Episode 161. Holding Onto the Deeply Red End of Time
Meanwhile, the King's personal physician gasped for breath as if he were dying, seeing the world rush by.
A wild-looking soldier, who had appeared suddenly, rudely forced him onto a horse and raced down the road.
As the physician screamed at the top of his lungs that he would surely die like this, the soldier roughly grabbed his neck and whispered ominously close to his ear.
“If you’re late, you might really die, so just keep quiet.”
And that wasn't all. As soon as the rude soldier dismounted, he put him on a boat. They crossed the sea, where dark Magical Creature carcasses floated, and arrived at a warship, surprisingly.
“Tell me now! Is it the Crown Prince who is injured, or the Prince?!”
As the physician, being pushed up the warship's stairs, asked in protest, Methone, who was pushing his back, sighed and said.
“You will have to treat Her Highness.”
At that, the physician's face hardened.
Soon, as they entered a corridor with a faint smell of blood, the physician stopped walking, turned around, and shouted at Methone.
“This is against palace law!”
Methone let out a sigh in front of the physician’s stubborn expression. He glared at the physician with eyes dripping with annoyance and pushed his shoulder with his hand.
“We don’t have time for this, so hurry up.”
“Let go! I cannot treat Her Highness!!”
His resounding voice echoed faintly down the corridor.
The gazes of the special forces waiting in the corridor all turned towards a certain door. It was because the man had fearlessly provoked a highly agitated beast.
As expected. Just as the sound of footsteps, almost like running, could be heard,
CRASH!
The door burst open with a deafening roar, and Noah appeared.
Methone glanced at Noah, who was approaching ferociously like an angry lion from behind the physician, and gestured to the physician.
The physician’s lips trembled at the ominous footsteps approaching him, and he creakily turned his head.
“What?”
The moment he turned his head, a ghastly face loomed.
“Hieek!”
Constricted pupils, a chill devoid of any human emotion.
The physician felt as if he were facing a merciless beast with bared fangs, or a demon, and his legs gave out.
Then, Methone, who was behind him, kindly grabbed him by the neck and pushed him towards Noah.
Noah looked down at the physician with burning eyes and opened his mouth.
“Why?”
“Ah, surely you know, Your Highness. It is the solemn palace law. A law that has been upheld in any emergency situation……”
“Then we’ll break it now.”
The royal physician who strictly adhered to palace law.
How much effort had he put in to earn that glorious title?
The physician suppressed the fear of death and barely protested.
“…I must uphold the palace law. You ask me to treat Her Highness. I cannot.”
At those words, Noah felt something inside him crumble.
At the same time, he felt it keenly.
Even though they lived under the same sky, the worlds he and Olivia inhabited were entirely different.
Arguing with this stubborn man would only waste precious time. Noah scanned his face. As his hand moved, Olivia’s blood smeared on his face. That drove Noah mad.
“That damned palace law.”
‘A female royal of Herot shall receive treatment only from a female physician within Herot’s borders.’
Then, if the place of treatment was not Herot, or if she was not royalty, it would be fine, wouldn't it?
Noah commanded the soldiers who approached him.
“Set the warship in motion. The destination is the joint waters beyond Herot’s waters.”
As the soldiers, who recognized the gravity of the situation, moved quickly, Noah stared intently at the physician and opened his mouth.
“Do you want something worse? If you still refuse to treat her, fine. I will renounce my status.”
“……!”
His green eyes, which hinted at madness, burned with a single purpose.
“If I am no longer royalty, then Olivia will not be royalty either, and then will you treat her?”
With his intense will, the physician could no longer cite palace law.
Noah pushed his back, rendering him speechless.
He pushed him into the room reeking of blood and dragged him before the pale, dying Olivia.
“Save her.”
The command, descending upon his pure white hair, was simple yet powerful.
Simultaneously, the sound of the warship's engine roaring to life was heard, and the ship began to move.
“Please.”
The imposing voice, which had always felt harsh, now felt strangely moist.
The physician could not bring himself to look back at Noah and took a step towards the Princess consort. She had clearly lost a lot of blood. Her face was so pale it looked blue, her breaths shallow and far apart.
Although he had insisted he couldn't treat her, he couldn't just turn away after seeing her like this. The physician let out a sigh-like breath and quickly took off his coat. Then he shouted to the military doctor.
“Disinfectant!”
A short while later, as the warship left the boundaries of Herrington Bay, Olivia’s surgery began under the physician’s hand.
The flow of the universe, or all change moving from order to disorder.
Involved in everything in the world, yet fairer than anything and at the same time the most indifferent.
