The military doctor looked at the patient with puzzled eyes.

The woman Was not recovering for several days now. It was difficult for him to find a proper way to examine her condition because he couldn’t use the usual medicine.

Her pregnancy was proving difficult for him to treat her.

“When will the fever go down?” Major Herhardt asked as soon as the doctor stepped away from Leyla.

The military doctor grimaced to face him, swallowing down his nervousness at disappointing the Duke.

There was more than just a fever ailing the Major’s woman. He had been surprised she’d managed to survive so far with such a myriad of conditions happening to her body alone.

Any other average adult would not be at risk of death with this fever. Still, with her pregnancy, and further weakened body by other ailments, it was a different matter altogether.

Death was proving to be more likely, but he didn’t know how to break it to the Major without fearing for his life in return.

On the first day he was called to this room, Major Herhardt’s eyes, who spoke blankly about the woman’s worsening condition, had a cold and shuddering glint.

He hardly looked like amongst the living and seemed just about ready to swallow a bullet up his mouth to follow his woman.

“We still have to wait and see-” the doctor began to stammer when Matthias cut him off rather rudely.

“Until when?” Matthias growled threateningly deep and low towards the doctor.

Ever Since he saw her collapse, he immediately began to nurse her back to health. All by himself, he wanted to do it. He refused anyone else’s aid, snapping at them for even offering to take care of her.

“If we take her to a military hospital in the back, can we treat her?” He urgently inquired, looking down at her matted, sweaty golden hair, and stray locks plastered against her temples as she sweated buckets.

But the doctor shook his head.

“With the patient’s physical condition, the journey itself will be too difficult to endure.” He quickly explained to the Duke, “And if by some miracle we manage to send her there, her pregnancy would still prevent us from treating her with any medicine.”

He wanted to explain more about the woman’s condition, but judging by the Major’s ominous expression, continuing to speak would only gain his ire. This terrifying expression of his, which made him look like a dead man walking, only made him be seen like a cornered animal.

But despite his posture, his expression remained blank and impassive.

“I’m sorry, Major.” The doctor finished with a sullen and resigned tone.

Matthias approached Leyla’s bedside again, instinctively grabbing her hand in his. She remained stubbornly unconscious.

The frighteningly high fever had refused to subside for days. Leyla had stayed unconscious for most of the time. When she was, it was still barely enough to keep her awake for long, unable to eat beyond a spoonful of porridge properly.

She would groan endlessly complaining about the heat and murmur incoherently before blacking out again.

However, Matthias did not give up.

To somehow lower the heat, he wiped her forehead with a wet towel, wiping it and her body off of the grime and sweat that had begun to accumulate. Then, he’d religiously cradle her head and feed the porridge when she awoke.

Leyla would scold him half-heartedly for his manhandling of her, but he let it slide. Day in and day out, he would patiently change her clothes, wipe her sweat, and do the same things again and again with every passing day.

“It’s all right, Leyla.” He cooed softly over her delirious fever haze. Then, breathing raggedly in his arms, she groaned in pain as she struggled to keep her eyes open and stare deliriously around them.

“You’ll get better soon.” He promised. Leyla’s eyes snapped to the light source overhead.

“Uncle Bill.” She called out, eyes unfocused as they stared up at him before she gave him a sweet, sweet smile.

“Leyla.” He breathed reverently.

“Later.. in the evening, Kyle-” Leyla’s words trailed off, as she resumed babbling incoherently.

Something cold settled in his chest at the mention of the name.

Kyle.

Despite being unconscious, the name this woman called affectionately stilled the loving caress that was being given to her. Matthias’s hands that had been wiping her sweat away froze in contemplation.

Amongst her fevered ramblings, Matthias inferred she believed herself to be back in Arvis before they began their relationship together as she began babbling on about a few stories he’d already read in her diary, her taking care of the flowers in the garden with Bill Remmer. Having so much fun in the forest and the flower fields. Doing homework with Kyle Etman in their quaint little cabin.

Always only three.

Only the three of them always flashed in her memories as they spent time together, ate dinner, and laughed together.

He looked down and watched her happy expression as she babbled on and off of eloquence. Not a single moment as she shared her memories did her smile fade. Even as the pain worsened, and she’d grown red in the face, it disappeared.

After wandering in such illusions for a long time, Leyla lost consciousness again and fell into a deep sleep. Instead of waking her up, Matthias dipped a lukewarm towel in a basin. The bones of the hand that twisted the towel as hard as possible were turning white as he poured every terrible thought he wanted to do.

When night came around, Leyla called out for other more names, but they stayed mostly the same.

Mom.

Dad.

Uncle Bill.

Kyle.

And yet, not a single moment did Matthias cross her fever-addled brain.

A rising rage awoke in him at the blatant insult Leyla kept showing him even as she was sick.

*.·:·.?.·:·.*

Outside the makeshift infirmary, a military car came rolling by to a stop belonging to Bergian forces. One of those that dismounted was Riette von Lindman.

