Translator: Nox

Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband

Chapter 28

“Of course.”

It was a bit puzzling, but it wasn’t as if he was offering to treat me right here; he just wanted to take a quick look.

As the person who had treated my wound before, it seemed like a reasonable enough request, so I obediently placed my hand on top of his.

“Excuse me.”

Lucian, his eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled, bowed his head and began to unwind the bandage to inspect the injury.

Behind his silver-rimmed glasses, his dark eyelashes slanted downward, and a breath as light as a breeze brushed over my exposed palm.

[……It must have hurt.]

Suddenly, the image of Benjamin, who had kissed the back of my hand once before, overlapped with Lucian.

Even though there was no way a boy with such a germophobia would ever kiss my hand.

‘Hmm. Why is that?’

While I was lost in thought, Lucian released my hand after a moment and gave a beaming smile.

“It’s almost healed. I’ll just change it to a fresh bandage, and you should be careful for a few more days.”

“I think it’s thanks to your excellent care. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. So, what time will you be visiting the infirmary tomorrow?”

“Ah.”

At those words, the reason I had been walking down this hallway came rushing back to me.

‘He doesn’t seem to know.’

According to Benjamin, tomorrow was the day the priests would visit to read the scriptures.

Yet, Lucian’s face remained perfectly composed as he asked me to stop by the infirmary.

Was he, like me, so new here that he wasn’t familiar with the orphanage’s schedule?

After considering it for a moment, I spoke up, partly as a return for him checking my wound.

“Tomorrow might be difficult, don’t you think? Since it’s the day the priests visit to read the scriptures……”

“……Priests?”

“Pardon? Yes.”

At that moment, Lucian’s voice cut abruptly into the middle of my sentence.

Startled, I blurted out an answer, and his face instantly and visibly stiffened.

Immediately after, Lucian hurriedly raised a hand to cover the area beneath his eyes. Behind his glasses, his silver eyes sank into a dark gloom.

“What’s wrong?”

Since this was the first time I’d seen Lucian so agitated since our first meeting, I pushed aside my confusion and asked gently.

After a long silence, Lucian lowered the hand that had been shielding his face.

He shook his head, wearing his usual soft smile—one that now seemed so perfectly guarded that not even a needle could pierce through it.

“……No. It’s nothing.”

* * *

‘It didn’t seem like nothing.’

The moment Lucian’s smile crumbled had been so brief that one might have dismissed it as a trick of the light.

However, because he was usually so unshakable, that flicker of agitation had appeared even more stark to my eyes.

So, I had hoped that when the priests visited today, I might find out the reason why ‘that’ Lucian had been so unsettled.

‘I thought my body was doing surprisingly well lately.’

As it turned out, on the day of the priests’ visit.

I was in no state to move a single step from my bed in the dormitory, having come down with a sudden fever since dawn.

‘Since my condition is more like a congenital illness, even Divine Power is useless…….’

It seemed the medicines prepared by the Esperanza Dukedom actually had been effective, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time.

Seeing how my health was creeping downward again so soon after leaving the mansion.

‘Not that it did much more than delay the end by a tiny bit…….’

Fortunately, the fever that had spiked alarmingly high was beginning to subside little by little as time passed.

Lying in bed, I glanced out the window with clearing vision. The sun was already beginning to set.

‘I wonder if the priests have all left by now.’

Besides the reason for Lucian’s reaction, I was also curious because I had never actually seen a priest before.

As I listened quietly to the outside, a faint, unfamiliar voice seemed to be mixed in among the laughter of the children coming from the main building.

‘……It should be fine to go out for just a moment, right?’

The fever was finally breaking.

I thought it would be okay to at least see them from a distance before they left.

The moment I pushed myself up from the bed, my head throbbed with a dizzying spell that made me stagger, but I somehow managed to make it out of the room safely.

The problem came after I left the room.

With every step I took toward the main building, leaning against the wall, my condition deteriorated rapidly.

‘My heart…….’

I had only decided to go out because I usually felt well enough to move once the fever broke.

For some reason, now, with every breath I took, a pain like a needle stabbing my heart flared up.

“Ugh\!”

Eventually, a groan escaped through my teeth, and my knees buckled involuntarily.

I didn’t collapse entirely because I was holding onto the wall, but the pain made it impossible to keep my balance.

My body crumpled against my will. I curled into a ball on the floor, my forehead pressed against the ground.

