Doctor Resignation

I called Erhan to the lab to check his whole condition the day after his arrival. I have to confirm if he had completely recovered in the last five years.

While I was drawing blood with a syringe and detecting various reagent reactions from it, he was just smiling while looking at me.

To be honest, the way he smiled when he was young was so cute. But now, his mellow smile that profoundly reaches his eyes was so good to look at.

‘It’s so different from the Erhan that I remember…… Extremely unfamiliar that he seems to be a completely different person.’

Of course, he tried again to put on the shirt that I gave him as a gift to prove that he was ‘treasuring it preciously.’

But if he really wore that shirt, anyone would doubt the results of the psychological test I have done on him.

“As expected, you’re really healthy now.”

All tests showed that Erhan was ‘Very Healthy.’

‘Oh. Still, I am proud of him.’

My heart was thrilled as I looked at his open shoulders and arms with fine muscles.

‘When he was younger, he was so small that I tried my best just to make him gain some weight…….’

The old days of giving him medicines that are good for the body and feeding him properly while patting him every night so just he could grow well passed by in my head.

Seeing the fruit of my effort was a great joy that was several times more rewarding than when I saw a patient healed.

Of course, I was surprised to see him so different from what I expected when I first saw him, and it also hurt a bit to hear him coldly talking that he doesn’t think of me as a family…….

“The detoxification from the Little Grass must have worked.”

I couldn’t keep my head from getting a bit bigger because I was proud that my diagnosis and prescription were correct.

“It has worked,” said Erhan.

He stared at me with his chin up. His eyes were dripping with affection like we were in the past.

He added, “You’re the one who cured me.”

“That’s true,” I answered quickly because it was right. “But just in case, we need to do another thorough examination when the season changes. Since you’ve been in a warm place, your condition might also change once the cold wind blew.”

I decided to leave when Erhan safely became an adult and inherited the duke’s title, but now that this has happened, I temporarily decided to provide follow-up services.

I’ll have to ensure his condition until fall and see if the cold weather affects him even if Baron Ishid and Frederick get caught.

‘Since the rebels will start to show up during the fall…… if we hold out until then, there’s no way that Erhan will lose the Casseus Duchy, right?’

It will be this fall. I couldn’t forget the rebels who had suddenly emerged after I had just opened my own clinic upon reaching my coming of age.

“Did you sleep well yesterday? Did you have a good meal?”

I recklessly asked while looking at the reagent reaction.

“I didn’t,” Erhan replied.

I tilted my head and answered, “I guess it’s because the bed has changed.”

“Well…… I remember sleeping with you all the time in that room.”

“What are you talking about? I just held your hand to sleep.”

“Do you want to sleep hand in hand with me tonight?”

“You’re healthy now and it’ll be fine even if you can’t sleep for a few days.”

I prevented Erhan’s childishness in advance. It may be all right when we were young, but I don’t know what rumors would surface if we held hands and slept together now.

“Lise, you’ve become cold-hearted. You’re now like Viscount Perelman after all the years that I haven’t met you.”

Erhan complained without hiding his disappointed expression.

I can’t believe he compared me to the Viscount.

“Oh, my God. It’s so mean of you to swear like that.”

When I made rabbit-like eyes, Erhan made a defeated expression and tried to coax me. “Are you angry? Actually, you’re still pretty.”

“That’s true. But why are you staring at me like this?”

I took my eyes off the reagent reaction and complained, “You’re going to dig a hole in my cheek.”

“I just want to stare at what I haven’t seen in a while…… was it uncomfortable? Sorry.”

He smiled shyly and looked around for no reason.

Many things have changed in him, but his soft tendency to listen to everything I say when he was young still seemed to be there.

‘Was he really upset by the Duchess’ words that she wanted to take me as her adopted daughter?’

If I hadn’t overheard the conversation that day, I wouldn’t have known that he could speak in such a cold tone.

Erhan, who was looking around, asked while pointing to the preserved snacks. “But Lise, isn’t that…… the snacks you took from me a long time ago?”

“Yes. It’s from Master Frederick.”

“That’s still here? You told me not to eat them because you said they were going to rot.”

“That’s why I put some preservatives in them.”

I still haven’t figured out the ingredients of that snack. It would be easy if it were just an undiluted solution, but the snacks were tough to experiment with because the ingredients were mixed up while baking the snacks.

The problem was that the snacks weren’t unlimited.

After five years of testing, there were only two left.

“Anyway, Master Erhan ate that, so I should know the ingredients perfectly. Also……”

He slowly grabbed my hand. “……the only person who thinks of me the most is Lise.”

