Chapter 108
“Luwen!”
I shouted loudly, and Alteo looked at me while sobbing.
“I’m here! Luwen!”
“So-someone’s here? Here! Please save us!”
Alteo also yelled at the top of his lungs.
In reality, my voice might not be heard over the sound of the valley. We might not make it in time. In other words, we weren’t completely out of danger yet, but just hearing Luwen’s voice made me feel at ease. As if everything had been resolved.
“Norman!”
Luwen’s voice was heard once again. This time it was much closer than before.
I raised my head with difficulty, and there he was. Luwen’s eyes widened as he looked down at me with a face paler than usual.
“Luwen…”
Strangely, my eyes started to sting.
“Damn it. Just wait a little! I’ll save you right away!”
Luwen shouted urgently. All I could do was nod. I felt like my voice would be mixed with tears if I spoke. Now I understood a little why Alteo had wailed so much while calling for his mother.
After he disappeared, shortly after, I heard the shouts of the knights who had come out to search. I couldn’t hear their words clearly, but strangely, Luwen’s voice was distinct. Just like when I first saw him among the crowd upon arriving at the academy.
“I told you I heard it! Hurry up. Quick!”
Soon, Luwen came down the cliff with a rope tied around his waist. He approached me, cutting through the rapids fearlessly, making my worries about him being swept away by the current seem foolish.
“Hold onto me.”
Seeing his reliable figure, I let go of the tree and embraced Luwen. Feeling the strength firmly supporting me, I wasn’t afraid of anything.
Luwen cut the rope tied around my waist with a dagger and signaled upwards. Alteo, left alone, looked at us pitifully.
“Me, me too, they’ll come to save me, right?”
Luwen only looked at Alteo with a cold gaze without answering. As an ominous silence continued, Alteo sniffled. Luwen looked down at me and then answered slowly.
“Someone else will come.”
And as soon as he turned his back, people pulled us up.
“It’s okay. Everything’s okay now.”
Luwen hugged me tightly. As if he would never let go.
Finally, we escaped from the terrible valley. Only then did the rain stop, and sunlight filtered through the leaves. Luwen stood in a beam of light shining down.
For some reason, tears burst forth. I quickly lowered my head, but I think Luwen noticed. He gently cupped the back of my head, letting me bury my face in his shoulder. That kind gesture and consideration made me cry even more.
“Hic, huu, ugh…”
Perhaps all the emotions I had been suppressing burst out at once. Shamefully, I sobbed. I continued to cry even when a cloak was draped over my shoulders, when he started walking while carrying me, and when we arrived at the camp amid the noisy concern of people.
Luwen brought me to the tent, sent Marco out, dried my wet hair, and brought me dry clothes. I was terribly embarrassed that I kept sniffling even while changing clothes, but these damn tears showed no signs of stopping.
My wet eyelashes obscured my vision, making me feel stuffy, and my eyelids burned. As I sat on the bed rubbing my eyes, Luwen grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t keep rubbing them. They’ll get sore.”
He brought a handkerchief dampened with cold water and held it against my eyes.
“I’m sorry… for not protecting you.”
I shook my head. What did Luwen do wrong? He found me in time and pulled me out of those rough waters.
“What are you, hic, sorry for? Thank you for, finding me.”
“…”
Luwen was quiet. When I lowered the handkerchief and looked, his tightly clenched lower lip was trembling. As if he was forcibly holding back the urge to cry.
I wanted to comfort him and say it was okay, but it seemed like he wouldn’t believe any words right now. Stopping my tears had to come first.
‘But why won’t they stop?’
I know how to hold back tears when they’re about to burst. However, the experience I learned in my past life seemed useless as things didn’t go as I wanted.
Moreover, I’m not particularly sad. I was scared, but not enough to cry so stupidly. All the emotions I’m feeling now are comforting ones like relief, warmth, and coziness.
That’s why I couldn’t understand it more. I can hold back sadness, so why can’t I hold back this surge of warm emotions?
However, I wanted to convey these feelings to Luwen. That I’m not crying because I’m afraid, so there’s no need to worry. That he can be at ease.
Instead of opening my mouth, I sat up. Those deep black eyes followed me. As I knelt on the floor to face him, Luwen was about to speak.
