"There would be no way to hunt now."
When the butler shook his head in resignation, Kaian's expression hardened.
"Are you suggesting the impossible in front of me?"
He was like a living deity within Rowen's domain.
"Find it."
"My Lord—"
"Find it at any cost."
The doctor fidgeted nervously. "There is an appropriate timeline for treatment. Even with medicine—"
"Are you telling me it's already too late?" Kaian's voice cut like ice. "That you only care for your patients with that kind of heart? My people. My castle."
"No! Never, my Lord!"
In truth, Claudel seemed frightened by Kaian's tone, but he spared no gentler words for her. The young Lord was belligerent and demanding in all things. Some older castle women pitied him, attributing his demeanor to the sudden loss of his parents and his early ascension to power. Others admired him, saying, *He is truly our Lord.*
The doctor, however, was terrified. If he failed to find the cure for Claudel, he would be cast out.
"The disease is so advanced that time is critical," the doctor protested. "If you're asking me to find ingredients that no longer exist—"
"You've been speaking for ten minutes without even attempting anything."
"This is unreasonable!" the doctor cried out, his desperation breaking through. "Even the Lord closest to her didn't know of her illness until she nearly collapsed! She's so thin there's barely flesh on her bones. How could you not notice?"
Kaian's lips tightened.
Claudel's body, wasted by illness, had been pushed to its absolute limit during their intimate nights. What was unfair to Kaian was that he'd never seen other women's bodies, so he had no reference point for what healthy looked like. From the moment he first saw her, his only thought had been: *thin, so thin.*
Kaian's mood darkened further at the doctor's criticism.
"I believe I'll need to find a new resident physician for Rowen Castle."
"My Lord!"
Before the doctor could respond further, Kaian dismissed him with a gesture.
The frightened physician hurried from the office.
"What will you do?" the butler asked quietly.
"The royal castle. The capital can be reached in seven days by horse and carriage," Kaian said, calculating. "Perhaps ten days if I push hard."
The doctor's words echoed: *She will vomit blood and die within a month.*
Claudel had never revealed how long she'd been ill. But since her illness had been discovered, it was clear time was running out. A journey to the capital and back would take nearly a month—time they didn't have.
It was in this moment of dark calculation that a scream shattered the quiet castle.
"Kyaaaah!"
Chaos erupted.
"What is this noise?" Kaian demanded, frowning.
A servant rushed in and whispered urgently to the butler.
"My Lord. Your wife has collapsed."
Before the butler could finish, Kaian was already moving, cutting through the castle corridors like wind.
---
The floor of Claudel's room was scattered with broken pottery and spilled medicine.
Hannah knelt beside Claudel's unconscious form, cradling her head, patting her cheek desperately. She didn't notice the sharp porcelain shards cutting her own hands.
When Kaian entered, Hannah seized the hem of his pants with bloodied fingers.
"Help her, my Lord! Please save her! Don't let her die like this!" Hannah's voice broke entirely. "Even if I die, even if my soul becomes bound to serve Temnes, please—save my lady!"
The blood flowing from the corner of Claudel's mouth was different from what she'd coughed up before.
Not the dark, clotted blood of illness—but the warm, bright red that erupts when a sword pierces a living heart.
Not blood accumulated inside, but the liquid containing her very life, flowing freely with each weak cough from her unconscious body.
"Claudel," Kaian said, his voice remarkably calm. "Open your eyes."
She didn't move.
"Claudel!" His voice rose sharply.
The woman who had troubled his mind, who had suggested moving rooms as though she were already dead, said nothing.
The doctor, who had been summoned back urgently from his office, checked her pulse with trembling hands.
His face went ashen. "This... this is..."
Kaian's glare made him speak faster.
"One week. Perhaps a week at most."
Kaian stood carefully, lifting Claudel's limp form. Even unconscious, she coughed weakly, her small body convulsing. He laid her gently on the bed, terrified that even his movements might cause further damage.
"I will go," he said quietly.
"My Lord?" The doctor and butler spoke simultaneously.
"Buffalo. I'm going to catch it."
The butler's face paled. "Absolutely not, my Lord!"
"There is nothing that cannot be done," Kaian replied coldly. "If I don't catch it, no one in all of Oberon will."
The butler tried to protest further, but Kaian's next words silenced him.
"I have no heir anyway. And it would be strange to have one with her like this."
