Haaam…
After finishing her day, Acella yawned softly as she entered my room.
Changing into her pajamas and coming into my room was her way of saying it’s time to sleep.
Being a routine that has lasted over a year, I’m quite used to it now.
Thanks to this, even if I have work left, I can’t keep it up until dawn.
That means I have to wrap things up quickly during the day, but fortunately, the faction healers have been taking a significant load off my shoulders lately.
However, there’s still a bit of tidying up to do.
“Just a moment. Please lie down first.”
As I sat at my desk writing in my notebook, Acella urged me on.
“Prince, I’m sleepy. Let’s sleep quickly.”
“There was a lot of work in the barbarian suppression operation. I have a carriage full of reports to inspect.”
“About that operation.”
Acella flopped down on the bed.
“By the way, there was a little kid looking for you. Thanks to them, my father managed to get through a critical time, and it was quite noisy. Didn’t you meet them?”
It seems it was about the boy who told us the location of the refugees.
“I saw them briefly since we had to leave in a hurry. Did you get to meet Count Blücher, Your Highness?”
“I didn’t want to stay a moment longer in such a cold and harsh land. I met the Count for a moment. He has become a fervent supporter of the Moonlight Palace.”
Acella smiled with satisfaction.
“Being this popular among the nobility, it’s bound to get annoying, right?”
“Are you planning to make them pay it back later?”
“Of course. When I become the Emperor, I’ll be repaid double the favors I’ve given.”
Acella giggled and then collapsed sideways into the bed, her hair flowing over the edge.
“Prince, I’ve waited long enough.”
“Yep.”
I couldn’t let Acella wait longer and take away her sleep time, so I decided to leave it at that.
Whoosh, I blew out the candle on the desk.
Once I got into bed, every muscle in my body cheered for comfort and demanded sleep.
It had been uncomfortable sleeping in carriages and makeshift beds during the expedition.
“Good night.”
“Hey, Prince. About the favor I granted.”
It was an unusually talkative Acella today.
If she wasn’t going to fall asleep immediately, she could have just let me do some more work.
“You remember the favor I did for you, right?”
“Did the Royal Princess do that for me?”
She’s granted me more grudges than favors in all honesty.
Hmm, well, thinking of it this way.
The biggest favor is probably saving my life.
When I fell victim to the Curse of the Death Dragon or tumbled into a ravine this time.
I feel like I’ve helped Acella enough by now, so isn’t that repayment enough?
Could it be that it’s somehow still insufficient?
I began to feel a bit scared about what she might ask for in exchange.
“You selected me as your attending physician.”
“Ah, so we’re starting from there.”
I never imagined that.
“Of course. The reason you can sleep comfortably in a plush bed is also thanks to me.”
“Oh my, indeed. I owe you a great deal.”
Did Acella take my sarcasm sincerely? She seemed pleased.
“Still, you did well in the suppression operation this time. I’ll praise you.”
“Praise? That’s a bit surprising.”
“Why are you surprised? Do you have any idea how benevolent I can be? If you do well, I can praise you and give you rewards as much as I want.”
But when you don’t do well, it’s straight to a near chokehold until you see hell.
“So about that.”
Acella leaned her head against me slickly.
“Do you want me to grant the wish you begged for with Geass?”
“Hmm?”
I was a bit startled by that unexpected statement.
We definitely made a contract.
If I achieved merit, Acella would fulfill one of my requests.
The letter outlining that is still protected by her magic.
“Really?”
“Yep. But there’s one condition.”
Acella added.
“You need to tell me what wish you made at daybreak.”
“Why is that?”
“Once I grant this, I’ll also agree to that wish under the same conditions. What do you think? Are you interested?”
Acella snickered like a little demon.
When she laughs like that, she usually has some kind of ulterior motive.
Time for a carrot-and-stick strategy, huh?
That’s a method Acella uses well with the nobility.
A noble looking to train someone will generously grant what the person wants from the start.
Once a noble tastes the connection with the royal house, they soon want something bigger, and Acella raises the stakes accordingly.
By the time you realize, you can’t manage your territory without depending on Acella.
It’s like sinking deeper and deeper into a quagmire.
In the end, she makes you do something utterly ridiculous, but you have no choice but to comply.
If you resist, it’s just, “I’m the Emperor, you have a problem with that?” and that’s the end of it.
Setting traps to keep you mid-way is also Acella’s specialty.
I won’t fall for it.
Take the Grand Duke of the West for example; he ended up buying medications from Acella under good terms, but he doesn’t realize he’ll end up relying on those medications because of the savings on the Knights’ operating expenses.
It’s obvious that later, he’ll have to offer more gold coins to buy better medicine.
I’m sure Acella has that sort of trap set for me as well.
Above all, I still can’t leave the Imperial Family.
There’s an endless number of bad endings associated with Acella, and the healers’ faction has just begun to grow.
There’s no better environment for practicing medicine than the Inner Palace.
I answered without deep contemplation.
“It’s fine. Let’s maintain our current contract.”
“What? Why?”
Acella’s mouth dropped open, seemingly caught off guard by my response.
Haha, I don’t think I’ve achieved anything that grand yet.
“I see, so you’re being modest.”
Feeling like she disliked the flow of the conversation, Acella smacked her chest.
“What on earth have you written down? Was it really such a trivial wish?”
“Yes, it’s a simple matter.”
“Did you really write that you want the Empire or something like that? So you’re waiting until I become the Emperor?”
“Come on, do I look like someone who could govern a great nation? It’s a simple wish that you could grant with a single word.”
“What is it really?”
