Chapter 30
“But that day… you collapsed coughing up blood, do you remember?”
As the memory of that shock returned, tears streamed down Lucy’s face and she fretted endlessly.
Laegar carefully checked Lucy’s condition with his eyes—thankfully she hadn’t drunk the poisoned tea—and pulled her into an embrace just as she was.
Even so, Lucy couldn’t shake her anxiety and kept whimpering.
“I thought something had gone terribly wrong—do you know how scared I was…? Hic….”
Laegar gazed down at the tearful, fretting woman with an unreadable look.
By now, Lucy had begun patting him down everywhere—checking whether his body still held a fever, whether any marks remained.
Then, abruptly, her hand stopped.
Because the center below had already swelled up, thick and heavy.
“…….”
Lucy suddenly recalled the healer’s eyes as he had warned that ‘such activity’ was forbidden for the time being, and ceased her wandering touch.
Instead, she plunged deep into his embrace, saturated with the sharp tang of medicine, tar, and ether.
At that, a solid, weighty arm pulled her back flush against his chest.
Feeling the heavy, powerful beat of his heart, she steadily regained her calm.
To Lucy, Laegar had already become an existence so deep and complete that the word ‘lover’ could no longer explain it.
Having received from him all the affection a parent might give and all the willing desire of a lover, he was special to her.
Above all, through this incident, she had realized just how deeply she loved him.
Reliving the shock of that moment, Lucy kept sniffling and burrowing into his embrace as if to confirm his presence, then soon fell asleep.
Laegar gazed down at her silently as she slept, breathing softly with swollen eyes.
His own head was foggy from the d***s, but relief had washed over him first.
It was an unfamiliar emotion—one he had never felt before.
He had never known the feeling of relief, because he had never cherished anything to begin with.
But this time, he felt it.
The first thought that had crossed his mind upon opening his eyes was Lucy’s safety.
He hadn’t known he would feel such profound relief that she hadn’t drunk the tea.
Laegar’s gaze lingered on the teardrop pitifully clinging to the corner of Lucy’s eye.
Yet soon, his eyes sank darkly.
He let out a low growl and clicked his tongue.
These tears would later serve as kindling for the flames of rage.
A sense of betrayal far greater than the tears she had shed for him would bloom inside her.
After that, he would die mercilessly at her hands.
Yes, love me more deeply. Nourished by this affection, feel an even greater betrayal.
And just as cruelly, end me.
Crushing Lucy in his embrace as if he might break her, Laegar’s red lips tore upward. A low, somber resonance rippled quietly inside his throat.
* * *
The next day, one more shock awaited Lucy when she woke from a deep sleep.
After having slept off two days’ worth of exhaustion, she had just opened her eyes—and there stood Laegar before her, drenched in blood.
“…Lae…? Wh-What is this… h-hic… kyaaaah!”
Laegar, who had immediately stepped closer to reassure her, stopped the hand that had been reaching out to stroke her face.
From his fingertips, too, dark red blood dripped steadily.
But Lucy rushed at him without hesitation, seizing his collar and crying out.
“Are you hurt again?”
“It’s not my blood.”
Backing away so as not to stain her with the blood, Laegar answered hastily.
“Really, it’s not? B-But this much blood, all over your body…!”
Lucy fumbled at his collar, soaked in blood still warm, checking whether he was wounded. Sticky, hot blood smeared thickly onto her hands and dripped onto the carpet.
Looking into her terror-stricken eyes, Laegar’s expression was unreadable.
“I said it’s not my blood.”
“…….”
Only after hearing his second answer—calm, unhurried—did Lucy bring herself to believe him.
She watched, blinking, as the blood-soaked clothes fell to his feet.
Then, seeing him stride naked into the bathroom, she followed.
Instinctively, she guessed he had returned from taking vengeance on those who had attempted to poison him.
Lately, Lucy’s mind had been turning just a little more clearly.
Chasing after Laegar as he entered the vast marble bath, she belatedly added her scolding.
“I was truly terrified! Did you have to go—and in person—the moment I woke up?”
She felt wronged.
Just how much more did he intend to startle her?
No matter that he was the emperor who stood at the pinnacle of the continent, after witnessing him collapse, bleeding from the mouth, right before her eyes once, he suddenly seemed like a fragile boy. At least in her eyes.
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