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?"