Acella puffed up her cheeks.
Well, even if she’s not going to be the Emperor, I feel more reassured if Acella has some degree of power.
That way, when I return to the Marquess house, she will work hard to protect us from other political interests that might harm our family.
At the very least, she’d cut off all the annoying political antics of the Imperial Family and nobility.
By then, Acella would have to grant it due to the restrictions of Geass, whether she likes it or not.
It’s best to break Acella’s debuff first.
I think I could erase most of the bad endings caused by Acella’s magic that way.
Having cured a lifelong illness is a great merit, so there would be no reason for her not to fulfill the contract.
Come to think of it, if I erase all the bad endings, it wouldn’t matter if Acella becomes the Emperor, right?
The fact that I’ve seen all the bad endings means that the world can’t end in any other way.
If all the bad possibilities are gone, then even if Acella becomes Emperor, she shouldn’t be able to bring about the end of the world.
I don’t know if it’s fate or some coercive force.
Well, if Acella doesn’t become Emperor, there are still many bad endings to erase.
Some paths were available to Acella only because she was the Emperor.
Looks like it’s more of a matter of timing.
“Really, it’s fine. I’ll bring it up after I achieve much greater merit.”
“Ah, I understand your thoughts, Prince.”
“What do you mean?”
“You wrote something utterly useless from the start, haven’t you? That’s why you don’t want it that much. Were you trying to make fun of me?”
Good observation, but off the mark.
“No, it’s a wish I very much need. What’s more, no one but you can grant it.”
“…Really? Only I can grant it?”
At my response, Acella seemed to be forcing herself not to laugh, her lips twitching.
“Fine then. I’ll sleep.”
“You’ve made a good decision. You should sleep early for your skin’s sake.”
“It’s already fine.”
Acella grumbled as she closed her eyes.
Then, she slyly wriggled her hands around my waist.
There’s research showing that sleeping while attached to a weighty object can provide psychological stability and lead to a good night’s sleep.
Even though it’s annoying that I play the role of her comfort object, if it makes my patient comfortable, then I must endure it.
It’s not the best posture for the spine, and personally, I’d prefer she corrected that habit though.
Mental health and physical health often collide like this.
Exercise is an annoyance, but it’s necessary to keep the body healthy.
I must also decide where to balance that.
As I pondered what a proper duty as an attending physician would be, Acella subtly distanced her upper body from me.
For some reason, she started squirming around in the blanket, wiggling her head this way and that.
Her fist clenched tightly and her muscles tensed; this wasn’t a case of sleep-talking.
I had a thought and grasped Acella’s shoulder.
“Your Highness? Is your stomach hurting?”
I wondered if it was another seizure like before.
Acella hates showing that she’s in pain.
“Your Highness.”
“Euh, uhm.”
Acella raised her head slightly towards me.
She bit her lower lip and looked up at me with fierce eyes.
There was no sign of her being in pain.
In that case…
“You urgently need the bathroom, don’t you? I’ll prepare it right away.”
“No!”
Acella shouted, kicked off the blanket, and got up in a jolt.
“Today, I’ll sleep in my room.”
“Suddenly? Well… okay then.”
Acella grabbed her pillow and bounced off towards her room like a ghost in the night.
What could possibly be the reason for that?
*
The next day, Acella woke up alone in bed, feeling frustrated for no reason.
No, she hadn’t even slept properly to begin with. She was overwhelmed by various thoughts.
“Why did I do that?”
Last night was really strange.
Now that she thought about it, it was impossible for her to be kind to someone first.
Of course, it was part of the plan to bully Lars.
“That was the problem. It’s not bullying.”
Even if she granted Lars’s first wish as planned and signed a Geass in exchange for the second wish,
Ultimately, achieving one wish and gaining a new opportunity was just a good thing for Lars.
On the other hand, the only good thing for Acella was the certainty that Lars would cling to her even more.
No, that’s strange.
Seeing Lars refuse her made her angry, so it was clear that this was what she had wanted.
But why?
Why was it good for Lars to cling to her?
Acella realized that her thoughts had been twisting in an odd direction lately.
They were neither rational, nor logical, nor reasonable.
Her mistaken premises kept leading her to subtle hints.
“That’s a problem.”
The joy she felt when she realized that only she could grant Lars’s wish was strange too.
Why? Is it because it means she’s capable?
Or maybe…
“Hah.”
Acella ordered the head maid to bring her some cold water for washing her face.
The refreshing temperature wakes up her brain, but she still couldn’t make sense of what happened yesterday.
The incident of fleeing from Lars’s room.
Not just her head, but her body also felt strange at that moment.
Although it had been a long time since she shared a bed with Lars, last night somehow felt different.
When she tried to embrace Lars, her heart raced more, and she was so heated that she began to sweat.
It wasn’t because of pain. Quite the opposite.
Acella had fled from his room because she couldn’t contain the joy she felt from being able to fall asleep with Lars in the same bed.
“Why is this happening to me?”
She wondered why her state had become so strange and what exactly the warm feeling swelling in her chest was.
Unable to bear the frustration, Acella called Tanya during the day’s break.
She had a light snack and tea with her, as usual.
Acella explained in detail everything that had happened yesterday and her current state.
Tanya listened carefully to Acella’s story, nodding at intervals.
“…So that’s what happened. Tanya, have you ever experienced anything like this?”
“I haven’t experienced it as intensely as you, but I have seen a lot of people go through similar phenomena.”
“Is that so? What’s the cause?”
Tanya answered while occasionally sending Acella those mischievous smiles.
“Don’t you still know?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s because you like your teacher.”
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