Chapter – 24
Watching Rohiriel collapse, Yulion shot to his feet.
“Rohiriel!”
In an instant, he lunged forward and barely managed to catch her just before her body hit the floor.
Holding the pale, rigid Rohiriel in his arms, Yulion shouted urgently,
“Summon a physician at once!”
Her entire body was cold. If not for the faint beating of her heart, one might have believed she was already a corpse.
“What on earth is this…?”
Did people normally collapse so suddenly like this?
Come to think of it, hadn’t the Emperor also collapsed one day without warning and still not regained consciousness?
The image of the fallen Emperor overlapped with Rohiriel’s.
Unconsciously, Yulion bit his lip and swallowed dryly.
“Your Highness!”
Just as his anxiety reached its peak, the summoned physician came hurrying in, wobbling slightly as he ran. He was a stout man with thick jowls and brown hair.
“The Crown Princess suddenly collapsed. What is wrong with her?”
“I shall examine her first, Your Highness.”
Casting a wary glance at Yulion, the physician gently laid Rohiriel flat. He began checking her pulse, temperature, pupil response, and various other signs.
“Hmm.”
“What is it? Is it serious?”
Pressed by Yulion’s urgency, the physician hesitated before asking,
“Forgive me, Your Highness, but does Her Highness suffer from any chronic illness?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then has she recently complained of headaches?”
“…No.”
Yulion’s expression darkened.
His marriage to Rohiriel was contractual. How could he possibly know whether she had any chronic conditions or lingering ailments?
“What is going on? Why can’t you speak plainly? Is there truly something wrong?”
“No, that is not it… It’s just…”
The physician trailed off, glancing at Rohiriel. With her eyes closed and her face calm, she looked almost as though she were peacefully asleep.
“It appears to be extreme fatigue. Her body likely could not endure it any longer. With proper nourishment and time, she should awaken. However, there is something strange.”
“I’ve heard enough of ‘something strange.’ What is your conclusion?”
“Well…”
The physician opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Having served in the imperial palace for ten years, he knew well that speaking carelessly here could cost him dearly.
“Speak!”
Under Yulion’s sharp glare, the physician finally spoke in a small voice.
“I am not confident enough to say with certainty. I believe we should conduct a re-examination with another palace physician.”
In other words, he lacked the skill to make a definitive diagnosis.
Yulion clicked his tongue.
“You lack confidence, yet you dared come to examine the Crown Princess?”
The physician bowed his head without offering any excuse.
Unable to bear it, the chief attendant stepped forward and whispered in Yulion’s ear.
“Your Highness, he is the Vice Director.”
“The Vice Director?”
Yulion’s eyes widened.
The Director had been incompetent—was the Vice Director just as useless?
“Enough. Bring me someone who can properly examine her.”
“Forgive me, Your Highness. In that case… I request that Senior Physician Bamide be summoned.”
The Vice Director’s ears reddened as Yulion shot him an irritated look before turning his gaze back to Rohiriel.
No matter his shortcomings, he was still the Vice Director—someone who had diligently risen through the ranks from trainee physician within the palace. If even he sensed something strange, the matter was indeed troubling.
He had always thought Rohiriel looked somewhat pale, but collapsing like this was not normal.
Even if fatigue had accumulated…
Just then, a physician came hurrying from afar.
“We have brought Physician Bamide, Your Highness!”
“I heard the Crown Princess has collapsed!”
Physician Bamide, his bluish hair half turned white with age, knelt before Rohiriel.
“This cannot be…”
He sighed as he looked at her sleeping face.
Though her eyes were closed, her features and bearing stirred old memories.
In his days as a professor at the Royal Medical Academy of the Kingdom of Yalon, there had been a beloved student who never relinquished her place at the top—beloved by all.
He had heard that this was her daughter, but he hadn’t expected such a resemblance.
Memories flooded his mind like a bursting dam.
“Why do you look so startled? Is her condition that dire?”
Yulion’s anxious voice pulled him back to reality.
“That is not the reason. I shall examine her immediately.”
Steadying himself, Bamide examined Rohiriel in much the same manner as the Vice Director had. Several times he paused, tilting his head slightly, and gradually his expression grew darker.
“It is indeed strange to attribute this solely to fatigue.”
“Then what is this ‘strangeness’? Everyone keeps saying something is strange without explaining the core issue!”
“For now, I can only say that there appear to be symptoms of poisoning.”
“Poisoning? She was speaking with me moments ago. She neither ate nor was attacked. How could it be poison?”
“To know for certain, we must conduct a blood test, Your Highness.”
“How frustrating. If it is necessary, then do it.”
Yulion unbuttoned two of his shirt buttons in agitation.
Bamide bowed deeply.
“In the Imperial Medical Hall, blood testing is considered a base method. If I perform it on the Empire’s Crown Princess, I may not escape punishment.”
Yulion stared at him in disbelief before turning to the Vice Director.
“What nonsense is this?”
“…Forgive me, Your Highness. But to lay hands upon the sacred blood of one so noble—”
“Did Rohiriel not already do so once?”
When Ares had collapsed from poison in the medical hall, Rohiriel had drawn his blood despite everyone’s objections. Nothing had gone wrong. On the contrary, it had clarified his condition.
“Your Highness, at that time the subject was a knight. Now it is Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess. Please consider the difference.”
As the Vice Director opposed the idea, Bamide fell silent.
This was the Imperial Palace. He was but a foreign-born senior physician. Pushing further might only earn him expulsion.
“Ridiculous.”
Yulion ended the farce with a single sentence.
“I require an accurate diagnosis of my Crown Princess’s condition. By my authority as Crown Prince, perform whatever is necessary—including the blood test.”
“…I obey.”
Bamide took a syringe from his medical bag—one he always carried for use outside the palace, though few within the palace approved of it.
“Then I shall begin drawing blood.”
He located a vein beneath Rohiriel’s pale skin, tapped lightly to confirm, and slowly inserted the needle.
Dark, almost black-red blood filled the syringe.
Its color was far from healthy. The physician, Yulion, Jenid, and even the chief attendant all grew grim.
“Your Highness…”
Jenid’s face was the most severe.
Though not a physician, she had attended both Rohiriel and her mother for years and had learned one thing: healthy blood was clear and bright crimson.
Blood with problems was dark and dull.
Like the blood now filling the syringe.
Once the sample was taken, Bamide stood.
“I shall conduct the examination myself in the medical hall. I will depart at once, Your Highness.”
“So be it. When will the results come? Must we wait for them before treating her? When will she awaken? Is this a grave illness from which she may never wake?”
Faced with Yulion’s barrage of questions, Bamide smiled awkwardly.
“Let us first await the results. The preliminary findings should be ready by today. After confirmation, we shall seek a course of treatment.”
“And if something worsens while we wait?”
“She will be fine. Move her somewhere comfortable and let her rest. She may even awaken before the results arrive.”
In Bamide’s view, the primary cause of her collapse was accumulated fatigue.
However, it was strange for mere fatigue to result in such a state.
That was why he had examined her so carefully—and why he had found something unusual.
After answering several more probing questions from Yulion, Bamide hurried back to the medical hall.
Rohiriel was subsequently moved to Garnet Palace.
Yulion finally received the test results two days later, as the sun was setting low on the horizon.
