Chapter 23
A beautiful hand wiped her cheek,
An unknown liquid, whether it was tears or sweat, dripped onto his palm.
At that time, Navian’s eyelids twitched lightly.
So Signus extended his hand to cover her eyes when she tried to open them.
“Uh….”
Navian was panting for breath and unintentionally grabbed his hand. The golden eyes shook when he felt the weak force on his hand.
“It’s okay.”
Signus leaned closer and placed his mouth on the back of Navian’s hand. Once again, he spat out familiar words.
“It’s okay. Nothing happened.”
Navian stopped struggling when she heard the reassuring words that he always said to her in the past.
He himself was quite surprised that he was able to speak in such a gentle voice.
“Sleep more. I’ll be with you.”
Only then did Navian release the strength on her hand.
Her wet face was wiped by his cool hands.
It was a very patient and affectionate touch.
***
My whole body was paralyzed. At the same time, I heard a cold voice in my hazy mind.
“Didn’t I tell you to bring it properly?”
A moment later, a man shouted as if he was feeling wronged.
“Lemon tree roots, fragrant oil, and Hakan’s horns! I brought them all, didn’t I?!”
“Then why is she still unconscious?”
“How am I supposed to know!”
I could hear something breaking from where I laid down.
“Hiik!”
“Don’t avoid it. Your brain might work if I smashed your head.”
His cold voice forced me to push up my heavy eyelids.
A man that I never saw before was screaming frantically as he avoided something heavy thrown at him.
“Help me! I’m dying here!”
“Shut up.”
“Huh? Your Highness! She’s up!”
“Don’t joke around.”
“I’m not lying! It’s real. Look! She opened her eyes wide!”
His lustrous black hair was streaming from above as he looked down at me.
“You’re up.”
I tried to lift my body reflectively when I saw his handsome face. But his big hand pressed me down.
“Don’t exert yourself and just stay still. You can’t move anyway.”
The gentle pat on my shoulder reminded me of what happened before.
Right. I was kidnapped.
“You’re paralyzed.”
So I opened my mouth to ask about what happened.
“You’d better not talk. Your throat is swollen because of the fever. It’s gonna hurt.”
He was telling the truth, because I ended up coughing when I tried to open my mouth. I really had a sore throat after all.
‘This is bad. I’ve got a lot to ask you.’
So I tried to rack my brain to recall what happened.
First, I was kidnapped by the human hunters and entered the alley.
Then Signus appeared and said something. I was relieved by his voice, and I lost my memory from that point on.
‘But how did you find me?’
I didn’t know whether he was looking for me to kill me or not, but at least, I’m alive for now.
I swerved my gaze to see the luxurious interior.
‘This is not the imperial palace….’
Soon, I made eye contact with a man who looked at me with fascinated eyes.
“Where are you looking?”
At Signus’ sharp voice, the man flinched and looked away.
I kept looking at the man, who was grumbling quietly as he picked up the broken pieces, and then a long finger brushed my cheek.
“Don’t look at him. Before I dig up your cheek again.”
At his word, I quietly averted my gaze.
I was just curious about that man, so is there a need to threaten me like that?
“Bring it.”
“Oh, yes, yes.”
The man hurried out at Signus’ command.
So where are we really?
“The hideout of the thief guild.”
Somehow he answered the question I had in my mind.
“The fool who left just now is the guild master. The scoundrels who peeked at us right now are members of the guild.”
At his words, the black shadows lurked in the hallway scurried away.
“Rest assured. This place is safer than anywhere else, even if it looks shabby.”
Safe, you say? Thief guilds are the ones who steal information.
“There’s information I’m supposed to give them, so they wouldn’t betray me. They’re crazy when it comes to information. I will also throw some money on them just in case.”
What is the information?
“You don’t have to know.”
I just blinked in a daze. How can you read my mind so precisely? So I decided to do an experiment.
What happened all this time?
Then the answer came back right away.
“It’s been three days since then. Now it’s noon and I’ve kidnapped you.”
Signus continued as he twirls my hair around his fingers.
“Even though there’s an antidote, you have paralysis because of the aftereffects of the drug. You also got a fever because your body is ridiculously weak.”
A cool finger touched my eye.
“Your eyes are swollen and your head hurts because you kept crying.”
“…..”
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
He asked when he saw my puzzled face.
“Did you ask how do I know what you’re trying to say?”
I nodded my head. For sure, it wasn’t just a coincidence. There must be another reason.
“I can tell from your expression.”
That can’t be true.
Signus smiled satisfactorily when I frowned in disbelief.
“Well, it’s not a bad idea to find evidence one by one.”
After rubbing my swollen eyelids a few times, he withdrew his hand and said.
“So I need your cooperation.”
I only blinked my eyes at his remark.
What evidence? What is there for me to cooperate?
I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but I couldn’t do that.
Because his face was ridiculously close that I couldn’t think of anything.
‘He smiles like that whenever he wants to seduce someone.’
