Realizing that prince Alexander was seriously into 'teaching' his knight and friend, Gale frantically tried to resist.

"Stop it!" she cried. However, it only fell into deaf ears.

As she was in a panic, her reflexes as Gale was triggered, combined with Cedar's strength. Using a bit of mana on her hand, he pushed the Prince off of him, and with a swift movement, she hit Alexander.

"Owww!!!" the Prince exclaimed as he squatted on the floor and rubbed his head which the knight had struck.

Watching the Crown Prince twist in pain, his heart shook.

'Oh, shit! I hit him again!' she cursed before attending to Alexander. "My apologies Your Highness! I… I was… That…" she fumbled for words.

'Should I tell him that I was poisoned and then came back to life with my 'past' memories? Would he believe me then? But I don't have any evidence. Heck, I wasn't even sure if I was poisoned by Isabella.'

As she was pondering while crouching beside the prince, she failed to avoid it when Alexander grabbed her head with both hands and moved it closer. Thinking that she'll be kissed, she just tightly closed her eyes.

Then, Gale felt Alexander's forehead on her own.

"As I thought." The Prince sighed and flicked his finger right above Cedar's eyebrow.

"Ah!" the knight yelped.

"I've already told you a hundred times that you shouldn't be working when you're sick, didn't I?"

"Huh?" surprised, she just stared at Alexander like an idiot.

Checking her own temperature, she mumbled. "Hot…"

She had a vague feeling of unexplainable irritability and dry throat earlier but because of too many things in her mind, she paid it no attention.

"Whenever you're sick, you become irritable and you tend to break things… but it seems like you're worse today, huh? Man, you wanna break my skull?"

"I deserve death! Your Highness, please kill me as punishment!" she kowtowed in front of the Crown Prince. 'No, please don't. This is only for lip service!' she yelled in her mind in contrast to what she's saying.

"Roki!" the Prince then called out, startling her.

"Yes, Your… Highness?" the manservant gave a confused look when he saw Cedar prostrating on the floor but he immediately bowed towards Alexander.

"Take this workaholic to the infirmary," he ordered.

"Huh? Your Highness, I am fine." Although she really wanted to go, Gale knew that this is the right time to act as Cedar to nullify any suspicion in Alexander. "I am not going to leave my duty to rest. Besides, I have done something worthy of death. I do not deserve your grace."

The Prince took a long, deep audible breath. "Then, I will punish you."

'Shit! Don't do as I say! Idiot Prince!!!' she gulped but still managed to kneel with her head down.

"Go to the infirmary."

"My Lord, you--"

"I'm saying," Alexander interrupted Cedar. "you should go get examined and drink a potion. This is your punishment."

"Eh… huh?" she stared at the Prince with an idiotic face.

"You're daring to disobey my orders now?" Alexander asked, secretly amused by such a rare sight.

"I would never…"

"Then go."

"Yes. I will be quick," she answered, paying respects to the Prince and then left in a hurry.

Watching the back of his flustered knight, Alexander chuckled lightly.

"It's been a long time since I saw him that way," Roki commented when Cedar left.

"Yeah. He's gone way too stiff with formalities, rules, and all that. It's a good thing to see him make mistakes sometimes." Alexander then glanced outside his open window, in the infirmary's direction. "And Silver can also confirm something for me faster than expected."

---

"Good fever! You sure know your timing!" Taking the path to the infirmary, Gale stretched her arms and cracked her almost stiff neck a few times. "Ah~ that's nice…" she whispered as she felt a bit better.

Having to act as another person continuously without break needs a huge amount of concentration. Although she just stood there, she needed to pay attention to the tiniest details when it comes to Cedar's mannerisms and disposition whenever the Prince suddenly asks him something, thus it was taxing on her state of mind.

"If only that prince isn't a pervert, acting would be much easier." she whined. "and that charisma…" Gale bit her lips as she looked dazed while thinking about Prince Alexander's elegance which he exudes effortlessly. Even by simply turning a book's page, he could put top models to shame.

"Ah~ why do I have to live with such a candyman now? Why didn't I meet him in my last life?! What the hell?!"

Thinking about her past life again, she gave a bitter smile.

"It's a pity that I died too young though. I wonder what my family is doing right now… and mother…"

"Oh my god!" she gasped upon remembering her manager-slash-P.A.-slash-bestfriend-slash-mother.

Gale rushed to the infirmary with quick steps even if she was starting to get dizzy.

Reaching the said place, she opened the door.

The smell of different herbs and occasional flickering of magic circles from the inventors and potioneers' experiments greeted Gale as her eyes searched for that familiar face, ignoring the surprised looks of a few apprentices around her.

"Uhm… excuse me, Sir Knight?" a voice came from behind Gale. "This is our lab right here. The infirmary is on the other side."

Even without looking, Gale knew this voice. Turning her heels, the woman's figure came into full view.

According to Cedar's memory, this beautiful woman is Silver McFlynn. The head of the royal physicians from the almost extinct race of druids. She was about five feet, four inches tall with a slender figure, and ample chest. Her blonde hair complimenting her gray orbs and fair skin, looking a lot younger than the certain woman in Gale's mind. Although she looks like she's in her early twenties, she's actually ninety-two years young-- since druids can live up to over a hundred years.

"Oh! Cedar?" she beamed at the young knight who was gawking at her with round eyes. "What brings you here?"

Facing the spitting image of her mom, Gale couldn't help but visualize how shocked her mother was when the news about her daughter's unfortunate demise reached her.

Although the cause of her death wasn't clear to her, Gale knew that whatever it is, it wouldn't change the fact that her family was hurting right now while being feasted on by the media, probably because she was drunk at that time and who knows? It's even possible that the incident about her boyfriend cheating on her was also already out in the public.

Feeling sorry for her family, her heart shook and tears threatened to fall but Gale sucked it all up. "I'm sorry for leaving you early, mom…" she mumbled.

"Hm?" Silver blinked with a question mark on her face as the Knight's words were spoken in a slur. "What did you say?"

With a gentle expression, Cedar spoke, "My apologies. I was just in a hurry so I came here directly, thinking that you are here, Mo—Ms. McFlynn." feeling awkward inwardly, he grinned bashfully at Silver. "I wasn't feeling quite well and His Highness wanted me to take a potion."

"I see. Then, follow me." Prompting him to walk after her, Silver walked towards the infirmary.

The place was rather empty since it was such a peaceful time, not to mention that medics were always stationed near the training grounds, thus there's no need to come in the infirmary to treat the minor injuries caused by practicing unless it was life-threatening which was a rare case.

As Gale's excitement wore off, she could now feel the coldness of the surroundings permeating on her skin and her breath became more ragged than before.

"This… I think I've felt this before…" she thought as her sense of direction faltered, her body also numbed, crashing into something she couldn't discern as her vision started to blur.

"...dar… Cedar!" she could only faintly hear a female's voice calling out to her as her body limped and darkness started to engulf her surroundings.

As she started to lose consciousness, she finally remembered something.

When Cedar was with his lover, he also felt the same symptoms. Dry throat, ragged breathing, fever, numbing and disorientation. Furthermore, before the original Cedar fell into a deep sleep which led to his death, at the corner of his eyes, he saw a violet stalk of Armagunda in Isabella's pouch on the bedside table.

It was a rare herb and a very potent poison without any taste or smell. It was known to slowly kill the person who consumed it.

Most likely, the poison was still in Cedar's body and was still trying to kill him inside.

'Fuck. Am I dying not even a day after reincarnating???'