…My mind felt hazy.
I couldn’t tell if I was holding a sword or fighting.
Tap.
Only after blood dripped down from my forehead to my arm did I realize I was sitting propped against the wall.
It was good that a few of them ran away; if they had all attacked me, it would have been quite tough.
I should have considered that my body wasn’t fully complete yet.
But since Miragen was alive, I smiled faintly while looking up at the sky.
In truth, there wasn’t much of a sky—just a gray ceiling. When I looked down, the floor was covered in red blood, which was better than that.
“Haah.”
Even breathing felt quite burdensome.
I grimaced at the sharp pain in my chest, and then barely exhaled while sweeping my forehead.
The real issue was that I had used up all my magic power almost to exhaustion.
I caught Temujin and handled the ones who continued to rush at me. I pushed myself further than I should have, so I couldn’t complain.
I needed to get out, but it seemed I wouldn’t be able to move until Adele arrived here.
Looking at Adele’s sword, it was clean, without a single scratch. I was surprised it could withstand this much.
Is that what they mean by a famous sword?
I couldn’t keep the promise not to get hurt, but at least I was able to return the sword.
And I also managed to save Miragen properly.
While fighting, I kept sensing presences.
If an immigrant tribe had gotten close to Miragen, I would have noticed, but it seemed Miragen had escaped through another passage just fine.
The immigrant tribe that had remained outside probably entered to catch me, so if she left, she shouldn’t have been caught.
By now, she must have joined up with Adele. What I needed to do was simple.
Preserve my strength and hold on until Adele arrived.
Feeling blood trickling from my shoulder, I tore my shirt to apply some makeshift hemostasis.
I had quite a few wounds. After returning, I would have to avoid moving for a while.
It might look severe on the outside, but I hadn’t really sustained major injuries.
If anything, it would be more accurate to say I was close to exhaustion.
I took a moment to catch my breath and slowly closed my eyes.
The cold wind brushed against my cheek a few times. Then, from far away, I sensed a presence approaching.
“Robert, are you there?”
At Adele’s voice, I chuckled and lightly tapped my head against the wall to make a sound.
Thud, hearing the faint echo, Adele hurriedly ran towards me.
As she turned the corner, she spotted me, furrowing her brow as she spoke.
“…I’m pretty sure I told you.”
“I didn’t exactly keep the promise not to die, cough.”
“You look like you’re about to drop dead, and you still talk like that.”
Despite her tone, her hand brushing my cheek was gentle.
Adele wiped the blood off my face and stared at me intently.
She looked at the wounds scattered across my body and let out a light sigh before speaking.
“Are there no symptoms of poison?”
“None. There was no one using poison, and Temujin is dead.”
“I won’t say you did well. Looking like this, how could you be of use anywhere?”
Grumbling, Adele then tore the hem of my shirt and frowned slightly.
Especially where there were a lot of lacerations. Seeing the wounds that were cut and torn, with bone exposed, made Adele look at me.
I thought she would be angry, but seeing the trembling in her eyes made my previously smiling lips slowly drop.
I thought it was fine, but the trembling eyes caused my lips, which had been slightly smiling, to gradually droop.
“…It’s not a wound you can be calm about.”
“I’m fine. I’ve been hurt a lot.”
“I’m not fine.”
With a sharp sound, Adele pulled out a bandage from her pocket and began to wrap it around my arm.
It wasn’t proper treatment. She was just trying to stop the bleeding, and while she quietly wrapped my arm, she glanced at me.
After locking eyes a few times, my calm expression seemed to bother her, and she bit her lips slightly.
“If it hurts, just say it. It’s my first time helping someone, so… I might be clumsy.”
“It doesn’t hurt. But if you wrap it so gently, it won’t stop the bleeding.”
“Is that so?”
Hmm, after swallowing softly, Adele pulled the bandage tighter, and a sudden jolt of pain surged through me.