He had stopped in front of a hotel standing in the square of the city, stretching a limb overhead as he loosened his limbs up from the long journey. He watched the young soldiers sitting in groups and having a leisurely afternoon smoke or chat.

This relaxed aura in the camp, a different cry from the war he’d come from, immediately brightened up Riette’s eyes.

“Riette Lindman!” A noble officer, who recognized him, approached with a smile as they greeted each other. Riette shook his hand in return with his roguish smile.

“Oh, you’re still alive.” He jested.

“You know how I am.” They lightheartedly rebutted. The two continued exchanging pleasantries and jokes before they sat side by side at a bar on the hotel’s first floor.

After achieving the top priority of occupying Sienna, the Berg army was scheduled to reorganize its battle lines here and march west to attack the capital of Lovita. However, soldiers who had been running nonstop and winning the war were given temporary leave to enjoy some time in a warm resort city in the south as a reward for all their hard work and sacrifice.

Before the start of the new year, the emperor’s solemn declaration that he would win and return Berg’s sons, which he pertained to Sienna city, to his family’s arms, but no one readily believed it.

Now it was looking more and more likely to be true.

“What about Matthias?” Riette lightly winced as he downed a shot of brandy, looking around in search of the duke as he asked for his whereabouts. After all, he was the reason why Riette, who’d been assigned to the rear units who supplied the bulk of Berg Army, came over here in the first place. To check up on his cousin.

“It’s..” The officer, who was laughing mischievously with him not a moment ago, suddenly looked pensive and hesitant. Riette frowned with concern.

“Why? Did something happen? I didn’t hear that he was injured.”

“It’s not like that. Major Herhardt is safe, but..” the officer began to trail off, sighing, “There have been some strange things happening here lately.”

“Oh?” Riette asked, now intrigued, “What could have happened to that boring guy?”

Fingers drummed against the glass.

“He dragged a pregnant Lovitan woman to camp.”

Riette’s hands stilled before he could throw back another shot of brandy down his throat.

“What?” he croaked, Riette doubting he heard him correctly.

“It’s a shock that Duke Matthias von Herhardt, who is not like the other men, would suddenly feel the urge to claim a woman out of the blue! Especially a Lovitan woman.” He grumbled, rubbing his temples in great confusion, still unable to wrap his head around their Major’s behavior. “I can’t explain it.”

“Aw, come on,” Riette prodded, “Don’t leave me hanging now that you’ve told me the interesting bits.”

“In Room 308, go and see it for yourself.” The other soldier grunted, throwing back another shot of brandy for himself, “You’ll know when you see it.”

He drank the rest of the drink and shook his head and sighed. Riette, who was looking at him with a frown, left the bar, alongside the rest of his luggage.

Even as he climbed the stairs and passed through the hallway where the room was located, he did not believe his friend. Riette thought it was certain that he was drunk from all the day drinking he’d been doing. Or perhaps he went a little crazy due to the shock of war. That made more sense than Matthias von Herhardt committing such a Scandal amid a high-stake war.

Soon after, however, Riette was able to confirm the ridiculous reality with his own eyes.

Just as he was about to knock, the door to the room suddenly swung open. He nearly crashed into the military doctor, who was just about to leave the room.

“Oh, is Matthias in there?” he politely asked the doctor, before a sudden burst inside the room gave them great alarms!

“Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Come on!” a demanding yell echoed from inside, before the doctor turned back inside in haste, with Riette following in suit.

What he saw greatly baffled him as soon as he saw his cousin.

His perfect cousin, the ever revered Duke of Arvis, now looked manic as he shook roughly the arms of an unconscious, and definitely, heavily pregnant woman in bed as he shouted at her.

Matthias had Bloodshot eyes, and age lines on his face were more prominent than he remembered. Even the shirt he had on was loose and crinkled. It was unbelievable even when he saw his state with his own eyes.

“Don’t do this, Major! The patient needs to rest!” protested the doctor as he gripped the major’s wrists to prevent him from shaking the woman roughly some more.

“Do you think you can run away if you die?!” Matthias screamed at the woman’s face, “Don’t underestimate me!”

Without any mercy or regard, Matthias shoved the military doctor holding his arm away. He resumed grabbing the unconscious woman lying in bed again.

Riette had no clue what was going on, but his body moved anyway, immediately grabbing Matthias’ wrists to prevent him from aggravating the woman’s condition more.

“What’s going on, Matthias?!” Riette yelled over his cousin’s screams, “What’s the meaning of all this-”

In his shock, Riette abruptly let go of Matthias as soon as he saw who was lying on the bed.

He took a few steps away from his cousin.

It was Leyla Lewellin, the woman whom Riette recognized well enough.

Taking advantage of Riette’s shock, Matthias rushed back to Leyla.

