Chapter 30: A wish and a promise (1)
“He won't feel the pain unless he's awake, so it's best for him to remain unconscious.”
I slowly stood up.
The pharmacist was then terrified, so he shook and fell back until he almost fell on his back.
"And you."
“N-yes!”
He suddenly raised his hand and started raving about things I didn't even ask him about.
“I-I'm also good at making cold medicine!”
That's not what I was going to ask.
...Although cold medicine is also important.
I narrowed my eyes. “What you saw today is a secret. concept?"
“N-yes!” I will remember, I will remember well, for sure!
The pharmacist prostrated on the ground with his entire body, bowing his head.
“So, you said you could make a cold medicine.”
“N-yes. The maids working in the medical home say that my medicine is the best it can be. “Fast and efficient.”
“Then give me some of it.”
“N-yes!”
The pharmacist hurried to the preparation table, his hands moving so quickly that they were barely noticeable.
It wasn't long before he handed me a dark red potion.
“U-Um, I heard that His Highness the Third Prince is young. “The medicine is safe for children, so I added a little strawberry syrup.”
What a useless detail.
I took the medicine and stared at it again. “I'll say it again. If anything comes out of what happened here today...”
The pharmacist moved quickly again.
Before I could finish, he was on the ground, spread out like a board.
“I-I value my life! I swear, I swear, I will never reveal what happened here today to a soul on earth!
His exaggeration knocked me out of my calm.
But after what he had just witnessed, it was normal.
“If rumors spread, you'll be the first one I look for.”
“N-yes. Understood."
I left the pharmacist, who seemed to be standing in the hands of the Emperor himself, and quickly left.
At first I intended to go just a little faster, but I found myself running, panting.
Thus I rushed towards the Third Prince's Palace.
With all my might, at full speed.
“Huh…”
Idun was still distracted, his senses not regaining their balance from the fever.
I gently opened his lips and forcibly administered the medicine to him.
“Nanny, what if he gets into the wrong stream...”
“Don't worry. “I may not know much about nursing, but I have given many people medication before.”
"What?"
Contrary to Katherine's concern, Edun did not spill a drop.
All that remains is to hope that the skill of that miserable pharmacist is not just talk.
“Your Highness, Princess Emilia, you will catch a cold if you stay like this.”
"no! Leah will stay with my brother!”
Emilia had clung to her brother and had not moved since before I arrived.
Where did you inherit that stubbornness?
I sighed a little, and Catherine picked up the princess.
«Mmmmph! Leah said she would stay with my brother!”
“Your Highness Princess Emilia, let's go get a snack. “The kitchen made your favorite honey cake.”
"What? K-honeycake?”
Emilia's honest eyebrows furrowed.
Honey cake... her sick brother's mother.
Biting her finger, the princess muttered: “I can’t... Leia must stay to protect my brother...”
“I will guard Prince Idun. Please go.”
At my word, the princess's features blossomed like a flower. "truly?"
"Yes."
"Good! Then Achel, protect my brother for me! You have to do it right, okay?
“You have my promise.”
And so, Emilia left the room in Catherine's arms.
Silence fell. There was nothing left but the prince's breath filling the place.
His breathing was calmer than before he took the medicine.
I felt his forehead—it was clearly colder.
(It seems that this pharmacist was not all a claim.)
I exhaled a little and leaned back on the chair.
Outside the window, the sun was beginning to set.
Spring flu is very stubborn.
Even after taking the medication, Edun remained ill for several days.
The coughing stopped completely, but his fever rose and fell every night.
Therefore, Catherine and Rachel had to take turns nursing him day and night.
Days ago, in the stillness of the early dawn when everyone was asleep—
Idun slowly opened his heavy eyelids.
His whole body looked like he had been beaten badly, but he was fine now.
Through his blurred vision, he saw someone sitting next to him.
A person sat with his back to the moon, watching it.
"whatever?"
Whether it's the remains of sleep or a trace of fever—
Idun spoke the name of the one he could never meet again.
“Emma… you?”
His sad eyes quickly filled with tears.
"It's really you, isn't it, Emma?"
He reached out his hand desperately.
“Why…why did you come only now? “I prayed for a long time.”
Even in a dream, just once—he begged to see her.
And then, Emma took his hand.
Without speaking.
“It's really you, Emma...”
