Chapter 229
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 229
The priests, who had watched over Ferdinand far longer than I had, and the servants of the Crown Prince’s Palace would never have believed their eyes.
Even if they saw it for themselves, they would have rubbed their eyes raw, wondering if their vision had failed them.
After preparing a cold towel, I returned to the bed. Ferdinand, who had been sitting up and waiting for me without even trying to lie down, didn't ask what I was holding.
He simply sat there, stiff and upright, as if his only purpose was to wait for my return.
He really is… kind of cute.
I cleared my throat and spoke.
“Please, lie down. I need you to lie back so I can place the towel on your forehead.”
“……”
Ferdinand stared at me intently before slowly reclining onto the bed. I reached out to place the cold towel on his brow, but I hesitated for a moment.
It was because of his small, burning hand that touched mine the moment I drew close.
My heart wavered instantly. I began to wipe his forehead with gentle, careful strokes, as if he were a fragile glass ornament that might shatter at any moment. I spoke with a hint of pride.
“Your Highness—no, Ferdinand.”
“Yes?”
“No one has ever wiped your brow like this before, have they? Even I think I’m being incredibly diligent and kind right now.”
I wanted to win his favor to raise his affinity, and while I was at it, I hoped to ask Ferdinand—the true power within the Grand Temple—for permission to see that sacred relic called ‘Han Ina.’
That was why I had spoken so confidently.
“There was someone.”
“…There was?”
I felt a sudden wave of embarrassment.
Given how he had been constantly abused under Empress Carmi’s tyranny and Emperor Alexander’s indifference, I assumed he had never experienced such tender care.
It seemed I had been too conceited.
“Well… I suppose the palace servants must have done their best to serve Your Highness—I mean, you.”
“Nothing like this ever happened in the palace.”
“Then where? Ah, the Temple…”
“It was on the battlefield. Stop trying to link me with the Temple.”
The High Priests would weep if they heard that.
They were already practically groveling at his feet.
I nodded for now, humoring this boy who felt like a block of ice wrapped around a ball of fire.
“I understand. But the military doctors on the battlefield were surprisingly tender, it seems.”
I had always assumed military doctors were the type to pour harsh liquor over a wound and just saw off a leg if a soldier got hurt…
“It was a subordinate who wiped my brow.”
“A subordinate? Were you badly injured?”
“I was slashed across the back. I ran a fever from the blood loss.”
I paused for a moment before asking, “…Why were you slashed across the back? Was there a betrayer?”
“Sharp. Is that because you’re the daughter of a knightly house?”
Ferdinand, who had been glaring into empty space throughout our conversation, closed his eyes. His crimson pupils were buried beneath the shadows of his lids, and a thin sigh escaped him.
“It’s an old story.”
“……”
Empress Carmi truly hadn't given up on Ferdinand easily. To think she had planted a traitor to kill him even after he had been practically exiled to the battlefield.
“If a subordinate had to personally wipe your brow, you must have had a fever as high as this one back then, too.”
Ferdinand didn't answer. Only his steady, slow breathing continued.
“…Which means you must have been very badly hurt,” I muttered to myself.
To have a subordinate he trusted enough to show his back to deliberately swing a sword at him—the wound to his heart must have been just as deep as the one on his body.
“Is that the only scar like that?”
“Why do you ask that?”
…I guess there are several.
I bit my lip and said nothing more. I remained silent, continuing to wipe Ferdinand’s burning face.
The high fever that refused to leave his body felt like a silent scream.
It was then.
“Lady Tulia.”
“Yes?”
“If there’s something you want, why don’t you just say it…?”
“Pardon?”
I was startled, feeling as though he had seen right through my ulterior motive of using him to see ‘Han Ina.’
Since our bodies were touching, Ferdinand, whose senses were likely several times sharper than mine, must have felt my reaction clearly.
“Otherwise, why would you be trying so hard to win my favor?”
“That’s…”
“It’s not as if you love me.”
“……”
A heavy silence filled the bedroom. My hand, which had been busily wiping his feverish face, came to a halt.
“Since you put it that way, there’s something I’m curious about too.”
“Speak.”
“I hurt you, didn't I?”
“…Yes.”
“And it wasn't just a small hurt; it was a deep wound.”
