TCCIO 30

Chapter 30: Must Save Her:

Aaron soothed her as he felt the pain in his hand.

“Just a little longer. Hold on just a little more.”

He gently patted her trembling back, trying to ease her pain even a little, but Delia’s agony only worsened. The military doctor burst into the tent, pushing aside the curtain roughly.

“What on earth is going on here?”

Even at a glance, it was clear that something was seriously wrong inside the tent.

“She suddenly collapsed, saying she was in pain.”

As Aaron explained, the doctor quickly approached Delia. She clutched her stomach with one hand and groaned in pain, while desperately clinging to Aaron’s hand with the other—as if it were her lifeline.

“She keeps gagging and can’t stay conscious.”

The doctor lifted Delia’s eyelids to check her focus and temperature, then pressed firmly on her abdomen under her clasped hands.

“Aaagh!”

Delia screamed in agony at his touch. Her face turned pale, drained of all color.

“What’s happening to her?”

“Did she eat anything strange?”

“She ate what she always does. Same as me.”

Aaron’s words trailed off. He slowly turned his head to look at Delia. A chilling sensation ran down his spine.

“The flower…”

“What?”

Aaron recalled their time together earlier that day—Delia smiling brightly, unusually cheerful, even offering him some herself, and explaining the flower’s meaning in detail. Everything about her had seemed so radiant.

“She ate a flower. Lily of the valley.”

The doctor swallowed hard.

“That’s probably the cause. Nausea, vomiting, stomach pain…”

As he listed the symptoms, Delia gasped for breath.

“…And shortness of breath.”

The doctor looked at Aaron with a grave expression.

“What are you doing? Treat her immediately.”

“But…”

The doctor hesitated, and Aaron’s eyes turned cold and sharp.

“But?”

“I specialize in trauma care. Plus, I don’t have the tools for bloodletting or the antidotes needed for detoxification.”

Aaron’s expression contorted. He instinctively squeezed the hand holding Delia’s.

“You’re saying there’s no way? Even when she’s in this much pain?”

“If it were just a stomachache, maybe. But if it’s poisoning from a toxic plant, there’s nothing I can do right now.”

The doctor began pleading.

“We need to make her vomit the substance and get her to a physician who can treat plant poisoning as soon as possible, Commander.”

Aaron’s mind went blank for a moment. The doctor’s words overlapped with Delia’s voice from before.

[I’ll make it so you’ll have no choice but to let me go.]

She had been preparing for this from the start. There was no way to keep her from death. Realizing this, Aaron groaned deeply.

“No. I can’t send her out. Treat her here.”

“But this is urgent. Every second counts.”

“No. I won’t let her go.”

“If we delay, it might be irreversible.”

“I know exactly what she’s planning. How can I let her go?”

“But…”

Even as they argued, Delia’s pain grew more intense. It was as if flower petals had lodged themselves inside her, like shriveled seaweed clinging to a rock. Despite her dry heaving, nothing came out.

Damn prisoner. Damn princess. Damn Del. Aaron cursed inwardly as he brushed back her tangled golden hair. Her pain-stricken face came into view. Her once clear blue eyes were now hidden beneath her lids.

How hard had he fought to save her? To keep her alive? To protect her?

Aaron already knew: if he kept holding on to her like this, he’d never see her blue eyes again. He had no choice. Delia had taken away all his options, as if mocking his arrogance—his belief that he could have everything.

Delia had put herself in this situation to force him to let her go.

Cruel Delia.

Aaron grabbed a handful of her golden hair tightly. Even in this pitch-dark moment, her hair still dazzled him. The thought of letting go made his heart ache.

“Dyke. Declare a ceasefire.”

Aaron’s low, strained voice rang through the tent. Dyke, who had been silently watching, flinched.

“Commander, but—”

Aaron’s chillingly calm order cut through his hesitation.

“Now. Immediately.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Swallowing hard, Dyke rushed out. In the silence that followed, Delia’s weak voice pierced Aaron’s ears.

“Commander…”

If it weren’t for the firm grip on his hand, her voice would’ve seemed like a dream.

