Chapter: 103
Startled, Lian met Noah’s gaze and immediately ended up in her embrace.
“Huh…? Huh…?”
Lian began to stammer like a broken machine. Noah held him tightly, panting heavily.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Noah’s heart raced as if it would explode. It felt like the tightness in her chest finally loosened.
“No, no, Noah…?”
In a daze, Lian called out to Noah with his eyes tightly shut. His hands flailed in the air, unable to wrap around her. Just as his trembling fingers were about to reach her back, Noah suddenly pulled away.
Regaining her grip on his shoulders, Noah carefully scrutinized Lian’s face.
The first thing that caught her attention was the redness around his eyes and the blood trickling from his mouth, making it look like he had been crying.
‘You always…’
Remembering how Lian must have swallowed his pain all alone, a mix of anger and sadness surged up in Noah.
“Stop! For the love of everything, just stop! How long are you going to keep sacrificing yourself?”
“No… I mean… that…”
“And what about me, who became stronger to protect you? What am I supposed to become?”
Seeing Noah on the verge of tears made Lian desperately try to comprehend her words.
‘What’s going on? What did I mess up?’
Just making eye contact with Noah sent his head spinning. After some effort, Lian finally figured out why she was angry.
‘Ah! It must be because of the blood!’
For a fleeting moment, he wondered if she was upset because he made a mess on the floor, but he quickly brushed it off. That reasoning didn’t match up with her talk about ‘protecting you’ or ‘sacrifice.’
“Ah! You were worried because I was bleeding!”
Luckily, this time he hit the nail on the head. The next hurdle was handling the explanation.
“It may look bad, but it’s really nothing. I just bumped into a corner…”
“You call that nothing after spewing blood everywhere?”
Noah’s eyes flashed dangerously at Lian’s words, and her gaze darted to the blood-soaked floor.
Lian began spinning his thoughts in his head.
‘How do I explain this?’
To give a full explanation, he’d need to start with the fact that he came from a gag world.
Setting aside how much he had to explain, he wasn’t sure how Noah would take it once he revealed he wasn’t from this world.
Humans naturally reject what’s different from them. No matter how accepting Noah and the others might be right now, it was only a matter of time before a gap would develop.
In the worst-case scenario, they might feel disgusted and try to distance themselves.
Lian racked his brain for a plausible explanation.
“Um… you might not remember, but a few years back, I told you that my body heals super fast and I feel way less pain than a normal person. This is the same thing.”
“…!”
Noah’s face was painted with shock. Thinking his excuse was fairly convincing, Lian pressed on.
“It’s just like how we salivate when we’re about to eat, you know? Something along those lines. You don’t need to worry too much! I’m not going to suddenly drop dead or anything… ah…”
As he spoke, Lian’s voice trailed off. The thought struck him that he might actually die if he faced ‘that scene’ again. But Noah, blissfully unaware, took his words to mean ‘I could die, but I’d rather keep it a secret.’
While Noah hesitated to gather her thoughts, Lian jumped in.
“Noah… there’s something I’m curious about.”
Lian’s eyes began to flit around, struggling to prevent his gaze from wandering downward. A glance down confirmed that her chest was still as flat as ever.
“Um, are you… uh… a girl?”
“Ah.”
Noah’s mind, already a whirlwind of worry for Lian, went completely blank as she realized her secret had been exposed.
“Was I mistaken…?”
“…”
Lian’s question sent a flurry of thoughts racing through Noah’s mind. She could either feign ignorance or come clean.
Caught between those two options, Noah froze.
‘What’s important right now isn’t that.’
What mattered was Lian’s health, not her gender. Since it was a truth she would have to reveal eventually, Noah slightly bowed her head and nodded.
“Th-then… ugh…”
“…! Lian!”
Realizing the reality of what he just saw, Lian spewed blood from his mouth and nose and promptly fainted.
If Lian had fainted just a moment later, the mini Lians blinded by their desires might have burst out with something like, “How many kids do you want?” But thanks to his quick retreat, he narrowly avoided that catastrophe.
“No…”
Noah, wide-eyed and dazed, held Lian’s limp body close. She shuddered like a leaf in the wind.
In a flash!
Noah hoisted Lian up and dashed down the hallway.
Her body, powered by adrenaline, shot through the corridors at breakneck speed. She came to an abrupt halt at a door labeled ‘Infirmary.’
Mukan had been waiting there, just in case anyone stumbled upon Lian during the frantic search of the main building.
Bang!
Noah burst through the door, nearly demolishing it. Mukan, who had been munching on something that resembled grass, turned her head to Noah.
“M-Mukan…! Lian!”
Noah looked like she was on the verge of tears. Mukan sprang up and pointed towards the bed.
“Lay him down there.”
Following Mukan’s direction, Noah hurriedly brought Lian to the bed. Mukan, rubbing her dark circles, watched as Noah laid Lian down as gingerly as if he were made of glass.
‘They say he has a girlfriend; I guess it’s true.’
Whether the boss had a girlfriend or not didn’t matter to Mukan. She approached Lian with a nonchalant expression.
‘Seeing the dried blood around his mouth, it looks like he might have some internal issues. And… hmm?’
While casually examining Lian, Mukan’s brows furrowed as something caught her eye. Noah, fidgeting beside her with a worried look, couldn’t contain herself.
“What’s his condition? Is it serious?”
“Serious or not, this is… sigh…”
Mukan glared down at Lian with an exasperated expression. Noah, her complexion pale, urged her on.
“What is it? Is there something seriously wrong?”
“Here.”
Reluctantly, Mukan pointed to Lian’s forehead. It was slightly swollen from hitting the wall multiple times. Only then did Noah notice the injury on his forehead.
Mukan, chewing on a now-finger-length stub of grass, continued.
“This is a self-inflicted wound.”
“What…?”
“In simple terms, he hurt himself.”
At Mukan’s casual remark, Noah went rigid. The unexpected words left her mind in a state of shock.
Mukan ignored the speechless boss, focusing on examining Lian more closely. Before long, her expression turned bizarre.
‘What on earth is this?’
Mukan, who had been treated like a healer in the harsh land of Cardishian, possessed a unique talent that allowed her to instinctively know how to treat patients simply by observing them, even with limited medical knowledge.
Although she couldn’t pinpoint the exact procedure or how long a remedy should last, she could sense what kind of treatment might be effective.
This ability made her crucial in a place where acquiring proper medical knowledge often meant risking your life.
‘I don’t get what this means.’
Every time Mukan glanced at Lian’s body, she was hit by an inexplicable intuition that felt like an itch she couldn’t scratch.
This was due to her receiving strange signals about the peculiar movements of his organs, the unfathomable thoughts in his mind, and the mysterious mechanisms of his injuries.
There was no way she could grasp such bizarre information.
‘I’ve only seen something like this once before.’
Mukan finally dredged up a memory of a similar case from her past. With an indifferent look, she turned to Noah.
“Is this person… a chimera?”
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