#23
“You need to get up now. If you nap too much during the day, you won’t be able to sleep deeply at night. Would you like to play a puzzle game you enjoy, young master?”
Hearing Elisa trying to wake him up by mentioning games, Noah tried to nod his head to indicate he would get up. He moved his hand that had been touching the carpet to find Aeongi who would surely be sleeping close beside him, but his hand wouldn’t obey.
Before falling asleep, Aeongi must have been wet and cold too. Noah had hoped he would lie down here with him. And even if he fell asleep, he thought Aeongi would come back from playing and sleep right next to him. When Aeongi was big, Noah always slept nestled in his embrace, but now Aeongi slept pressed close to his side.
Even without being held in big Aeongi’s arms, when they slept pressed together like that, they could sleep warmly even during Austen’s cold nights, even in this castle with poor heating.
“Young master?”
Noah needed to ask where Aeongi was and properly open his eyes, but he gave a small smile at Elisa’s touch as she felt his head, then his forehead, cheeks, and even his neck. Her cool hands felt pleasant.
“…Young master, can you see me?”
Elisa’s voice, usually soft, warm, and gentle, sounded different from usual. She seemed surprised, her tone higher, and it was strange how she kept talking to him. Noah was about to tell her he was fine when he finally understood his condition.
I…
I’ve caught a cold.
It wasn’t even cold water but that warm hot spring they’d played in. Though he’d been careful, they couldn’t completely block the cold wind since it was a place where heat and cold coexisted. That was the appeal of an outdoor hot spring, but it must have been too much for a five-year-old child.
As Noah heard Elisa calling for someone, he didn’t force himself to open his heavy eyelids. A cold just needed to be treated with warmth and a good sleep to sweat it out. So he chose to sleep more.
Leave me alone.
I’ll get better if I just sleep.
After Loren’s alarmed voice, Lucas’s voice followed, but Noah couldn’t open his eyes anymore. His entire body ached from head to toe, and chills made his jaw chatter involuntarily.
“The fever is too high. What about the doctor?”
While stroking the cheek of Noah, who kept trying to burrow into her arms, Loren looked at Lucas. The child was shivering from cold, searching for warmth while trembling, but Noah was currently wearing only his underwear.
And beside them, Elisa was wringing out a cloth soaked in lukewarm water.
“Nng… don’t… do it…”
When they tried to use force to spread open Noah’s tightly clenched hand to wipe his palm with the cloth to bring down the fever, Noah, who had been moaning in pain, tried to push Elisa’s hand away.
“Mom… don’t… do it…”
I’m freezing to death, what’s with the wet cloth?
I’m fine without this.
Just one fever reducer or cold medicine pill would be enough.
He wished they would put away that wet cloth, but whenever he curled up and tried to avoid it, Loren would comfort him while Elisa tried her best to press that cold thing against his body.
While living here until now, there had been minor inconveniences, but Noah was painfully realizing what was most urgent right now. One pill, just one—he hadn’t known how precious it was.
He heard Lucas’s voice saying that despite the warmth and mildness during the day, a cold wave had returned since late afternoon and heavy snow was falling. Though his voice sounded distant and intermittent, Noah could understand the general meaning.
This meant that the doctor from the Austen region couldn’t come now, and they would need to bring a doctor from another region through Warp—this conversation was going back and forth.
“Mo…ther…”
The voice coming from Noah’s parched mouth due to fever sounded truly painful and laborious even to himself. He wanted to say he was fine and just ask for warm water or honey water, but even opening his mouth and producing a voice was burdensome.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Your father will bring the doctor. My baby, what are we going to do with you being sick?”
After Loren’s voice as she pressed her cheek against his, Noah saw someone hand her a cup of water. When the cup touched his lips, he quickly opened his mouth.
He couldn’t even drink much. His throat seemed completely swollen, making even drinking water difficult.
How long had it been since he’d been this sick?
Though he wanted to say he was fine, knowing that Loren, Elisa, and everyone in the castle were worried about him, tears came out instead of words.
Now he understood why children cry when they’re sick.
Partly it was from the pain and struggle, but seeing Loren’s face looking ready to burst into tears at any moment and Lucas’s anxious expression made sadness wash over him.
Even though they weren’t his biological parents and they’d only lived together for barely two years, he seemed to have grown quite attached to them. Though it felt strange at first, now they truly felt like his parents and completely on his side.
