Chapter 188
“It’s changing. He is changing everything with his own power.”
A profound smile spread across the man’s face. It was a sad smile, tinged with deep feelings for Fei.
“I’ve watched countless iterations in an attempt to create a reality where he can smile and live happily. Not everything you saw actually happened. They were just realities confined to this place.”
Luwen didn’t know what to say. Even those brief glimpses had been painful enough, but to have witnessed all of it directly? How much despair must he have endured?
“Since there was only one chance, I spent an immeasurable amount of time here. I identified, classified, and determined what information to give to him, who had to forget everything, and how to bring the Young Master here.”
The man waved his hand, and the vision changed. Scenes from Luwen’s memory slowly flowed by.
“The result wasn’t bad. It was the most perfect timeline. Joyful and happy. Enough to make me envious of you, who gets to experience it all directly.”
Luwen wanted to return immediately. And a desire to become even stronger boiled within him. To protect Fei and to protect himself as well. It was a simple conclusion, but the most important answer.
The man suddenly paused and looked somewhere.
“It seems the fragment that followed the Young Master is returning. A passage will open. Go back.”
Luwen suddenly felt warmth on his cheek. A familiar touch. It was Fei. Simultaneously, pain struck him as if his body was being shattered into pieces. It was excruciating agony, like being pulverized and then reassembled.
He gritted his teeth while clutching his chest. Though the painful moment seemed endless, he endured. It felt like the only way to open his eyes in the real world.
“Luwen!”
He heard the Young Master’s voice from somewhere. Fei’s face flickered in the light.
Even in his pain, Luwen summoned his strength and leaped without hesitation toward that light. And at the moment he was enveloped in light, he looked back. The “me” he was leaving behind stood alone in the darkness, looking up at him.
But they couldn’t go together. If he took with him the memories of that unfathomable despair, he would no longer be himself.
“I will be happy with the Young Mas—no, with Fei.”
Did his voice reach him? The man seemed to smile faintly, but due to the whiteness that filled his vision from the light, he couldn’t be sure.
Luwen closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Fei would be there.
* * *
Luwen opened his eyes, feeling pain coursing throughout his body. The world was all a hazy white. It felt like he had been dropped alone in a foggy place where he couldn’t distinguish anything.
In the midst of this, he realized someone with snow-white hair was looking down at him. They seemed to be saying something, but his ears were muffled, and he couldn’t hear well. Everything was vague.
The only thing that was clear was that the person calling him wasn’t Fei.
‘Where is the Young Master…’
He blinked, trying to regain his dysfunctional vision. After several attempts, his senses, which had been as ambiguous as if he were still in the illusory world, gradually began to return.
His sight and hearing returned, and finally his sense of smell was restored. Meanwhile, the pain gradually faded, and instead, his body felt lighter than ever before.
“Count.”
Recognizing who was watching over him, Luwen called out to him. The smile that formed, deepening the wrinkles around his eyes, welcomed him.
“You rascal. Are you finally able to distinguish heaven from earth?”
“I’ve caused you concern.”
“How could any of this be your fault? It’s all because of my foolish disciple.”
Count Rodiahim checked Luwen’s physical condition, saying, “Let me see.” Tilting his head, he soon muttered as if unable to understand.
“You really are like a rock.”
How could someone who had just risen from a sickbed be in such good condition? It was beyond Count Rodiahim’s common sense.
Equally incomprehensible was his disciple who treated this sturdy man as if he were a dandelion seed that could easily be blown away by the wind. In his view, his fluttering, paper-like disciple should be looking after and worrying about himself more.
“Where is the Young Master?”
This one, that one. As soon as their eyes open, they search for each other. They’ve been so attached since childhood, yet they still cherish each other so deeply.
But he quite liked the consistency of the two.
“He’s in the next room. I chased him out because he was trying to care for you while looking like he might collapse himself.”
