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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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… My mind was hazy.
Whether I was holding a sword myself or even fighting was blurry.
Plop.
Only when the blood flowing from my forehead dripped down and touched my arm did I finally realize that I was sitting against a wall.
It was fortunate that several people had run away during the fight, otherwise, if they had all pounced on me, it would have been quite difficult.I should have considered that my body was not yet in it’s complete form.
Still, since Miragen had survived, I looked at the sky with a faint smile.
In fact, there was no sky to speak of.
It was just a gray ceiling, and looking down at the floor, it was all red with blood, so it was just better than that.
“Haa.”
Even breathing was quite burdensome.
Frowning at the stinging pain felt in my chest, I managed to exhale and wiped my forehead.
My problem was using mana until I was almost exhausted.
Killing Temuzin, and dealing with the guys who pounced afterwards.
Since more pounced than expected, I used my mana to the limit.
It could be said to be a self-inflicted wound.
I should go out, but it seemed I wouldn’t be able to move an inch until Adele arrived here.
Looking at Adele’s sword, it was clean without a single scratch.
Even using it like this, it endured.
Was it because a famous sword was a famous sword?
Although I couldn’t keep the promise not to get hurt, I was grateful that at least I could return the sword.
And that I had properly saved Miragen too.
While fighting, I kept detecting a presence.
If the tribes had approached near Miragen, I would have noticed, but Miragen seemed to have escaped well through another passage.
Since the tribes left outside would have also come in to catch me, she wouldn’t have been caught if she had left.
She had probably joined up with Adele by now.
What I had to do now was simple.
Preserving my stamina here and enduring until Adele arrived.
Feeling the blood flowing from my shoulder, I tore my shirt and roughly stopped the bleeding.
Quite a lot of wounds remained.
Even after returning, I would have to avoid moving for a while.
It might look serious on the outside, but in fact, I wasn’t seriously injured.
If I had to say, it would be more accurate to say it was close to exhaustion.
After panting for a moment, I slowly closed my eyes.
The cold wind blew and touched my cheek several times.
Then, I felt a presence approaching from far away.
“Robert, are you there?”
Smiling slightly at Adele’s voice, I gently tapped the wall with my head to make a sound.
Thud, hearing the slightly echoing sound, Adele then ran towards me with hurried footsteps.
As Adele appeared from the bending corridor and found me, she opened her mouth with a furrowed brow.
“… I’m sure I told you.”
“I definitely did keep my promise not to die, cough.”
“And yet, you look like you might die at any moment, and you dare say that so well.”
Unlike her tone, the touch wiping my cheek was gentle.
Adele, who wiped the blood on my face, stared at me intently.
Looking at the wounds that had appeared all over my body, she sighed softly and opened her mouth.
“Are there any symptoms of poison?”
“No. No one used poison, and Temuzin is dead.”
“I won’t say you did well. With these injuries, you won’t be of any use anywhere.”
Adele, who was grumbling, then tore the hem of my shirt and slightly furrowed her brows.
Especially the parts with many sword wounds. Seeing the wounds that were cut and torn, exposing the bones, Adele’s gaze turned to me.
I thought she would be angry, but the corners of my mouth, which had been smiling slightly at her trembling eyes, slowly fell.
“… These aren’t wounds to be calm about.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been badly hurt before.”
“I’m not fine with it.”
Tsk, Adele took out bandages from her bosom, tore them appropriately, and began wrapping my arm.
It couldn’t be a proper treatment.
She was just trying to stop the flowing blood, and Adele, who had been silently wrapping my arm, glanced at me.
After making eye contact several times, perhaps annoyed by my calm face, she moved her lips slightly.
“If it hurts, say it hurts. It’s my first time doing this for someone else… so I might be clumsy.”
“It doesn’t hurt. If you wrap it that gently, I don’t think it will even stop the bleeding.”
“Is that so?”
Hmm, Adele, who swallowed slightly, pulled the bandage, and a sudden pain poured out.
When I told her to wrap it a bit harder since she was wrapping it too gently, Adele, who was startled as my expression twisted, removed her hand like that.
