Julietta's Dressing Up

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

When the house doctor went out asking for people to gather, the butler followed him to pa.s.s a message to the Imperial Castle and Marquise Raban.

"Phoebe, don"t come to the third floor for a while, either."

Vera looked back at Phoebe and urged her to leave the bedroom, and she shook her head hard. "No, I"ll be here, too. I"ve been with her all along anyway, so if I were to get sick, I might already have been infected."

Vera thanked Phoebe for resolutely refusing.

"How sad would the Prince be if he knew?" Phoebe looked at the unconscious Julietta and cried, and Vera also wiped her tears.

"She"s just trying to be happy, but she has an epidemic. What"s this hard destiny for this sweet lady?"

"It"s not sure yet, so don"t be frustrated."

Vera wet a towel and wiped Julietta"s face, trying to convey her love to the sleeping Julietta.

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Bang!

A door was opening hastily in the dark and serene bedroom of Julietta, where the curtains were lowered to block the afternoon sunlight. He pushed the door so hard that it was shaking after hitting the wall.

"Your Highness, Your Highness... maybe it"s an epidemic. Please... no," Albert cried and screamed in tears, and Ian just followed him quietly as he could not stop him.

"Open the curtains," Killian ordered, making Vera and Phoebe standing up in surprise. They had lowered the intensity of the magic lights as much as possible, so that Julietta could feel comfortable, and were sitting there silent by the bed. While Vera ran and drew the curtains back, Killian approached the bed and looked down at Julietta.

"Get up." His low-pitched voice was shaking.

"Your Highness..." Albert"s voice dissuading him from behind died down.

"Julietta, Julie... get up. It"s only in the afternoon, but you"re lying down because you"re sleepy. Are you going to be so lazy when you have so much left to learn before you get married?"

Killian"s big hand gently swept away the hair that had fallen on Julietta"s forehead.

Albert was fidgety and restless at the sight. It was absurd for a member of the imperial family to stand near the sick woman who might have caught the epidemic, but he could not stop Killian with his desperate look.

To Killian, it did not seem realistic to see Julietta lying on the bed with a pale face.

Still, thanks to the rapid suspension of the Magic Square as soon as people got sick in Bertino, the disease had not spread to the point that Austern"s people were concerned. There were currently fewer than ten deaths in Austern, compared to more than a hundred deaths in Bertino.

As soon as the news of the outbreak of the epidemic was heard, an emergency meeting was held in the Imperial Castle. Killian was also well aware of the plague"s progress as a member of the Congress and the monarch of Bertino.

The key was to find out what caused it, so all the famous doctors of the Empire were working together to find a cure. The Imperial Castle was still trying to isolate those suspected of the infectious disease and figure out the symptoms and causes of the disease, but Julietta was down.

Killian looked at Julietta with darkened eyes and asked, "Is there anything wrong with the others in the house?"

The butler who was breathing deeply after following Killian"s group rushing to the princess"s bedroom without any guidance replied in a stable voice, "No, Your Highness, no one has shown any abnormalities at the moment."

"That"s strange." As soon as he heard that an epidemic had broken out in Bertino, he told Julietta not to go out. But only the princess who had stayed in the mansion fell down.

"You mean there"s no one else in the mansion who"s sick but the princess? Are you okay, too?" Killian asked, without turning his eyes an inch away from Julietta.

Vera answered, "Yes, Your Highness. Mrs. Raban has also stayed in the mansion, refusing to go out, but she went out saying that today"s meeting can"t be postponed. Sir Reynold, the etiquette teacher, is the only outsider who comes and goes to the Kiellini mansion. He was examined by the house doctor after the princess collapsed, but he was confirmed to be fine."

It was an infectious disease, and she was protected in the deepest part of the Kiellini mansion, so it was like one of the very least likely people had been chosen. Killian, who had always been exposed to a.s.sa.s.sination risks, was suspicious of this strange coincidence, but could not think too deeply.

He stared at the pale face of Julietta, and could not stop thinking that she might wake up.

---

After a while, Simone returned from her meeting after being contacted by the butler, but was unable to reach Julietta"s side at the sight of Killian, and went back to the parlor.

Killian remained motionless, while the house doctor was explaining the symptoms of the disease to a royal doctor.

"How is she?"

After the house doctor was sent back, the royal doctor who had been called from the Imperial Castle stood after his examination.

"I"m not sure if it"s the epidemic yet."

"Could it be… something else?"

Killian was asking if it was poison, but the royal doctor just shook his head. "It"s not a poison I know. She doesn"t show a reaction. But I don"t know all the poisons."

The royal doctor also seemed to feel that it was strange that only the princess fell among the many people in this s.p.a.cious mansion.

"Step out."

Killian ordered the royal doctor to step down, as he apologized in silence that there was no particular proof.

At the moment of suspected epidemic outbreaks in Bertino, all of Austern"s Magic Squares for each country were shut down. That included the Magic Square connecting Austern to Vicern.

Austern rejected those who served the G.o.ds, unlike Vicern, so it was not easy to invite priests. Although he made a formal request to the Emperor of Vicern in the face of the difficulties, he did not know how long it would take before the Vicern Temple"s a.s.sistance was granted.

Even if they came, there was no guarantee they would be able to cure the epidemic. Judging from some of the previous cases, priests" holy power did not cure all illnesses. Treatment of trauma or neutralization of poison was possible, but they could not be completely detoxified.

The priests would not have been ostracized in Austern if they had enough ability to save the dying. It was said that the high-ranking priests" holy power was greater than what was generally known, but they were very rare, and Vicern would not send them to Austern.

Even if the war was over, the two Empires were the largest forces on the continent, and they still did not fully lift their guards against each other. Vicern"s priests and Austern"s magicians were the weapons that had made both countries stand tall as Empires, and the checks for them were particularly severe.

Killian was forced into the same feeling he had experienced in the carriage on the day the Empress had died as a child. He thought he had grown out of it, but there was still something he couldn"t help.

The sun pa.s.sed through the open curtains and darkness fell. As the moonlight came into the room, Killian sat by the bed and didn"t move at all.

As the long night pa.s.sed and dawned, the others stood by him who didn"t move at all, without saying a word.

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"Is His Highness still in the Kiellini mansion?"

Adam nodded at Oswald"s question. Though belatedly informed, they were unable to visit the Kiellini mansion due to Killian"s order.

"He didn"t move at all, even when Albert begged him so hard..."

Now that he turned out to be the Prince of the main line of descent, all that was left to do was the coronation for the Crown Prince. All of them were devastated by what happened. They were at a loss because they knew how much their lord loved Julietta.

"Let"s pay attention to that, because he told us to hide the state of the princess thoroughly. Although His Majesty may already know, we should be careful not to let it fall into the ears of the second Queen."

Killian"s aides all knew that the second Queen was extremely sensitive to her nephew"s personal feelings. She was afraid that her nephew would get carried away by emotion and get everything wrong. If she found that Killian was at the side of his fiancée, who might be contagious and forget his current situation, she would be determined to oppose this marriage.