Twenty-Four Hours of Care
"Listen, little brother. Dating isn't easy, you know."
"That's right. If you want to escape being single, you'd better listen carefully to what your big sisters have to say, got it?"
The two detestable blood-related mates sat on the couch, sipping beer and drumming their feet against my head.
"Ah, seriously, cut it—"
"What?"
"Cut it... what?"
Was I really looking at beings that had come out of the same mother's womb?
Demons... absolute demons.
"This big sister of yours is a romance fantasy novelist, you know. So for our little brother's dating advice before he heads off to university—"
"Haa. More useful than that would be my advice, having watched hundreds of relationships up close through undergrad and grad school—"
For reference, the combined years of being single among the three people present at that moment totaled eighty. I died the very next day.
In other words, it was the day before I enrolled in university, after graduating from an all-boys middle school, an all-boys high school, and going straight into military service and getting discharged.
"Shurian. Let's step out so the Grand Duke and the young lady can settle in comfortably."
"Eeeeh! Honey! I'm the attending physician~!"
I stretched a hand toward Jester as he dragged away Shurian, who had been assisting me at my side.
"Wait, Jester! How am I supposed to treat the young lady when I don't even have any medical knowledge!"
"Heh heh heh. It's fine, Grand Duke. On the contrary, this illness is the sort where having extra people nearby only interferes with the treatment."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. She needs to be alone with the target. Same as during the previous teatime, yes?"
"Well, that's true..."
"Then we shall take our leave."
Hearing Shurian's wails right up until the door shut was probably just my imagination.
"...Hm."
I turned my gaze to Cecilia, lying on the bed and staring up at empty air.
This is bad. One wrong move and she could spiral completely out of control...
I would have to be careful. Extremely careful.
"Young lady. Young lady."
"..."
"Lady Cecilia."
"Yes!?"
Cecilia snapped back to herself with a start, her face flushed red as a beet.
"How are you feeling?"
"Uh... well..."
"Your face is still quite red. Your heart? And the state of the mana inside your body... ah."
Damn it. What kind of idiot does that in front of a patient, Victor, you absolute fool.
"Haa. Never mind. Now is hardly the time to be asking about that."
I recalled what Shurian had said earlier.
"For twenty-four hours, stay by her side and nurse her so she can build antibodies. That's how her immunity to the Crimson... no, to Target Trust Obsession Disease will accumulate. Understood?"
"Specifically, what am I supposed to do?"
"Help her the way you would care for someone with a cold."
"Hm? And that's enough?"
"Yes. More than enough. If you go beyond that... hm."
"What is it?"
"No. I don't think that'll happen, so never mind."
Shurian's last remark niggled at me a little, but this was not the time for that.
"Pardon me, young lady."
"Yes?"
I rested my hand on Cecilia's forehead to check for fever.
"G-Grand... Grand Duke?"
Leaving Cecilia stammering as she looked up at me, I nodded to myself.
"One moment."
When I tried to lay the cold wet towel I had prepared across her forehead, Cecilia shook her head.
"I-It's not a cold!"
"Ah."
Right. Just because she said "nursing," I had nearly treated her like someone with a cold. The heat in her forehead was clearly just the warmth from blood rushing to her face.
That was what she had said.
"Then I'll put this away for now."
"Um... Grand Duke?"
"Yes. Go ahead."
"I can't quite make sense of the situation right now, so... what exactly is all of this?"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I had tried to start nursing her without even properly explaining.
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine—"
"This is the treatment method for the young lady's illness."
"What? This is?"
"It happened because I made contact with you so suddenly. If I don't take responsibility..."
"So what is the situation, then?"
I slowly began explaining to Cecilia the conversation I had shared with Shurian. Only after hearing me out did Cecilia finally nod.
"I see. So I collapsed from a lack of immunity caused by the sudden contact."
"Yes. That's correct. I'm sorry. If I had been just a little more careful, this never would have happened."
"...Please raise your head, Grand Duke. If you hadn't saved me earlier, I wouldn't even be here right now. And if it's an illness that can be treated, I'm actually relieved."
"Young lady..."
"Um, but..."
Cecilia's face went red as she hugged a pillow to her chest and buried her face in it.
"S-So what kind of things am I supposed to do? To raise my immunity."
"First of all..."
"..."
"Honey."
"No."
"Uuu. I said it's fine to go back now."
"Why? Isn't it nice, spending time together like this?"
"Ugh..."
Watching her husband, Jester, sit in her own physician's office handling estate business, Shurian puffed out her cheeks and thumped him on the back.
"Mean. So mean. You've always been mean, smiling like that and completely disarming me."
"And you've always been adorable, then and now."
"Haa... honestly."
Shurian settled onto Jester's lap and gazed up at the face of the man she loved more than anyone in the world.
"Maybe I should just gobble you right up."
"I believe that's my line?"
"Heh heh... then..."
"I'm still working."
"Would I have seduced a man old enough to be my father if I cared about things like that?"
"Ahem."
"My, my? Heehee. When it comes to being cute, you're just as—"
BANG!
"Fath— I mean, Steward! Where is the Grand Duke right n—"
Ruche, who had thrown open the door, frowned at the sight of her parents caught on the verge of an intensely affectionate display right before her eyes.
"Mom..."
"Oh my."
"Ahem."
"I am seriously not ready for a sibling twenty years younger than me, okay?"
"Ah, why! When people are in love, fruit is what comes of it!"
