Winter Bud - Chapter 87

“We need to call a physician. I think you’re a little strange.”

“…Where is this?”

“Jerix.”

The man who completely ignored her words turned his gaze and looked around. Nanna looked at him with a face like she was about to cry, then bit down hard on her lip. Jerix, who had been trying to shake her hand off, suddenly lifted his gaze. Without even realizing he was staring over her shoulder, Nanna ended up bursting into tears.

“Why….”

Nanna, lowering her head because she couldn’t hold back her sobbing, saw the man pull away from her and move forward.

“Jerix?”

She turned around. In front of Jerix were several unfamiliar men wearing masks. Intruders. That was the only thing that rose in her pitch-black mind. The masked men drew their swords one after another. Startled, Nanna grabbed Jerix’s arm.

They had to run away. No matter how much Jerix was an imperial guard, he didn’t even have a weapon for self-defense. Even if he was a seasoned knight, could he fight without a sword? And there were several of them. His life was truly in danger.

“Run, run away!”

“They’ll chase us.”

“It’s better than getting killed here, so outside… ahh!”

One of the men charged at Jerix. Nanna screamed and reflexively stumbled backward. Jerix easily avoided the attack. Even if he wore a sword at his waist, even if he wore his imperial guard uniform properly, she hadn’t felt that he was a trained knight who had experienced “killing” many times. But watching him face the men, she suddenly felt his history and identity.

“Jerix. Please….”

Nanna trembled and clutched her belly. She had to run. She had to go down the stairs and tell the servants. But strength wouldn’t go into her legs. Instead, like a newborn herbivore, her knees buckled, and Nanna plopped down, only shedding tears.

Jerix avoided the incoming attacks without much expression. He smashed the opponent’s vital point with his fist and stole the sword. With a weapon, he easily began to handle the situation one by one. But there was an unexpected hidden card.

“Huk-”

A masked man let out a sneer toward Jerix, whose arm was trembling in small shakes. The spot that had been cut on his shoulder a moment ago was turning bluish-purple. It wasn’t a fatal blow, and it had clearly been only a light graze, but it was turning into a considerable wound, enough that you could see his arm shaking.

Jerix glanced at the wound tainted by poison, then glared at the opponent. Without hesitation, he drove the blade into the man’s solar plexus. Seeing the sword jut out through the thick body, Jerix pulled it out viciously. The masked man spat blood and collapsed to the floor.

Jerix threw the trembling sword away as if tossing it, then turned to Nanna.

“Nanna.”

“J-Jerix….”

Should she be glad? Or should she cry, face twisted? The man who had returned to his original self bit down hard on his lip. Nanna panted, dragging herself forward on her bottom, and went to him. The man who came toward her dropped to his knees and grabbed her hand.

“W-what do we do?”

“I’m fine,” Jerix said, sweating with a deathly pale face. Nanna shook her head. She forced strength into her legs and stood up. With her abdomen heavy, she had to get up wavering.

“Stay here. I, I….”

Nanna sniffled. It was the moment Nanna, stricken by primal fear, turned her back, leaving him behind. A maid who had run up the stairs saw the blood flowing and screamed. At that scream, with a headache that felt like her head would split, Nanna lost consciousness.

Sleep was as heavy as a rock. The weight pressing down from the top of her head to the tips of her toes was closer to a swamp than “sleep.” Waking up, Nanna rolled her dry eyes around, then reflexively sat up at a memory that caught like a stone. But because her abdomen had grown as large as it would, she couldn’t get up in one go and had to groan.

The one who found Nanna, staggering and repeatedly trying to get up, was a maid. She set the tray on the table and approached Nanna. Small hands helped her up. Nanna finally lifted her head.

“Where’s Jerix?”

“He still hasn’t regained consciousness, madam,” answered the maid with a regretful face.

Nanna stared blankly at her, then hurriedly got out of bed. Her lower abdomen ached dully. In fact, her belly hurt as if it might fall out. But she couldn’t stay still. She had to check on Jerix. With an anxious face, she went to find him.

As the maid said, the man still hadn’t regained consciousness.

“T-the physician? Where is the physician?”

“He treated him and went back for a moment. Because you lost consciousness, madam….”

Frozen by Nanna’s fiery attitude, the maid stammered and spoke. The servants urgently called a physician who wasn’t far from the manor, but since both master and mistress had lost consciousness, he only gave urgent treatment and returned first.

Nanna ground her teeth at her own patheticness. Jerix had ended up like this… and yet she’d been lying in bed and losing consciousness while he was like this. While he was so pale and dried up, unable to open his eyes. She wanted to hit her head with her hand.

“Madam.”

Seeing Nanna’s crumpled face, the maid swallowed a sigh and calmly soothed her. With her lips rolled in and bitten down, Nanna stared at the man with his eyes closed. The bandage wrapped around the wound was wrapped very tightly. Her eyelids trembled in tiny shakes. The muscles around her eyes hurt. No, in fact, just staring at him like this hurt, like sprinkling salt on a wound where raw flesh showed, like digging into living flesh.

Even so, Nanna couldn’t take her eyes off. She stared at the man’s pale lips, then stared out the window. The masked intruders came to mind. Who in the world… who had done this to Jerix? It felt like her blood was cooling. When she realized someone had been targeting them, that someone was trying to harm Jerix, she couldn’t stay still.

With tearful eyes, she glared out the window with her lips pressed tight, then clenched her fist.

‘I won’t let this go.’

***

The neat little manor built on the eastern outskirts of the capital was originally, back in the Old Empire, the diplomatic residence used by a neighboring country’s envoy, the residence of the Romer Principality’s mission, which bordered the empire. As the principality’s national strength declined and the Old Empire came to an end, the residence was left vacant, and since the envoy couple had stayed there for a long time, it had a pastoral and charming flavor.

Orestes looked at the woman who was carefully supporting her abdomen as if clutching it. Even though it was a child he wouldn’t have any affection for, Nanna would sometimes stroke her round belly. It seemed like a habit. When she ate something like a snack, she would sometimes bare her teeth and laugh, saying the baby had kicked, and watching her, Orestes sometimes thought such things.

What would it have been like if he were a woman? If she were pregnant with an unwanted child, by a man she didn’t even like, could she still stroke her belly and smile like that? It seemed impossible. So he thought she must have some feelings left for him. She had to. If that weren’t the case, he couldn’t imagine it.

But Nanna, even with his child, was loving another man. He stared at the woman. The woman who had come to find him on her own had a face as white as wax. She was beautiful, but in truth, with her hair disheveled and one shoe not even properly on, her heel crushed, she was almost not in her right mind.

“…You were trying to kill Jerix, weren’t you?”

“Me?”

“You did.”

Her watery eyes blazed. He looked into that small face, then let out a snort of laughter. It hadn’t been him who tried to kill Jerix Rotusi. He thought of Sermione, Duke Everhardt. Wasn’t it obvious? If he could have taken his life with his own hands, he would have, but he was suppressing the remnants of the Old Empire in the eastern border regions by imperial order.

Orestes smoothly pulled at his beautiful lips. It seemed Nanna thought he was the one who had sent men to the manor. He barely held back the laughter that threatened to rise.

“Why….”

Nanna let tears fall. Orestes stood up from his seat. The woman stared blankly at him as he narrowed the distance, then bit down hard on her lip.

“It wasn’t me.”

“Liar!”

“Think whatever you want.”

He laughed nastily. Nanna roughly shook off the man’s hands that grabbed both her cheeks, then tightly seized his neck. Orestes even enjoyed that sensation languidly.