Ferdinand didn't answer. But it didn't matter. There was something I truly wanted to know.
Something I had intended to ask several times, only to hesitate.
“Ferdinand.”
It was a question I often forgot as I fell asleep beside the fever-stricken boy.
“Why did you come to save me that day?”
I could understand him taking me to the Temple of Light.
But fighting off those creatures to save me afterward must have required him to risk half his life.
The sight of him, drenched in blood while still alive.
To be honest, I couldn't understand it. It was because of the desperation I had sensed from him.
Considering our last meeting, it was an intensity of emotion that felt far more than I deserved.
Ferdinand had turned away from me, wounded, and I hadn't dared to utter a single word for the sake of the quest.
Ferdinand answered a beat late.
“I was the one who brought you in. I couldn't just let you die.”
“I see…”
I nodded slowly and began moving the towel in my hand once more.
It was a reasonable answer. A perfect one that left no room for delusions.
I had received a masterpiece of an answer, yet I couldn't understand why a strange emotion was swelling in my chest.
What was this feeling? What was this emotion? After questioning myself several times, I realized.
Disappointment.
Why am I feeling disappointed right now?
Just as the outline of an elusive emotion was about to become clear—
Flick.
Ferdinand brushed my hand away.
It was the first time. Since he had climbed into my bed claiming I had stolen his divine power, this ball of fire had never been the one to reject me first.
“Ferdinand?”
“Just how…”
A hand, significantly smaller and more fragile than it would be as a grown man, gripped my wrist. His hand was hot. Hot and tiny.
“…Ferdinand.”
“Just how many times are you going to make me feel this pathetic?”
A strange anger surged from him.
Incongruously, a memory of the past flashed through my mind. The day we first met.
The day years ago when Ferdinand had been a child just like he was now, and I had just escaped the warehouse, still reeking of misery.
“Does the Young Lady truly believe such nonsense?”
Ferdinand was angry.
The bedroom was dark, with most of the lights extinguished. But my eyes had already adjusted to the gloom, and his eyes, burning like flames, came clearly into view.
“It’s because I like you! Because no matter how much you hurt me, I couldn't kill my love for you!”
“……”
His feverish breath came in ragged gasps. Ferdinand, in his boyish form, seemed to find even shouting a struggle due to the high fever. He slowly ran both hands over his face.
“I couldn't breathe, thinking you might be dead. That’s why I searched the Temple like a madman…”
“……”
“And when I saw you alive…”
His red eyes, blurred with heat, stared at me.
“All I could do was feel sorry…”
“……”
Silence fell. I felt the boy’s body collapse against me as if he had lost all strength.
Ferdinand, panting with fever in my arms, felt like a god who had exhausted all his life force.
A beautiful, small god with wings who could fly away anywhere.
“…You said you didn't love me.”
“You asked me with eyes that were searching for an advantage. Did you expect me to lay my heart bare?”
“……”
“You are truly, terribly selfish. I’ve felt it every time…”
“Since when was it?”
It was a question stripped of context, but Ferdinand understood. That was why he let out a laugh mixed with futility and anger.
“Since the first time we met.”
“……”
“Since the moment you pressed a handkerchief into the hands of a nobody like me.”
Was Ferdinand still busily draining divine power from my body even now?
As he took that power…
Was he perhaps also stealing my heart, bit by bit…?
Something uncontrollable seemed to surge up from deep within my chest.
“That handkerchief wasn't a big deal. But you were.”
Ferdinand let out a feverish laugh.
“To me, it was everything…”
This must be because of Ferdinand’s divine power.
It must be because of this beautiful boy who had climbed into my bed to reclaim what was stolen.
His boundaries, once as cold and rigid as a wall of ice, seemed to have melted away in the heat consuming his body.
“From the moment we first faced each other until now.”
“……”
“I could never forget you…”
Divine Power Hyperaffliction, Cupid’s Disease. The boy who grew yet could not grow cupped my cheek with a hand as hot as a piece of iron heated to its limit.
His lips, radiating a dry heat, touched mine like a lie. His face, a mix of sweat and moisture, was lukewarm, but the body held in my arms was hot enough to burn.
The moment I slowly closed my eyes, the boy’s body began to grow explosively.