"Are you alright? Cough, cough."
"Thank you. I'm fine now, so go tend to the wounded."
"Understood."
At Felix's command, I moved to the rear and treated the injured.
Perhaps because the expedition was composed of skilled knights, there weren't many casualties.
Still, my rarely-seen healing abilities shone brightly.
The knights fought again after recovering, as if they'd downed a health potion, and thanks to that, this subjugation seemed to be ending safely. My cough, however, still hadn't stopped.
"Y-Your Highness...! In the sky!"
But the real problem was something else. When one knight pointed at the sky and shouted, everyone's gazes turned upward.
'...Crazy.'
It was a giant hornet—a flying-type monster shaped like a bee.
It clearly looked like it carried potent venom, and the sound of its wings wasn't even a "whir" but a heavy "thud-thud-thud."
But for some reason, the hornet seemed to be targeting only one person: Felix. I thought about it for a moment and found the answer easily enough.
That thing was also a bee. It was probably attracted to Felix because of the lavender-scented sachet hanging from his inner pocket. It was obviously something Daphne had given him.
Felix didn't panic and fought back, but he seemed to have injured his leg in the earlier battle, limping on one side.
'This might be an opportunity.'
I hated myself for thinking this, with my legs trembling and wanting to flee, just to get one estate.
But Tuline was none other than a holy site of magical power! Right now it's just a resort, but in a few years, enormous magical power will erupt from there, and everyone will flock to it to obtain magic crystals.
I planned to monopolize it. Then it wouldn't matter whether the ducal family cast me out or the prince cast me out—I could live comfortably on the money from selling magic crystals.
Just thinking about what business I could do with magic crystals made my mouth water. By the time I'd thought that far, my hesitation had already vanished.
"Your Highness!"
I grabbed any nearby horse and rode toward Felix, having been tending to the wounded.
Then, to create an even more dramatic scene, I leaped off the horse, plunged my sword into the hornet's chest, and fell tumbling down with it. The damn cough still came out even in the midst of this.
"Lydia!"
No matter how fast I healed, pain was still pain. My shoulder throbbed from the bruise I must have gotten while tumbling.
"Your Highness... Did you... see that?"
"Why on earth would you—"
"Because I am Your Highness's capable servant. So..."
Give me the estate, give me the estate... I shouldn't have collapsed this easily, but perhaps because I'd used too much of my ability, I ended up fainting before I could finish my sentence.
Even in that state, my greedy hands had healed Felix's leg, and I found myself ridiculous.
It was strange. My mind was awake, but my body wouldn't listen.
I didn't know how much time had passed, but with this level of bruising, I should have healed by now. More than anything, I was distracted by the cough that felt like it would tear me apart.
"This is not as promised, Your Highness. This land was promised to the family, not to an individual."
"That is what I promised directly to Lydia. Tuline will be attributed to Lydia, so let it be known."
'Whoa! Jackpot. Felix... I trusted you!'
I wanted to dance right then and there, but my body wouldn't move, so I couldn't.
But that good feeling instantly turned cold at the Duchess's shocking following words.
"But there's something Your Highness doesn't know. Lydia is going to die anyway."
'Excuse me? I'm going to die? Me...?'
"She will breathe her last within a year at most."
"...What do you mean by that?"
"The reason Lydia won't wake up. She's clearly afflicted with... Witium, the long-standing curse of the Cheshire family."
'Witium? The curse of the Cheshire family?'
Unable to comprehend what I'd just heard, I mulled it over several times before a scene from the original work suddenly flashed through my mind.
Witium—a curse that randomly afflicts those who carry the blood of the Cheshire family.
I finally remembered that this curse was the reason Lydia died alone and sadly in the latter half of the novel.
It starts with mild symptoms like coughing, dizziness, and headaches, but later progresses to constant vomiting of blood and gradual dehydration of the body's moisture.
Then why doesn't Daphne get this curse? As it happens, the Duchess was kindly explaining just that.
Because Felix, of all things, had to bring up Daphne first, even though I was the one currently sick.
"A family curse. Then that means it could happen to Daphne as well?"
"...Unfortunately, yes. That's why we've been preparing for it for a long time."
Felix seemed shocked and remained silent for a long while. And indeed, in the original work, Daphne couldn't escape Witium either.
The proud original Lydia, when symptoms appeared, dressed even more lavishly to hide them.
Even if she showed signs of being sick, she was only met with accusations of faking it for attention, and no one worried about Lydia.
It was probably stubbornness to prove that she was "still fine and strong."
Then, when Daphne's condition began to show, everyone—Felix, the Duke, the Duchess—fought desperately to find a way to save her.
I could understand the sense of loss and betrayal Lydia must have felt at such contrasting treatment.
The Duchess's words, saying she would die despite claiming they were prepared, sounded to me like they were going to leave me to die.
"So. Have you found a method? We must find a way somehow."
"We are trying. We will save that child for certain. So, as promised, I ask that Tuline be transferred to our family, not to Lydia personally."
"...I'll think about it."
"Thank you."
Hold on. Just a moment ago you said you'd give it to me. What's this, Felix? We were good...
I wanted to protest my unfair treatment, but my body wouldn't listen.
The two left my room in a somber mood, and it was a long time after that before I could finally open my eyes.
"Cough, cough!"
It was this damn cough's fault. Had my healing ability disappeared?
But the shoulder I'd injured while killing the monster was perfectly fine. That meant this curse couldn't be healed by healing abilities either.
Which meant...
"...I'm on a timer?"
But they're saying they won't save me. And they're trying to take Tuline, which was right within my grasp, in this gap! I've endured so much just for one estate—there's no way I can just die like this.
I focused all my mind on trying to remember how the original Daphne had broken the curse.
There was no way I could remember the plot in detail, so all I could do was repeatedly mull over the fragments that came to mind when I thought of Daphne.
Then something suddenly came to me—I remembered that when Daphne disappeared from the ducal house, a mage who had briefly taken care of her helped her.
By creating the legendary elixir, said to break all curses and heal any illness, known only in ancient texts.
However, the ingredients were so difficult to obtain that I recalled it was only made near the end of the novel.
It was a somewhat cliché but tense development, where just when you thought the heroine was going to die, the mage appeared with the elixir and saved the day.
"But the main ingredient was the Sunflower, wasn't it?"
The Sunflower was a flower that only appeared in the founding myth. A blossom with dense life force that the sacred dragon had bloomed to protect its beloved.
It was said to bloom once every two hundred years, and no one had ever seen it yet.
That made sense—it bloomed on the cliff edge of the Evrahm Gorge, which humans couldn't even approach, so anyone who had seen it could be considered dead.
'And the fact that there's only one bloom is also a problem... Is it okay for me to take it?'
As I was lost in thought, a knock came at the door, followed by Daphne's voice.
"Lydia. Are you awake?"
I should have told her to come in since I was awake, but before I knew it, I had lain back down and closed my eyes.
