Chapter 6
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Lalit came running immediately.
"What's wrong? What are the symptoms?"
Adrian cleared his throat and explained his condition.
"That... I think I'm facing a stressful situation."
"...Just a moment."
Lalit calmly assessed that it wasn't an emergency.
"Your Highness, then please unbutton your shirt..."
"What?"
Adrian's eyes widened in shock. His ears betrayed him, flushing bright red.
He began to inch backward, but Lalit, expressionless, pulled a stethoscope from her medical bag and replied.
"I'll listen to your chest."
Adrian froze. He then lifted his chin, paused in silence, and spoke.
"Ah, stethoscope."
"Yes."
"Stethoscope, I know. Fine. Alright."
"If it makes you uncomfortable, shall I do it over your shirt?"
"Ah, no. No, it's fine. I'm perfectly fine. It's nothing."
Lalit approached without hesitation and began unbuttoning several buttons on his shirt.
Jansen also unbuttoned his shirt before performing the auscultation himself. After all, a high nobleman doesn't undress himself.
'There's definitely something wrong with my heart.'
But when Jansen listened, the heart hadn't been pounding this violently. Adrian was certain.
'There's something wrong with my health right now.'
When Lalit placed the stethoscope on his chest with a calm expression, even his breathing quickened.
Just as Adrian's mind was filling with worry about how he'd manage his upcoming schedule, Lalit finished listening and stepped back matter-of-factly.
"It's within normal range."
"What? That can't be."
"Nothing abnormal."
Lalit tucked the stethoscope into her medical bag and pulled out a thermometer. Adrian quickly buttoned his shirt. If her fingers brushed his chest one more time, he was sure he'd insist there was something wrong with his heart and demand another examination.
Meanwhile, Lalit took out the thermometer and held it to his mouth.
"Please hold it there for a moment."
Naturally, the temperature was checked multiple times. Adrian held the thermometer while Lalit reviewed the health records Jansen had left behind for her.
"Hmm."
A moment later, Lalit checked the thermometer and tilted her head.
"Still normal, though."
Adrian rubbed his lips frantically. The sensation of the thermometer she'd pulled away so ruthlessly lingered on his lips.
"Look closely. Janssen said I have a family history."
"Hmm, at this point, there's no family history or symptoms that would be problematic, but... I'll take a closer look for a moment."
Lalit began flipping through the health records, reading them quickly. Adrian sighed and rubbed his eyes.
There was no way he could be fine when he felt so different from usual. Something was bound to show up.
Didn't his lips still feel oddly empty since the thermometer had been removed? His mouth felt parched too.
Finally, Adrian jumped up and pulled a cigar from the drawer.
He didn't enjoy them, but he'd occasionally smoke one or two at social gatherings where it was necessary.
Lighting it and taking a puff, only then did the lingering trace of the thermometer on his lips seem to vanish. As he gazed out the window, puffing smoke, a phrase suddenly came to mind.
"Your Grace, the sight of you smoking a cigar is like a painting."
"Your blue eyes shining through the smoke are truly magnificent………………."
Whenever he smoked a cigar, some young ladies would often admire him like that. Thinking back, even at the military academy where he first learned to smoke, his seniors often said things like this.
"Nothing exudes masculine charm quite like a cigar."
"Especially when you stand like this, leaning against the window, smoking—it looks so atmospheric."
"Add a wistful expression, and it makes you seem like you have a tragic story."
Back then, he brushed off those words, but now they suddenly etched themselves sharply into his mind.
The him in Lalit's memory must seem insignificant, pitiful, and laughable. Yet now, a desire began to smolder within him—a desire to show her that he was not like that anymore.
'To the one who found me disgusting and abandoned me, I should at least be able to show this much.'
It was a natural desire. Anyone would feel it. The pride that comes naturally to humans, the urge to express, 'If I'd known you'd turn out this well, I wouldn't have abandoned you back then. Do you regret it now?'
Adrian tilted his head slightly, gazed out the window, and exhaled smoke with a deep, intense gaze. Then he slowly opened his mouth.
