Illusion

"Damn."

Clayton, who had just left the room with the princess, finally let out the frustration he had been holding back.

Having just arrived in the Kingdom of Easter, Clayton originally planned to meet the king, not the princess. However—

'His Majesty the King is currently occupied with urgent matters and has temporarily left the palace.'

'Then I'll wait until he returns to the palace.'

He felt annoyed at the king for leaving the palace, despite knowing of his arrival.

No matter how urgent the matter, it was rare for the king of a nation to leave the palace personally.

But blaming the king who was already absent wouldn't change anything.

When Clayton reluctantly agreed to wait, the attendant insisted that they couldn't leave an esteemed guest waiting idly and suggested that the king's most cherished daughter meet him instead.

He would have spent the time idly anyway.

Though it was slightly bothersome, he couldn't ignore the princess waiting for him, so he moved. Little did he expect to be blindsided like this.

"Tsk."

Clayton clicked his tongue, recalling what had just happened.

While sitting and waiting in the room, Clayton sensed something off. Even if he was to meet the princess, the room was far too ornate for a mere envoy's reception.

Feeling uneasy, he waited for the princess.

The moment the princess entered the room, his brows furrowed instinctively.

A woman in a shimmering aqua-colored dress adorned with crystals took a seat across from him.

'It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Gloria Easter.'

The woman, who introduced herself as the princess of Easter, had silver hair that glistened—just like Dahlia's.

The memory of Dahlia, which he had been suppressing, suddenly surfaced in his mind, leaving him speechless for a moment.

Snapping back to reality, Clayton introduced himself and paid his respects to the princess.

'Is this the Emperor's scheme?'

Clayton was well aware of the rumors surrounding him.

Ever since Dahlia disappeared, all kinds of absurd rumors had spread throughout the empire.

For that reason, he couldn't dismiss the princess's silver hair, so similar to Dahlia's, as mere coincidence.

He didn't know why the Emperor wanted to pair him with the princess of Easter, but he couldn't shake the unpleasant feeling of being used.

However, storming out would create a mess he didn't want to deal with, so he suppressed his rising irritation and stayed in his seat.

He couldn't remember what conversations followed or how much time had passed.

As Clayton was reflecting on the recent events—

Caddison approached him upon noticing him.

Did the princess splash water on him or something?

Seeing the duke's clothes suddenly wet, Caddison trailed off his words.

"Your Grace, your clothes…"

At Caddison's words, Clayton looked down at his clothes.

It seemed Caddison had noticed they were damp from a maid's earlier mistake.

'Come to think of it…'

Was it at that moment? When his mind felt momentarily clearer?

The Kingdom of Easter was located further south than the Granos Empire. Thus, even though it was spring, the weather was closer to early summer by the Empire's standards.

Because of that, Clayton had felt uncomfortable ever since arriving in Easter, but for some reason, he felt a bit clearer in the head when he was with the princess.

As he briefly considered the cause, Clayton soon lost interest.

'It must just be my imagination.'

It was probably just because her silver hair reminded him of Dahlia.

Thinking of the princess's silver hair again, Clayton suddenly asked Caddison something he was curious about.

"Is silver hair common in Easter?"

"Sorry?"

"The princess has silver hair."

Finally understanding Clayton's question, Caddison answered.

"Silver hair isn't unheard of, but it's not common. Here, silver hair holds a very sacred meaning. Princess Gloria, whom you met today, is especially cherished by the king because of her silver hair."

"…I see."

It wasn't the answer Clayton was looking for.

He had wondered if Dahlia might be connected to Easter in some way.

Noticing Clayton's mood darken sharply, Caddison quickly changed the subject.

"I'll fetch you a change of clothes immediately."

"No need."

The process of bringing clothes and changing felt tedious.

As he moved to leave, Clayton stopped again and looked at Caddison.

"You've arranged accommodations outside the palace, haven't you?"

"Pardon?"

Caddison dumbly asked back, puzzled by Clayton's question about accommodations outside the palace.

"You're not staying at the palace?"

"Yes. If I stay here, the princess might visit at night."

As a guest from the Empire, there were naturally accommodations prepared for him at the palace.

Originally, Clayton had planned to stay there as well.

But now that he'd realized the king's intentions to pair him with the princess, he no longer wanted to stay at the palace and began to leave.

If the king truly wanted to match him with the princess, he might even send his daughter to Clayton's room at night. He despised such troublesome situations.

* * *

Despite the attendant's attempts to stop him, Clayton boarded the carriage. After traveling for some time—

The smoothly running carriage came to an abrupt halt with a rattling noise.

Caddison, seated across from him, stepped out to assess the situation.

After a moment, he returned with a troubled expression and reported to Clayton.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace. It seems there's an issue with the carriage ahead."

