111. Peculiar Nursing
Beatrix completely turned her gaze away from her husband and resumed drinking her tea. Usher, who was beside her, cautiously asked.
“Is the Princess Consort’s health very poor, Mother?”
Upon hearing those words, Beatrix slammed her teacup down and pointed at Usher.
“Yes. That’s how you should ask, like that!”
Beatrix glared at her husband with a fierce look and raised her voice.
“No, I mean, your only daughter-in-law is sick and couldn’t attend the event! You should ask how sick she is, if she’s alright!”
“Ah, no… That’s why when you said you were going to visit her yesterday, I said I’d go with you…”
“‘Ah, should I go too, then?’”
“……”
“Are you going on a picnic?! That’s all you said! Not how sick she is, or if she’s alright!”
Leonard, feeling stung, tightly shut his mouth before cautiously asking.
“How is Olivia’s health?”
“…I’m planning to send someone to check on her later. And I’ve told Olivia that you’re also concerned about her health, so when you meet her later, ask her how she is.”
“Alright! Once she feels better, I should invite her to the Royal Palace soon. Our daughter-in-law is on the front page today! Our daughter-in-law liking candy is front-page news!”
“……”
“……”
As Leonard excitedly muttered, Usher and the Queen Consort stared at him with the same expression before letting out deep sighs.
At that moment, the King’s secretary entered with a soft knock. Leonard’s expression immediately changed.
“Did you find out?!”
“Yes!”
The mother and son stopped their meal, wondering if something significant had happened, and looked at the secretary. The secretary, sweating under the intense gazes of the three royals, reported loudly.
“Princess Lucy made five presentations during her classes yesterday, and one of them even received applause from her classmates. She finished her meal completely and sat next to the second daughter of the Rupel Baron family during lunch.”
Usher frowned as if disgusted by the secretary’s report, and Beatrix closed her eyes tightly, letting out a long sigh.
Regardless of what the two were doing, Leonard was as serious as if he were listening to a briefing on a national policy project.
“And this morning, she had a slight cough, so she saw a doctor, took medicine, and went to school.”
“What?! A slight cough?! That uniform is so thin; she finally caught a cold!!”
As Leonard burst out in anger, the secretary flinched and apologized.
“Why are you apologizing when you’ve done nothing wrong? You’ve worked hard. Go now.”
Beatrix, unable to watch any longer, dismissed him, and Leonard said with an anxious face.
“Her coat looked cold. She must have caught a cold being in that crowded place…”
“That could be. Just do it moderately. You said you’d go with Lucy on her way to school again today, but Lucy refused, right?”
“……”
“It’s time to let go a little and watch the direction the child is walking in.”
Leonard sighed deeply and stroked his chin.
The mother and son in front of him would never understand his feelings.
“Sigh… Anyway, if Noah really came because he was worried about Olivia, as you said… What is he doing right now? Is he even nursing her?”
That cynical guy, of all people.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
‘Oh my goodness.’
That was the exclamation most often uttered in the Prince’s residence this morning.
“There’s still some left.”
Noah, sitting next to Olivia, pointed out her plate as soon as she showed signs of putting down her spoon.
“It’s not like you have a problem with your stomach, so you have to finish that much, even if you don’t want to.”
Unable to resist his urging, Olivia was finally able to finish her meal after a few more bites.
While Olivia wiped her mouth with a napkin, Noah pushed a small dish containing pills towards her and asked.
“Can you take pills?”
This… it’s just like the question my grandmother used to ask me when I was around ten years old.
“…Of course?”
“Take them.”
As Olivia tossed the pills into her mouth, Noah even held a glass of water to her lips. Before she could even feel embarrassed, water rushed into her mouth, and Olivia quickly swallowed the pills. Then, Noah immediately pushed a round candy into her mouth.
“Your favorite candy.”
“How do you know?”
“There’s probably no one in Herot who doesn’t know that fact now.”
Ridiculously, it was front-page news.
As Noah wiped the water from the corner of Olivia’s mouth with his thumb and answered, Olivia quickly wiped his thumb with a napkin.
Why is this man doing this?
If the person involved was like this, how much more would the onlookers be?
Only Noah Astrid was relaxed.
“Clear the table.”
How can a person’s tone change like this?
The servants shuddered at the temperature difference that made them feel inexplicably sad and quickly cleared the table and retreated.
“Aren’t you going to work today?”
“No.”
‘Then why did you come so early?’ Olivia wanted to ask that, but she swallowed the question. If she asked with a desired answer in mind, she might get hurt.
Noah casually replied and moved the sofa towards the sunny direction. After fiddling with the sofa and curtains this way and that, he suddenly picked up Olivia and sat her on the sofa.
“Why do you keep…!”
