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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: A Dainty White Flower
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“Yes, yes! Right away!”
The coachman, sensing the gravity of the situation, immediately spurred the carriage forward.
The Heart estate was as famous as the Imperial Palace, so they wouldn't waste time getting lost.
Rattle, rattle—.
As the speed increased, the carriage jolted. Having hailed the first carriage they could find, the ride was far from smooth.
Karayan held Lumina on his lap, quickly abandoning his plan to lay her on the seat.
Instead, worried her head might hit something, he held her close, protectively.
‘It would be faster if I just ran myself.’
Karayan anxiously glanced at the scenery blurring past the window.
He understood intellectually that the coachman was doing his best on the rain-slicked roads.
But feeling Lumina whimpering like a puppy in his arms, his understanding flew out the window; all he could think was that they needed to be at the estate *right now*.
He felt suffocated with frustration. If only he knew the way, he would have bolted from the carriage and run.
Growing more impatient, Karayan tore his gaze from the window and looked down at Lumina.
Her eyes were red from how much she had cried. Her face was soaked, too.
As Karayan wiped the corners of her eyes with his thumb, he suddenly realized.
His own condition was hardly any different.
The only difference was that Karayan could wander in the rain for ten days straight and be perfectly fine, whereas this soft little honeybee would surely collapse from a single drop.
Karayan said to the coachman.
“If you have a dry towel, give it to me.”
“What? Sir?”
Karayan's own clothes were soaked, so he couldn't use them to dry Lumina.
“If you have a cloth to wipe with, hand it over now!”
Thinking the coachman hadn't heard him over the rain, Karayan raised his voice and urged him on.
The coachman hastily pulled a handkerchief from his coat.
“If this will do…”
If the coachman reached his arm back, Karayan could easily take it.
Just as Karayan was about to snatch the handkerchief.
Lumina grabbed Karayan's hand.
He wondered if she had regained consciousness, but that wasn't it.
It was simply that Lumina's subconscious had reached out to grab something, and Karayan's hand just happened to be there.
Lumina held his hand tightly, refusing to let go.
It was as stubborn as when she used her powers as a Legion.
He could have pried her fingers away if he forced it.
But Karayan didn't want to.
“Just toss it back here. I’ll catch it.”
“What? Oh. Yes, sir.”
The coachman tossed the handkerchief as ordered. It fluttered weakly and landed nearby.
Sniff, sniff.
Catching the handkerchief with his free hand, the first thing Karayan did was smell it.
He couldn't possibly press something dirty against this pale face.
After this verification process, he gently wiped her face.
Lumina's weak breaths were audible.
As he prayed that her breathing wouldn't stop, Lumina's lips parted.
Fascinated by the movement of her small lips, he found himself staring without realizing it.
Staring blankly at Lumina's face, Karayan was suddenly stunned.
“…Endymion.”
Because the name of an unfamiliar man had escaped her lips.
Endymion?
Who the hell is that?
To think that the same lips that had just confessed her love for him were now faintly calling the name of a man he didn't know.
For some reason, he felt displeased.
Lumina was just a peculiar Legion being used by the Duke.
And though they were married, unlike the passionate Lumina, he felt nothing for her.
“Why…”
“…”
“Why did you do that?”
“What did that bastard do to you?”
He asked before he knew it.
But, of course, there was no reply.
Could it be that this Endymion fellow had hit this tiny girl?
Where on this bean-sized body was there even a place to hit?
‘Come to think of it…’
He had found traces of abuse on Lumina before.
Could that bastard Endymion be the problem?
He didn't even like the sound of the name.
It sounded narrow-minded, ugly, and stupid.
Karayan naturally came to despise every Endymion in the world.
And he watched her closely, hoping she would say something else.
But Lumina's lips only mumbled, and she didn't say anything more in her sleep.
So who the hell is Endymion!
Now he was frustrated, desperate to hear the answer to that question.
***
On rainy days, the Duke's residence was as silent as a tomb.
Lucius would lock himself in his room and not emerge until the rain stopped, and the servants would hold their breath, walking on eggshells around him.
It was best not to get on his bad side on days like this.
Just as everyone was lying low.
CRASH—!
The door flew open as if it were being smashed.
Startled by the sound, servants came out.
And they saw the face of the uninvited guest who had barged in so recklessly.
“Young Master?”
RUMBLE, CRACK—!
