"Hmm... this is difficult."
Ybel rubbed the handle of her parasol and fell into thought.
Twins, but developing differently...
"Your aunt has her own issues as well, but those should resolve once the mistress of the house properly takes charge. Since she's decided to pay attention to her family, we can't keep her staying in the territory forever."
"Then once we get there, there are two things we need to do. Restore order within the household and take care of my cousins' illness."
"Exactly."
"I'll meet them first and see for myself. I think I'll need to examine them directly before deciding what kind of treatment they need."
Now she understood why they needed her.
The bloodline of the Grand Duke's family was imitating beasts.
If word of that got out, it would be disastrous.
Of course, Ybel had absolutely no intention of revealing anything about the Bayern Grand Ducal family—not even by accident. She had always been discreet.
"Old Granny Vanya told me you've been heating the house with torches... You shouldn't do that. And keeping all the windows shut is bad too."
"No matter what my aunt says, I always keep the windows open where I stay. But the children's rooms are rather dark. Touring the estate made me realize there are many things that need changing."
That was what worried her most.
If they were coughing, it meant their lungs weren't healthy. They were still young, so it was probably not tuberculosis.
If they were coughing up blood, the family wouldn't be trying to handle the matter privately like this.
Still, lung disease doesn't really have an effective treatment yet. That's what worries me.
People were often advised to recuperate in the countryside where the air was fresh, but she doubted the Bayern Grand Duchy's air was as polluted as the capital's.
Then what was the problem?
"Have you ever heard of the Bayern family illness?"
"Not at all."
"They say a curse runs through Bayern blood. It's best to take things one step at a time. I'll explain the family illness once we arrive at the territory."
Victor's profile was cold and expressionless as he spoke.
Even a man who seemed to possess everything had things he wished to keep hidden.
Ybel accepted his consideration in kind and did not pry further.
And Victor found that deeply comforting.
Ybel never crossed boundaries, yet she approached necessary matters with care.
Ordinarily, she seemed uninterested in other people—or in anything, really—but when something became her responsibility, she would throw herself into it without regard for her own life.
"That reminds me of something. The time you argued with your superior about sterilization."
"Ah...! Yes, I remember too. I wasn't exactly in my right mind back then."
"I thought it was admirable. I believe that was the first day I memorized your name."
The autonomous military corps of the Bayern Grand Duchy had numbered fifty thousand soldiers.
Among them, around three thousand belonged to the medical corps.
Some were from Bayern, but most had been conscripted from elsewhere.
And one day, Victor happened to encounter someone shouting at the top of her lungs.
"We need to sterilize it! I absolutely will not back down on this! How can you use such a filthy knife on a patient?!"
"The more flesh and blood stuck to a knife, the better the doctor! Didn't they teach you that at university?"
"At my university, we sterilized instruments with carbolic acid! Didn't you learn about Lady Nightingale's achievements during the Crimean War? She kept field hospitals clean, and that's why she saved so many lives! Throw away that outdated knife already!"
Pointing fingers and yelling at a superior was unquestionably a violation of military discipline.
But the medical corps had a special rule unlike any other branch.
If you genuinely believed your medical judgment could save a soldier's life, you were free to speak up.
Victor himself had added that rule when he took command of the corps—though in reality, few subordinates would ever dare challenge a superior.
It was meant to protect the rare brave soul who actually did.
And now he was witnessing exactly that.
To make matters worse, the man groaning on the stretcher was one of Victor's oldest friends.
Otherwise, he would never have personally come to a field hospital.
"Your Grace took my side that day."
"Yes. Thanks to that, Lucas survived."
"It wasn't a fatal wound to begin with. I simply couldn't stand by and watch someone die from infection."
Captain Lucas Steiner.
The man who had been brought in that day with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Like them, he had been one of the Final Twelve.
That's right. He's alive now.
Lucas had loved cannons, bombs, and gunpowder as if they were his own children.
Many of his ingenious inventions had allowed them to evade pursuit and survive far longer than anyone thought possible.
"I wish... someone else besides us remembered those days. Even knowing how painful that would be."
"I understand exactly what you mean."
"It would be better to forget. Better if it had never happened at all..."
Ybel lightly pressed a gloved hand against her ear.
Sometimes the ringing would continue for a few seconds before fading.
Victor noticed immediately and stopped walking.
"We were family, after all."
Gently, he removed her hand from her ear.
Then he covered it with his own large hand instead.
It wouldn't truly block the sound, of course.
But it was the best he could do.
"I know what you're hearing. Sometimes I hear it too."
"...Yes."
Victor's low, careful voice carried unmistakable comfort.
Ybel looked up at the man who towered nearly two heads taller than her.
"Your Grace."
"My name."
"...Victor."
His tone was gentle, yet firm.
In the end, she spoke his name.
And once she had, it somehow felt both insignificant and like the greatest breach of etiquette imaginable.
Still, she had to admit that his name rolled pleasantly off her tongue.
"Well done. Is the ringing any better now?"
"It is."
Without realizing it, she answered a little grumpily.
Perhaps some of the tension she had been carrying had finally eased.
Maybe it was because she'd finally managed to call him by name.
"Then wait here and enjoy the scenery for a while. I have something to take care of."
"Alright."
"And just in case—don't fall into the lake."
"Me? Do you think I'm a child?"
She scoffed, and Victor chuckled.
His smile looked much more relaxed than before.
"You do tend to cause trouble whenever I take my eyes off you."
"As if."
"You challenged your superiors... what was it? Seven times? And there was that one time you punched a patient."
He really did suit speaking casually better.
After all, he'd spent his entire life giving orders.
Ybel preferred this version of him too, so she smirked just as she had during the war.
"He tried to jump me from behind. I shouldn't have hit the back of his neck—I should've cracked his skull."
"On that point, I believe you're correct."
The awkward atmosphere that had lingered between them finally became lighter.
As expected, he was skilled at dealing with people.
Ybel watched Victor disappear into the distance before turning her gaze toward the lake.
The water rippled gently beneath the breeze.
Simply watching it was soothing.
Every now and then a fish would leap from the water with a splash, only for a white bird overhead to circle hungrily, waiting for its chance.
Lost in the peaceful scene, she suddenly smelled something delicious nearby.
"!"
She turned.
It was the Grand Duke.
No—Victor.
Wearing the brightest smile she'd ever seen on him, he held out a bag of roasted peanuts.
"Don't you like peanuts?"
"I mean, yes, I do... but don't tell me you went out just to buy these?"
"I did. It looked like the vendor was about to pack up, so I hurried."
Good heavens.
Ybel stared back and forth between the overflowing bag of peanuts and Victor himself.
The iron-blooded commander she'd known on the battlefield and the man now holding a paper bag of peanuts simply refused to fit together in her mind.
"...Pfft."
In the end, she failed to keep a straight face.
The rich, nutty aroma kept drifting toward her.
And seeing something she had never imagined in his hands was simply too absurd.
So Ybel clutched her stomach and burst into laughter.