Edun gripped the cold hand tightly.
As if he never wanted to let go of her.
They stayed like that for a long time, holding hands in silence.
"whatever."
Then the prince slowly opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry."
When she drank the poisoned tea sent by the Second Empress and was dying—he could do nothing for her.
“I'm sorry... really sorry.”
A prince who has nothing, always someone to protect.
A coward who couldn't protect his little sister.
Tears flowed endlessly from Edun's eyes.
“It was my fault. “I was wrong.”
The little prince's voice came out hoarse and broken.
“I'm sorry… I'm sorry…”
“What is all this regret about?”
At that moment, Emma spoke for the first time.
Her voice was lower and colder than before.
But Edun was in no condition to notice the difference.
“I… I hurt Emilia. "As I did to you, Emma."
The prince closed his eyes as if he was astonished by the sight.
“Once again, I could do nothing in front of my brother Lloyd. The fight was of no avail.”
Edun bit his lip.
"I'm sorry. "You wished me happiness, Emma, but I no longer know."
Every time he tried to seize happiness, a hidden misery came out from underneath it and swallowed him up.
“Emma, what is happiness? I don't know. What should I do to be happy?
His little shoulders trembled lightly.
“My mother is gone, and you are gone too. “Everyone around me ends up leaving.”
And that strange woman also said she was leaving.
Although she claimed to always be on his side.
“…She will leave too. "Leah will be gone one day."
Edun muttered, holding Emma's hand tightly.
“I'm afraid, Emma.”
Afraid of being left alone, with no one by his side.
But what he feared most was that even now, at this very moment—
He has no strength to protect the only person left next to him.
“…If I had been as smart as my older brother, or as strong as my second brother, perhaps no one would have left.”
His face turned red again, perhaps the fever was back.
“Why...why me...!” Fuck, Fuck!”
As soon as he started coughing, Emma got up.
Idun opened his eyes in fright at her movement and shouted:
«No! Don't go! Don't leave me alone, Emma!
“Shh—”
A cold hand rested on the prince's feverish forehead.
And at that coldness, Idun closed his eyes calmly.
“I won't leave.”
"truly? You're not really leaving?
"Yes."
"truly? Are you mining?
"…Yes. “Return.”
When he asked her again in a trembling voice, she slowly shook her head.
“Get some sleep, then.”
As if her words were magic,
The prince fell asleep peacefully.
Under that cold, friendly touch.
It would have been better if I had forgotten everything.
“That was Emma's last wish.”
“A wish, you say?”
"Yes. Emma said she hoped I was happy. “Maybe it was her last wish.”
I raised my hand from Idun's forehead.
“Why did it have to be you?”
At first I thought it was just a similarity of names. Then I hoped it would just be named like her.
But in the end, I couldn't help but realize the truth.
She was the same person I knew as “Emma.”
Countess Emma Conrad.
Edun's late nanny...and the woman who once raised me.
A woman whose original last name was not “Conrad” but “Leosche.”
“…So you lied to me just to die so miserably.”
The last day I saw Emma is still stuck in my mind.
She clearly said that she would return to her hometown to live with her real family.
And I don't have to go looking for her anymore.
-In fact, he forbids me to search for it.
“If you wanted to break off the relationship, all you had to do was say so.”
If she had said so, I would have accepted it with grace.
However, she kept the gift I gave her...even after she died.
"…the curse."
I muttered, looking at the shiny pearl bracelet on Edun's wrist.
It was a cheap souvenir I bought with my first paycheck from the Assassins Guild.
Pure impulse purchase.
Even though I thought I would never see her again, I bought it because her image came to mind.
And the day I promised the guild master I would never meet Emma again—
The day I ran into her again.
When she clung to me while crying, I gave her the bracelet.
“Kayla, what is this?”
“...A deposit. If you bring it, I will grant you three wishes at no cost.”
At my words, she stopped crying and burst out laughing.
She looked at me with eyes as if she saw the tenderness of a child confused by adults.
“You're still as solid as ever. "You could have just said it was a gift."
When she saw my confused face, Emma laughed long and wiped away her tears.
"So, can I use the first wish?"
"Help yourself."
“Are you coming to visit me? Even if you don't show your face.”
Emma seemed to know very well what kind of work I was doing.
“It's enough for me to know that you're okay.”