“Don't go! If you go now, you'll...”

Fortunately, the fact that Blanche was desperately holding onto him was enough to make Theodore turn around. Upon seeing her expression, he was thunderstruck, and immediately, his arms circled her body. “Blanche? What's wrong? I'm alright, so it doesn't matter if I walk around and-” He cut himself off upon seeing how hard she was crying and tensed. “You...” He paused again and simply pulled her close. Despite his injuries, Blanche was now leaning against his chest, and when she opened her mouth to complain, Theodore's fingers tilted her chin upward, and he silenced her with another kiss. When he lifted his head again, he rested his forehead against hers. “I know that you're worried about me. But I'm perfectly fine. I can go the few steps to-”

“No!” Blanche interrupted him and shook her head rapidly. “How can you be fine? Some man cut open your shoulder with a sword! You haven't even rested for a full day nor given your body time to regenerate. You'll make it worse again and hurt yourself. No matter what you can't go to...” Seraphina. Blanche stopped just in time before she revealed what her other issue with him leaving was. She pressed her face into his chest and tried to calm down by focusing on her breathing.

Theodore's hand wandered to her cheek again. At first, he brushed over her skin lightly before gently guiding her to look up at him. “It might sound odd of me to say this, but I truly don't feel that bad. The doctor did his work phenomenally, so the threads will stay in place. If they didn't, I would have started bleeding again because I hugged you so fiercely after waking up. I will just go to my office and tell Leon to take care of two things. Then I'll immediately return.” He was lying. He couldn't just not be troubled by his wound. The novel had proven otherwise since he had even been in pain during the hunting festival in two weeks still.

Blanche shook her head once more. “Why aren't you just telling a servant to get Leon? He will come here without complaining, and you won't have to go out.”

Her lover was quiet upon hearing that and didn't move for a few seconds, with his expression staying the same as well. That was enough to convince her that he wouldn't listen to her. Theodore was as stubborn as always. When he had foolishly decided on ignoring her warnings, he wouldn't reconsider no matter what. Especially since he had dismissed all of her objections by saying that he didn't feel much pain.

So, when his hand began stroking over her head, Blanche braced herself for his refusal to comply with her demands. She buried her face in his chest to hide her despair, and when he spoke up, she tensed, only to be left speechless by his response.

“Alright.”

Blanche moved her head away from him to look up at his serious expression in absolute shock. “What?”

Theodore seemed to be sincere about his response. “You're right. I don't have to leave now. I'll send someone to fetch Leon and do the rest later. Just because it doesn't hurt as much, I shouldn't disregard my injury. You said that I was attacked with a sword, and I think I vaguely remember how it happened too. It's not a dangerous injury, but if I keep reopening it, it might get infected and confine me to bed for even longer. So, I'll listen to your thoughtful advice.”

It was almost too good to be true. Blanche stared at him with widened eyes and kept silent for a while, but when he didn't take his words back, she spoke up. “Really? You will stay with me?” This would literally be her salvation.

Theodore nodded and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I won't leave your side. I will ask for a person to get Leon now, and then I'll lie down again.”

A third voice chimed in. “I can inform Lord Astame.”

Blanche whipped her head to the side to see Owen standing in the doorway to the neighboring room. In an instant, she remembered all of the displays of affection that she and Theodore had exchanged just now and felt how her cheeks flushed. “Since when have you been there, Sir Maillont?

Instead of the head knight, Theodore responded. “He's been standing there for a while now.”

Blanche turned to him with dismay. “You noticed him already? Why didn't you say anything? Then we wouldn't have...you know.” She was reluctant to say any more, but her lover had understood her intentions already.

“He doesn't watch when he knows that we aren't in danger. He probably came running after you tipped over the chair.”

She froze at that. Hadn't that happened while her lover's eyes had still been closed? “You were awake at that point already? So, I didn't imagine you moving back then.”

Theodore gave her an apologetic smile. “I'm sorry for not responding immediately. My mind was a bit hazy, so I was convinced that I was dreaming for a moment.” He stroked over her cheek again before turning to Owen. “Would you please tell Leon to come here this instant? He needs to bring a book and a pen as well. Or since I'll have to write down quite a bit, two books, three pens and a few separate sheets of paper might be better. Oh, and you should maybe change your clothes before coming back.”

Only now Blanche noticed that the head knight's uniform was splattered with red spots all over. She didn't even want to think about how many people had gotten hurt today just because of someone's greed for power, but Owen appeared to be unaffected. He didn't hesitate before nodding and walking out of the door.

As soon as the head knight was gone, Theodore gazed at his lover again. He loosened her hold on him a bit so that he could sit down on the bed before pulling her onto his lap so that they were facing each other.

