TIPI 02

Chapter 2

The Carseido Ducal Estate

Lionel sat on the sofa in the drawing room, trying to calm her nerves.

A little while later, the door clicked open and someone entered.

He was a young man with brown hair and green eyes, giving him a friendly and approachable appearance.

“Miss Lionel Prensia?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Thank you for coming such a long way. My name is Kaylen Brexter, and I am His Grace the Duke of Carseido’s aide.”

Kaylen placed a tray in front of Lionel before sitting down across from her.

Lionel looked at the plate gratefully—

and suddenly froze.

…Beef jerky? And a straw in the orange juice?

Wasn’t it usually tea and cookies at times like this?

While Lionel was wondering about the strange refreshments, the interview began.

Kaylen looked through the documents she had prepared and expressed his admiration.

“You graduated at the top of your class from the Imperial Medical Academy—and you were the youngest graduate in its history, too. You truly are an exceptional talent…! It is an honor to meet you.”

“You flatter me. But, if I may ask, won’t the Duke of Carseido be conducting the interview himself? Or are you in charge of the entire hiring process?”

“Ah, well, actually…”

Kaylen lowered the ends of his eyebrows.

He spoke in a quiet, almost apologetic whisper.

“I’m terribly sorry that you came all this way, but His Grace has actually ordered us not to hire another personal physician.”

“What? Why?”

“Dozens of personal physicians have worked here over the years, but all of them caused various problems… I suppose His Grace simply grew tired of dealing with them.”

Even so, if thirty-two people have run away, shouldn’t we at least hear their side of the story?

At this point, Lionel began to wonder whether the rumors about the duke drinking blood might actually be true.

As Lionel sat there with a serious expression, Kaylen apologized again.

“I am truly sorry. However, I can arrange a position for you somewhere else. If I recommend someone as capable as you, I’m certain they will be delighted to hire you.”

Judging by how far he was going to explain himself, it seemed that getting a job at the ducal estate was truly out of the question.

When Lionel reluctantly nodded, Kaylen rose from his seat.

“It is already quite late today, so please stay the night. I’ll have a room prepared for you.”

Spend the night in a mansion where thirty-two people have already run away?

It made her a little uneasy, but Lionel nodded anyway.

Lionel was shown to her guest room.

It was a magnificent room befitting such a grand mansion.

But, surprisingly, the meal provided consisted of nothing more than hard bread and two strips of beef jerky.

Fortunately, there was some apple juice, so at least she didn’t choke.

“Do the people in this mansion not have any sense of taste?”

Lionel took a long sip of her juice as she thought about the family members she normally bossed around.

Her stepmother, who always grimaced while eating rye bread, might have seemed pitiful to someone else.

But Lionel didn’t feel that way at all.

Pitiful, my foot. That woman is evil. She’s always looking for a chance to sell me off.

Fortunately, the duke’s aide had promised to introduce her to another job.

I’ll just go there. Somehow, things will work out.

With that thought, Lionel pulled the blanket over herself and tried to sleep.

The peaceful silence seemed as though it would last until morning.

That is, until someone suddenly flung open the door.

“Doctor Prensia!! Are you all right?!”

“Huh? Y-yes?”

“Come out quickly!”

Kaylen came rushing in wearing pajamas and grabbed Lionel by the hand.

Still bewildered, Lionel was dragged out into the hallway.

As they ran, she asked,

“W-what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later. We need to get somewhere safe first—”

Kaylen never finished his sentence.

He suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.

Lionel stopped dead in shock.

A suspicious man stood in the dark hallway.

He was huge, with a frightening face.

Blood dripped clearly from the dagger in his hand.

It was Kaylen’s blood.

“You’re a fool. If you’d stayed hidden, I might never have known you were here.”

The intruder let out a nasty little chuckle.

Lionel froze where she stood.

The man twirled his dagger threateningly.

“Where is the duke?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“Is that so?”

He raised the dagger.

“Then you can die too.”

The man lifted his arm high.

Lionel frantically looked around before grabbing one of the vases lining the hallway.

“You think you can fight me with that pathetic thing? Fool. You should beg me to spare you instead.”

“Who do you think would beg a pig like you?!”

“You…! How dare you insult me!”

The intruder, offended by the word pig, lunged toward her.

