The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Why…… why must I sever my ties with Mother and Father? Why?”
“Identity Laundering means erasing every trace of who you are now and becoming someone else entirely. It means changing your name, your surname, disappearing to a place where no one knows you.”
I omitted the explanation that it was typically the last resort for those who’d indulged in Debt Extravagance and faced threats of murder from their creditors.
If she heard that much and began sobbing, I knew it would become tedious.
“If you keep in contact with your parents, that isn’t Identity Laundering—it’s just a cute little elopement. And Perks won’t leave you alone either. He’ll drag you back by whatever means necessary and lay you at the Count’s feet.”
Ruen bit her lip and spoke to me.
“Don’t do this. Lionel, if you could just…….”
“Pay back the debt? You truly have no conscience whatsoever—not even a sparrow’s footprint worth. You enjoyed the luxury of the money you got from selling me out, and now you’re asking me to repay it?”
“…… I know I haven’t done right either. But still, marrying off to some old, bald fool like that…….”
“When I first told you I was marrying some old, bald man, you had no qualms about it, did you? You’re right—altruism requires a certain minimum of intelligence to achieve. I’ll be generous and assume you were simply too stupid to understand.”
I watched Ruen’s eyes grow redder by the moment. I pressed for her answer.
“Don’t cry. Tears solve nothing. So, what will it be—yes or no?”
“…… I’m only nineteen…… What am I supposed to do alone in a place where I know no one…….”
“Then marry without complaint. The old man seems wealthy enough—indulge in all the luxury you want. I assume you’re prepared to bear an heir? Well then, that’s settled.”
Under Imperial Law, minors could not marry.
Ruen’s twentieth birthday was one month away, which meant she would have to marry the Count one month from now.
I rose without hesitation. And just as I reached for the door—
“I-I’ll do it! I’ll do whatever you ask……!”
Ruen scrambled toward me on her hands and knees, seizing the hem of my garment. Tears glistened in her beautiful eyes.
“The photographs you mentioned—I’ll bring them. So please, help me.”
I shook off her hand. And I brushed at my clothes ostentatiously, deliberately.
Just as she had done when I, as a child, had clutched at her skirts.
“No, Ruen. You still don’t understand?”
I slowly settled onto one knee, bringing my face close to hers.
“Your tone still lacks desperation. The kind of desperation I felt when you were savoring every delicacy, wearing every pretty dress—when I was restless in the dark, begging for a single bowl of gruel.”
“…… ”
“Don’t cry. If you do, I’m leaving right now.”
Ruen held her eyes wide open, tears trembling but contained. At last, she pressed her hands together and bowed her head.
“Sister.”
“…… ”
“Sister. I was wrong. Please, help me. I beg you—I was wrong.”
I stood and tossed a slip of paper from my pocket at her.
“It took thirteen years for me to hear you call me that once. What a long time it’s been.”
“…… ”
“Bring it within a week.”
I walked down the corridor without looking back. I could hear her crying behind me, but I paid it no mind.
Outside the mansion, a carriage awaited. As I climbed in, Kaerun, who had accompanied me, greeted me warmly.
“Did your business proceed smoothly?”
“Yes. It seems it will be resolved without difficulty. Thank you for coming with me.”
Kaerun set the carriage in motion. I gazed absently out the window when he spoke again.
“Your sister accepted your proposal then?”
I had told him only the bare fact: ‘I came to propose Identity Laundering to my younger sister, who has ended up being sold to the Count in my place’—and omitted all context regarding Everrain.
I shrugged.
“If she doesn’t want to marry, she has no choice but to accept.”
“I myself would’ve paid no mind whether a sister who tormented me like that was sold off or not. You have a truly deep heart, don’t you?”
“Hah hah hah…….”
I deflected his words and let my mind drift to an old memory.
It was when I was about ten years old.
On a rainy winter’s day, when I was driven out of the mansion for failing to finish my chores properly.
“Sob, sob…….”
I was so cold, so hungry. I hid myself in a corner of the garden and wiped away my tears, praying desperately that the rain would stop.
It was then.
Splash—I heard someone approaching.
