I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 100
Kalien rushed over and helped me to my feet.
“I didn’t expect you to be awake already. What are you doing?”
“My head hurts…”
“Then you should call for me.”
Kalien naturally pulled me into his embrace, resting his chin on the crown of my head. With his other hand, he fumbled across the nightstand and retrieved a small cylindrical container.
My tongue moved of its own accord, producing sounds that made no sense.
“Can’t you do it just one more time? The treatment…?”
“I’d do it anytime if I could. But first, let’s apply this.”
Inside the small, flat cylinder was a thick salve.
Kalien dipped his index finger deep into the ointment and carefully applied it to my lips.
“Do you remember how incredibly aggressive you were yesterday?”
“…?”
“They’re cracked and swollen—it’s a mess. Ah, you’re bleeding…”
Now that he mentioned it, I realized my lips had been stinging oddly. The salve quickly seeped into the surface of my lips.
I gazed up at him blankly. Kalien’s lower lip bore fine cracks as well.
‘…Surely not.’
“Hmm, it seems to work well since it’s from Railo.”
What on earth did I do yesterday?
My words caught in my throat. Every time Kalien murmured something, a small bead of blood appeared and disappeared on the tip of his tongue.
Those were definitely bite marks.
Memories of yesterday unfolded before me like a panorama.
“…!”
Heat flooded my face. Seeing me turn bright red, Kalien let out a short sound of realization.
“It seems the fever hasn’t completely subsided. It’s quite severe… Is it because of the overlap?”
“No, it’s not that.”
I hurriedly covered my face with my hands and turned away. But Kalien caught my wrist and pulled it down.
“Give it to me. Rosy.”
“…What?”
“What’s pooling here. Your Seongyeol.”
Kalien pressed gently with his fingertip just below my left collarbone.
With just that touch, the knot that had been strangling my heart loosened considerably.
I shook my head and stepped back.
“I’ll smell like sweat.”
“Isn’t it far too late to worry about that now?”
“I’m thinking clearly now. I want to bathe. I’m well enough to wash myself.”
Kalien seemed eager to say more, but observing my flustered response, he quickly released his arms.
“Understood. Call if you need anything.”
“Okay…”
I fled into the bathhouse and locked the door behind me.
My heart thundered against my ribs. No matter how much I rubbed my chest, my touch brought no relief whatsoever.
The satisfaction I felt when touching him was nowhere to be found—only a gaping, hollow emptiness remained.
‘So this is what an Elixir does….’
I clamped my mouth shut.
“Star, I beseech you.”
The mutual Elixir Imprinting had finally been completed.
* * *
The moment I emerged from the Bathhouse, I wrapped myself in the blanket and curled into a ball in the corner of the Bed.
Kalien’s voice drifted from beyond the blanket.
“Rosy, won’t you look at me?”
“….”
“I don’t understand why you’re so embarrassed all of a sudden. It’s strange.”
Kalien murmured with a tone full of confusion.
I couldn’t bring myself to face him, so I buried my face between my knees.
Every shameful moment from last night flashed through my mind without exception.
‘Even a three-year-old wouldn’t be so relentlessly demanding…. They wouldn’t shed tears and snot like that….’
Crying. Actually crying!
I had never sobbed like that in front of Kalien before…!
I was so mortified I wanted to simply lose consciousness right here. Had Kalien felt this way when I first became his Elixir?
When Kalien clung to me, it hadn’t seemed ugly at all. It was only pitiful and desperate—so why did my own behavior feel so sordid?
And this cursed heat wouldn’t subside. It felt as though I carried a burning ember in both my mind and my belly.
“Rosy. This only makes things harder for you.”
“….”
“It’s better to calm it down as quickly as possible. Rosy, this isn’t about satisfying my desires—it’s genuinely treatment, nothing more. I understand if you don’t trust me…. But I’m truly worried. Yes?”
I understood now. My body was acutely aware that Kalien’s insistence on treatment once a day had never been mere theatrics.
To prevent a repeat of yesterday, it would be wise to surrender and simply let myself be held.
But this was a matter of my dignity. My history of shame was brief, yet profound.
Kalien released a heavy sigh from beyond the blanket.
“I understand. If you truly dislike it.”
The Bed shifted. Kalien climbed onto it and lifted me, blanket and all, placing me atop him.
“At least stay close to me.”
“…Don’t pull back the blanket.”
“Your wish is my command, princess.”
“Don’t call me that….”
But when Kalien parted the blanket and took my hand, I fell silent.
With even that simple contact, the gentle heat that had been swirling within me began to subside.
I spoke in a stifled voice.
“How did you endure this wretched thing for years? If I’d known it would be like this, I could have….”
If I was going to enter into an Elixir Contract anyway, I could have done it sooner and spared him some of this agony.
I felt that emotion transfer wholly to Kalien.
‘So a mutual Elixir Contract allows even simple emotional exchanges….’
This was rather fascinating. As if we had always been one, I could feel him far more intimately than ever before.