Thinking he might try to stop me, I suddenly hugged him. Then I patted Luwen’s stiff back. Just as he did when he saved me from the rapids. Then I stroked his head. Like when he hid my tears.
Luwen, who had been hesitating, hugged me back.
“Young master…”
His softly whispered voice tickled. I felt a warm temperature that seemed to melt away all worries and concerns.
I hoped Luwen would feel the same emotions I was feeling now. I wanted him to be warmed by me, to feel reassured, to smile happily, and to be joyful.
All of these were things I had received from Luwen.
“…”
Suddenly, I felt choked up. I wanted to say something. But… I couldn’t quite grasp what words to use. There was a word rising in my chest, but its form was vague.
In this unfamiliar situation, my lips only quivered before I finally closed my mouth. I had the intuition that it shouldn’t be carelessly spoken.
It needed to be cherished and embraced more preciously. It felt like I should only speak it when what I wanted to say became clear and shining.
‘What is it that’s filling me up…’
It was sweet like the cloud candy Luwen bought me, felt good like when he stroked my head, and contained the coziness I felt when he patted my chest to help me sleep.
It felt like I could find the answer if I thought about it a little more, but I didn’t want to think right now. I just wanted to fully feel this moment.
Because it was the first time I had found something precious within myself.
However, wrapped in this comfort, I had overlooked my own physical condition. Having been soaked and tense all night, there was no way I could be fine. Moreover, hadn’t I been driven to the brink of death twice?
By the time I realized my exhaled breath was hot, all strength left my body.
“Young master!”
Surprised, Luwen supported me as I fell to the side.
He’ll worry again. This body of mine is frustratingly weak. I regretted drinking the poisoned tea when I was young. It was a regret I had never felt until now.
‘When I return to the academy, I’ll have to take care of my body no matter what.’
With the final thought that I should behave quietly until the stage to lure out Adrian was complete, my consciousness abruptly cut off.
* * *
Luwen changed the wet cloth on Fei’s forehead with a heavy expression. Despite forcibly waking him to take the medicine prescribed by Marco, his fever hadn’t subsided.
‘My choice was wrong again.’
He had heard that the team that went to gather herbs was isolated in the swamp due to the sudden downpour. When he asked who the medical team member accompanying them was, no one around Luwen at the time knew the information.
Maybe Fei was there.
Based on his experience so far, Fei was always at the center of events, so it didn’t seem likely that he would stay quietly in the tent. Not wanting to regret overlooking it, Luwen volunteered for the rescue team. He thought it was the right choice, believing that if the medical team member who went to the swamp wasn’t Fei, he would be safe in the camp.
However, the belief that he was in a safe place was shattered.
At dawn, when he went to the medical tent with Marco to see Fei’s sleeping face before returning, Fei wasn’t there. His whereabouts had become unclear. To make matters worse, the knights who had last seen him mentioned the possibility that he had slipped in the valley. They said the blood-stained sheet of the baby wild boar was missing.
‘The young master doesn’t know how to swim…’
While searching for him, bad thoughts kept coming, making it difficult to breathe. As he went down along the valley, he prayed it was wrong. He begged and begged for news that Fei had returned safely while he was wasting time.
Then he heard a faint voice. Even now, he was puzzled how he could hear it when the sound of water from the swollen valley was as loud as thunder, but at that moment, he was certain.
That’s how he found Fei, precariously close to being swept away by the rapids. Seeing Alteo with him, he understood why the weeds growing thickly along the cliff in the middle of the path down to the valley were abnormally trampled and broken.
The reason why someone who shouldn’t be here was here was clear. Alteo had come to take revenge on Fei. As a result, a physical fight had occurred, and the two had fallen together.
At that time, Luwen briefly considered pretending to make a mistake and pushing Alteo into the rapids. To let him drift away and never appear in front of Fei again. He wanted to eliminate the one threatening his safety.
But he had to suppress his murderous intent. Because Fei is a doctor who saves people. Even if he had to do something, it should be done where Fei couldn’t see. The innocent and soft-hearted young master wouldn’t want someone to die, even if it was someone who had attacked him.
Or…
‘He might find me suspicious.’
While firmly believing in others, he quickly sees through his own lies. Hadn’t he noticed when Luwen threatened Alteo’s lackeys?
‘He let that incident pass, but murder would be different.’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
