The White-Haired Ghost
The door burst open without warning.
“Tatiana!”
Canna turned around.
“Tatiana, I’m hurt!”
A tall young man strode in and thrust his hand out without preamble.
“It hurts like hell. Fix it, quick!”
Canna examined the wound.
A paper cut? A single drop of blood had welled up.
All this fuss over something so trivial.
“Your Highness has grown tall, yet you still act like a child.”
Lorenzo reacted sharply to her words.
“A child? Watch your mouth. I’ll be an adult soon.”
Has it already come to that?
Canna stared at him in quiet surprise. He really had grown a great deal.
Now seventeen, Lorenzo had shot up over the past three years. Canna had to tilt her head far back just to meet his eyes.
He was nearly as tall as Crown Prince Alexei.
He used to be such a little boy when I first saw him.
The small child who once barely reached her shoulder had undergone a storm of growth. Next year he would officially become an adult.
Canna felt the weight of time anew. Three whole years had already passed.
“I am the Crown Prince’s personal physician. Does Your Highness the Prince not have his own doctor?”
“Ugh, I don’t care! I want you to treat me!”
His personality, however, remained that of a stubborn, spoiled brat.
“Yes, yes. I’ll treat you, so please sit here.”
“Really?”
Lorenzo’s face lit up. He hummed a little tune as he plopped into the chair. What could possibly make him so happy? He really was a strange little fellow.
Canna silently applied antiseptic to the tiny cut.
“……”
Lorenzo stared blankly at her face. Sunlight streaming through the window poured over her features.
He gazed at the bright golden hair tucked behind her ear, then slowly let his eyes drift downward.
Her soft-looking cheeks, long lashes sparkling in the light, those slightly parted, plump lips…
Completely entranced, Lorenzo swallowed hard. Then he asked,
“Tatiana.”
“Yes.”
Canna answered without even looking at him.
“Is that rumor true?”
“What rumor?”
“That you’re Alexei’s mistress.”
Canna’s head snapped up in shock.
“Your Highness even knows the word ‘mistress’?”
Lorenzo’s face flushed crimson.
“Of course I do! I’m old enough to know everything! I’m not a child anymore.”
“Yet it feels like just yesterday you came crying to me after your first wet dream.”
“Hey! Will you shut up?”
Canna smiled silently.
Two years ago, Lorenzo had burst into her room in the middle of the night, sobbing after experiencing his first nocturnal emission. He had been convinced he was dying of some terrible disease.
“Damn it, seriously—if you bring that up one more time—!”
“You must use refined language, Your Highness.”
“So tell me already. What is it? Are you and my brother really rolling around in bed together?”
This time Canna was genuinely stunned.
How could this tiny brat use such a vulgar phrase as “rolling around in bed”?
Did he even understand what it meant for a man and woman to be “rolling around”?
“Good heavens. Your Highness really needs to watch his language.”
“It’s not like I want to hear that crap either!”
“I am not the Crown Prince’s mistress. So please do not get swept up in such baseless rumors, Your Highness.”
“……You’re telling the truth?”
“By the way, where did you learn such words? Mistress, rolling around together…”
“I’m not a kid anymore. You think I wouldn’t know? In a few months I’ll be an adult.”
Only then did Lorenzo let out a deep sigh of relief. He muttered under his breath,
“Just try it. I won’t let it happen.”
“Do not worry. I would never tarnish the honor of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Lorenzo’s brows twisted in frustration.
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, damn it. Never mind.”
What on earth was wrong with him? Canna studied Lorenzo carefully.
Is this puberty?
Well, it was certainly the age of storms and fury.
Canna decided to be understanding. She wrapped a bandage around his finger and began tidying the bookshelf.
Lorenzo stared at her back as she shelved books, then suddenly asked,
“Don’t you want to become a noble?”
Canna’s hands froze for a split second. But she quickly resumed her work and answered brightly,
“Why do you ask that?”
“Mother keeps offering you a title and you keep refusing. You insist on remaining only as my brother’s physician. Why don’t you want to become a noble?”
Because she wanted to draw as little attention as possible. Because drawing attention might lead to someone digging into her past.
Canna swallowed those words.
Instead, she turned to face him, offering a secretive, mysterious smile.
“Are you curious about me?”
“……”
Lorenzo stared at her, dazed, then jerked back to his senses and shook his head violently.
“No! Not at all! Why would I be curious about you?”
