The Wind Calms the Fire - Chapter 21

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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 21
“Your Highness.”
“……Yes.”
“You make me out to be quite shameless.”
Carrion smiled bitterly as he spoke.
“There are people I can turn to for help. Just not you, Princess.”
Then he set his expression cold again, lifting his chin as he continued.
“Frankly, I’m not sure I can trust you, but I’ll accept your assistance.”
Lea let out a short, hollow laugh.
The arrogance of bestowing a favor suited his handsome face so perfectly that it irritated her just a little.
At the same time, she realized he was doing it on purpose—to lighten the mood.
For someone so obstinate, he had a subtle sense of humor.
‘Is it strange that I’m accepting it as a joke?’
She felt a creeping sense of alarm.
Just days ago, she had cursed this man under her breath.
Her resentment toward him was quietly dissipating.
Sitting alone with him inside the carriage no longer felt uncomfortable.
Lea cleared her throat unnecessarily and spoke.
“From everything you’ve told me, the symptoms are likely to appear again tonight. Worse than last night, probably.”
Carrion nodded.
“You said that if my hand touches you, you can breathe. Do you remember?”
He nodded again.
Without realizing it, she had phrased her question assuming he remembered what had happened in the bedchamber that night.
She didn’t notice the discord in the fact that he had answered as if he did.
Lea reached across the table and placed her hand on the back of his.
“How is it now?”
Carrion’s gaze fixed on her hand.
His expression remained unchanged, though internally he was deeply flustered.
The moment her small, soft hand touched him, goosebumps rippled across his skin and his lower abdomen churned.
It had nothing to do with the seizure. His body was simply responding to her.
He swallowed dryly before answering.
“I’m not sure.”
“Hmm……. So there’s no reaction during the day, it seems.”
‘But I can’t exactly slip into his tent at night.’
It was impossible to enter his tent without anyone noticing.
They were camped in an open area with dozens of people around.
“It seems you don’t know either. Is that correct?”
“Yes. All we know is what we’ve learned from our own experience.”
“So we need to figure things out one piece at a time.”
“Let’s start with the change in your symptoms. You said they occurred about once a month before, didn’t you? But ever since the night of the forest fire, they’ve been happening every day. That’s a complete departure from before.”
“There was something strange before that.”
“When?”
“In the Inner Garden at dawn, right after my usual seizure. When I grabbed your wrist……. How do I describe it? It felt refreshing and soothing.”
Lea seized both his hands firmly.
“Do you feel that sensation now? The one from that night?”
Carrion shook his head.
It wasn’t that he felt nothing at all.
But he couldn’t tell her the truth.
His body was responding purely as a man’s would.
Lea reasoned based on what he had said.
‘His spirit……. Yes. It seems half-sealed.’
A human body cannot fully suppress a spirit’s power.
Eventually it reaches a breaking point and erupts violently.
‘That’s why the seizures happen periodically.’
The Fire Spirit sleeps most of the time and doesn’t respond to Lea.
But that dawn in the Inner Garden had come right after his seizure, so the Fire Spirit hadn’t yet fallen back into slumber.
That’s why it reacted when it touched her body.
‘If I assume this, the pieces seem to fit.’
“The night of the forest fire, different symptoms appeared, and after you made contact with me, you immediately felt better.”
“It subsided that night, but started again the next day. Much improved compared to my usual seizures, though.”
“And the symptoms are worsening every day. So everything is accounted for now, is it?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I may be able to ease your condition, but it seems I cannot cure it entirely.”
“What we need to determine is the intensity of contact and…….”
Carrion trailed off.
Lea spoke quickly before the silence grew awkward.
“Today let’s test whether it works as a preventative.”
“A preventative?”
“Whether contact can prevent symptoms from appearing in the first place.”
He looked at her hand, which he still held tightly, and asked.
“You mean like this?”
Lea withdrew her hand from his as she spoke.
“This won’t do. That night in the forest…… well, we should try something more like that…….”
Her eyes had been drifting downward, but suddenly she lifted her chin.
“Let’s establish a rule. Neither of us should feel embarrassed. This is treatment.”
Carrion seemed overwhelmed by her resolve, blinking as he answered.
