Newlywed Hyde the Novelist #2
A count's mansion was vast and sprawling.
Just how many rooms does this place have?
Psyche's younger brother Dihon had taken up residence in a second-floor room I had never once set foot in.
This must be it.
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat in front of the door belonging to Dihon—eldest son of the count's house, Psyche's little brother, and my brother-in-law. The maid standing guard at the entrance immediately frowned and asked,
"Lord Hyde, what business brings you here?"
Wariness was plain on her face.
The count family's only son. As the maid charged with guarding the room where he stayed, her loyalty to House Agarpe would naturally run deep. I answered her lightly, as if it were nothing.
"Having become a member of the Agarpe family, I realized I have never once seen my brother-in-law's face. I thought I might pay a simple greeting— is my brother-in-law Dihon inside?"
Just as I reached for the doorknob—
The maid cried, "Wh-what!" in open panic and threw herself between me and the door.
"There was an order from the Count himself that no one except those specially permitted may enter Lord Dihon's room! Please leave at once!"
The security was far stricter than necessary.
Perhaps that was simply how the sole son of a great noble house was treated. He was the heir who had to carry on the bloodline, after all—raised with the utmost care.
Of course House Agarpe had a daughter in Psyche, but she had sworn of her own will to live as a virginist. Since Psyche had resolved never to bear children, the only one among the count's offspring who still had any chance of producing an heir was the eldest son, Dihon.
Wait.
That meant if Dihon met with some terrible accident or fell prey to an unexpected illness that left him unable to sire children, the Agarpe line would be cut off forever.
No wonder House Agarpe kept him locked away and protected so tightly.
"If the boy inside were to lose his life, Lady Psyche would have no choice but to break her vow of virginity. She would never wish to see the Agarpe line end."
"Wh-what insolent nonsense! Leave this instant! Lord Dihon is in poor health—he cannot freely meet people or even leave his room!"
"……"
In poor health, so he cannot freely meet people or leave his room—?
From the blushing maid I felt I had just obtained rather important information. And it also felt as though one long-standing curiosity had finally been answered.
Back when Psyche Agarpe was feigning illness, House Agarpe had poured an enormous sum into purchasing medicinal herbs simply to convince everyone their daughter was truly sick. The already declining finances of the Agarpe estate had reeled under the strain.
Was all that really necessary just to stage an act and dodge marriage? And where, I had always wondered, were those herbs actually being used?
Now I saw. The destination of those herbs was right here.
Even with the door shut, the musty reek of medicinal concoctions drifted all the way into the corridor. There was a real patient in House Agarpe.
"Still, isn't there some way? I'd simply like to see his face."
"Absolutely not! How am I to know whether you mean to harm Lord Dihon or not? If his illness worsens and he dies, you are the one who stands to gain the most!"
She was not wrong.
If Dihon vanished, the power of the count's house would concentrate entirely on the sole remaining daughter, Psyche. And I, as her husband, would scoop up every scrap of the falling crumbs.
"So that's why Oscar Archibold was so desperate for the position of the count's son-in-law."
He had intended to swallow House Agarpe whole and seize complete control of the Durgien region. After all, Durgien was split between the nobles—including the count's house—and the Archibold church.
"Scouty, what is all this commotion?"
Click.
At that very moment the sound of heels approached from behind. The maid hurriedly bowed her head.
"M-Madam…!"
There was only one person this sharp-tongued maid would address as Madam.
Countess Wilhelmina of Agarpe. She appeared and looked us over.
"Mother-in-law, your beauty remains as radiant as ever."
"Hyde, you were not at the celebration banquet but here instead. Did you come hoping to meet Dihon? How unfortunate. Even I, his own mother, am not permitted to see him freely."
Is it truly that serious?
Wilhelmina's face—so lovely it was hard to believe she was in her late thirties—filled with tears, and she began to sob.
"Dihon has been frail since the day he was born. That both Dihon and Psyche suffer illness is surely heavenly punishment for our family's betrayal of divine trust. What am I to do…!"
Having never known a mother myself, the sight of parents forced to watch their child suffer was something foreign to me. Even so, I could clearly see how deeply the countess grieved and blamed herself.
"Psyche swore to live her entire life as a single woman because of her brother's illness. Hyde, you once cured Psyche's sickness, did you not? Then can you not cure Dihon's as well!"
She seized my arm with surprising strength.
"I beg you—please heal Dihon's illness!"
Crack, pop—
Why is she this strong? It feels like my arm is about to snap!
Is this what it feels like to be caught by a mother bear gone feral to protect her cub?
Still, there was one thing I had to make absolutely clear.
"Mother, punishment for sin comes only after death and judgment. Illness cannot be the price of sin. Because the Lord is love, He does not mete out punishment from mere emotion."
"…Dihon's illness and Psyche's former illness are not heavenly punishment? Doctor Selim never said such a thing. Selim told us we must repent diligently and pray."
Selim.
The theology doctor employed by the Agarpe territory, was he not? The bookish face of the fellow who had once ranked among the prospective groom candidates alongside Loras flickered briefly through my mind and vanished.
Ah. Now I understand how things operate inside House Agarpe.
I spread both arms naturally and spoke.
"The habit of attributing every human misfortune to divine punishment is an unhealthy view of faith. Look at me. I was an orphan from birth. Was that heavenly punishment?"
