His Highness lowered his eyes slightly, and he went silent as if he were trying to settle something inside of himself. Then his vivid blue eyes rose to stare back at the duke once again. “So Elianna is dead. You’re sticking to that?”
“I swear it.”
The prince’s gaze collided with the duke’s unyielding one. Then he took a deep breath. “I understand,” he said, turning on his heel as if he had made his mind up.
The duke was acting quite suspicious, and Lady Pharmia closed her eyes as if she were giving up. The next thing I knew, His Highness filled my vision. His bright eyes were like a clear blue sky. His chiseled jaw and youthful, beautiful face almost stunned me. There was still something hard about it, but he always looked at me with an earnest gaze, full of tenderness.
The solemn light of the temple shone upon his dazzling blond hair. There was no one like him, Sauslind’s crown prince. As he came in front of me, the surrounding doctors stepped back, and I too flinched, staring at him with determination and, above all, fascination.
His blue eyes softened as he reached out to me. He took off the cloth that covered my head and put his hands in my hair to untie it. It spilled down past my shoulders. Then he gently smiled at me, ignoring the buzz of our surroundings. “Elianna—”
I heard people mutter in shock.
“Impossible!”
His Highness turned around and replied with his usual bright smile. “Me, give up on Elianna? In what world would that be possible? Not in this one.”
The duke’s expression changed for the first time since this had started. His face flashed with anger, as if his pride had been wounded.
On the other hand, the people there were surprised, and voices calling my name spread out one after another—even louder than before.
“She’s alive!”
I was shocked at how overjoyed the crowd was. The people who had been cheering for Lady Pharmia now cheered for me. I was a bit conflicted, but I suppressed it as I firmly returned His Highness’s gaze.
He smiled and put his arm around my waist, then turned once again toward the crowd. In a dignified manner, he stated, “My fiancée, Lady Elianna Bernstein, is right here! The story of her dying was completely false!”
The cheers grew even louder. Suddenly, the duke shouted, “Wait!” He stood up and spoke as one of the great aristocrats of Sauslind, this time without raising his voice.
“Lady Elianna is alive. I’m very happy about that. The information I was getting was wrong. I’ll admit it. But Lady Elianna was reported to have been missing in Ralshen, and now she’s here? Perhaps she has been kept safely in the royal palace this whole time and only shown herself now that the cure has been made? How can we know that it was really her who developed the cure?”
Our surroundings became noisy again.
Ever since the illness had broken out, Lady Pharmia Odin had left her mansion every day to comfort the sick. On the other hand, I had been far away, and no one had seen what I had been doing.
“The royal capital is steeped in the faith of the Saint. Even if you return, you’ll face severe criticism.”
Raqqa words came back to me. The old me would have been frightened, but now I had the encouragement of Prince Christopher and everyone who had supported me, and the confidence I had built myself. I did not shrink back. I raised my head. I felt the prince smiling next to me, and the hand that touched mine was filled with strength.
“Duke Odin. You have stayed in the royal capital and do not know the true situation in the countryside. The only thing we can trust is the word of the locals and their true experiences. Isn’t that right?”
His Highness turned to the doctors behind us. The representative of the medical group nodded and spoke.
“This is the record that Lady Elianna brought with her from the Ralshen Region, detailing the care of the sick there. And it also contains new countermeasure methods that we didn’t even know about. This is a person who experienced it firsthand. It’s written by Lady Elianna herself.”
A small chuckle escaped from the duke. “Your Highness. Enough with these childish games. Something like that could be easily fabricated if you had the necessary information beforehand.”
“I see,” His Highness muttered quietly. He put his hand in his pocket and showed everyone a new document. “This was delivered with a courier earlier. ‘I swear on my name as Carl Ralshen, the lord of the Ralshen Region, that Elianna, the crown prince’s fiancée, was the one who quelled the riots and saved the sick in this land, and I swear my allegiance to her.”
His Highness’s bright eyes looked around as he put the letter away.
