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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Wasp
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*‘Did it fail?’*
Perhaps the medicine wasn’t right for Brandon.
Erica's acting had been so terrible that I had sent him away quickly, afraid we'd be found out. Now I wondered if I should have kept him a little longer to adjust the antidote right away.
It was then that Lumina unknowingly swallowed dryly.
Brandon moved his hand away.
“That’s what I’m saying! I almost cried for a moment.”
His face was perfectly fine.
“Hannah, are you okay now?”
“Yes. I recovered right away.”
The reason he specifically used the word ‘recovered’ was to signify that the pain was gone after taking the antidote.
In fact, the pain vanished completely, as if it had never been there in the first place.
Until now, by focusing his mind, he could somehow maintain his form, but the pain had always remained.
But as soon as he took the medicine, he felt a subtle sensation, as if his body was being reconstructed, and then he was fine.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Lumina turned to Ash.
“Sir Ash. Since things turned out this way, you can have all those egg tarts.”
But he had bought them because Lumina said she wanted some.
Just recalling her description of the food was enough to make his mouth water.
Ash looked at Lumina with a puzzled expression.
“I guess I lost my appetite while waiting! I don’t really feel like eating them.”
“...”
“Perhaps you don’t like egg tarts, Sir Ash? If so, I can’t help it. I’ll just take them home and have them with my father…”
*Shake, shake.*
Ash quickly shook his head and opened the box.
A sweet aroma wafted out, and he couldn’t help but lick his lips.
And so, Ash happily munched on the egg tarts, each smaller than his hand.
*The person who gives you food is a good person.*
Bringing an umbrella in the crowded rain, waiting in line alone.
Compared to waddling around the training grounds, these things didn’t even count as hardships.
Feeling as if the egg tarts had fallen from the sky, Ash's fondness for Lumina grew and grew.
“Shall we head home now?”
Lumina and Brandon watched the last of the egg tarts disappear in the blink of an eye before getting up from their seats.
“Yes, Little Madame. Please stretch your arms out to the sides. Yes, yes. Just like that.”
Brandon slipped a bright yellow bumblebee raincoat onto Lumina's short arms.
He meticulously fastened the buttons and was about to grab the yellow umbrella to leave when it happened.
“Huh?”
A light shone from her chest.
To be precise, from inside her clothes.
“Little Madame? Could it be…”
The necklace she had received during her pledge ceremony with Karayan was glowing.
As if it were calling for her.
“From now on, you'll be the first person he can find whenever he needs you.”
Hurriedly pulling the necklace out from under her clothes, Lumina could now understand what Lucius had once told her.
The light from the necklace felt as if it were urging her on.
The light grew stronger.
Lumina squeezed her eyes shut and vanished in a brilliant flash of light.
It all happened in an instant.
***
“Ugh…”
Hearing a noisy clamor that was completely different from before, Lumina slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Karayan.
It had been a while since she’d seen him. He was standing defenselessly in the rain, surrounded by children of a similar age.
If Karayan had been in the middle of a normal social gathering, Lumina might have whistled and slipped away.
But there was a big problem.
One side was being beaten up.
*‘No, why…’*
Karayan.
*‘Why is he getting beaten up? He's a Legion! And his opponents are clearly normal people!’*
Moreover, Karayan was one of the stronger Legions.
His power was so great that his body couldn't handle it, which was why he needed Lumina.
Lumina quickly scanned her surroundings.
It seemed to be a deserted area; there were no adults in sight to help.
*‘First, I want to know where I am. I have no clue.’*
As she scanned the scene, Lumina noticed an unusual glint in the golden eyes of Karayan, who was lying on the ground, helplessly taking the blows.
The whites of his eyes also seemed to be turning black.
Come to think of it, there was only one situation in which Karayan would need Lumina.
*‘Rampage.’*
This necklace was a device for Karayan to summon Lumina right before he went on a rampage.
Which meant…
*‘If I leave him like this, everyone here, including me, will die.’*
Feeling a sense of crisis, Lumina shouted to stop the senseless violence.
“Guards! There are kids beating someone up over here!”
The children, who looked to be about the same age as Karayan, all turned to look at Lumina at once.
“What’s this?”
“I told you to keep watch. How could you not even stop a kid like that?”
Contrary to her expectations, they weren't flustered at all.
*‘Don't people usually feel guilty and run away in situations like this?’*
These brats, they knew for a fact there were no adults nearby to catch them.
Plan A having failed, Lumina's eyes darted around.
