“I already saw the map, so all I have to do is go.”
Apparently, Klaus had seen the map while I was dozing off and had memorized it perfectly.
I asked, pretending to clap.
“Did you remember?”
“Is there anyone who sees it once and doesn’t remember it?”
Unlucky… … .
“Young lady, your expression. Your expression.”
Klaus pointed to the corner of my mouth and laughed.
I glanced back at the duke who had escaped on horseback.
“Will the Duke stay still?”
“What will you do if you don’t stay still? Are you afraid of starting a fight against the imperial family?”
“Your Highness is so unlucky that he might start a fight.”
“Is this an expression of your opinion?”
“Oh, I’m a non-combatant. Except.”
As I smiled and raised my hand, Klaus also smiled with a more relaxed expression.
A low voice whispered reassuringly.
“In nobles’ fights, cause is important.”
“There is justification for being rude.”
“Under normal circumstances, the Lady might be right. But we are giving up our precious time to help the Duke’s local residents. In this situation, it is the Duke who first suspected us and acted rudely.”
“Well, the duke was rude too.”
I frowned as I remembered the Duke approaching me with an air of hostility just because I was in the drawing room.
Klaus also hardened his expression as if he remembered that scene.
“Yes, that was rude. How dare you.”
“That’s right. If it wasn’t for your highness, it would have felt like I was about to hit you. Thank you so much.”
“If I go back, I might challenge him to a duel.”
“…Don’t be so angry because of me. If you do that for no reason, you’ll end up making a lot of enemies and getting stabbed.”
Klaus’ voice became sinister and he hastily stopped him.
I’m so grateful that you’re angry for me, but I’m worried that I’ll get caught up in something unnecessary.
‘It seems like he’s the type of person who gets punished with his mouth.’
He’s a bit obnoxious, but he’s a good friend, so I can’t let him get in trouble and get into trouble.
Klaus was silent for a moment.
And he asked in a voice filled with laughter.
“Are you worried about me?”
“Of course. I’m worried.”
Of course, it’s like a mouse worrying about a cat.
Normally, it would have been Klaus’ turn to make him regret saying something for no reason by making a mean comment.
But somehow Klaus was quiet. I called Klaus.
“majesty?”
“why?”
“Don’t you have more to say?”
I’m not saying that I like being criticized.
But it’s strange because the person who was originally the head of hell didn’t say a word!
Klaus tilted his head and a soft smile appeared on his lips.
He said.
“Can I say thank you?”
“…Oh my, you picked something wrong.”
“what?”
“No, it’s okay. It’s good to see change in a positive direction.”
I hastily ended the conversation. I heard that people have changed positively, but I didn’t want to ask questions about the reason.
Our Klaus has become human! I got sprouted hair!
“Or, did you want the same thing, like a mouse worrying about a cat, so why don’t you treat the lady well?”
“It hasn’t changed at all.”
“I didn’t know you had that kind of taste.”
“No. I’m not buying it. Go away.”
okay. How can people change so quickly? It was all a paving stone for this moment.
I added a minus 10 to Klaus’ character in my mental note.
I was already approaching the end of my tour of the northern region with Klaus.
Duke Bruedel seemed to have tried to send several letters of protest, but Klaus was able to defeat all those who came after us with his advanced dressage skills.
Thanks to this, I suffered from motion sickness, but let’s overlook such trivial matters.
In the north, the mountains were rugged and the land was barren, so there were not many permanent residents.
Due to the characteristics of the North, where there are few residents and the distance between the territories is quite large, Klaus and I predicted that the infection rate in the North would be lower than in other places.
However, the situation in the north was very different from what we expected.
“The contagion rate is too high. It seems like the number of infected people is higher than in the crowded capital city.”
“It would be faster to find an uninfected person than an infected person.”
“Besides, why is there a shortage of medicine? We were supposed to send plenty to all provinces.”
“I’ll have to interrogate the supply officer as soon as I get back.”
Klaus gritted his teeth. I also sighed from the fatigue that was coming.
To exaggerate a bit, it would have been nice to say that four out of five people were infected.
Afterwards, I was so exhausted that I even discussed having everyone in the village take medicine.
There were too many infected people, but there was not enough medicine distributed to each region.
If it weren’t for the medicine Klaus and I brought as backup, there were people who wouldn’t have received the medicine.
At most, a couple of spare medicines were taken out while traveling around the east, west, and south, but they were all running out in the north. The full sack showed its bottom.
“There are so many strange things happening in the North, starting with the Duke’s reaction.”
“I think I need to visit the duke again.”
“That’s right. I want to punch the Duke in the back of the head.”
“Is it very difficult?”
“yes.”
Klaus laughed bitterly at my immediate answer. He, too, was a human being with a conscience and did not think of denying himself this difficult journey.
Instead, he chose gentle encouragement.
“This is the last village, so please hold on just a little longer. I’m sorry, young lady.”