In the dizzying sensation as if the world were spinning, I panted like a beast while stifling my groans, then suddenly gritted my teeth against the rising emotion.

‘You don’t have to do this……\!’

Even without this, I already knew all too well—sickeningly well—that I didn’t have long to live.

Yet the pain would strike suddenly, as if to remind me that I must never forget that fact.

Perhaps it was because that realization felt sorrowful all over again, or perhaps it was because the fever was rising once more, but my eyes burned hot.

“Goodness, child……\!”

Just then, an unfamiliar voice reached my ears.

The owner of the voice seemed to have discovered me from the end of the hallway. The sound of footsteps approached, accompanied by an alarmed tone.

“Are you alright? I am Priest Cesare. Try to lift your head.”

‘A priest……?’

The priests should all be gathered in the main building right now. Ah, was the schedule over, and was he taking the children back to the dorms?

I didn’t know the details, but through my fading senses, I could tell the priest’s presence was right in front of me.

Perhaps it was because I couldn’t move as I wished due to the pain.

Feeling a stranger approach, I instinctively wanted to pull away, but my body wouldn’t listen.

All I could do was gasp for air, clutching onto the faint thread of my remaining consciousness.

Soon, I felt him lower himself beside me, and the moment his fingertips lightly touched my shoulder—

“I beg your pardon.”

Another presence appeared from above, accompanied by a familiar voice.

I felt him gently block the priest’s hand from reaching my shoulder.

Still curled up, I shifted my gaze sideways and saw a familiar black glove through the strands of my hair.

A strange sigh of relief escaped my lips, and I realized at once.

Ah, it’s Lucian.

“This is a patient I am personally in charge of.”

Lucian let out that characteristically soft yet firm, flawlessly smooth voice as he wrapped a steady arm around my shoulder.

I felt the priest, who had been about to touch me, hesitate.

His presence moved back a little, and a greeting tinged with a hint of wariness followed.

“……May the blessing of Saint Vanessa Minelli be with you. I am Priest Cesare. And you, brother?”

“I am Lucian Cichlid, assigned to work in the infirmary here for the time being. Though I am lacking, I am under the grace of Esperanza.”

“Esperanza……”

A faint murmur brushed past my ear.

Lucian continued.

“I cannot allow any inconvenience to one who upholds the noble will of God, so I shall escort this person to the infirmary myself.”

“That……”

“It is a type of ailment for which Divine Power is useless anyway. You may return to the children now, Priest-nim.”

The priest seemed to want to say more, but Lucian did not wait for an answer.

He brought his lips close to my ear and whispered softly.

“Don’t be startled.”

‘What…… *hic*.’

While I was trying to fathom the meaning of Lucian’s words, my body was suddenly hoisted into the air.

Only then did I realize Lucian had picked me up in his arms.

His chest was broader than I had expected, so even when I rolled my eyes to the side, I couldn’t see the priest.

“Ella. Can you see me? Where does it hurt the most right now?”

Lucian moved with quick strides while holding me. He looked down to meet my eyes and asked.

I marveled at how my body barely shook despite the speed at which he was moving, and I struggled to answer.

“My heart, and my head……”

I was worried because my voice wouldn’t come out properly, but fortunately, it seemed to reach Lucian.

After a momentary look of conflict, he held me firmly with one arm and pulled off the glove of his other hand with his teeth.

‘Why the glove…….’

Why would a boy with a germophobia take off his glove? My body couldn’t be very clean right now, covered in cold sweat as I was…….

The idle thoughts floating through my hazy mind were completely blown away the moment Lucian placed his hand on my forehead.

‘Ah.’

The moment that white hand touched my brow.

The world that had been spinning dizzily all day long snapped back into place in an instant.

It felt as if a raging storm had been peacefully calmed by a single small gesture.

A sensation that words could not describe.

My body, feeling this, moved instinctively before my mind could react.

“……\!”

Without realizing it, I pressed my forehead firmly into Lucian’s hand and rubbed against it like a spoiled pet; I felt him flinch.

I knew it was rude, but in this moment, his hand gave me such a sense of sanctuary that I couldn’t pull away.

Through my blurred vision, Lucian wore an unreadable expression.

He stared at me as if looking at something strange, then his lips parted slightly.

“……Laviella.”

With that call, my consciousness drifted far, far away.

I lost consciousness in Lucian’s arms.