I mentioned she should apply a bit more pressure, but when my expression crumpled, panicked Adele immediately let go of her hand.
The sight of her startled expression was funny, but the pain I felt this time was real, and I could only grit my teeth.
“Are you… okay? I did it firmly because you told me to.”
The real issue was that the wound was touching too tightly.
It was only natural for it to hurt when the cut parts were rubbing against each other.
Still, I couldn’t really blame Adele for that.
When I forced myself to say I was okay, Adele, who had been staring at me for a while, started wrapping the bandage around my arm carefully again.
“This should be enough. After all, we just need to stop the bleeding, right?”
“…I’m usually not this clumsy. It’s just that it’s my first time.”
“Let’s go with that.”
After giving me a brief glare at my words, Adele relaxed her gaze and slowly opened her mouth.
Joining the princess, cutting down all the immigrant tribes while coming here, and getting to me.
Her expression, which was gradually darkening, softened a bit as our eyes met.
“I’m glad you’re not dead. And you’ve done something reckless, thinking you could fight the immigrant tribe alone.”
“It was a choice to save Her Highness the Princess. Isn’t that why I came here?”
“…Would you have thought to do that even if you died?”
After a brief pause, I couldn’t bring myself to answer.
Even knowing that I might die, I probably would have come anyway.
The last day of my thirty-fifth year had always been a regret I held in my heart.
Maybe realizing that this silence was an affirmation, Adele’s brows slightly furrowed as she examined my wound.
She probably wouldn’t understand.
That I, who had no relationship with the princess and had no strong loyalty to the imperial family, was this concerned about Miragen.
It would surely look pretty awkward to anyone.
It was a fact that only I could understand in this world.
When Adele’s gaze, which had been silently staring at me, shifted, she smiled slightly and spoke.
“I once received a favor in the past. Perhaps Her Highness doesn’t remember, but it was an unforgettable grace for me.”
I didn’t want to hide anything from Adele. However, speaking of my reincarnation was not something I could easily share, so I explained it a bit differently.
It was true that Miragen didn’t remember, and it was also true that it was an unforgettable memory for me.
“Favor? Did something happen?”
“Because of that, many things changed for me. So I’m repaying it this time. Thankfully, there was an opportunity.”
“…Is that so?”
“If the Grand Duke is in danger, I will go alone. Would that still make you upset?”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Don’t make a sound.”
As I playfully replied, Adele frowned and shook her head vigorously.
Seeing her serious expression was funny, I smiled slightly, and she slowly stood up from her seat while staring at me intently.
Now, every wound was wrapped in bandages.
Just as I was about to rise with my recovering strength, Adele pushed me back down and spoke.
“Stay seated. Everyone will probably be here soon.”
“Take a break. It will take time for them to arrive anyway.”
Then Adele glanced at the seat next to me, shook her head slightly, and denied it.
The only spot without blood was next to me. It must have been a considerable burden to sit so close.
When I replied that I understood, Adele looked at me and continued.
“I’m not uncomfortable being with you. It’s just… well, I need to pay attention to our surroundings. You feel uncomfortable too, right, being with me?”
“…Why would I feel uncomfortable? It’s not like we’ve only met once or twice.”
As I said this, I shifted my position a little.
I patted the empty seat beside me so that Adele could sit down, and she stared at the spot intently.
“I’m fine. Just go ahead and sit down.”
We’ve been together more than a couple of times; what could possibly be uncomfortable?
As long as Adele was okay, it didn’t matter to me.
After all, we had even slept in the same bed during our camping trip in the previous chapter, so there wasn’t any real awkwardness.
After hesitating for a moment, Adele slowly approached when I patted the seat a few more times.
Gently sliding into the seat, Adele flinched.
Realizing that our arms had touched, she soon scooted a bit away.
As I chuckled at this, Adele narrowed her brows and started giving me a glare. Thinking about it, it was a strange situation.
Despite the gruesome sight of corpses all around us, she felt embarrassed to be sitting like this.