Noah could not let go of the time that had already slipped away.
Could he not have noticed it sooner, just before the ship carrying Olivia surged forward? Or perhaps, he should have gone to the Magic Dome with Olivia. Or maybe he should have prevented them from going to the Magic Dome altogether.
The time that enveloped him stretched out with cruel length. Every minute, every second felt like an eternity.
As the deeply red interior was probed with silver instruments, even redder blood flowed onto the already blood-stained white skin. The physician pulled out a rather long piece of metal with slender forceps.
It would be easier to bear if the probing were of himself, and the flowing blood were his own.
Noah checked Olivia’s breathing again. Her faint breaths were very short, with long intervals. Looking down at Olivia, Noah spoke to her inwardly, ceaselessly.
I’m sorry, I was wrong.
I was wrong, Liv.
But Olivia did not answer.
He thought he had saved her.
The collapsing house, the contempt of the people.
He thought it was natural for her to be by his side, having been saved from all of that.
But it was not so.
Only after the shells of pride and face disappeared did the reality become clear.
Noah’s eyes trembled slightly, then finally wavered.
It was he who had been saved, not her.
It was she who had pulled Noah Astrid, who had been bored and unable to find a place in the world, back into the world.
“Just hold on a little longer. It’ll be over soon, Liv.”
Noah carefully wiped the blood from Olivia’s forehead and whispered tenderly.
Ignoring his raw, exposed hands and back, Noah stayed by Olivia’s side until her surgery was complete.
It seemed he wouldn't be able to bear it otherwise, so no one stopped him.
The surgery concluded in the joint waters, not Herot’s territorial waters.
After several hours of long surgery, the King’s physician glanced at the Prince, who looked as if he had crawled out of hell. He was surprised that Noah Astrid had stayed by the Princess consort’s side, only looking at her face throughout the entire surgery.
“There were five fragments in total. I checked various organs just in case……”
“Can she live?”
“Fortunately, the fragments avoided vital organs, blood vessels, and bones……”
“Can she live?”
Noah ignored the lengthy explanation and asked the same question repeatedly.
Given the critical injury to her abdomen, there was a high probability of permanent disability. If her uterus was damaged, she might not be able to have children; if her bones were damaged, she might never be able to get up from her bed, but he asked only one thing.
Can she live?
The physician looked at Noah with a strange gaze and nodded.
“Yes. However, the amount of blood she has lost is a concern. The key is for her to regain consciousness as soon as possible.”
Only then did Noah close his weary eyes and exhale a long breath. The physician hesitated for a moment before adding.
“Fortunately, I believe there will be no problem with her having children in the future.”
After a long silence, Noah replied slowly.
“…That doesn’t matter at all.”
It would be regrettable if Olivia wanted to have children, but Noah himself was truly fine. They could live together without children.
Noah bowed respectfully to the wrinkled physician.
“I apologize for my rudeness. Thank you.”
“Ah……”
As the physician was momentarily lost in thought by the unexpected polite apology, Noah turned back to Olivia.
“What should I do to help her regain consciousness?”
“Well. The saying that life is a path one walks alone truly hits home at times like this. There is no other way than for Her Highness to fight her way through. Your Highness……”
The physician continued, gazing at the Princess consort lying as if dead.
“Just stay by her side.”
At his words, Noah moved. He sat on a narrow chair, hunched his broad back, and tidied the hair on Olivia’s forehead. His back was also a mess.
“Your Highness also needs treatment.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
His stubbornness was unmistakably that of King Leonard’s son. The physician, gazing at Noah’s wounded back, took out an ointment from his bag, placed it beside Noah, and quietly disappeared.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Ansen stood at a snow-swept harbor.
It was strange.
A Kraken had appeared, yet why was it so quiet?
He had ultimately refused Noah’s command and not repaired the Magic Dome, so why was there no contact from the Herot royal family?
As Ansen roughly rubbed his face and glared at the dark sea, someone offered him something.
“……?”
Ansen turned around irritably, and the moment he saw the man offering him the item, he froze.
“……!!”
Noah Astrid was standing there. His face, as beautiful as a divine form yet devoid of humanity, exuded his unique aura.
However, when their dark eyes met, Ansen realized that this was not Noah.
Ansen bowed his head with a displeased expression.
“I greet the Crown Prince.”
Usher chuckled and waved the newspaper he had offered him again.
“Read it first. Then we’ll talk.”
Ansen suppressed the overwhelming sense of unease and took the newspaper Usher handed him. He was acting so confidently when he should be begging for mercy…
“…….”
Alas, the night of misfortune was not over.