I tried to laugh, finding her startled appearance funny, but the pain I felt this time was real, so I could only grit my teeth.
“Are, are you okay? I did it hard because you told me to do it hard.”
The problem was that it was tied too tightly, and the wounds touched each other.
Wasn’t it natural for it to hurt when the cut parts rubbed against each other?
Still, I couldn’t say it was Adele’s fault.
When I said I was fine, even if forcibly, Adele, who had been staring at me for a while, began wrapping the bandage carefully.
“This should be enough. Isn’t it enough to just stop the bleeding anyway?”
“… I’m not usually this clumsy. It’s just because it’s my first time.”
“Let’s go with that.”
Adele, who glared at me for a moment at my words, slowly opened her mouth while relaxing her eyes.
Joining up with the princess, cutting down all the fleeing tribesmen while coming here, and coming for me.
Her expression, which had been gradually darkening, softened a bit when our eyes met.
“I’m glad you didn’t die. And you did a reckless thing, thinking of fighting the tribesmen alone.”
“It was a choice to save Her Highness the Princess. Didn’t I come here for that?”
“… Did you think of doing that even if you died?”
After looking at Adele, who asked in a low voice, for a moment, I couldn’t answer in the end.
I would have come even if I knew I would die.
Because the last day of the thirty-fifth regression was always a regret I held.
Realizing that my silence meant yes, Adele’s brow, who had been examining my wounds, slightly furrowed.
She probably wouldn’t understand.
Why I, who had no relationship with the princess and wasn’t even strongly loyal to the imperial family, cared for Miragen so much.
It would look quite awkward to anyone.
It was a fact that only I could understand in this world.
As Adele’s eyes, which had been staring at me intently, faltered, she opened her mouth with a small laugh.
“I had received a favor from her before. Although Her Highness the Princess probably doesn’t remember, it was an unforgettable favor for me.”
I didn’t want to hide anything from Adele.
However, my regression was something I couldn’t easily mention, so I explained it a bit differently.
Wasn’t it true that Miragen didn’t remember and that it was an unforgettable memory for me?
“A favor, did something like that happen?”
“That incident changed many things for me. So I repaid it this time. Since there was an opportunity.”
“… Is that so?”
“If Your Grace were in danger, I would go alone. Are you still disappointed?”
“Don’t say useless things.”
When I jokingly retorted, Adele frowned and shook her head vigorously.
When I laughed slightly, finding her serious expression funny, Adele, who had been staring at me intently, slowly got up from her seat.
Now all my wounds were wrapped in bandages.
When I tried to stand up together as my stamina had returned, Adele made me sit down again and opened her mouth.
“Stay seated. Everyone will probably come here soon.”
“Let’s rest. It will take time for them to come anyway.”
Then Adele glanced at the spot next to me and rejected it, shaking her head slightly.
The only spots without blood were the ones right next to me.
It must be quite burdensome to sit closely together.
When I said I understood, Adele looked at me and continued.
“It’s not that I’m burdened by being with you. It’s just… well, I need to check the surroundings. It’s uncomfortable for you too, being with me.”
“… Why is it uncomfortable? It’s not like we’ve only met a few times.”
Saying that, I slightly moved myself, so that Adele could sit next to me, I tapped the empty spot with my hand, and Adele stared at that spot.
“I’m fine. Just sit.”
What was so uncomfortable about being together when it wasn’t just once or twice?
As long as Adele was okay with it, I had no problem at all.
Since there were times when we slept on the same bed while camping in the previous round, I wasn’t in a state to feel any awkwardness.
Adele, who hesitated for a moment, slowly approached me as I tapped the spot a few more times.
Slide, Adele, who sat down smoothly, shuddered.
Perhaps realizing that our arms were touching, she soon sat a little distance away.
When I laughed slightly at that, Adele began to glare at me with furrowed brows.
Come to think of it, it was indeed a strange situation.
Even though it was a gruesome place with corpses scattered all around, she was actually feeling embarrassed about sitting like this.