At the Count’s answer, Luwen, who was about to get out of bed, glanced at him cautiously. He couldn’t disrespect the master whom Fei treated with such reverence.
“Go see him.”
No sooner had permission been granted than Luwen got out of bed and hastily walked away.
Count Rodiahim watched him from behind, then stretched with a long yawn. Though he had told others not to worry, that everything was fine, in truth, nothing could be certain.
‘If not for the previous Duke’s request, I would never have taken on a disciple.’
Then there would have been no need to be so anxious, no need to be urgently summoned.
Count Rodiahim recalled when he first met Fei. Looking more like a patient than an aspiring doctor, the young boy seemed filled with so many worries and concerns. Yet he managed to smile neatly and bow his head nobly.
‘Just how stubborn is he?’
He deliberately assigned him an impossible amount of material to memorize within a limited time and summoned him to the clinic to do menial tasks.
Nevertheless, Fei followed without complaint. He wasn’t like a typical young master, nor was he like a typical child. That’s why he gradually became interested. The inexplicable desperation in one so young also played a part.
Then one day, Rodiahim happened to see Fei sitting side by side with his servant, Luwen, on a plaza bench, talking. His face looked joyful as he filled both of Luwen’s hands with cloud candies.
The moment he saw that clear smile, he understood why Fei strived so desperately. At the core lay a desire to protect others. That’s why he worked himself to the bone, honing his skills.
From that day on, Rodiahim accepted Fei as his only disciple. The reason he had decided to live as a doctor was also because he had someone he wanted to protect.
‘He’s a troublesome kid, but what can I do? He’s my only disciple.’
And a very lovable one at that. That’s why he hoped he would smile brightly like he did when he was younger. In Rodiahim’s eyes, Fei was still the fragile little boy he first met, and that probably wouldn’t change until the day he died.
Stepping into the corridor, he noticed that the door to the room where the banished Fei had entered was slightly ajar. It was a small gap, about the size of a knuckle.
To check if he was resting well, the Count slightly opened the door.
‘Well, well. He’s completely out.’
Despite Luwen, whom he had been so desperately seeking, being right beside him, Fei was sleeping like the dead. In fact, it would be more accurate to say he had fainted, but he had already confirmed there was nothing seriously wrong with his body. It was just a physical issue from not eating properly while he was lying down, something that could be resolved with good rest and proper food.
“Ah.”
When Luwen noticed Rodiahim and tried to get up, releasing Fei’s hand, he shook his head to stop him.
“It’s fine. He’ll regain his strength quickly if you feed him well and make sure he doesn’t overexert himself. I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Luwen bowed respectfully. Rodiahim waved his hand casually and closed the door.
‘Well, let’s see how delicious a wine he’ll bring.’
The smile on Count Rodiahim’s face as he walked down the corridor looked extremely relieved.
* * *
While tossing and turning in the dazzling sunlight, I became fully alert at the sound of someone calling me. The voice calling “Young Master” was definitely Luwen’s.
“Luwen?”
“I apologize. I thought you were waking up, but did I disturb you?”
With Luwen standing against the sunlight, his face was shadowed and difficult to see clearly. I quickly raised my upper body and reached out.
“…Are you okay?”
I asked while firmly gripping Luwen’s arm, and he responded by placing his hand over the back of mine.
“Yes. I am completely fine.”
“Does nothing hurt?”
“Nothing at all. I’m so perfectly fine that Count Rodiahim was surprised.”
If Master said he was fine, then he truly must be fine. If it wasn’t a lie meant to reassure me.
“I want to check for myself.”
“By all means.”
Luwen prevented me from getting up and sat on the edge of the bed. Only then could I properly see his neat face. His complexion was good, and his body temperature was normal. His heartbeat…
“Your heart seems to be beating a bit fast. Are you really okay?”
When I asked suspiciously, Luwen scratched the tip of his nose and smiled awkwardly. He looked just like someone caught in a lie, so I narrowed my eyes and stared at him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
