Chapter 16

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“Sir Cliff.”

…Who is that?

He had been deeply, blessedly asleep. Hmm… sweetly? Not exactly sweet, but profoundly heavy and disorienting. So deep he couldn’t even remember what he had been doing before he passed out.

“Sir Cliff? Are you able to wake up?”

A voice—unfamiliar, yet one he recognized—called out to him. However, Lino couldn’t formulate an immediate response. He was almost never addressed by his surname. “Cliff” certainly wasn’t his actual parents’ surname, considering he was an abandoned orphan who hadn’t even been given a first name.

“My, it appears your condition has worsened considerably.”

The man who had been gently shaking the unresponsive Lino flinched as the scorching heat of Lino’s fever transferred through the fabric into his palm. Hearing that his condition had worsened, Lino belatedly remembered that he had passed out in the study, too sick to even read, because of a severe cold.

And then, his sluggish brain finally identified the man trying to wake him up. Enoch, the aide to Duke Castillion Luz Grondil.

But why is he in the study? 

Struggling to pry his heavy eyelids open, Lino pushed against the mattress, trying to force his body upright. His limbs felt like wet sandbags, and his head was spinning. Because his mouth was bone-dry from the raging fever, it took a moment to produce a coherent sound.

“What is… the matter?”

Ahem, hem. Clearing his throat roughly, Lino looked up at Enoch. The older man was kneeling on one knee beside the mattress, bringing himself down to eye level with Lino, who had only managed to prop up his upper torso.

The silver-haired, middle-aged man’s pristine forehead was creased with a subtle frown. He moved the hand that had been resting on Lino’s shoulder up to his forehead. Lino’s forehead, slick with cold sweat, was just as alarmingly hot as his shoulder.

This absolutely will not do, Enoch muttered softly, shaking his head. Seeing Lino’s severely dazed state, Enoch likely assumed the boy couldn’t hear him. As Enoch expected, Lino hadn’t clearly heard the muttered words. However, by reading his lips, Lino perfectly understood the sentiment.

“What won’t do? If there is a duty I must perform, I will do it.”

Lino had traveled all the way to the capital’s estate exclusively for the purpose of escorting the Duke. Even if he had spent over a month lounging around like an unemployed freeloader without doing a single second of actual escorting, he was still, officially, the Duke’s escort knight.

For Enoch to personally track him down and wake him up meant there was a specific, unavoidable duty Lino had to fulfill as a knight.

“I will arrange for alternative personnel. If you attempt to move in this condition, it will be incredibly dangerous for you, Sir Cliff.”

“…I will be fine once I take some medicine.”

Lino’s gaze shifted to the round tray resting on the mattress next to Enoch. On the polished gold tray sat a perfectly folded packet of powdered medicine and a glass of lukewarm water.

***