Chapter 43
In that place, there was a pale-faced lady with fancily decorated red hair. The escort knights who had followed her were there as well.
“Hello, Madam. May I see you for just a second?”
Elisha glanced over at the symbol sewn onto the uniforms of the lady’s knights.
There were many noble families in the empire, but because Elisha had to memorize them as her territorial duty, she was able to recognize the symbol with no problem.
Marquis Beltain.
The Beltain family was where the current emperor’s half-sister, the princess, had married into.
As far as Elisha knew, the heir of the Beltain family was still underage, so he was still single.
That meant……
‘This person is Princess Olivia.’
She was also Marchioness Beltain.
Princess Olivia did not have a very good relationship with her older half-brother, the current emperor. It was because he had deposed her older full-blooded brother, the previous emperor, after saying that he was a tyrant.
Even so, Elisha still wasn’t sure if Princess Olivia would be friendly with a person from the Rubelin Dukedom.
‘No, more importantly…… I’m in the middle of running away right now, so it can’t be good that I was found here.’
But thankfully, as if she didn’t know who Elisha was, Princess Olivia had called Elisha ‘madam’ instead of her name.
On top of that, Elisha, who had pretty much spent her whole life in the Rublein territory, had only seen Olivia a couple of times when she was young and had never seen the princess as an adult.
Putting all of that aside, Elisha knew that she couldn’t just ignore such a desperate person.
“Hello, Madam. What seems to be the problem?”
Olivia looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.
“Did you perhaps bring a doctor here?”
“Ah, yes.”
“My daughter is very sick. She’s always been healthy, but a fever started within her last night…… If it’s okay with you, can you please lend me some of your time?”
“They said the closest village was here, but when we got here, the village doctor had gone to a nearby village because of many sick people in that village. So we beg you, as troublesome as this is, to please help us.”
A nearby knight added on to what Olivia had said.
It was only after she heard their explanations that Elisha realized why the princess and her knights came to this quiet place.
‘They could have gone to the nearby village to see the doctor, but it probably would have been very dangerous to take their already seriously child to a village with many sick people.’
They probably heard that a noble was staying here and came here, desperate for help.
Whenever a noble came to a small town such as this, it often meant that they were coming for vacation or to recuperate and rest for a sickness.
‘However, it’s not summertime when people normally go on vacation, so they probably thought that I came here to rest because of a sickness.’
If Elisha had come here to recuperate, then the chance that she had brought a personal doctor would have been high, so it seemed that the Princess came in hopes of a doctor.
Elisha couldn’t bring herself to turn Olivia down.
“Of course, Madam. Where is your child.”
When Elisha answered her without a second of hesitation, Olivia’s complexion came back.
Tears started to form in her eyes.
During that time, the knight had brought the child from the carriage.
In the knight’s arms was a fever-ridden child who was clearly having trouble breathing.
“Please come inside.”
“Thank you so much, Madam. Thank you so much……”
Olivia grabbed Elisha’s hands while spilling tears of relief.
Elisha held Olivia’s trembling hand and gave an instruction to Settil.
“Doctor Settil, please check over the child’s condition.”
“Of course.”
Elisha went into the summer house with Olivia.
Settil started the treatment as soon as the child was laid down. Anne brought a wet towel in accordance with Settil’s instructions.
“The child’s fever is too high. I believe that we have to lower the fever first and watch the child’s condition…… .”
Settil looked at Elisha and her diagnosis trailed off towards the end.
She looked at Elisha with a look that asked if it was okay to delay the trip and stay in the summer house a bit longer.
Elisha was in a hurry, but the life of a child was more important.
Elisha answered her without any hesitation.
“That would be good.”
Delaying the trip by one more day wouldn’t be a problem.
After all, the only people that knew that she was in this summer house were the temple manager and the people who worked in the summer house.
“I’m so sorry, Madam. You probably had another urgent matter to attend to…… .”
“No, it’s really fine. I wanted to rest a bit more anyway.”
Elisha reassured the apologetic Olivia with a smile.
Anne looked at Elisha with a nervous look, but because she was so busy talking to Olivia, Elisha did not notice this.
Settil had some fever medicine left over from the treatment she had given Elisha. She fed the child some of the medicine and wiped the child’s body.
It soon became night, and the child’s condition improved quite a bit.
It was only when she saw her child resting with a peaceful expression that Olivia finally let out a sigh of relief.
Anne brought Olivia a simple meal consisting of a sandwich and juice and placed it in front of her.
Elisha bade Olivia to eat.
“Please eat something. You haven’t even eaten dinner. A person taking care of another sick person needs to eat especially well.”
“Ah…… Thank you.”
