C10
"Welcome! Is there any medication you need?" The employee greeted the guests politely.
"I want to buy some herbs," Ethel said.
"Do you have someone sick at home? What are your symptoms?" the employee inquired.
"No one is sick; I just plan to prepare it as tea and drink it," Ethel replied.
"Ah, a medicinal tea! Sure, just tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you right away," the employee responded.
I whispered to the employee the ingredients and the amount I needed, intending to keep it discreet so the person behind me wouldn't overhear.
Fortunately, Terence was busy looking at the products displayed on the stand.
As the employee, who had been paid an additional fee on top of the cost of the herbs, went to grind the ingredients I requested, he started talking to me.
"If the destination was this, it would have been faster to go through the central square instead of the side road."
This herbalist shop is located in the busiest central square of the capital. As befitting the empire's best herbalist, they have all kinds of herbs.
So, it goes without saying that the shortcut is to cross the central square.
But I couldn't choose that path.
"I feel uncomfortable in crowded places," I explained.
"It's a bit surprising. You don't seem like it."
It's just as you see. You're the one who dislikes crowded places, not me.
At that moment, a faint line formed between Terence's straight eyebrows.
It was an extremely minor change, but it couldn't escape my careful scrutiny.
"I'm going to the bathroom."
After spending some time in the bathroom to ensure that Terence was comfortable, I returned to his side.
"The order is here."
The man holding the paper bag looked more comfortable than before.
The painkillers I had taken while I was away seemed to be taking effect.
The greatest weakness of the dark Marquess Friheiden in the novel is the chronic headaches he suffers from.
The power that runs in his veins inevitably causes him to have headaches.
A curse placed by the royal family's ancestors in the distant past in exchange for receiving part of the goddess's power.
Due to this, the royal family has been able to manipulate mana freely with little effort for generations, while suffering from frequent migraines.
And the degree of pain was proportional to the size of the force.
The emperor was famous for a story where he fainted during his wedding due to a headache when he was young.
Such an emperor had two sons said to have the greatest power in nearly 500 years of history.
One is the crown prince Mikhail, the male protagonist of the novel, and Liena's lover.
The other is Terence, the emperor's illegitimate son before marriage.
Terence's mother was the daughter of the Marquess of Molo and the emperor's first fiancée.
The emperor and she bragged about their affection, but problems arose when the emperor's older brother, the crown prince at the time, died.
The current emperor, who was originally the second prince, was installed as the crown prince.
The Marquess of Molo lost the emperor's favor due to his overly stubborn personality, and the emperor had no intention of keeping the Marquess's daughter as a wife.
After a while, the Marquess's daughter disappeared, and rumors spread that she had run away after encountering her coachman.
Desperate, the current emperor was engaged to the young daughter of the Birod duke's family and married her almost immediately.
This led to the gradual decline of the Marquess of Molo, and the Marquess's daughter seemed to be forgotten. Until one day, she suddenly appeared with a child in her arms.
According to the Marquess's daughter, she didn't run away at night but was kidnapped.
Although there was no physical evidence, the verdict was clear.
The culprits were Duke Birod and the former emperor, who were blinded by their greed to make her their empress.
However, who could criticize a powerful person like the deceased supreme emperor?
He couldn't find his place, and his son, who he had at the time of the abduction, was not recognized as a member of the imperial family.
That child is Terence Friheiden, the man by my side right now.
If things had gone as they should, he would have been the emperor's legitimate son.
"What a shame."
I felt pity for him once again.
He couldn't call his father "father," and his situation was difficult as he faced numerous assassination threats from Duke Birod.
The future is even bleaker.
Is the dark villain without any reason? In the end, he meets a miserable end after confronting the protagonists.
Terence will soon emerge as a strong successor to the throne and assume the position of the crown prince.
An adversary to be defeated by the protagonist.
I plan to use his power to divorce and leave the empire before the fight for the throne intensifies.
By then, a civil war would have erupted, and the empire's security would be in ruins.
Unless you can receive the protection of a great noble like Cassius, it's best to leave.
For the sake of the country's stability, the benevolent lord does not recklessly punish people who had ties to Terence unless they were directly involved in the rebellion.
"So, I was thinking of making a deal and then canceling it..."
When I met him in person, he seemed like a kinder person than I expected, so I was touched a bit.
I held the paper bag tightly in my arms.
Let's relieve his headache with this and stop the darkening.
Headaches were responsible for half of Terence's overall deterioration.
