For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 157

‘Carter wants to see me? At this hour?’

It wasn’t exactly late, but it was strange for him to send for her via a temple attendant. Not to mention—it had already been two weeks since they’d left the abandoned mine…

Eugenie eyed the attendant suspiciously.

“Didn’t he already see a doctor back then? Why bring this up now?”

“He did see one, but it seems the wound is deeper than we thought.”

“Hmm.”

Eugenie glanced up at the clock on the wall, hesitating. There were still about thirty minutes left before Napier was supposed to arrive.

‘Thirty minutes… It’s not a lot, but it’s not exactly nothing, either.’

But then she felt ridiculous for even hesitating. Carter was hurt saving her from an out-of-control Percival, after all. How could she begrudge him her time?

She threw on her indoor robe and hurried out.

‘Sorry, Napier. Surely it won’t take more than half an hour to check Carter’s wound. Based on my experience with magic, it shouldn’t even take much energy.’

But as soon as she quietly opened the door to Carter’s room, she could tell something was off.

“Carter…? Are you okay?”

“Ah… Eugenie.”

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

Sweat was trickling down his cheeks, and his lips were pale, almost blue, as if he was chilled to the bone. Even his usually sharp gaze was glazed over with fever.

Carter struggled to sit up in bed, and Eugenie hurried to his side. She hovered her hands uncertainly, afraid to touch his wounded back.

“Carter, you said you saw a doctor, right? So why are you like this—”

“Yeah… I guess I haven’t been taking care of it properly. I kept moving around too much…”

He tried to laugh it off, then winced, pain creasing his forehead.

Eugenie couldn’t recall ever seeing Carter lose his composure like this—except for that one time in the abandoned mine, when he’d gone deathly pale with fear.

“Carter, take off your shirt for me.”

“…Okay.”

Carter obediently undid his buttons and slid the shirt down his arms, only as far as his elbows. Eugenie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“…Oh, god.”

The bandages wrapped tightly around his broad back were stained with fresh blood. Judging by how much had soaked through, the injury had been severe from the start.

‘Did the doctor really check this properly?’

Even if he’d been moving around, how could it have gotten this bad? She should have used magic to heal him from the beginning.

“I’m sorry, Eugenie.”

He wiped his sweat with a towel from the nightstand and spoke softly.

“I just didn’t want the wound to keep holding me back if it wouldn’t heal…”

“Don’t be sorry.”

She felt embarrassed by her own earlier hesitation. How could she think of her other plans at a time like this?

“You saved me back there. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. I’m taking off the bandages now, okay?”

She tried to sound light as she reached for the bandages. Once she’d removed them, his back was a shocking sight.

‘How did Carter even endure this?’

Scar after scar slashed across his muscular back, glistening in the lamp light. It wasn’t just one long scar, either—some looked like he’d been clawed repeatedly, and in several spots, the wounds had reopened and were oozing again.

Percival’s rampage had clearly been brutal.

‘If anything had gone wrong, that could have pierced his heart…’

She shuddered at the thought. Of course she had to heal him completely, no matter the cost.

“Carter, I’m going to try rewinding your wound—back to the way it was before you got hurt.”

“…You’d do that?”

Carter’s feverish eyes flickered as he looked at her, then managed a faint smile.

“Would’ve been nice if just a kiss could heal it, though.”

“At least your sense of humor’s still intact. Try to hold still, even if it tickles.”

“Okay.”

With that, the room fell into silence.

She could feel the magic leaving her fingertips like heat waves. Reversing time on a living person’s wound was much easier than resurrecting someone who’d died from a bullet wound.

‘My body’s already complaining about low mana.’

She was already feeling an odd tingling inside her thighs. It was almost as if someone was teasing her with a feather between her legs.

But it was a manageable cost.

“Haa—uhn.”