Just then, a bolt of lightning struck with a clap of thunder.
Everyone could see that Karayan was holding a small, yellow bundle.
The bright yellow color drew their eyes, and the servants were puzzled.
What is that?
Only a few servants recognized it as the honeybee raincoat they had dressed Lumina in, and they quietly gasped.
“Summon the doctor.”
The servants of the duchy did not stand around gawking stupidly.
With years of experience serving the Duke of Heart, they quickly composed themselves and moved quietly but swiftly.
Some went to fetch the doctor, some wiped the floor where rainwater was dripping, and the rest guided Karayan to a room.
“Young Master, allow me to carry the little madam.”
“That’s not necessary.”
Karayan coldly brushed off the servant, who was much larger than him.
Then, as if afraid someone would snatch Lumina away, he moved with a wary gaze.
This was the place he had sworn countless times never to return to.
Because this was where *that man*, whom he never wanted to call father, lived.
Whenever he came to his senses after a rampage, he would find himself here.
He had been dragged here by force, but this was the first time he had come on his own two feet.
His pain and wounds were completely gone, and he was in his right mind, which made him feel even worse.
But the single thought that he had to save this girl right now was the only thing keeping him from fleeing his displeasure.
“Damn it.”
Karayan muttered a small curse.
Because when the weakest girl in his life, worth less than a rolling stone, had collapsed, this was the first place that came to mind.
To think that the place he despised most was the only one that could help.
Somehow, it felt miserable and humiliating.
***
Shwaaa—.
Raindrops tapped against the window.
The air was damp, heavy enough to sink, and a small candle flame flickered as if about to go out at any moment.
In the deep darkness, Karayan sat beside the bed.
He gazed down at Lumina, who now lay in bed, washed and dried until she was soft and clean.
Even while being tended to by others, Lumina's tightly shut eyelids showed no sign of opening.
But she wasn't completely still.
After being laid in bed, Lumina had taken hold of Karayan's finger.
His index finger caught by surprise, Karayan had frozen in that position and had been sitting there ever since.
“Why do you keep making me worry?”
Popping up just when I'm about to forget you, turning my world upside down, and now you're just lying there so peacefully.
It was truly infuriating.
If he had his way, he would have stretched those cheeks that looked so soft.
But the wound that had suddenly appeared after Lumina used her power caught his eye, so he stopped at just the thought.
She hadn't shed a single tear when facing Arabelle, yet she had burst into tears from the pain of using her power.
That face lingered like an afterimage.
“If a Legion's healing ability, one that has never existed before, merely transfers the wounds to the user…”
It meant that all the pain he had felt had been transferred to Lumina.
She must have already used her power on him once, so she knew this and still decided to marry him.
It was a love so relentless it could only be described as tenacious.
If Lumina woke up, he wanted to ask her what part of him she saw that made her fall for him so deeply.
So she had to wake up.
Karayan gazed endlessly at Lumina's delicate features.
Usually, on rainy days like this, Karayan would wander around listlessly.
Because it had also been raining on the day of the great massacre, when that man had taken the lives of countless Legions.
“Mother…! Mother!”
Whenever it rained, he felt as if he had returned to being seven years old.
A powerless seven-year-old, forced to watch as that man took the life of his mother, who had been an ordinary human.
“Mister Guardsman! Here! The kids! Are hitting! Someone!”
But from the moment Lumina came running in her yellow raincoat, he hadn't had a moment to dwell on the past that shackled him.
Recalling the voice that had pierced so clearly through his pain, Karayan let out an involuntary chuckle.
“Don't do something so dangerous again. If those brats had crushed you…”
Crushed you?
He was struck by the intuition that he might have broken his vow to never harm anyone on a rainy day.
Unable to voice the thought, Karayan shifted his gaze to Lumina's hand clutching his index finger.
It was the same now.
Just being with her was enough to calm him.
Just as Karayan was feeling the faint warmth spreading from where they touched.
Cough, cough.
Lumina let out a series of coughs.
Shocked, Karayan shot up from his seat.
Because she hadn't just coughed; she had coughed up a white object.
Something was very, very wrong.
About to call for the doctor, Karayan recognized the object Lumina had coughed up and frowned.
And with his free hand, he picked it up.
“A flower…?”
It was something that should never come out of a person's mouth, let alone an ordinary Legion's.
A pure white, dainty flower that looked just like Lumina.
