CH 25

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I’m just a little dizzy. Thanks.”

“Why do you feel dizzy…… Did lord Marquis push you too hard again?”

Louis, who supported Renato with a surprised face, immediately turned fierce. Renato often had anemia on the day he provided blood to Marquis Medus.

Fucking bastard.

Thinking about Marquis Medus, Louis gritted his teeth. He must have drawn more blood today than usual. The Marquis he knew was a human who would force Renato to do anything for his own benefit. In fact, that already happened a few times.

“No. Today was just like usual.”

“But why are you feeling dizzy? What if you are sick?”

Louis’ expression worsened even more. He had never been so concerned about Renato’s health until now. As an imperial family member who was born with fairy blood, Renato was stronger than normal people.

There were times when Marquis Medus tormented Renato by drawing too much blood or feeding him strange hormone drugs, but he had managed to overcome them so far.

So he was more concerned. Renato seemed to think he was hiding it perfectly, but he couldn’t fool Louis who he had been with since birth.

“This can’t continue. Tomorrow, I will ask sir chamberlain for help.”

Louie helped Renato get into the carriage with a serious face. He knew that Renato recently suffered from pains for no apparent reason, that he was exhausted and tired earlier than before, and that he was waking up from nightmares every night.

Besides that, there was something else suspicious. After the day of Ludmilla’s funeral, Renato refused all the help with baths and basic dressing. As if he didn’t want to show his naked body.

He felt strange about Renato’s behavior, but he did not show it to him because he could not inquire what his master wanted to hide. But that was the limit now.

“If it’s because you can’t trust the palace doctors, I’ll try to get someone outside the Imperial Palace.”

Louis speculated that the reason Renato was reluctant to see the doctors was because of Marquis Medus. At present, the palace doctors were mostly controlled by the Marquis.

There were neutral doctors because of their conscience, like Marquis Pavel, the Emperor’s doctor, but there were far more people who weren’t like that. Therefore, there was no one to comfortably entrust Renato’s health to.

“I’m really fine. Why are you so worried these days?”

“Because you keep making me worry, Your Imperial Highness.”

Louis pouted his lower lip because of the continuous refusal. He couldn’t understand why Renato was refusing treatment so much.

“You don’t need to find someone else.”

Looking at the sulking Louis, Renato was puzzled but refused once again. Whether it was Marquis Medus or other doctors, if they saw the scar on his body, they would immediately go into an uproar. Louis and Luna would also think it was strange.

However, he could not say that he had regressed. It was not that he didn’t trust the two, but for their safety, it was better to keep the secret alone.

Renato decided to hide as much as he could about the regression unless he could explain it all.

“Please don’t do that, just once……”

“If Luna finds the person I was talking about, things will be resolved. I’ll see him.”

“Ah, really? But didn’t you say he was a pharmacist?”

“He’s also a doctor.”

Although he was disqualified. Renato held back the latter half of the sentence and looked out of the window. In the distance, a green forest and a barrier surrounding the forest to protect it caught his eye.

I’ll have to go back to the tomb of the imperial family.

Looking at the blue shining barrier, Renato fell into agony. As a member of the imperial family, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to enter the tomb of the imperial family. However, visiting the tombs of the first Emperor and the Fairy King was a different story.

Even the imperial family members could not enter that place without permission from the Emperor or during special occasions. It would be easy to get permission if he asked Tristan, but Marquis Medus and Blanche would be likely to suspect him.

Above all, he did not know what would happen when he visited the Fairy King’s tomb. Renato was almost certain that the Fairy King’s power was involved in his regression.

When he recalled, it was strange that in his previous life, as soon as he passed the barrier, he went straight to the Fairy King’s tomb. Because it was originally impossible.

Then the question ‘Why?’ arose. Why did the Fairy King turn back time, why did he choose Renato, and why did he regress to this time…… The more he thought about it, the more complicated his mind became.

What if time changes again?

