Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Translator: Latte Editor: Chaz

Caville was Elody’s family.

The family she’d never had before.

He was more like a brother than a husband, but she still held him close to her heart.

She would walk through the gates of hell to keep him safe, feel honored to be given the chance, and only be grateful for it. She would gladly sacrifice her ambitions if it were for his happiness.

Elody watched the cavalcade in tears and made up her mind.

‘Caville, I’ll keep an eye on the mansion until you get back.’

Elody smiled and waved towards Caville who kept looking at her. His departure pained her, but she had no choice but to say goodbye.

* * *

It was the day after Caville’s departure.

In front of the burning bonfire, Caville was reading a letter from Elody.

[Dear Caville,

Caville, you must be out of the lands by now, right?

I felt bad because I made you bear the whole burden by yourself.

All the things that I said, I had always worried that they would trouble you…

But I did it because I wanted to prepare you in advance.

I’m proud of you, Caville, and I always will be. I’ll keep an eye on the fief until you get back.

Don’t get hurt, don’t get sick, and finally, don’t forget that I’ll always be by your side.

I’ll write to you again. Elody loves you.

P.S. Make sure to take care of the artifact. I don’t know what it does, but it’s your family heirloom. It should have special powers.]

“What are you reading?” Brien asked.

“A letter,” Caville answered, quite bluntly.

He folded the letter and kept it under his clothes in fear of Brien stealing it.

“I can’t take care of you like I used to. So don’t be a crybaby.”

“……”

Caville creased his forehead in annoyance and glared at Brien.

Elody would sometimes complain about him. Sir Vedos wasn’t a good person and Caville fully agreed with his wife.

“Don’t get too cocky. You must not forget that I am your lord and you are beneath me.”

Brien’s expression stiffened and he realized his mistake.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said as he bowed his head.

He seemed like a pampered child in the mansion, but at the end of the day, the blood of the duke truly ran in his veins.

This was also one of Elody’s pieces of advice, ‘Never look down on your subjects, but don’t let them see your weakness.’ she’d say.

Of course, most of his weaknesses had already been exposed, but he wouldn’t just continue to show them.

He didn’t want his wife to worry, so he had to hold back his emotions.

‘Don’t cry. You have to be strong.’

Caville pledged to himself not to cry anymore.

But unlike his admirable response, Elody was not able to cope with the separation.

“Oh no, madame… don’t cry.”

“Ugh, waah…”

The misery of his departure pained her, the thought of him not coming anymore broke her heart.

‘My baby. What should I do?’

Those words were mixed between her cries.

The maids also felt bad when the lady, who had shown a mature countenance all the time, cried like a child.

Eventually, Elody was able to get back to her room with the help of the maids. As she laid on her empty bed, the tears flowed again.

“He must be so scared…’

She stayed awake, looking all night, hoping to catch a glimpse of him- but there was no ‘him’. The pain of separation left her sad and lonely.

These were hard times for Elody and Caville.

* * *

From the day after Caville’s departure, Elody became a workaholic. She worked in the greenhouse and lab all day long.

She was afraid that her grief would lead to depression, so she busied herself all day hoping it would help her sleep well at night.

She couldn’t sleep unless she overworked herself.

Every time she closed her eyes, all she could think of was Caville. Here she was living comfortably in her mansion, while her husband suffered on the battlefield.

Sometimes she would even sleep in front of the fireplace because she felt sorry for sleeping in such a comfortable bed.

When Marie found her in such a state, she could only sigh in sorrow and cover her with a blanket.

‘What is Caville doing now?.’

Elody was working on her research today and after reading a book, she suddenly thought of Caville.

“I hope he’s doing well without getting hurt…’

Still, it was reassuring to have Brien by his side.

Elody checked the herbal samples and compiled the data to study a new type of drug.

“Madame, there are dark circles under your eyes. Did you not sleep well last night?” asked Marie with a worried look.

Elody smiled awkwardly. At this rate, her dark circles might come down to her cheeks.

“Madame, please do not overwork yourself. Will you please come back to the mansion and have your meal?”

“Well… can you bring it to the lab?”

“…as you wish, madame.” Marie sighed and nodded.

Elody didn’t want her to worry, but there was so much work to do.

Though she had not neglected her research, she had been so sluggish that she felt guilty about it.

In the end, she chose to repent by overworking herself.

Elody erased her useless thoughts and pondered over which medicines were the best to send to Caville. Some of them were pills to increase physical fitness.

Elody also had medicines for emergency treatments, but they were literally for extreme wounds.

The good thing was that the Temple of Thysser also participated in the war.