At Caddison's words, Clayton opened the window slightly to see that a wheel had fallen off the carriage ahead and was lying on the ground.

It was a matter of simply reattaching the wheel, so it wouldn't take too long.

The heat from the sun made keeping the curtains drawn stifling, but it wasn't unbearable.

Besides, there wasn't any urgent reason to rush.

Clayton responded with a nod.

Instead of closing the curtains again, he opened the window to let in some fresh air.

Cool air flowed in, accompanied by the bustling noise of the outside world.

As he idly gazed at the streets filled with merchants shouting their wares and children laughing and playing—

Amid the dark colors, a strikingly radiant head of hair caught his attention.

The moment he saw it, Clayton's indifferent gaze widened in shock.

Golden hair that seemed to gather the brightest light of the sun and eyes that shimmered mysteriously in the sunlight.

Clayton, who had been leaning against the backrest, straightened his posture.

The colors the child bore where ones Clayton knew all too well.

'It can't be.'

The child, barely six or seven years old, ran off with a bright smile, as though they had spotted something.

"Mom!"

At the end of the child's path stood a woman.

Unlike the child, the woman had common brown hair and was facing away, so her face was not visible.

Yet, strangely, Clayton's heartbeat began to race.

The brown-haired woman knelt down to embrace the child running toward her.

The child's face, nestled in their mother's arms, looked joyful.

As Clayton watched, entranced—

Caddison climbed back into the carriage, and it began moving again.

Clayton muttered in a low voice.

"Stop."

"Pardon?"

"Stop the carriage at once!"

Startled by Clayton's sudden outburst, Caddison hurriedly stopped the carriage.

With a loud jolt, the carriage came to a stop, and Clayton sprang out, rushing to where the mother and child had just been.

Even he didn't understand why he was acting this way.

The woman didn't have silver hair but ordinary brown, and the child's golden hair and shining eyes could have simply been a trick of the sunlight.

Perhaps his longing for Dahlia had caused him to see an illusion.

Yet, even if it was a misunderstanding, he had to confirm what he had seen with his own eyes.

His steps quickened as he ran.

Soon, he spotted the two walking hand in hand in the distance.

But the crowd was too dense, and he couldn't easily reach them.

No matter how much he ran, the distance between them didn't close.

Frustrated, he muttered curses under his breath, but nothing changed.

He continued pushing through the throng of people for what felt like forever.

Finally arriving at the spot where the pair had been, Clayton gasped for breath as he looked around.

But all that greeted him was an empty street.

Feeling hollow, he stared blankly at the place where they had stood.

"…Dahlia."

Was what I saw truly just an illusion?

Episode 103: Fever

"Damian, didn't I tell you not to wander around carelessly outside? I told you the capital is a dangerous place."

As soon as she spotted Damian on the street, Dalia quickly led him to a secluded area and scolded him.

She had been startled to encounter Damian in a crowded alley. Seeing his hair and eyes, she worried someone might have recognized him.

But Damian, unaware of Dalia's concerns, pouted and slumped his shoulders. He felt upset that his mother, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, was scolding him.

"I just wanted to play with my friends…"

"Damian…"

It seemed he wanted to join the other children playing outside. Feeling guilty for depriving him of something so natural for a child, Dalia hugged Damian tightly.

"Mom is sorry…"

When his mother, who had been scolding him, suddenly hugged him, Damian's mood quickly brightened, and he smiled. But as Dalia held him, she noticed something unusual and looked at the boy closely.

"You have a fever?"

Startled, Dalia quickly touched Damian all over. A slight but warm fever radiated to her palms.

"Since when have you been feeling sick, Damian? Hm?"

"I'm not sick!"

Damian protested loudly, afraid they might make him take medicine again, but his face was already flushed red with fever.

"This won't do. Let's go to the doctor with Mom for now…"

"My lady!"

Just as she was about to lift Damian and rush to the doctor, she saw Samantha running toward them from afar.

It seemed Samantha had been searching for Damian, as her forehead was covered in beads of sweat from catching her breath.

Seeing Damian with Dalia, Samantha let out a sigh of relief and asked.

"Thank goodness. I was so shocked when the young master disappeared while I was doing the laundry… Also, I thought you wouldn't be back for a few more days. Are the matters at the palace completely resolved now?"

"No, I just stepped out briefly to see Damian's face."

After meeting Clayton at the palace, Dalia felt unsettled and missed Damian terribly. She had received Gloria's permission to leave the palace for a while.

"But Damian has a fever right now. Was he like this in the morning too?"

"He's had a fever since last night, so I gave him some medicine to lower it. I thought it had gotten better this morning, so I didn't take him to the doctor…"

Samantha also looked at Damian with concern. Whether or not he understood their worries, Damian seemed happy just to have reunited with his mother.

