Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Invitation
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Beth's eyes blinked rapidly at the unexpected invitation. There was no reason she couldn't go if it was just a visit to the barracks. But she couldn't help wondering if he meant something else.
"I need to pick up the death benefit certificate too."
Dever lightly raised an eyebrow. His face, wearing a lazy smile, looked utterly relaxed.
"Don't think such impure thoughts."
At the end, he let out a soft chuckle, his eyes narrowing. Beth's eyes narrowed right along with them. She knew he could read her mind like a book, but whenever he teased her so openly like this, she always lost.
Beth composed her expression, pretending as if nothing was amiss. As he said, there was no reason not to go. Madam Molly had told her to get the certificate, and even if she was just a nominal dedicated nurse, she still needed to check on his wounds.
Beth repeated to herself the numerous valid reasons she could go, then nodded toward the dark forest path.
"Fine by me."
Dever took a step back, extending one arm toward the forest path and placing the other hand on his chest. Beth's brow furrowed once more at his courteous gesture, as if escorting a queen.
As Beth trudged along, Dever matched her pace at her side, adjusting his upturned lips once again. Being with this woman always tickled him in so many ways.
The only sound filling the silent forest path was the crunch of snow underfoot. Beth glanced up at the man beside her, but his expressionless face was hard to read.
Because Dever kept his mouth firmly shut, their companionship felt a bit awkward. Beth suddenly thought this path had never seemed so long before. And rightly so—she had never leisurely walked the forest trail to the barracks even once.
Walking the darkened path with a clear mind made her suddenly afraid. The sounds coming from somewhere—wild beasts or just the wind—made her heart race.
Dever let out a soft chuckle as he glanced at Beth's small head inching closer to him.
Suddenly, Beth's steps halted abruptly.
"What's wrong?"
At his question, she quickly pressed her index finger to her lips. Beth perked up her ears, listening intently to the faint sound.
Amid the whistling wind, something like an animal's whimper drifted through. Beth's pupils shook with unease. A wild beast? Could it be a wolf? Even children knew wolves roamed Nexus's wild mountains.
Beth pointed to her ear, signaling Dever to listen.
No way. Dever let out a long breath, feeling a profound sense of dismay. He'd noticed the sound long ago. He'd wondered how she hadn't heard it yet, lost in her thoughts.
As the wind died down, the animal's labored breathing became even clearer through the quiet underbrush.
Beth looked up at Dever with a distressed expression. He rubbed the back of his neck a few times, looking somewhat troubled, then glanced down at her.
"That sound..."
Curiosity overlaying her fear made Beth's feet creep slowly toward the noise. Under a tree trunk where faint moonlight seeped through, a writhing shadow came into view.
In that instant, Beth's foot jerked back.
It wasn't a beast. Or rather, it wasn't just a beast...
Beth spun around at the sound of snow crunching behind her and shoved Dever away as he approached. He'd snuck up so carefully before, but now her merciless push, heedless of the noise, made dimples form in his cheeks.
"Looks like you saw something you shouldn't have?"
Desperate to escape the spot, Beth hurried toward the barracks. But the slippery snow path refused to cooperate with her intentions.
The pair, engrossed in their own affairs, didn't even notice the army commander and nurse passing by, and the embarrassing sounds continued to filter through the leaves.
"Must've been one terrifying beast. That's why you're running away like this, right?"
At his teasing words, Beth whipped around, then quickly dropped her gaze again. She had nothing to say.
No, why were those people doing it here?
The "beast" by the tree trunk was a pair of soldiers, a man and a woman. They must have locked eyes on the battlefield. With nowhere else to go, they'd slipped into the forest under cover of night.
It was a scene Dever had grown sick of seeing while touring battlefields since childhood. He'd witnessed it plenty of times here too. But apparently not this woman.
And that made sense. From what he'd seen, she'd probably just gone back and forth between the field hospital and her quarters.
"Just a passionate couple. When you're in love, these things happen."
From his stern face came such a romantic defense that Beth wondered if she was really looking at Dever Cliff.
Afraid of being swept up in his bewildering words again, Beth turned away first.
After the dizzying sight stole her focus once, the endlessly long path came to an end before she knew it.
She followed Dever, who had taken the lead, into his tent. She'd been to the barracks for rounds several times, but her position had always been on the opposite side from his tent. Beth had deliberately avoided staring at that place etched in her memory.