‘I’m glad it’s a war that’s allied with the temple…’

The priests and mages had healing powers, so those who are wounded in battle could be treated with healing magic.

In fact, if there was a priest who could use healing magic, there was no need for the medicines at all.

Nevertheless, Elody still sent the painkillers and hemostatic drugs just in case.

‘Is there anything else I can do for him?’

Since it was a battlefield, it was clear that they would not be able to eat properly. She needed to create something to help increase their nutrition.

That’s how Elody started studying health supplements.

Furthermore, Elody had to make medicine for sick and poor people.

Sadly, the dukedom only had one temple.

That’s why Elody offered her drugs to small clinics: it should be beneficial for the residents of the duchy.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door of the lab.

“Good day, madame!” Anna said as she greeted Elody with a bright tone.

“Yes, good morning, Anna.”

“…I don’t think it’s still morning, madame,” Anna replied with an anxious look.

Elody turned her head, pretending not to see Anna’s worried expression.

“Why don’t you take a rest today? You haven’t slept in a while. You’re going to get sick if you keep this up, madame.”

“It’s all right even if I get sick….”

‘Oh…! I need to study the cure for my disease….’

Elody became overwrought.

‘So many things to do…’

“…I’ll check the greenhouse, madame.”

“Yes, please,” Elody said as Anna bowed her head and headed towards the greenhouse.

Anna was in charge of managing the greenhouse. She was doing a great job as her work was meticulous.

After Anna left, Elody took out the fresh herbs that Anna brought yesterday.

‘I should make a fatigue recovery medicine first.’

‘I can endure this…’

Elody filled the flask with water and ground the red petals of the Peria flowers.

The Peria petals could help improve your mood, help you sleep better, and increase your blood circulation and concentration.

It could be boiled with tea, but the problem was that it was also quite bitter.

‘Why are they so bitter?’

Elody thought of pouring honey into the flask, as she wanted to suppress the bitter taste as much as possible.

But she decided not to because it’d be a hassle.

After injecting some mana, Elody drank the medicine as it was.

“Ughhh…”

It tasted horrible on her tongue, so acrid and foul.

Then, she ate a sweet candy to get rid of the horrible taste in her mouth.

‘Caville loves these candies….’

She should’ve let him eat more of them. It’s not the healthiest snack, but she only gave it to him whenever he did good things.

She regretted not being nicer to Caville.

As Elody was eating the candy, Anna entered the lab.

“Madame, what could be the cause of your terrible expression?”

“I drank some medicine…do you want some too, Anna?”

Anna shook her head firmly.

“No thank you, I’m fine, madame, I’m not tired because I sleep well…,” she paused, “Don’t rely too much on drugs, and please get some sleep.”

Anna had been nagging like Marie since some time ago. She was genuinely worried about her health.

“Alright…,” Elody answered, avoiding her gaze.

“Madame, this plant keeps growing in the greenhouse… what should we do with it?” Anna asked as she put the plant on her desk.

“Huh?”

“I’ve told madame before. At that time, both of us weren’t able to find out what kind of grass this was…”

“This is the grass from that time?” Elody asked, puzzled.

“Yes, I haven’t thought about it since then… but now it’s getting quite out of hand. The grass has grown all over the field. I think madame should examine it herself.”

Recently, Elody had been thinking of expanding the greenhouse so that she could grow new types of plants.

Plus, she wanted to test new crops on the field for the farmers.

And lastly…

“Hmm….”

The frequency of these unusual herbs had tremendously increased. To study whether or not they would be useful, she had to expand the greenhouse.

Elody took her eyes off her book and took a close look at the herb’s roots.

“Huh…?”

‘Wait, I think I’ve seen this before.’

Elody pondered for a while.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Her eyes lit up as an idea struck her. There was a sudden outburst in her brain, of the good kind. She’d discovered something amidst her observation and now she was as eager as ever.

She jumped out of her chair and immediately ran to the greenhouse.

“Oh, madame! Do be careful!” Anna said surprised.

Elody had accidentally knocked her chair to the ground, so Anna pulled it back up before she followed Elody to the greenhouse.

Elody ran to one side of the field.

This area was used specifically for Elody’s research.

“Is this it?”

Some rare herbs could only grow in the mountains and this area was used purposely to grow such herbs.

The magic tools adjusted the environment so that it was similar to that of the mountains. It adjusted the temperature, humidity, the rate at which the plants grew, and other factors.

But…

“No, is this still growing?”

Elody pulled out one of the herbs and carefully checked the roots.

When Anna gave it to her before, she only saw the leaves of the plant. So she’d had no idea what it was.

But this was definitely that.

Obviously…

“This is the plant I sowed!!!” Elody exclaimed.

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