Chapter 16

Meredith murmured with a puzzled look on her face.

“Why did you do that when you said you were not going to help me?”

“Just in case you fall like you did before.”

“You can help me again. It’s not daytime, it’s night.”

“Are you angry?”

“No way. It’s definitely my job.”

Meredith continued with a soft voice.

“I was just asking for your help. Never mind.”

“Am I even helpful?”

Meredith stared at the emperor at those words.

The emperor still had a blank face.

Meredith asked back, not taking her eyes off him.

“……What if you could?”

The words that were soon heard made Meredith smile brightly.

“Well, give me something to do.”

“Are you helping me?”

“If I may be of any help.”

“Of course it would. The person who is most aware of His Majesty’s disease is His Majesty.”

Meredith grinned and held out the nearest book to the emperor.

“If you read it, you’ll get a sense of what we need.”

“…… ”

“Then good luck, Your Majesty.”

Meredith sat back against the bookshelf with a look of excitement.

He watched Meredith open a book and read it fast, the emperor slowly leaned against the opposite bookshelf.

Sitting face to face against each other, the two focused only on reading for hours like that.

Meredith tried to find the data as efficiently as possible while skipping the unnecessary information quickly.

How long has it been?

‘……Tired.’

I felt like I was at my physical limit.

Even during the day, the emperor lay sick, but Meredith did not.

She couldn’t have been given so much time off during the day.

By the time it was between 3 and 4 a.m., Meredith felt as if she was about to close her eyes.

She read by giving strength to her eyes to focus on the fading front.

But it only had a temporary effect.

“Is His Majesty all right?’

Meredith suddenly raised her head slightly, wondering what the emperor was doing.

Even after such a long time, he was just as absorbed in reading as he did in the beginning, in an unperturbed manner.

‘……That’s great.’

Meredith stuck her tongue at his monstrous stamina.

No matter how long you lie down during the day, there will be very little time to sleep in the end.

Still, I can’t believe he can read books with such sharp eyes. It was just amazing.

Moreover, his reading speed never slowed down.

For hours, we could hear each other turn over the pages of the books like music.

“My healthy self can’t lose.”

Meredith rose from her seat, feeling that she could not collapse.

‘I’ll have to read another book.’

Maybe she’s so sleepy because she can’t find all the information in the book she’s reading.

Meredith, who turned back, slowly looked around the bookshelf to choose a book to read.

“…… “

But even at that time, the drug-like drowsiness wouldn’t go away.

Meredith eventually stood in front of the bookshelf and began to doze off.

“Ah!”

At one point, Meredith’s forehead hit the bookshelf.

The sudden pain awoke Meredith.

Only then did the emperor look at Meredith.

He quickly grasped what had happened and laughed.

-Tak!

He closed the book aloud and stood up.

He came to Meredith, who was rubbing her forehead with a frown.

“I’d better call it a day.”

“I can still hold out, Your Majesty.”

“What if I get sick?”

“But…”

“It’s time for dawn.”

The emperor said, taking the pocket watch out of his arms.

“And you have a schedule tomorrow morning.”

“……..”

“Let’s not overdo it.”

“At this rate, it’ll take a week if we don’t find a cure.”

“But I can’t help it. We can’t increase the number of people who are involved.”

The emperor replied in a dry voice.

“You don’t have to rush. I can’t make others suffer just because I’m getting better soon.”