Then, a suitable object caught her eye.
It was a rock, about the size of her face.
She quickly picked it up.
*‘The fist is always closer than the law.’*
Wearing the yellow bumblebee raincoat, Lumina put on the fiercest glare she could muster.
Then she raised the rock high and charged.
“Guards! Here! Kids! Beating! Someone! Up!”
“Wh-what’s with her all of a sudden?”
“Is she crazy?”
The boys began to back away slowly.
“Hey, what do we do?”
“What do you mean? Run! You don't mess with kids like that!”
Her frame was small, but her eyes were unhinged.
Knowing nothing good would come from getting involved with someone like her, they decided to flee.
“What about this one?”
“He's a worthless bug with nothing left to take anyway. Leave him.”
The boys who had kicked Karayan disappeared in the opposite direction from Lumina.
*Pant, pant.*
Panting from running so hard while holding the rock, Lumina also let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. I managed to chase them away without any bloodshed.”
She had genuinely run at them with the intention of smashing their heads.
But the very act of doing something like that with a clear mind was bound to feel unsettling.
She put the rock down.
Then, approaching Karayan, who was lying helplessly on the ground, Lumina crouched down to meet his eyes.
“Young Master.”
She called out to him cautiously.
“Can you hear my voice?”
Soaked through from being fully exposed to the rain, Karayan's golden eyes were empty.
Fortunately, it seemed she had been mistaken about the whites of his eyes turning black.
“Can you recognize me? How many fingers am I holding up?”
Lumina held up two fingers and waved them in front of Karayan's eyes.
This time, she got a response.
“Get that away.”
“You’re alive.”
Judging by his tone, it was definitely Karayan.
Even though the continuous downpour was soaking him cold and his face was covered in wounds.
His clothes were probably hiding a mess of bruises underneath as well.
“Someone who could destroy this entire area if he set his mind to it… why are you being so pathetic?”
Seeing his wretched state, Lumina felt an unwarranted pang of upset and made a comment.
“If I use my power, I become just like him.”
“The Duke?”
“Yes.”
His golden eyes darkened gloomily.
“It was a day just like today. It was raining, and my mother, who was right in front of me, at his hands…”
“You don't have to talk about it if it's hard. It's a memory you wouldn't want to recall.”
“But when it rains, I keep remembering. Again, and again…”
Like a dying ember, Karayan's voice grew fainter.
He looked at Lumina with hazy eyes.
Then, he uttered a single word.
“Wasp.”
Everyone else had made a fuss about how cute she was, calling her a bumblebee or a honeybee, but he called her a wasp.
He always chose the meanest words.
“Yep. Wasp at your service.”
But Lumina responded with the same nonchalance as when he had called her ‘potato’.
“Why are you here? Is this a hallucination? How out of my mind must I be to want to see someone like you?”
Karayan furrowed his brow, as if trying to see Lumina's face more clearly.
The constant rainwater blurred his vision.
He wanted to get a proper look at that round face.
But all that kept catching his eye was the color yellow, so distinct it would stand out even if he saw it from a speeding carriage.
When what he really wanted to see wasn't the yellow, but her lovely pink eyes.
Karayan blinked several times.
Just then, Lumina grabbed his hand.
*Flinch.*
The sudden, unfamiliar warmth made him shudder.
“You called for me, Young Master.”
“I did?”
“Yes. I came because you called me.”
To explain it accurately, she would have had to start with, ‘The wedding we had was a sham.’
But there was no time for complicated explanations. So she glossed over it with a statement that was, in the grand scheme of things, more or less true.
*‘So cold.’*
The important thing right now was that Karayan's hand, clasped in hers, was alarmingly cold.
*I thought they said Legions don't even catch colds.*
Still, Legions were people too, and she worried that staying in the rain for so long might cause problems.
*‘Let's see. The umbrella… ah.’*
Lumina remembered with a jolt as she looked for an umbrella to cover Karayan.
The necklace had started glowing before she could pick up the umbrella.
It was the first time in her life she had been transported like this, so she hadn't had the presence of mind to grab it.
In the end, Lumina took off her bumblebee raincoat.
“Now you can be the wasp, Young Master.”
Just hearing the conversation, one might think they were playing hot potato.
But for Lumina, who had no umbrella, the raincoat was her only means of protection from the rain.
Just as he had once draped his black cloak over her, Lumina now draped her raincoat over him.
It didn't fit right, making for an awkward covering, but it was enough to shield him from the pouring rain.
