IBWCD 51

Chapter 51

“You’re very skilled. Whoever you are, you must have learned from a very good teacher.”

“My parents. They were both in the business of saving lives, so I picked up a medical saw and needle before a book.”

Leon, who pretended to cut something with a saw, chuckled cheerfully as he organized his medical tools.

Evelyn laughed in return, as if to lighten her gloomy mood.

“I’m sure the Count’s parents are full just looking at him, and so is Reah, and he’s so cheerful.”

“I wish they were, but unfortunately, they are both deceased.”

Silence descended on the cozy parlor for a moment.

“Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

Embarrassed, Evelyn hastily apologized.

After all, if he had gone into exile with his parents, Leon would have been called a minor count.

‘If Leon is still young,’ Evelyn thought, ‘then it must mean that only him and his sister fled without their parents.’

The thought was short. Looking at Evelyn, who was visibly apologizing, Leon spoke quickly.

“You’re surprised? I didn’t say you should be sorry. I don’t really consider it a misfortune.”

Leon, who had brought a light snack from the kitchen off the parlor, set it on the table and offered it to Evelyn.

“I’m probably the only one in the family who bakes his own cookies, haha, and so is Reah.”

The orange cookie, crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, crunched gently, filling my mouth with sweetness.

Feeling much better, Evelyn suddenly envied Reah for having a family to lean on.

“You must have raised her with love,” Evelyn said, “because it’s obvious she was loved and nurtured.”

“My late parents would have been so happy to hear that.”

Their conversations continued afterward.

All the while, she couldn’t stop thinking about Kalian from earlier.

She consciously tried to block out the attention, but it was not something she could control.

Evelyn wonders how much time has passed.

Leon gestured toward the window, noticing the sun tilting slightly.

“Do you want to go out? I’ll show you around town, take you to the castle.”

As they chatted, they realized they were the same age, so they decided not to be too formal.

He was excited to meet someone his own age, and he was actually pretty good at English.

“Show me around town?”

Evelyn brushed the hem of her crumpled skirt and looked around, realizing it was time to get going.

She hadn’t realized how much time had passed, but it was already late afternoon.

Leon, who had gathered his robes in the meantime, held out his hand to her as an escort.

“Yes, I’ll leave a message for the duke.”

Evelyn looked down at his large hand and thought for a moment.

Well, that would be fine.

Kalian would be traveling all over Parminion anyway, assisting the Blessed Saint.

Anything to ease the gloom swirling in her mind was worth doing.

“Yeah, okay.”

With a short sigh, Evelyn pulled herself up, leaning on his hand.

* * *

The Bernard family carriage pulled into the harbor’s mouth.

“Wow, so many people. The floor is slippery, so be careful getting off so you don’t fall.”

Leon held Evelyn’s hand firmly as she stepped out of the carriage.

*Thud*

The hem of her skirt fluttered in the cool breeze as her shoes hit the sea-scented cobblestones.

The emerald waters came into view first. Soon after, she could see people coming and going on the revitalized streets.

‘They must still be recovering from the shock,’ she thought to herself, ‘but they’re all so industrious, their faces so full of energy.’

It’s so calm and peaceful. It’s like entering another world.

It was a nice distraction from the horrors of the situation.

“It’s hard work,” said Evelyn, “most of the people here make their living from fishing, and we need to rebuild the estate as soon as possible to avoid getting a cobweb in our mouths.”

As Leon led Evelyn around town, he grabbed an apple from a stall.

He snapped it in half and handed it to her.

Evelyn looked at him a little puzzled as he chewed and swallowed the apple without a care in the world.

“It’s someone else’s, can I eat it?”

“It’s okay, we don’t have a concept of “yours” and “mine” here.”

“Well, you’re not the only one who thinks that, are you?”

“Uh, is it?”

Scratching the back of his head, Leon grinned mischievously and continued walking.

Evelyn followed after him, rubbing the ends of her newly salted hair.

They look like brothers after all.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she remembered Reah, the half-bastard, calling her “lady” and following her.

Leon took a seat on a bench near the ocean.

His free-spirited demeanor was evident as he picked up a randomly rolled newspaper, unfolded it, and patted it with his hands.

“Sit here,” he said, “the patient shouldn’t be overexerting herself.”

“I’m not a patient…”

“You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Evelyn, sprawled out on the newspaper, raised her bandaged left hand to her eye level. It was a sign that she was okay.

