North x Northwest

As his chair was pushed back roughly, Mireille jumped from his seat.

“Why?”

“Bandits stormed into the village of Kano and wreaked havoc. I think the Imperial Army reached the forest while hunting them down.”

“Have they been caught?”

“Yes.”

Mireille slammed the table.

“Damn it!”

As his anger didn’t subside, Mireille struck the table with his palm a few more times.

“The message probably reached Count Lazilière and others as well. Currently, Your Grace is the closest to the forest.”

“But Kano? Where even is that?”

“It’s a small village at the entrance to the main road of the Great Trade Route. It’s very close to Roahn. I guess I could meet up with the nearby Imperial Army and…”

“And advertise my involvement? For now, isn’t the only thing the Imperial Army is interested in the bandits?…”

“Y-Yes, pardon me, I made a mistake…”

“Our timid Majesty is sensitive to public opinion, so his main concern would be the bandits who have not been caught.”

“…”

Enzo nodded deeply.

‘No matter how rampant the bandits are, large merchant groups like the Garni Merchant Association are safe because we’ve employed a large number of mercenaries to protect us. Therefore, the targets of the petty thieves are mainly small and medium-sized merchants, who either belong to emerging aristocrats or ordinary imperial citizens. However, as the capital-holding commoners are increasingly incorporated into the educational system, the voices of such people become increasingly louder in these modern times. In addition, public opinion hasn’t been friendly to the traditional nobility, including clan families*, who are formed mainly around the new class…’

Lost in thought, Mireille had unknowingly jumped to his feet and was now pacing around the table.

“It’s better to lay low for a while. Tell those guys who are still in the forest* to completely cut off all contact for the time being and go into hiding.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“We also have to check the scale of the interference of the army, so send Jean towards that village first and have him report it.”

Enzo knew Jean as the gloomy man who went around investigating various parts of the empire under orders from Mireille. And recently, he received a generous reward from the duke, after he had been asked for key information from Obernyu. Enzo didn’t appreciate Mireille’s fondness for Jean. This was because he was shocked that this idiot, whose origins weren’t known, didn’t know his place and was now imitating a Sesbron’s accent instead of using his original accent as he did at first.

Enzo grabbed the back of Mireille’s chair as his master was about to sit down again. He then gently pushed the chair in and rang the bell.

The manager who quickly returned, greeted Mireille politely as if he was seeing him for the first time while Mireille held his noble stance gracefully.

“Bring in the meal again.”

***

Lil, curled up on the blanket as she had dozed off, woke up to the sound of something rustling beside her. She habitually checked behind the window and saw that the sun was setting. The red colour of the sky was painting the entire room.

When she looked next to her, she saw Ed frowning and squinting at her, prompting her to instinctively make a hand visor over his forehead.

“Are you awake?”

A dry voice asked in a whisper.

“…How long have I been lying down?..”

“Three days. How are you feeling? Are you feeling thirsty?”

As Levi had taught her, Lil called for a maid, who in turn went to fetch the doctor straight away. Moments later Levi rushed into the room like a storm.

“The prognosis is good. We don’t have to worry about him being in critical condition anymore.”

She quickly walked out again without adding anything, leaving the maid to gently close the door that she left wide open. In case he was wondering what she was up to, Lil explained to Ed.

“Levi is the busiest here. She has a lot of patients.”

“Here as in…”

“We’re still in Kano. Lord Picard gave you his bedroom.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing much. Linhardt brought in the Imperial Army, who arrested and transported the remnants of the bandits. News is spreading that His Majesty has wiped out the bandits in the Risch Mountains on a large scale.”

“What about you?”

“Me? Thanks to you, I’m not hurt anywhere, I’m fine.”

As she said that and shrugged her shoulders, Ed grabbed her left wrist. He looked intently at the cotton cloth wrapped around her arm while she answered.

“It’s not infected. It’s recovering well.”

“I’m glad you’re fine.”

“I’m not completely fine yet, but I’m getting healthier by the day.”

‘Rather, now that my whole body is brimming with vitality, the occurrence of having my stomach pierced by a sword feels like it has happened in a past life. Leaving only Ed and Levi still sensitive about it. In addition, the side effects of the medication no longer persist and my hair no longer falls out.’

Lil had long since acknowledged that her doctors had a tendency to be hard to understand, so she didn’t say anything else and just carried on with what she wanted to tell him.

“The bones of your upper arm and shoulder were shattered.”

Ed answered roughly.

“Figured.”

Lil had spoken calmly to suppress her worries, but in reality, she wasn’t calm at all. So when Ed expressed his feelings as casually as he did, her temper flared.

“What? You figured? Does it make sense that you still rode a horse? Are you crazy?”

“I couldn’t help it.”

“You could’ve just asked for a ride.”

