For the heart - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 22

Cough.

Blood poured from Nina’s mouth.

Casian saw Nina crushed beneath the massive chandelier instead of himself. His red eyes shook mercilessly.

He bolted upright from where he had fallen and rushed over.

Bang—!

The massive chandelier was flipped and rolled away by the strength of one man.

“Your Highness!!”

Nina’s blue eyes were fixed on Casian as the light slowly faded from them.

And soon, her eyelids fell shut.

* * *

Nina. Nina…

It had been a nightmare that passed quickly.

Lillien unwrapping the gifts piled high in the Imperial Palace Gardens, and myself approaching the cone placed beside her as if entranced.

The pain of Baraguz piercing through my chest after the sky tore open with a thunderous roar and it fell.

Father’s languid voice asking, “Does it hurt, Nina?”

The terrible nightmare passed in an instant, and I heard a voice calling me.

Nina. Nina…

‘It’s you again…’

Nina realized that the owner of the voice seeping into her ears was Casian.

She couldn’t understand why he was calling her with such an anguished voice, but hearing his voice seemed to spread a strange sense of relief.

Nina’s eyelids slowly opened.

“Nina, Nina?”

Violently shaking red eyes were the first thing that came into view.

A cracked voice flowed from Nina’s lips.

“…Casian…”

“Are you, are you conscious?”

Nina breathed deeply and nodded her head.

She didn’t immediately notice that her hand was held by Casian’s while she was cradled in his arms like a baby.

“How did it go, did you get the royal seal on the submission declaration?”

“…Is that what’s important right now.”

Casian clenched his teeth until his jaw bulged at the question she asked as soon as she regained consciousness.

Even though he had poured his healing power into her, Nina hadn’t regained consciousness for over two hours.

Though she was immortal and couldn’t die, the fact that she didn’t wake up despite being healed with his powerful healing ability meant her body had suffered tremendous shock.

And that was to save him.

“The royal seal on the submission declaration…”

“I received it. So don’t worry.”

Only after hearing that the royal seal had been obtained did Nina breathe out long again and close her eyes.

She knew she was being held in his strong arms, but she had no strength to break free.

“Why did you do that.”

“What.”

“Instead of me,”

“I promised.”

Nina, still with her eyes closed, sensed what Casian was trying to say and spoke.

“That even if my body were split into a hundred pieces, I would protect you.”

“What did you say…?”

“If you die or get hurt, I’d have to deal with all of Lillien’s hysteria.”

Nina let out a hollow laugh at her own words, finding them absurd even as she said them.

Though she couldn’t see Casian’s face with her eyes closed, she could imagine how dumbfounded he must look without even seeing it.

“I need you too. And since I have an immortal body that doesn’t die, no matter how injured I get, you can just heal me.”

Only then did Nina sit up and quietly separate herself from Casian.

A Knighthood jacket that wasn’t hers was draped over her shoulders. Her clothes couldn’t have remained intact with countless sharp crystals embedded in them.

Though the jacket didn’t fit her body, she quietly fastened the buttons as it was.

This was much better than having her bare skin exposed.

“Captain.”

“Bern.”

Just then, Bern came up to the second floor where Nina was.

“You’ve awakened.”

“Yeah.”

“Let me take a look. To see if you’ve healed properly. Do you know how worried we were when you wouldn’t wake up?”

When Bern tried to lift the jacket to check Nina’s back, Casian blocked him.

“She must have been completely healed to be able to get up like this. You don’t need to worry about the healing.”

“…Even if it costs me my life, complete healing is only natural. Right now, because of whom is the Captain,”

“Bern.”

Nina called Bern with furrowed brows.

Understanding that she meant for him to stop, he turned his head sharply away from Casian.

“We’ve bound and confined the Prince who used magic. Once the Knighthood’s blades were pointed at the Prince, only then did the King of Nortanica stamp the royal seal on the submission declaration with his own hand. We’ve sent everyone outside and finished preparations to seal the Royal Palace.”

“Well done. We return to Arsed as soon as dawn breaks. Prepare for departure.”

“Yes, Captain.”

After bowing silently to Nina, Bern disappeared to the lower floor.

Nina turned her gaze to the window where dawn was faintly breaking, then looked at Casian.

“Don’t mind what Bern said. Let’s go down.”

The moment she turned to go downstairs, her wrist was caught by Casian.

He just stared down at Nina’s slender wrist that he had grabbed.

“Casian! My son is absolutely not allowed!”

“Mother!”

An unforgettable scene pierced through his mind like an awl before disappearing.

“…In the future, never do that again.”

“…”

Casian raised his head and met eyes with Nina, who wore a puzzled expression.

His low, sunken, suppressed voice continued.

“In front of me, don’t die.”

“I won’t die. I have an immortal body.”

Telling me not to die when I have an immortal body.

It was absurd yet somehow amusing, so Nina’s response carried a hollow laugh.

But unlike Nina, Casian’s face was only dark.

So much so that there was no trace of his usual self who would grin and speak lightly about anything.

Soon Casian slowly lowered his gaze again.

He also gently released Nina’s wrist that he had been holding.

“It’s horrible. So please, never do that again.”

Casian spoke without looking at Nina and walked past her to go downstairs first.

‘How strange. When we first met, I was in an even more horrible state.’

Nina thought to herself as she watched Casian walking away.

Instead of saying thank you, he had coldly reprimanded her saying it was horrible before turning away, but it wasn’t incomprehensible.

It was true that she had shown him various rough appearances.

If he had been a healer treating ordinary knights, he would never have had to heal someone so badly injured. They would have already been dead.

Moreover, he was enduring danger and hardship by participating in battle as a prince of Montregger.

So Nina didn’t resent her dedicated healer. Thanks to him, her body was healed and the siege was successful.

She just thought for the first time that forming an alliance with him had been the right choice.

* * *

The return march from Nortanica to Arsed began.

Since they had conquered faster than any other country so far, the knights’ morale was extremely high.

When they crossed Nortanica’s border again and approached Tabur, Nina ordered Bern to return to the Imperial Palace first with the knights.

“The relative elder who was Seregwan’s attendant lives in a village called Hita. If you ask for someone named ‘Haren,’ they’ll tell you.”

Nina, who wanted to find even a small clue, decided to meet the person who had been Seregwan’s attendant.

“Where are you going that you sent the knighthood ahead?”

“I told you to go with the knighthood, so why are you following me?”

“Crisis situations arise even when it’s not a battlefield. The reason Bern didn’t stop me is probably because I’m Your Highness’s dedicated healer.”

Nina let out a shallow sigh as she looked at Casian, who had naturally followed her when she had planned to go alone.

“There’s someone I need to meet.”

“Someone related to the oracle, I suppose.”

Nina looked at Casian with an astounded expression.

Clip-clop, slowly moving forward on his horse, Casian was looking straight ahead as if he had said something trivial.

‘His intuition is exceptionally sharp.’

Since that day when they witnessed the Empress and Desmorak meeting together, the two had never talked about the oracle.

Having learned that the oracle strongly believed by the entire empire was false, he would use that matter to his advantage in his own way.

Though they were allies, since they each harbored different goals, Nina thought sharing too much wouldn’t benefit her.

That’s why she had tried to visit Haren alone.

Taking Nina’s silence as affirmation, Casian pointed to the first inn that came into view as they approached the city center.

“Let’s rest there for a moment.”

“There’s no time to rest.”

“You wouldn’t want to spread rumors that a woman in Arsed knight uniform and a man in imperial attendant clothing came asking about the oracle.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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