The Wind Calms the Fire - Chapter 25

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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 25
“There’s no escaping this curse, is there.”
“Your Highness.”
“Not a curse? To me, it’s nothing but something loathsome and dreadful.”
Beneath his quiet tone, she sensed a smoldering anger.
‘He was right—I’ve been fortunate.’
Lea had accepted the Spirit Power naturally and achieved Resonance with the Spirit.
In that instant, the Spirit became a precious friend beyond all comparison.
And the Wind Spirit, true to its nature as a symbol of harmony and balance, had been gentle from the start.
Had an unknown force tormented her instead, she would never have opened her heart so easily.
She understood now why Carion spoke of it as a curse.
“Your Highness, there’s no undoing it. You must make peace with the Spirit.”
“Make peace? Peace presupposes that both sides bear fault.”
“Your Highness, sometimes we must bow even when we’re in the right. Many people in this world live in submission to injustice. You’ve had little occasion to experience such things, I imagine.”
Her smile was gentle, but her words were resolute.
Carion regarded her with narrowed eyes.
Was she lecturing him? Mocking him? He found himself at a loss.
This woman’s words and actions often treaded a razor’s edge.
On his tongue sat the words: *Do you know how much forbearance I’ve shown you?* But speaking them would make him seem petulant and contemptible.
Then, someone knocked at the door from outside.
“Your Highness, it’s time to depart.”
Lea startled and moved to rise, but Carion spoke loudly.
“Depart.”
When no answer came from without, he spoke again.
“I said, depart.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
Carion turned to Lea and said, “Shall we continue our conversation? Must I leave?”
“Ah… No, it’s fine.”
Soon the Black Carriage began to move and gathered speed.
“…How exactly does one do this? Make peace.”
“Well, first, stop calling it a curse.”
Carion’s brow furrowed.
“And stop thinking of it as a curse.”
The lines across his forehead deepened.
Lea’s fingers fidgeted restlessly.
She wanted to smooth away those wrinkles with her fingertips.
‘If he keeps frowning like that, his handsome face will be lined.’
“Soothe it.”
“Do what?”
“Think of it as a roommate you must share quarters with. You need to understand each other and make concessions, don’t you?”
“Share a room? When there are more than enough rooms?”
Lea’s eyes narrowed slightly.
How fitting for a prince to speak as though the very concept of hardship didn’t exist.
She pressed on, feigning deafness to his grumbling.
“I’ve had a different theory. Perhaps the Spirit normally sleeps in a half-sealed state, and occasionally the Sealing breaks for some reason.”
“That does have some merit.”
“But I don’t think that’s it. If it were merely sleeping, the Preventive Measure would have been ineffective. You said there were no symptoms the night you and I… came into contact. It means the Spirit reacted to my presence.”
Carion’s displeasure intensified.
So the Spirit feels the very same sensation when he kissed her?
It wasn’t enough that it had arbitrarily taken root in his body—now it shared his every sense?
This was no divine blessing. It was a foul invader.
As resentment seethed within him, he suddenly realized something.
‘I need the Preventive Measure every day.’
His knotted chest unclenched in an instant.
He forced his eyes to look away from her moving lips.
“On the day of the wildfire, why was it different from usual.”
“The Spirit went berserk. I think it was because of the fire.”
But there was another reason Lea suspected.
Before the fire broke out, she had encountered him in the courtyard at dawn, right after a seizure.