"Lalit."
Lalit, who had just finished reviewing the last page of the documents, lifted her head with an expressionless face.
"Yes."
"Seeing you after so long, you've changed a lot."
"Yes."
"And how about me?"
Clear blue eyes stared straight at her through the smoke. His red lips formed a perfect curve. He knew from experience that whenever Adrian made this expression, everyone, regardless of age or gender, would become mesmerized.
Their gazes met briefly. A strange restlessness washed over him, making him want to light another cigar, just as Lalit spoke.
"You've matured appropriately for your age. Beyond that, I don't notice any significant changes."
Her green eyes remained utterly unwavering.
"………………Is that all? Really?"
"Yes."
Her voice was firm and calm, seemingly without a trace of falsehood.
"And it appears there are no significant issues, Your Grace. Everything is within normal parameters, so there is no medication to prescribe at this time. Should any unusual symptoms arise, please call for me at any time."
"Really?"
"Yes. Truly, genuinely, I swear on my medical honor, without a shred of doubt."
Adrian finally lit another cigar. A wave of bitterness washed over him, prompting him to ask in a matter-of-fact tone instead.
"So, you don't have any specific advice about my health?"
"I do."
Lalit answered calmly.
"It would be best if you quit smoking."
"………………What?"
"Smoking is detrimental to your health."
She pulled a fluttering sheet of paper from her bag and placed it on the table.
"I'll leave a standard questionnaire to assess your addiction symptoms and smoking habits. Please fill it out at your leisure and give it to Dr. Jansen."
The cold, efficient way she handed the paper to Adrian...
'Damn, she's pretty.'
Adrian found himself admitting it without thinking. He'd met countless beauties in high society, but this was only the second time someone had made his heart flutter enough for him to think, 'She's pretty.'
The first was fifteen-year-old Lalit.
He couldn't help but suspect that some childhood trauma had left him fatally afflicted—that the word 'pretty' now meant only Lalit.
'Should I just send her away?'
So he felt a sudden impulse.
'Could I ever be indifferent to Lalit?'
Treating her casually, as just another servant, already felt like a failure.
But he truly didn't want to repeat acting like a fool in front of her again. The past few years without her seemed far more mentally peaceful.
"Ah, and."
To erase these pointless thoughts, Adrian brought up the most important topic.
"I'd like to hear about Grandmother. I heard the initial consultation is finished."
"Yes. Originally, it ran late, so I intended to report tomorrow, but I'll tell you now."
Lalit answered politely.
"The most suspected condition is a rare disease called Axenfeld Syndrome. The diagnostic method is straightforward, and treatment has already been developed, so the situation isn't hopeless."
"If it's not hopeless, why did every doctor say there was no chance? Even Jansen?"
"Axenfeld Syndrome itself was only recently discovered, and because it's such a rare disease, there are few related papers. Especially since the papers weren't written by Imperial scholars, it would have been difficult for Imperial doctors to know about it."
"Then how do you know?"
"I've read nearly every medical paper existing on the continent. To catch up on the latest papers, I go to the Tower Library on my days off."
The latest papers scattered across the continent are automatically registered at the Tower Library. Therefore, theoretically, going to the Tower Library every week made it possible to familiarize oneself with all the papers.
But theoretically possible meant... far more people didn't bother going to such lengths. Because the Magic Tower Library didn't have a feature to display only high-quality papers in the exact field one needed.
As far as Adrian knew, no one had ever undertaken that exhausting task of sorting through all the useless papers just to find that one useful one.
Usually, they attended conferences held every six months to hear about the latest noteworthy research. All the Empire's physicians, including Jansen, lived that way.
"You... do that? And then memorize all of it? That inefficient task?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To become an outstanding physician. Because that requires effort."
Lalit said it with an expression that suggested he was asking the obvious.
"If you can achieve it through effort, you should give it your all. It means there's an opportunity. I was grateful just for that."
She stared at his face blankly and added slowly.
"Because there are many things in this world you can't achieve no matter how hard you try."
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