“I’m healthy but I just can’t sleep, so it’s not a big deal. Rather, His Majesty must recover first.”
Yulia, who was not aware of the circumstances, became deeply impressed by Meredith’s spirit of sacrifice.
“I really still have a long way to go. Your Majesty’s loyalty is so deep…!”
She expressed respect for Meredith with her moistened eyes.
“I can’t be more ashamed of my short thoughts.”
“No….”
“Forgive me if I said anything rude, Your Majesty.”
“It’s okay. You said it out of loyalty to me.”
Meredith smiled fondly and comforted Yulia.
“Because Yulia’s thoughts are also quite reasonable.”
“Your Majesty…”
“But if I can’t stand it, I’ll stop. So you don’t have to worry too much.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I understand.”
Julia still answered with a moved face.
“But just in case, I’ll talk to the court lady. You’d better take some stamina-enhancing medicine.”
“I’d love to.”
These days, I desperately needed a remedy for fatigue or a nourishing tonic.
‘I pretended to be okay in front of Julia but……’
No matter how healthy Meredith was, it was physically too much to not sleep for a few nights.
She felt her body getting worse day by day.
‘In fact, I’d really like to take a day off…’
There were not only physical problems, but also psychological difficulties.
Even after staying up all night for a few days, there was no clear result, so I was getting tired.
‘I just need to find a way to pass on my vitality to His Majesty.’
There were various ways of passing the healer’s own vitality to others.
However, it was too much of a waste of life force to try all those methods.
It was also dangerous because it caused great harm to the healer’s body.
That’s why we had to find the best way out of all the known methods.
Moreover, it was rare enough to have to treat a person who had failed in black magic and was also a member of the immediate imperial family.
So it was a more difficult situation to figure out a way.
‘If it was an era where magic was allowed, we would have found it sooner. There must have been a lot more information and knowledge than now.’
It was an unavoidable problem, but it was unfortunate.
Even as a wizard, she suffered because she was born and raised in an era where she could not use magic.
‘Still, it will come someday.’
Meredith decided to think positively.
‘And I learned a lot about the use of magic through this incident, didn’t I?’
Everything I learned this time was going to be useful someday.
Meredith thought positively and went to the Central Palace.
“Welcome, Your Majesty, the Empress.”
Maybe because I visited almost every day.
Now Sir Felix greeted Meredith without any particular resistance.
‘Although it still doesn’t feel friendly.’
When I think back on the first day, I wondered where it was.
“Your Majesty, the Empress has arrived.”
Meredith entered the Emperor’s bedroom as usual.
The Emperor greeted Meredith with an unchanging expressionless face.
“You came?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Meredith said a simple greeting and stood in front of the bookshelf leading to the secret passageway.
And familiarly, I pulled the first book out of the first row of the bookshelf.
The emperor who was looking at it, slowly approached Meredith.
Before long, Meredith had pulled out the third book.
It was at the moment she was about to pull out the fourth book.
“Ah…..”
Meredith, who was suddenly grabbed by her wrist, looked next to her with a bewildered look.
The emperor was looking at Meredith with a somewhat serious expression.
Seeing this, Meredith asked anxiously what was going on.
“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”
“…….”
“What’s the matter?”
“… today.”
The emperor slowly opened his mouth.
“Why don’t you just take a break?”
“……what?”
Meredith looked at the emperor with a look of bewilderment at the sudden remark.
“Are you sick? Imperial Physician…”
“Not me.”
The emperor narrowed his brow and tilted his head slightly to the side.
“Because you don’t look very good.”
“……Ah.”
Meredith recalled what Yulia said earlier at the Empress palace.
‘Do I look that bad?’
She muttered, stroking my cheeks with the back of her hand.
“Anyway, my lady-in-waiting told me that my face has gotten a lot haggard than when I first entered the palace……”
At that moment, Meredith was unnaturally cut off.
It was because the emperor suddenly swept Meredith’s cheeks lightly with the back of his hand.
Meredith’s body hardened like stone because of the unexpected touch.
In fact, the emperor muttered casually as if the action had no meaning.
“It’s gotten rough.”