At that moment, she said, he’d gripped Lea’s arm and felt a strange calm wash over him.
In his past life, he’d never even met her, so such a thing never would have happened.
The fire Spirit was in conflict with the human I’d chosen.
Rather than achieving Communion, it was trapped inside a human body.
If it were a person, it would have felt irritated and suffocated.
And then, in that moment when it sensed a gentle wind caressing its own essence—the fire Spirit became, as it were, excited.
When the forest fire broke out amidst that excitement, the Spirit overreacted and went berserk.
This was the situation Lea had pieced together. The conclusion was that the Spirit’s rampage was likely her fault.
Guilt prevented her from speaking honestly about it.
“You’ve never seen a fire of that scale before, have you?”
“So I’m never to go near fire again?”
“Until you achieve Communion with the Spirit, it would be wise to take precautions.”
“You’re telling me to achieve Communion with something I can’t even speak to.”
He muttered under his breath before asking.
“And if we ultimately cannot achieve Communion?”
“I’ll be here.”
Lea flushed at her own words.
“No, what I meant was—I’ll do everything I can to help.”
“Let’s try a different experiment today.”
Carion reached across and took her hand.
“To see if prolonged contact like this has any effect.”
He finished speaking and turned away immediately.
His gaze settled on the window across from them.
Lea naturally followed, her eyes drifting to the landscape passing beyond the glass.
At first, she was acutely aware of his firm grip on her hand.
She worried her palm might grow clammy, and anxiety made her tense at the thought of herself nodding off.
She kept stealing glances at him, but he simply stared out the window, unmoved.
Unaware that Carion was struggling to calm his own churning emotions, Lea felt annoyed—thinking she alone was nervous.
Yet as time passed, her discomfort faded.
Lea found she liked this silence, liked sitting here with his hand clasped firmly in hers.
So the two of them sat without speaking for a long while.
Though she would learn the next day that prolonged hand-holding had no effect on the Seizures.
* * *
During the midday rest, Lea sought out Carion and spoke.
“I’m planning to make a trip to Heketia.”
Heketia lay close to where the company had made their rest camp.
By horse, they could make the journey there and back in under an hour.
“It won’t take long. If I’m delayed, feel free to depart ahead—I’ll catch up with you.”
“Alone?”
“No. Penny and Guard Captain Kasim are coming with me. Would you like to join us?”
Lea had tossed the words out almost as a joke.
“I will.”
“…Pardon?”
“You said to join you.”
“Oh, well, yes. You’re welcome to come. There’s someone I need to see, but it’s no one you shouldn’t know about.”
“I’ll be going as well.”
Carion frowned as Luke suddenly inserted himself into the conversation.
He hadn’t even noticed when the man had drawn near.
Lately, Luke seemed to linger around him with increasing frequency—was it just his imagination?
“Why do you keep following me.”
“I’m your bodyguard and commander of the guard, Your Highness. Naturally, I must accompany you wherever you go.”
Carion merely clicked his tongue.
There was no point in arguing—he wouldn’t listen.
Tell him not to come, and the man would shadow them in secret.
So five of them set out toward Heketia.
Heketia was a walled city.
Stone houses clustered tightly along the narrow, steep ravine terrain, rising in layers.
From a distance, imposing ramparts were visible, but up close, the gaps between them were choked with weeds.
The city gates stood open, and there were no guards.
In a city that reeked only of dust and earth, there was no sense of life.
Lea glanced around, her brow furrowing with displeasure.
‘It looks worse than I remember it.’
Even after ten years, Heketia remained a poor city. Though it seemed better than it did now.
Carion asked.
“Who are we meeting?”
“An apothecary. I don’t know the exact address, but since she’s lived here a long time, we should be able to find her by asking around.”
“I’ll make inquiries, miss.”
Kasim dismounted and handed his horse’s reins to Penny.
“Who should I look for?”
“Bella Bartol. She’s a woman, around her early thirties. We’ll be at the Medicine Market. Come find us there.”
“Bella Bartol. Understood.”
Carion spoke to Luke.
“Luke. You go too.”
“Yes.”
Without hesitation, Luke descended from his horse and hurried after Kasim, who had already begun to move ahead.
Lea spoke to Penny, who suddenly found herself holding two sets of reins.
“Penny, give me one.”
Carion took the reins from Penny’s hands first.
“Which way is the Medicine Market?”
“It’s… that way.”
The three of them left their horses at the entrance to the Medicine Market.
Carion asked.
“It seems you’ve been here before.”
“Well, yes.”
Lea gave an evasive answer.
Penny was standing beside her, and Penny knew that Lea had never left the kingdom—so she felt self-conscious.
“Have you visited Heketia before?”
“This is my first time.”

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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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