The terror of the first day she'd been dragged there lingered vividly. That was separate from trusting him now.
Beth took a deep, secret breath. She knew it was pathetic of her, but she couldn't help it. Once-embedded fear always made her shrink back. Pretending to be unaffected was different from actually being so.
Beth had always lived pretending to be unaffected.
"Come in."
Dever, having dismissed the sentry in front of the tent, beckoned from the entrance.
Beth stepped into the familiar yet unfamiliar space. It was an ordinary tent, no different from the other officers'. The only difference was the bottle of liquor on the side table, its cork removed—likely a perk of being the army commander.
Dever casually cleared away the bottle as he spoke.
"I didn't drink it. Hospital Director Collins did."
Using Collins as a shield without a second thought, Dever pointed to a chair. Beth hesitated before sitting in the spot she'd sat in before.
While he rummaged for antiseptic and bandages from his emergency supplies, Beth slipped her hand into the shadows cast by the flickering lamp on the side table, fiddling idly. She needed something to ease this endless tension.
As she played her little hand game, a long shadow fell over the yellow flickering light. Dever, backlit by the central lamp, held out the antiseptic.
He shed his shirt as if it were routine now and perched on the rusty iron bed. He truly had remarkable recovery. Of course, that didn't mean everything was fine, but the wounds were clearly healing.
Everything was returning to normal.
That was what Beth had realized the moment she saw Collins Molly. Like winter giving way to spring, even these wounds that seemed they would never heal were mending. Everything was reverting to the time before the war began.
Their relationship too, probably.
As Beth watched his back rise and fall steadily, the place felt just like the greenhouse garden.
That paradise where the cold outside winds were blocked, and only blooming flowers existed. Ironically, this harsh battlefield, battered by biting winds, felt like a cozy greenhouse garden to her. And the man before her eyes was the one who made it so.
Both he and she were indulging in a brief illusion.
That this greenhouse garden would last forever. That this world was theirs. Without looking at the frozen world outside.
Beth finished disinfecting and wrapped a bandage around his thick shoulder. She ignored the sticky gaze following her. No matter what more there was, it would only bring danger to them both, she steeled herself.
Having neatly packed away the supplies, Beth gave the man a quick glance and rose from her seat. As she turned to leave, Dever lightly grasped her wrist and pulled her toward him.
Her slender wrist danced playfully in his firm grip. Though he'd gripped it loosely, afraid it might hurt if too tight, it showed no sign of coming undone.
"It's late."
With a bit more force, he pulled her hand, drawing her body one step closer. Dever cautiously wrapped his arms around the waist before him. Her slightly ragged breathing brushed his ear.
Beth couldn't push away the man embracing her waist and resting his head on her. Her hesitant arms hovered in the air.
"Stay and sleep."
At those words, Beth's breath caught. The air in the tent felt frozen, and so did her train of thought.
Dever tightened his arms a little more, pulling her close. The woman's hands, losing balance, gripped his shoulders for support.
"No medicine right now, and I'm exhausted."
His mumbling voice seeped through her thin nurse's uniform.
"I just want to sleep. Really."
A low sigh mingled at the end of his whisper-like voice. It was a truly weary tone. One she'd never heard from him before.
Beth lifted his head from her shoulder. Looking down into his earnest gaze, she wondered when she'd grown accustomed to looking down at this man who saw the whole world at his feet. He was gazing up at her so desperately.
The weight of that gaze, once burdensome, no longer felt unpleasant.
"I won't do anything."
His sweetly coaxing voice was soft.
"Trust me. I..."
His shoulders heaved greatly as he hesitated on the rest. The taut, packed muscles twitched with his breath.
"I really just want to fall asleep."
In the end, Beth surrendered, brushing her hand through his hair as he leaned into her embrace. At that small touch, Dever pulled her even closer. Naturally drawing her to sit on the bed, he stood.
The fragile flame of the lamp on the tent ceiling soon went out. In the remaining light from the side table lamp, his shadowed face was visible. When that too extinguished, pitch-black darkness enveloped the tent.
Beth lay back, inhaling his scent that enveloped her. Dever rubbed his face fully against her pulsing nape. His arms, binding her as if declaring she couldn't go anywhere without his permission, bulged with muscle.
Beth gently stroked his head. Her touch didn't stop until his breathing finally settled into a steady rhythm.
Snow began to fall again, but they didn't know.
A night all too perfect for conveniently turning a blind eye to everything had begun to pass.