At this point, Blanche had given up protesting and just paid attention not to touch the bandages around his shoulder. She looked up at him, and seeing his blinding smile made her heart skip a beat. Why was her lover so happy? She had been the one to worry the whole time and was overjoyed now that he was awake. Though she had to admit that being attacked by a group of unknown men without a chance to prepare himself had to have been traumatizing. It was logical that Theodore was glad that he had survived. To know that the fact that she had been with him when he woke up had made him this euphoric caused the concubine's lips to form a smile.

But that wasn't even the only good thing.

Theodore had promised that he wouldn't leave for the day. This meant that he wouldn't visit Seraphina. The main characters wouldn't kiss, and they wouldn't fall in love any time soon.

This was the best Blanche could have asked for. Now she was overjoyed and couldn't help but cling onto her lover tightly, of course without grazing his wound.

For a while, they were quiet and just enjoyed each other's presence before Theodore eventually spoke up again. “If the banquet was yesterday, the hunting festival should be in a few weeks, right? My wound might not be healed until then.”

She nodded at that. It appeared like her lover was still a bit disoriented, so she would gladly give him a small overview. “Yes, the festival is in about two weeks. Though you won't be able to participate now. Just like you said, your wound won't be closed by then after all.”

In the novel, Theodore had done so anyway but only because it was a tradition and because not hunting would reveal how badly he was hurt. Then he had been forced to endure the pain during the whole competition, which was why Seraphina had taken her time to praise him in the end.

Theodore's response made it clear that he intended to act similarly to his counterpart in the novel by participating despite his wound. “We'll see.”

They wouldn't.

Blanche wouldn't allow him to do something so reckless. If he was already attempting to run through the palace one day after the incident, it was obvious that he would try to hunt in two weeks. She would have to stop that and most likely needed the doctor's and Leon's help for that. The two men would be on her side, and Theodore couldn't just ignore all of them.

But before she could argue with him, Theodore addressed another topic. “I'm still a bit drowsy, so I have trouble sorting my thoughts.” His smile faded. “I remember you collapsing at the last ball. That did happen, right?”

Blanche paused for a moment. If that was one of the first things that came to her lover's mind despite still being affected by the medicine, he truly had to worry about that incident. She didn't know whether to be happy about him caring so much or whether she should be concerned about him troubling himself despite being injured. In any case, she didn't want him to think about such serious topics right now. “Yes, that happened. But I'm perfectly fine now. I slept for two days, and you stayed with me during that time to feed me whenever I awoke. I was a bit weak at first, but after a couple of days, I recovered fully.”

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Theodore stroked over her back while nodding to himself. “We went onto many walks so that you wouldn't be so prone to sicknesses. Then we sat in front of the fireplace and talked about...” He grimaced at that memory. “An unpleasant person. And a few days later, the doctor came to you again because your maid wasn't able to wake you up during a nightmare...” His voice trailed off, and he made eye contact as if he wanted her to confirm this story.

So, Blanche spoke up despite not wishing to talk about her past issues now when he was the one who needed to recover. “Yes, but he didn't find any problem with my health, so he left. Since I had a few of those dreams in the last months, the doctor prescribed me some herbs that I can drink as tea in the evening. They will help me calm down so that I have fewer nightmares. In the morning after that last dream, you came after he told you and comforted me for a few hours, and the herbs arrived two days ago, so I'm fine now.”

Theodore lowered his head after she finished and rested his forehead against hers. He was quiet for a moment before responding. “I hope so too. But if you ever have another nightmare or something that resembles one, tell me, and I'll run to you no matter when.”

Blanche gently pinched his cheek at that. “Oh, in the near future, you won't run at all. I'm glad that you aren't in pain, but seemingly, the doctor gave you too much of the medicine. It is supposed to make it hurt less and not numb the area completely. If you aren't feeling anything, you will ignore the wound and just move around like you normally do. That will only hurt you more. It might be better to give you a smaller dose next time.”

Theodore turned his head to look at the doorway that led to the neighboring room, where the assistants were staying. “I'm pretty sure that you can tell him that directly. I heard a chair scrape on the floor, so I assume that someone finally woke up. That took him long enough. We were chatting for a while already after all.”

Before she could remark that his ears definitely were better than hers, one of the assistants stepped into the doorway. He yawned and opened his eyes, only to freeze. “Your Majesty!” Immediately, the man turned around and rushed back into another room, where he loudly announced that the emperor was awake.

Theodore groaned at that and nuzzled his nose into his lover's neck. “Great. Now they'll create an uproar at six o'clock in the morning. They probably made every single person in the palace worry about the incident by keeping quiet about the wound not being life-threatening. I bet people are already going to gossip about what would happen after my death.” He let out a low chuckle. “A few individuals will be disappointed to hear that it was nothing serious.” Before Blanche could comment that a flesh wound caused by a sword during an ambush on the emperor could not be called ‘nothing serious’, her lover continued. “I hoped that the doctor would leave us alone for a bit longer, but I doubt that he will be kind enough for that. He will probably scold us for hugging already and ask me to let go.”