Leon gave her a quizzical look.

“That’s really weird.”

“What?”

“The day you were first brought to the duke’s castle… I’m sorry, but I didn’t think you had a chance of surviving, did you?”

Leon looked at her as if to ask why, then added meaningfully.

“You had already lost a lot of blood, and no matter what I did, it wouldn’t stop, and if you were a normal human, you would have died of blood loss.”

At Leon’s words, Evelyn fell silent, not knowing what to say.

She didn’t know why, and there was no other way to explain it, even if she tried to find the cause in the regression.

It was true that after the regression, she’d been bleeding profusely. In her past life, she had been cursed, but she had never bled like this.

Looking at Evelyn, Leon continued.

“Speaking of which, can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“What kind of powers do you have?”

“Is it…?”

“Ah, I suppose you haven’t heard anything from the grand duke yet.”

Her heart sank unexpectedly as she heard Leon address him in his own words.

She doesn’t want to think about him.

Again, my mind flashes back to the two men I saw earlier.

‘What are they doing now?’

‘Stop.’

She shook her head and muttered to herself.

‘It’s none of my business.’

It was a little embarrassing that it was so soon, but it was going to happen.

To him, she was nothing more than a substitute for a saint, a cure for his rampage.

Even though she recognized it in her head, her eyes burned for no reason.

Perhaps it was the camaraderie they had forged through the crisis together.

Evelyn couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret when she remembered the moment she was ready to die for him.

‘Don’t be stupid. It’s not like you don’t realize that this will end when you both get what you want…’

To shake off the sinking feeling, Evelyn quickly shifted her gaze to the crashing waves of the ocean.

Luckily, Leon didn’t seem to notice her distraction.

“I thought I could read a little bit about the flow of magic.”

Leon flicked the peeled apple to a seagull, then spoke nonchalantly.

“You talk like that and all, but it was your power that caused the gate to disappear.”

“…….”

Evelyn stared in surprise, his face devoid of any hint of mischief.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him.

Even if she couldn’t read the flow of magic, it wasn’t unreasonable to think so, given that everyone else had come back from the battlefield alive and well.

But Evelyn knew she shouldn’t show any sign of it until she saw Kalian.

She lifted her shoulders lightly.

“Well, I don’t know what you mean.”

Leon was unperturbed by her denial, though, and asked another question.

“Who taught you how to manipulate magic?”

She learned it from Kalian in her previous life.

Evelyn sighed and squared her shoulders once more, knowing she couldn’t say that outright.

Leon, who was busy feeding the seagulls, paused and turned his head, frowning.

“You don’t mean to tell me that you unleashed your healing magic without chanting?”

“…Spell?”

Leon glanced at her. She didn’t know why, but she looked very puzzled.

“Well, the grand duke is incomparable to anyone else, and even with his power sealed, he’s not something we dare to mention. He’s completely outside the realm of possibility, isn’t he human?”

“He is human…”

“No, I’m not saying he’s not a real human.”

Evelyn knows he’s a great man. But she thought Leon was less than favorably disposed toward the Grand Duchy, thanks to Duke Parminion’s influence.

‘Is this the same influence that saved Reah’s life?’

She was pleased with Leon’s change in demeanor.

“Anyway, a man who has a perfect image of a magic circle and sake in his head shouldn’t have to do the honors, but…”

Evelyn swallowed hard and shook her head.

“Is that… so weird?”

She asked, her hands forming an aura when she pictured it in her head.

After swallowing her question, Leon, who was tapping the corner of his mouth in thought, replied.

“Well, I suppose you could call it innate, but what I saw was definitely Divine Healing, and as far as I know, not even the most powerful holy woman in Cardassian history has ever displayed it.”

Evelyn looked like she didn’t understand what Leon was saying at all.

Leon looked at her, then let out a long sigh and burst out laughing.

“…Well, you sure do have a clueless face.”

Giving up on getting an answer, Leon’s eyes narrowed slowly as he considered something.

“Do you want me to show you something interesting?”

Evelyn nodded, and he flicked his finished apple core into the air.

At the same time, he spoke in an unintelligible voice, fast and low.

[Chains of oblivion, bind time].

Then, with a snap of his fingers, the chattering people were silenced.

‘Why is there no sound?’

Her eyes widened as she looked around at the sudden sense of floatiness and otherness of space.

The apple was floating in the air.

Or, more accurately, it was frozen.

Not just the apple, but everything except Leon and her!