Chapter 214
* * *
After lody brought stability to Loretta and the cruel fate receded.
Grand festivals were held throughout the capital to celebrate the return of Prince Samuel and the appearance of the new prince August.
Using the excuse of poor health, Loretta couldn’t attend any events and received lots of consolation letters and flowers from the people of the capital.
However, even with the gift bombardnt every day, Loretta didn’t seem particularly happy.
“Brother Jeremiah, how long do I have to stay only in this room?”
Today marked the fifth day since she started recuperating in the guest room.
Loretta complained for the first ti.
Jeremiah removed his hand from her forehead and tilted his head.
“There is a serious flaw in your words. I have never kept you ‘only in the room.’ I recomnded walks so you could see the sun for a certain period of ti.”
Loretta wiggled her bottom on the fluffy bed.
“Okay. I’ll correct it, how long do I have to stay ‘mostly in the room’?”
“Another week.”
At the firm answer, Loretta grabbed his hand and pleaded.
“I can’t live like this for another week! No. Even if I can, it’s too pitiful for lody!”
Surprised that the story suddenly turned to herself, lody stopped closing the window and turned to look at Loretta.
“I’m fine though?”
lody found it fun to spend all day with Loretta.
They played chess together and caught up on stories from before.
The story of Loretta going to the Magic Tower without the Duke knowing was very exciting.
lody also honestly confessed about going to Kristonson with Claude and the ti she spent in Belhold.
“I also enjoy being with lody of course, but I feel sorry sohow. For staying only in the room.”
“You don’t need to be sorry. I’m here because I like it.”
Above all, lody still kept the promise with the Records Keeper in her heart.
When she recalled the promise not to live in the capital, it felt wrong to go outside the mansion.
But Loretta, who didn’t know her situation, shook her head wildly.
“It’s already been five days since I’ve been lying down. That’s enough ti for a bean sprout to grow this much! Right, Brother?!”
Loretta looked at Jeremiah with sparkling eyes, but he only took out a dicine bottle from his bosom with an expressionless face.
“The growth of bean sprouts and your recovery have no relation.”
“You’re too much.”
Although she said that, Loretta drank the dicine she took every day in one gulp and lay down, sliding into the blanket.
Because she always felt sleepy after taking the dicine.
Soon the sound of Loretta falling asleep was heard, and Jeremiah silently activated the magic circle drawn in the room.
The mana filling Loretta’s body was stable, but the fact that the amount was excessively large remained unchanged.
Jeremiah reduced that mana little by little every day.
After the light of the magic circle disappeared, Jeremiah approached lody standing by the window.
“Is there any discomfort, even a little?”
“Do you rember asking the sa question yesterday?”
“I’m asking today’s you, Higgins.”
“I’m healthy. I’ll probably be healthy tomorrow too.”
“I’ll ask tomorrow’s you then. It’s fine if you don’t feel any discomfort.”
Jeremiah, who nodded, stood there blankly in silence.
Until now, after asking about lody’s well-being, he used to leave the room as if he had nothing more to do.
As lody tilted her head at the unusual behavior, he adjusted his glasses and turned his gaze.
“…I heard.”
“About what…?”
“That you read a record with a certain future written in it.”
“Ah.”
lody laughed awkwardly. Now it was aningless to call the ‘original work’ the ‘future’.
Because it had changed so much.
“Well, although… it wasn’t of much help.”
“Father doesn’t seem to think that way. The royal family has beco more stable due to the existence of Prince Samuel and his son.”
“But we couldn’t avoid Loretta going through hardships.”
“I apologize for that point.”
At the words he delivered with a slight nod, lody was flustered, saying, “Pardon?” Because he had done nothing wrong.
“Do you rember? When Loretta fell into a deep sleep before.”
“Yes. Of course…”
“Loretta was instinctively clinging to you like a lifeline even when she lost consciousness.”
“Did that have any aning?”
“It might have ant that Loretta has placed her heart’s center on you. Just as you have for that child.”
“But that.”
lody clasped her hands together and answered.
“Looking back now, it only ans there is room for such interpretation.”
“That is certainly true, but at least that room shouldn’t have been overlooked.”
Jeremiah often felt regret these days.
Thinking, what if he had told lody at that ti, ‘Loretta has made you the center of her heart’…?
“I think that if you knew that fact, you might have insisted on staying by Loretta’s side no matter what.”
If that had happened, Loretta might have been able to grow up without knowing the pain a physis must go through at all.
“It’s not your fault, Young Master. Actually, until recently, I didn’t think I would beco such an important person to Loretta.”
“Is it because of that ‘record’ you read?”
“Yes.”
lody nodded.