“It… hurts so much.”

Aaron looked down at her, his expression stone-cold. Despite writhing in pain, Delia clung to his hand like it was her only hope.

“Huu… I feel like I’m going to die…”

Cruel princess. Delia surely knew that lily of the valley was poisonous. She must have known what would happen if she ate it—yet she asked Aaron to pick it for her. And then she ate it herself, knowing full well the consequences.

“The flower… why did you ask me to pick it for you?”

Aaron’s voice trembled, wet with emotion. But he already knew the answer. Delia was a prisoner who had to escape. A princess of Eorenti who had to get away from the Empire at all costs.

“You could’ve just asked me to hunt for you… I would’ve caught anything.”

He raised his other hand—the one that had picked the lily—and gently wiped her tears.

“I didn’t know you could be this cruel, Princess.”

He had promised himself that he would give her beautiful memories to make up for what she had to give up. But all he had given her was pain. The cruel truth she’d made him face suffocated him.

“Commander… please…”

Her desperate plea echoed. And yet the only thing he could do was let her go.

Aaron gently pulled a strand of sweat-drenched hair off her face. It was the touch of someone caring for a fragile creature. Delia’s eyes opened faintly at the touch. Though they faced him, they didn’t seem to register him. She only wept and gripped his hand.

“I can’t do anything now…”

All he could do was hold her hand. Even as she tried to escape from him, she desperately clung to him. It shouldn’t be this way. Knowing why she had eaten the flower, Aaron still felt he couldn’t let her go.

Everything was in chaos in his mind.

“Commander.”

Dyke’s voice called from outside the tent.

“A man named Jerre has arrived.”

Without looking away from Delia, Aaron muttered,

“Let him in.”

Moments later, a scruffy, bandit-like man entered the tent.

“I came because I saw the ceasefire signal.”

Jerre quickly scanned the situation. His hardened gaze fell on the Eorenti princess collapsed on the bed, the commander’s careful touch, and their tightly held hands. Suppressing the heat rising in his chest, Jerre asked,

“Is something wrong with our leader?”

Aaron didn’t even glance at him. He kept brushing Delia’s hair with such care it was as though it would break.

“The princess… is in terrible pain.”

Each word cut into Aaron like a blade. His eyes reddened as he looked at his suffering prisoner. His hand wouldn’t stop trembling.

“What happened?”

The military doctor answered quickly.

“She ate lily of the valley. It seems to have been poisonous.”

“A flower?”

“Yes. We need to detox her quickly, but we don’t have the right medicine here. The Eorenti capital is the closest. She must be taken there at once.”

Jerre looked down at Delia with a complex expression. The princess he’d longed to see lay before him, on the brink of death.

“I’ll take her.”

Aaron slowly looked up to meet Jerre’s eyes—the man who had always tried to take what was his. And now, Aaron had to give her up to him. His grey eyes glinted.

“Make sure… you save your princess.”

His chilling voice was filled with possessiveness.

“Save her. No matter what. Because I’ll come for her.”

Jerre swallowed hard at Aaron’s eerie aura. It felt like sticking your hand into a predator’s jaws. One wrong move and it would tear you apart. But Aaron was restraining himself—for the princess.

“We want to save her more than anyone.”

With a solemn face, Jerre carefully lifted Delia into his arms. Delia instinctively leaned into his chest. Aaron’s expression twisted in pain. Jerre, seeing it, gripped her tighter.

“I hope we never meet again.”

As he turned to leave, Aaron’s hand moved with Delia’s.

“Let go, Commander. It’s urgent.”

At the doctor’s desperate plea, Aaron bit his lip hard. He had to let her be taken from his world. Let her go while she writhed in pain and he could do nothing.

He had to use all his strength to loosen his grip.

Finally, as he let go, Delia’s hand fell limp. Only after their tightly held hands separated did Jerre turn around and hurry out of the tent.

Delia’s form was soon hidden behind Jerre’s back. Yet Aaron continued to stare after them with burning eyes until they vanished.

And when they were gone, silence fell over the tent—so heavy it suffocated.