So I lowered my gaze because his face was too burdensome to look at, but this time, I was going crazy because I saw his wide chest instead.
‘Wait- why don’t you button up your clothes! I have no place to look.’
I became restless and tried to swerve my gaze to the hem of his clothes.
However…
‘What is that?’
There was a certain shape on his left chest that caught my eyes. So I tilted my head to see if it was a scar, but then I heard a voice.
“Should I take it off?” He said, grabbing the hem of his clothes.
“You look like you want to see it.”
At his absurd remark, I earnestly shook my head.
“Why are you so embarrassed? You’ve seen it already.”
His beautiful finger pointed at his chest.
“And I’ve been hugging you the whole time.”
“….What?”
A hoarse and cracked voice came out. I couldn’t endure asking even if my throat felt like it was torn apart.
“Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t-”
“I told you not to speak.”
I shook my head because I didn’t remember anything.
“It’s good that I saved you from being dragged further by them, but your condition gradually worsened. I’ve done everything to treat you, but you’ve never come to consciousness. Yesterday night was your critical point.”
So I tried twitching my cheeks. I could feel many pieces of cloth attached to my face moving together.
“I thought you’d be better as long as you take the antidote. It was normally like that.”
I must be in a really bad state after all.
“Yeah. I was mistaken. I never thought you’d be 20.000 times weaker than an ant.”
Excuse me? Aren’t you being too harsh right now?
“The fever reducer didn’t work on you. You couldn’t sleep at all and kept crying, so I put you in my arms to soothe you, and you said you’d hate it if I didn’t give you my arm as your pillow.”
What did he say?
So I tried to lift my upper body. Of course, my paralyzed body could only flinch at best.
“I can’t help it since you kept crying. So I have to do it.”
“….Lie.”
“Why do I lie to you?”
His voice had sunk low as if to show that he was telling the truth.
‘….I must be crazy.’
So I closed my eyes tightly. I vowed to build up my physical strength when I can move my body.
Meanwhile, Signus was looking down at me and laughed.I could feel the warmth radiating from his playful smile.
While I stared blankly at him, the sound of footsteps approaching.
“I brought it.”
Signus stood up at the man’s words.
“Think about it later and wake up first.”
A strong arm lifted my waist and held me.
“You have to eat something.”
My whole body trembled when he lifted me and put me on a fluffy cushion.
“Stay still. Stop flailing like a fish.”
Signus was already next to me with a bowl in his hand.
“That…”
“Don’t talk.”
Cough, cough! I coughed and nodded my head.
I couldn’t help it because he kept bothering me.
It’s okay. I’ll just tell him to leave me alone and mind his own business.
At that time, Signus pushed his face closer to me.
“If you babble one more time, I’ll force you to shut up.”
And how do you do that, I wonder?
“If you’re curious, try it.”
When I held my tears from coming out and quietly closed my mouth, he chuckled.
I just looked at him with baffled eyes.
Slightly relaxed tone, a gaze that lost its sharpness, and even his behavior of taking care of me.
‘What has gotten into you so suddenly?’
I wanted to ask if he was out of his mind or something, but I held back and stared at the rice gruel in front of me instead.
At that moment, something ridiculous happened.
“Say ah.”
I was staring blankly at the spoon that Signus held out to me.
‘Isn’t it you who have to take medicine?’
As expected, he was out of his mind. Why else would he feed me that?
He tilted his head. I could see the sharpness returned to his eyes once again, so I had no choice but to squeeze my voice again.
“That.”
I looked down at his hand which was holding a spoon. His wounded hand had been bothering me for a long time.
It was a mess because he didn’t treat it even when it was soaked in red.
‘Did you purposely not treat it to make me concerned?’
What else could it be?
How can you have time to give me an antidote but not the time to treat your own hand?
Signus followed my gaze. Soon, he smiled and quietly mumbled.
“Uselessly worried about me….”
His voice was so small that I couldn’t hear the rest of his words.
What? Did you say ‘as always’? In any case, it sounded like he was cursing at me.
“So because my hand is in this state, do you want to eat it yourself?”
Nod nod.
Signus put down the bowl and grabbed my wrist. Then he put the spoon on my hand, but I was barely able to lift it.
“Your hands are stiff due to the paralysis. You can’t hold the spoon, can you?”
“…..”
“You are very stubborn.”
Signus grumbled and took the spoon from me.
“Hurry, you’ll get better if you eat.”
With a bitter expression, I opened my mouth reluctantly. I didn’t want to admit it, but I had no strength to hold a spoon.
I heard a gentle voice as I was busy chewing the rice gruel.
“Can you eat it?”
“?”
“I’m asking if you can swallow it.”
Honestly, I couldn’t really tell because I kept on chewing it on my mouth, but I just nodded.
Then he swept my lips with his thumb and said.
“That’s a relief.”
I was stiffened by his gentle touch when he wiped off the rice from my mouth.
At that moment, the rice gruel flowed down because I couldn’t close my mouth due to the shock.