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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: His Concern
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***
Lumina slowly opened her eyes.
The world was black.
*Is it night?*
The intermittent sound of rain made her feel drowsy.
It felt like it would be fine to go back to sleep.
In fact, her whole body ached and her head felt like it was melting into a puddle, so unless someone forced her awake, she planned to close her eyes again.
Lumina shifted slightly, about to drift off to dreamland again.
“Ah.”
*It's cold.*
Something so startlingly cold and damp touched her forehead.
Jolted, Lumina finally realized someone was beside her.
*'Young Duke?'*
It was Karayan.
Even in the darkness, his brilliant golden eyes were fixed solely on her.
Her eyes met Karayan's.
Her creaky consciousness felt like it was urging her to get up.
As if she had never been a boneless slime, Lumina tried to sit up.
“What are you doing? Don't even think about getting up yet. Just lie down.”
Karayan grumbled, placing a hand on Lumina's forehead.
*Thump—.*
And pushed her back onto the bed.
Her head back on the pillow, Lumina realized the cold object on her forehead was a wet towel.
She’d never had one placed on her before in her life, so the sensation felt strangely unfamiliar.
“Um…”
“Your voice sounds terrible. Drink this first.”
*Ah, ah. Yes.*
She didn't know how long she had slept, but her voice was completely hoarse.
Even to her own ears, it sounded like some hairy old man was speaking.
Afraid she'd get another scolding if she answered aloud, Lumina replied only in her mind and obediently took what Karayan offered.
Sniffing it, she found it was ginger tea. It was still warm, and just holding the cup with both hands made her feel better.
Since she couldn't drink it lying down, Lumina sat up abruptly.
Was it because she had sat up again after he had just made her lie down?
Karayan watched her with a displeased expression.
“Young Duke.”
*Ahem, ahem.*
She cleared her throat and gulped down the ginger tea without so much as a frown.
Karayan placed his hand on her forehead again and pushed her back, making her fall back with a *thump*. She called out to him.
*My voice sounds almost normal now. I guess the ginger tea chased the hairy old man away.*
With that thought in mind.
“Do I have a fever?”
Facing Lumina, whose eyes were shining brightly, Karayan let out a disbelieving laugh.
“You don't even know the state of your own body?”
“I don't particularly feel sick.”
She wanted to lie on her side and talk to Karayan face-to-face.
But she was afraid of the catastrophe of the wet towel falling off, so she had no choice but to lie perfectly straight.
“But when I use my ability on you, Young Duke, I get a strange feeling. It's more painful, colder, and muddier than usual.”
*Would it feel like this if I swallowed a handful of ice picks? No, I think it was worse than that.*
Lumina muttered, staring blankly at the ceiling.
It was a topic he had wanted to ask about anyway, so Karayan spoke up.
“You. What on earth is wrong with your ability?”
“My ability? I don't normally collapse like this. I think you're a special case, Young Duke.”
“…”
“When I use my ability on other people, I don't feel like this, nor do I end up in this state. It must be related to that strange feeling, don't you think?”
As if she had never been on the verge of death, Lumina had regained her vitality.
Karayan touched the cheek of the girl who would return a hundred words for his one.
At his touch, the chattering Lumina instantly clammed up.
Only the sound of rain filled the space between them.
It was Karayan's low voice that broke the desolate silence.
“My wound. You took it, didn't you?”
Karayan said, gently stroking Lumina's cheek with his fingers.
Her healing was so fast that the wound on her cheek had already faded significantly.
Soon, it would likely vanish as if it had never been there in the first place.
But that didn't mean the shocking sight Karayan had witnessed had never happened.
“…You saw?”
*Should I make an excuse, or not?*
Lumina, her eyes darting back and forth in thought, spoke.
“What? 'You saw?' You were in so much pain you were sobbing, and all you can say is 'you saw'?!”
For some reason, Karayan raised his voice. He seemed very angry.
Lumina was puzzled.
*Is he more compassionate than he looks?*
*The type of person who can't stand seeing others get hurt?*
To Karayan, Lumina was merely a tool to deal with the troublesome suitor named Arabelle.
