Neither Divine Power nor the good medicine Duke Kreuz brought in every day made any difference.
'No. Could Divine Power work?'
It was not the Divine Power of Mitnus, which drove one toward death, but the Divine Power of Horanus, which embraced all things on earth. There might be a chance.
After all, hadn't the number of times Ruperi coughed up blood been decreasing since he began seeing the priest regularly?
Not long afterward, the priest came to Ruperi's bedroom.
The priest poured his chilling Divine Power into Ruperi. Ruperi's shoulders jerked, and he vomited a handful of blood.
Duke Kreuz hurriedly wiped the blood from Ruperi's mouth. After a pause, the priest spoke.
"It seems we must remove the teddy bear after all."
"No!"
Ruperi shouted.
"There has been no improvement because the teddy bear remains by your side."
"You said Divine Magic would block its aura!"
"Ruperi, do as Didike says."
"I don't want to! I'll never give him to you!"
It seemed that even Divine Magic could not contain my aura.
I checked my aura once more.
'That's strange.'
Yet no aura was leaking from me, nor could I sense any aura affecting Ruperi.
Even so, he needed treatment. With a resolute expression, Duke Kreuz took me away from Ruperi.
"Father!"
"If you quietly receive treatment, I will give him back then."
"That's cruel!"
Ruperi received treatment with a face full of displeasure. As his complexion improved, Duke Kreuz's hand tightened around me.
Seeing that conflicted hand, unable to decide what to do, only made my thoughts more tangled.
'It really seems that staying apart is the answer.'
When I returned to Ruperi, he kept coughing dryly.
After several days of his condition improving and worsening over and over, I hesitated before calling to him while Anchina was away.
[Ruperi.]
"I'm fine."
[But—]
"Don't say anything."
How can I not say anything when you're sick?
"You said I could get better. You said everything would work out."
[……]
"So don't think about leaving."
Ruperi spoke firmly, then greeted Anchina as she entered the bedroom. The arm holding me was stubbornly tight.
At this point, I had to choose.
Whether to leave for Ruperi's sake, or remain with House Kreuz for my own safety.
"We must burn the teddy bear at once."
The priest had said that.
Burning my body was an extreme choice, but there was no method as effective as that.
If my body—the teddy bear—were burned, Ruperi would no longer look for me. No, he would not be able to.
'Then what will happen to me?'
If my body was burned, would I return to House Teneris?
The thought of the dark, suffocating House Teneris made my body tense on its own.
I did not want to go back.
Father already knew that I had left the family. I did not even want to imagine what would happen if I returned.
"Paul?"
Ruperi called to me when I began trembling all over.
But I could not answer. Anchina was there, and fear left me unable to speak.
Ruperi gently stroked my back.
"It's okay. Everything will work out."
"That's right. You'll get better, Young Master!"
He had not been speaking to Anchina, but she cheerfully encouraged Ruperi anyway.
My freedom and Ruperi's health.
Those two concerns weighed fiercely against each other in my muddled mind.
***
"Cough!"
"Ruperi!"
"Bring something to wipe him with, quickly!"
"Y-Yes, here it is!"
Today as well, Ruperi vomited blood. His body grew weaker with every passing day.
He had lost a great deal of weight, the light had vanished from his blue eyes, and he was running a fever more often than before.
His condition had seemed to improve after Didike examined him, but perhaps because that damned teddy bear remained at his side, it had only stayed at a standstill.
Seeing his son like that, Hadel blamed himself.
'If I had not bought that teddy bear.'
If he had listened to the shop employee and left it there, would Ruperi never have fallen ill?
There had been several suspicious signs along the way, yet he had carelessly dismissed them all as his imagination. Hadel was tormented.
'It's my fault. My mistake.'
He should not have let even a speck of suspicion slip past him, as Didike had not.
Hadel buried his face in his hands. As he sat in his office agonizing, a dull thump, thump sounded.
When he raised his head, the office door opened.
Creak—
But only the darkened corridor beyond the open door was visible.
Wondering why the door had opened, he rose to his feet and looked.
"……!"
What he saw made him doubt his eyes.
Pat, pat—
A teddy bear—no, a teddy bear stained with Ruperi's blood—was toddling toward him.
He had never once imagined that it could move.
Didike had made it easy enough to learn that it was a Miten mage, but he had never dreamed it would walk toward him in such a startling fashion.
As Hadel stood there pale-faced and gaping,
[Hello.]
Sharp letters that were even more alarming appeared before his eyes.
[Don't be so startled.]
"W-What is this?"
[You're different from Ruperi. He wasn't startled at all.]
Speaking as though it were nothing, the teddy bear pattered over to the office sofa.
However, its small body could not climb onto it.
The teddy bear jumped up and down, then drooped and lowered its head.
'What is that supposed to mean? Is it trying to sit on the sofa?'
The sight naturally drew his gaze. Then, as he stared in bewilderment, Hadel flinched.
It was the cause of Ruperi's illness. He had not known the teddy bear could move, but it was still that vicious Miten mage.
Hadel steeled himself and walked toward the sofa.
'I don't know why it came here, but…….'
Yet as the tiny teddy bear struggled to climb onto the sofa, Hadel's heart softened. He lifted it onto the sofa himself.
Nellis, the teddy bear, was startled. She had been wondering whether summoning a Wraith would make him more wary, yet Hadel had placed her on the sofa himself.
Warmth touched her side. Remembering the cold touch from several days before, Nellis's heart grew heavy.
The teddy bear hesitated before speaking to Hadel.
[Thank you.]
Thank him?
Was this Miten mage thanking him right now?
It was a strange feeling. The way it fumbled over its words did not suit an ordinary Miten mage.
'No. It could be an act. It is a Miten mage, after all.'
Hadel shook his head inwardly and sat on the sofa opposite it.
Hadel's cold gaze made Nellis shrink even further.
'Of course he's wary. My identity has been exposed.'
But she had come to ask Hadel for something, so she could not keep feeling down.
She needed to return to the bedroom before Ruperi came looking for her.
[First, I'm sorry that things have turned out this way.]
"You're sorry?"
[I didn't know Ruperi had been poisoned by Corpse Poison.]
"You didn't know? Does that make any sense?"
[It's true.]
Hadel was dumbfounded. She had made Ruperi ill, yet she claimed she had not known.
But the teddy bear only conveyed its words calmly.
Its head was bowed low, as though it would accept whatever he said, and Hadel raised an eyebrow.
"So, did you come to see me just to say that?"
[No.]
"Then what is it?"
[Ruperi won't stay apart from me. I need your help.]
"You need my help?"
Hadel could not understand the teddy bear's intentions at all. As he furrowed his brow, it continued.
[Corpse Poison is fatal. There is no solution.]
"Can't Divine Power cure it?"
[Perhaps high-purity Divine Power can. But if I remain by Ruperi's side, he will eventually die. Burn me before that happens.]
At the unexpected words, Hadel's eyes widened.
It wanted him to burn it.
'So it wants me to burn the teddy bear?'
"Do you know what you are saying right now?"
[I do. It's a decision for Ruperi's sake.]
"And you still want me to burn you?"
[I can't let Ruperi die. You wanted to burn me too.]
It seemed to have spoken as flatly as possible, but the teddy bear looked as though it might cry.
As he watched it suppress the emotions surging up inside it, telling itself that this was the right decision and that it had to make such a choice for Ruperi, Hadel felt conflicted.
'Is this teddy bear really that Miten mage?'
It was showing such a fragile side of itself.