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Chapter 488.1: A Sweet-Sour Taste (1)

High transcendents had sharp intuition when it came to danger. It often appeared out of nowhere, only to inexplicably disappear afterward. This short interval was usually the golden period to uncover the cause of the danger, but it was usually too fleeting to make much out of it.

As soon as Roel felt the pang of danger, he began scanning his surroundings with widened eyes to gather clues. A split moment later, it struck him where the danger was likely coming from.

“Charlotte!”

“R-Roel?”

“…”

Suspecting that the danger might have been targeting Charlotte instead, he decisively pulled aside her blanket and scanned her from head to toe, but much to his surprise, he couldn’t find any anomaly on her.

On the other hand, Charlotte was both startled and confused by his actions. Her first thought was that Roel was making fun of her again, but she swiftly noticed the anxious look on his face.

Darling is…

She swallowed down her words of reprimand and slowly crawled over to Roel’s side. With a gentle voice, she asked, “What’s wrong, darling?”

“… No, it’s nothing. I might have sensed wrongly,” Roel shook his head and replied. “Charlotte, do you feel any discomfort?”

“Not at all. My condition has been fairly good ever since our reunion earlier this morning.”

“That’s good to hear,” Roel replied with a contemplative nod.

As worried as he was, he wasn’t able to find anything anomaly with Charlotte. After a moment of hesitation, he decided not to talk about his vague intuition lest he worried her for no good reason.

It was not as if Charlotte was unprotected; on the contrary, she had more guards with her than usual. To suddenly speak about his unfounded intuition here would only spook her for no good reason, especially when they couldn’t act on it.

Roel shook his head with a smile and tucked her back into her blanket. Suspicion flashed across Charlotte’s emerald eyes, but she decided not to probe deeper.

Charlotte was already feeling tired due to her poor state of health, and it didn’t take long for her to drift off to dreamland. Roel sat by her side and began analyzing her mysterious affliction.

While it seemed like the two of them had spent the morning relishing in the bliss of their reunion, showing not a sliver of worry at all, there was not a single second that Roel had forgotten about his aim—observing Charlotte’s condition.

From what he had seen thus far, there was something weird about Charlotte’s affliction.

Most illnesses had consistent symptoms that indicate the patient’s poor state of health, but in her case, it looked more as if she was suffering from a state of frailty rather than being ill. If anything, she looked like she had just overcome a major disease and was in the midst of recuperating.

Of course, that was an overly optimistic interpretation that seemed implausible to Roel.

While looking at Charlotte’s adorable sleeping visage, he pondered hard about the question before eventually shaking his head. He needed more information to work with, so he decided to continue observing the situation for the time being.

With that, he settled into the bed too and lightly held her hand.

…

Nothing much happened during the afternoon nap.

After Charlotte woke up from her sleep, they resumed with her usual schedule.

Roel had already applied for a leave with Saint Freya Academy prior to chasing after Charlotte. Fortunately, there wasn’t much work left to be done since the academic semester was almost over, so he could entrust the rest to Paul and Geralt. It was also a good thing that Rosa and the Ascart Fiefdom were neighbors, which allowed him to rush back to the Ascart Fiefdom if there was anything urgent he needed to attend to, so he could spend his time with Charlotte without any burden.

It was rare for them to have leisure time together, and they cherished every moment that they could have together. In the days to come, they were practically glued to each other.

Under Roel’s meticulous care, Charlotte’s condition started showing signs of recovery.

Her previously pale face gradually regained its red glow, and there were no longer days when she felt so frail that she was bound to the bed. Almost like a seedling that had received sufficient nourishment after toiling through winter, she was swiftly regaining her spirit.

Grace and the other maids were excited at her recovery. The affliction that had rendered them helpless over the past year actually started backing off upon Roel’s arrival. This was almost like a miracle!

“Is this the nourishment of love? Our young miss is finally…”

Looking at the lovey-dovey couple, Grace bit down on her handkerchief and wiped off her tears. She was both delighted and relieved to see that Charlotte didn’t suffer the same unfortunate fate as the other women of the Sorofya House.

Charlotte was also surprised by her own recovery too.

“Darling, it’s almost as if you were the one who treated me.”

“… While it does look that way, it’s a pity that I haven’t done anything at all.”

“Perhaps it’s the change in mood?”

“Wouldn’t that mean that you’re the one who cured yourself?” Roel replied with a bitter smile, refusing to accept any credit.

There had been no proper diagnosis of Charlotte’s condition thus far, but the symptoms strongly suggested that it was the same curse that her father was suffering from. Roel had met Bruce several times now, but there hadn’t been any clichés where he miraculously healed the long-standing ailment of his future father-in-law.

He had no reason to believe that it would be any different when it came to Charlotte.

That being said, it was joyous news that Charlotte’s affliction had alleviated. Roel’s arrival had heralded a good omen, and it translated to greater respect from the Sorofyas.

As Charlotte regained her vigor, she was finally able to bid her bedbound life farewell and engage in other activities. Of course, the ‘other activities’ here referred not to couple entertainment activities but to reviewing documents, or to be more exact, clearing up her work that had piled up during this period of time.

She was the successor to the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, after all. She might have appeared to be carefree and relaxed whenever she was with Roel, but beneath the surface, she often had to rush out her work to squeeze out time for their regular meeting. There was always work for her to do, especially after the recent International Crisis Management Symposium.

At its core, the International Crisis Management Symposium was a meeting to construct the united army and allocate responsibilities to each member nation. When humankind was facing a crisis, no one was allowed to have it better than the others.

Each nation took on responsibilities corresponding to their respective strengths. Unlike the Saint Mesit Theocracy, who had to devote soldiers to the frontlines, the wealthy Rosa Merchant Confederacy were tasked with the job of handling the logistics, which basically meant forking out money.

Problems concerning money were usually no problem to the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, but this was the war expenditure of humankind’s united army they were talking about here. The scale was nothing compared to their past investments. Even an economic powerhouse like them had to carefully allocate funds lest they went under.

In fact, there had been a proliferation of accounting missions this year in Saint Freya Academy. Such low-risk missions that gave out Academic Credits were extremely rare, usually limited to the academy’s own finances, but they had been popping out like bamboo shoots after a rain. Most of them were from Rosa concerning the united army.

The massive load of financial calculations and budgeting that had to be done was not to be scoffed at. Charlotte did have her army of secretaries to deal with the lower-level work, but there would still be a huge load of documents she had to review and approve. These documents had only been stacking up ever since she got ill.

In the quiet studying room suffused with an invigorating floral scent, Roel sat by the corner browsing through a record of Rosa’s history while Charlotte adeptly dealt with all kinds of documents in front of her office desk.

To be very frank, Roel disapproved of Charlotte’s actions.

Just days before, she had been so frail that it was difficult for her to get out of bed. Her condition had improved since then, but she should have been doing rehabilitation to further aid her recovery instead of handling such stressful work.

He did voice his opposition for Charlotte to take a rest, even going to the extent of pulling Grace over to his side. However, a piece of news coming from the frontlines changed his attitude toward the matter.

The united army was going to make a big move after confirming their war plans in the International Crisis Management Symposium.