»Please don't overdo it, dear.«, echoed my father's voice again, which actually seemed to be even more concerned than moments before.
He was probably afraid that I would overwhelm myself again and break down now. In fact, I understood the rush to get to the bottom of the problem of my memory gap as soon as possible.
After all, based on the doctor's diagnosis, they had only determined that my body had broken down and that structured muscle building was necessary.
At least in the meantime it was possible for me to keep my body upright in bed by using plenty of pillows. Even a table, whose legs went under the bed and surface hovered over me, was brought specially to me, so that I could act at least conditionally independently and was not completely addicted to others.
It was an illusion, but I appreciated the gesture and it actually made me feel a little better.
I was worried that I was clearly limited in my development and that my memory loss was more serious than I had initially thought. However, I had to face the problem as soon as possible so that one could control it at an early stage or at least be fully aware of my current condition.
This is also the reason why I was now facing a sheet of paper with various tasks on it, which was already causing me grief after the first two words. I could not read it. Neither the letters were decipherable for me in their squiggly writing, nor could I understand the sentence structure and grammar, which just seemed random to me. As if someone had randomly lined up letters and was making a joke.
Since I quickly understood that I couldn't read a word, I soon turned my attention to the tasks in which that wasn't necessary. Unlike the sentences, the math tasks were just ridiculously easy. It didn't even take me a breath to solve the first task.
It eventually asked for 1 plus 1, which is why the correct answer was quickly written down. It was followed by 7 plus 5, so the 12 was also written down without hesitation. Since I could probably only work out the math problems, I specifically looked for these and flipped to the next and thus also last page. For the first time it was not about addition, but subtraction. However, the degree of difficulty was not much greater at 20 - 12.
Relieved that the tasks were so easy for me, at least in this subject area, and that I was even one hundred percent sure that the result would be correct, I turned to the last math task. Here, however, I was only asked to divide 18 by 6, which is why I had already noted down its solution after a blink of an eye.
Afterwards, I let go of my sheet and also put my pen aside, which also seemed frighteningly heavy to me in the meantime. I hadn't had it in my hand for two minutes, but that seemed to have been enough to make me urgently need a break.
Incidentally, I noticed how my thumb and index finger had turned black in the short time. Apparently, I wasn't holding the pen properly and was just smearing myself with ink. The results on the sheets looked accordingly, which I hadn't realized until now. My attention was completely on holding the pen firmly at all.
"I can't understand the words. They don't look familiar to me either,", I let the middle-aged man know, who just a few minutes ago had explained the test and its purpose to me.
He hadn't taken his eyes off me the entire time, as I could potentially have a question or be overwhelmed at any time. For this reason, there was probably a doctor in the room as well as two servants, but both stayed in the background and would only come forward in an emergency.
"That was to be expected, Miss Inés. Please don't be too distressed about it. It's your third day since you came to again," the man immediately assured me and now stepped closer to take the two sheets of paper back.
He briefly glanced over my written numbers, but shortly afterwards he frowned. For the first time, nothing of his stoic facial expression was longer visible. He seemed to read the lines again and again, before he suddenly turned to the second sheet with such interest that it simply irritated me.
Partly, I even worried that he didn't understand what I was actually writing down there, or at least trying to, because of my handwriting. My writing was really more than modest, however, my counterpart very quickly gained my undivided attention and the concern about my writing faded into the background.
"Can you tell me what 25 divided by 5 is, Miss Battenberg?", the bespectacled man inquired with keen interest. Forgotten were the sheets in his hands.
"Five.", it came succinctly out of my mouth, as I didn't know why he was suddenly questioning me, however it was clearly more pleasant than laboriously writing everything down myself.
"What is 12.5 divided by 6.25?"
"Two.", I replied after a moment, while the older man nodded absent-mindedly, however he seemed to be getting more and more agitated.
"Do you know what 7 times 3 is?", he asked and it almost seemed to me that he was waiting for something, however, I answered again without hesitation.
"21."
"Notify the duke!" gasped the bespectacled man in front of me, whose hands I couldn't help but look at because of the two sheets he was clutching so tightly, which was why they were even crumpled.
Had I done something wrong?
"What are you waiting for?", came it almost breathlessly from my counterpart, who now turned completely to the servants, who still paused perplexed in front of the door, before they understood and started to move now delayed.