Chapter 16

My body is hot. My eyelids are heavy. It's hard to breathe.

I want something cold...

Ah.

Immediately after Rachel felt something warm on her head, it became chilly.

"Feels nice..."

She heard a whisper, and it became easy to breathe. As if the pain from before was all a lie.

Then, she suddenly grew sleepy.

"Rachel, good night."

Who is calling my name with such a gentle voice? It's familiar and very reassuring.

Rachel could feel the sensation of a hand stroking her hair. Very tenderly, as if that person was handling something very important.

Wondering who was that, Rachel tried to open her eyes. But she fell asleep before she could do that.

♢

"My Lady, your fever has come down and you've stopped coughing. What a relief."

"Thank you, Sarah."

"You started coughing since you got that fever, and you had to stay on bed for the past week."

Yes, a week had passed since Rachel got a fever. Perhaps she also caught a cold, making her health went up and down many times.

Then she finally recovered.

Even if she only became a little sick, her current weak body would worsen her condition. After experiencing that, Rachel could only make a bitter smile. She had to be careful of her life would be in danger.

"Speaking of which, did anyone come while I was asleep?"

"Yes. His Highness came to visit. I will have the flowers he delivered today arranged in this vase."

"His Highness? So he came."

"Yes. He hurriedly rushed here as soon as your fever rose. Then he stayed by your side until you slept, My Lady."

"I see. I'll have to thank him later." Sarah then raised her gaze as if she just recalled something. "By the way, His Highness brought a magician with him."

"A magician?"

"Yes. He was a beautiful person with long silver hair. I mistook him as a woman at first."

A beautiful magician with silver hair.

The person that came to Rachel's mind when she heard that was...

Theodore Camus.

He was the eldest son of Marquis Camus, a twenty-two-years-old man.

He would become Marquis in the future, but now people knew him as Viscount Frion.

With the former head of Division of Magic as his father, Theodore had an abundant amount of magic power. There were rumors that his talent exceeded that of his father, who was labelled to be the best magician in the country.

Despite being a newcomer, he was already famous, standing out in the Division of Magic.

Theodore and Louis were childhood friends, so Rachel had greeted him before. At their first meeting, it almost felt like Theodore took a distance from her. As if he allowed her to call him by name just because she was the prince's fiancée.

Since their ages were pretty far, she didn't get involved much with him in her previous life.

Yet why did he came here? Moreover, accompanying Louis to visit her?

Rachel couldn't understand what that might mean.

"Ah. By the way, His Highness looks pretty tired."

"Eh?"

Sarah looked at Rachel as she skilfully arranged the flowers in the vase.

"I saw slight black circles around his eyes."

"I see. Maybe he couldn't come for a while because he was busy. But I feel bad that he came to visit me even if he was tired."

"No, no. That means His Highness is very worried about My Lady. He looked pale when he first arrived," Sarah said, then she put her hand on her mouth and whispered, "Plus, the buttons of his shirt was messed up."

Rachel's eyes widened. "Really? I can't imagine that."

"Yes. I've secretly glanced at him many times to make sure I didn't see wrong."

To think that prince, who had a perfect appearance wherever he was, messed the buttons of his shirt...

Rachel found it kind of cute. Unable to endure her bubbling laughter, she chuckled.

Then she looked at Sarah and both of them laughed together.

After a while, there was a sound of knocking door.

"Yes."

"Excuse me."

Rachel's father entered at the same time Rachel replied. He stared at her face and relaxed his expression, relieved.

"Father, I don't think you should open the door as soon as I reply. Even if it's your daughter's room."

"Ahaha, I'm sorry. I heard from Paul that Rachel's condition has gotten better. So I want to immediately see your face."

"My! Then it can't be helped."

Rachel's father had dark brown hair and green slightly drooping eyes. Even if he was forty years old, he had a baby face, making him look like a ten years old boy.

Had Rachel resembled her father more than her mother, she would've looked even kinder.

Ernest, the son of her father's brother, looked a lot more alike to her father.

But Rachel loved her gentle mother. Her mother stayed on her side and looked after her all the time when she was sick this time, sacrificing her sleep instead.

"By the way, it seems that His Highness came to visit me. I heard that Lord Theodore also accompanied him at that time. Dad, do you know anything about that?"

"Hmm. Now that I think of it, Paul also reported that Viscount Frion came here."

Rachel's face became thoughtful as he put his hand on his chin. He couldn't easily grow a bread, so it became a habit for him to put his hand on his shaved chin every time he was thinking.

"It looks like His Highness has been with him a lot recently. His skill is excellent just like the rumors, so he's probably useful for His Highness' research."

"Research?"

"Yeah. I can't say the details since His Majesty doesn't allow me to speak of it."

His Majesty is keeping it a secret? Rachel wondered if they were doing a secret task while cooperating with Theodore.

"By the way, Viscount Frion seems to be a medical expert. I think after His Highness worked together with him for that research, he brought him here to heal you."

"He's really great. Then I have to write a thank you letter to Lord Theodore."

"Sounds good." Rachel's father's face turned awkward. "...Rachel, I'm very sorry, but... I have to go back to the castle again."

"Is that so? Father, please take care of yourself too."

"Yeah. I'm relieved now that you look healthy. But you just recovered, so don't overdo it."

Rachel's father slightly lowered his eyebrows, apologetic. Then he gently patted her hair with a gentle look. It's clear that he cherished his daughter a lot.

"Yes. I'm going to a little more rest today. Thank you for worrying about me, Father."

Rachel's father nodded before reluctantly leaving the room.

After taking another sleep, Rachel asked Sarah to bring her some notepaper from her desk to her bed.

She wanted to write thank-you letters; for Louis, Theodore, and Ernest who came to visit her.

Yet she never expected that a few days later, Theodore Camus would send her a letter. To summarize it, he wrote, "I want to visit you."

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