RTT-01

Chapter 1

“You… collapsed again, my lady.”

“Yes.”

At the physician’s worried voice echoing through the room, the young woman he addressed as my lady nodded.

The soft hair spilling over her shoulders swayed with the movement.

Her hair was a pale, hazy pink, as though rose oil had been diluted in water.

And her large, round eyes were an equally translucent rose-quartz hue.

Litricia Charlotte Esta, the young lady of the Esta County, was a person of remarkably pale coloring overall.

As though she might disappear the moment one looked away.

“How long were you unconscious this time?”

“I’m not sure. Three or four hours, perhaps? No, maybe it was longer than that. You’d probably get a more accurate answer from Allen than from me.”

“Haah… my lady.”

A sigh escaped the physician at Litricia’s detached tone, as though she were discussing someone else entirely.

Yet even at his reaction, Litricia merely breathed calmly.

She saw no reason to make such a fuss over it now. It wasn’t as though this was the first or second time she had collapsed like this.

Although no one knew the exact cause, Litricia had never been particularly healthy to begin with.

Perhaps because of that, she had occasionally lost consciousness and collapsed ever since childhood, and today was merely another one of those occasions.

So she could simply treat it as though she had taken a short nap, get back on her feet, and carry on as usual…

Unfortunately, Allen, her personal maid, had happened to witness her collapse.

And that was how this entire commotion had begun.

“You don’t have to be so thorough, Piril.”

“How could I possibly do that?”

“Hmm…”

Litricia swallowed a sigh as she watched Piril examine her with meticulous care.

No matter how many times he examined her, his conclusion was always the same.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly wrong with your body, so I simply cannot understand why this keeps happening. I have no idea what the cause could be…”

Those were the words Litricia had heard from Piril for years.

Naturally, she expected today to be no different…

And yet, something about Piril’s reaction seemed unusual.

He moved around far more busily than usual, examining various parts of Litricia’s body with instruments she had never seen before.

As though even that were not enough, he approached her arm with a needle and a flask filled with an ominous blue liquid.

“I need to draw a little blood for a more precise examination.”

“All right—ngh.”

The instant she answered, the needle pierced her skin, drawing an involuntary groan from Litricia.

At the sound, Piril frowned as well before dripping the blood he had drawn into the flask.

Watching him work with such frantic concentration, Litricia found herself staring at him curiously.

Why did this physician always go to such lengths for someone like her?

It wasn’t as though he gained anything from doing so.

No, profit wasn’t even the real issue…

I’ll be grateful if Isis doesn’t make his life miserable again just because he was caught treating me.

With one arm still extended toward Piril, Litricia thought of her older brother, whose pink hair resembled hers but was far more vivid, and her brows drew together.

Isis Cotton Esta.

A man who could barely stand the sight of Litricia.

He was the future head of House Esta—and, at the same time, the only biological child of Count Esta living in this mansion.

That was right.

Unlike Isis, Litricia was not Count Esta’s biological daughter.

She was called my lady and dressed neatly like a noble young woman, but those were merely appearances.

Within this mansion, Litricia’s true position was nothing more than that of an unwanted adopted child.

The late Countess had brought Litricia here because she resembled her own daughter, who had died young of consumption.

But neither Count Esta nor Isis had ever shown her affection.

She was merely a troublesome adopted child no one wanted.

That was her place in this household.

For that reason, aside from Allen, the personal maid waiting outside her door, and this elderly physician, most of the servants in the mansion avoided Litricia.

Drip.

As though to snap Litricia out of her pointless thoughts, Piril let another drop of her blood fall into the flask.

Then, accompanied by a sigh that sounded almost like a groan, the blue solution containing her blood gradually turned a dark crimson.

“…My lady. Have you recently begun experiencing headaches? Or have you been losing consciousness more frequently?”

“…Yes.”

“What about nausea? Has your stomach twisted painfully enough to make you want to vomit? Or have you had any nosebleeds?”

“I’ve had a little indigestion, but none of the symptoms you just mentioned.”

“Just as I thought…”

So that was why.

Litricia had wondered why today’s examination was taking so much longer than usual.

The more they spoke, the darker Piril’s expression became, until his face looked almost as grim as the liquid inside the flask.

He repeatedly glanced between a test sheet covered in incomprehensible terminology and a medical text written in a language Litricia had never seen before.

Eventually, he tore off his thick glasses and impatiently rubbed a hand over his face again and again.

The entire sequence looked serious enough to give Litricia a terrible feeling.

So she deliberately threw back the covers and sat up.

“Piril, if there’s nothing particularly wrong, could you leave now? There isn’t much time left before the banquet. I still need to finish getting ready—”

“…One year.”

But then—

Thud.

A thick book snapped shut.

At Piril’s next words, Litricia froze in place.

“What? One year? What do you mean…?”

“My lady…”

Piril’s voice sank heavily.

“You have only one year left to live.”