Chapter 29
The forehead with fine silver baby hairs, the sparkling eyes holding the pale blue sky, the lips pursed and mumbling as if ready to scold at any moment.
As he stared at her blankly, Lucy pressed him again.
“Go on. You have to wring something out and say it, I told you.”
By now, Lucy was projecting the stress she had received from her etiquette tutor in a distant, unremembered past onto Laegar.
Thanks to that, he had to slide his gaze back over her dress once more.
Tiny jewels hung like a shower of rain on the glossy blue silk, and across the entire hem, a birch forest was embroidered in silver thread.
He felt absolutely nothing except the urge to strip it off her, but hiding the truth, he silently complied and complimented.
“…The blue dress suits you well.”
Haa….
Lucy pressed her hand to her forehead and let out a deep sigh.
“Ugh, playing tea time with Your Majesty is no fun…. I think even Lord Igor would do better. Ah, now that I think of it, I heard his grounding order was lifted? If the Grand Duke happens to have time, perhaps horseback riding….”
But seeing the edge that had already sharpened in Laegar’s languid eyes, Lucy instinctively changed the subject.
“…Then how about inviting Lianna and the girls to this greenhouse?”
“…….”
This time too, a faint crack appeared across Laegar’s brow.
He had long since expelled those brats from the castle, fearing they would stain Lucy with bad influences.
Of course, he had liked what Lucy had tried on him after learning it from them—but still, having her learn such dangerous things from a third party, not himself, was deeply unpleasant.
And he’d told her the blue dress suited her well, exactly as she’d wanted—so why did she find it no fun?
In truth, his seemingly indifferent words were a confession laden with heavy sincerity.
The dress, the exact color of her eyes, suited Lucy beautifully.
By his standards, the more it stirred the urge to strip it off, the more beautiful the dress.
He was harboring such questions with a blank face when suddenly, across from him, Lucy’s eyes grew round.
“Ah!”
In an instant, Lucy went pale, dropped the teacup she’d been about to drink from, and let out a sharp scream.
A red trickle was slowly flowing from the corner of Laegar’s mouth.
When he coughed, a far larger amount of bright blood spilled down his sleek jaw. Unable to speak further, Laegar dropped his head.
“Kyaak! Your Majesty!”
His vision slowly darkened, and sounds grew muffled and distant, as if underwater.
Feeling someone desperately calling his name, Laegar finally lost consciousness.
* * *
Even two days after the incident, Laegar still could not rise from his bed.
“Hic….”
“It will be all right, Lady Lucy.”
Lucy had not left Laegar’s side for days as he lay in bed.
Mages and healers came and went from the bedchamber by the hour. They told her the Great Emperor had passed the critical point, but Lucy couldn’t stop her sobbing.
“Hic… it’s all because of me.”
It wasn’t because of her, of course. They said Laegar had been struck by a rare poison.
The mage reassured her that the moment the poison from the teacup entered his body, his demonic power had circulated and mounted an immediate defense. He said this while casting a curious glance above her head.
Even as a user of high-level demonic power himself, he could see the state of the Great Emperor’s fragment lingering on the woman.
“…His Majesty has resistance to all poisons and will recover without issue. Only, this particular one is a rare, lethal poison found only in the west, so he is experiencing some discomfort.”
Even after hearing the mages and healers—never ones for empty words—tell her this, Lucy was still so terribly frightened and sad during the two days Laegar lay unconscious.
She felt as though she had lost the whole world, and only then realized that he had been shielding her like a wall from the harsh world.
Fortunately, awakening after two days, Laegar pulled Lucy’s hand up toward him and commanded in a horribly hoarse voice.
“Come up here.”
Overjoyed, Lucy nearly burrowed right into his arms, but stopped short.
“But the healer said absolutely no—no doing that for the time being…. He said you must have absolute rest.”
A fine vein stood out on his pale forehead as he bared his teeth and sneered.
“Nonsense. Now.”
Pretending she couldn’t resist, Lucy burrowed into his broad embrace and asked.
“…You’re truly all right now? You won’t suddenly… get worse again, will you?”
The end of her voice trembled, and then teardrops welled up at the corners of her already reddened eyes.
Laegar’s thumb gently swept across her flushed eyes and the tip of her nose.
“…I’m truly fine.”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.