However, we had grown accustomed to this.
At least during our time in the North, Adele and I had always been in places like this together.
As Adele settled in, an awkward silence fell over us.
Now the dizziness had faded along with the blood flow.
There weren’t many sounds in my now-clear mind.
The sounds were limited to the dripping of melting snow falling toward the ground or the weak breaths we took.
When I turned my head, I realized Adele was looking at me.
Even though our eyes met, she didn’t look away.
Instead, she was fixated, piercing through my gaze, as if examining something.
Her blue eyes, similar to mine but much clearer.
While I could no longer feel any emotion, her cold gaze felt refreshing.
The North’s wind always made me think of Adele.
Cold yet, in a way, freer than anything else.
It was a bit later when she finally spoke up.
“…When I see you, I get strange thoughts.”
“What kind of thoughts?”
“Even though you’re right next to me, it feels like you could die at any moment. I can’t look away.”
Is she cursing me?
Just as I was about to awkwardly laugh, thinking it might be a joke, Adele’s hand brushed against my forehead.
A hint of moisture lingered in her blue eyes.
Like gentle waves washing over, her softly swaying gaze reached my face.
Reached.
“It feels like a phantom even when my hand touches it. When you don’t speak, I can’t help but feel like I’m touching a mere ghost, unable to find solace.”
Once again, the sensation of a hand brushing against my cheek was felt.
Isn’t it laughable?
The hand of a woman known as the Grand Duchess of the North is this warm.
Adele’s lips twitched as she quietly stared at the blood on her hands.
It seemed she was about to say something, but after hesitating for a moment, Adele spoke again.
“…I saw the wounds on your body. Not today, but the last time.”
“As for my body, ah.”
Surely, she was referring to the time we met after I’d washed up.
I had half-hoped that perhaps she hadn’t seen me when I wasn’t dressed, but it seemed she had seen everything.
The scars on my body are not ordinary.
Some of them I received from Yuria, and others from my father as punishment.
They are scars that I deem natural and hadn’t paid much attention to, but there must be a significant difference in Adele’s eyes.
Unlike these clean marks, they are wounds that persistently stabbed at vital spots.
Adele’s expression turned dark. It seemed she had roughly grasped the origin of those wounds; she let out a small sigh before continuing.
“Those wounds weren’t received for ordinary reasons.”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t plan to ask how they were inflicted. I have to maintain neutrality, and if I knew that, I might end up opposing the Taylor family.”
Adele, saying that, smiled bitterly. Such things occasionally happened in noble houses.
Even if not as extreme as mine, incidents of obsession with family leading to harm do come up from time to time.
Perhaps the moment she saw the wounds, she realized that the Taylor family is not as noble as the rumors suggest.
Adele no longer looked at me. Gazing into the void, she muttered softly.
“The reason I feel anxious every time I see you is probably due to that. The feeling that you might suddenly disappear.”
“Why would I disappear? I’m not mist.”
As I said this and laughed, Adele gazed at me with a cold expression.
I couldn’t think of a word to say in response to her serious demeanor.
Continuing the conversation made me feel like she would get angry at any moment.
Just then, enveloped by that strange sensation, Adele whispered.
“…Don’t get hurt anymore. As long as I can see you, as far as I’m aware. I don’t want to see you get hurt any more than this.”
Her eyes were sad. At least in the memories I knew, Adele Igrit had never shown such an expression.
Her eyes looked like they would burst into tears at any moment.
Staring at me for quite a while, she then murmured in a small voice.
A voice so soft that only I could hear.
“I’m not the one to say this, having been the one who hurt you.”
With a moment of confusion on her face, Adele slowly withdrew her hand. Chewing her lips until they turned pale, she let out a small sigh.
“I also… don’t understand why I am like this. Really, I don’t.”
With her eyes closed and her head resting against the wall, Adele stopped speaking.
Until Bunta joined with other soldiers, until Miragen and I met.
For quite a while like that.
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