The Blue Light's Kiss
Deep in the night, Delma, who had been nursing Chloe, succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep slumped over the bed. Yet every small sound made her jerk her head up to check if Chloe was all right.
“Delma⋯⋯.”
Delma’s brows furrowed at the voice she heard in her sleep, then she shot upright as if burned.
The lord, who had slept through an entire day, was now sitting up in bed and gazing at her. Relief and a surge of emotion blurred her vision. Delma quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and examined the lord’s gaunt face.
“My lord! Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. You must have been so worried because of me.”
Though her throat still stung, Donghee tried her best not to show any pain. Delma looked more like the patient than she did. Delma kept touching Chloe’s forehead, cheeks, and hands, checking whether the fever had broken.
“I’m fine, so go and get some proper rest.”
“I’m all right too. But why didn’t you say anything when you were in so much pain?”
Delma’s expression was worried yet unable to hide her resentment.
“I was so foolish that I didn’t even realize you were ill.”
Seeing Delma blaming herself made Donghee feel even more guilty.
“I wasn’t in pain. It came on suddenly on the way back. I’m really fine now.”
Donghee deliberately raised her arm and flexed it in a show of strength. Though she tried to put power into the gesture, to Delma it looked no stronger than a limp noodle.
Still, seeing her awake and speaking eased Delma’s heart considerably. The world had been spinning yellow before, but now her breathing had steadied. When Delma noticed Chloe forcing a smile, she asked with a start,
“Aren’t you hungry? You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. Shall I bring you some warm soup? The cook made dural soup in a new way, and it’s incredibly savory. Would you like some?”
Delma coaxed her gently, desperate to get even a little food into her. But Chloe only shook her head weakly with a faint smile.
“No, just some water. I don’t think I can digest anything right now.”
“Of course! Ah, the physician said you must take your medicine as soon as you wake. He said it can be taken on an empty stomach, so please be sure to take it.”
Though she had no desire to take the medicine, Donghee nodded, wanting to ease Delma’s worries even a little.
The moment Chloe nodded, Delma held out a cup of water and a round pill. Slightly smaller than a calming pill, it was a deep green and gave off an intensely strong herbal scent.
The smell made Donghee consider spitting it out, but Delma’s earnest gaze forced her to pop it into her mouth and chew reluctantly.
“Ugh!”
It was so bitter that her hair stood on end. Compared to this, the tea she had drunk at the village head’s house in Enol Village had been almost sweet.
“You mustn’t spit it out! You have to swallow all of it. If it’s too difficult, shall I dissolve it in water? It will be a larger amount, but it should be easier.”
Convinced that Chloe would spit it out, Delma held her palm open beneath the lord’s chin without hesitation. Chloe shook her head quickly.
Even if the medicine tasted like alien acne, she couldn’t spit it into Delma’s hand.
“M’ghl swllw’d ’t.”
Afraid that opening her mouth wider would make her want to spit it out, Donghee spoke without parting her lips. Delma watched her with approval, then offered a small candy once the medicine was swallowed and Chloe gasped for breath.
Donghee shoved the candy into her mouth as if it were an oxygen mask and rolled it around. Only then did her painfully scrunched face relax. Delma offered another cup of warm water that carried a pleasant fragrance.
“Thank you.”
Donghee blew on the steaming water and sipped it slowly. Her tongue wasn’t burned, but drinking it all at once would have been too much. She had worried the bitterness might upset her stomach, but the quack physician’s medicine seemed to have worked; her insides felt more comfortable than before.
Delma waited until Chloe finished the water and handed back the empty cup, then helped her lie down again.
She handled the lord as carefully as if she were made of fragile glass—when touching her, when laying her down, even when pulling up the blanket.
Donghee pretended to fall asleep quickly so Delma could return to her own room and rest.
Delma touched Chloe’s forehead, tucked the blanket up to her chin, then yawned silently. After checking the lord’s condition several more times, she finally left the room.
Only after hearing the door close did Donghee sit up.
She had taken the medicine here, but she still felt uneasy.
“I should at least take some fever reducer and painkiller.”
Donghee dragged her leaden legs to the front door.
Thud, thud, thud⋯⋯.