“If I had done that, we wouldn’t have been able to arrive on time…”

“…”

‘He’s right… While Ed was lying unconscious, I tried to recollect my memories of that incident countless times, but there was no other way…’

Even though it made sense in her head, Ed’s loss of consciousness from excessive bleeding was a difficult matter to accept. Annoyed for no reason, Lil lifted her pillow and placed it next to him. Ed’s eyes remained fixed on her as he only moved his mouth.

“Huh?”

“..!”

There was no way she would hit him in his current condition, but the increasing annoyance compelled her to hit at least something. That was why she started grounding her fist in the pillow next to him.

“Argh!”

“..?”

“It hurts…”

“How can it hurt you when I’m only hitting the pillow?”

“Just… mentally…”

“..?!”

Ed pouted his lips pitifully.

“I just want you to hug me…”

Ed then raised his good arm and made a rough round shape. Seeing how it seemed like his arm strength hadn’t yet returned, Lil felt sorry for him and wanted to hug him back as well, so she lazily crept into his arms. Or she was about to when it suddenly occurred to her that even though it was Ed’s healthy shoulder, she shouldn’t lean on the body of a seriously injured patient.

Lil pulled her arms, which were already wrapped around him, over his head.

“Hmm?”

“I’ll be the one to give you a hug.”

“..?”

She then wiggled her arm between his head and the pillow. Bending her arm slightly, she leaned on the pillow next to him, intending to give Ed her arm as a pillow.

“This is how it should be done.”

“…”

They lay side by side in an awkward shape. Once Ed had to crumple his own shoulder inward to rest his head on her shoulder, he found it difficult to adjust his posture and stretched his neck toward Lil a few times before giving up.

‘If it were under more normal circumstances, I would’ve given him an earful about trying harder. But because our position was already bad to begin with, there’s nothing I can do about it.’

Ed grunted.

“It hurts…”

“…”

“It’s too hard. Really…”

He kept making groaning sounds as if he was dying.

‘It’s obviously just for show, but strangely enough, whenever he does this, it softens me and at the same time, it makes me want to join in on the rhythm.’

Lil removed her arm from the back of his head. But even that didn’t go too smoothly. His head abruptly lost its support and fell straight down on the pillow.

“Ack!”

Even though his exclamation pricked her conscience for a moment, she chose to ignore it and went down to the bottom of the pillow to lie down. Instead of leaning on his shoulder, she placed her face next to his and wrapped her arm around him. As they were lying still like that, Ed’s body began to tremble more and more. Lil clenched her hand that was on his broad chest and grabbed the hem of his shirt.

“Don’t you dare laugh… I’m warning you.”

“Kkkk… Hnnggh…”

“Hold it in. Don’t you dare.”

“Ha-ha… Hahahaha!”

“I told you to hold it in…”

“…”

Her weak warning was only drowned out by laughter. Lil quickly raised her upper body and glared at him. Ed frowned as much as he could but continued to laugh through his pain. His laughter became so messy that at one point Lil didn’t know if he was laughing or groaning. It went on for a while before Ed grabbed his head, his hair having become a mess on his pillow.

“Look at this, your entire body is shaking.”

“…”

Lil gritted his teeth tightly.

“Stop it, really.”

“I think I need to ask Levi for some headache medicine.”

“..!”

“Aww!”

Lil, unable to bear the shame, kicked the pillow that was rolling at her feet. Of course, in the meantime, Ed started laughing again.

‘This is why I never take the initiative to be affectionate first.’

Alarmed by the blanket that Ed had lifted while half-rolling in laughter, Lil looked under it. His leg, which was at risk of bleeding again with excessive movement, was barely moving.

“How’s your leg?”

Levi told Lil that Ed would recover with time, but she still wanted to check for herself.

Ed, who was still smiling, stopped laughing when her eyes met his. Lil quickly glanced down at his legs that were exposed beneath the drapery. One thing stood out. It was the part in the middle protruding from his girdle.

Ed answered straightforwardly.

“I think it will be hard to walk properly for a while.”

Lil sighed, emphasising the seriousness of the situation.

“This isn’t the time to laugh like this. You almost died.”

– – – – –

Footnote:

Clan family: Clan families are a group of families or households that claim descent from a common ancestor.

“…It’s better to lay low for a while. Tell those guys who are still in the forest to completely cut off all contact for the time being and go into hiding…” = a few chapters back, during the smugglers forest arc, we explained where the sudden codenames of ‘The deer and rose guys’ came from. We actually had one more argument strengthening our case, but we left it out due to the possibility of spoilers. Now that it’s out in the open that Mireille is involved somehow, we think it safe to tell you guys. In chapter 85, we actually learned that the family crest of the Mireille family is a rose. So the ‘rose guys’ belong to Mireille.