Chapter 1
“So… you collapsed again, my lady.”
“Yes.”
The lady nodded at the concerned voice of the family physician echoing in the room.
Her hair swayed softly over her shoulders.
Rose-pink hair, as faint as rose oil dissolved in water.
And round eyes the color of rose quartz, equally transparent.
The lady of House Esta, Letricia Charlotte Esta, was overall a person of pale colors.
As if she might disappear at any moment should one look away.
“How long were you unconscious this time?”
“Let’s see. About three hours? No, perhaps longer. You’d get a more accurate answer from Allen than from me.”
“Ah… my lady.”
A sigh escaped the physician’s lips at Letricia’s attitude, speaking as if about someone else.
But despite the physician’s reaction, Letricia merely regulated her breath calmly.
She saw no reason to make a fuss now. After all, it wasn’t the first or second time she had collapsed like this.
Though the exact cause was unknown, Letricia had never been particularly healthy to begin with.
Perhaps because of that, she had frequently lost consciousness and collapsed since childhood, and today was just another one of those ‘frequent’ occasions.
So she could have just treated it as a brief nap and gotten up to resume her activities, but…
Unfortunately, Allen, her attending maid who had been nearby, witnessed her collapse, which led to all this commotion.
“You don’t need to do so much, Piril.”
“How can you say that?”
“Hmm…”
Letricia swallowed a sigh as she watched Piril examining her meticulously.
No matter how many times he examined her, Piril’s words were always the same.
“There’s nothing particularly wrong with your body, yet why does this keep happening? I really can’t determine the cause…”
This was what Letricia had been hearing from Piril for years. So today shouldn’t be any different, and yet…
Somehow, Piril’s reaction seemed unusual.
He moved more busily than usual, examining Letricia with equipment she had never seen before, and, as if that wasn’t enough, he even approached her arm with a syringe alongside a flask containing an ominous blue liquid.
“I’ll need to draw a little blood for a precise examination.”
“Yes, ah…”
Before she could finish her response, Letricia unconsciously let out a groan at the feeling of the needle piercing her skin.
At that sound, Piril’s brow furrowed as he dropped Letricia’s blood into the flask.
Letricia watched him curiously, seeing his unusually busy demeanor.
Why did this physician put in so much effort every time, she wondered.
It wasn’t as if he gained any particular benefit from it. No, it wasn’t just about benefits…
‘I just hope he doesn’t get caught showing me care and end up suffering at Isis’s hands again.’
Still extending one arm to Piril.
Letricia furrowed her brow as she thought of her brother, who had pink hair similar to hers but much more vivid.
Isis Cotton Esta. The mere mention of his name made Letricia shudder—he was the future head of House Esta and the ‘only’ biological child of Count Esta in this mansion.
Yes. Unlike Isis, Letricia was not Count Esta’s biological daughter.
Though she was called ‘my lady’ and dressed neatly, these were mere superficial appearances.
Her true status in this mansion was nothing more than that of an unwanted adopted child.
The late Countess had brought her here because she resembled her daughter who had died young from tuberculosis, but she was just a troublesome adopted child who received no affection from Count Esta, Isis, or anyone else.
That was her position here.
That’s why most of the mansion’s servants, except for Allen, her attending maid who stood guard at the door, and this aged physician, avoided Letricia.
Drip.
As if to break Letricia from her needless contemplation, Piril dropped her blood into the flask once more.
Then, along with a groan-like sigh from Piril, the blue solution that had absorbed the blood began turning dark red.
“…My lady. Have you been experiencing headaches recently, or has fainting become more frequent?”
“…Yes.”
“What about nausea? Have you felt your stomach twisting with the urge to vomit, or had any nosebleeds?”
“I’ve had some indigestion, but none of the symptoms you mentioned.”
“I see…”
Something seemed off. Unlike usual, today’s examination was taking longer.
As their conversation continued, Piril’s face grew darker and darker, like the liquid in the flask.
Then, after repeatedly alternating between examining test results covered in incomprehensible terms and medical books written in unfamiliar languages, he threw off his thick glasses and roughly ran his hands over his face multiple times.
The sequence of actions looked quite serious, giving Letricia a bad feeling.
So she deliberately pushed back her blanket and sat up busily.
“Piril, if there’s nothing particularly wrong, could you leave now? I don’t have much time left before the banquet, I need to finish preparing…”
“…One year… is all.”
But.
With the sound of a thick book closing shut, Piril’s words made Letricia freeze in place.
“Pardon? What do you mean by one year…”
“The time you have left… is only one year.”