“But don’t even apologize. When you get back, please buy me a cake from the pastry shop we ate at the festival.”
“If you want, I’ll buy you a snack shop too.”
“It’s a bit much to go to a pastry shop, but….”
“Don’t do that.”
“Ah, Your Highness. The rule in our neighborhood is that you can refuse three times, right?”
“The soup rules are different here. What did the young lady say? If you go to ramen, you have to follow the ramen law?”
“It’s not ramen, it’s Roma. Isn’t it so different?”
“I was confused because the young lady always talked about ramen. It’s roughly the same.”
“It’s not the same at all!”
By flirting like that, my tired mind was lightly refreshed.
Klaus and I soon arrived at the last village.
As soon as I arrived at the village, I saw purple health bar people everywhere.
Klaus and I gathered all the people with purple health bars and robbed the clinic of its medicine.
“Are you saying I really have that strange disease?”
“Oh, thank you, Your Majesty. I almost died!”
“I feel reassured that your Majesty, a saint like you, is continuing the imperial family of this country.”
“A noble lady would come all the way to a place like this… You said you live in the south, right? Doesn’t that territory accept immigrants?”
Reactions varied, but they were generally ones of emotion and gratitude.
After taking out the last medicine at the treatment center, I asked the people.
“If you know someone from this village who is not here, please tell them right away.”
A few people’s names were mentioned.
“Marie in the house behind you will be sleeping at this time.”
“The noble lady staying at Hunter Gilter’s house didn’t come out. She must have gone to the mountain to gather herbs.”
“There are people out hunting, and they will probably be back around noon.”
Then one person raised his hand and asked.
“Achacha, have you ever been to the house in front of me?”
The place he pointed to was an inn. I knocked on the door, but no one came out, so I thought it was empty and didn’t look.
When I shook my head, the man sighed.
“Oh my. That house is the most urgent, but I forgot to tell you.”
“Urgent?”
“Yes. The daughter of that house has been vomiting blood for a few days, developed a high fever, and spots have appeared all over her body.”
“Didn’t you deliver the medicine?”
“There was an order not to distribute medicine at the treatment center until the lords of each region confirmed the situation.”
“……It’s a peacock’s work.”
“maybe.”
Klaus and I made eye contact and nodded.
The man who started the story finished his explanation weakly.
“That’s why I locked the inn so that if my daughter died, I would die with her. I said I would prevent the disease from spreading.”
“I should go right away.”
As we stood up, the doctor at the clinic grabbed our collars from behind.
“Why do you do that?”
“Your Highness, I am embarrassed to tell you this, but there is no more medicine at the treatment center. We sent someone to the surrounding area as soon as possible, but I don’t know how long it will take…”
“That’s okay.”
“It’s okay.”
Dismissing the old doctor’s concerns, Klaus and I immediately ran out. We still had the medicine in the sack.
“……Ana, please come to your senses, Anna…….”
“……Lily, I think we need to prepare our hearts….”
“Ana, before you go, can you please take a look at your mother’s face…?”
A plea mixed with sobbing was heard from a room at the end of the second floor of a small inn.
In the middle of the bed in the quiet room, a bloodless girl lay with her eyes closed.
The couple’s faces were clearly showing signs of illness as they held the girl’s hands on both sides, but their eyes were only focused on the girl lying on the hospital bed.
“Anna, I’m sorry about your mom… If Mom had been a more capable person, Anna would have gotten better quickly… Cough.”
“No, Lily, Anna….”
Her husband, James, watched with empty eyes as his wife, Lily, coughed and coughed up blood.
Purple spots were already blooming on James and Lily’s bodies.
It was something I had decided to do when I decided to stay with Anna, but seeing my dying family made me feel like the mixture of sadness and anger would burn me out.
“Lily, I’m sorry. I… I wish I had gone to the duke myself…”
“We made a promise together to stay with Anna. James, I’m glad you were by my side in the end….”
“…Okay. Anna, can you hear me? It won’t be too scary when you get there. Dad and Mom will follow soon…”
There seemed to be a moment of commotion below the inn, but the family didn’t pay attention to the small noise.
At best, it was probably my neighbor who came to persuade me that the person who would survive should survive.
‘okay. Those who will live must live.’
If a couple leaves because they want to live, eventually even their neighbors will contract the same cursed disease as Anna.
No matter what, they were neighbors with a lot of hate and good feelings.
“……If there is a next life, I hope we can meet again.”
“……yes.”
Exchanging words with unclear objectives, the couple prepared for a quiet end.
It was that moment.
bang!
The tightly sealed door was broken. A clear woman’s voice rang out loudly from behind.
“That baby is so skinny, no, it’s an emergency anyway! Quick!”
Before the couple could come to their senses, a black shadow opened the child’s mouth and poured something into it.
A woman’s voice rang softly from behind.
“Oh, maybe I played too much. I came up with an inappropriate word without realizing it….”