Though he wanted to stay awake, Noah preferred to escape into deep sleep rather than being awake and in pain. He ignored requests to drink more water and turned away from Elisa who had brought warm milk in a bottle—which they had worked hard to wean him off of—and just burrowed into Loren’s arms.
When sick, nothing beats a mother’s embrace. And a mother’s touch.
But mom, stop kissing me continuously.
What if you catch my cold?
You’re physically weaker than I am.
Now Noah had no hesitation in calling Loren and Lucas as mom and dad.
Unable to express his thoughts in words, Noah fell into sleep as if fainting.
“Hmm?”
Noah frowned at the strange sensation as he moved his head following a cold hand. The last time he closed his eyes, he was clearly in Loren’s arms. But the person holding him now was neither Loren nor Elisa.
It wasn’t their soft, warm, and cozy embrace, but something hotter, broader, and firmer than theirs—it felt like Lucas. But something was different from Lucas.
“You get sick the moment I step away.”
As large, cool hands cupped his cheeks and the man’s thumb moved to trace his face, nose, and lips, Noah tried to open his eyes. His condition was much better. The chills that had made his jaw chatter and the burning fever seemed to have subsided.
But his body still ached and felt limp like a squid, with no strength.
Though it was a voice he’d never heard before, Noah wasn’t scared or afraid. He could read the emotion in the touch caressing him. Noah, who had painfully opened his eyes, closed them again.
He felt like he’d just seen something incredible, but the form was too blurry.
When he opened his eyes again, he could see more clearly.
It was his room, but why was he alone? Neither Loren nor Elisa would leave his side while he was sick. Yet Noah was in the arms of a man he’d never seen before, in a space where no one else was present.
When the man’s fingertips, which had been touching his face, touched his lips, Noah stuck out the tip of his tongue to moisten his parched lips. In doing so, he unintentionally licked the man’s fingertips.
“Just eat a little of this and go to sleep. Then you won’t be sick anymore.”
Are you the doctor?
At the mention of eating something, Noah slightly parted his lips. He wanted to ask who the man was more than taking medicine or anything else.
“…”
As something small and hard entered his mouth along with the fingertips that had been touching his lips, Noah closed his eyes. He remembered when Raymond had given him water of the same nature before.
Could it be Raymond?
Due to the chills and fever making him disoriented, he couldn’t sense the other person’s scent at all.
The round, hard object instantly melted in his mouth, turning into a sweet liquid, and after swallowing it, Noah opened his eyes again to see who was holding him.
Dark night.
It seemed the lights had been turned off because he had fallen asleep.
White light from the window was pouring onto the man’s face.
“Am I… dead?”
Looking at the snow-white face and hair shimmering in the moonlight, Noah spoke with a dazed expression. How else could one meet an angel without dying?
If it were Raymond, his distinctive dark blue hair would have been beautifully shimmering. But the person before him was completely white. The eyes looking at him had color, but his face and long hair were all white, and even his clothes were white.
“I met an angel.”
Noah slowly raised his hand that had been hanging limply and reached for the man’s face. Even a statue wouldn’t look like this. It was as if all the beautiful things in the world had been gathered and combined in their optimal state. Raymond was incredibly handsome too, but this was a different kind of handsomeness that captivated Noah, whose hand lightly touched the man’s chin.
“An angel…”
Why had he thought this man would be cold?
The moment he felt the man’s warm body temperature and soft, not rigid, skin against his fingertips, Noah’s fingers curled up.
“I’ll just say I’m a being you like.”
The large hand that carefully enveloped Noah’s recoiling hand placed it against that beautiful cheek as if encouraging him to touch it as much as he wanted.
“Han’some… like…”
‘I like anything that’s handsome.’
Noah’s honest inner thoughts slipped out. After failing at marriage twice while trying to find someone kind and good for the territory without looking at their face, this time he would indulge all his desires.
People say looking good isn’t everything, that you can’t eat a pretty face, but isn’t good-looking food also delicious to eat? In any case, his throat hadn’t completely recovered, so instead of proper, easily understandable pronunciation, it came out as slurred mumbling.
“If you sleep comfortably now, you’ll be fine.”
Noah felt his eyelids growing heavy from the reassurance and comfort conveyed by the low, baritone voice. He wanted to look a little longer, to ask more about whether this was a dream, who this person really was, if he was an angel, and to see that handsome face more.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
