Knock, knock.

The sound of knocking was heard from outside the door.

“My lady, just a moment. I think the delicious crab soup has arrived.”

“Mm.”

“Come i— Gasp! Ma, Ma…”

The maid’s voice suddenly cut off. Her breathing was strangely trembling, and her body was stiff.

But Fiache, consumed by fever, noticed nothing.

“Yes? It’s a bother, so get o— Ah, yes, yes. I under… Um, my lady, I have something to attend to, so I’ll step out for a moment and come back. Your meal… uh, one of the maids will help you. Please chew thoroughly and eat slowly.”

“Yes…”

The sound of the door closing indicated that the maid had left.

A moment later, the ‘maid’’ who brought the food took the ice packs from Fiache’s armpits.

The damp towel covering her forehead was also removed.

Thanks to that, the bone-chilling cold vanished, but now she suffered because of the heat.

Just as a tear rolled down from the corner of Fiache’s tightly closed eyes.

Slide.

Someone wiped away the tear.

Fiache forced her eyes open. Between the fever and the tears pooling in her eyes, she couldn’t see clearly.

She closed her eyes again. The same hand as before slowly cupped her cheek.

‘I don’t think it’s the maids’ hand.’

She had touched all the maids’ hands, but this one was much softer and slender. And it was cooler.

Fiache let out a whimpering sound and rubbed her cheek against the palm.

For a moment, the heat seemed to vanish.

‘It’s cool, so I like it. Please keep touching me.’

But the hand soon left her cheek.

Before she could feel regret, that hand gripped Fiache under her armpits and carefully lifted her up.

Soon, a wide, plush cushion supported her small back.

Lacking strength in her neck, her head flopped backward. Then, the slender, cool hand firmly cradled the back of her head.

The hand slowly stroked the back of her head as if telling her to be careful.

“Haa, thank, thank you…”

Fiache smiled, her eyes narrowing.

The small clink of cutlery followed.

After the sound of a soft blow to cool the food, something warm touched her lips.

‘It’s the delicious crab soup.’

Normally, she would have accepted it before even smelling the savory aroma.

But Fiache couldn’t open her mouth.

Even though she had promised the maid, she simply couldn’t eat.

‘I promised I would eat, what should I do? I feel like I’ll throw up if I swallow.’

No. If she threw up, it would be a disaster.

She didn’t know what would happen here since she’d never thrown up at the Ivrante Estate, but at her adoptive family’s home, she had been locked in the bathroom until the smell was gone.

Thinking of that day, her jaw tightened.

The fear of being hated for breaking a promise was smaller than the fear of throwing up and being locked away.

At that moment, the hand supporting the back of her head moved slowly.

It gently stroked her round head and brushed away the strands of hair sticking to her forehead one by one.

The touch was truly awkward and cautious. Even amidst the pain, a smile escaped her.

The maids did it with a ‘swipe-swipe’ motion, not ‘softly.’

‘But I think softly is better.’

The corners of her mouth relaxed. Through that gap, the soup flowed in.

Contrary to her worries, her stomach didn’t churn.

She had been certain she would throw up. It was miraculously fine.

‘Ah, thank goodness! I can eat!’

The ‘maid’ who slowly fed her the soup also gave her the medicine and then wiped the corners of her mouth.

The touch remained awkward until the end, and she couldn’t contain her curiosity.

‘Miss, who are you? Why aren’t you saying anything?’

She forced her eyelids open.

Through her blurred, swimming vision, she could make out a vague silhouette.

‘…Platinum blonde?’

She thought she’d seen a beautiful color, but she couldn’t tell if it was the color of the hair or the clothes.

“Uuu…”

As soon as she focused a little, her eyes stung. Tears flowed down her temples.

It felt as if someone were pressing hard on her eyes inside her head.

She was terrified that her eyeballs might pop out.

‘It hurts so much, it hurts!’

Fiache wanted to cry and throw a tantrum.

She felt like it would hurt a little less if she did.

But she endured.

She kept her lips tightly closed, clenched her jaw, and endured with all her might.

‘I mustn’t cry out loud. That’s a bad thing. If I’m caught, I might be kicked out. No, I will be kicked out. I want to live here. I don’t want to be abandoned again.’

Disjointed thoughts continued.

Fiache prayed, not even knowing who she was praying to.

Then, while she was enduring the pain and groans with her eyes closed, a fair hand gently covered her eyes.

‘It’s cool…’

The pain gradually faded. Fiache slowly fell into a deep sleep.

While tightly clutching a slender pinky finger.

***

After a day, Fiache was perfectly fine, as though she’d never been sick at all.

Fiache opened her storybook and looked at the pictures, waiting for lunchtime to arrive.

‘I’ll be able to eat with Her Grace today, right?’

The thought of seeing the Duchess after a long time made her feel like she could fly.

“My lady, excuse us.”

The maids swarmed into Fiache’s bedroom.

They set up a round table in the center of the room and spread a wide white lace cloth over it.

With a vase full of roses in the middle, they set the tableware on both sides.

Fiache sat perched on the bed and watched quietly.

‘What are the maids doing now?’

Once the setting was finished, other maids entered and began laying out the food.

Only then did she realize.

‘Ah, they’re preparing the meal in my bedroom because I was sick.’

But she was completely recovered. Enough to eat in the dining room without any trouble.

“I, I’m not, not sick anymore.”

“Still, please eat in your bedroom until today.”

The maids withdrew their kind smiles and stepped back.

As if clearing a path.

A moment later, someone entered the bedroom. It was the most beautiful person Fiache had seen in her five years of life.