Blanche raised an eyebrow. “Can you blame him? He would definitely be right about that. Someone tried to kill you. That was an assassination attempt on the emperor and the empress of Artias, so you shouldn't downplay it too much.”

Theodore's expression darkened, and he muttered something to himself before giving her a slight smile. “It's actually better to emphasize the events to some extent.”

A frown appeared on Blanche's face. Surely, she wasn't very experienced in the field of politics, but she was doubtful. “Won't that encourage others to try something like that too? This incident showed them that the royal family is vulnerable in some rare cases. Your opponent could attempt to attack you the next time that you leave the palace as well.”

Her lover began smirking. “As you just said, the ambush was successful, but the assassination only remained an attempt. So, everyone can know that those men didn't defeat us despite being prepared and able to creep up on the royal guards. They had the advantage of surprise and still didn't manage to kill any of us, and I'm pretty sure that I'm the one that got hurt the most. Admittedly, that was more because of my negligence than the enemies' skill though. I definitely shouldn't let down my guard like that in the future. But the public won't hear about that. They will only find out that the carriage was attacked with no causalities on our side while all of our opponents are dead.”

“The knights killed all of them?” In hindsight, Blanche should have expected that. After all, one would have been able to get a testimony from the attackers otherwise, but the novel hadn't mentioned that.

Theodore nodded in response, even though he didn't look too pleased with the topic. “Yes. In case of an attack, the main priority is protecting the members of the royal family. If the enemies are keen on threatening me, they will be killed as soon as there are doubts that the knights might be able to catch them alive. It's better to get rid of them instead of risking that one person runs away with more knowledge of our fighting style and starts another attempt. I would rather avoid further incidents like this in general though. Still, it is regrettable that we didn't manage to arrest at least one man. Even though I already have a pretty clear picture of who is behind this, I would have liked to get a testimony.” He let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, this leaves me with nothing to use in a trial now. We'll still have an investigation, but I doubt that there will be a single piece of decisive evidence.”

Blanche didn't need that to guess who had paid those mercenaries either. It had to have been one of the followers of the dowager empress. The most likely suspects were Duke Vasquez or Marquess Sefare. Both of them had the political motivation to get rid of Theodore and the necessary money to convince people to accept such a dangerous mission. If they were careful enough to use multiple messengers and didn't leave any proof behind, there was no risk for them to try something like this either. Theodore couldn't just accuse a high-ranking noble without presenting definitive evidence, which wouldn't be found here as the novel revealed, so his hands were tied.

Blanche pulled her lover closer at that thought. She hated how she knew who was attempting to hurt him but was still unable to interfere. It would be so much easier if they could just get rid of anyone connected to these intrigues immediately. Though she herself was also entangled with Sefare, so thinking like that might not be best. “That's awful. I wish we could just put the people who did this on trial and prove that they-” She was cut off by footsteps and turned her head to see the doctor rushing into the room with his assistants.

The doctor's hair was messy as if he had just come out of bed, but he was already fully awake. “Your Majesty! With all due respect, you can't just sit up already. I must ask Lady Blanche to let go of him this instant. We can't risk reopening the wound.”

The concubine prepared to comply when Theodore tightened his hold around her torso. He faced the doctor and spoke up with no hesitation. “No.” Then he looked straight at his lover. “I won't allow you to let go, so you can ignore his words.” He pressed a kiss onto her forehead before turning to the men, who were as irritated as Blanche.

One of the assistants quickly began arguing. “But we have to check the wound, Your Majesty!”

The second one attempted to convince the emperor by explaining it as well. “We have to replace the bandages and disinfect the cut again! We cannot risk you getting sick!”

The doctor was just staring at the emperor with dismay before making a noise that allowed him to vent his annoyance. “If that is Your Majesty's wish, we can't do anything about it. Still, I'll give myself the right to repeat that it would be much safer to let us have a look at the injury for five minutes. We don't want something to go wrong at the last moment.” When he finished his comment, he made eye contact with the concubine, which was enough to tell her what he hoped for.

Blanche cupped Theodore's cheeks with her hands and narrowed her eyes at him. “You can't neglect your health like this. You barely sleep and work all the time, so an infection is the last thing you need. How is anything supposed to function in Artias when the sole ruler is confined to bed because he didn't allow his personal doctor to examine him?”