“When the cure was completed in the Ralshen Region, the following information was also sent to Earl Hayden of the Edea Domain. ‘In the name of the crown prince’s fiancée, Elianna Bernstein, I will disclose the recipe for the cure for the Ashen Nightmare to all sick people who have been affected by this disease and also provide the raw materials for it, not only to my own people but those of other countries.’ After which the earl declared he would issue a statement of peace with the kingdom of Maldura.”
All the color drained from the duke’s face, but the crowd murmured with surprise and began to cheer again. There would be no battles. No war would begin!
“How dare you... Without even holding a meeting of the senior ministers council, and without a decision from the king!” the duke shouted, but the prince stared back at him resolutely, just as a steadfast monarch would.
“I will not use medicine as weapons or as bargaining tools. If I used life-saving cures in that way, my deeds would haunt the people long after I am gone. I will not make Sauslind that kind of kingdom. I will protect the people of the future.”
Prince Christopher wasn’t just thinking of the present; he was looking to the future, with the idea to never barter or gamble with the people’s wellness. That was exactly what I had thought about Furya’s Jar.
I was so overcome by emotions that I couldn’t put into words, so entranced by his regal presence that I couldn’t even hear the cries of those around me.
Prince Christopher then explained, “I gave Elianna the crest of the royal family as proof that she was my representative when she went to the Ralshen Region. The approval of the cure, the statement, and the order to the earl were all under the name of the royal family. Duke Odin, are you going against the royal family’s decision, even though you are an aristocrat whose title was granted by the royal family and who is sworn to serve them?”
The duke himself was the first to mention that he had been granted his title by the king. Defying the king’s decision was the same as treason, which he himself had spoken of.
For the first time, I saw a change in the duke’s demeanor. Every word, every thought, everything he’d ever taken pride in was overturned.
The duke seemed to have been planning two things. One was to establish the status of Saint Pharmia with the cure in hand. The other was to use that as a weapon to negotiate with Maldura—but not peacefully. Armed with the cure, he would offer a deal to Maldura, with contingencies like favorable tariffs or mines with gold veins.
But now all of that was spoiled, and the recipe that the duke held carried no weight. He crushed it in his hand. The words he uttered were still filled with hubris. “Your Highness, you have forgotten one more important thing, perhaps on purpose. My daughter is pregnant with your child. Everyone knows this. It is a fact, and no excuses you make can change that.”
Even though he had ostensibly directed this remark at His Highness, the look in his eyes made it clear that it was actually directed at me—and at the people who were confused by this.
I also shifted my gaze to Lady Pharmia, who was dressed modestly in her saintly clothing. She stood slightly behind the duke. Now we were in completely opposite positions than we had been before.
Lady Pharmia Odin was the only daughter of Duke Odin, the grand noble representing Sauslind, and the niece of Queen Henrietta. If I hadn’t been in this position, I might never have interacted with her in my whole life.
She was born and raised the same as Lady Therese, a woman who had been brought up in the opposite way as me, but Lady Pharmia and I were similar in some ways. For nearly five years, I’d spent time with her along with Lady Therese in the royal capital’s social circles.
Even though her eyes were open now, she was not looking at me or Prince Christopher. She was looking at someone else—Head Priestess Eva, the head of all the priests who oversaw the temples in Sauslind Kingdom.
The head priestess’s pure white hair was neatly pulled back, giving her a dignified atmosphere. You could tell at a glance that she was elderly, but she had a commanding presence. Her gaze was unapproachable and intimidating. Not only did that indicate that she was a woman, but that she was an existence that seemed to transcend gender as well. She was the king in charge of all the kingdom’s rituals.
Beneath the head priestess’s gaze, Pharmia faintly uttered, “I...” She was panting. Words spilled out from within her, high-pitched like a child’s, but she sounded decisive. “I am not pregnant with anyone’s child.” She continued speaking before the room broke out in commotion. “His Highness wouldn’t even lay a single finger on me!”
“Pharmia!” Duke Odin scolded. This was the first time I’d seen him be emotional. “You fool!”
He was about to yell at her again, but I started running. His hand still held the recipe for the cure, and he raised it in the air as if to hit her. I smacked it away with the book I was holding. I must have startled him, because he staggered backward, looking more shocked than in pain. For the first time in my life, I faced this person with sincere anger and no political resentment.