“Y-your Grace…”

She couldn’t believe the Duchess was in her bedroom.

The Duchess had never once visited Fiache’s bedroom.

As she just stared blankly, the Duchess looked down at Fiache with cold eyes.

“What are you staring at? Are you protesting because I didn’t check on you while you were sick?”

“W-what is a pr-protest?”

Did the corner of the Duchess’s mouth just lift slightly? Did she see it wrong?

“Hmm, come and sit.”

Fiache blinked a few times before hurriedly jumping down from the bed.

“But… th-this is my bed, my bedroom…”

“And? There is nowhere in my house that I cannot go.”

‘She really did come here knowing it was my bedroom!’

Fiache twisted her fingers together and gave a silly smile.

The Duchess pointed to the table with an exasperated look.

“What are you doing? I told you to sit.”

“Yes!”

Fiache hopped into the chair, only to freeze instantly.

She had acted on impulse because she was feeling too happy.

‘The Duchess hates undignified behavior the most. What do I do?’

Just imagining the Duchess leaving without a second thought nearly brought tears to her eyes.

“…….”

However, the Duchess simply unfolded her napkin with elegance.

Why wasn’t she saying anything? She thought she would be scolded for acting improperly.

‘She must not have seen it! Phew, thank goodness!’

Fiache let out a secret sigh of relief and picked up her salad fork.

‘I want to eat soup.’

Perhaps because she had been so sick, she didn’t want anything cold.

But to follow the proper order of the meal, she had to eat the salad first…

Just as Piace speared a piece of salad with her fork without letting her disappointment show-

“The salad isn’t fresh. Take it away.”

“……?”

Fiache looked at the salad with wide eyes.

It looked incredibly fresh to her.

“Yes, Master.”

The maids approached like ghosts and whisked away the salad plate, along with the fork Fiache was holding.

‘N-now what? Should I wait until the maids bring the salad back?’

In her panic, Fiache noticed the Duchess.

The Duchess was holding a spoon, very slowly scooping up some soup.

‘Ah! I guess it’s okay to eat soup first today!’

Fiache beamed and drank the chicken soup.

As the warm broth entered her body, her stomach felt comforted.

‘It’s delicious!’

Suddenly, hunger hit her, and her mouth began to water.

She swung her feet back and forth before quickly setting them down and glancing at a plate placed near the Duchess.

It was one of her favorite foods, but it was too far away.

Reaching across the table during a meal was terribly improper, so she couldn’t do that.

Fiache licked her lips and quietly swallowed her soup.

“Move this over there. The smell is bothersome.”

“……?”

A maid moved the plate of food right in front of Fiache.

‘I don’t smell anything?’

Furthermore, until now, the Duchess had always ordered bothersome food to be removed immediately; she had never asked for it to be moved elsewhere.

Fiache began to feel strange.

Any dish she looked at even once was inevitably moved in front of her.

And the foods she didn’t want to eat vanished like magic.

It was as if she wanted her to eat just a little bit more.

Of course, it must be a coincidence.

There was no way the Duchess would do such a thing for her.

Besides, she had phrased it as if she himself disliked the taste or the smell…

Fiache suppressed her rising excitement and finished her meal.

Once again, the maids efficiently cleared everything from the tableware to the table.

Watching this, Fiache fell into a belated state of shock.

‘Ah! I should have eaten more slowly! I’m such a fool!’

She had eaten too quickly.

Did she look like a glutton? The Director had said that children who are too fond of eating are not loved.

With a gloomy face, Fiache looked down at the neatly cleared carpet.

The Duchess’s sharp gaze landed on the child’s round forehead.

“Fiache, I was sick a few days ago. Do you remember?”

“Yes!”

“Do you know who healed me then?”

Fiache pictured the face of the Ivrante family’s physician.

He was a grandfather with a cool beard, but she couldn’t quite remember his name.

“T-the, uh, the doctor grandpa.”

“I see.”

The Duchess replied as if talking to herself. She looked lost in thought.

“By the way, have you heard of the Academy?”

“No……”

“The Academy is a place where you study with friends. You can meet people your own age. Would you like to go?”

Friends? She wanted to go right this instant! But…

“You don’t want to?”

“N-no! I-it’s not that, it’s not…”

“Then?”

“I-If I g-go there… d-does that mean I c-can’t come back here anymore?”

“…….”

The Duchess looked at Fiache silently before answering.

“What a strange thing to ask. The place you live is the Ivrante Estate, not the Academy. Of course you must come back.”

“T-then I’ll go! I-I want to go!”

“Very well.”

The Duchess stood up as she answered. Was she leaving just like that?

As a startled Fiache stood up, a maid handed her a cute little box.

“Lady Fiache, please take this. It’s a gift to celebrate your recovery.”

“Oh……”

Cookies!

Fiache’s mouth fell open in a wide grin.

Because of the chef who absolutely refused to make desserts, seeing cookies in the mansion was a very rare occurrence.

‘Could the Duchess have prepared this for me?’

The moment she looked up with eyes full of expectation-

The Duchess turned abruptly and left the bedroom without a word of farewell.

She didn’t even seem interested in what the maid had given Fiache.

‘Did the butler give them to me?’

The butler had sent cookies through a maid once before. Was it like that this time too…

Thinking about it, there was no way the Duchess would have prepared cookies for her.

She must have been mistaken because the Duchess felt unusually kind today. Like a fool.

‘But why did the Duchess seem so kind?’

The cold gaze, the thorny way of speaking. Everything was exactly the same as the usual Duchess…

Why did she seem like a different person?

She agonized over it until her head hurt, but she couldn’t find the answer.