Electricity strangely rose through the fingers that got entangled. When I was young, I used to hold his hands first. My shoulders flinched as the big thumb swept over the back of my hand.

“Thanks to you, I lived.”

His eyes sparkled as if I was the only person in his eyes making me feel embarrassed.

Well, as he said, I’m the one who saved him. And it was natural that he’s grateful to me.

“Well……”

Nevertheless, he was sincere when he drew a line between a commoner and an aristocrat at that time.

‘I guess this is just a compliment to an employee who works well.’

No matter how sweet and close we were when we were young, I tried to turn my gaze as I remembered that there was a clear wall he put up between us.

“It is only natural as a doctor. You don’t have to thank me.”

I slowly pulled out my hands, removed the cotton, and said as businesslike as I could. “You can go now.”

“I’d like to stay…… but I have something to talk about with my mother. See you in the evening.”

“You don’t have to come.”

“I’ll just watch on the side.”

Erhan lowered his shirt with his sleeves then stood up and sighed. 

After he left the lab, I looked at the reagent reaction again. Fortunately, his intellectual development was exactly normal. He seemed a little strange somewhere, but everyone was a little strange, so I decided to be understanding.

Of course, it seemed that I was the only one who thought Erhan was in the normal range. This is because, after he returned, the atmosphere at Duke’s Castle was rather stern.

The relationship between the Duchess and Erhan was also at its worst.

Because of the servants in the dining hall at that time, the conversation quickly spread throughout the castle.

‘It could also be like that from Erhan’s point of view.’

I was someone involved in this storm, and no one ever brought the topic to me so I kept my mouth shut, but I could understand him.

It doesn’t make sense to give a noble family name to an orphan commoner.

Still, Erhan was kind and friendly to me. That’s why I wasn’t very disappointed in him.

When it comes to spending five years in foreign lands, he even said, ‘Lise is a great doctor, so I have to listen to you.’

So it wasn’t from his personal feelings that he opposed the Duchess’ proposal.

‘It’s only a rational choice to distinguish between public and private…….’

When I said this thought carefully to Diel who came in the afternoon, he shook his head at once.

“No, Lise.”

Whether Erhan’s return was a shock in its own way, Diel no longer expressed his sadness about the events in the free city.

“Apart from that matter, the whole castle became very bloody in half a day after Erhan returned.”

“Really?”

“You don’t know because you’re stuck in the lab. Even if just a little bit goes wrong, it becomes an atmosphere where everyone can go straight to the underworld.”

When I tilted my head, he hit his chest as if it was frustrating.

“From what I heard, after he found out about Esther and Hans, he was like ‘we need to build more discipline in the castle’.”

“Isn’t that obvious? Esther was a maid who worked here for more than ten years.”

Erhan’s actions were fully understandable because I was also almost certain that Baron Ishid had more hands in the castle, and they were definitely infiltrated.

Rather, this was more reliable.

“But that’s…… Lise, can’t you really feel it? When you’re in front of Master Erhan, don’t you feel like your body shrinks?” he asked hesitantly.

“……well, he’s not as small and cute as in the old days, but isn’t it just fine? He smiles well and it’s sweet enough,” I replied, recalling his shyly smiling face.

“You’re the only one in this castle who thinks that way, Lise.” Diel gave up talking with me and sighed. “I guess you don’t know his peculiar sense of pressure because Master Erhan likes you.”

“Isn’t that natural?” I said confidently, “If you feel unfair just because of the way he looks at you, you should also try to do your job extremely well. He’s just like that because I’m amazingly good at what I do.”

He opened his eyes and asked, “Then why doesn’t he like me?”

“That’s…… well.”

There was only one reasonable inference.

“He’s hated me for no reason since he was a kid. I guess he doesn’t really like what I look like,” said Diel.

Actually, I didn’t care much because Erhan was sweet enough to me. Besides, he grew up well as a person who can draw a line when it is necessary.

He just grew up to be a typical picky aristocrat who likes competent supporters.

“But why are you here?”

He grinned and replied, “Your new assistant is coming tomorrow. I’m here to let you know.”

“Aaron Krillso?” I asked back with sparkling eyes, “He’s coming?”

It was difficult to hide the laughter that leaked out.

“Diel, I have something I need your help with.”

“What?”

“50 Vercalian seeds.”

“What? It’s not difficult to find, but…… why the hell do you want that useless and sensitive plant……”

I replied with excitement, tucking my hair over my ears.

“I need to see the new assistant’s ability.”