Olivia finally felt her hunger and took the sandwich.
Elisha sat beside her while sipping some warm milk.
Olivia had finished her sandwich and juice when her eyes lit up suddenly as if she suddenly remembered something.
“Now that I think about it, it seems that I didn’t even hear your name.”
“Ah……”
Elisha hesitated for a moment and found that she couldn’t answer.
‘If I tell her my name, then she’ll know who I am.’
Elisha had even gone as far as instructing Anne to call her ‘Miss’ to protect her identity.
In the end, Elisha decided to lie, since she wasn’t ever going to see Olivia in the future anyway.
“Elisha Tehart.”
“Ah, I see, you were a lady from the Tehart Viscounty.”
Just as Elisha had suspected, the princess knew the family name immediately.
As fitting for a member of the royal family, Olivia knew all the noble families, even if she may not know their faces.
The Tehart Viscounty was on the western outskirts, and they had no real presence in society.
For that reason, Olivia did not question the fact that she didn’t know Elisha.
“My name is Olivia Beltain.”
“Oh, I thought I saw that insignia a few times before, but it turns out that you were the Princess. I’m not here very often, so I didn’t recognize you right away.”
Elisha already knew of Olivia’s identity, but she pretended she only realized now. That way, Olivia would feel better.
Olivia’s face grew brighter as Elisha had predicted, and she expressed her thanks to Elisha.
“Once again, thank you so much, Lady Elisha. I will make sure to repay you for this one day.”
“It was nothing. I’m sure that anyone who saw a sick child would have done the same.”
Olivia asked Elisha a question with a beaming smile.
“May I ask you for your age?”
“I became an adult this year.”
“Oh my, you’re similar in age to my son.”
“Oh, that’s right. I heard many things about your son. He’s the most eligible bachelor. I also heard about how you raised him so well as the heir.”
Elisha complimented Olivia and her son in order to raise Olivia’s spirits.
Olivia’s son, Cedric, really was the most eligible bachelor that every noble family wanted, so Elisha wasn’t saying completely empty words.
“Really? Then do you perhaps want to meet this most eligible bachelor?”
“Huh?”
But somehow, the conversation flowed to a totally unexpected territory, and Elisha blinked her eyes in confusion.
“My son is a year younger than you, but he has a very mature appearance, so it shouldn’t matter too much. He becomes an adult next year, so how about meeting him once?”
“Oh, that’s…… .”
“It’s a bit awkward saying this about my own son, but because he grew up under my instruction, he has good manners and should be able to take good care of both external and internal affairs.”
It seemed that Olivia had really taken a liking to Elisha.
Elisha probably had something urgent to do of her own but she had still stayed here, and she hadn’t shown a hint of displeasure of what was happening and had taken care of both Olivia and her child with great care.
To top it all off, Elisha was very beautiful, so Olivia liked her all the more.
“And it’s good for the man to be a year younger. It’s something I realized throughout my life.”
Elisha was taken aback by Olivia’s forwardness and laughed awkwardly.
“I’m honored that you think of me so highly, but I already have a child.”
“A child?”
Olivia looked at Elisha with puzzled eyes when she belatedly realized that Elisha’s hand was on her stomach.
Olivia’s eyes grew wide as the realization set in a beat late.
“Oh my, I apologize. I thought that you would definitely be single because you’re so young. It was senseless of me to say that but it was because I like Lady Elisha so much.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m very thankful that you would try to set me up with your precious son.”
“Hm, but where did the father go during this important time?”
“Ah, that…… . I asked for a divorce.”
At Elisha’s answer, Olivia was thoroughly shocked. Then, she quickly fixed her shocked expression and asked Elisha a question carefully.
“Is it fine if I curse at your husband right now?”
Olivia had asked for permission to swear at Richard, but she didn’t even give Elisha a second to answer before she started her cursing session.
“If that was my son, then I would have beaten him until he’s hanging on to the last thread of his life and then chased him out of the house. Seriously, how could he even think about divorcing his wife who is pregnant with his own child?”
“I was the one who asked him for a divorce first…… .”
“Then the husband was even worse than I thought! How bad could he have been if you even had to ask him for a divorce?”
When Elisha saw Olivia raging as if she was hearing something about her own daughter, Elisha couldn’t help but laugh.
It was the first time that she was able to laugh brightly since she left the dukedom.
It was only when she heard Elisha laughing that Olivia’s rage finally settled down.
“Then is the father currently on his way here?”
“Nope. I bet he doesn’t even know I’m here.”
Elisha smiled brightly as she belatedly added on to what she said.
“And it should stay that way.”
[e/n: Olivia is so cute! Her trying to matchmake Elisha with her son and getting mad at Richard was adorable~]