She was like an object he could treat without emotion, so shouldn't he be pleased that a mere wound had been transferred to her?
“I did cry, but it was just a physiological reaction. You'd tear up too if someone pinched you, Young Duke!”
“That's never happened to me.”
Lumina resisted the urge to pull on Karayan's annoying lips.
Since Karayan was a Legion, he probably really wouldn't feel anything even if he were pinched.
They were both Legion, yet there was such a difference.
“More importantly, do you know what this is?”
Karayan held a small, white flower in front of Lumina's eyes.
It was a fresh flower, as if just picked from the garden.
She wondered if this was some kind of test, like holding up fingers and asking, 'How many am I holding up?'
Lumina said what she saw.
“It's pretty. A white flower. It's very small.”
“Where do you think I got this?”
“There were a lot of flowers in the garden, so maybe you picked it from there?”
“You coughed it up.”
“…Pardon?”
“It came out of your mouth.”
Silence fell once more.
Lumina blinked, staring at the flower.
*That?*
“Don't lie to me. I may be young, but I'm not naive enough to fall for such a flimsy lie.”
How could a flower coming out of a person's mouth make any logical sense?
It was the same even for a Legion.
“I'm not joking. You're the Young Duchess, after all. It's not like you'd be carrying flowers in your mouth because you're hungry. Have any idea?”
“None.”
Nothing like this had happened in her past life either.
And it wasn't as if she had eaten any flowers recently.
If she and Karayan had been close, she would have wondered if he was playing a prank on her.
But they weren't like that.
“You coughed up more than one or two, so I've already given the rest to the doctor. Unless he's a quack, he should be able to figure out what's wrong.”
Karayan's tone was still one of displeasure.
“But the more I think about it, the more he seems like a quack. I asked for medicine, and he said there was nothing to do but wait for you to regain consciousness.”
“Were you worried?”
“What?”
The grumbling Karayan was struck speechless by Lumina's words.
He looked as if he'd just heard a foreign language.
“It's true, isn't it? This wet towel, too. You were worried about me, so that's why you stayed by my side all this time, right?”
Karayan really did seem more compassionate than he looked.
He looked like the type who wouldn't care if the person next to him collapsed.
The more they talked, the more Lumina sensed that he had been agonizing while she was unconscious.
“This is the first time someone's placed a wet towel on me when I was sick. I was curious what it felt like… It's very cold.”
The feeling of the soft towel was nice.
It made her reveal inner thoughts she otherwise wouldn't have.
She had never been this sick so often before, and no one had ever worried by her side just because she was ill.
*'I remember secretly watching my stepmother stay by Endymion's side all night whenever he had a fever.'*
To Lumina, it had been a picturesque scene.
The fact that the image still lingered, popping into her mind from time to time, meant her young heart must have been envious.
*'I never consciously admitted it, but maybe a part of me was envious even to this day. Not anymore, though.'*
Now that she had experienced it, there was no reason to be envious anymore.
The whole situation felt new and, for some reason, pleasant to Lumina.
“I was only here because I didn't feel like leaving my room. And I put the wet towel on you because you kept groaning, hoping you'd get better faster.”
Hearing Karayan's insincere words made a smile sneak onto her face.
“It's not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal. People don't usually do this much unless they care.”
*Hehe.*
Lumina smiled.
“So you took care of me, Young Duke?”
“I told you, I was just here. And what's so great about being sick that you keep smiling?”
“Do you think I like being sick? I'm smiling because I'm happy you stayed by my side while I was.”
“…”
“Thank you.”
*Splat—.*
Before she could even finish her sentence, Karayan threw the spare wet towel at Lumina's face.
Lying there peacefully one moment and assaulted the next, Lumina was taken aback.
He hadn't thrown it hard, so it didn't hurt, but she couldn't help being surprised when the wet towel suddenly covered her entire face.
“Don't smile at just anyone like that.”
*Was my smiling face so unsightly that he had to throw a wet towel at me?*
Intending to give Karayan a piece of her mind, Lumina quickly pulled the towel away.
And then she saw it.
Karayan's beet-red face.