“V…… very well.”
Watching him rise, Lea flinched without meaning to.
But she quickly composed herself, shifting inward to leave space beside her, as if nothing were amiss.
When he settled next to her, she tensed.
She felt the warmth radiating from him at once, and found herself thinking anew of how large his frame was.
A memory flickered through her mind—that night when his dead weight had pressed down on her as he slept, and she’d struggled beneath him.
‘No. No. Don’t think about it.’
Lea stiffened her neck and lifted her head.
Inwardly, she repeated that this was treatment, that she was doing this to help him.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Carrion’s thoughts were tangled.
She stood before him with her eyes shut, utterly defenseless.
This woman truly feared nothing.
Did she not understand how perilous the moment was?
She was baring her vulnerability before someone who held her weakness in his grasp.
Yet what disturbed him more than knowing he had leverage over her was imagining her doing this before others as well.
He studied her carefully.
With her eyes closed, her usual fierce composure vanished, leaving only a serene beauty.
Her skin gleamed with clarity, her cheeks flushed faintly, and her closed lips were full and inviting.
‘Madness.’
He needed to stop thinking. This was treatment, as she’d said.
Carrion cradled her chin lightly with one hand, angled his head, and pressed his lips to hers.
At first, only their lips touched.
He drew in her lower lip, holding it gently.
He felt her body start in surprise.
His other hand, resting on the table, grew tense.
The sensation of lips meeting, the soft whisper of her breath, the sweetness of her scent—all converged to assault his senses.
He opened his mouth wider, consuming her lips.
Through the small gap, he slipped his tongue forward.
“Mm…….”
A startled sound escaped her nose.
Heat surged up the back of his skull.
Impatience seized him; he couldn’t hold back.
His hand found her nape, steadying her.
He turned his head to deepen the kiss.
“Mmm…….”
He wrapped and stroked her tongue, rubbed their lips together, and sucked softly.
The sensation of her small tongue sliding against his was exquisite, almost unbearable.
Within that brief span, he changed direction several times, their lips crossing again and again.
The small, trembling figure in his embrace gradually relaxed, her body growing pliant.
Meanwhile, he didn’t notice his own breathing growing ragged.
He felt like a child tasting sweetness for the first time.
He wanted to covet it endlessly, again and again.
As he paused to catch his breath for a moment.
Her hand pressed against his chest, just barely, and the touch jolted him back to clarity.
He pulled his lips away and met her gaze.
Both of them breathing shallow and quick—the sound filled the carriage.
“……That’s enough…….”
“……Yes.”
“Today we’re testing prevention, after all.”
“Yes.”
Even as he answered, he couldn’t tear his eyes from her lips, glistening with saliva.
The lingering desire to bite them, to taste them, clung to him stubbornly.
“Tell me tomorrow if it works.”
“Understood.”
She stood, swaying uncertainly. The carriage door was behind his back.
“You’ll need to……move.”
“Ah.”
Carrion stepped back at once, clearing the way.
Lea opened the carriage door and departed—her movements quick, almost as if fleeing.
Even after the door closed, Carrion remained standing motionless, as though frozen in place.
He drew one hand through his hair and exhaled sharply.
That night’s kiss had burned itself into his memory with searing intensity.
It was the most extraordinary experience of his life.
He tried to dismiss it as insignificant.
He rationalized it: how could a dying man be unmoved by a hand reaching down to save him?
Today, though, there was no such desperate plight, no sense of his illness being healed.
Yet he found himself completely, inexplicably captivated by her kiss.
For the first time, he glimpsed what it might feel like—that foolish, floundering surrender to a woman.
He had thought he would never understand such a thing in his lifetime.
“Your Highness.”
Cedric’s voice came through the slightly open carriage door.
“Yes.”
Lost in thought, Carrion started.
More time had passed since Lea left than he realized.
“Shall I have supper brought into the Black Castle?”
“No. I’ll eat outside.”
“Very well, Your Highness.”
Carrion splashed cold water on his face with both hands.
No seizure had manifested, yet heat thrummed through his entire body.
The dry, barren life he had known was shaking apart from its foundations.

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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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