“If you run away to death, I’ll die too! I’ll chase you!” Matthias exclaimed as he shook her unconscious frame roughly, “You hear me, Leyla?! You’re mine! Even if you die, you will not escape me!”

Matthias, who held and screamed at an unconscious woman, looked like a made beast, forced into the last of his sanity. Like a pitiful prey thrown in front of the gun, weighed down by uncontrollable fear and left only with its baser instincts.

Riette reeled back in great disbelief as he watched the madness unfolding in front of him.

This.. This didn’t make sense.

As far as he knew, Matthias was a man who had lived perfectly all his life. He was always calculating and composed, always an intimidating predator, and a perfect hunter all his life.

There was no reason to believe he could be anything else than that.

“Open your eyes now. Open your eyes, Leyla!” Matthias demanded from Leyla, who remained stubbornly limp and unwaking, “See who is in front of you before you kill Kyle Etman!” He seethed desperately, his body shaking with a barely concealed rage.

A few days ago, perhaps Leyla could have been roused back to unconsciousness with his current actions, but her condition had greatly worsened with every passing day. And now, even with her ragged breaths and groans of pain..

Her eyes could only remain closed off from him.

Matthias saw this as a slight to him, a stubborn refusal on her part to deny him of her attention.

And it made Matthias want to go crazy.

“Uncle..” Leyla murmured painfully and longingly in her delirium, when she sighed out, Matthias caught the smell of a familiar tang-iron scent. He could only slump back into bed, unable to say anything more to make her see him.

She called out for Bill Remmer a few more times, a smile always following suit before her cloudy green eyes blinked up unfocused in the room. It was almost like he was there with them, about to fetch and steal Leyla away from him.

Matthias looked around with blank and dead eyes, before landing on the window in the room. It must be a bright day outside, yet he saw no light. It was all darkness.

Perfect darkness without even a single piece of light.

Was the gardener truly trying to take Leyla away?

What ridiculous thought, he rationalized, but the persistent fear refused to leave him.

Just as Bill orchestrated the escape from Arvis with Leyla..

He comes back once more to take Leyla back from the man who fought tooth and nail to reunite them.

“Leyla.” Matthias’ called out softly, his tune changed once more in the face of looming death for her. He wrapped Leyla’s heated cheeks with his hands which began to tremble.

‘Leyla, please.’?He begged in his mind as he pressed their foreheads together, before pressing their lips together and tasting the blood that had settled on her lips.

She was whispering once more, weak and soft against his lips.

“Uncle..” Leyla’s lips became soft as if she had met Bill Remmer again.

“Kyle..” she called out with a delirious smile.

Naturally, the name followed. Leyla laughed happily against him, even though he knew in his heart she was about to die.

She was dreaming of beautiful things with a man that wasn’t him.

Matthias flashed back to the girl smiling brightly at Kyle Etman in front of him.

She was the child of Arvis, who grew up to be so smart as she was pretty, her eyes forever twinkling and loving with everything she saw. The woman who escaped from him relentlessly, the woman he was hoping was his but never was.

Was he killing her?

“Matthias.” Riette, who approached him, grabbed his shoulder slightly. It was only then that Matthias noticed the existence of his cousin.

But it didn’t rouse any sense of alarm in him. Just a void remained. Even with Riette in front of him, Matthias’s eyes were just empty.

Matthias’ touch returned to Leyla, being spurned by Riette’s touch on his shoulder.

His hands roamed all over the sweaty hair, the matted red face. His hands lingered on her neck, before moving to her arms, and torso before he finally leaned back.

His hands dropped to the sides limply.

With a terse voice, he finally spoke.

“Bring me Etman. Now.”

*.·:·.?.·:·.*

“Kyle Etman!”

Kyle hurriedly looked up for the voice that was urgently calling for him. The military police, one of those who put him in this prison, were rushing in, keys jingling as they stood in front his cell.

“You’ve been requested, Private Etman.” the police informed him as they unlocked his makeshift cell.

Deciding to be a little snarky after being imprisoned, Kyle couldn’t help but snap back at them.

“Oh? Don’t I still have more days to serve as punishment?”

“Stop talking smart and come out!” the police barked harshly at him, yanking him up to his feet, “You’ve been given an important job in place of your punishment, so be grateful! Double time Private!” They urged him, roughly grabbing him by his biceps and hauling him out of prison

“What do you mean?” Kyle asked with great confusion, “What mission?”

“It’s Major Herhardt’s orders.” the police grunted at him.

Ah, so he was being released under the Duke’s?leniency?huh? Kyle wanted to laugh mockingly at the thought. Surely this was just another sick sense of justice the Duke had!

Just about as Kyle was about to snark back at the police, he was interrupted by an explanation.

The Duke’s leniency for putting himself in this warehouse. As soon as he wanted to laugh, the military police continued.

“The woman the Major brought is very sick,” the police sternly explained, “And for some reason, he’s convinced you can help. So get up, Private Etman! Time’s a wastin!”