“…….”
“I haven’t had enough sleep in four days.”
The emperor nodded his head as if it were a reasonable statement.
Meredith looked at the emperor, still physically energized.
“Let’s just skip today.”
“But…”
Meredith muttered with a slightly sullen face.
“That means it’s been four days since we’ve had no results.”
“So?”
“Because I might find a way today.”
“Even if you do find it.”
The emperor pointed out the most important thing that Meredith forgot.
“If you don’t feel well, it’ll be hard to treat me.”
“I’m fine, Your Majesty. I’m just a little tired.”
“Are you going to keep being stubborn?”
“I have a good feeling today.”
Meredith said with a hopeful look on her face.
“I had a good dream last night.”
“Good dream?”
“I had a dream about a dragon. It was a very big dragon”.
Meredith said slightly with a determined expression.
“So today I will definitely find it.”
“……Sigh.”
The Emperor finally sighed deeply.
“You’ll be sick later, so don’t blame me.”
“I am really fine, Your Majesty.”
Meredith smiled as if not to worry.
“And even if I’m sick, it’ll hurt for a while. Don’t worry, I won’t resent your Majesty.”
“……”
“Then I will pick out the rest of the books.”
Meredith looked back to the bookshelf.
“……”
The emperor continued to look at Meredith with a face that looked unsatisfied.
* * *
In the end, the two of them sat facing each other today, just as they did yesterday, and started reading books in the Imperial Library.
‘….I think I should have taken a break when I was asked to take one.’
Meredith regretted it exactly two hours after picking up a book.
Yulia and the Emperor also suggested that I just take a break today, but it seemed like she refused for nothing.
‘When everyone says that, there’s a reason.’
(t/n: she says that when says the same thing/ or advices the same thing, there’s always a reason for it,)
Meredith felt her eyelids close more and more and grabbed the book.
“Are you going back?”
At that moment, Meredith raised her head to the voice she heard in front of her.
The emperor was looking at her with an expression like he knew this would happen.
The expression made me feel strange.
Meredith shook her head.
“It’s okay, Your Majesty.”
“It’s written on your face that you’re going to die of sleepiness.
“……”
“I think you’re going to fall soon.”
“……I’ll tell you if I really can’t stand it.”
“I think today you’ve been more stubborn than I’ve ever seen this week.”
But even as he said that, the emperor understood Meredith’s intentions in his heart.
‘I thought I’d find it soon, but the progress is slower than I thought, so I’m nervous.’
He felt a little sorry that it seemed like she was rushing for nothing, but he didn’t say those words out of my mouth.
He just focused on the black letters on the white paper with indifferent eyes again.
“……”
And at some point, when he inadvertently raised my head.
His eyes caught Meredith, who was dozing in a precarious position, about to fall to the side at any moment.
‘…I knew it would be like that.”
A short sigh escaped from his mouth.
‘That’s why we should’ve skipped it today.’
The emperor closed the book and stood up.
And he sat down next to Meredith.
And that moment.
“…..”
Meredith’s head dropped on the emperor’s shoulder.
The Emperor looked down at Meredith, who was asleep, leaning on his shoulder with a startled expression on his face.
He first put his hand close to her head to push Meredith away.
“…..”
However, he soon changed his mind, leaving a close distance between them.
The hand, which had nowhere to go, stayed still.
The emperor didn’t know what he was thinking.
He just stayed still and looked at the face of the woman who had fallen asleep on his shoulder.
Inside the dark library, where there was no one else, only the sound of Meredith’s breathing, who was sleeping soundly, could be heard.
He thought it sounded like a metronome, and he just stared at her without touching her.
It was like the gaze of a person who discovered something for the first time in the world, and had the meticulous gaze of exploring something.
How long has it been?
Meredith’s messy hair came into his field of vision, who had maintained the same posture as before, unaware that his shoulder was going numb.
“…..”
It was only then that he moved his hand involuntarily.
Then, the black hair that ran down Meredith’s white and red cheeks was carefully tucked behind her ear.
“Well…….”
And in that quiet movement, Meredith woke up.
Illustration by 먀가린