The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 33

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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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“Everaine! Wake up, Everaine!!”
No matter how hard he shook the boy, Everaine wouldn’t come to. Blashion eventually hoisted him onto his shoulder.
He was about to rush out when he hesitated. The red ribbon kept catching his eye.
“Damn…….”
He didn’t know what story lay behind it, but one thing was certain: the boy had looked at that corpse and called it “Mother.”
Blashion deliberated for a moment, then untied the ribbon.
With that, he fled the Desolate Village, hoping against hope that this cursed place, this moment, would leave no lasting scar on the boy.
But grim premonitions, as always, proved painfully correct.
At the hospital where Blashion brought Everaine, he heard the physician’s diagnosis.
“……Selective Mutism.”
“When someone suddenly loses the ability to speak like this, it’s certain they’ve experienced some tremendous shock. Does anything come to mind?”
Of course, Blashion knew exactly what that “something” was.
But unable to speak the truth, he chose a different answer.
“His parents died recently. And he witnessed it.”
“I see. Since this is purely a psychosomatic condition, there’s no real treatment. It could last his entire life, or it could resolve in a matter of days.”
Hearing nothing but unsatisfying answers, Blashion returned to the hospital ward.
In the ward sat Everaine on the bed, and Kaylon, the Adjutant’s son. Kaylon chattered endlessly at Everaine.
“Everaine.”
“…….”
“Everaine. Why are you ignoring me? Is it because I broke that wooden sword last time? I got chewed out by Father for that, so come on, cut me some slack.”
“…….”
“Hey!! You’re really going to do this?”
Kaylon tried coaxing, tried anger, tried whining—but Everaine remained steadfastly silent.
From beyond the ward door, the Adjutant watched the scene, his expression growing sorrowful.
“Your Grace, what do you intend to do? Wouldn’t it be best to send him to a proper convalescent facility for treatment? If he’s suffering from delusions and now can’t speak—isn’t that a grave situation?”
When examined, traces in the house suggested Everaine’s sister Shylo was either already dead or had never existed at all.
The physician had likewise diagnosed him with Delusional Disorder and recommended placement in a care facility. But Blashion had no such intention.
“If I meant to send him away so easily, I wouldn’t have brought him in the first place.”
“And yet, Your Grace—keeping this child near means sharing your long-held secrets. Are you truly comfortable with that?”
“I find it preferable.”
Blashion smiled despite the Adjutant’s concerns.
“He can’t speak anyway.”
The Adjutant let out a sigh, but soon relented and nodded his assent.
“Very well. I shall do my utmost to care for Everaine. In a sense, the boy is like a son to me.”
“A son.”
Blashion turned the word over in his mind.
For 720 years of life, he had constructed a household in form, but never built a true family. He had believed kinship was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
In that light, he found himself just slightly envying the Adjutant—a man who could so readily speak of a child “like a son.”
Whether he himself thought of Everaine as a son—he couldn’t easily confirm that.
“Do not worry overmuch, Your Grace. Children grow resilient through varied experience, do they not? He will improve before long.”
To the Adjutant’s hopeful words, Blashion could only nod.
* * *
“It took exactly three years before you spoke again.”
The Duke withdrew a red ribbon from his pocket. Everaine took it wordlessly.
“All that time, you said nothing—but everything else was fine. You trained in swordplay, ate well.”
“…….”
“So I thought, perhaps it wouldn’t matter if you lived the rest of your life in silence. But three years later, you suddenly opened your mouth and said, ‘I must save Shylo.'”
The Duke spoke on matter-of-factly, as though reading from a page.
“You yourself seemed to have no memory of saying it. And soon after, I learned you were in contact with a Black Mage. But I pretended not to know.”
Everaine’s voice trembled with anguish. “I was exposed from the start, wasn’t I? I didn’t even know I had Selective Mutism. I still can’t remember that time at all.”
He posed his question in a voice thick with suffering.
“Why did you pretend not to know?”
“…….”