Her lover pretended to pout at that. “I'm not forbidding it, I just want to do it later. We can do that in a few hours when-”

Blanche was a bit louder now. “Theo! In the beginning, the wound has to be disinfected multiple times, and they need to confirm whether the thread is positioned correctly.” She could basically feel how the doctor's assistants judged her for speaking with the emperor in this commanding tone, but her lover's deep breath was enough to make her ignore that.

Theodore's serious expression told her that she had succeeded. “Will that make you feel better?” She nodded, so her lover loosened his grasp on her. He put on a grin again before speaking up. “Alright. You'll have to hold my hand the whole time though.”

“I thought you weren't in pain.” For a short moment, Blanche was filled with concern, but her lover's quiet laugh quickly wiped that away.

Theodore lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles until it began to tingle too much, and she pulled away. “I'm not in pain. I just refuse to let go of you.”

She rolled her eyes at that but began smiling as well. Yet, one glance at the doctor and the assistants, who were averting their eyes in embarrassment, made her blush, and she hurried to climb off the bed. “You'll have to give me one second. I'll pick up the chair and hold your hand again.” Blanche attempted to move away but was stopped after a step due to Theodore not letting go. She looked at the chair, which was a bit too far to reach from her position, and then at her lover. “Are you serious?”

Theodore's taunting smirk told her everything before he even opened his mouth. “Yes. I just survived an assassination attempt. Be a little patient with me.”

With a sigh, Blanche gave up on the chair and sat on the mattress next to him again. As long as her lover was healthy, she had no problem dealing with his jokes. If she had to hold his hand for him to allow the doctor to treat him, she didn't mind staying at this spot for the next weeks. She interlocked their fingers and stroked her thumb over the back of his hand. “Normally, you're the one who is patient with me, so I'll manage for a few days. I will play along with all of your requests under the condition that you accept the doctor's advice and let him treat you whenever he asks you to.”

Theodore didn't seem convinced. “Even though it's unnecessary?” She turned her head to him and narrowed her eyes, which made him chuckle. “Alright, alright.” He nodded toward the doctor. “You can begin.”

Immediately, the men in the white coats rushed to gather their utensils and returned to the bed. They carefully rolled up the bandage to take a look at the wound. The patient himself seemed to be calmer than everyone else in the room. He didn't flinch once when the doctor disinfected the cut again and even asked for a hand mirror to inspect the injury properly.

Blanche, on the other hand, felt nauseous knowing that her lover should be in agony due to the size of the wound when he didn't seem to feel any of it. Still, she kept quiet until the doctor rearranged the thread and Theodore remained unmoved despite a needle piercing his flesh. “Say, about the pain medicine. Did you perhaps give him too much? It's good if he doesn't feel pained, but this is a bit...” She turned to her lover. “Do you feel anything around the injury at all?”

The emperor quickly nodded. “Yes, I already checked, but the area isn't numb. I do notice the pain too, it's just very faint.”

The doctor and his assistants seemed to be speechless at that. They exchanged confused looks, and one of them even retrieved the bottle with the medicine to confirm whether they had used the right kind. After wrapping Theodore's shoulder up again, they discussed while whispering for a moment until the doctor addressed Blanche. “To be honest, we are a bit worried too. I gave him a dose of the medicine, and it was smaller than what I would usually inject an adult man since these substances tend to make you tired and we needed him to wake up. We cannot explain why he is this insensitive. Even if the sword coincidentally cut some nerves, he should be a little more affected by this.”

Despite the concern that was written on everyone's features, Theodore made a dismissive motion with his hand. “I'm fine though. You can rest assured that I will say something if it gets worse. So, don't focus on me that much. You should take a look at the knights too. Just to be certain that none of them has an injury and forgot to inform his superior. Any wounds need to be disinfected this instant.”

The men were hesitant to retreat when their ruler was hurt, but after the emperor insisted on them leaving, they sent two assistants out to approach the knights.

Theodore seemed to be content with that. “Good. That should be taken care of with that. Now we just have to wait for Leon. He sure is being slow today.” A wide grin appeared on his lips as he turned to move his face closer to his lover's. “But in the end, that gives us more time for ourselves, doesn't it?”

That was the cue for the doctor and the remaining assistants to excuse themselves to leave the room. It was easy to see that none of them were enthusiastic about letting the usually so careful emperor stay here to cuddle with his lover, but they had no choice.

Theodore ignored the others' opinions quite openly. He ignored all of the doctor's previous requests and acted like he was completely healthy as he pulled his lover close. Just when Theodore was about to press his lips onto Blanche's again, someone knocked on the door though. He looked annoyed for a moment before settling for a short kiss and then telling the person to enter. “You can come in, Leon.”

It was surprising that he had figured that out based on the knock alone, but somehow, Blanche wasn't too taken aback by the fact that her lover had guessed correctly.