When his thoughts reached that point, he felt a little hesitant. There was no law that said he could only go through something once. Renato was hesitant to visit the Fairy King’s tomb because of that possibility.

“By the way, you must have prepared everything I told you to prepare, right?”

Taking his eyes off the window, Renato changed the topic. Having safely passed the blood provision under the pretext of regular checkups, it was time for him to work.

“Of course. It’s all here. But are you really going to leave without stopping by the Palace?”

“That’s why I told you to prepare in advance. A lot of time has passed after going to the Empress’ Palace. We must go before it is too late.”

“That’s true, but…… Would that be alright?”

“What?”

“Won’t the grand prince be displeased if you bring up a story that he already rejected? He may ask for a replacement for the protocol officer position, or he may officially protest.”

Louis said with a worried expression. He was terribly surprised when he first heard about Renato’s plan to marry the grand prince. Even Luna, who was usually expressionless, was so surprised that her mouth opened wide.

He calmed down after hearing Renato’s explanation, but his heart still fluttered when he thought about that time. Louis found it difficult to understand Renato, who wanted to protect Trudy even if it meant using himself as a trading tool.

For Louis, Renato was still a Prince-nim that was too young to marry anyone and start a family. Since he was like a younger brother that Louis had been raising ever since he was a baby, he hoped that Renato would at least marry someone he loved. It was more so because he knew the environment in which Renato grew up better than anyone.

So Louis fell into a contradictory state where he both hoped things would flow the way Renato wanted them to, but didn’t hope so at the same time.

“But I can’t just give up like this. Don’t you know the saying that there is no tree that won’t fall if you chop it ten times?”

Renato asked back with a positive attitude. It wasn’t that he was not worried about Khalid’s reaction, but he couldn’t sit still after being rejected once.

“Last time I was too hasty. I shouldn’t have done that without preparation……”

Renato’s expression clouded as he recalled the man’s serious face when listening to his proposal. He admitted that he was complacent.

Although he kept in mind that Khalid in his previous life and Khalid now should not be considered the same, he secretly expected that the man would accept his offer. It was because of the memories of his previous life.

Khalid in the past was always polite and kind to Renato. And he did the best he could for him. It was thanks to those memories that Renato came up with the idea of proposing a contract marriage to Khalid. In his previous life, the man……

Renato tightly clenched and then reopened his fist to block the old memories surging up. When he thought of the lost past, the area around his scar would throb just like when he met Maximo.

“I’m not going to meet Maximo today, so I’ll be able to have a calm conversation without panic.”

“Seriously, that damn lord. He is a human being who is of no help to your life, Your Imperial Highness.”

Louis grunted with a tired face. Renato softly smiled at him. Then he looked out the window again. Before arriving at the diplomatic office, he had to think about how he would convince Khalid.

* * *

“Aigoo, I’m really dying!”

Attacked by Khalid, Amavand sank to the floor and let out a painful sound. He already felt anxious from the moment the man suddenly appeared on the training ground and asked for a sparring match, and now, he was still in a sandbag situation.

“Please be gentle! Are you going to kill me?”

Amavand stared at Khalid, who was having an indifferent expression on his face, with resentment. Unlike him who was a mess, Khalid was only sweating a little.

“Sparring is just like real fights. Don’t you know that?”

“If we spar twice just like real fights, I will really die.”

It was safe because they used edgeless practice swords, but Khalid’s blows truly hurt. Amavand wrapped his hand around his neck which had felt sore from a while ago. It was the spot where Khalid’s sword brushed past in the end.

“Ugh. Please look at this. I’m bleeding!”

Seeing the blood on his palm, Amavand trembled and made a fuss. Khalid looked at the red line on his neck, then fixed his posture.

“It’s just a scratch. Don’t make a big deal out of it and just get up.”

“What do you mean by a scratch?! This is really too much! I give up, give up! I can’t do it anymore!”

Khalid frowned when seeing Amavand lying on the training ground’s floor and refusing to fight. After sighing softly, he looked around and looked for the next opponent.