C90
"......"
Elliot couldn't speak for a moment as he held his head. Was it because Count Miloam treated him like an idiot?
"...I, uh?"
It seemed to be a type of blasphemy that Elliot had never heard before. Indeed, the madness that had dominated him until a moment ago had disappeared.
"Ha! Who's an idiot?"
After some time, he regained the ability to speak, but other issues arose. Bright red blood began to flow from Elliot's nostrils.
"I-I didn't hit you that hard..."
Count Miloam, who had struck him before, tried to stop.
"No, I hit his head, why is his nose bleeding? And didn't you say the person who hits him feels pain due to that artifact or something?"
"Blood..."
Elliot's body collapsed when he noticed the nosebleed in his palm.
"Hey, why are you like this? Hey, genius!"
He fainted. I opened the cell door with the key I had and approached Elliot. When I touched him with my hand, I noticed that he had a hot forehead.
We laid Elliot on the cot in a corner of the cell. A doctor from the security office's medical unit examined him and shook his head.
"No special injuries?"
"Then why does he have a fever? Is it a cold?"
When I asked, the doctor shook his head.
"Usually, colds don't cause nosebleeds."
"Then why did he faint with a nosebleed...?"
"Doesn't he have an overloaded mind?"
Overloaded? The conversation wasn't complicated enough to overload a genius's mind, right?
"It's a joke. Normally, your nose doesn't bleed just because you use your head too much."
"Oh, right..."
"I'm not a charlatan, but there really is nothing particular to point out. If it's not a physical problem, isn't it due to a curse or something?"
I didn't know about the curse, but Elliot was the one with the artifact embedded in his body. The artifact in the body may have caused an abnormal reaction.
"Well, no matter how I look at it, there's nothing wrong with his body. The nosebleed has stopped, and the fever has disappeared, so he should wake up soon. Please have him take it easy for now."
With that, the doctor returned to the medical unit. Elliot regained consciousness the next day, as if he had just woken up.
"Well, I brought you lunch."
"......"
"Aren't you going to eat? You didn't even have breakfast, did you?"
"......"
"I'll leave the tray here, so you can eat it if you feel like it."
"......"
I left the room, leaving Elliot alone, who ignored me to the end. Still, since the expression on his face was the same as before, it didn't seem like he had any serious physical or mental problems.
Count Miloam arrived at the usual time. In the hallway, he asked me in a low voice.
"How is his condition?"
"He doesn't eat or speak."
"That's strange."
"I know. His body looks fine."
Vinetta intervened.
"Isn't he doing that just because he's embarrassed?"
"Is he embarrassed?"
"Yes. Yesterday, he raved about someone so cute and lovely or something. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if he came to his senses?"
"That shameless guy?"
Count Miloam said this and expressed doubts, but I thought Vinetta's assumption was plausible.
"If you think about it, he said a lot of quite illogical things. Maybe it's because he doesn't want to admit that he said something so illogical..."
Anyway, this was just an assumption. I made a request to the count who came to see Elliot.
"The matter of dethroning the Crown Prince? Well. Don't worry. I don't have enough tact to bring up a complicated topic in front of someone who fainted yesterday."
Today, the emperor officially announced his intention to dethrone the crown prince at a cabinet meeting. He revealed everything his son had done for his lover, without exception.
It was one of the few cases in the empire's history where a crown prince was dethroned, so, of course, there was a great commotion. A variety of opinions emerged, ranging from sympathy theories suggesting how much the Crown Prince must have loved Princess Cassius, to conspiracy theories that the incident itself was fabricated because his actions were too absurd.
"There will be more tension in politics."
Since the position of crown prince became vacant, Terence's presence would surely grow even more. Many couldn't ignore the possibility of Terence being crowned crown prince instead of the dethroned Michael.
"Terence will be busier in the future."
It was clear that as we progressed, it would be harder to meet him. Still, it's good that his friend is getting better. With that in mind, I entered Elliot's room with Count Miloam.
"How's your nose? Oh, what about your forehead?"
It seemed that the Count still couldn't stop thinking that Elliot had fallen because he had hit him.
"...You can only say that because you didn't see it."