CH 3

“Don’t spoil your little brother too much. If he made a mistake, it is your duty as his sister to correct him.”

Razette slightly frowned as he heard the Count, and when Lizen turned her head toward him, his smiling gaze avoided her; Lizen instead looked at the sighing Count. “There’s no one to reprimand, Father. He had done nothing wrong.”

“…I have summoned the doctor. He’ll check on you to find out why you collapsed. Oh, speak of the devil.”

A knock echoed from the door. A doctor entered, and a butler, who seemed to have shown the doctor the way, stood outside.

Lizen sat on the bed as the doctor examined her pulse and asked her politely, “Do you suddenly feel lightheaded?”

Lizen felt a little lightheaded before she fainted. “A little?”

The doctor continued asking several more questions, and she answered as much as she could while peeping into Lizen’s memory.

“Your condition is still off the charts. You’ve lost weight compared to the last time I saw you. Your pulse’s unstable too.” 

With his arms crossed, the Count listened to the doctor narrate his findings.

“I suspect that it may be the side effect of the drug.”

‘A drug?’ Lizen pondered about what the doctor was referring to, only to realize later what it was. There was a medicine that the original Lizen was taking regularly. A drug to comfort her reality. (TN: antidepressants) 

When Lizen drank the drug, it made her mind lightheaded, depriving her of the ability to think of anything, eventually washing away her troubled heart and mind.

“All medicines have side effects. In severe cases, your medicine could cause you to faint. Have you ever overdosed on your medication recently?”

Both the Count and the doctor looked at her, curious. They silently waited for her to utter a response.

Lizen does not know whether the original Lizen abused her drugs or not. As she forced herself to remember, a spark of memory came to light. However, before she could speak, an uninvited guest suddenly intervened.

“What do you mean, ‘overdose’?” A woman in a black maid suit said as she walked inside Lizen’s room. Her voice and tone were firm, as if she had heard the conversation before walking in. “My Lady always takes her medications in recommended dosage.”

“This maid is in charge of my daughter’s medications.” As per the command of the Count, the maid was assigned to be the caretaker of Lizen’s medication. Unless the one in charge gave too much, the overdose and the cause of Lizen’s lightheadedness might lie elsewhere. And with the sudden appearance of the maid, the attention quickly drew to her.

Lizen could not help but frown. ‘She’s lying.’

When Lizen was suspecting that the original Lizen’s memories may have the answer to the doctor’s question, she tried hard to recall them, and a spark of memory made her realize the truth. 

The maid who came unannounced was named Amy. Lizen’s personal maid was fearless, and indeed, just exactly as the doctor feared, Amy was the one who caused Lizen’s overdose.

‘Behave and take this medicine. Don’t bother ordering me around, do you understand?’ As per the original Lizen’s memory, Amy mistreated Lizen. To be in charge of taking care of a lost-cause noblewoman means power, and Lizen was the perfect prey for Amy, who had an inferiority complex.

Lizen casually looked ahead, and she unexpectedly made eye contact with Razette. He seemed to have been expressionlessly looking back and forth at Lizen and Amy.

And for a moment, their gazes met each other. Quietly, Razete turned away. It seemed that he did not want to be included in her overdose case.

‘He’s pretending not to know…’ Razette was aware of the truth. The truth that Amy repeatedly neglected and threatened Lizen with drugs.

But it was understandable for him to pretend to be unaware; he dislikes Lizen. Moreover, there was no concrete evidence to support her claims of being abused by her personal maid. It would be wiser to keep silent and not tell the truth.

“I’ll see you again at the next consultation.”

The doctor got up with files on him as if he had already figured it out. The Count glanced at her after the doctor left the room and suddenly approached her.

“The doctor mentioned that your fainting was because of the side effects of your medication, and you’ve been on it for a long time now, so he might have been right. It could have been because of that. But Lizen.”

For someone who was fuming with anger when he came into Lizen’s room earlier, his voice was quiet as he asked, “Has your brother ever given you any drugs?”

‘Why is he suspecting someone else?’ By the original Lizen’s memories and how the novel unfolded, Razette never secretly stole nor fed Lizen medicine.

“It’s not Caleb,” she responded.

The Count did not suspect Amy, who took advantage of her dependence on drugs, and whom he thought would not do such a thing, but rather, he kept suspecting Razette. It would be more appropriate to say that the Count placed immense trust in Amy.

After pondering over it, she decided not to tell him of Amy’s wrongdoings. The Count was not interested in his own daughter, and the proof of his neglect was Amy’s treatment of Lizen. It would be more likely that even if she were to speak the truth, he would not believe her.

“Caleb had nothing to do with the drugs. Don’t drag him into this.” Lizen began to feel anxious that Razette would get dragged into this mess. However, the Count turned his back and walked away, his tired complexion becoming more distant. The butler at the door followed suit, and soon the door closed.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Yes, don’t worry about me.” She nodded at Amy, who closed the door shut as she pretended to be concerned about me. It did not mean that she would be silent about this forever; she was bidding for the right time.

Right now, no one in her family would believe her; she was not mentally sound after all. Unless there was a chance where everyone would have no choice but believe her, her words would continue to be dismissed as ravings and lies.

“…Caleb.” She dealt with Amy in silence, and as soon as the maid was out of sight, she immediately looked and called for him, “Come here.”

In the meantime, Lizen decided to put off dealing with Amy and settle the issue at hand piece by piece.