Chapter 38

After waiting a few days, the Artifact Appraiser didn’t seem to have caught the bait yet.

Still, there was good news.

They were mostly stories told one after another about the Duke.

“He has conquered the glass ice wall!”

“Wasn’t he amazing?”

“The monsters who were hibernating couldn’t even fight and ran away!”

It was a story that did not appear in the original. So I listened carefully.

“It’s definitely out of the blue. Originally, he said he didn’t intend to conquer the ice wall only by holding the base camp.”

“On top of that, he said he would work on that ice cliff. Wasn’t it amazing? His Excellency… Majesty the Duke…”

Astel nodded moderately listening to their conversation.

Apparently, the Duke was very interested in the glass ice wall he saw that day.

‘When he comes back, I’ll have to ask him how cool that ice wall really was.’

It wasn’t the only good news.

As soon as I was selected as a healer to help the knights at the swordsmanship competition, Ricardo, my Jaguar grandfather who saved my life, took charge of the overall responsibility of the swordsmanship contest.

As it was known as the ‘Jaguar of Swordsmanship’, I expected that all of the Jaguar family’s direct blood relatives would attend the swordsmanship competition, but I didn’t think that the general manager would be Ricardo.

To celebrate that fact, I visited Ricardo.

He also said he was on his way to the treatment center.

Ricardo patted me with his wrinkled hand as if encouraging.

“My dear, unfortunately, His Excellency the Duke did not allow me to sponsor you.”

Grandpa grunted and frowned.

“But, well, I’m satisfied that I could keep looking at you this way.” (Ricardo)

“Let’s do well together in this swordsmanship competition.” (Astel)

Astel held Ricardo’s hand tightly and shook it like a handshake.

He chuckled and nodded along.

“Yes! Even though I’m an old man in the back room, I’m so refreshed after being released from the curse, no, I mean insomnia.” (Ricardo)

I raised my hand to cover my mouth and smiled.

“Oh, and don’t worry.” (Ricardo)

“Yes? What?” (Astel)

“With this swordsmanship contest as an opportunity… I’m preparing to get rid of all the people who ignore you.” (Ricardo)

Eventually, he clenched his fist and burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! I’ve been hearing a lot of stories about people ignoring you. Well, even at the flea market… Did they say he’s name was Miles?”

He was overjoyed, and revenge was burning in his eyes.

‘Ricardo, I’m sure you’re fine now, right?’

But, I only saved his life once, but Ricardo seemed to care more about my reputation than I did.

I nodded awkwardly, feeling the sweat running down my back.

“Well then, let’s go inside the treatment room.”

“Do you want to start preparing for the treatment from today?”

“Yeah. Looking at the treatment center’s plan, I’m going to have a medical checkup in about a week. There must have been a lot of things to do before that. Let’s go inside.”

Astel went straight into the treatment room.

I’ve been a little worried since the incident with Sam last time, but fortunately, I haven’t bumped into other hand healer’s so far.

“Hello.”

“Welcome, Astel.”

Some beasts still had a sullen expression on their face, while others seemed to be subtly in awe…

The youngest healer with her mouth agape bowed to me.

“Ah, Astel! Bazel will be here soon. You just have to wait!”

…Who was Bazel again?

I tilted my head to the same name for what I heard and what I didn’t.

That was then…

“Oh, he’s right behind you.”

Astel turned to her back.

“Hello, Astel. The knights brought their own questionnaires.” (Bazel)

It was a man I encountered at the training center. That guy’s name was Bazel, right!

I bowed my head when I received the questionnaire from the person needed for the test of the swordsmanship competition.

“Yes, hello! You even do administrative work.”

“There are people who trust you…”

Bazel continued with a nice smile.

“The chart contains the name, photo, and a questionnaire. Please check, and if there are any problems, please come to my accommodation near the training center.”

“Oh, yes. I will.” (Astel)

I looked down at the questionnaire in my hand and smiled as I answered.

Finally! I succeeded in obtaining information from all the articles participating in the swordsmanship competition.

If there was a sword mark under the eye, it would definitely be shown in the photo and recorded on the chart.

If only I could check all the records of over a thousand knights in a short time…

I searched through medical information for a long time in the name of preparing for a medical check-up before the doping test.

Of course, I didn’t even see half of them, and there was no particular big income.

Having been buried in paper all day, I woke up rubbing my eyes.

My body right now was not for my own, so I shouldn’t overdo it.

I’d have to do it again tomorrow. There was a fixed routine at night.

Duke Anais and I have a short call every night to check on each other’s health.

✿

Every night, when I turned on the sphere ball, time came to explore each other’s health for a while.

The Duke has been complaining that he’s not feeling well these days.

For example…

“When you think about me, did your heart race?” (Duke)

“Yes.” As I answered with a serious expression.

“Now that I think about it, your face seems red, too. I hope you don’t have a fever.” (Duke)

It’d be bad if I had a fever.

The Duke, who was staring at me anxiously, added kindly.

“I guess it’s because I haven’t seen Astel for a long time.”

“Oh…”

“So, I think we should meet soon.” (Duke)

Somehow, my face became hot, and I quickly changed the subject.

“It seems that the distance between the body and the mind has become farther away.”

He made a slight frown.

Distance of my heart? Could it be that I was wary of the Duke and caused a problem?’

Not much has been revealed about the imprint, so it was unknown and the possibility couldn’t be ruled out at all.

A bit of guilt flooded in.

I whispered secretly, pretending to be faithful to the Duke.

“If we meet, I’ll hold your hand first. Let’s keep our relationship stable.” (Duke)

As if the Duke was waiting, he continued.

“Then, in return, I…”

“In return…?”

He smiled slightly.

“…I have prepared a few things, so please look forward to it.” (Duke)

It felt a little ominous, but I nodded as if nothing had happened.

Still, it’s a reward, but it’s not a bad thing, I thought.

It was not necessary to check only the physical condition caused by the imprint and cut off the sphere ball, so after that, we had a trivial conversation.

I went to work today and talked about looking at the medical chart all day, and the Duke said that he was busy cleaning up the area around the base camp in advance.

“Today, I conquered the glass ice wall infested with demons.”

“It’s amazing! I wonder how cool it really was…”

“Yes, I’ll take it right away.”

I just wanted to show you over the sphere, but the Duke gave a simple answer and then turned his head to the other side.

“And…”

He then made a very serious expression.

He had a unique chic feeling as usual, but unlike him, he seemed to be talking about a very important agenda.

“What?”

“If someone bothers you in my castle, just tell me.” (Duke)

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but the Duke tends to speak of unimportant topics as if it were a warning

“No, it’s not. Um… I’m glad everyone did a good job! It’s okay.”

However, the Duke whispered quietly as if he knew something.

“You always… You just always say that everything’s fine.”

“…?”

That’s because I’m really okay…

But the Duke didn’t give me a chance to refute.

“It would be nice to invite human friends next time. The good humans. It would also be good to invite the orphanage friends or treatment teachers you mentioned then.” (Duke)

Smiling bashfully and nodded toward the Duke.

“Then maybe Cassian…”

…Oh, that’s right. The Duke doesn’t like Cassian.

“…if Ray was a nerd, I thought I could bring him in, haha! The bad guy won’t do anything!”

“It doesn’t matter whoever it was, except for the humans related to Cassian Gray.”

There was an unexpected problem. I was suddenly worried about the answer.

Sooner or later, I would have to bring my brother’s child to this castle, what should I do…?