"Is that so?"

Children often had fevers that came and went.

Other than the mild fever, he didn't seem to have any other noticeable symptoms. Because of that, Dalia decided to observe the situation a little longer before taking Damian to the doctor, and she stood up.

"Shall we head home now?"

"But I still want to play…"

Having snuck out to finally enjoy being outside, Damian's shoulders slumped again when Dalia suggested they head straight home.

"When your fever is completely gone, then you can play outside, Damian."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

As she watched Damian firmly extract a promise from her, Dalia smiled warmly.

Samantha, noticing belatedly that Dalia had a burn on her hand, approached her.

"Oh my! My lady, your hand…! How on earth did you get hurt?!"

The back of her hand was already blistered, with fluid seeping out.

"Oh, this…"

It seemed that even Dalia had just remembered the burn on her hand, as her words trailed off.

The burn had happened earlier when she had blocked spilling tea meant for Clayton. Distracted by the encounter with Clayton, she hadn't even thought to treat it.

As Dalia briefly recalled what had happened at the palace, she shook her head.

"It's nothing serious. A little ointment will heal it just fine."

"It doesn't look like just a small injury... Let's go inside. I'll take care of it right away."

"Alright. Thank you. Come on, Damian, let's go."

Dalia picked up Damian, and with Samantha, they hurried to the temporary lodgings they had secured in the capital.

However, there was someone waiting for them in the house, which should have been empty.

"Lloyd?"

She was certain that Lloyd had mentioned he would be away for a while to prepare a student for the academy entrance exams. Surprised by his unexpected presence, Dalia tilted her head.

"Why are you here? Didn't you say you'd be busy preparing the kids for their entrance exams for a while?"

However, Lloyd stood up as if he had been waiting for them and answered with a serious expression.

"This is no time for this. You need to leave here immediately."

"Leave? Did something happen?"

Samantha, sensing something unusual, asked again. Lloyd continued speaking calmly, as if trying to prevent alarm.

"Today, an envoy from the Granos Empire arrived in the kingdom. Among them is Duke Seiyer."

"Oh my…!"

Samantha gasped at Lloyd's words.

"My lady! What should we do? We should pack and leave the capital at once…!"

"No."

While the two fussed and began moving hurriedly, Dalia spoke calmly.

"I'm not going to run away."

"What? What do you mean…?"

"I don't think there's a need for that."

When she first learned that Clayton had come here, she had thought about running away.

But the moment she learned he had come for a marriage arrangement with the princess, her resolve to flee crumbled.

He had already been living as though she didn't exist, so she doubted that knowing she was here would change much.

"I already met the duke today."

At the mention that she had already met Clayton, Lloyd and Samantha's eyes widened. But her next words left them speechless.

"The duke is the princess's suitor. It seems he hasn't recognized me yet, though…"

"..."

Silence weighed heavily in the room. Lloyd and Samantha exchanged uneasy glances without saying a word, and at that moment, Damian, who had fallen asleep in Dalia's arms, broke the stillness.

"Mom…"

Adjusting her whimpering son in her arms, Dalia whispered gently as if nothing had happened.

"Hm? Damian, are you sleepy?"

"…I don't feel well."

"What?"

Startled by Damian's admission of feeling unwell, Dalia placed her hand on his forehead. His fever was far worse than before, his entire body radiating heat like a furnace.

"Damian!"

Dalia hurriedly laid him down on the bed and checked his condition. Just moments ago, the boy had been smiling innocently at her, but now he was breathing in shallow gasps through pale lips.

"How did this happen all of a sudden…!"

His fever hadn't been this bad before they returned home. She regretted brushing it off earlier as a passing symptom.

"Let's go to the doctor right away."

Noticing the seriousness of the situation, Lloyd picked Damian up.

They ran faster than ever and arrived at the doctor's clinic.

After examining Damian closely, the doctor stepped back and shook his head.

"I don't know the cause."

"What do you mean, you don't know the cause? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean exactly that—I don't know why he has a fever. If it were just a regular fever, it should go down with medication, but his temperature keeps rising… This suggests there's another cause, but I can't identify what it is…"

The doctor trailed off, looking apologetic.

"All I can do for now is prescribe fever-reducing medicine."

"How can you say something so irresponsible? You're a doctor! If a doctor doesn't know the diagnosis, who else would?"

"…I'm sorry."

The doctor left, as though there was nothing more he could say. Watching the boy writhe in pain on the bed while being unable to do anything made Dalia feel utterly powerless like never before.

While Dalia held Damian's hand, her eyes filled with tears. It was then that Lloyd, who had been silently biting his lip, finally spoke.

"Could it be…"

Lloyd hesitated as if he wasn't confident in what he was about to say.

"Could it be some kind of hereditary disease?"