Your Friendship Score Is in the Negative Today

When was it?

In the four years I'd known Derek, there had been exactly one time he'd let murderous intent show in front of me.

A knight who'd been slacking off in training mishandled his sword due to lack of skill, and by sheer coincidence, a huge chunk of rock came flying at me when I happened to visit the training grounds to see Derek.

At the time, Derek really seemed to use some kind of teleportation, flying in front of me and catching the rock to block it.

Then, furious, he'd unleashed an incredible amount of killing intent at that lazy knight.

Later, Derek told me that was how much he'd instinctively held back because I was there, weaker than an ordinary person.

A crushing pressure, like being pinned down from above by reinforced concrete.

I never thought I'd experience that pressure again in my room.

I didn't know if it was because I still wasn't fully recovered, or if the current situation made him even angrier than back then, but the pressure was much more intense.

Except for Maria, who was clinging tightly to Derek in his arms and unaffected, the killing intent was so intense that even the Grand Duchess and my parents, who were ordinary people like me, flinched.

No, more importantly, the doctor was examining me, so why were you stepping in?

The person it was directed at, though, seemed perfectly calm.

Is that guy really an ordinary doctor?

“Ah, are you perhaps her husband? This is only an examination, so I would appreciate it if you would rein in your excessive anger.”

“……She's my personal maid. In any case, even if you're a doctor, I'd appreciate it if you didn't cross the line with ‘my person.’”

“Cross the line? That's a misunderstanding. This is merely a medical examination.”

The gazes of the two pairs of parents became tangled with one another.

Hey, can't you see that? Can't you see how flustered he is, stumbling over his words?

“It's f-fine…… It's just an examination. I don't mind, so please continue.”

I stepped in to stop Derek and discreetly lowered my clothes again.

At my intervention, Doctor Glenn gave a slight twitch of one eyebrow, then carefully resumed examining my bare shoulder.

Derek, on the other hand, stepped back with a deeply displeased expression.

Hm, I guess he's surprisingly hostile toward people who aren't his own.

The farthest I'd ever gone with Derek was to the edge of the mountain range on this trip, and even that was still in the North.

There was no one in the North who could oppose Derek, so this was practically the first time I'd seen him like that.

Maybe he was acting this way all the more because, just as Derek was my most precious friend, I was his most precious friend, too.

And just how much longer was this asshole of a friend going to stare so intensely at my exposed upper chest?

It was already annoying enough that he'd seen it during yesterday's incident, caused by one coincidence after another.

I subtly tugged my top back up, though it had been pulled down to expose a third of my chest.

Glenn immediately objected.

“Please wait, my lady. Even if it's uncomfortable, you need to keep holding it there. I need to observe how the muscles in your shoulder, neck, and chest move when you move your arm.”

“Th-um……”

“Ah, are you uncomfortable because there are other people here?”

I gave a small nod.

Even aside from Derek, there were a lot of people here.

No matter how women's dresses tended to expose a lot below the neck and around the shoulders—often even showing cleavage—I kept those damn dresses shoved in my closet and stubbornly wore nothing but my maid uniform, buttoned up tight no matter what.

Even this much was beyond my limit.

“Ah! W-wait, Doctor. The place you just pressed really hurts!”

The moment he pressed a spot, an incredible jolt of pain shot through me.

It was the kind of pain you could describe as nerves and all sorts of tissue being pulled apart in opposite directions from inside my skin.

“Aha, I think I understand now. Thank you for your patience, my lady.”

Only then did Glenn step back with a satisfied expression.

Derek, who'd been standing a little way off, hurried over and straightened the clothes around my exposed shoulder.

Now that I thought about it, even when I'd been seriously sick several times, I didn't think Derek had ever been this overprotective.

Anyone watching would think I was the master, not the maid.

Glenn waited until I had finished adjusting my clothes before speaking again.

“To put the symptoms you're showing in an easy-to-understand way, I'd say it's because a passageway is completely blocked.”

“A passageway?”

“Yes. The shoulder is a passageway through which bones, blood vessels, and various muscles extend from the neck. The place where you feel severe pain when pressed is your shoulder, my lady, but symptoms like spasms and numbness mostly appear in your arms and hands. That suggests the passageway in your shoulder is blocked, preventing the parts that make up your arms and hands from functioning properly.”

That's right, this was the kind of professional diagnosis I needed.

In short, wasn't it a herniated cervical disc?

Just as a herniated disc in your lower back can press on and block the nerves leading to your lower body, causing similar symptoms in your legs, I figured the nerves going to my arms were blocked somewhere along the way.

If I understood it roughly, it was something like that.

Listening to Glenn made me distrust the voyeuristic lizard.

Lumiere said the problem was synchronization with my soul.

If that were true, then the excruciating pain I'd just felt would've been caused by some super macho behavior that didn't suit Yuria's girly body, but I hadn't done anything like that. Glenn had simply pressed hard on the painful spot.