If misfortune is the wage of sin, then I who was born into misfortune would mean that my very birth was a sin. In a sense that was true—humanity is born bearing the original sin of Adam. But I dare assert that it was not that sinfulness which made me an orphan.
"God sometimes holds plans for us that human reason cannot grasp. What appears to be misfortune can at times become the very rope that leads to salvation."
"…There are things that look like misfortune yet become the rope leading to salvation?"
The countess stared at me, unable fully to comprehend yet with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. She must have been desperate enough to seize any rope at all.
Faith seeps most deeply into the hearts of the desperate.
I struck my chest with an open palm like a passionate stage actor and declared,
"Mother, remember Job, who suffered hardship without cause and through it ultimately reached salvation! And did not Lady Psyche's illness bring House Agarpe the fortune of gaining me as a son-in-law? Thus hardship becomes a ladder toward salvation within providence!"
"Hyde—are you saying you can cure Dihon's illness!?"
Mother-in-law Wilhelmina's face lit up like a star. I answered her,
"To do that I must first examine the patient. May I look upon Dihon, the only son of House Agarpe?"
I needed to see the patient before I could know his true condition.
Just then—
"Today no visits of any kind are permitted for Lord Dihon. This is the authority the Count has granted me; even the Countess must abide by it."
Clatter, clatter—
A skinny fellow with glasses appeared in the corridor carrying a washbasin. His hair was blond like Loras's, his face gaunt, yet passion burned in his eyes.
"Everyone step aside. It is time for Young Master Dihon to have his blood drawn."
Selim lifted the blade that had been resting in the basin.
"You're drawing blood with that hook-shaped knife?"
I scowled hard.
Has that knife even been sterilized? Doesn't look like it. I don't know if it was used for cutting grass, but straw is still stuck to it. Surgical tools in this uncivilized world that has no concept of disinfection are always like that.
Selim, however, raised his eyebrows high as he looked at me.
"Lord Hyde, bloodletting is the latest fashionable treatment even at the university."
Creak—
Then the door that had seemed as if it would never open swung wide. A boy who looked as though he had only just finished elementary school peeked his pale face through the crack.
"Se-Selim sir… must I have blood drawn again today? As much as that whole bowl?"
"Endure it even if it hurts. And you must not carelessly breathe the outside air. After the blood is drawn I shall tell you about the books I read in the university library."
"The story last time about the swindler Alr Haddin using a magic lamp to marry the princess wasn't very good. In the end the princess was tricked into a fraudulent marriage with a man who had nothing special about him except the lamp."
As he spoke, the boy's blue eyes fixed on me. He was skinny and deathly pale, yet the spirit in that face somehow recalled both Doban and Psyche.
Somehow that gaze seemed to be saying that my marriage to his sister Psyche was nothing but a fraud of my own devising.
Kid, I was the one who got scammed. Do you have any idea what it's like to become a stuffed specimen of a husband from the very first night?
Creak, thud—
Selim and Dihon soon closed the door and went inside. From beyond it came Dihon's pained cry—ugh—as the bloodletting began. While Wilhelmina dabbed her tears with a handkerchief, I finished my diagnosis.
"Lethargy. Difficulty breathing. Occasional dry heaving and nausea. Malnutrition from indigestion. Quite a few diseases come to mind, but the most likely would be brain…"
"……"
Wilhelmina's expression remained pure worry. I hastily steered my words in another direction.
"—not the brain, but a heart… condition, I would say?"
"Good heavens, you can tell just by looking!? The illness Dihon suffers is indeed a disease of the heart!"
Countess Wilhelmina Agarpe was thoroughly astonished by my diagnosis. Had it not been heart disease I had been prepared to rattle off every name from stomach ulcer onward, but it seemed my first guess had hit the mark.
Thank goodness Mother Wilhelmina is a woman whose every feeling shows plainly on her face.
"If you know the disease, then you can cure it!"
Wilhelmina brightened with hope.
Did I actually know how to cure heart disease? Honestly, I both did and did not. I knew the methods, yet I was no professional physician and could not perform surgery. Could I even gather proper surgical tools in this world to begin with?
"I believe I can attempt a challenge in my own way. Before that, however, becoming close with Young Master Dihon must come first. To restore both faith and health, improving communal relationships is essential."
"Improving communal relationships…?"
Countess Wilhelmina looked as though she could not grasp my meaning. Then she muttered, "Selim never said anything like that…"
Theology doctor Selim. I shall snatch away the position of advisor and mentor you currently hold over this family.
To do that, what must I accomplish? Naturally, form a rapport with the patient and key party—Dihon. And the method was already clear in my mind.
"Young Master Dihon enjoys listening to or reading interesting stories, does he not? Since he cannot freely leave his room, there can hardly be many other diversions available to him."
"That's right. Our Dihon loves reading books. And Sir Selim has always told him entertaining tales. Sir Selim has read a great many books, you see."
"Mother, might I have paper and a pen?"
I shall show you what a truly interesting story looks like. After all, I am a grand-prize-winning novelist from the twenty-first century, where every form of media seethes and thrives.
"The title shall be Backstreet Nymph's Village. Perfect. Dihon, you little brat—wait for me. I am going to teach you what a real interesting story is."
I took the paper and pen and, in two hours flat, completed a masterpiece of fifty thousand characters.