I lifted my head to see Ruen standing there in her pretty nightgown.
She spoke to me in a voice thick with irritation.
“You know this is right beneath my room, don’t you? Your crying is too loud—I can’t sleep.”
“B-but they told me not to come inside…….”
“The head maid said that? Didn’t you get thrown out before?”
“…… ”
“Ha, how annoying.”
Ruen spun on her heel and spoke to me.
“Follow me.”
“…… What?”
“Follow me, I said. Are your ears stopped up?”
Ruen led the way, and I trailed behind her in bewilderment.
The door she headed for was not the manor’s front entrance, but the back. She opened the storage room door without hesitation and gestured for me to enter.
“Eat here. Wash over there. Sleep over there.”
“…… Can I really eat?”
“Don’t you want to? Not hungry, then?”
“Ah, no.”
“Then go ahead. Disturb my sleep one more time and I’ll chase you far away for real.”
Ruen said that much and was gone.
Left alone in the storage room, I stood dazed for a moment, then ate a great deal of the food there—even sweets and fruit I rarely got to eat ordinarily.
And I bathed in the empty bath with warm water, and slept comfortably on a heap of blankets in one corner of the storage room.
It was the most satisfied and warmest night I had spent since entering the manor.
‘…… The head maid was replaced immediately after that day.’
Ruen remained cold afterward, and I continued to do menial work, but.
After that day, I was never driven outside the manor at night again.
Ruen herself may have done it simply out of annoyance, out of dislike for the sound of my crying…… but.
Still, it remained a debt in the depths of my heart for a long time.
‘…… That settles what I owed you then, Ruen.’
I watched the Frenscia Baron’s Residence receding into the distance and thought.
‘From here on, the choice is yours.’
* * *
On exactly the third day, Ruen brought a Paper Box.
“Are your things all packed?”
Ruen nodded. I handed her the Documents and money I had prepared.
“Tonight, go to the Dock to the east. Tell them your name when you get there, and they’ll take care of the rest.”
“…… I understand.”
Ruen walked out listlessly. Just before she stepped through the door, I called her back.
“Ruen.”
“What?”
“Neither you nor I have been blessed with parents. But in life, the family you choose for yourself always stays with you longer than the family you never chose. So don’t lose heart—live well.”
Ruen didn’t answer and vanished. As she passed, Kaerun entered the reception room.
“Has your sister left?”
“Yes. Thanks to your assistance, everything was arranged smoothly. I’m grateful.”
“I’m alive because of you, so of course I should help.”
I opened the large Paper Box that Ruen had brought.
As I expected, inside were Photographs from each Orphanage, neatly organized by year.
The photographs focused mainly on girls, though boys appeared in them from time to time.
Among the innocent children, I found a familiar face.
“…… Found him.”
He must have been about ten years old. Young Everrain had always had a promising face even then.
His straight features, jet-black hair, and pale complexion were not much different from now.
Kaerun was very surprised to see the photograph.
“Could this possibly be…… Everrain? Why do you have photographs of Everrain’s childhood, sir?”
“Well…… there are circumstances.”
I brushed off Kaerun’s words and continued searching through other photographs. The person I was really looking for was someone else.
Kaerun’s sister, Shaylo.
She had said she spent her childhood in the same Orphanage as Kaerun before being captured by dark mages.
So she should appear somewhere in these photographs, even if small.
‘…… Why isn’t she here?’
No matter how thoroughly I searched through the photographs, there was no girl who could be Shaylo. I even looked through photographs from the other Orphanages, but it was all for nothing.
My mind began to race.
‘Then was Shaylo already in the hands of dark mages before Everrain entered the Orphanage? But Everrain said he came to the capital to heal Shaylo’s illness at the Orphanage. Did I misunderstand the timeline?’
My plan to first secure Shaylo’s photograph and then conduct inquiries based on it had become impossible to execute.
After a moment of thought, I called for Kaerun.
“Where is Everrain right now?”
“He is on a campaign with the Knights, but why do you ask?”
I never wanted it to come to this…….
But I had finally made up my mind.
“I’m going to search Everrain’s room.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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