The Military Doctor Excels at Being a Contracted Duchess - Chapter 73

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 73】

The latter carries more weight, but… the truth is unknowable.

‘It would be good if I could find out when I meet the Queen this time.’

It was just as Ebel was about to follow the children into the manor without a second thought.

The man’s arm slipped around her as if it were no longer awkward at all.

“How about a walk? It’s such a beautiful day.”

Victor’s face as he whispered showed no trace of passion.

How many times had she been fooled by how genuinely nonchalant he seemed?

But if you looked deep, very deep into his eyes, you could discover the heat he hadn’t quite managed to hide.

Seeing such newlyweds, Banya covered her mouth and chuckled.

“Come now, young masters. Shall we go? The pie will get cold. Well, though there seems to be something hotter than pie here.”

Banya!

Ebel, who couldn’t bring herself to call out loud, squeezed her eyes shut. It felt like smoke was coming from her ears.

And as soon as the children disappeared, Victor kissed her cheek.

“I should have captured this moment in a photograph.”

“Oh, Victor.”

How infuriating that he smiled so smugly with such a seemingly indifferent expression.

Who would have thought she’d ever find Victor von Bayern infuriating?

As his large hand gently cradled the back of her head, her heart beat out of rhythm. The warmth that had lingered on her cheek spread hotly to her earlobes.

“The season is already autumn, yet I wonder why it feels like spring.”

With mischievous eyes, he kissed her round forehead. Light kisses like a bird alighting continued to the bridge of her nose, her cheek, the corner of her eye.

When Ebel, unable to suppress her trembling and fluttering, stepped back, he strode forward.

As if he wouldn’t let her escape.

As if telling her not to run away defeated by embarrassment.

‘Always taking advantage of every opportunity like this…’

She really couldn’t understand how such a man could have rumors of being cold as ice.

Lately, the Victor that Ebel felt went beyond being affectionate, how should she put it.

‘Like a young man who doesn’t know what to do with his first love.’

The problem was that she too was suffering from the fever of first love.

As she clutched her pounding heart and squeezed her eyes shut, a soft laugh tickled her ear.

And the servants who happened to see such a Grand Duke stopped with dumbfounded faces.

“To think His Grace the Grand Duke would make such an expression…”

“How youthful.”

“He never smiled like that even as a child. Hehe.”

The last comment came from someone who had devoted nearly 30 years to Bayern.

“What was His Grace like as a child?”

“More clever than Young Master Angelm, and cold. Very strict.”

“My goodness.”

Angelm was also very smart, with teachers competing to praise him, yet Victor had been even more intelligent.

The servants moved stealthily and whispered so as not to disturb their master and mistress.

“It seems spring has come to Bayern too.”

“Spring nothing. It’s summer, summer!”

And Victor heard all of the servants’ conversation but magnanimously let it pass.

He was in an exceptionally good mood today.

He embraced Ebel as if wrapping her in his arms and pressed his lips to the nape of her neck.

How could even just this feel so wonderful?

It was an afternoon when it seemed winter could never intrude.

* * *

The next day, those who would repair the manor arrived.

Even those who had shown reluctance when told they’d have to tear out all the interior materials on the 2nd floor said “We’ll manage it somehow” as if enchanted when they heard the compensation.

While the site supervisor, carpenters, and stonemasons looked around here and there, Victor secretly called in the architect and handed him blueprints.

Though they weren’t excellent since he had drawn them himself, they were detailed enough for a skilled architect to understand with some imagination.

“Connect these two bedrooms to create this kind of structure.”

“Ah, understood.”

The architect received the blueprints with trembling hands.

It had been 40 years since he’d been handling renovations of noble residences.

He could tell what purpose it served just by looking.

‘Connect two bedrooms by breaking through the wall to create outer and inner doors, with a spacious area. Red and antique wallpaper. A room with small windows…’

Ahem!

The architect who coughed loudly inwardly simply bowed deeply, pretending to know nothing.

No wonder the compensation was four times the usual amount.

It must include hush money too.

“I will accomplish what you desire.”