"Tone it down! How are you still in newlywed mode after twenty years!"
Jester cleared his throat, settled his wife into a chair, and approached Ruche.
"Ruche. What is it?"
"Ah, the investigation into the one who attacked the young lady is finished, so I came to report—but the Grand Duke is nowhere to be found."
"I'll report it myself. Good work, Ruche."
"Ah, that's right. Ruche."
"What."
"Ran has the day off today, so take her out, get some food, and go have fun."
"..."
Under Ruche's glare, Shurian offered an awkward smile.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like I said earlier, a sibling twenty years younger is seriously—"
"That's not what this is about... well, if it is, then it is, but anyway!!"
Leaving behind the bickering of his beloved wife and daughter, Jester looked down at the family name written in the report and adjusted his glasses.
From a directive recovered on the attacker's corpse, the initial S has been confirmed.
"S, is it..."
"I truly apologize for my rudeness earlier."
"Earlier... ah..."
The moment Cecilia recalled Victor's hand taking hers, the heart she had only just managed to calm began to pound wildly all over again.
"Uuuugh..."
"Shurian said I needed to stimulate you urgently to raise your immunity, so that was why I acted as I did. It was by no means an action born of personal feelings."
"Ah... I see. No personal feelings..."
Poke!
Huh?
Instead of her racing heart, something like a sharp needle pricked her chest, and Cecilia frowned in confusion.
"Young lady?"
"Ah, it's nothing. But Grand Duke."
"Yes. In that case, I'll begin stage-one treatment at once."
"Stage one?"
"Simply conversing, just the two of us. Like the teatime before."
"Ah, then..."
"But this time, you mustn't run away. To raise your immunity, I'll be staying at your side for twenty-four hours."
"Eh?"
Cecilia doubted her own ears, wondering if what she had just heard was a hallucination. From the perspective of someone listening to Victor—a man packed solid with duty and responsibility—the strain on her heart was so great she felt it might burst outright.
"T-Twenty-four hours... together in the same room..."
How hard Cecilia was clutching the pillow became clear when a feather from inside poked out through the fabric.
"According to Shurian, yes. Since immunity only builds when I, the target, am at your side, you needn't worry."
Crimson eyes as still and untroubled as a placid lake, without a single shadow of doubt.
Those... those eyes again...!
Victor had no idea those eyes were driving Cecilia out of her mind.
"Um... Grand Duke?"
"Yes. Please speak."
"Even so, you must have work you need to do, so please don't worry about me."
"Please don't say such things! Making the young lady this way is my responsibility. Therefore, for the next twenty-four hours, I will keep watch at your bedside!"
"Eh... ehh... eh."
Victor pointed to the flowers in the vase on the bedside table.
"What kind of flowers are those?"
"Ah."
Cecilia turned her head, saw the white blossoms Victor was indicating, and smiled softly.
"They're marguerites that the count's gardener brought for me. They're my favorite flowers."
"Now that you mention it, the young lady is quite fond of flowers."
"Yes. Studying medicinal herbs and poisonous plants naturally led me to learn about flowers as well."
"The beautiful white petals rather resemble the color of the young lady's hair."
"I-Is that so."
At Victor's compliment, Cecilia flushed and lifted the vase.
"They... resemble me?"
"..."
Victor stared blankly at Cecilia, then turned his head away.
"Ah..."
"Yes."
"..."
"They do."
"Hnn."
It was nothing more than ordinary praise—so why did her heart pound so hard whenever Victor was the one saying it?
Really... this illness is terrifying. I didn't even look at the Grand Duke's crimson eyes this time, and now just his voice and a compliment alone are enough to...
"...Young lady, would you wait just a moment?"
"Yes?"
When Victor opened the door and left, Cecilia flopped back onto the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
"...Haa."
With a deep sigh, Cecilia muttered to herself.
"You idiot, Cecilia... throwing yourself at someone who's working so hard to treat you without a shred of personal interest—what on earth are you..."
Creak.
The firmly shut door opened again, and the moment Victor stepped in, Cecilia sprang up like a coiled spring.
"Grand Duke... you've retur—"
What Victor held as he stood in the doorway was—
"Marguerites..."
"I asked the gardener in charge of the greenhouse to bring them."
"What? Why...?"
"A gift from me to the young lady, who has been through so much since coming to the North. Please accept it."
The grassy scent and sweet fragrance rising from the bouquet Victor set at the foot of the bed filled the room.
Before long, the stark chamber had transformed into a little greenhouse for just the two of them.
"And."
Victor cleared his throat a few times and looked at Cecilia.
"I've heard that no matter the illness, an environment in which the patient feels at ease is important. If the flowers and fragrance the young lady loves are here with her, the treatment should proceed that much faster..."
Watching Victor scratch his head in embarrassment, Cecilia couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Pfft."
"Young lady?"
"Hahaha... you're right."
"Why... why are you laughing?!"
The clumsiness and fresh, unpolished sincerity shown by a man she had always thought of as blunt and winter-cold.
Haa... he really is a strange person.
"Are you truly all right?"
"Yes. Grand Duke... but, Grand Duke."
"Yes."
"If you don't mind... could you call me by my name, instead of 'young lady'?"
"...Pardon?"
Cecilia's eyes curved gently as she smiled, soft and warm. A single petal fell from the marguerite in the vase. And at the same time, the marguerite petals inside Cecilia's chest began to fall, one by one.