Chapter 26

"......"

After Sylphie left the room, leaving Amelia alone.

"I was way too excited, wasn't I!"

She dove onto the bed, kicking her legs about. With her face beet red, she buried it in the pillow and writhed, letting out a long, drawn-out groan, "Uuuuuuuu!!" like a fish stranded on the beach.

Once she calmed down, she realized that her enthusiasm had been a bit off during the plant gathering, which she hadn't done in a long time.

Roughly estimating, her mental age had dropped to around seven years old. Where did my ten years go?

After a while of thrashing about, Amelia lifted her face from the pillow and muttered,

"I can't let Lord Logan see me like this..."

She felt that her inability to manage her emotions and interact with others was becoming more and more apparent. It was probably due to the long period of isolation she had endured.

"Amelia, as a wife, will strive to uphold the dignity of the Hernberg family..."

Reciting the words of the contract she had made with Logan, Amelia slapped her cheeks lightly.

"I need to pull myself together and act more mature...!! I can't have him recognize me as a child and accept me as the Duchess! That would be unbearable."

Following her declaration to avoid showing her clumsy side, she vowed to act more mature.

Taking a deep breath, she switched her mindset. Rolling over from her stomach to her back, she murmured,

"......I was so happy."

Memories of making the medicine for Oscar's back pain during the plant gathering came flooding back.

When she saw Oscar in pain, she found herself moving without thinking.

She wanted to be of help to the people in this house, and that desire drove her.

Oscar's back pain would likely improve soon, as she had already seen the effects on her mother.

This would also prove that her medicine-making skills were reliable.

──Mom, why don't you teach magic to Dad or Melissa?

──...I can't teach it to the people here.

──Why not?

──The people here... might misuse this magic for bad things.

Words her mother had said when she was young. Now, she understood their meaning.

Magic... her medicine-making skills should not be revealed to her family. That's why she had kept this ability hidden all these years.

Even after marrying into the Hernberg family, she had planned to keep her skills a secret.

However.

──Does the Haggle family have a renowned alchemist?

On the first night, after recovering from her stomachache with the medicine she had made, Logan asked her, and she hesitated.

Should she reveal her skills or not?

At first, she thought she would keep it hidden.

She didn't fully trust Logan, whom she had just met. He might use her skills for something else.

But...

──A handkerchief's purpose is to wipe away dirt. You must be nervous about the sudden turn of events, but we are to be husband and wife. There's no need for such formality.

He wiped the spilled tea with his handkerchief.

──At least for the first day. I can't promise the same for tomorrow, given my busy schedule.

He made time for dinner despite his busy schedule.

The consideration and affection she felt from Logan were something she had never experienced from her father, stepmother, stepsister, or maids.

Feeling this from Logan...

(I don't want to lie to him... and I think... he'll be fine.)

That's what she thought.

There was no logic to it; it was a gut feeling.

Even if it was a hasty judgment, she didn't want to hide herself from this person.

That's what she thought.

...It was unexpected that her medicine-making skills would be seen as objectively amazing.

"Mom..."

──If, in the future, someone who truly cares for Amelia, not from here, appears... then, use a lot of magic for them.

Glancing at the small portrait of her late mother on the vanity, Amelia spoke.

"Is this okay?"

The smiling mother in the portrait said nothing.

But...

She felt as if her mother was saying, "It's okay."

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