However, this was familiar to us.
At least during the time we were together in the North, Adele and I were always together in places like this.
After Adele settled into her spot, silence flowed for a long time.
Now that the blood had stopped, the dizziness had also disappeared.
There weren’t many sounds that could be heard in my clear mind.
Only the sound of melted snow dripping towards the ground or our faint breathing could be heard.
Then, when I turned my head, I realized Adele was looking at me.
Even though our eyes met, Adele didn’t avert her gaze.
Rather, she was staring into my eyes, examining something.
Blue eyes like mine, but her eyes were much clearer.
Unlike me, who could no longer hold any emotions, the cool light felt rather refreshing.
The wind of the North always made me think of Adele.
Cold, yet on the other hand, a being freer than anything else.
It was a little later when she opened her mouth.
“… I get strange thoughts when I see you.”
“What kind of thoughts?”
“Even when you’re right next to me like this, it feels like you’ll die soon. I can’t take my eyes off you.”
Was she badmouthing me?
Around the time I tried to laugh awkwardly, thinking it was a joke.
Adele’s hand touched my forehead.
A slight moisture was felt in her blue eyes.
Like a gentle ripple coming in, her eyes that softly swayed touched my face.
“Even when I touch you, it feels like an illusion. When you don’t speak, it feels like I’m touching a ghost, and I can’t feel at ease.”
Once again, I felt the sensation of her hand stroking my cheek.
Wasn’t it ridiculous?
To think that the hand of a woman called the Grand Duchess of the North was this warm.
Adele’s lips moved as she quietly looked at the blood on her hand.
As if trying to say something, Adele, who had been hesitating for a while, opened her mouth again.
“… I saw the scars on your body. Not today, but last time.”
“If you mean my body, ah.”
She must be referring to when we met after I had washed my body.
I wondered if she had seen it by chance when I hadn’t put on my clothes yet, but did she really see everything?
The scars on my body were not ordinary ones.
Some were inflicted by Yuria, and some were from punishments received from my father.
They were natural wounds to me, so I didn’t pay attention to them, but there must have been a clear difference in Adele’s eyes.
Unlike these sword marks, weren’t they wounds that persistently dug into vital points?
Adele’s expression was dark.
As if she had roughly grasped the origin of those wounds, she sighed softly and continued.
“Those wounds weren’t received for ordinary reasons, right?”
“… Yes.”
“I have no intention of asking how they happened. I always have to maintain neutrality, but if I found out about that, I think I would become hostile towards the Taylor family.”
Adele, who said that, smiled bitterly.
Such things were common in noble families.
Even if it wasn’t as severe as mine, I had occasionally heard of cases where families obsessed with their houses harmed their own members.
Perhaps she knew the moment she saw the scars.
That the Taylor family wasn’t as noble as the rumors suggested.
Adele no longer looked at me.
Staring into the void, she quietly muttered like that.
“That must be the reason I feel anxious whenever I see you. And the feeling that you’ll suddenly disappear.”
“Why would I disappear? I’m not mist.”
When I laughed and said that, Adele stared at me with a cold face.
I couldn’t say anything at her rather serious expression.
I felt like she would get angry at any moment if I continued speaking.
Around the time I was enveloped in that strange feeling, Adele whispered.
“… Don’t get hurt anymore from now on. In front of me, as far as I know. I don’t want to see you getting hurt more.”
Her eyes were sad.
At least in the memories I knew, eyes that Adele Igrit had never shown.
Eyes that seemed like they would burst into tears at any moment.
After staring at me with such eyes for a while, she then muttered in a small voice.
In a very soft voice that only I could hear.
“I shouldn’t be the one to say this, the one who hurt you.”
Adele, who had a slightly confused expression for a moment, slowly removed her hand.
Biting her lips until they turned white, she then sighed quietly.
“I… I don’t know why I’m acting like this either. Really, I don’t know.”
Adele, who closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall, didn’t speak anymore.
Until the troops joined with the other soldiers arrived, and until Miragen and I met.
We stayed like that, for a long time.
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