OPDPS side story 9

“It won’t be easy…”

Even as he trailed off, Aeryl’s mind was racing. A way to win Lady Merel over came to him. The role of Grand Duchess—he’d get used to it with time, and he was confident he could learn quickly. Time was something that could be squeezed out if needed.

‘Though I’ll have to be careful about infectious diseases…’

If he followed what Hiello had said, it might actually work more in his favor. He already had so much he wanted to learn and do that he didn’t even know where to start—but if he could carry out medical work as the Grand Duchess…

‘This is it! This way, I can do everything I want!’

Aeryl felt like he’d opened his eyes to a whole new world.

“Why did I think I had to choose just one? You really are amazing, Hiello!”

Aeryl threw his arms around Hiello. Hiello smiled and embraced him back.

“Did I help you?”

“Tremendously!”

“Then you’ll marry me, right?”

“Of course!”

“Thank goodness…”

Hiello leaned further into Aeryl.

“When I heard you might call off the engagement, it felt like the sky was falling.”

“Who said that? Connie?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s no way I’d call it off. If anything, I want to get married as soon as possible.”

Aeryl said this seriously. A wealthy, powerful husband who listened to his worries with genuine care—he wanted to lock it down before he slipped away.

“Even if we haven’t had the ceremony yet, you’re already my wife. Don’t carry your worries alone—lean on me.”

“Okay.”

The two of them gazed quietly into each other’s eyes. Normally, this would be the moment they kissed—but this time was different.

“Ah! I’m getting so many good ideas! I need to write them down!”

Aeryl shoved Hiello aside and ran off, calling for a maid.

‘…He tossed me away.’

Left in both physical and emotional emptiness, Hiello stared at Aeryl’s retreating figure.

‘That’s more important than me…?’

Somehow, he had the feeling he’d be having this thought quite often in the future. But then Aeryl suddenly stopped, turned back toward Hiello, and ran up to him again.

“Hiello! I almost forgot!”

Beaming brightly, Aeryl pressed a light kiss to Hiello’s lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I know.”

Aeryl peppered his face with a few more kisses, then shouted, “Ah! Paper! Pen!” before spinning around and dashing off again.

Hiello quietly lowered his gaze and pressed his right hand to the left side of his chest. His heart was pounding thanks to Aeryl picking him up and dropping him again. Maybe it would always be like this—he imagined a future full of joy.

***

Aeryl both had and hadn’t given serious thought to his future.

Run away from the imperial palace and gain freedom! Use medicine to help the world!

His resolve was strong, but he’d rarely considered what life would be like after achieving those goals.

Escaping the imperial palace was a daunting enough task, and learning medicine in secret while evading notice had been an endless struggle. For so long, he’d been consumed by a single objective and had virtually no experience with ordinary life.

That was why, when it suddenly seemed like he wouldn’t be able to practice medicine as the Grand Duchess, he’d fallen into deep confusion. At that moment, Hiello’s advice had been a tremendous help.

Once he escaped the grip of negative emotions, Aeryl finally saw how many options lay before him.

He had gained the freedom he’d longed for, found a place to settle, and someone to share his life with. He’d achieved what he wanted most—so now was the time to find a new direction in life. And it was after his conversation with Hiello that he realized this.

Lady Merel was right.

Winter wasn’t just a time to endure while waiting for spring. It was an important period for deciding how to live and preparing for what lay ahead.

The sweet time spent with Hiello had been wonderful, but Aeryl realized that if he’d let the whole winter pass like that, he would’ve regretted it deeply later. Lady Merel may have acted like she was just being difficult, but her intervention had been both necessary and something to be thankful for.

‘Let’s make Lady Merel’s birthday party truly special.’

It would be her first party where she could enjoy herself without worry—Aeryl was determined to make it as joyful as possible.

To that end, he earnestly taught Sorel the piano. As his study and practice time increased, Sorel absorbed everything about music like water soaking into dry earth and digested it all on his own.