Lionel threw the vase with all her strength.

“AAAH! Get away from me!!”

CRASH!!

Amid the shower of shattered ceramic, the intruder’s massive body suddenly shot into the air.

For a moment, Lionel wondered if she had somehow thrown the vase like a blazing fastball.

But that wasn’t what had happened.

THUD!

A tall man who had kicked the intruder in the head spun elegantly through the air.

Amid the glittering fragments of porcelain, his white hair fluttered like snow.

He landed lightly on both feet and straightened.

He was dressed entirely in black, and his face was astonishingly handsome.

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

His piercing violet eyes were intimidating as he interrogated her.

Lionel awkwardly picked herself up and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I-I came here for a job interview.”

“…”

The man stared at Lionel for a long moment, his brow furrowing.

Feeling awkward under his gaze, Lionel briefly looked away.

That’s when she noticed the intruder lying spread-eagle on the floor.

The hand she had assumed was dead twitched.

Then, in an instant, the man sprang back to his feet.

“Wait! Behind you!!”

Lionel screamed.

But the intruder was already charging forward.

“Duke! Today, I will have your blood no matter what!!”

The duke turned.

The angle at which he moved and the spot where the intruder’s dagger struck were perfectly aligned.

Then came the unmistakable sound of flesh being pierced.

THUNK!

The dagger pierced the duke’s heart.

The sight before her was so horrifying that Lionel could no longer think straight.

She grabbed another vase from the hallway.

“AAAAAAAH!”

CRASH!!

This time, the vase struck the intruder squarely in the back of the head.

After being hit in the head twice, the man staggered backward several steps before collapsing to the floor again.

Lionel threw down the broken pieces of the vase and rushed toward the duke.

The man was gripping the dagger embedded in his chest.

“Huh? W-wait! Don’t pull that out!! You can’t pull it out—”

WHOOSH!

The moment the dagger was pulled free, blood gushed from the wound like a fountain.

Lionel instinctively shouted in anger.

“I told you not to pull it out, you crazy idiot!! Do you have a death wish?!”

“If I could die…”

The man looked at her calmly.

“I would gladly die.”

“What?”

Lionel stopped.

Something felt strange.

…This man was stabbed directly through the heart. So why does he look perfectly fine?

And that’s a massive amount of blood loss…

Shouldn’t he at least be in so much pain that he can’t move?

“Tsk. This is becoming troublesome.”

The man roughly grabbed his shirt.

The buttons popped off one after another, revealing his muscular upper body.

Lionel was briefly distracted by his finely sculpted muscles.

But then she saw what was happening before her and her eyes widened.

The wound in the man’s chest was rapidly healing.

It was as if someone had pressed the fast-forward button to sixteen times normal speed.

“Ah…”

Lionel finally understood.

She remembered her previous life as a doctor, but for years she had never known what novel she had transmigrated into.

Now, however, everything became clear.

This was the world of The Flower That Never Fades, the dark and tragic novel she had passionately read before her death…

And the man standing before her was Duke Blasion Carseido.

He was the male protagonist of the novel.

And, at the same time, an immortal who had lived for more than 720 years.

“…What an unlucky woman.”

The duke smiled meaningfully.

He bent down toward the frozen Lionel.

His flawless face radiated an icy chill.

“As you can see, I do not die even when my heart is pierced, nor do I die no matter how much blood I lose.”

“…”

“And now you’ve learned my secret.”

He leaned closer.

“So, let’s calmly discuss what I should do with you from this point onward.”

Indeed.

In the novel, the duke had protected his secret by killing anyone who discovered it.

Which meant that Lionel was now in danger of being killed too…

Except—

her thoughts went in a completely different direction.

“No, wait!! If you’re immortal, then you don’t need treatment, right? You heal on your own!”

“…What?”

A patient who could recover automatically even after having his heart pierced!

As a doctor, he was an incredibly convenient—

no, an incredibly ideal patient.

Once Lionel realized that, there was no reason for her to hesitate anymore.

“Honestly, handling two emergency patients by myself is already a lot of work. But if you don’t need treatment, then move! Get out of the way!”

Lionel shoved the duke aside and rushed forward.

She checked on Kaylen, who was still lying unconscious on the floor, and shouted,

“Bring my bag from the guest room! Right now!”