Chapter 36  

It’s noisy.

While Aria was so sick that she couldn’t come to her senses, she heard a roar of words.

She began to hear words she did not recognize at first, little by little, like ice melting in a glass.

“She didn’t say a single word of pain.”

“That’s the way it is, isn’t it? My sister-in-law is naturally unable to speak…”

It was Lloyd and Vincent.

“Who doesn’t know that.”

“Then why do you say that?”

“Just wondering…”

It’s like swallowing pain.

Lloyd muttered a little, almost as if he was talking to himself.

Aria was the only one who heard the words.

She suddenly felt as if cold water was washed over her and she came to her senses. He seemed to know that Aria was holding back her groans no matter how painful it was.

“Right? What did I say?”

“Alright.”

“Why do you stop talking?”

“Be quiet. It’s noisy.”

Vincent didn’t say anything for a moment, as he was embarrassed.

“Who said about not getting married?”

And he grumbled for a while.

“The only ones who treat me so harshly are my brother and my sister-in-law.”

When Lloyd stared at him silently, he shut his mouth.

After that he was silent.

Perhaps they were using Aria’s bedroom as an office, and from time to time the sound of turning papers and books could be heard.

‘Why are you both here?’

After a while, the sound of turning the paper stopped, and she felt a hand stroking her eyes.

“Isn’t this exhausting?”

It was Lloyd.

‘Did I cry again?’

Aria thought blankly.

She was in so much pain that the tears flowed, and this was something she couldn’t stand.

‘Because I can’t make a sound, it seems like tears just keep flowing.’

Lloyd continued to wipe her tears with his hands.

His skin was rough, and Aria’s eyelashes trembled without realizing it.

Then the hand which had paused for a moment, became cautious as if she was tickled by feathers.

“Maybe she’s having a nightmare.”

“Nightmare? Why a nightmare.”

“Isn’t it natural to have nightmares if you keep staring at a sleeping person from the side and touching them?”

“…”

Lloyd’s hand moved away.

Aria thought that the warmth going away was a little disappointing.

“By the way, it’s a big deal because my sister-in-law is weak. She seems to be weaker than any other people I’ve seen outside the border.”

Vincent’s words continued.

“Siren seems to have specialized abilities in the mind rather than the body.”

As if he was a student at an academy who was crazy about research, he finished analyzing the Siren with fragments of clues.

“You two may have good personalities, but do you know that the other is the worst?”

At those words, Lloyd and Aria stiffened at the same time.

Vincent was so focused on the book he was reading that he couldn’t see it properly.“Worst?”

“Yes. Put simply, it’s like this. Brother will be poison to my sister-in-law, and my sister-in-law will be poison to you.”

“Is this kid going to be poison to me?”

It was a debate as to whether that could be the case.

Lloyd’s reaction was natural.

Vincent’s words were surprising even to Aria, who was determined to hide her powers.

“Yes. Just looking at the siren songs I found in old books, my sister-in-law was born with the ability to stimulate people’s emotions.”

The boy then added, “Even if she can’t sing, you can’t fool the blood.”.

“Therefore…..”

“On the other hand, Valentine’s bloodline is very weak in mental strength from generation to generation, isn’t it?”

That was the price of accepting a power that exceeded the allowable range of the human body.

“Easy to go crazy, easy to break.”

All of the past Valentine’s Grand Dukes were like that.

If the current Grand Duke was the most sane, then everything would be all over the place.

“It means that if my sister-in-law wants to, she can dig into brother’s insides as she pleases, break it up, and shake it up.”

“…..”

“Or, even if my sister-in-law stays still, you will be swayed.”

“It sounds nonsense.”

Lloyd didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Well, I was just talking about possibilities.”

And Vincent, who spoke up, was indifferent. Because he knew that Aria wasn’t like that.

‘She was not the kind of person who can wield someone else’s weakness.”

Besides, he didn’t think it would be a big deal because she couldn’t fully control the Siren’s abilities

‘Easy to go crazy…… ‘

But Aria was different. The words ‘weak in mental strength’ touched her so strongly that it continued to linger in her mind.

“Now, what more are you going to deny? Haven’t all the people addicted to your songs gone crazy!”

Suddenly, Aria recalled the voice of Saintess Veronica in her memory.

She resented Aria while her golden eyes resembling the sun were drenched in water.

‘Ah.’

Aria couldn’t have had a worse ending than her previous life, she thought.