As Olivia tapped his shoulder, Noah quickly sat down next to her and quickly replied.
“You keep asking for reasons, so it’s just easier for me to pick you up and move you.”
Then, without giving Olivia a chance to reply, he took her temperature.
“Any pain when you breathe?”
“No.”
Noah nodded as if satisfied and laid down, using Olivia’s lap as a pillow.
“You just ate, so don’t lie down; sit for a while. It’s quite a sunny day, so get some sunlight. That’s how you get healthy.”
Then, he leisurely opened a book.
As Olivia stared at him in disbelief and chuckled, Noah asked, turning a page.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It feels like I’ve become a five-year-old.”
“You suppressed your pain until you got sick, so you’re worse than a five-year-old. They never do what they don’t like. They don’t endure or persevere. The only good thing about enduring and persevering is treating illness.”
“Then should I act like a spoiled five-year-old?”
“Do it. I’ll accept it.”
“……”
Olivia, who was about to say something, tightly closed her mouth and looked out the window at the sunlight. The trees, with all their remaining leaves fallen and only bare branches left, trembled finely. Watching that trembling, Olivia quietly fell into thought.
Is it not the right way to endure, persevere, and withstand? Was it the wrong thing to do?
“Oh, right, Noah.”
“What?”
“Princess Lucy has finally gone to school, they say!”
“In the end, General Lucy achieved victory."I should go buy her a congratulatory entrance gift tomorrow."”
At those words, Noah, who was reading a book, frowned and looked up.
“Where are you planning to go? In this condition?”
“Would tomorrow be too much? Then the day after tomorrow. The gift shouldn’t be too late.”
Then Noah got up and sat down, looking Olivia in the eye.
“Don’t you remember the people who swarmed that day?”
“……”
“First, choose Lucy’s gift through the merchants. Anyway, I have to get you a new dress, so I’ve booked the dressmaker for early next week.”
“My dress?”
“I threw away all the ones you had. You don’t want to wear a Corset again, do you? I’ve told the dressmaker that, so they’ll bring a whole new design catalog.”
The words that he threw away so many things sounded sincere.
Whether Olivia blinked in confusion or not, Noah laid back down, using her lap as a pillow, and added at length.
“And I looked it up in advance because I thought you’d ask me again, but Corset is neither etiquette nor tradition. It’s just a ridiculous thing made to show off a slim waist. So don’t wear it again.”
“……”
“Answer quickly that you understand.”
Noah glared up at her, urging her to answer, and Olivia couldn’t help but nod.
“I understand.”
Only after hearing a clear answer did he turn his gaze back to the book.
This selfish man… as he said, he must think she’s worse than a five-year-old.
Whether it was the medicine she took after the meal that made her sleepy, Olivia soon fell asleep. Noah watched her fall completely asleep before getting up and carefully closing the curtains.
Leaving the darkened room behind, he headed straight to his office.
The atmosphere of the Prince, who had been by the Princess Consort’s side with a constantly affectionate(?) face, changed darkly like midnight on a moonless night.
He sat in his office and quickly wrote something down.
Methone, who had slipped in, swallowed hard at his rapidly changing demeanor and stood upright by the desk. It felt as if the surroundings were dark even though the sun hadn’t set yet.
Noah put down his fountain pen and quietly examined the list he had written.
“No one’s missing.”
Methone immediately realized what was written on the paper in the Prince’s hand.
Of all things to touch, they had to touch Noah Astrid’s nerves.
Noah slowly blinked his eyes and said lightly.
“Notify them that we’re withdrawing the investment in Seymour’s hotel and Letium’s mining business.”
At his words, Methone showed a troubled expression.
“Your Highness… The cancellation of investments related to the Wilhelm Corporation… we might be able to smooth it over somehow, but if you unilaterally withdraw the money going into Seymour and Letium, we might lose credibility.”
Then Noah chuckled.
“Methone.”
“Yes.”
“This company is not my goal. It’s just a means. It was that way in the past, and it still is now.”
The Royal Family wanted to end the punishment at Mrs. Timberlin’s level, but he had no intention of doing so. Retaliation always comes with losses.
And in Noah’s calculation, if this could serve as a warning, it wasn’t a loss at all.
“Do as I say.”
“…Understood.”
“If the heads of the Seymour and Letium families request a meeting, set the location as the company’s reception room.”
Methone nodded, hoping that the two family heads would beg on their hands and knees.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Noah pressed down on the paper with his pen and pushed it towards Methone.
“And find out the movements of the families written here, and… from now on, bring all invitations coming to Olivia to me first.”
“Invitations coming to Her Highness?”
Noah didn’t even bother to reply, as if telling him not to ask twice, and said something completely different.
"For the time being, I’ll be handling work from the residence, so keep that in mind."”