Watching him, it felt like a young sapling that had laid down broad roots was finally meeting its time to grow tall.

Sorel had always seemed to be struggling to keep up, overshadowed by his extraordinary older brother—but now that he’d found a talent of his own, the gloom lifted from him, and his confidence steadily grew.

After finishing Sorel’s lessons, Aeryl would have breakfast with Hiello, who had just come back from training, and then head to Lady Merel. There, he continued learning all the things he needed to know as Grand Duchess—about his duties, about the Grand Duchy, and about the other nobles—all while helping prepare the party.

Thanks to his sharp mind and his past experience in the imperial palace, Aeryl learned faster than Lady Merel had expected. As a result, she left most of the preparations to him and only answered his questions. The rest of her time seemed to be spent leisurely at the piano.

She might have been planning to dump all her responsibilities on Aeryl and retire into the life of a noble layabout, but Aeryl just quietly smiled as he watched her.

‘That’s not going to happen, you know.’

Aeryl had one perfect card to play when it came to getting Lady Merel to do as he wanted.

Meanwhile, as Grand Duchess and a member of House Asirion, Aeryl not only fulfilled his duties but grew even more devoted to medicine.

Now that he had a clear goal—medical work only the Grand Duchess can do, as Hiello had said—his ambitions only grew, burning with passion. He carved out time to organize his thoughts and draft his plans.

Spring was still far off, but he wanted to go through some trial and error in advance—so he actively began working on the “frost sickness.”

First, he explained his plan to Connie and Raeler. Then he had the sick and the attendants showing symptoms quarantined, had their conditions recorded, and gave the order to the stronger attendants:

“Roll them!”

“Uwaah! C-cold! It’s freezing! P-please, have mercy!”

“I—I’m freezing to death! Huuuugh!”

Though the patients suffered, the attendants rolled them in the snow without hesitation.

Aeryl observed the scene from a distance and asked,

“Still craving ice?”

“My body is ice now!”

So the ice cravings had decreased. Aeryl nodded in satisfaction. The attendants then brought the patients inside, changed their wet clothes, and cared for them. Once their conditions had stabilized, Aeryl performed another round of checkups and interviews and then calmly reviewed the results in the infirmary.

“I see. Fascinating. Just as I thought…”

After confirming his hypothesis, Aeryl began working outside the keep in earnest.

“I want to gather doctors who specialize in the frost sickness.”

He immediately contacted every doctor he knew. The outer quarters physicians, in particular, were very interested in the illness, and through one of them, a group was formed.

At the meeting held in the outer quarters council chamber, the doctors were initially intimidated by Aeryl’s presence. But when they learned that the Grand Duchess was personally invested in researching and curing the frost sickness, they were delighted. That meant funding and manpower would follow.

“In my opinion, the frost sickness is a kind of fever.”

“No, it’s not. Fever patients avoid the cold, but frost sickness patients crave ice!”

The doctors debated passionately, and before long, Aeryl was fully engaged in the discussion.

“That makes sense. I rolled one patient in the snow for about thirty minutes, and they recovered faster than the others.”

“You personally rolled a patient?”

“…They did give their consent.”

“That’s an interesting case. In the North, people live with the chill of the snowy mountains, so there’s a theory that the illness comes from a lack of cold energy due to staying indoors too long during winter.”

“That’s the hypothesis I’ve been focusing on as well.”

“I’d like to try a larger experiment. I can gather more patients, but…”

“I’ll find a place for the trials.”

Aeryl nodded without hesitation. As the Grand Duchess, it wasn’t difficult for him to arrange a place where patients could be gathered and treated.

And so, Aeryl’s days flew by in a whirlwind. He was full of energy, as if he’d never spent a single lazy day holed up in the Grand Duke’s castle, and he was busy taking care of everything he needed to do.

Meanwhile, Hiello wasn’t just idling around the castle either.