As the pain worsens day by day, he is no longer satisfied with regular painkillers and eventually resorts to narcotics.
The claws of the devil.
The ominously named herb elevates the user's mood, and instead of alleviating the pain, it changes their personality.
As the name suggests, it's like a demon.
Their compassion disappears, they feel sadistic impulses, and eventually, they lose even the slightest trace of humanity.
The situation was the same for the crown prince, but he had Liena.
A chosen blessed person selected by the goddess and given another life. Does Liena's blessing neutralize the curse of the royal family?
"From Terence's perspective, it's madness."
Although they had the same father, someone grew to become the crown prince and even had a blessed lover.
Instead, he was dismissed as the emperor's illegitimate son and ended up becoming an addict due to pain worse than death.
Terence's hatred naturally turned toward his half-brother and his lover, Liena.
Originally, after their first chance encounter, Terence realized that Liena's presence relieved his headaches, so he approached her, hoping to draw her closer. However, to Liena, he was nothing more than an intruder who suddenly appeared one day and threatened her lover's position.
Moreover, Terence's energy made her uncomfortable.
Even the luck of the accidental discovery was only for the crown prince, who had everything that he did not.
Terence feels a deep despair and resentment that, combined with the side effects of the devil's claws, lead to his darkening.
But.
"If he takes the medicinal tea, Terence will feel quite comfortable."
The tea I was about to prepare was a kind of medicine that would alleviate the royal family's pain to some extent.
The first person to invent this medicinal tea was Liena. To be precise, Liena from a distant future.
She received a revelation while praying to the goddess for the crown prince, who suffered from headaches every time he was away from her.
After obtaining the herbs mentioned in the revelation and mixing them for several days to make tea, she finally found the optimal ratio.
Perhaps because it was the most valuable gift that the female protagonist gave to the male protagonist, this scene was treated with considerable importance.
"Thanks to that, I know what the ingredients are and the mixing ratio!"
To be honest, the goddess annoys me a bit.
No matter how you look at it, isn't it Terence who needs the medicinal tea, not the crown prince who is dating Liena?
Well...
Looking at it from outside the story, I think the author introduced medicinal tea because the female protagonist can't always be with the male protagonist.
I looked at Terence's profile and spoke in my heart.
"Don't worry. If you have the medicinal tea, you won't become an addict."
"My lady," Terence suddenly spoke.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering about the temple you plan to visit. If you only need to get holy water, isn't it really necessary to go to the Grand Temple?"
One of the main ingredients of the medicinal tea was holy water, blessed by a priest.
"That's right."
The only temple I knew in the capital was the Grand Temple.
"Then can we go to another temple that I know?"
The place Terence took me to was a small temple not far away.
Perhaps because it was on the border with the Wandering Forest, it was quite peaceful.
There were no believers lining up to receive holy water, so we quickly took the holy water and left the temple.
"I didn't know a place like this existed. I just followed the same path as the Wandering Forest."
"I'm glad you're satisfied."
It's like a person who trains only in the Wandering Forest because they want to be alone.
... What if that's the case?
"Tay."
When I stopped and said the name he had given me before, Terence turned around.
"Did you ask me to come here because I said I didn't like crowded places?"
He nodded in agreement.
Seeing that somehow moved me.
It might be a white lie because he also hates crowded places.
But even if that's the case, I received consideration from someone I met for the first time yesterday, something I had never received from my husband.
... It didn't feel bad.
"Thank you."
Terence slowed down and waited for me to catch up.
"You're welcome, my lady."
"Could you call me something else? The title 'my lady' is a bit uncomfortable."
"Then, how about 'mistress'?"
"... Excuse me?"
"Mistress, you hired me, so you are my mistress."
"Please don't call me that."
"If that's what my employer wants."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Oh, dear, was it too obvious?"
"Wow. People change just because they get a little closer to each other. Yesterday, you were the most polite person in the world."
I pouted, pretending to be upset, but it was a good sign.
The more the label's wall is broken down, the closer he will feel to me.
Will there come a day when Terence calls me by my name and speaks comfortably?
I was about to wonder about something other than poetry.
"My lady."
Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist.
"Come this way."
Then he turned toward the forest and started running.
"What on earth are you doing...? Hyuk!"
He held me so tightly that I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.
He's so close!
As I admired his uvula right in front of me, Terence closely surveyed his surroundings with his index finger placed over his mouth.
Soon, someone appeared on the path we had taken.