When Elara first saw Mathias, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.
It wasn't until she noticed the panicked little servant next to him struggling to help him up, looking like he was about to cry, that she realized the person collapsed by the roadside was indeed the one she had released from the residence just that afternoon with high hopes.
Elara thought, this is seriously a terrible start.
She frowned slightly, looking at Mathias, then at the tightly shut gates of the Mathias estate. Alright, maybe she hadn't had time to fully grasp the situation yet. And because things were urgent, she hadn't considered that Mathias was still recovering and gave him a task too difficult to handle.
Looking at the pitiful pair by the roadside, abandoned like they didn't belong, Elara lifted the curtain and spoke to Uno, who sat at the front of the carriage.
"Uno, help me get him into the carriage."
Soon after, Mathias was brought into her carriage. The little servant, still teary-eyed and anxious, waited nervously outside the door.
The carriage was spacious. Mathias, tall and slim, was laid beside her, limp and weak.
He was half-unconscious, his pale face looking completely drained. His hair was stuck to his forehead and neck with cold sweat. His thin body trembled under his clothes. Clearly, before Elara arrived, he had suffered a lot just standing outside the estate gate.
This noble son really managed to make himself look miserable no matter where he was.
At first, Elara was just surprised to see him like this. But now she felt a mix of helplessness and sympathy.
She searched through the memories of the original Elara but couldn't find a reason why the Mathias family would treat him this way. Back when the original Elara forced Mathias into the palace, his father had almost risked his official title to get him back.
Now, that same family, which once refused to give him up even at the cost of nobility, wouldn't even open the gate to let him in and left him passed out at their doorstep.
What happened?
Elara was curious, but she had too much on her plate to dig into things that didn't matter.
What mattered more was whether her trading post was still secure.
Looking at Mathias's pale lips, Elara was silent for a moment. She decided she couldn't just ignore him like this.
She reached into her pocket and took out a small pill. She lifted his head gently.
It was a pill she had taken the night before from the medicine box under the bed, after treating Uno's injuries.
The pill was small, the size of a pinky tip. She brought it to Mathias's lips and gently pushed it past his cold lips.
But maybe it was because of his lying position or his unconscious reflex to resist. Shortly after she gave him the pill, Mathias started coughing hard, his pale face turning red, and he spat the pill back out.
Elara stared at the little pill he coughed out. She rubbed her forehead.
This was someone she had high hopes for. He was badly hurt, the situation wasn't entirely his fault, and technically she had a part in how he got hurt. The trading post also needed to be handled today.
With a soft sigh, she bent down and picked him up again.
This time, to prevent the pill from being rejected again, she held him more securely, wrapping her arms around his waist so that most of his body rested in her arms. His face leaned on her shoulder. Then she took out another pill.
Luckily, Mathias's long illness had made him extremely light. Even though he was much taller than Elara, holding him felt surprisingly easy. She was secretly shocked by how thin he was.
She placed the pill back between his lips and gave him some water. To keep him from choking, she gently rubbed his throat to help him swallow and patted his back softly to calm him down. Even in his half-conscious state, Mathias seemed tense and uneasy.
Under her steady care, Mathias's throat moved a few times and he finally managed to swallow the pill. His cold body seemed to notice the warmth and instinctively curled closer, his pale face nearly buried in her neck, his cool lips brushing her skin.
Elara frowned and hesitated about pushing him away.
But when she touched his thin frame and remembered how lifeless he had looked earlier, she quietly dropped her hand.
Forget it. He's already pitiful enough. A hug won't kill her.
Letting him cling to her like a moth drawn to warmth, Elara told Uno to drive the carriage to a quieter spot.
Uno stood outside. As the light shifted, he saw the shadow of two people close together inside. His long lashes trembled slightly and he answered softly.
After about the time it took for half an incense stick to burn,
The medicine worked well. Mathias slowly began to regain consciousness.
In his hazy state, he felt like he was wrapped around something warm and soft.
His cold body was enveloped in comforting heat. A strange, unfamiliar sense of peace made his long-tortured body shudder slightly, like being soaked in a gentle hot spring.
"You're awake?"
That familiar voice, soft and trembling, suddenly sounded beside his ear.
Mathias's still-clouded mind froze instantly. Even his dark, vacant eyes seemed to stop moving.
"If you're awake, then get up."
Seeing that he was coming to, Elara didn't hesitate to push him aside. She frowned and straightened her wrinkled clothes.
Clothes in this era really had poor structure. There were no irons. One day, she'd invent some kind of ancient-style ironing tool.
Once she finished fixing her clothes and looked back up, Mathias was still sitting there dumbly. His pale green eyes looked blank and stunned, like he still hadn't processed what just happened.
Elara picked up a cup of tea from the side table and handed it to him. She tapped her finger on the table in front of him.
"Alright, focus. We've wasted enough time. It's time to get back to work."
The soft knocking of her finger brought Mathias back to his senses. His eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Looking at Elara sitting naturally in front of him, Mathias suddenly lowered his gaze. His thin body stepped back a few paces, then bowed deeply to kneel on the carpet, his pale face almost touching the floor.
"Your Highness… I haven't finished the task you gave me… Please punish me."
Elara sipped her tea, watching the thin figure nearly pressing his face into the carpet. She didn't tell him to rise. Instead, she asked:
"Couldn't finish it, or just didn't get the chance to?"
"I didn't have time yet."
Worried she might not believe him, Mathias's sickly voice held a rare firmness. "Please allow me more time. I won't let Your Highness down again."
Since he woke up, this was the first time Elara had heard emotion in his voice. Was he worried she'd lose patience and act against the Mathias estate?
So no matter how they treated him, that family was still his bottom line.
Elara glanced out the window at the tightly closed gates of the estate, stared for two seconds, then turned back to Mathias.
"If that's the case, I'll believe you this time. But just this once. From now on, your efficiency and methods need to change. Otherwise, I'll start handling things my own way."
Honestly, it was already impressive that Mathias had made it this far with all his injuries. Elara understood. She'd once had to push through illness herself.
Still… whatever happened between him and the estate, she couldn't stand this kind of self-destructive loyalty.
She respected old values of loyalty and patriotism. But blind devotion that hurt both body and mind made no sense to her.
And since this was her chosen future chief assistant, she had to gently knock some sense into him. Otherwise, they'd clash down the line and cause trouble.
"Yes, Your Highness." Mathias replied obediently, slowly straightening up and preparing to leave the carriage.
Elara saw his frail figure beneath the oversized robe and called out again.
"Wait. Tell me, once you're inside the estate, can you handle the trading post matter yourself?"
Mathias paused, turned back, and knelt before her again. "Yes, I can."
"Good. Then I'll help you just this once because you're still recovering. The fewer people who know about this, the better. Understand?"
Her calm voice had lost its usual harshness, but it still left Mathias confused. Just like the scene he woke up to.
His cold body seemed to feel that warmth again. He lowered his eyes and quietly moved closer to the edge of the carriage, hoping the outside air would clear his head.
He couldn't predict what the princess would do. So he bowed again and said, "Yes, thank you, Your Highness."
Elara didn't look at him. She lifted the curtain at the front of the carriage and waved to the little servant standing outside like an anxious ant on a hot pan. She said quickly,
"Uno, go with him and knock on the estate gate. Tell them I'm giving Mathias special permission to return today. If they don't open the door, I'll personally walk him inside."
As soon as she finished, the little servant's jaw dropped. Mathias's lashes trembled again.
"Yes, Your Highness." Uno took the order and led them toward the gate.