“It seems it didn’t turn out as recorded probably because I stayed by Loretta’s side.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“You don’t need to comfort .”
At her answer, one corner of Jeremiah’s mouth lifted crookedly.
“I’m not comforting you. I’m telling you the truth.”
“The truth?”
“Wasn’t it proven even by looking at the narrow world of the chessboard? Even with the sa board and pieces, the ga’s aspect changes every ti.”
“But I can’t escape the responsibility of changing the first move…”
“This is what I think, Higgins.”
He turned his gaze to the chessboard placed far away for a mont.
On the black and white board, traces of the small battle Loretta and lody had been waging a little while ago remained.
“I think the balance was already different the mont you first moved.”
“Pardon?”
“If I had to find the ‘first move’ of this world, it would be the one who made you read that record and rember it. Of course, I don’t know if that subject is a ‘person’ or ‘providence’.”
“That’s.”
“Anyway, you did your best with the given board to co this far. There is no reason for you to be blad.”
lody hesitated for a mont and cautiously opened her mouth.
“Was the path I chose… really the right one?”
“Of course, it was right. As proof.”
There was a very rare smile on Jeremiah’s face as he nodded.
“You won this ti too, didn’t you?”
When he drew his finger in the air, the chess pieces Loretta and lody had finished the ga with began to move backward to their respective camps.
The chess pieces soon returned to their original state.
No, it should be said that they finished preparing for a new ga.
* * *
As Loretta recovered her health to so extent, the Duke made an important decision.
He recomnded that all the mansion mbers stay elsewhere while the mansion was being properly repaired.
However, he left it up to each person’s decision where they would stay.
The Higgins couple insisted on staying in the capital with the Duke, but in the end, they decided to go to the Ainz mansion, Mrs. Higgins’ family ho.
Ronny declared that he would go to the ducal territory.
He said, “I’m tired of the noise, I’m just going to sleep.” but in fact, it must have been a decision to help his father and brother.
Claude chose to stay in the capital with the Duke.
The reason was that at least one person was needed to manage and supervise the mansion construction while the Duke worked at the Imperial Palace.
anwhile, lody hadn’t decided on her residence yet.
She occasionally asked Loretta, “What do you want to do?” but each ti, she only got the answer, “I’ll follow lody’s intention.”
‘Considering Loretta’s health, it would be too much to move too far.’
lody covered Loretta, who had fallen into a short nap, with a thin blanket up to her chin, quietly stepped back, and pondered her future schedule.
By the ti she grabbed and turned the doorknob, although the promise with the Records Keeper was on her mind a bit, the thought of renting a hotel in the capital and living there ca to her.
‘Loretta would feel at ease being close to the Duke, and Young Master Claude… will be there too.’
Thinking of him, lody naturally let out a sigh.
Recently, the relationship between him and lody had beco a bit awkward.
No, it felt like they had beco complete strangers. She couldn’t even recall when was the last ti they had a proper conversation.
It wasn’t this awkward when coming from Belhold to the capital.
Of course, both of them were out of their minds due to Loretta’s situation, so there was no room for awkwardness.
‘Sohow, I feel like Young Master is uncomfortable talking to .’
As a result, lody also began to act more and more stiffly towards him.
lody had been pondering the cause of this situation for days, but no matter how much she thought about it, there was only one answer.
‘Because the record and reality have beco so different…?’
Claude had been devoted to finding August for a long ti.
But in a crisis situation, August was of no help at all.
‘He worked so hard to find him, but in the end, it turned out like that… Even I wouldn’t feel very good.’
Thinking so, when she pulled the door open, soone was standing right in front of it.
Letting out a small surprised sound and looking up, there stood Claude, looking equally surprised.
“Ah.”
Perhaps because she had just been thinking about him, lody’s cheeks turned red as she flinched and turned her gaze away.
“…Miss is asleep. It will take about an hour for her to wake up.”
“I see.”
At the slightly slow answer, lody felt a sense of disappointnt for so reason.
From the mont she ran into Claude, her heart seed to have arbitrarily held so expectation.
That he might have co to talk to lody.
…It was a futile hope though.
“Then I’ll go back to my room for a bit. If you want, Young Master can stay by Miss’s side…”
“No, I have to leave soon too.”
“I see.”
Unlike saying he had to go, he stood his ground at the door a little longer.
Naturally, lody couldn’t return to her room either and ended up standing blankly at the doorway.
“Um, Young Master, if you don’t move aside, I can’t go to my room…”
“Miss lody.”
“Yes?”
When she looked up at him cautiously with a bit of surprise, he smiled awkwardly.
“By any chance, have you… decided where to stay?”
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