“I deceived you for the sake of a sister who never existed. Why did you……”
The Duke gazed at Everaine for a long while.
We waited in anxious silence, desperate to understand what those violet eyes were trying to say.
But.
“……There’s no particular reason.”
The immortal Duke offered no honest answer.
“I simply thought you posed no real threat. Honestly, it was more trouble than it was worth to sort through all the circumstances and deal with them.”
“Your Grace! Why would you say such a thing…!”
“Why obscure the matter with such deflection? That wasn’t what you meant to say at all!”
Kaylon and I cried out in unison. Yet the Duke merely clicked his tongue in open annoyance and rose from his seat.
“Everaine. Your disposition will be decided later. For now, let us adjourn. Everyone return to your posts.”
With that, the Duke swept from the Consultation Room like a whirlwind. Left in his wake, I exhaled a long sigh and muttered quietly to myself.
“Why couldn’t he just be honest about it…….”
Looking at Kaylon’s exhausted face and Everaine’s pallid, death-like countenance, my own shoulders sagged in sympathy.
“…Everaine. Get some rest today.”
“…Yes.”
“And think things through carefully while you recuperate. If there’s anything you need to discuss, come find me anytime.”
“I will not trouble you further, Attending Physician.”
Everaine replied in his characteristically measured voice.
“I will not yield. Very soon…… I will come to you myself.”
* * *
Everaine took medical leave and was absent from the Estate for several days. Upon his return, he locked himself in his room.
Kaylon frequently visited my Consultation Room to report on Everaine’s whereabouts.
Then, exactly one week later, he could contain himself no longer and bolted upright.
“I cannot stand this any longer. I must go check on him!”
“No, Adjutant. We agreed to trust him and wait.”
At my words, Kaylon sat back down. He too was one of those who remembered Everaine’s bouts of Selective Mutism, and remained visibly restless.
“Are you truly certain? If he shows signs of Selective Mutism again…….”
“Adjutant, do you know what that saying means—’time heals deep wounds’? In truth, it doesn’t mean time itself. It means that I, having grown through the passage of time, am the one who heals those deep wounds.”
“…Then, do you believe Everaine has grown sufficiently?”
“At least more than he did in that painful childhood. Back then, he didn’t have a good friend like you.”
“A friend?”
Kaylon’s entire frame trembled, and he vehemently denied my words.
“How dare you say something so repulsive! I am his workplace colleague. Merely a colleague!”
“You seemed rather fond of him, though…….”
“I cannot endure any more of such remarks, Attending Physician. I shall take my leave now!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Kaylon slammed the door and left. I called after him with a murmur.
“Goodness, why is he so embarrassed? He was just talking about going to check on him.”
Knock, knock.
“I knew he’d be back in an instant.”
I smiled and opened the door again, but paused at the sight of the figure standing before it.
There stood Everaine, unusually dressed not in uniform but in civilian clothes. A white shirt and black trousers suited him remarkably well.
“…It has been a while, Everaine.”
Everaine stared at my face for a moment, then looked away briefly. He drew several deep breaths before straightening his posture.
“Yes, it has been a while. Attending Physician. I hope this is not an inconvenient time.”
“Of course not. Please, come in.”
As I prepared tea and arranged the cups, Everaine sat quietly on the sofa.
I offered him a cup and asked.
“Here you are. Don’t worry—there’s nothing added to it.”
“I was truly sorry about that incident.”
“It’s all in the past now. So…… where have you been these past days?”
“I returned to my hometown.”
My hand paused for a moment. Yet the man himself seemed unmoved.
I asked carefully.
“And…… what was it like? Your hometown?”
“…It was desolate, and frightening, and full of anguish. But because I found the courage to descend into that basement…… I finally began to remember things.”
Everaine drew a deep breath, and then his eyes shone brightly.
The light of sorrow hidden away through long years flowed through those blue eyes with poignant clarity.
“I finally understood where the name ‘Shylo’—the name I have always been seeking—came from. It was…… my mother’s name.”

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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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