Before she could even finish entering the four-digit password, darkness swallowed her vision, and she collapsed onto the floor.
A short while later, a blue status window rippled above the fallen Donghee, and a silver-haired man suddenly emerged from it. A blue-glowing hourglass spun on the back of his hand. It was larger than before, and its blue light had deepened.
Lord Taechang has arrived. Esteemed guest⋯⋯
“Shut up.”
Taechang whipped his head around and glared at the status window as if he would smash it, jaw clenched tight.
I have no mouth, so I cannot shut it, but if you insist, I shall.
The status window continued its cheeky remarks, but the man only glared at the screen in irritation and said nothing more. Instead, he approached the fallen Donghee and looked down at her with a frown. His gaze clearly showed his reluctance to touch her.
With obvious reluctance, Taechang glanced several times at the spinning hourglass on the back of his hand before finally kneeling beside Donghee.
Oh dear, time is passing. If the user fails to overcome the side effects and dies, even this last chance will vanish.
Taechang waved his arm irritably, and the blinking status window disappeared.
He lifted Donghee’s head and cradled it, then gripped the hourglass on the back of his hand tightly with his other hand. With his sigh, the once-transparent hourglass gained substance and settled into his palm.
Taechang opened the lid with his thumb as if flicking it open like a wine glass. More than half of the blue light from the upper chamber had already flowed downward.
He brought the hourglass to his lips like a wine glass. The blue light inside flowed into his mouth in thick waves.
Only after the blue light from the upper chamber had entered his mouth did Taechang close the lid firmly.
His heavily furrowed brows turned toward Donghee, whose eyes were tightly shut.
Taechang grasped her chin with one hand. Her closed lips parted slightly.
He leaned his face close to her parted lips and opened his own mouth a little. The blue light he held flowed into her mouth in gentle ripples. Though fainter than before, the blue glow remained brilliant.
Just as the light he held had almost completely transferred—
The status window reappeared above his head and poked him. Because his lips were slightly parted to pass the light, Taechang’s lips ended up fully covering Donghee’s. Startled, he tried to pull away, but for some reason his lips clung to hers like magnets and refused to separate.
That was the exact moment Donghee opened her eyes.
She discovered Taechang sucking on her lips and her eyes flew wide open.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
Taechang was equally indignant. He had no desire whatsoever to kiss this hopeless user. But right now, anyone would see him as a man lecherously covering a collapsed woman.
Just as Donghee, eyes wide, tried to bite down hard on his lips, the man’s figure gradually faded and slipped back into the status window. Donghee’s teeth clicked shut on empty air.
Frustrated at failing to achieve her goal, Donghee sprang up and tried to grab the remaining status window.
The blue screen rippled, and rainbow-colored letters began to wriggle like earthworms. Donghee’s deeply furrowed expression instantly turned dreamy.
You are getting sleepy. You are getting sleepy. This is a dream. A most wondrous, precious, and beautiful⋯⋯
“What kind of damn dream is this⋯⋯.”
Damn dream⋯⋯. Huh? That’s not right.
The status window, which had been rippling, paused at Donghee’s sudden interruption. Then, as she slowly blinked, she collapsed back onto the floor and fell asleep.
The status window hastily concluded with “a beautiful dream,” but soon disappeared with a crackling sound.
The next morning, Delma, who had come to the bedroom as soon as she woke, was naturally shocked to find the lord asleep on the floor.
By lunchtime, Donghee had completely recovered. More than recovered—she was bursting with energy.
“Delma, what was that medicine? How can it work so well? It tasted awful, though.”
Donghee believed her miraculous recovery was entirely thanks to the green pill. She had originally planned to fetch some over-the-counter medicine from the convenience store, but had been too tired and simply fallen asleep.
Delma, whose mood had soared because of the recovered lord, answered brightly.
“It was made by the physician who came from Fron. He’s said to be exceptionally skilled.”
“Really? It does seem incredibly effective. My body feels so light.”
Donghee spun her waist in disbelief, then swung her arms around. Power surged through her entire body. It felt as if she had leveled up.
Level up?
Suddenly sensing something strange, Donghee urgently called out the status window in her mind.