Chapter 28

Viscount Melvia was a doctor who had been to the battlefield many times. He often participated as a military doctor. The reason was that no matter how much of a viscount he was, tuition for the medical academy was not affordable.

Military doctors were often stationed in the rear rather than the front lines, and they also worked in barracks where knights returning from the front lines came, so it was less dangerous.

And most importantly, if one served as a military doctor for a certain period, academy costs were free. That’s why Viscount Melvia had seen Callisten several times.

Once, there was a surprise attack on the barracks where Callisten was staying. At that time, Callisten was badly injured but pretended not to be as he led the knights.

That incident wasn’t even reported to the imperial family.

Callisten, who had risen to the position of Crown Prince by his own merit, was a completely different Battlefield Demon from his current appearance. How many enemy soldiers died when they approached him.

It was a great shock even to Viscount Melvia to see enemy soldiers being cut in half and turned into corpses every time he swung his large sword vertically and horizontally with indifference.

Even though he was used to seeing injured knights as a military doctor.

It was also his first time seeing people, who were once human, collapsing miserably to the ground in pieces.

And those demonic red eyes that shone alone even in that dark and gloomy place.

“Hup……”

Viscount Melvia’s entire body unconsciously stiffened as he recalled that time.

“Cal, stop bothering the doctor and come here. Stay still.”

Callisten looked at the chart once and quickly flipped through all the pages as if memorizing it. After viewing everything, he handed it back to Viscount Melvia.

He went near Briseyes.

“Stop opening your eyes like that.”

At Briseyes’s words, he smiled with crescent eyes and pretended not to. However, Briseyes wondered what he had seen in the medical record that made his eyes flip like that.

“Does anyone not know you have a shellfish allergy?”

“Everyone here except you probably didn’t know.”

“Do you have a shellfish allergy?”

“I knew too.”

“So did I.”

Everyone except Casius, including Saturn and Evusi, seemed to know.

“I was the only one who didn’t know.”

“No. Saturn and Evusi know because they’ve been close friends for a long time.”

Saturn looked at Briseyes’s swollen face with concern.

“Did you eat it by mistake?”

“Bri, it’s rare for you to make mistakes. Especially with food.”

Saturn and Evusi stood beside Briseyes and spoke with concern. Briseyes felt incredibly grateful that they had come.

“I’m fine.”

“Should I send doctors from our family? We have many doctors in our count’s house.”

“No matter how many, their skills can’t compare to the doctors here.”

Callisten said this with a smile. Somehow, both Saturn and Evusi thought his smile was strange, and now they understood why.

The twins seemed to realize just then that Callisten actually smiled when he was angry, and they closed their mouths and looked at Briseyes.

“I told you not to open your eyes strangely, but you’re smiling with a weird expression?”

“Can I go downstairs for a moment?”

“Yes, sure. Could you get some fruit for the visitors from the first floor when you come back?”

“We brought that!”

At Briseyes’s words, Saturn and Evusi took out a fruit basket.

They looked at Viscount Melvia as if asking if she could eat this.

“Patient meals are being served, so it’s fine as long as you don’t overeat.”

“I’ll wash the fruit. I’m quite good at cutting them too.”

Casius said this and picked up apples, pears, and shine muscat grapes.

So Saturn and Evusi remained by Briseyes’s side, while Callisten watched Viscount Melvia marking the chart before leaving together.

Casius went to wash the fruit.

As soon as Callisten went out into the hallway, he glared at Viscount Melvia and jerked his chin as if telling him to follow. Viscount Melvia unconsciously followed him.

Soon, the two closed the door to the emergency stairwell and faced each other.

“Tell me everything you heard.”

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

“Why is ‘Abenr Di Mays’ written as the reason for Briseyes’s allergic reaction?”

“Ah……”

Viscount Melvia pressed his lips together, troubled that Callisten had read what he had unconsciously written.

“I should have written ‘shrimp,’ but I wrote that without thinking.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“How did you read such small handwriting?”

“Do I look like a patient person, Viscount Melvia?”

“N-no, Your Highness.”

At Callisten’s command that sounded like an ultimatum, Viscount Melvia stood straight, reminded of his military doctor days.

“P-patient’s private matters……”

“Do you want to make your last statement?”

“I’ll tell you right away!”