Could he have made all that up just to satisfy his own tastes?

I wondered if a lofty being like the Administrator of the Stars would really do that, but then I remembered that pathetic sight of the Administrator holding a published edition of a TS novel, and it seemed plausible.

Meanwhile, my parents had already clasped both of Glenn's hands and were pleading with him over and over.

“Oh, Doctor! Then, then can you fix our Yuria's right arm?”

“Please, Doctor! We beg you!”

“I'll provide as much money as you want, Doctor. So if there's a way to treat her, please tell us.”

The last one was the Grand Duke—or, rather, His Radiant Highness.

Hey, Derek. If you care about me that much, shouldn't you be on your knees begging the famous doctor who might put even the Stella Dragon to shame, instead of picking some inexplicable fight?

I was suddenly a little hurt.

Hm, thinking about it that way, Glenn almost looked just a liiiittle more handsome than Derek, too…… no, that might be taking it too far.

Still, we're friends, so I have to say Derek is the most handsome. Sigh.

“There is a way to treat it. However, it will take quite a long time, and it will require a great deal of patience from you, my lady.”

“Uh…… will it hurt? A lot?”

“If I had to divide it into the two categories of painful and not painful, I would say it falls under painful. However, it is within the range of pain one can become accustomed to through perseverance.”

“Then, how long will it take?”

“To be honest, I don't know. We'll simply have to repeat the treatment until you're healed. However, I know of a case where my master treated a patient with symptoms like yours. I hear it took nearly a year.”

Glenn earned a great deal of my trust with that statement.

Right, he had clear clinical evidence.

What was this nonsense about soul synchronization? It had to be a physical problem.

Even if the standard of medicine here wasn't on par with modern medicine, I could still trust the words of the leading expert in this field, personally summoned by a count-level noble.

In modern terms, would he be like a famous university hospital neurosurgery department head brought in by the chief of staff and longtime friend of a chaebol chairman who'd ranked among the country's top three for decades?

Ah, since he's young, not quite a department head—more like a resident just below that level.

I got a little greedy.

At this rate, I could have him around and get treatment for a while.

“Dad, Mom. If you're all right with it, I'd like to receive treatment from him for a while. I have a feeling I'll get better.”

“Oh, of course. What more could we ask for than for our daughter to get healthy and marry well?”

“Th-The marriage part……”

“It's all right. We'll take care of everything. You just focus on getting healthy, Yuria.”

Mom clamped a hand over my mouth before I could say, Maybe not the marriage part.

If they didn't find some way to resolve this in the next year or two, I don't think they'd let it go.

Still, my ‘only’ parents wanted me to get better so badly. Doing something was much better than doing nothing.

It would've been nice if not for Derek, who looked displeased beside me.

Even Maria, who'd been dozing in someone's arms, had perked up and was happy to hear Big Sis would get better, so what was his problem?

**************

Even though Glenn had signed a six-month trial employment contract on the spot, that didn't mean he'd start working with us today.

Apparently, he had to go get his things for a long stay.

So we decided to meet in the capital instead.

Considering the distance to the East, by the time Glenn packed and joined us, we'd be on our way to the capital.

Once we were in the capital, it'd be the three of us—me, Derek, and Glenn—together, aside from the servants at the residence there.

Hmm…… considering the relationship between those two, it seemed like things could get pretty bloody.

No, Derek was the only one who was wary of Glenn, so maybe things would be fine if I kept him on a tight leash.

In any case, you can't manage anything without me except swinging a sword, huh.

After everyone else left, Derek and I were alone in the room.

Since we were alone, I gave him a little lecture—not exactly a scolding.

“Hey, you bastard. You really shouldn't do that.”

“Me? Why are you suddenly acting like that, Yuria?”

“What happened to that menacing atmosphere from earlier? Now you're pretending to be sweet. Why were you picking a fight with the doctor I brought in to make me better? You know how much I've suffered.”

“……I know, but, somehow…… Never mind.”

Derek started to speak, then barely managed to swallow the words.

Now that I thought about it, aside from staying by my side while I was sick, there wasn't a single thing I'd liked about him since yesterday morning.

“You fucking bastard. The thing that makes a person angriest is, first, when someone starts saying something and then stops.”

“And? What's second?”

“That's all. Why, are you mad?”

Derek tilted his head, then simply handed me the cup of water and cold medicine on the desk with an indifferent expression.

“When have you ever seen me get angry at you? I might get angry at other people, but I would never get angry at you.”

“Damn, that's so touching I'm about to cry. While you're at it, try treating the doctor who's going to cure me that way, too.”

“……I'll try.”

Is Glenn, whom he met for the first time today, some kind of enemy?

Why's he so prickly?

I guess I have to give today's friendship score another negative point, just like yesterday.