mouth, the bitterness was neutralized, and I felt I could breathe again.
Locke stared intently at my lips as I chewed the candy.
Does he want one?
‘Since I don’t know when the system window might pop up again, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to build up some favor in advance.’
I wanted to build enough trust with Locke so that even if I committed an act of villainy, I could brush it off as a mistake or a misunderstanding.
When my thoughts reached that point, I couldn’t help but grab the wrist of the man who was about to leave with the empty cup and plate.
“Wait a moment.”
Locke turned back to me, his eyes wide.
Perhaps due to my trauma, it felt like he was glaring at me as if to say, ‘How dare the son of a Count lay a hand on the body of the Emperor?’
In reality, he didn’t budge an inch despite the force I used to pull him.
Feeling embarrassed, I slowly let go.
“That… it’s nothing much, I just wanted to give you this.”
I quickly rummaged through the tin and took out the largest candy.
Then, I popped it right into Locke’s slightly parted mouth as he stared at me.
Since he was holding the tray with both hands, I had to put it in his mouth myself.
The soft yet slightly rough texture of his lips brushed my fingertip.
His eyes, which had already grown large when I grabbed his wrist, widened even further.
Facing the four-white eyes (Sanpaku) I had seen that day again, my fingertips trembled once more, and a chill of intimidation ran through me.
“Sorry, I just… you were holding the tray, so I thought it would be uncomfortable for you to take it.”
Even though I explained in a small, crawling voice, Locke just continued to look down at me with the same expression.
Fearing I had made a mistake instead of scoring points, I asked urgently.
“You don’t happen to hate grapes or have an allergy or something, right?”
Only then did he blink a couple of times before answering.
“…No. I do not. If I had such a thing, I wouldn’t have been able to serve the Young Master in the first place.”
“What does that mean? That you couldn’t have served me?”
“Because if I hated grapes, even entering this room would have been an ordeal.”
I sat there with a puzzled face before being struck by a sudden shock.
‘There’s no way!’
Before my regression, the pheromone I manifested was a grape scent.
There weren’t any actual grapes in the room, so the only thing left was pheromones.
But Locke and I hadn’t manifested yet.
Therefore, there should be no pheromones coming from me, and no way for Locke to smell them…
Even if I conceded that Locke had already manifested and was hiding it for some reason, I certainly hadn’t.
So how could Locke pinpoint the scent of my unmanifested pheromones?
Or did I misinterpret his words?
As I sat there blankly with a stiff face, Locke, who was watching me, shrugged his shoulders slightly.
Taking a long breath, he spoke slowly.
“I meant the candy. The scent is so strong that just having it in the room makes the fragrance vibrate.”
Thinking of the candy tin in my hand, I finally sighed in relief.
Of course. That’s what it was.
Watching me nod, Locke gave a slight bow, saying he would take his leave, and exited the room.
Focusing on avoiding Locke, summer arrived in the blink of an eye.
It hadn’t been that hot when I talked to Locke about the roses, but now, I would start sweating after standing outside for just a moment.
Fortunately, the temperature was manageable in the morning, so I was sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree in the garden, reading a book before breakfast.
A moment later, a handsome brown horse stopped in front of me.
“Cedric!”
“Brother Aiden?”
The brown-haired man who dismounted from the saddle smiled at me cheerfully.
It was Aiden, Eclat’s older brother and Cassian’s hunting buddy.
And he was also an Alpha who had manifested not long ago.
I headed toward the mansion with Aiden while looking at the garden scenery.
As we walked quietly, I kept feeling his gaze on me from the side.
Eventually, unable to ignore it, I looked at him.
Aiden brushed his fingers against the ends of my hair, which had reached just past my shoulders.
“It’s grown a lot since I last saw you.”
“I haven’t had time to cut it because I wasn’t feeling well for a while. Does it look strange?”
“It’s not strange. Now that I think about it, you look much thinner since I last saw you. Are you taking your medicine properly? I heard you got caught by the Countess while trying to throw it away.”
“I don’t throw it away anymore, thanks to the candy Eclat gave me.”
My illness wasn’t the kind that got better or hurt less just by taking medicine.
Cedric was terminally ill according to the “System.”
Faithful to the setting of being sickly, I would feel ill occasionally, but not enough to die; conversely, even if I was in great shape, I could die instantly if my hearts disappeared due to a mission failure.
My mother, unaware of this, had no choice but to push the medicine on me, desperate to do anything to save her son.
For that reason, I planned to continue throwing the medicine away while avoiding the servants’ eyes, so I lied nonchalantly.
“Candy? Ah, so that’s where it went. No wonder. As soon as Father gave it as a gift, she wouldn’t even let me touch it. Oh, wait a second.”
Aiden peered intently into my face.
Then, he lightly brushed near my eye with his thumb.
Seeing me flinch in surprise at the unfamiliar contact, he gave a thin smile.
“There was an eyelash fallen under your eye, so I just took it off. You act so surprised, you make it seem like I’ve done something bad.”
Aiden was a person whose kindness was ingrained in his very being.
Therefore, his friendliness toward me wasn’t unusual.
I really don’t know how he and Cassian became friends.
“Thank you.”
“No need for thanks for something like this. Anyway, there’s no use in raising a younger sibling. I heard it was a famous candy and wanted to try it myself.”
His tone was clearly playful, but hearing those words made me feel strangely sorry for him.
It seemed Eclat’s claim that there was plenty of candy at home was a lie told for my sake.
It suddenly occurred to me that I happened to have brought that candy with me.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
I pulled out a handkerchief I had tucked away and picked up a single purple candy I had wrapped inside.
Aiden, who was looking at me with a puzzled face, rounded his eyes.
He immediately stopped, bent his waist, and opened his mouth toward me, saying “Ah—”.
* * *
