Chapter 180
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“Don’t trust him.”
Someone pleaded as if screaming. Her face was bowed, but she looked even younger than Jaha—a high schooler, or maybe a college freshman still carrying that youthful softness. To Jaha, who’d long since graduated, she seemed like a child.
“You can’t let him deceive you.”
Jaha reached out instinctively to comfort the sobbing girl—then froze. The girl lifted her head.
Blood.
Tears of blood dripped thickly from the girl’s eyes.
“You don’t know what he is. You don’t know what he did to me! So you can’t—you can’t love him! Because I’m—!”
Jaha couldn’t bear it. Darkness swallowed her vision as she fainted.
“Hhk—!”
She gasped awake, throat tight as if strangled. Blinking in the dim glow of the bedside lamp, she registered the warmth pressed against her back.
A dream.
A nightmare.
Shivering, Jaha hunched her shoulders. A girl crying blood? That wasn’t just ominous—it felt like a warning.
‘Maybe I should lay low today.’
A foreboding tremor ran through her just as a calm voice rumbled above her head.
“A bad dream?”
“You were awake?”
His silence answered for him.
“I woke you.”
“I’ve never slept much.”
True. He always fell asleep after her and woke before.
But this time, his arm around her waist tightened—just slightly—like he was afraid she’d vanish.
There had been times when she’d woken in the night to find him sitting in a chair, reading by the faint glow of the bedside lamp. Half-asleep, she’d vaguely worried, That’ll ruin his eyes…
He was likely a natural short sleeper—one of those rare people with a DEC2 gene mutation who remained perfectly healthy despite needing little rest. Though she couldn’t be sure if the people of this world even shared Earth’s genetics.
For all she knew, their resemblance might be superficial. Perhaps this world’s humans were an entirely different species. If anything, it would be stranger if two civilizations that evolved separately shared identical DNA. The gap between him and Jaha might be as vast as that between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens—or greater. In which case, pregnancy would be improbable even without contraception.
‘A kind of interspecies breeding, then…’
The thought unsettled her, so she pushed it aside.
“You’ve been having nightmares often. Is something troubling you?”
She shook her head.
“Not at all.”
“Then is it your health?”
“No. Though someone has been draining my energy day and night—but aside from that, I’m fine.”
She’d meant it as a joke to lighten the mood, but his expression remained grave.
“At dawn—no, I’ll send for a physician now. There might—”
“No! Don’t.”
Horrified, she grabbed his arm. Calling a doctor at this hour, for this? It’d be beyond inconsiderate.
“I’m fine. You can’t just summon them over something so trivial.”
“Your wellbeing isn’t trivial.”
“Well, no, but—”
Sighing, she met his gaze. His forget-me-not blue eyes churned with an inexplicable fear.
What is it that frightens you so much?
The unspoken question hung between them as his fingers tightened around hers—not in restraint, but as if she might dissolve into the dark.
Why does it feel like he was walking on a sandcastle about to crumble—why does he grow restless at the slightest sign of shaking?
At times, he seemed like someone desperately clinging to a fleeting mirage, one that would vanish without a trace the moment he exhaled.
“Really, I’m fine. If I need a doctor, I’ll call for one immediately.”
Before he could voice his disagreement, Jaha quickly added,
“I care about my body more than anyone, okay? If I even sense something’s wrong? I’ll raise hell to get a doctor, even if Rikanan refuses to call one. So don’t go borrowing trouble. Got it?”
After a brief silence, he reluctantly conceded.
“Understood.”
It was the uneasy start of a turbulent day. Maybe that’s why everything seemed to go wrong.
Lost in thought, she accidentally dropped and shattered a glass, its contents splashing onto her clothes—ruining them. To make matters worse, her outing with Madame Marie led to an unsightly spectacle.
Truthfully, Jaha hadn’t wanted to go out at all, unsettled by her dream. But Madame Marie insisted, citing the exhibition as a necessary substitute for lessons.
“Already lonely without me?”
Rikanan said it, but he didn’t actually follow. He wasn’t tactless enough to intrude on the women’s outing. Instead, he provided a carriage, escort knights, money, and—a ring.
Just as he’d once slipped her a translation ring during their first meeting, he now pressed another onto Jaha’s ring finger, cautioning:
“Don’t take it off while you’re outside.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing much. Just proof of identity.”
“Oh.”
For a moment, she studied it with curiosity, wondering if it was enchanted—but his answer dulled her interest slightly. Still, her gratitude remained intact, and she smiled.
“Thanks. I’ll be back soon.”
As she turned to leave, she noticed Madame Marie’s face had gone deathly pale, as if she might faint. Troubled by her expression, Jaha asked:
“Madame, are you feeling unwell?”
“Ah—ah, no.”
Her reply was halting, like someone snapping back to awareness.
Jaha was startled. This was none other than Madame Marie, who prided herself on razor-sharp etiquette—yet she had stammered twice. Something was definitely wrong.
“Are you really alright? If you’re not feeling well, we can postpone the outing—”
“Thank you for your concern. It’s an honor to accompany you, my lady.”
Madame Marie bowed deeply. The motion was excessively formal, unlike her usual self, leaving Jaha flustered. Before she could react, Rikanan broke the silence first.
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