“I thought as much. Aren’t you quite busy, Your Highness? Have you been practicing your dancing?”
“……No.”
“That won’t do. You promised to be Lady Anneritz’s escort for her debutante ball.”
Lorenzo scowled at the reminder.
“I heard Lady Anneritz is quite taken with Your Highness.”
“I don’t know. I don’t like her. She doesn’t even look like a woman to me.”
“What? But she’s considered an incredible beauty.”
“Hmph. She’s still just a kid. She probably smells like baby powder.”
She’s the same age as you. You’re a kid too, you know?
Canna barely held back the teasing remark.
“Besides, beauty? She doesn’t do anything for me.”
“It must be because of me. You’ve watched me since you were little, so other beauties don’t impress you anymore.”
She had only been joking, but Lorenzo’s face turned tomato-red.
“Don’t make me laugh, you ugly hag!”
He kicked the door open with a bang and stormed out.
What a temper…
Princess Yoanna really should have been here at a time like this.
Canna let out a long sigh.
Just endure it. Everyone said that during puberty people did all sorts of strange things.
Still, when I cured his illness he followed me around like a baby duckling.
Three years ago, after she first met him and cured his Guillain-Barré syndrome, Lorenzo had opened his heart to her completely.
He had followed her so devotedly that she sometimes thought he resembled a duckling chasing after its mother.
But at some point his attitude had changed.
He started getting angry often, and whenever she came near him he would flinch and shout.
Is he embarrassed that I know about his wet dream?
Come to think of it, his behavior had shifted right after that incident. He was probably mortified by the shame he felt at the time.
Well, it is puberty. I’ll have to be more careful with him from now on.
“You’re here, Tatiana. Come and sit.”
Queen Yekaterina smiled gently and gestured to the seat across from her.
Over the past three years, Canna had fulfilled every request the Queen had made.
Yalden’s medical standards had grown dazzlingly.
She had established basic concepts of cleanliness and disinfection where none had existed, written books that precisely documented the effects of Eastern Continent herbs—still unclear in this world—and authored detailed papers classifying diagnostic methods, treatments, prognoses, and disease classifications.
“I have unfortunate news.”
“Pardon?”
“Duke Orsini Addis is coming to Yalden.”
Her heart plummeted to the floor.
Canna clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles cracked.
Addis.
Addis, Addis.
The name she had tried so hard to forget, the name she had lived without for so long, came crashing down on her all at once.
“But there is no need to worry. He is only coming to discuss matters concerning the Black Fog with Yalden.”
“Is he coming to the royal palace?”
“Yes.”
“……It would be best if I left for another region for a while.”
“Indeed, that is what I thought as well.”
She must not encounter Orsini. That much was certain.
As expected, Orsini had not died.
He had survived, returned to Addis, and become the heir to the family in place of the deceased Kallen.
That was the end of it.
Orsini had neither announced Canna’s survival nor attempted to track her down.
Well, given that bastard’s personality…
Even as he had been toyed with by her every gesture, even as he crumbled to pieces, he had glared at her with murderous intent.
That unbreakable pride, that stubbornness, that fiery temper—it would keep him from finding her.
Is that personality actually a blessing?
But if they were to meet by some cruel twist of fate—
……He’ll kill me.
Not me killing him.
Him killing me.
Canna was certain of it.
Orsini would absolutely try to kill her.
“You should take refuge in the Bryzk Territory. The lord there is my cousin. He does not know the full details, but I have given him strict instructions. He will hide you well.”
“Thank you.”
“There may be pursuit, so it would be best to move discreetly. For such covert matters, mercenaries are more useful than royal knights.”
“Mercenaries?”
“Correct. However, I have hired the one said to be the greatest on the continent, so you need not worry about safety. Have you heard the alias White-Haired Ghost?”
Canna smiled along with the Queen.
White-Haired Ghost.
It was an utterly ridiculous nickname, yet it had been given because the man truly was ghost-like.
One day he had appeared out of nowhere like a specter—a white-haired mercenary whose supernatural skill had dominated the mercenary world and allowed him to complete every request with flawless success.
“Of course I have.”
“He will be the one escorting you, Tatiana. But be careful. According to the attendant who arranged the commission, his personality is… far from ordinary.”
The Queen clicked her tongue.
“Still, his ability is unquestionable. So rest easy and stay in Bryzk for the time being.”
“Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty.”