In turn, Kalien’s emotions flowed into me.
It was like being pricked repeatedly by a bundle of needles in my chest….
“…?”
I blinked in bewilderment. Pain?
I pulled the blanket back slightly and looked up at him.
“Kalian, does it hurt?”
“…No. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Really? That’s strange. My heart is throbbing.”
“….”
“Don’t hurt….”
The words spilled out unconsciously. I just wanted at least one of us to be unharmed.
Yet Kalien’s brow furrowed in anguish.
“Rosy…. You really are something.”
“Don’t bite your lip. You’re bleeding.”
“You, you… don’t need to think of me that way. I deserve whatever happens to me.”
Kalien was regretting something. Deeply, with self-reproach woven through it.
“It’s not me who shouldn’t be hurting—it’s you. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left you alone….”
“That’s not your fault. It’s fine.”
The exact name for what Kalien felt seemed to be guilt. Yet the more I tried to soothe him, the more that dull ache in my heart intensified.
“I’m grateful you weren’t broken, Rosy. If I’d been even slightly later, you might have gone right to the brink of death. Of course, you would have come back to life, but there’s no way to avoid the suffering….”
I pulled the blanket down a bit more. The red bruise visible between Kalien’s lips caught my eye first.
“Brother… stop saying unnecessary things. Give me that salve from earlier.”
“…This?”
Kalien’s hand fumbled across the nightstand until he grasped a flat container.
“Where does it hurt? Do you need it?”
“Not me. You.”
I dipped my finger generously into the salve and rubbed it across Kalien’s lower lip. He opened his eyes wide in surprise, his lips parting slightly.
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
“Just stay still… would you stick your tongue out?”
“Why my tongue?”
“Because I’m concerned….”
Marks that red meant he must have bitten down incredibly hard.
Feeling apologetic, I simply placed my hand inside his mouth and applied the salve to his tongue.
“That must have hurt. I’m sorry.”
“….”
“You went through so much accepting me yesterday.”
“…Please don’t say things like that. It makes me feel more and more like garbage.”
Kalien mumbled indistinctly, my index finger still caught between his lips.
He licked my finger that had invaded his mouth with his tongue, then smiled with a grimace.
“It tastes awful.”
“You shouldn’t eat it. It keeps bleeding.”
“My blood has no value whatsoever.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“…My pain is truly worthless and meaningless, Rosy. I’m not someone who deserves to be treated that way, I’m telling you.”
“…?”
“I caused you suffering. I deserve to be annihilated.”
“Aren’t you taking this too far…?”
“Not at all.”
Kalien shook his head and pulled me into a tight embrace.
“I will never torment you again. I won’t lay a finger on any such plan, and I won’t even dare imagine it.”
It sounded like a vow he was making to himself.
I listened to his heartbeat. I wondered if there was anyone else besides Kalien to whom I could entrust myself so completely, so defenseless.
“Luize held me too.”
“What?”
“What’s the difference between him and you…?”
“Wait. I think I just heard something strange, Rosy.”
Kalien, who had been continuously stroking my back, immediately sharpened his tone.
“The Formless Messenger touched you?”
“No. It was really Luize. I’m not certain, but it was definitely him…”
The wildly trembling eyes, the hollow voice—it was unmistakably Luize Whezel who had returned after his body was briefly stolen by the Guardian Star.
‘The problem is, I can’t quite remember what I did with him…’
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew heavy and dark.
“…Did you kiss?”
The question, which had skipped several steps ahead, was almost absurd, but Kalien’s expression was not one of jest.
He didn’t even give me time to answer before continuing his interrogation.
“He held you? He touched you? Like this? How far did it go?”
“What do you mean how far… I felt nothing.”
“Rosy, you have a strange habit of omitting the middle parts when you speak. What happened while I was unable to reach you?”
“I don’t bother explaining because there’s nothing worth answering. Nothing happened, obviously. You took so frustratingly long to come…”
I paused mid-sentence and exhaled hot breath. Trapped under the blanket in this suffocating heat was unbearable.
“I came looking for you right away…”
“…You did?”
Kalien’s sharp tone softened slightly.
“Yes, you did well. You wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Just moments ago he had doubted me, yet now he spoke as though he had always trusted me—utterly shameless.
Kalien freed me from the blanket and tidied my hair.
“Yesterday wasn’t as strange as you think it was.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m serious. You were just beautiful.”
Kalien threaded his fingers through my hair, stroking the nape of my neck with deliberate gentleness. A pleasant shiver rippled across my skin.
“You’ve never acted so clingy with me before. I know I’m shameless, but… I liked it. I liked it far too much.”
Kalien buried his face in the crook of my neck, drawing in a deep breath of my scent and exhaling a sound that was almost a moan.
“I can feel it. Your state right now.”
“….”
“I can feel it vividly—how much you want me. There’s no point in looking away, Rosy.”
“….”
“Shall I kiss you?”

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