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Claudel's unconscious form.
"I'm leaving immediately."
---
Kaian called his elite knights with urgent haste. The assembled warriors looked confused.
"Were we summoned to obtain medicine for the Vermont girl?"
"No, certainly not. It's just a rumor."
"The Lord does enjoy hunting..."
"Why wild buffalo though? That makes no sense."
Whether they understood or not, Kaian donned heavy armor—equipment he hadn't worn in three years since leaving the battlefield.
Late into the night, gatekeepers scrambled to light fires and lower the drawbridge at the Lord's command.
"I'm coming too."
Hannah approached hesitantly, her face tear-stained. She wore trousers borrowed from male servants, her few belongings tied hastily to her back with cloth.
"The medicine," she said firmly. "I will find it."
The knights exchanged bewildered glances as they hoisted shields nearly as tall as Hannah onto their horses.
Then Kaian did something unexpected.
*Tuk. Tuk.*
He gently patted Hannah's shoulder with his gauntleted hand.
Hannah looked up in shock.
"Stay with your lady," he said quietly. "In my place."
Hannah, daring to meet his eyes, bowed deeply and hurried back into the castle.
As the drawbridge crashed down behind him, Kaian led his men through the gate.
---
The wild buffalo herds lived surprisingly close to Rowen Castle—perhaps a day's ride into the grasslands.
A vast, exposed plain with no cover. The black, powerful buffalo were spread across the grassland, impossible to miss—but also impossible to approach undetected.
Kaian observed the herd with cold calculation.
If someone had managed to catch one in the past for medicine, then he could certainly do it. There was nothing he couldn't accomplish if he set his mind to it.
Even if it meant saving a woman whose life hung by a thread.
"My Lord. All traps are set," reported a knight, appearing through clouds of yellow dust.
"Arrange the battle formation," Kaian commanded.
His elite knights—five years of battlefield experience together—took their positions with perfect precision.
"Fire," Kaian ordered.
An archer, impossibly tall and broad, nocked a spear as thick as a man's wrist onto an enormous bow. He drew the string taut and released.
The spear flew through the air and struck directly into a buffalo's body with thunderous impact.
As the wounded animal began to panic, the entire herd erupted into motion. The ground trembled beneath ten thousand hooves. Yellow dust rose like a living thing, engulfing everything.
"Forward!" Kaian drove his horse into the chaos.
---
## Claudel's Perspective
*Is this heaven?*
That was my first conscious thought.
I'd read once that a person breathes twenty thousand times daily. With each breath and exhale, my chest felt like it was being torn by knives. Forty thousand moments of pain per day. I wanted it to stop so badly.
But my life—however brief—had been good.
I became a Duchess. A noble. Though my illness prevented me from seeing the castle properly, I knew there was a beautiful tomb waiting for me in its catacombs. I'd managed to send food to starving children in Valmonde, and Kaian had promised ten carriage-loads each time, for a total of three hundred carriages. The Duke of Vermont's initial thirty had fed the entire territory for a month. Three hundred would provide relief for ten months.
A good life, I thought.
I didn't want Hannah to cry. And I'd hoped the Duke of Vermont would understand that I didn't need to be brought back to Valmonde.
The tomb waiting for me had a light pink rose quartz stone. It was quite beautiful. This place was acceptable too.
I would never see the blue diamond.
*But if he keeps his promise to the children...*
With that thought, I felt I could close my eyes peacefully.
*This is ridiculous.*
I opened my eyes at the cold, scolding voice.
"Just because you said you'd do something as soon as you woke up, you think that makes me suspicious you might not eat that small amount of food?"
My eyelids fluttered.
I thought I was in heaven, but is this hell?
Above me, beyond what I'd imagined as my final destination, Kaian stood in pitch-black clothes, his face twisted in displeasure.
*Hiccup.*
I was so shocked I began hiccupping.
"It doesn't hurt," I said, confused.
If I'm not sick, I should be dead. So why—
"I'm... glad it doesn't hurt," Kaian said flatly, rising from the chair where he'd apparently been sitting.
The door opened and Hannah rushed in, her face radiant.
"Miss! You're awake!"
"Uh... uh..." I couldn't form words. My mind was blank.
"How are you feeling?" Hannah asked, her joy evident.
"It's... it's okay."
*I lived?*
Kaian's cold voice drifted from above my head.
"You look disappointed that you couldn't die."
---