But, it wasn’t. There was a really, really bad ending.

One day, Lloyd was addicted to Aria’s song and went crazy.

‘It’s okay. Listening to a song once or twice doesn’t make you addicted.’

She thought so hard.

To listen to the song to the point of being addicted, they had to be constantly exposed to the siren’s song. Like the emperor who broke her leg, locked her in a cage, and made her sing every day.

As long as they don’t get too greedy, they won’t be addicted to Aria’s songs.

‘Besides, I’m never going to sing in front of Lloyd myself.’

There won’t be any in the future.

Aria was relieved at that moment and relaxed her body.

Sleepiness came again, probably because she was unnecessarily nervous while she was sick.

Aria gave herself to sleep without hesitation.

***

Not long after Aria fell asleep, a doctor came to visit. Cuirre, who had become her doctor at some point, shook his head.

“This is not a cold.”

She was rained on and the fever rose. But it’s not a cold.

“Then what?”

Lloyd leaned against the wall, folded his arms, and asked. He glanced at Cuirre up and down with an unfavorable gaze.

Cuirre recalled memories of the past at that moment. The chilling memories of almost being killed for not being able to cure Aria’s eating disorder.

But this time it’s the Grand Prince.

‘What the hell did I commit in my previous life?’

But things are better now.

‘If Madam’s condition had not improved suddenly, the two of them would have threatened to kill me at the same time.”

Grand Duke Valentine was now with Sabina.Cuirre thanked heaven that the Grand Duchess had regained her health.

“If it’s not a problem with the body, it’s usually the core that contains energy. It’s directly related to vitality.”

“Energy.”

“I think you should get a diagnosis from the shaman yourself.”

Cuirre shifted responsibility.

And Carlin, who took over the baton of death, stood in front of Aria with a face lamenting his plight. After Aria had absorbed Carlin’s magical energy into her body, she sang forcibly, and she was lying ill now.

But Carlin couldn’t have told the truth.

This king’s donkey ears are cute*.

“That, what… The energy in the Miss’ body got tangled up, so what, roughly, it came to be like this.”

The shaman, not particularly adept at lying, was busily working his brain.

“How did this happen?”

“It’s a mess.”

“Can’t you explain it properly?”

Aria’s sleeping face turned pale for a moment as Lloyd gave off a low threatening aura..

She shook her body as if she had chills. Then he became quiet when he had spread the threatening aura.

Even while sweating, Carlin was dumbfounded.

“The Miss has very weak energy, right? Even if she has a great amount of natural energy, it can’t be controlled. “

He began to surround himself with roughly plausible words.

If he thinks about it deeply, it may sound strange.

“Hmm, is that so?”

Lloyd passed it over easily. It was because he had never met a person with a low amount of energy.

No, to be more precise, it was because he didn’t care at all when he encountered such a person.

Carlin knew that, too.

“That’s why she should drink the energy stabilizing potion periodically until she’s well.”

“It’s kind of like Valentine’s bloodline.”

“Yes. What…”

In fact, there are many more similarities.

The shaman muffled the end of his words and then put down the potion he had brought with him on the table.

“This is a stabilizing potion. I will tell the employees to give it three times a day.”

“It’s fine.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll give it to her.”

Carlin had no reason to stop him, who said that he would take on the troublesome work himself.

Carlin said so, and then stepped down. Then he ran quickly and slammed the door shut.

It was like running away.

“…..”

Now there were only two of them left in the room.

Lloyd looked down at Aria, who had been asleep for a moment, then lifted one of the potion vials.

***

At one point, Aria opened her eyes wide.

For a very severe illness, her head was clear enough to be refreshed.

How long has she been like that?

All of a sudden, the memories of when she lay ill flooded her mind.

“Come here.”

She remembered the hand pushing her hair, wet from sweat, behind her ear.

“Stay still.”

It seems that she struggled a bit and rebelled after waking up to take medicine.

“Open your mouth. Take your medicine.”

It seems like she was held in tight arms.

Did she forcefully spit out the spoon that had slipped into her mouth?

“Swallow properly. Don’t.”

A voice mixed with annoyance and irritation.

But he said in a calming voice when Aria gulped.

“Well done.”

Aria doubted her own memory.

—

*) In the fairytale of the King with donkey ears, the hairdresser let out the King’s secret, but I guess Carlin didn’t do it because the King now was Aria, and her ears were cute instead? XD