Viscount Melvia somehow felt the stairs behind him were very threatening.

He couldn’t hide it anyway since Callisten had already seen the medical record.

“From what I heard, it seems former Grand Duchess Abenr Di Mays played a prank on Grand Duchess Mays’s food.”

“Did she feed her shrimp?”

“It seems she fed her food cooked with shrimp. If it was shrimp itself, Her Grace would have known.”

Callisten was smiling again. Viscount Melvia now knew that when he smiled like this, he wasn’t genuinely smiling.

“I see. Good work.”

When Callisten patted his shoulder and disappeared, Viscount Melvia unconsciously slumped to the floor.

⁕⁕⁕

It took Callisten two hours to return to Briseyes’s side.

“Where did everyone go?”

“They all thought you left first and went home.”

Briseyes wondered why he hadn’t left yet. Especially since he appeared after two hours.

“Oh, really?”

“Where have you been?”

“Are you worried about me?”

“No. Go now. I want to rest.”

Callisten thought it was fortunate that Briseyes’s hospital room was a private room. He comfortably approached Briseyes, who was sitting indifferently on the bed, opening a book.

When he sat very close to her side, she moved away.

“Are you crazy?”

“Didn’t you move over so I could sit with you?”

She had moved aside because he was too close, but he boldly sat beside her and smiled.

“The bed will collapse.”

“It won’t. You’re too light.”

She thought his muscular body would be quite heavy. The evidence was the spring bouncing and making a dull noise when he sat on the bed.

“I’m a patient.”

“You look so pretty even in a hospital gown.”

He said this sincerely. The white hospital gown she wore looked like an elegant robe when Briseyes wore it.

“How can you say that when I’m so swollen?”

She knew that although Casius, Saturn, and Evusi didn’t show it, they knew her body was swollen and ugly.

In reality, her friends didn’t show any sign of it and only worried about her.

However, when she recalled Demian’s subtle and frowning expression when he looked at her, she felt dejected, thinking she had lost her former beauty.

“Bri?”

Briseyes unconsciously closed her book and stared at Callisten.

She was curious how this honest and willful man would view her current appearance.

At the same time, she thought it would be devastating if even Callisten despised her swollen appearance.

As Briseyes looked at him with a dejected expression, as if depending on him.

“Ugh…!”

Callisten gasped for breath and tried to rest his head on her shoulder. Since Briseyes had an IV in her right hand, she tried to push his head away with her left hand.

The sound of the bed springs bouncing overlapped with the creaking sound of the cold chastity belt’s metal friction.

Since he was trembling but still trying to touch her, it wasn’t easy for her to push his head away.

“You feel lust even when I’m in this condition?”

“When you look, at me like that… how can I not?”

“Forget it, don’t say anything.”

Even with his eyes closed, the image of Briseyes’s expression, her plump lips, and those brilliant sky-blue eyes that seemed to want something from him remained under his eyelids, making his blood boil and feeling like he might go crazy.

“Ha……”

Seeing his face turn pale while his neck turned bright red, she unconsciously smiled.

“Don’t look, at me like that. I really, can’t stand it.”

He spoke while gasping for breath, and although his ears turned red too, he didn’t move away from her and continued leaning against her.

“Calm down quickly. And tell me what you learned today.”

“Ha…… Okay.”

He sighed deeply but seemed unable to calm down easily as his body continued to tremble.

Eventually, Callisten managed to calm down and told Briseyes about the class content.

Briseyes felt that her anxiety had somewhat subsided, perhaps because he consistently acted strangely toward her.

⁕⁕⁕

It was that night.

The palace gates close at 7 PM. However, if there were specially invited guests, they could stay until 9 PM.

It was now 7 PM.

Callisten was sitting with a guest in the rear garden.

“Your Highness, I came because you called.”

Abenr Di Mays was forcibly brought to the palace when Callisten urgently summoned her. Callisten’s knights practically dragged her there.

This was why it took Callisten two hours to return to see Briseyes again. He had given orders to his knights and attended to some urgent business.

“I’m not usually one to give warnings.”

Callisten looked at former Grand Duchess Abenr Di Mays, who was anxiously fiddling with her teacup in front of him, and spoke with a cold smile.

“But it seems there are people who can’t understand warnings?”