“You must.”

The rumors that His Grace was completely smitten with his wife weren’t false.

The architect swallowed such thoughts as well, and by the time he was leaving, the manor entrance became noisy once again.

This time, the people who came were a group of doctors and nurses.

Those who would provide medical volunteer services together all the way up to the capital had arrived.

“Your Grace. A message came from the capital residence. They say preparations to control public opinion are complete.”

While the medical staff were left to Ebel and the butler, and he was handling documents, Matthias came to report.

“And um… Her Majesty the Queen has sent another letter.”

“Burn it.”

“Yes.”

In childhood, they had played together very briefly. How many years ago was that, yet she was still clinging on?

Even though he didn’t reply, the Queen sent letters like this.

Of course, since he had never opened them even once, he didn’t know what was written inside.

There was no reason to know either.

He lightly ignored it and was focusing on work again when this time someone came from the workshop.

At this point, Victor decided to just put down his fountain pen.

It wasn’t an environment where he could concentrate at all.

“Victor, look at this! It’s a portable thermometer!”

Having entrusted it to the most skilled workshop in the south, results came quickly.

The number of thermometers, carefully contained in luxurious protective cases lest they break, was 200 in total.

It was quite a large quantity for something made in haste.

“I’m curious about something. Where and how will this be used now?”

“We’ll see countless patients on the way up to the capital. We’ll be able to know what temperature sick people have. Once data is collected.”

Since the children were also peering nearby, Ebel immediately wiped the thermometer clean with cotton cloth and placed it under an armpit.

It would be most accurate to remove clothing and make contact with bare skin, but what mattered now was whether this actually worked.

“Look. The scale on the thermometer I used on Damian.”

Placing the unused one and the one just used side by side, there was a difference in the scales.

Ebel recorded the temperature in the notebook she had brought, then wiped it clean with cotton cloth again and measured Angelm’s temperature too.

“From now on, instead of checking fever by touch, we’ll be able to know whether someone is sick or not based on clear numbers.”

“One won’t be able to fake illness.”

Victor, who chuckled, picked up a thermometer himself and put it in his mouth.

He thought measuring oral temperature might also be helpful.

“How interesting. All three temperatures are quite similar. The children’s are a bit higher though…”

“Children and adults might be slightly different, don’t you think?”

“That’s right!”

Ebel smiled brightly.

She seemed to find practicing medicine so enjoyable and delightful.

“In the future, this glass mercury thermometer and stethoscope might become symbols of doctors.”

“Every medical bag could have one… it would be good to sell them overseas too.”

“Right? But they can’t be too expensive. Most doctors are poor, after all.”

What good are fine tools?

If they’re too expensive to even access, they’re useless.

This is about contributing to society.

I can’t take a loss, so I’ll need to cover costs, but I’ll only keep about 10% profit.

“Once I accumulate enough records to prove it, I’ll submit to The Lancet.”

The Lancet was a prestigious medical journal. Founded in England in 1823, it was one of the most influential academic journals in the global medical community.

Being able to publish research results there would be a tremendous honor.

‘The conservative Lancet would never listen to my story, so I’ll have to submit under the name Abel Claren.’

It didn’t matter. She would reveal that it was her.

The value of temperature measurement methods and explanations of compact thermometers, temperature records of over a thousand patients. Comparisons with healthy people. Temperature comparisons between children and adults. And clinical application methods, and so on.

She was confident that if she organized everything and presented it when she went to the capital, it would be accepted.

Then afterward, the truth that ‘Abel Claren’ is actually ‘Ebel Bayern.’

What if she revealed that a woman had disguised herself as a man and graduated as valedictorian?

She would be able to directly refute the claim that women are inherently sensitive and emotionally unstable, making them unsuitable for treating patients.

‘Ah, just thinking about it makes me happy.’

Imagining the dumbfounded expressions of those fools, Ebel smiled as she returned the thermometer to its original place.

Before picking up the stone, it had felt vague and frightening, but now that she had decided to throw it, she was beginning to anticipate what kind of great upheaval she could cause.

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